nerdyprettythings's reviews
495 reviews

I really liked this book! The characters are intentionally a bit unlikeable, but also so very relatable. It feels very of the moment without being like "oh one more time, TSwift and Bridgerton!" I'm writing this after rage posting about another book, but the contrast in handling characters to make them feel real and to deliberately flesh out "this is 2024" is treated so differently (and so much better imo) here. This book will definitely have a place in the floundering-in-life weird girl canon. 

First of all: THE AUTHOR SPOILS AGATHA CHRISTIE FOR NO REASON. In explaining one of the suspects, she just casually tells you who the killer is in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (a fantastic book that this one doesn't compare to, and one of the lesser known (and lesser-TV-ified) plots of Christie's). I don't recommend this book anyway, but if you haven't read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, definitely read that instead of this.

Secondly - I went into this book really excited. I enjoyed Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, and I was getting really similar vibes, except this time with a female narrator, which is my book preference, score! But as the book goes on, the narration becomes more and more grating. The MC is 35 years old (was also excited for this) but with the emotional, social, and fiscal maturity of a child. She assures us that she's a liar and a suspect, but oh my gosh she's not remotely interesting. The MC is an author who HATES goodreads reviews and LOVES "Tay-Tay" Swift. So here I am, giving her the bad review I felt by the end that the author was begging me for. Why do women have to be infantilized? And why do authors have to have such bad behavior about reviews? 

To add insult to injury: They're not on vacation, and no one dies until 60% in.

You can file this under “meant to read it years ago.” Despite the term instersectionality being more mainstream now, I think the topics here are still very relevant and a great reminder of the many things that should be “women’s issues” but are often pushed aside as “urban” or “racial justice,” allowing white women to escape any sense of responsibility for them. And even if you hear about intersectionality more now, I don’t think we (me, a white lady, included) have done a lot better at it in the years since this book’s publishing.

I enjoyed this book of creepy stories! I really like when horror/sci-fi stories give a spine tingle factor, and a lot of these stories delivered. I found them really original while also feeling like they were based in folklore. A couple fell flat to me, as with any short story collection, but overall, I had a really good time with this one. 

Octavia Butler just had an incredible mind, huh? The concept here is a woman finds herself on an alien spaceship 250 years after nuclear war decimates humanity on earth. But it's a first contact/alien encounter unlike any I've seen on screen or read. The "exchange" these aliens want is so viscerally disturbing that you really feel Lilith's horror and her ongoing mixed feelings about her choices. She's going to help repopulate the earth, and is training other humans to go back, but what that will mean and what they'll go through as they realize where they are is so well fleshed out here and just gripping. I've already bought the rest of the series and I'm excited to continue (also they were rereleased with these STUNNING covers)

I loved this. A novel told in a series of stories from different perspectives, starting from the beginning of a plague and imagining how humanity copes with a very different future. All of the stories are a little bit sci-fi, a little bit of a peek into the world of the book, but at the heart of them, they’re all about the people whose POV we’re seeing, which I think is the sign of really great sci-fi/dystopian writing.

I don’t know exactly how to talk about this one, but WOW it was good. It’s at times poetry, part stream of conscious with certain characters, and I *highly* recommend the audio production. 
Major major TW for SA - this whole book is about men who have been SA’d, and it is described really graphically at times. It really gets in their heads and the aftermath of their attacks. It’s drawing comparisons with r-culture and its effect on women without ever feeling like the men in this story aren’t worthy of care or having voices as survivors. It’s just really really well written. Another @ksdcolson recommendation! If you feel like you could handle this one, it’s definitely worth the read (and pretty short).

First and foremost - one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve seen. Secondly, but probably also importantly, I really enjoyed this book for the most part! Early on it was very much giving Rebecca, but if the MC had a single ounce of her own character. I really enjoyed how proactive Beatriz was and how the story involved the mystery of the house moreso than like a previous wife jealousy thing. I really enjoyed the spooky elements, and I liked that the book went all in on “there’s some ghosts and witches and stuff in here.” I also really enjoyed the will-they-or-won’t-they with the priest, I think it was handled so well and so subtly. I always end up having issues with gothic stories and I don’t 100% think this one stuck the landing? It sort of was like “something super weird is happening in this house” but then was just kind of what I thought was happening. 

Set in the future of the world from The One (which I really loved!), this one was a little bit of a miss for me. I still really enjoyed some of the thriller aspects, but this one is much more BLEAK y’all! I feel like The One was already pretty heavy in parts, but ultimately hopeful. There are very few characters to root for here, and at the center of the story is a cartoonish government conspiracy with one shadowy main figure. I just don’t think the world was as thought through, or maybe it reflects like tech-fear headlines that are outdated now. 
Also, it’s a super conservative future world where staying married is cynically the goal because it’s best for the economy - but then people say things like “body shaming is a thought crime.” So whose totalitarian future are we in? These sort of random “oh that’s illegal now” felt anachronistic. 
Definitely check the TWs on this one, basically all the bad stuff happens and a lot of things are described graphically