laurmyfe's reviews
181 reviews

Too cuuuuuuuuuuuuute. I want a cuddly, supportive, clean boyfriend!!!!!!! I don’t think they really exist but go off Hannah Grace!!!!!

WTF girly needs to get a better editor

This book makes me want to have a stronger background checking process for books. My time on earth is limited and can not continue to be wasted on this ish!!!!!!

Edit: a few days later
Every time I think about this book, the rating drops.

I genuinely do not know what to rate this. 

This is incredibly well researched. The language and translation theory in this book are fascinating. But! That almost made it feel more like I was reading on manual on translation than a novel at times.

I could easily compare this to two big name works: The Secret History and Braveheart. Secret History = exclusive, elite, secretive, language based collegiate education.

Inter group romantic feelings, death of one member at the hands of another member, cover up of a murder

. Braveheart = revolution, fight against the British, literally, main character goes from an unknown to a leader.

main character sacrifices themselves for the sake of the revolution. Birdie literally may as well have screamed Freedom!!!!!!! As the tower fell

.

Ambiguity I’ll never get back???? What did the letter at the end actually say? What was the truth? Did Britain bend to their will??? This is not an accurate account of history! I can’t Google this shit!

Idk man. It was brutally long. The beginning was so slow. I don’t think I liked anyone the entire time.

I really really REALLY do not know how I feel about this book. 

The whole premise had me duped, from the start. I was confused, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But the time just. Kept. Going. 

About 60% of the way through,

when I realized that the MC was ACTUALLY going to end up getting together with her DYING BEST FRIENDS FIANCÉ WHO CLAIMS SHE IS THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE AND HIS SOULMATE

I about lost it. I had to set it down and do deep breaths. Like it happens

BEFORE BELLA IS DEAD YET!!! I GET IT THAT MAYBE YOU GUYS SLEEP TOGETHER OUT OF GRIEF BUT THIS IS BEFORE SHE HAS DIED AND YOU KISS IN THE APARTMENT THAT SHE BOUGHT AND RENOVATWD FOR YOU

. And there is absolutely no remorse. But she would never betray Bella right?!?!?!? 

Anyway

other than the insanity that is that plot line

I enjoyed the look at lifelong friendship. I do think that the two framings of Dec 15th were well done. And I appreciate the flip in perspective on it. The After section was good because tbh that was the direction I wanted this shit to go in about midway through anyway. Idk man. If I had the physical book and not my kindle, I might’ve thrown it

Ok, I rarely have super strong feelings on books but literally WTF was this. It’s a Covid book, which yeah there have been an increase in those. But this book is like halfway ABOUT Covid. Published in 2023!! Like dude, I know what Covid looked like. I lived it. I didn’t need to read an entire section, the ending section of the book if you will(!) where the main chapter and her beau take care of an old person with Covid. The presence of Covid actually might have killed this book for me. 

Also! I didn’t like Sally. She’s three dimensional and has real flaws and is funny. Her best section is the week at TNO. But man she is so insecure that it’s painful to read. The conversations they have about her freak outs are mundane. “This is fun and great! You are fun and great!” UGH! AND despite her complaining about being an average woman that no celebrity would fall in love with, SHE STILL HAS A CELEBRITY THAT FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER! Not to mention that he falls for her over the course of like three weeks.

The best part of this book was the first third, where the week at TNO is described. It honestly just made me want to read more about what goes on behind the scenes at Saturday Night Live. You can’t write a book that uses a concept that so clearly is about a cultural phenomenon and then ditch the concept after a third of the book to focus on a different worse cultural phenomenon! Likes who is the editor for this! Who let this happen! This book went from funny and witty and cool to boring and weary! I wish she would have stayed at TNO and maybe they fell in love when he came back to host a second time or a third time. Maybe their whole love story is told in sparse weeks at TNO. Maybe he moves to NY to be with her instead of her dropping everything to go to LA! She can screenwrite in NY you dummy!!! IDC IF SHE STILL ACHIEVES HER DREAM SHE GIVES UP HER FEMINIST I DONT GIVE A FUCK MENTALITY IN THE PROCESS AND THAT WAS RHE INLY LIKEABLW THING ABOUT HER!!!!!!!!!

Ok sorry end rant. 

This book was very interesting to me, mostly because I did not realize this had happened in Poland. But also, it’s similar to a short story I worked on over the summer, in the sense that it’s about two people who love each other in a set of external stressors that influence the relationship. It’s heart achy at the end but in a way that reminds me of La La Land but without as much of a punch.

Of course he married her. Of course. The world is cruel

Ooooooof. A lot of reflection on womanhood and how we navigate it, grieve it, live with it. A lot of this was hard for my romance-addled brain to handle. I live for easy and comfortable. But like how many times have I allowed men to touch me nonconsensually??? How many unwanted hugs do I receive a year??? How much emotional labor and space am I giving men to protect their own egos??? A LOT!!!!! Aka this book was the Barbie movie but with more nuance and intersectionality. I would love to revisit it when I’m 30 and see what I think then

Cute premise. I liked the letters. Did NOT like the twist 75% of the way through the book. Miscommunication trope kind of at its worst tbh. A literal .02/10 on the spice chart. No ma’am