Scan barcode
jbellomy's reviews
453 reviews
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Rouge by Mona Awad
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Mona Awad does not miss.
Emmett by L.C. Rosen
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
A fantastic concept is wasted on this absolutely cursed text.
Emmett Woodhouse is a semi-professional vibe curator, menace of a twink, and full-time sociopath. And he's surrounded by freaks (derogatory). The only human people in this book are Miles' moms and Miles himself (Knightley), and he needs to RUN. FAR AWAY.
Emmett's narrative voice comes across like he's ten years old, which makes it all the more disorienting when it cuts to a post-sex scene. The sentences are short, the language juvenile, the thought patterns barely past the mirror stage. The world building is even more nauseating -- think a very stupid Instagram stand-in and an ever-present string quartet playing the hits, ripped directly from Bridgerton. Worse still are the visuals meant to be "beautiful." We've got the ugliest school uniforms known to man, the truly unwearable jewelry collection made by Emmett's bff (a collection, mind you, that's meant to get her into FIT), and far too much zebra-print-and-pink. By the end, I imagined the author cackling as they wrote these descriptions, delighting in the truly hideous images they were creating.
As much as I hoped this would fulfill all my queer Austen dreams, I guess it's not a huge loss. There's always Fire Island, and we already have a modern Emma for the girls and the gays. It was called Clueless.
Emmett Woodhouse is a semi-professional vibe curator, menace of a twink, and full-time sociopath. And he's surrounded by freaks (derogatory). The only human people in this book are Miles' moms and Miles himself (Knightley), and he needs to RUN. FAR AWAY.
Emmett's narrative voice comes across like he's ten years old, which makes it all the more disorienting when it cuts to a post-sex scene. The sentences are short, the language juvenile, the thought patterns barely past the mirror stage. The world building is even more nauseating -- think a very stupid Instagram stand-in and an ever-present string quartet playing the hits, ripped directly from Bridgerton. Worse still are the visuals meant to be "beautiful." We've got the ugliest school uniforms known to man, the truly unwearable jewelry collection made by Emmett's bff (a collection, mind you, that's meant to get her into FIT), and far too much zebra-print-and-pink. By the end, I imagined the author cackling as they wrote these descriptions, delighting in the truly hideous images they were creating.
As much as I hoped this would fulfill all my queer Austen dreams, I guess it's not a huge loss. There's always Fire Island, and we already have a modern Emma for the girls and the gays. It was called Clueless.
Dear Prudence: Liberating Lessons from Slate.com's Beloved Advice Column by Daniel M. Lavery
4.0
Wish it had an actual ending but Danny's Prudence rules so hard. I don't say this lightly -- if you don't like his Prudence, I think you are a bad person. Like if you consistently disagree with his takes, then we do not reside in the same moral universe. Also he is funny. I hehe and haha'd my way through this. Listened to it in one day. Good stuff.
I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I love Courtney Summers -- truly, she's one of my favorite ya writers -- but someone needs to rein her in. The forward of this book, in which she reiterates critical praise her writing has received in the past and claims that this new story is "groundbreaking," put such a bad taste in my mouth and kind of soured me on the whole thing. I kept expecting something truly """groundbreaking""" to happen and it just didn't. I have no idea why they included that forward -- was it supposed to serve as a trigger warning? Super weird. (And you might argue that I wouldn't be so annoyed if a male author had done the same thing. You'd be wrong! I'd hate that way more! If a male author had inserted that self-congratulatory, pointless forward into a book, I would have never started the story proper.)
Anyway this was fine, not out of the ordinary for Summers. Not as good as Sadie or All the Rage but better than The Project. Huge fan of Nora and the brother. It truly sucks that the forward tainted the experience.
Anyway this was fine, not out of the ordinary for Summers. Not as good as Sadie or All the Rage but better than The Project. Huge fan of Nora and the brother. It truly sucks that the forward tainted the experience.