Why hasn’t Netflix picked this up for adaptation yet?? This could be the new Squid Games.

The foundations of this book are upon the war between the two sides of abortion rights: pro life and pro choice. After the war, certain laws come into place which are the premise for this book. These laws are highly absurd. I feel as though the laws in the world could have made more sense had they been fleshed out further as to why they were created or surrounded by more world building. The world building in general is not very notable, with nothing more being of note besides legal changes, leaning it to be less of a sci-fi book than it seems.

Suspending that disbelief, it is an interesting commentary on what is life, why governments make the decisions they do, how education and religion form who we are, and more deep thoughts. However, the author never takes a clear side of the abortion rights discussion which can be disappointing for many readers.

Beyond high level concepts, Shusterman does a great job voicing the characters. I found the main character, Conner, to be the least interesting with his boring background and basic rebellious personality. However, Risa and Lev are very interesting and get a decent amount of coverage in the story (though I wish I had more of Lev, as some of his moments were the strongest, yet entire weeks were skipped). Even the antagonist had an interesting depth, though most of which was highlighted late in the book.

Finally, the story itself was very good. Quick pacing, great writing, and several Chekhov's guns (that you wouldn’t think were guns) that go off. All of that to say, this book is chaos neatly woven. It’s a great blend of fast pace moments and not knowing what is going to happen next, and slow thoughtful beats that make you take in the moment.

I highly recommend this to anyone over the age of 18 because let’s be real, some of those scenes were low-key traumatizing and it is not meant for the YA genre. 4.5 stars. 

First and foremost, this is a sales book. While it’s intended to be educational, it’s main goal is to advertise the EOS system, which means there are lots of fluffy stories of how so-and-so company made more money after implementing these strategies.

Secondly, most of these strategies are common sense strategies with fancy names like “L 10’s” (for a problem solving meeting) “scorecards” (measuring how the business is going) “people analyzer” (pretty much what it sounds like). Truthfully, I agree with many of the strategies this book recommends, but I feel the need to acknowledge that of many of these points are simple strategies many business likely used prior to this system existing, with buzzword names (which help with systems sales).

Finally, the strategies presented in this book feel mechanical and overly optimistic. Many strategies would be great in a perfect world and there is little account for human emotion and human error. For example, they recommend saying “tangent” or “rabbit” when a meeting is getting off track, but I feel that could be disrespectful and disregard the importance of what someone might be sharing. Or stating that using L 10’s will allow them to solve issues “once and for all” without mentioning that with human error, some issues might return before the best solution is found. The strategies are designed to make the business function like a machine, which can be beneficial for systematic problem solving and growth, but I wish there was more addressed on how to also kindly acknowledge the work of your human employees in the system and that even with this system, errors and imperfections will exist.

1.5 stars. I’m sure there are better business system books out there. 

Ah yes, to have a fun time with your queer friend group on a school trip 🥲 love 

Definitely one of the best in the series, very raw and real and good. 

Entertaining in so many ways. Funny, adventurous, cute, and the subtle Greek history education is quite neat. Plus the shock of that ending? I couldn’t think of a way to make this book better. 

30min read. So cute I couldn’t help but smile while reading ☺️ can’t wait to read more 

Half reality tv comedy, half disassociated gore.

All of the 5 POV characters, including the main character, were soulless in an almost sociopathic way. Interactions between the characters lacked substance. The pacing was weird and the jump from the reality tv and “horror” sections did not mesh well. I also didn’t seem to understand the “messaging” the author was trying to convey. Almost seeming the perpetuate an “us vs them” that I feel is unhealthy and does not help society working towards undoing alienation of different people.