I waited for three months for my library hold of this audiobook to come to me! It was definitely worth the wait. I specifically wanted to listen to the audio recording of this story as opposed to reading it on paper because Michelle reads the book herself. Hearing the author's timbre and emphasis can enrich the story far beyond printed words.
I enjoyed experiencing every moment of Michelle's story, perhaps even more so since I voted in both of the Obama elections and can remember vividly all eight years of the Obama presidency. I feel like I celebrated every achievement with Michelle in this book, and mourned when she did. I was fascinating to see how she shaped the job of First Lady to uplift children and military families.
It was hard for me to read her transition out of the White House, perhaps because the election results were devastating for me, but Michelle ends her book on a note of hope and reflection. Michelle is still so young, and I am humbled by her dedication and work so far and cannot wait to see what she does next.

4.5 Stars!

Darius Kellner is half-Persian, or what he refers to as Fractional Persian. He also has clinical depression, is overweight, and has no deep friendships. His one friend is somewhat of a bully. He has never met his Iranian grandparents, and to him they only truly exist in a computer screen. Darius has a strained relationship with his father, but he loves his little sister - even though he knows his parents had her to replace him and be the perfect child he could never be.

Darius's life starts to change when he takes a trip to Iran. Suddenly he feels like maybe he isn't so fractional after all. He makes a friend and starts to feel that perhaps he could belong, at least during his stay in Iran.

I'll admit that this book gave me strong Ari and Dante vibes, and as much as I would have loved for that plot to be the case for this book, it really didn't fit. Darius's story stands on its own, and he really didn't need any kind of love interest for him or his story to be interesting. I found that refreshing. I also love how masculinity is presented in this book. Men cook, make tea, hug each other, and cry in this book and none of that is seen as weak or unmanly. Being a hodgepodge of Caucasian ethnicity, I feel like I never really had a "culture", so to speak. It was nice to see the story of someone who also felt outside and othered to discovered the meaning of culture and identity for himself. He can be exactly who he is, and like all aspects of himself.

And even despite his revelations, sometimes, Darius is not always okay, and that is okay. - A strong message for YA readers.

I really loved the writing style of this book. Some of the stories had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately, a couple of the stories lost my interest, but the many that held it had me hanging on every word. I'm very interested to read more by Neil Gaiman in the future.

I was expecting this book to be from Jalil's point of view, but it was not. However, April's POV wasn't terrible. It was better than David's. I don't even dislike David as a character, but I don't care for his perspective as much as the others'.

I feel like I'm going to say this for every Everworld book, but I wish this had more room for emotional depth. I suppose the lack of processing and description can come from the fact that the action happens so quickly - and the fact that YA has changed in the last 20 years. I have a massive classroom library and found K. A. Applegate's award-winning "The One and Only Ivan" on the shelf just yesterday. I'm glad Applegate grew exponentially as an author, so I'm holding out a little hope that the series will get better as it continues on. I think this was the last book that I read in the 6th/7th grade, so it's all new from here.

But, with that said... Galahad is a fantastic character. There was real potential for that character in this book, and he mostly lived up to it. And now I want to go read Tolkien's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and brush up on my Arthurian legends.

I'm between 3.5 and 4 stars for this one. I love Patina's character, and I adore her little sister, Maddie. This book didn't capture me like Ghost did, however. The ending also felt like it dropped off right in the middle of the climax, but it didn't seem like that was the author's intention. It didn't feel like a cliffhanger. It felt like time just stopped, and that's disconcerting. So, with the ending, I'm putting this at 3.5.

I'm buddy-reading this series with a student! It's so much fun to read a book at the same time as a reluctant reader and really discuss it together. I have to agree with Arkansas literacy guru, Ken Stamatis, that "a teacher who doesn't read, isn't a great teacher." So, I'm trying my best!

3.5 stars here.

I'm not a fan of the "Dear Diary" format as it's introduced in the third installment of this series. Perhaps if the rest of the series had been like that, I wouldn't mind it. As it is, it's just not in the flow with the other two books. Sunny is okay, as far a character goes. He thinks of everything in terms of sounds. He struggles with the fact that his mother died in childbirth with him. His father struggles with that too. But other than that, and Sunny's desire to dance instead of run, nothing much happens in this book. It's mostly just Sunny's self-aware thoughts, that I thought were a bit too self-aware for a pre-teen. It makes me feel like Ghost and Patty didn't have a handle on Sunny at all. They have no idea what's going on in his head.
I do love that Sunny is weird, and creative, and that he owns that. We need more representation of black boys that are vulnerable, or being who they want to be instead of who they're expected to be, and we need representation of black boys who are weird in the best ways.
So, not awful, but still not as good as Ghost. I have hope for Lu. Maybe he can wrap up the series on a high note, because the two middle acts have only been so-so for me.

4.5 Stars

I really enjoyed this final chapter of the Track series. The plot twist was a bit anti-climactic, but I understand the reason for it, and can still appreciate it.

This was a cute, quick read. It would be a good book to get any YA kid out of a reading slump. The audio was especially fantastic. With that said, it's a weird story. All of the characters are what I would describe as neurodiverse, especially William Spiver and Flora's dad. Great conversations can come from reading this book with your children!

It's hard to rate this one three stars. It was good. I liked it. According to the Goodreads system, that's three stars. I'm not sure I if I didn't enjoy it more because of me or because of the book. I didn't exactly find any of the characters to be likable. Theo doesn't come across as a very good person, and he's certainly an unprofessional therapist. I have such a respect for that field and am dedicated to ending the stigma of mental health therapy, so I objected to seeing how awful of a therapist Theo was without anyone other than him acknowledging that.
Aside from the characters, the plot was strong and solid. This book sin't what I would call a psychological thriller. For me, it was too much of a slow and steady build up of angst to actually be a "thriller". At no point was I "thrilled" by anything. I enjoyed the ride, but it felt more like a calm drive in the scenery as opposed to a thrilling roller coaster with ups and downs.
This book is highly acclaimed already, and while I think some of that hype is exaggerated, I did still enjoy the book. You should pick it up for yourself. I recommend going in blind, without trying to read several reviews first.