*listened on audiobook* I will say that this is my first encounter with Margaret Atwood and I think I need to give her full-length/best known for works a chance in order to have a real opinion of this story. However, i really did enjoy the concepts she included and when the dark humor bits hit they REALLY hit.

This was a highly detailed account of how the past was and is honestly something that I think everyone should read at least once to understand how much capitalism has barely changed in today’s modern world (if at all). I hail from Steinbeck’s hometown, and while I’ve always been aware of the struggles that our local farmworkers face, this book is a grueling example of why we should continue to fight for everyone to have equal pay. The only issues that I had with this book is that a few of the characters were a bit annoying and that I would have liked to see more of the struggles that the Josh family would have faced finally being in California.

*listened on audiobook* I kind of love that her best friend is getting married because she wanted to have a ‘Twilight’ fantasy due to their names.

*listened on audiobook* Norma's story was like something out of a soap opera and I think the audiobook narration really helped bring it to life. It was a perfect blend of someone's life story and history about a specific city and was definitely an eye-opening experience throughout the entire book. Highly recommend for anyone interested in New Orleans' history or wanting to learn more about the history of sex work.

I thought I knew where the story was going and I was pleasantly surprised by the shocking direction it went. I don't want to give spoilers, but after reading this book I highly recommend listening to the Kuiper Island podcast.

I think I had it in my head that this was going to be a masterpiece because it's a staple of X-Men history and because I think the 'Days of Future Past' movie is one of the best out of the Pre-MCU franchise. It was fine. Maybe I would appreciate more if I had read it in single issues as opposed to a trade collection.

I love love love multiple perspective books and even more so when it's multiple generations of family members. However, I feel like this needed at least 1 more generation to feel like a complete story, at least for me. There's a lot of bleakness to the story (not even in reference to the racial history laid out for the reader). While I understand that life is not always sunshine and rainbows, I just wanted at least 1 character to have the happiness they deserve. The author did a fantastic job with storytelling and building out the characters within their respective time jumps and I absolutely want to read more from them.

Great world and character building for a one-off fantasy story, but I felt like the pacing was a bit slow for my taste and I wasn’t particularly happy with how abrupt the ending came. I think she incorporated the traumas of abuse for a fantasy setting very well and really hit the emotional impact that she was trying to achieve. I do still want to check out other world by this author though because maybe this book just wasn’t for me.

I don't know what else to say apart from 'everyone needs to read this' but definitely check trigger warnings because there is A LOT that's discussed in this book. Beautifully heartbreaking and absolutely worthy of it's praise.

So normally I loathe anything Valentines Day related but this entire collection was great enough to push my biases aside. Each story was able to hold their own and you were able to get a sense of who the characters are even if you’re meeting them for the first time. There was a lot of heart (pun intended) put into creating this collection and it’s nice change from the regularly schedule doom and gloom that comics (especially DC) tend to have.