well that was a bit fun, wasn‘t it? i watched the first season of the show a few years ago & thought it was great - finally got around to actually reading it. nice to read some YA that managed to combine the twee AND the (kinda) gritty successfully.

YES YES YES!!! Super engaging structure, had me genuinely tense and worried for the characters. If it had been a movie I would have been covering my eyes in fearful anticipation. Well worth the read, highly recommended.

was this the best or worst book i have ever read? i do not know. but never before have i been so bemused by a book in which an animal is murdered.

sometimes u read a really long book by an author you have lukewarm feelings for and lo and behold, the book is lukewarm too.

this was dark, beautiful, sometimes lush, sometimes stark. an extremely satisfying example of picking a book on a friend‘s coffee table at random and ignoring them until it‘s finished.

I LOVED THIS BOOK FROM ITS BEGINNING TO ITS END. one day i hope to be a witch in the wilds & i really hope that “one day” is tomorrow 🔮🏺🕯

i wish i could go back in time, not read this book, & retain the belief that mindy kaling was cool.

there are almost no redeeming qualities in this narrator, who is a depressed, misogynistic piece of shit. the book itself is extremely well written without the pacing problems of many debut novels. i LOVED this book. you might hate it. that is extremely valid.

a couple of first novel hiccups here but overall an impressive debut from an author whose further works i will happily read.

This is gonna sound so RUDE but I honestly think that sometimes authors are too clever for their own good. The book is well written, often compelling, and immaculately threads together a very complicated plot. Sometimes I got bored by it though, because the conceit of the book feels like it overrides the things I personally am drawn to - and the characters often felt mechanical, rather than fully realised people. OVERALL IT WAS GOOD THOUGH! ♟

I enjoyed this but shit it was bleak.
I mean I don‘t know why that surprised me given the subject, but it was so much darker than I expected. When I finally learned Mabel‘s fate I was so taken aback.
Honestly made my previous read, Anna Karenina, look like #whitegirlproblems. Which, to be fair, it is.

Oh man. When those good girls go bad.

I loved everything about this novel, minus about 35 chapters of Levin‘s innermost thoughts about the best systems of Russian agriculture. Like I am a Well Educated Bitch and I Understand The Import but what an actual drag.

That might sound like a major complaint but this is a long ass book. It was fucking gorgeous. 😍😍😍

I FEEL LET DOWN.
Mythos was great, this was not.
Desperately needed less genealogy and more telling great stories. How do you make the slaying of Medusa kind of meh?
WELL? Please explain.

one of my most favourite novels, as an OUTSTANDING audiobook.

does lara jean have any discernible personality?
no.
this bitch is one “i‘m so clumsy” away from bella swann.
however: two successfully laid thirst traps.
🤷🏼‍♀️

a heartwarming tale about a white child who seriously endangers a group of magical black women without even noticing; civil rights movement used as painted scenery even less effectively than in the help.

yikes.

tbh i have been a total hipster about emma donahue... i fell in love with her well before she was in airport bookstores and i don‘t begrudge her any success. but i have been skeptical about room ... not so much because of its commercial success (although that didn‘t exactly help), but because it seemed like such a departure from her normal modus operandi. anyway i finally read it and as per usual ive been a fool. it was excellent.

✔️ have had the ramones stuck in my head for 3 days
✔️a+ diamonds & rust reference
✔️lou creed the rock n roll animal 😂
✔️ya creepy bitch steve honestly where do you get this shit?
✔️your female characters are always the tits

UNCLE STEVE DOES NOT DISSATISFY

This was an engaging read - I found most of the plot reveals pretty predictable but it was well written and I enjoyed the characters. Fun to get lost in Old Hollywood glam and strong female characters who are allowed to be complex and not always likeable.

Because over half this book is formatted as a true crime podcast I cannot recommend listening to it as an Audiobook enough. Extremely high quality production of an excellent novel.

PS: I STAN THIS BOOK SO FKN HARD.

uncle steve never disappoints.

BUT CAN I ALSO RECOMMEND THE AUDIOBOOK AS NARRATED BY SISSY SPACEK???!!!!! tres magnifique

I‘m not a science fiction girl so this was a stretch for me even though it‘s only a novella. I found parts of it engaging, but I struggled with descriptions of technology. And aliens. You know, the bits that make it science fiction. I need help y‘all! Doomed to science fiction exile for life.

Pat Barker is kind of the best so it‘s hardly surprising that her latest offering is just mind blowingly, toe curlingly epic. This was one of those books that just overrode all my basic functions and replaced them with a need to know what was coming next. A retelling that does exactly what it should, shifting the perspective of something familiar to show you something wholey new.

idk much about this book but i felt like it was heavily influenced by the style of shirley jackson (esp we have always lived in the castle) with a hefty dose of 70s freudian pop psychology thrown in for good measure. this isn‘t a complaint - it has a great kitschy vibe & some lovely spooky moments.

No tea no shade no pink lemonade... if you want a celebrity tell all you could do WAY worse than this tasty little snack

This reminds me of Holden Caulfield: “Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

i fucking LOVED this book for reasons that i am sure stretch beyond the obvious identity politics of being a jewish lesbian. while superficially dissimilar to the power, i thought there were united themes here about cultural difference, structural oppression, individual choice, and the nature of freedom. PLUS some very emotional kissing, which i am always in favour of.

Lemme start by saying that despite his charms I often find Stephen Fry to be a pompous, problematic snob. HOWEVER, if I was ever gonna let him give me a lecture it‘d be on this subject. And it‘s a good instinct! Fry loves these stories and his love breathes all the life into them they deserve. Funny, unpretentious, accessible, and entertaining.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Anthony Bourdain is probably aware that he was a self styled rebel with incredible charisma and admirable swagger. This translates beautifully in his writing, although this earlier work lacks some of his later-in-life self awareness.

To be honest I could have done with less kitchen and more confidential, but that‘s definitely my problem, not his.

I honestly wish I had the time and resources to just buy this book for everyone I know & then sit there & make sure they read it.

They‘d all thank me. I‘d get some kind of award I reckon, for services rendered to the common good or something.

This book is breathtaking and if you don‘t like it I‘m not sure we can be friends. The end.

I mean, sure. This was fine. Neil‘s prose felt a bit self satisfied for my taste.

SO I REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK. I am also counting it as my Pop Sugar time travel read bc honestly, I really don‘t fuck with time travel. Or space travel. Stop tryna make me do it. It‘s not gonna happen.

Also: book Wendy kicks movie Wendy‘s ass. Justice for Wendy.

relatable content from uncle steve

maybe i‘m just a grumpy bitch this week but i feel like .... this is heavy handed, fairly tedious for an averagely-long novel, and not as clever as it wants to be.

pretty sure i enjoyed the movie more (tho to be fair i was stoned when i saw it).

4/10 still don‘t believe in god.

How can a book with so much drama and intrigue be so booooooooooooooringgggg? Probably because 90% of it is excruciating, pointless detail.

WHO AMONGST US GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE SPECS OF A MAC AND ITS PROS/CONS COMPARED TO A PC???? Let alone paragraphs of fucks????

The only reason I finished it (or started it, tbh) was popsugar and their damn Nordic noir prompt.

POPSUGAR WE ARE IN A FIGHT.

look, i am a very simple bitch.

when i read YA, i want the first kiss to be AWESOME.
it‘s almost certainly the reason i picked up the book to begin with.

10/10 first kiss did not disappoint.

JUST READ IT OK?
just put it on your bloody list and read it.
Thanks.

so i have tried reading multiple rushdie novels over multiple years and have always lost interest long before i got off the ground. however, it‘s my experience that just because something didn‘t work the first time doesn‘t mean you won‘t connect with it later. that was certainly my experience here... my third attempt at MIDNIGHT‘S CHILDREN & i was completely swept up in it. do i still think Rushdie overwrites? yes. did it matter? not so much.

This book got into my dreams. That‘s fairly rare. It‘s quiet meditations on the differences between thought and action, responsibility, and allegiance wove neatly through the narrative without feeling didactic or heavy handed. Easy to read, beautifully written.

I mean this can‘t have been too bad because I picked it up off the bookshelf and read it in one sitting. Parts of it I really enjoyed. If you‘re familiar with Witi Ihimaera and you like his style then 1) you‘ve probably already read this and 2) you probably enjoyed it. Personally, although I think his writing is good enough he‘s not like, my FAVE.

GG & I go wayyyyy back to university days & I am always down to gobble up one of his novels. On multiple trips to Vietnam I have made pilgrimages to those haunts of his still standing. His voice moves me.

So I don‘t know why it took me until now to get to one of his most well known novels, but gosh it was a treat.

I found it quite unique amongst the swathes of dystopian novels I‘ve read. Queer characters, after the apocalypse! A rare and treasured find.

I offer my recommendation wholeheartedly but with a very clear caveat: this book describes graphic violence, sexual and otherwise, against women and children. It is meaningful, not included for shock value, and is integral to the telling of this story. But be careful with your hearts and your triggers.

so here‘s the thing:

if ur on the lookout for a great, creepy read then u could do way worse than this. it has good atmosphere and compelling female characters and a lovely sort of whodunnit atmosphere.

HOWEVER if ur more than vaguely familiar with lizzie borden u aren‘t really going to find much here u won‘t find elsewhere. is it well executed? yus. is that enough? maybe.

dont regret the time i spent with this book. wouldn‘t insist u read it.

totally deserved all the hype. hooned thru it in less than 24 hours.

I finished this because I needed to complete the trilogy but holy fuck it was overwritten. Overwrought and overwritten.