Book Ratings

This was a weird read. I thought it would be a few comics about basic feminist topics but it covers issues that are a step or two above that. For example, I knew about the 'mental load' situation that women come across and have certainly experienced it myself yet I never knew that there was a term for it! Here's where you can read one of the comics in the book with the topic revolving around gender roles in relationships. It was refreshing to read about different topics that aren't talked about enough when it comes to modern day feminism!

But that's my main and really only praise for the book. The art is ... not good. Sometimes the characters are even drawn crosseyed and it comes out as really sloppy in a very uncharming way. The comic about the girl not wanting to go braless and shirtless to school REALLY threw me off even though it was clearly fictional. I was reading it and thinking, "What the FUCK is this even about?!". Then again I'm not the smartest person so maybe the symbolism is lost on me. I dunno. The author is French so maybe the message was lost in translation but I doubt it.

also girl why are there vegatables on top of your washing machine

A reread except I read this back in fourth or fifth grade instead of as an adult. I did NOT remember this book being this violent! There's no gore or anything but the first section of the book deals with the ethnic cleansing of the tribe that occupied the island.

I still like Karana as much as I did when I was a child. She was the first non-movie female main character that I came across in a book and enjoyed reading about. I used to think about how cool it would be if I were to live on a deserted island all by myself. Now I know that if I'm ever in her situation I would DIE because my dumb ass would immediately try to befriend the aggressive dogs.

Speaking of dogs: Rontu in the movie looks NOTHING like Rontu does in the book! It looks like a Mastiff mix while Rontu in the book was a grey wolf-like canine. The other dogs in the pack look accurate enough - I mean, way more accurate than the lead dog. They're obviously German Shepherd / possibly Husky mixes. I certainly don't plan to watch the movie anytime soon, since the death of Rontu made me sad even in the cheesy trailer. I certainly would not describe the plot as 'warm' nor the village being destroyed as 'thrilling'... uh, skip 1:52 to around 2:14 in that video to avoid the sad part even though the dog is clearly alert while laying down and focusing on licking the actress' hand.

... anyway, I did enjoy rereading it as an adult. It doesn't hold back on the violence inflicted on Karana's tribe and there are descriptions of animal death but it's handled in a way that older children can handle. (I hope that made sense.) I did not know that there was a sequel written so I may read that in the future.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

At first the extremely slow pacing turned me off but I'm so happy that I kept reading it. The great characters and dialogue made the pacing more than tolerable and by the end of it I wanted more scenes with the main character. I did want to get a look into how she would take care of her child but the ending was very good and it's just a passing thought of mine. Speaking of the main character, even though I have no desire to have a child of my own, I related with her other struggles a LOT. Natsu is probably the only character out of all the books I've ever read that I can sincerly say 'omg she's totally like me' and be completely serious.

"People like pretty things. When you're pretty, everybody wants to look at you, they want to touch you. I wanted that for myself. Prettiness means value. But some people never experience that personally. I was young once, but I was never pretty. When something isn't there, inside or out, how are you supposed to seek it out? Pretty faces, gorgeous skin. The sort of shapely breasts that anyone would kill for. I had nothing of the sort. I gave up wishing I could look like that a million years ago." THAT passage could TOTALLY be about me.

Another relatable passage that I jotted down while reading: "Writing makes me happy. But it goes beyond that. Writing is my life's work. I am absolutely positive that this is what I'm here to do. Even if it turns out that I don't have the ability, and no one out there wants to read a single word of it, there's nothing I can do about this feeling. I can't make it go away."

I did not know this until I read some reviews but this book is actually two books in one and some people didn't like the 'second book' as well as the first? There's a time gap but it's nothing jarring, I think it's only a few years' time. The translation was very consistant since I really did not come across any oddly worded sections.

Give this book a shot if you enjoy reading about relatable adult women dealing with their problems that do not revolve around men or romance. (There is a 'romance' angle but it's very much a side plot in the entire story, plus the main character is VERY LIKELY asexual even though it's not stated.) It really was a joy to read.

Stupid sidenote, I finished this book on Valentines Day!

Another solid collection of short stories. Most (or all?) of the stories take place in small North American towns which I enjoyed since, well, I've lived in one all my life. I thought the second story would never end but when it did it kinda ended, like, mid thought or something. But the rest of the stories were very good and had better endings.

From the third story: "It occurred to Susan that men were always waiting for something cataclysmic—love or war or a giant asteroid. Every man wanted to be a hot-headed Bruce Willis character, fighting against the evil foreign enemy while despising the domestic bureaucracy. Men wanted to focus on just one big thing, leaving the thousands of smaller messes for the women around them to clean up." The setting is right before Y2K, not modern day but... damn, nothing ever changes, huh?

"When everyone had left and she was alone with Mack and without Len—that was when Eileen felt a new kind of sadness. Sometimes it was an enormous hole in her stomach and sometimes it was a sharp twisting in her heart. Sometimes it was a sudden pulse that shot through her limbs and almost caused her to cry out. Always it was a heavy ache in her chest. Throughout the day she carried with her this ache. Eileen was thankful for it. She was thankful for what it meant: She was living. Not since falling in love, not since giving birth, had she felt so fully, physically, aware of being alive."

A decent collection of short stories. Most likely won't read again but it's worth a read if you ever come across it. I was very glad that some of these stories were in the third-person perspective as I was reading nothing but first person narratives at the time!

Another Torey Hayden reread. Heads up, this book as well as the other books by Torey Hayden have corporal punishment / spanking against children. (Except for Ghost Girl, it seems like the school didn't partake in that.) Not by her of course, but by the children's other teachers and the principal. Yuck.

Would've been a solid four stars IF she didn't give so much attention to her prick of a boyfriend during this time in her life. There also wasn't much of an epilogue but there are updates on the children after they leave her classroom.

Uhhh, okay, this is like on of those Tumblr posts with 100k+ likes (not reblogs) that only has a picture of a cutesy scribble with a life affirming quote written on it in crayon... except it's repeated for the entire book. This book seems very half assed even if it was just an art project. Hell, it even seemed lazier than How to Die Alone... the art was cuter in this book at least but nothing memorable.

I do love Torey Hayden's books, I read almost all of them and this is a reread. I think I read this one first in college? But this is far from the best Torey Hayden book and I would pass on reading it unless you're a fan like I am. It doesn't help that she completely goes off the rails in the epilogue about satanism instead of giving the audience an update on the child. (There IS an update but it's nowhere near as long as the "satanic panic" blather.) Keep in mind that this was published in 1991.

I didn't like how some of the chapters just ended on her saying yet another cryptic line... and that's it. Like this is the end of the tenth chapter: “'I believed you that day, that day when you came. That's why I talked to you. I thought you were going to help me. I thought you said you could.'”

And here's the beginning of chapter 11: "The first few weeks after school let out, I remained in Pecking to do the hundred and one small jobs I'd never quite gotten around to while I was working. Mostly, I spent time on the apartment, which had remained in a rummage-sale state since I'd moved in." It's a total mood whiplash.

I found this book to be a mix of Girl, Interrupted and a fictional version of I'm Glad My Mom Died (also a great read and I plan on rereading it for a review soon!). Some of the parts, especially towards the end, made me teary eyed. It was really well written and the main character's problems in her life hit home for me. I also like her support system that rallies around her once she gets into the motions at college. It's easy to introduce side characters in the middle of a story and just give them no personality but that did not happen here.

"When she saw us, she gave a small patrician wave to my mother and called out, “Bevy, darling,” in her thick British accent. My grandmother was not actually British, and the details of how she acquired this accent, having never left the state of Pennsylvania, remain a mystery." RED FLAG.

The writing was actually very good and consistent, it's just a shame that the plot fell sooo flat and the characters were soooo boring. I did like the criminal... uh, psychiatrist (?) that helped out with the case a bit. I can't remember her name or job title, it's been too long since I read the book and I disliked it so I don't want to go back and find out for myself.

The female serial killer was definately the worst character in the book. No amount of decent writing and plot twists could make me believe that she killed 200 people. Twenty? No. Five? Maybe. FUCKING TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE?! What, did she fucking kill people with a bomb?! lmao i wrote 'bong' there first, now THAT would actually be interesting She was a gigantic idiot as well. Yes, honey, when you take out someone's spleen and just leave the wound to fester the person will probably die. Something very minor that also bothered me enough that I wrote a note about it: So the female killer sent the wife flowers after she was caught from prison and NO ONE NOTICED until weeks later? What about the fucking company that put the floral arrangement together? She was stupid enough to put her own name on it. If she's so famous and beautiful then why wouldn't someone notice it?

Oh my god, and the endless prose about fucking Portland was the second worst part, holy shit. Every single time a character went out into town at least an entire paragraph would be devoted to the beauty of the city. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I actually picked up this book because years ago I heard it being praised for the female killer being so 'diabolical' and what not... yeah, no. As soon as the '200 victims' were explained in the book I wanted to toss my e-reader out a window.

"What he doesn't get is that the real outsiders would do anything to be on the inside. A real outsider can't be seen at all. They're people who look like they belong when inside they know they don't. They're people who would do anything to appear normal, while harboring the secret knowledge that they're anything but normal."

The writing was decent but I didn't like ANY of the characters. Not even the dog. And something REALLY irked me about the ending: Why the fuck would the older sister reveal what really happened in their own house to her injured grandfather at the end before the sisters leave? He wasn't dying. And you mean to tell me that the pedo that the same sister was sleeping with just happened to barge in at the exact same moment that the girls are getting beaten? It's a shame because the concept of the story could've worked very well if I felt any sympathy for the characters.

I liked the book a lot but some of the characters really irked me. The Daniel kid spoke like he was forty years old and I hated him lmao... it was not as good as Girl in Pieces but a good read with a sastifying ending.

I was honestly surprised by the main character's shoplifting but she never was punished or even reprimanded for it.

LMAO THE FAUX TUMBLR DISCOURSE ABOUT CHARLOTTE'S WEB: “Did you ever notice that Wilbur got all the credit for the writing in the spiderwebs? Some pig! Terrific! And, like, Charlotte did all the work! Guys are always taking credit for women's work.” I mean she's right though but do high school kids even talk like this??? i'm old though so don't mind me

Note: This book was written in 2009.

Oh my God, it opens with a Nickelback lyric. I thought it was spelled Nickleback though? ... nope, I'm wrong, the band was always named Nickelback! The more you know. SCHOOODEELEEEDERPP

Didn't really take a lot of notes on this one but it was an enjoyable read. The main character was well written and I actually just mostly made notes about how much I hated her parents. Also I liked how the author made the little brother likeable and act like a normal teenage boy.

I completely understand why the main character would be wary of the popular girl trying to be friends with her after the shooting. I mean, you ever read / seen 'Carrie'? And, yeah, I'm gonna hold off on reading any novels about school shootings for a while. (edit: Forgot to mention this but I had both this book and Give a Boy a Gun in my 'To Read' pile for a while and decided to read them both back-to-back to get the two books about school shootings out of the list.)

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: This book was written in 2000, right after Columbine.

Very disappointing read. The "real world facts" sections (that were spread throught the novel instead of in their own section) got irritating very fast and the only character I liked was the girlfriend of one of the shooters. I also could not keep track of the multiple people being interviewed since it's a bunch of interviews snippets making up each chapter. From my notes: 'I wish the character that has the same first name as me would shut the fuck up about her old school. YES, WE GET IT, YOUR OLD SCHOOL WAS PERFECT AND EVERYONE SAID "HI" TO ONE ANOTHER'

...... Why are the school shooters censoring curse words in their emails they sent to one another? Especially when a certain homophobic slur was used against the two often by the jock bullies and that's not censored at all. You're telling me that two teenage boys are going to censor some words in their emails to each other on their own volition while they plan out a school shooting?

I've read this series before as a young adult and remember liking the books sooo yeah. The five novels here cover the entire Weetzie Bat series.

The main character, Weetzie Bat, (Bat is her last name) is such a fucking text book Mary Sue -- or a "pick me"? I don't really know what that means -- for all of the novels. I mean, read this:

But on the first day of the semester, Dirk saw Weetzie in his art class. She was a skinny girl with a bleach-blonde flat-top. Under the pink Harlequin sunglasses, strawberry lipstick, earrings dangling charms, and sugar-frosted eye shadow she was really almost beautiful. Sometimes she wore Levi’s with white-suede fringe sewn down the legs and a feathered Indian headdress, sometimes old fifties’ taffeta dresses covered with poetry written in glitter, or dresses made of kids’ sheets printed with pink piglets or Disney characters.

“Thanks. I made it,” she said, snapping her strawberry bubble gum. “I’m into Indians,” she said. “They were here first and we treated them like shit.”

oh my god could you imagine trying to do your art class activities while sitting next to the world's worst mary sue and her gigantic indian headdress? btw weetzie bat is white

And the entire plot about Weetzie having a baby with two gay men because her boyfriend didn't want a child (yes. i'm serious.) was so bonkers. From the book:

“It might not be his baby,” Dirk said. “But I’ll bet he likes it when he sees it, and we’ll all go to a doctor to make sure we can make the perfect healthy baby.”

Weetzie looked at Dirk’s chiseled features and Duck’s glossy, tan, surfer-dude face and she smiled. It would be a beautiful slinkster girl baby, or a hipster baby boy, and they would all love it more than any of their parents had ever loved them—more than any baby had ever been loved, Weetzie thought.

No, those two men aren't bisexual, they're gay. Why am I so certain? Because the fifth book revovles around the two of them dealing with their homosexuality and discovering that they are only are attracted to other men. Weetzie is a fucking narcissist and you can't tell me otherwise. Also, weren't the three of them still in high school when this amazing plan came into fruition?

Why the fuck does EVERYONE alienate Witch Baby (yeah that's her actual name - nowhere near the worst IMHO, that honor would have to go to "Secret Agent Lover Boy") and HOW OLD are the kids in the beginning of the second book? (Weetzie and her awful clique are now young adults in the timeline.) I'm guessing that the children are around... ten or twelve, maybe? But they could be younger (judging by their speech) or older (judging by their bratty teenage angst). Here's another example of great parenting from the second book:

No one at the cottage paid much attention to Witch Baby when she got back from Santa Cruz. They didn’t even mention how worried they had been when she had disappeared. Everyone was too busy working on My Secret Agent Lover Man’s new movie, Los Diablos, about the glowing blue radioactive ball.

Parents of the year, everyone. also there's a background character in the second book who is named 'granola' jysk

Third book - so Coyote (and everyone else, I guess, but the dude had a breakdown about like five trees being cut down or whatever) is all in tuned with nature and shit but then the children's stupid ass parents that left three teenagers alone to film a shitty movie in South America... sent them all leather backpacks. These books are unintentionally funny - or maybe intentionally, it does seem like the author pokes fun at the characters, making them sooo over the top that it's just laughable.

Another example of great parenting, from the fourth book and from Witch Baby's POV:

I am going to take a cab to the airport because everybody’s too busy to drive me. My dad is in the desert by himself meditating about the new movie. Weetzie has a yoga class that she hates to miss.

Honestly, Witch Baby is probably my favorite character because she spends so much time away from her stinky family. It sucks that the entire book revolved around her looking for her boring basic ass bitchy boyfriend. The rest of the characters are extremely snobby and full of themselves but at least Witch Baby has SOME humility. The fifth book was alright but I didn't make any notes about it because by then I was just DONE.

So by now, if you've made it this far, you're probably wondering why the series has a high rating despite my ire for the majority of the characters. Well, I do love Block's writing style a LOT. I adore how she describes the surroundings and envionments of the stories. The vast majority of the Weetzie Bat series takes place in Los Angeles and she describes the area with such an endearing whimsy that is just a joy to read.

I think this series is like a light, fluffy slime toy - it's cute and airy but with no substance. It's a fun read but if you're expecting a series with in depth character development then you won't find it here. In my opinion, if you accept these books as very outlandish fantasy YA novels and keep that in mind as you read, then I think you'll like them more.

Apparently there's going to be a Weetzie Bat movie with Anya Taylor-Joy as Weetzie (which is great casting because I think she'll pull off the look very well). I also found an article with the title stating that the author "didn't like what she's seen so far" and that the film leans into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope too much but for some reason the article won't load for me at the moment. Honey, you made Weetzie THE Manic Pixie Dream Girl, too late to go back now!

Notes: trigger warning for a cat being abused, not graphically, about a third of the way through the book. Got me a bit upset. Also a death of a dog off screen during that boring hunting trip that some of the dickhead male characters go on. And another upsetting dog death about 80% through the book wtfh

Would've been better if the narrative stayed to the main character instead of going on tangents with other characters randomly. Then again, I thought the main character was a gigantic pussy LMAO so maybe not! Dorothy's sections were the worst, though, she was a boring idiot and her plot went nowhere. Didn't care for the wife's sections either - Dorothy's daughter than became the wife of the main character, I mean. Who the fuck lies about cheating on their spouse?! Not to cover it up, but lying on purpose to make it seem like she was messing around on him. Yeah. (She was bored with her marriage so she told her husband that she slept with three or so men EVEN THOUGH SHE DIDN'T. bitch you're not kate bush and you didn't write babushka)

"... You give him a slice of apple pie with a big slab of Velveeta and he'll be happy." EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT GROSS

The main grab of the novel was the nice writing style but the plot, characters and different narratives just didn't cut it.

I really like the casual style of the narrative, it's believable without sounding too forced. I hope that makes sense! It was an enjoyable read but I can tell that some people might think it's over-the-top. I mean, she's a beautiful lithe petite woman that is not only a skillful assassin but also one of the world's best hackers. Oh, and she flawlessly pulls off all her schemes. It might sound like Mary Sue-ism but... well, it is but I thought it was entertaining.

I couldn't really follow the two detective's movements during the novel, it just seemed like they would visit random people out of nowhere. The story would've been a contender for a five star rating if the narrative focused more on the main character instead of the police and the criminals.

Just okay. I liked the female characters well enough but got really tired of the incel's constant complaining. Ending was boring. I do recommend "Out" by Natsuo Kirino, that was a much better read.

This novel is the very definition of DULL. The narrative is extremely boring and stiff with a lot of stilted short sentences. Here's an example from the first paragraph of Chapter FIFTEEN out of twenty-six (or something like that): "Roger sat in the waiting room. It was one of those places that was appropriately and truthfully named. It seemed waiting for Fernando Diaz was part of his legal package. Still Roger felt this guy was going to help him." The entire book is written like this. I think it's the first book listed here that needed more prose and exposition! A lot of spelling and grammatical errors towards the end of the novel as well.

The victims are given a few pages of personality and that's it. Their loved ones don't go into detail about their personalities, they just mourn their loss. It also seems like a lot of the reviews about this book are paid reviews because they all say the same thing about how amazing this novel is but it's just 'meh'. Could've been so much shorter, which is a common opinion of mine for low ranking books like this one it seems. Dunno why the fuck it was on my "to read" pile to begin with, actually.

Trigger Warning: every case has details of horrible child abuse and the first four have graphic accounts of child sexual abuse (CSA). Some stories, like the fourth one, revolve around dealing with the patient's PTSD due to CSA. The fourth (out of the five stories) has very graphic details of child sexual abuse (CSA) and other awful abuse that the client went through - I would consider that story to be the 'worst' when it comes to triggers. There's also discussion about the same client having 'multiple personality disorder', which I know is a sensitive topic online nowadays. (The therapist does her research of course and it's diagnosed properly. Speaking of the fourth story - I wonder what "violent video games" she played? It sounded like Counterstrike or Doom. I think her story takes place in the late 90's.)

Also, the author sometimes refers to Freud and his theories so pass on this book if you don't like that kinda stuff, I guess. It's very infrequent however and is only brought up sporadically for a paragraph or less. She goes into more detail about why she uses his practices in the fifth chapter when she's talking to her mentor. I REALLY like her as a writer and a therapist. Major props to her for going to each of the five people featured in this book and asking permission to share their stories. (All except one, who passed before the book was written but IIRC she spoke to their loved ones and received permission.) Also she did a lot of research when it came to helping the indigenous man in the third story - the stories are all from the late eighties to early nineties in Canada, where she lives and works, and he had suffered through the "ethnic cleansing" of years past.

That psychopathic mother in the second story - omfg who the hell laughs at a severely burnt child! Props for the nurse for saying "'Either act like a human being or get out.'” and the bitch's children for reprimanding her. It is KINDA explained why she does it though later on but I was aghast when I read that.

It's a very good and very difficult read. Kinda slow paced but I only noticed the pacing when I was almost done with the book. (I was thinking something like, "hmmm it's taking a long time to finish up this chapter" so yeah.) I enjoyed all the patients, they were good people that wanted to conquer their pasts, and they all went through some tough childhoods. As I mentioned before, I liked the author too and I liked that she admitted to her mistakes as well. If you like nonfiction books that deal with psychology and can handle the triggers listed above, I would highly recommend this book. That's the first time I've recommended a book on this page, I think!

Here's a funny part of the first story, fifth chapter to end this review: I'd learned long before not to get between Laura and her unconscious fears. She could fight both mentally and physically. Once she was alone on a subway platform at night and a man tried to steal her purse. She kicked him in the groin, knocked him onto the tracks, then pressed the intercom and said, "Asshole on the tracks." Then she took a cab home.

Reminded me a lot of Living Dead Girl, but thankfully not as hard to read. It deals with a parent mentally abusing their child (and the other parent looking the other way) and mental illness. (I THINK there's self harm elements in the book as well but I'm not 100% sure on that.) It was realistic and well paced and I liked the main character and the friend that she makes in the hospital. It was a relationship between a young female and male that didn't end in romance, hooray!

Why the fuck did the doctors not keep that one bitchy girl away from the other patients in the hospital? I know that the reader is supposed to feel sorry for her but I didn't.

Okay, first off: Apparently the author of this book is linked to a murder in Zambia. And by "linked to", I mean "was questioned by authorties because her son 'might have' 'shot' a poacher". I mean... damn. I found that out after reading the book and that just shocked me. Here's a Reddit thread about it that has some interesting posts about the crime. Poachers are scum of the earth but apparently her son tortured the man to death. And when questioned about it, SUPPOSEDLY Delia Owens replied with "Don't you understand that we're good people?" ... I wouldn't have read this book if I knew that the author and her family are batshit crazy.

About the book, it was actually pretty good but the more I look back on it, the less I like it. Author's personal... problems aside, one example of this would be how this young girl went from illiterate to writing award winning science books in a span of, what, less than four years? I forget the span of time but it was short and I think she started before she was twenty. Another point would be how she lived in seclusion for decades and then all of a sudden is excited to go on a trip outside of the city. I KNOW that it was an alibi for the murder but the novel continuously says that she's socially anxious so you would think the author would go into more detail about how she overcome her fears, you know? I liked the main character well enough, though. The story would've been better without the romance, IMHO.

I have no intention of watching the movie. That's nothing new, I very rarely want to watch a movie adaptation of a book I just finished... or any book, now that I think about it.

Pretty much one of the most depressing and upsetting books I've ever read. Trigger warnings for this book are child abuse - physical, mental, and sexual - by the main character's kidnapper. And the abuse is in almost every scene that takes place inside the apartment, which is most of the time until the last fourth of the book I suppose.

Abrupt (and honestly unsastifying) ending, would've been a five star book if it wasn't for that. It was a well written novel but, damn, was it hard to read.

Best thing about this book was the cover. I'm serious. I was dying to complete reading a book at this point - see the previous two entries. Well, I finished it. And I thought it sucked.

The main character, who the audience should feel sympathy for (I guess), was a gigantic bitch to EVERYONE so I didn't care about what happened to her. I felt awful for her friend (who was annoying but better than almost all the other characters personality-wise) that was clearly concerned about her but the MC just treated her like trash. Actually, almost all the characters were unlikable except the dog and the art teacher that showed up for only one scene.

Most interesting part was when drama started on Facebook about a character's passing, how another character didn't deserve sympathy because they may or may not have caused it. It was quite realistic.

Power read the last fourth of the book just to see how everything ended because, again, I didn't care for any of the annoying as fuck characters. Would've been much, much better read if the author had made an attempt to make any of the main characters tolerable. I wanted to be done with this book as soon as possible because 99% of the characters were terrible people and the plot was... just tiring. Mystery books are supposed to be exciting but this novel was so slow and boring. And the ending was completely unsastifying.

Spoilers for this book and Gone Girl! It seems like the author wanted to paint the instigator of the plot as a miniature Amy Dunne from Gone Girl but failed spectacularly. A pretty blonde woman (well, in this book it's a teenager) that has secret psychopatic tendencies and frames another main character for crimes that they didn't commit. Both even kept a fake diary! But Amy was a fascinating character and this copy was absolutely not. Hell, read Gone Girl instead of this nonsense - it's not a perfect book but it's much, much more compelling than this novel. Then again, I did just spoil the main twist... But give that novel a shot instead if you want a well done mystery slash thriller read.

I made it up to the second story and gave up after that. I have in my notes that the first story was "pretty good" but I can't remember what it was about.

But the second story was so fucking obnoxious that I just gave up. If you want to read a story about people so far up their own asses read it. HEY JUST IN CASE YOU FORGOT EVERYONE IN THE STORY IS SUPER ATTRACTIVE!! SO ATTRACTIVE!!! Goddamn, the characters good looks seemed to be brought up multiple times on every single fucking page. And of course it's a love triangle situation, yawn. Gave up reading after that. What a chore. Maybe I'll come back to this but I doubt it.

Just average, not funny to me in the least. The author seems like the kind of person to say stuff like "omg I have no friends and I'm a hermit!!!!" but then has friends and lives in a nice apartment with a partner - like okay debbie downer just fucking chill, some of us really do have no friends or family or support system. But the art was decently cute so I gave it two stars.

Should've taken a fucking star off this book just on account of the cover (almost) fucking up my layout!

Hoo boy, what a garbage book this turned out to be. And it had a really great beginning! I did like the MC almost immediately when she begins to describe her three dogs in the first chapter. I also liked how blunt she was, I liked when she unabashedly told the reader how hot her husband is - women talking about still being sexually attracted to their husbands is pretty rare for me to read outside of fanfiction. Buuuut the constant reminders of how hot he is got annoying really fast when it came up in every single fucking scene he was in.

I skipped the villain's sections after the second or third chapter of them. omfg, did the reader REALLY need to know about ALL of the killer's mutations, it's a 'chick lit horror' novel not fucking fear and hunger

Actually, there was no horror in the novel, just sections of the MC whining, then a villain POV section, then back to whining, then back to the boring as fuck villain being an incel... it was tiring to read.

Trigger warning for sexual abuse of a minor, which is what the plot of the book revolves around. It would've been nice to have more than one adult in the MC's life to NOT treat the poor girl like garbage. But the book was alright before the ending - it was so abrupt and left a lot of loose ends.

I skipped the long intro that went nowhere but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this compilation of flash fiction! And, honestly, some of the stories were more sastifying than some of the books listed here. It's important to take the title of the story into consideration too!

I THINK I read the anthology version but I'm not 100% sure, haha.

Very odd read, I can't think of any other word to describe it

The author manages to create a believable narrative of a woman living with dementia, and in the first person pov as well. The main draw of the novel, in my opinion, is how the author constructs the story. However, a major flaw is the actual script/font. Any dialogue and all the narrative sections not spoken by the main character are in italics and the main character's speech is in regular font. That leads to some conversations being really confusing because you can't tell if the MC is speaking or thinking to herself because her thoughts are not in italic script. I hope that made sense because it's incredibly irratating.

The MC before her dementia comes off as very snobby and bitchy - actually her friends in the flashbacks are all holier-than-thou - YES WE KNOW THAT YOU'RE ALL VERY INTELLIGENT UGH. It's a story without a likeable cast, sadly.

One of the novels where the young protagonist is way too mature for her age. I didn't really care about any of the characters and thought that the narrative was way too kind to the awful father. I also couldn't figure out WHAT DECADE this took place in until I looked it up - 1960's.

HOLY SHIT WHAT AN ABRUPT ENDING, I read the digital version and I thought my copy was messed up but no. There's actually a sequel named 'Joy School' but this book was very meh so I might pass on it. If the book had more likeable characters besides the main protag it would've been a lot better.

omfg another book without quotation marks, I would drop it if it hasn't been on my to read list since like college

A lot of negative reviews find the book "whiny" but uhhh I didn't really get that at all? It's a MEMOIR about her experiences with mental illness, she's allowed to be self-indulgent and complain about her life. It was sooooo SLOW though, and I just couldn't get through it all. There's really no plot or events taking placed during her memoir, just A LOT of prose that could've been condensed or removed entirely.

No quotation marks! :I I liked this book a lot so I reread it, but I totally forgot about that detail.

I like this quote: ""My grief fills rooms. It takes up space and it sucks out the air. It leaves no room for anyone else." (I need to make notes of favorite lines from books I read so that I can post them on this page.)

I think I would've liked this more if the chapters were in chronological order. But it's a good, sad read and it hits hard if you've ever lost a parent.

This novel was a pleasant surprise! I thought the plot was a little odd - do celebrities really pull stunts like the one in the book? (idfk) - but the romance was pretty cute and the two main characters were well written.

... fuck the MC's little sister, though, glad she got smacked in the first scene she appeared in. Who the fuck blames all their problems on their sister who was kidnapped and abused for two years?! She even made the male MC's publishist (that had someone stake out the same kidnapping victim's house) look good.

Props to the author for making the male mc (and clear romantic interest) admire the good qualities in the main character that are not her looks for the first few chapters the two are together in.

I like how the main character isn't afraid to call people out on their bullshit. The author manages to write her comebacks without a "holier than thou" attitude.

Overall I thought it was a sweet story with a nice romance. Hell, I've would have given it four and a half stars but the ending was a bit rushed even with an epilogue. There's also no closure on some of the important side characters.

god damn it i always spell 'brain' as 'brian'

A rough read but very well written. If long descriptions of medical procedures makes you squeamish you might want to skip it, she goes into details very thoroughly about needles and stuff.

... What the FUCK is wrong with her (former???) coworkers though?!!??? You see a colleague having an extreme mental breakdown (switching between crying and joy rapidly, paranoia, speaking nonsense) so you decide to take her out to a bar for a few drinks????? That's also where her friend that showed the narrator a picture of her own shit worked. (I'm not kidding. She had to poop in order to leave her doctor's appointment so she decided to take a shot of it with her phone... to show it to everyone.) Susannah Cahalan worked at the Post newspaper as a journalist, fyi, and that was a good idea for multiple people she worked with instead of calling someone or 911.

Of course, that's not the only part of the book that enraged me. She was misdiagnosed multiple times by multiple doctors. (Before she was FINALLY sent to an actual hospital.) This is to be expected since she's a woman in the United States. Also the first psychologist she sees insists on taking a Polaroid picture of her before their first session. I WOULD'VE GONE OFF ON HER OMFG like how dare you demand your patients to sit and smile for a picture because you like to "keep track of everyone" before you even know why they're here????

I read a few reviews online stating that since she can't really remember certain events that the book would've been better in third person pov instead of first person but I disagree. She had access to a lot of her medical documents and reliable accounts from people she trusts to fill in the gaps of her story. She's also a talented enough writer to blend it in seamlessly into her story. Also, Mrs. Cahalan lets the reader know all of this early on in the book and reminds the reader throught that her account of an event might not be 100% accurate. I liked her honesty and transparency she shown while telling her story.

Would have been five stars but the book me forever to finish and I have to admit that I skipped a lot of the medical jargon sections.

Waaayy too many narratives. No exaggeration, there were about 10 or more characters that had their own chapters from their POV. I didn't care for any of the characters either so...

Too much whining, not enough action to make the plot bearable to me. It's beyond me why the main character even bothered to go back to her childhood home where her sister lived - the sister was a complete bitch to everyone. The story could've been SO MUCH SHORTER.

The intrigue and drama was not interesting in the least, the dialogue would hint at yet another secret but not tell exactly what secret the character of the chapter is referring to... By the time a secret was revealed you don't remember the character even bringing it up in the first place. I hope that makes sense. An example: halfway through the book there's a character thinking about her husband's "mistake" ad nauseum but never gets into what exactly he did until later in the novel. But while the wife is thinking about the "mistake" it's late enough in the novel to figure out what he did and so her inner thoughts are just filler by then.

Nothing at all like Girl on the Train, which I liked much more than this book. Not enough to re-read it again but it was way more interesting.

The main character is great and you really feel awful for her being shoved into a cult against her will. And she was mature but not too mature for her age - I think sometimes in YA novels the author's tend to make their teenage main characters wiser and more put together than most adults.

Wow, what a gigantic piece of shit the mother was. (This becomes apparent in the first chapter.) The novel does a good job explaining what happened to make her the way she was. But then again, it doesn't really explain why she did what she did to the main character in the first chapter.

I liked the simple writing style. It's a YA novel so it's also easy to follow along. The ending was very, very abrupt but there are two sequels that follow "Esther"'s sisters. I might read them in the future.

The book is often listed as "psychological horror" online but it's not at all. At least, to me it wasn't. It's about a cult, but it's a very... bland, realistic look at a religious cult. I don't mean "bland" as a bad thing, hence why I followed it up with "realistic". There's just no dramatic scenes of things like "satanic panic".

Read previously and liked it, but this time around I didn't like it as much. I think that's the first time ever that I disliked a piece of media more instead of less the second time around.

YET ANOTHER BOOK WITHOUT THE AUTHOR USING QUOTATION MARKS UGHJHHHDDI

The stories have a weird cadence to them almost. It's hard to explain. I know that the word "cadence" is used to describe vocalization but it was the first word that popped up in my head when trying to describe the tone of these short stories. I would not recommend it.

The thoughts below also apply to the prequel, I Couldn't Keep it to Myself, which I have read but want to reread.

Probably my favorite collection of short stories ever. I love how raw and real every story is, how every woman has a unique voice and tone to their tale. All of the stories are nonfiction.

Sadly, almost all of the stories are about the women's lives before they were incarcerated and their pasts are all very tragic. If details about domestic abuse and sexual assault unnerve you a lot, and it should of course (but these stories go into very vivid detail about the women's experiences with those crimes), you may want to pass on this one.

Another "okay" read. I liked the main character a lot, she's tough as nails especially for a sixteen year old girl. But her character wasn't enough to make this more than a "meh" book. There were WAY TOO MANY minor characters and they all acted and spoke the same. By the time the abrupt as fuck ending came about, I couldn't keep track of who's who outside of the main character's immediate family.

I cannot figure out what decade this book takes place in for the life of me. Maybe the 1990s or early 2000s?

The prose about the wilderness of the Ozarks is beautiful but sometimes there's TOO much of it.

I didn't know that this was made into a movie before I read it and I have to say, I would not have pictured the main character to look like Jennifer Lawrence. But judging by the reviews I'm looking at online it doesn't seem to be a bad movie? It's a 7.1/10 on IMDB and 94% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's an okay read. I didn't like how the chapters were all over the place chronologically, it was extremely confusing. There's also too many characters taking over the narrative and I didn't care for any of them except the main character.

I also rushed through the last couple of chapters, probably because I was tired of reading about other minor characters' lives. The most interesting part of the novel were the scenes that took place in the women's prison... but sadly it seemed like half of the novel was spent on scenes outside of the main character's prison stay.

lmao i totally brought this on myself

because i read this in high school and fucking hated it but decided to reread it for god knows what reason, i guess i was bored af, idfk

The entire book is so fucking boring and dull, it's definately one of the worst books I've ever read.

From my notes: Okay she writes like I write lmao, too many italics and the story is stuffed with meaningless drivel, no wonder I hate this book because I also hate the way I write

... well, it's a good example of what NOT to write like, I suppose. It's not BAD writing, it's grammatically correct and everything, but there's so much stupid filler that goes NOWHERE. This time I didn't make it past the fourth chapter. I couldn't take the story any more after a three or more pages scene with the father and a coworker going over paperwork that goes nowhere and has NOTHING to do with the plot.

This sounds very harsh, but the entire cast of characters are just irratating and stupid rich people and I couldn't care less about their problems. Oh, and I think there's no POCs in the story but I could be wrong. I just remember thinking that "everyone is white" when I was forced to read this garbage during high school.

God I hate it when there's a whole bunch of italic text and it's just a gigantic run on sentence like no sir not for me nuh uh stfu

The only positive is that the movie is apparently really good? I mean, it won the Oscar for Best Picture after all.

Really good read, I was so engrossed by it that I forgot to take notes like I usually do while reading it. I thought it was much better than Sharp Objects and was just as good as Gone Girl.

This is one of those books that I can't really talk to much about without spoilering, but I will say that it nailed how awful the true crime community can be. That convention scene was the creepiest one in the book for me.

Ugh, more changing POV chapters.

I liked the "main victim" more than the detective main character by a huge amount. For one, the detective believed that the "main victim" was lying about being assaulted BEFORE THE DETECTIVE EVEN SPOKE TO HER. It was either that or right after they spoke, I don't remember which.

But the detective, who is a female, really thought for a few pages that the victim was lying about almost being raped. Why? Because the victim killed the fucker in an odd way - setting him on fire with chemicals. Then the neighbors found the woman screaming in the garage, naked with her hands tied in front of her. BUT NO SHE'S CLEARLY LYING BECAUSE SHE KNOWS ABOUT CHEMICALS /s

So after that I didn't give a shit about the female detective and I won't be reading any more of the books in her series. Yeah, this book is part of a eight or so part series about the female detective, whose name I don't even care to look up. You don't need to read the rest of the series to understand this novel.

Besides that irratating main character, I did enjoy this novel. The "main victim" was very interesting. Hey, remember how I said I was going to hold off on reading books where the main female character gets abused by men in my The Woman That Walked Into Doors review? Yeah.

After finishing this book, the rating went from 3 and a half stars to 3 stars because I disliked the main protagonist detective so much.

It was pretty easy to figure out what happened to the family but the rest of the surprises of the book were pretty well done. No spoilers here.

I did like the main character. I'm kinda confused on how the family managed to live in a five story mansion though? Neither her or her husband had a lucrative job IIRC. And I feel awful for the daughter, why the FUCK did the parents tell them about their divorce during the family vacation?! (That's not a spoiler, the vacation flashback is at the beginning of the book.)

okay I found out about the alleged plagiarism AFTER I finished it - here's a good article on the theory but there's spoilers for both books. I gotta say, that's a LOT of evidence for this book being a rip off of the other one...

It's alright. I liked the main character but getting used to the constant Irish slang and dialect was annoying.

I need to take a break from reading books about women who are abused and mistreated by the men in their lives.

Note: I wrote down the points below BEFORE I realized that the book might be a dark comedy. Then again, I didn't really care for this book regardless of its (possible?) comedic tone. Once the actual revenge plots go underway, the book gets a lot better and it's actually funny at times. But it took way too long to get to the decent parts and the points I made below still stand.

I thought that the digital copy I read was glitched or something but NO the husband's name really is BOBBO. Not Bob. Bobbo. I kept reading it as "Blorbo". I seriously took a full star off the rating as soon as I realized that my copy was fine. ... Bobbo.

okay I fucking hate it when author's change pov from first person to third person on a whim between chapters

It seems like every new page of exposition has another jab at the main character's appearance, which got old REALLY FUCKING FAST. Hey, did you know that the main character is tall and wide and overweight and ugly and also VERY ugly????? No??? WELL DON'T WORRY THE NARRATIVE WILL REMIND YOU EVERY SINGLE PAGE!! And of course the husband is just mentioned to be "handsome" and "charming" only once. ...... Actually. There's a lot of reminders to the reader about facts they already know. Did you know that her husband's mistress is so dainty and petite looking??? Here's another reminder of that fact further down the page if you forgot!!! A lot of telling and not enough showing.

I know that the author is a (famous?) feminist which is great! But. I think she went into overdrive when it came to making Ruth's husband unlikeable. I mean, the husband literally calls her "not a natural rape victim" to her face while his mistress is in the car with them. He whines and yells about no woman in his life being able to cook properly. It's like he's a over-the-top cartoon villain that displays every misogynistic trope instead of the main antagonist. There is literally nothing redeemable about his character and I just thought it was a another example of the lazy writing shown throught this novel. Fucking BOBBO.

Kinda reminded me, tone and plot wise, of My Secret Life of Bees. It's a good book - the writing is solid and the characters are well-rounded and likeable - and was a welcome palette cleanser after suffering through The Woman Upstairs.

The main character seemed much older than fifteen, I keep thinking that she was around eighteen!

Would've been four stars if not for the bullshit ending for the dog. :(

The writing was so fucking long winded that I skipped PAGES AND PAGES AND PAGES of prose and exposition. I've NEVER done that before. This book is honestly up there with The Time Travelers Wife for the worst book that I've ever read.

The main character's creepy obsession about her friend's (who was so fucking annoying) child REALLY unsettled me but not in a "horror" way... more like a "I don't think the author realizes how creepy the main character's pining about this child comes across".

lol the only likable character was the child who said that Wonderland was dumb, when I read that I thought YES QUEEN GO OFF

the writing is so fucking boring that it took me a full chapter after it happened to realize that the annoying mc slept with her boring friend's stupid husband...... or whatever. The chapter ends with them hugging but then?? They talk on the phone like they slept together that night????

would've gave much more of a shit at the twist at the ending if I like the main character in the slightest or if the plot of book was better and had the twist somewhere near the middle - i'm just going to spoil it because it's so fucking dumb - the main character masturbates inside of her friend's stupid art exhibit, friend was secretly recording her and uses it for the same art exhibit years later, main character finds out and instead of going to the fucking police or suing the bitch she vows to live life angrier

by the way, WHY did the awful friend feel a fucking need to add a picture of a MOSTLY NUDE PREPUBESCENT GIRL to her awful art piece?????

hey whoever edited the digital version of this novel, have you ever heard of something called PARAGRAPH BREAKS???

I'm going to stop ranting here, I just hated this fucking book so much and I'm mad I wasted time reading it.

WOW, this is seriously the best book that I've read in a LONG TIME. Seriously, I wish I had read this sooner just because it's THAT damn good!

This is probably one of my favorite uses of first-person perspective that I've ever read, Charlie's inner monologues just flowed so seamlessly with the narrative. Charlie herself was a very likeable main character despite her flaws. I'm glad that she punched her mother before the events of this story happened because she 100% deserved it.

The ending was very satisfying, which was so nice to read because I've been reading nothing but books with lackluster endings lately. I do wish that we had a chance to meet Ellis.

Was Tanner, Felix and that one friendly nurse the only decent males in the entire book? I think so, Mikey might be considered one but I didn't like him one bit. Riley was scum and deserves more prison time, I guess his sister never told anyone that he had a relationship with a minor? Barf.

I would highly recommend this book to most people if you can handle the topics of self-harm, suicide, sexual abuse and other triggering acts discussed in detail. One of the reviews in the front of the book mention that it's similar to Girl, Interrupted (another favorite of mine) but it doesn't mention that Charlie's only in the hospital for the first third of the book. I can see this book being more like the movie version of Girl, Interrupted, I suppose.

The ending was SO, SO rushed! The main villain literally has one sentence describing his current situation once Marion leaves the house. And it seems like the main character's transformation happens within one, maybe two, chapters. After being meek and scared the entire book, she suddenly loses some weight, gets some confidence and snags a boyfriend. That's pretty much the main reason for the 3/5 stars rating.

It was nice to have a "spinster character" actually be an "ugly" outcast instead of a "shy woman with odd behavior that also happens to be average looking and skinny". Although I'm seeing less of the latter cliche in literature as I grow older, which is cool.

The main "twist" was also predictable and you can tell what it is in... I think the second chapter.

This book REALLY started out strong. I've always loved reading books about Alaska and the idea of a novel about a young woman toughing it out in the Alaskan wilderness sounded like a great read. Sadly, the charm fell off for me around the middle of the book. The main character was alright, I guess, but I didn't understand her fixation about buying that boat. Naturally, the ending had the boat sink anyway - VERRRYYY SLOWLY. I dunno how fast old boats sink but it took too long for me.

It's been a while since I read this, but the deal with the man living in a shack by the ocean really confused me too. And the woman that pretty much sexually assaulted the main character out of fucking nowhere was dropped halfway through the story too. There were a lot of minor characters with backgrounds that never got explained in detail, now that I think about it. But the only characters that I gave a shit about were the main character and that one former coworker that helped her out way too much. Oh, and the big dog! He was my favorite character, actually.

Probably my favorite book of all time. It's a odd pick for a favorite, I suppose, since the main character... well, it seems that readers either like her or HATE her. I liked Dolores but I can completely understand why she would be disliked. She does a lot of shady shit.

I first read this book back in high school and it really was the first book that I've ever read with such a flawed female protagonist. A lot of people give Wally Lamb a lot of credit for writing "such a well-developed female main character", and I agree with that statement, but?? It's weird that I never hear praise about women authors making well-developed male main characters. And when you can write anything you want, like monsters and whatnot, is it really that big of a deal that a male author can write a interesting female MC? I hope that made sense.

Slight spoiler but while I don't agree with Dolores taking care of the fish, I do think that the (female) character that owned them took advantage of Dolores in a way. She did refuse her advances several times before the sex scene after all. I guess that's a odd opinion to have as I've never read any reviews that mention that but it's always stuck out to me.

And I'm sorry but I will always picture Dante as Dante from the Devil May Cry video game series. Stylish!

This book will always be a favorite of mine. HOWEVER, if you're looking for a book that's close to the movie's story then you won't find it here. Some scenes from the movie are taken from this book but that's about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the movie too! But it's just different from the novel. Since this is an autobiographical account of living in a mental health ward in the 1970's the other characters aren't as fleshed out as they are in the movie. Lisa's character in the book is, for example, nowhere near as over-the-top as her character in the movie.

(I would actually recommend Girl in Pieces if you want a story closer to the Girl, Interrupted movie over this book!)

(Also, one of my favorite youtube channels, antiheroines, did a fantastic video about the book and movie - Girl Interrupted: Flirting with Madness. I highly recommend watching it, especially if you've seen the movie but haven't read the book yet.)

Speaking of Lisa, I liked her more in the book than the movie. She was crafty and much funnier.

I wonder how the other young women in this story are doing today.