immovabletype's reviews
434 reviews

I don't know how far I got or when exactly I DNFed. first trimester nausea set in while I was the middle of this one and I couldn't read anything for months. but my child is now three and I want to give this another try, so I'm housekeeping.

i feel so conflicted about this one! on the one hand, it felt so cozy to be back in these characters' lives. i care about all of them, and their foibles are annoying in the way foibles are annoying in people you love, because you know they're capable of doing better. i didn't think i would enjoy the additional pov characters--mitzi, drake, george??--but i really did. i especially adored jennifer's addition. i rarely read books in a series back-to-back, i need to break things up a bit, but i'm really tempted to start the next one in this series immediately. and just like the last book, i loved how this balanced the coziness of the setting with the author's unsentimental approach to relationships.

that being said, by some point nearly every single character had cheated, thought about cheating, or been mistaken by their partner/mistaken their partner as cheating. literally everyone but jennifer. i have no interest in infidelity as a theme and only didn't mind it in the first book because it kind of kickstarted the plot and didn't actually focus on that relationship. so it just got exhausting here and really detracted from my enjoyment. the only one who acted like an adult throughout was drake, and at least jennifer's addiction issues were unique. i hope the cheating isn't as ubiquitous in the next book, but it seems to be a theme the author is interested in exploring, so who knows.

1) child death on literally the first page.
2) could not stand Julia, don't want to keep reading about her.

well written but just not for me.

I wish JKR weren't such a turd because this is just as magical and whimsical and warm as ever. she's really sullied her own legacy. that said I did knock the rating down a bit for the fatphobia, which just gets more egregious each time I reread this series.

honestly i just kind of felt like i got everything i needed out of this. maybe i'll come back to it, maybe i won't. maybe i'll read the next book in the series, maybe i won't! i will say i was ready for some fucked up sexual proclivities here and when it turned out the mmc's idea of "depraved" and "corrupting" was some mild choking i just went, "that's it??"

not sure I'm going to rate this one. there are a lot of memoirs out there that are more technically proficient, but that doesn't mean there isn't value in Britney's story in her own words. (yes, she had a ghostwriter, but something I actually quite appreciate here is that they kept her voice authentic and seemed to be there to lend structure and clarity.) there were moments I groaned and there were moments I genuinely gasped in shock. regardless of the writing I'm glad this is out in the world. mine or anyone else's approval isn't the point here. she just deserves to be heard.