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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Such an abrupt ending that I had to listen to the last few minutes again after finishing. Interesting concept that just felt mid all the way through. I'm never a big fan of a "men are the reason for all the problems in the world" story so my 3 stars was generous. I didn't connect to the characters but I did want to see how it all wrapped up.
This is not something I normally would’ve gravitated to (wrong genre) but a friend recommended it to me.
I fell in love with and fell into hatred for these characters. (Mostly love). What a beautiful story. But that ending just ruined my life. There had BETTER be a sequel
I fell in love with and fell into hatred for these characters. (Mostly love). What a beautiful story. But that ending just ruined my life. There had BETTER be a sequel
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved this dystopian world and the initial couple’s love story and the beautiful writing about their meeting. But the characters became quickly cartoonish and everything wrapped up too quickly and simply. Wish it had included more of the outside or more time before we went inside.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly I found this deeply tepid, and like if twitter identity discourse was rehashed into a novel. I appreciated the epistolary moments of it (and honestly my rating is closer to 2.5 stars), but it's something where the book just felt hollow at points. I wanted to care for the cast, but I think the time scale on this was too over eager and wanted to cover too much ground, which ended up tripping it up. Also, Jacqueline as a central character almost felt like a parody at points, and while I loved the intent behind her, I feel as if the author didn't quite strike the right balance with her. Anyway! Wanted to like this! Loved the ideas it was playing with! But I honestly think that this would be a better movie than a book, and the storytelling style lends itself more to a visual medium, and in book form it just didn't quite clicks.
Honestly I found this deeply tepid, and like if twitter identity discourse was rehashed into a novel. I appreciated the epistolary moments of it (and honestly my rating is closer to 2.5 stars), but it's something where the book just felt hollow at points. I wanted to care for the cast, but I think the time scale on this was too over eager and wanted to cover too much ground, which ended up tripping it up. Also, Jacqueline as a central character almost felt like a parody at points, and while I loved the intent behind her, I feel as if the author didn't quite strike the right balance with her. Anyway! Wanted to like this! Loved the ideas it was playing with! But I honestly think that this would be a better movie than a book, and the storytelling style lends itself more to a visual medium, and in book form it just didn't quite clicks.
*** I received a free ARC from Goodreads. My review is mine and mine alone***
This was terrible. I feel like I’ve been catfished by books recently but this one takes the cake. Like I’m usually very easy to please with books. Was I entertained while reading? Yes? Okay 3/4 stars minimum. I’d give this 0 if I could.
I was promised queer love in a dystopian setting. What I got felt more like a checklist of buzzwords and social issues.
Despite all the feminist talking points thrown around in the book I honestly do not believe the author understands feminism at all. It feels a true disservice to any queer person out there along with anyone that identifies as female. She also seems very much like a gold star lesbian that doesn’t even have a place for bisexuals in her utopia.
The author had so many good idea and plot points that were dropped for man hating, straight bashing, evil capitalism rhetoric. And even those weren’t fully delved into. And along those lines JM was built up to be this evil that is already so fleshed out in media. when we could have really had an evil villain that was evil in a more female? Way.
There is a quote in the beginning of the book that felt very much like the author was projecting. “…always neglected to factor in anything other than their own identity.” Now I get we want more representation and stories told from our own communities. However, when the premise of the book and conflict is so global and impacts everyone in the way the author wanted it feels very one dimensional.
Nothing feels fleshed out. The characters feel flat. It reads like poor y/n fan fiction the author wrote and made every character herself. Which is funny because sometimes it reads as self-aggrandizing and other times more self hating.
This wasn’t good. Don’t waste your time. Anything that feels similar was done 10x better. This isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. There isn’t even any point talking about the plot or characters because it truly doesn’t matter.
There is no connection to anyone, everything that feels like it could possibly be significant is thrown out the window during the last 5? Chapters anyways. Nothing matters.
The characters are flat, the world building is almost non existent. The science doesn’t make sense (girl eggs? Wtf). The climate disaster is only described as hot HoT HOT with everything except New York flooded. Anything that managed to feel marginally significant actually really isn’t and gets thrown out.
This was terrible. I feel like I’ve been catfished by books recently but this one takes the cake. Like I’m usually very easy to please with books. Was I entertained while reading? Yes? Okay 3/4 stars minimum. I’d give this 0 if I could.
I was promised queer love in a dystopian setting. What I got felt more like a checklist of buzzwords and social issues.
Despite all the feminist talking points thrown around in the book I honestly do not believe the author understands feminism at all. It feels a true disservice to any queer person out there along with anyone that identifies as female. She also seems very much like a gold star lesbian that doesn’t even have a place for bisexuals in her utopia.
The author had so many good idea and plot points that were dropped for man hating, straight bashing, evil capitalism rhetoric. And even those weren’t fully delved into. And along those lines JM was built up to be this evil that is already so fleshed out in media. when we could have really had an evil villain that was evil in a more female? Way.
There is a quote in the beginning of the book that felt very much like the author was projecting. “…always neglected to factor in anything other than their own identity.” Now I get we want more representation and stories told from our own communities. However, when the premise of the book and conflict is so global and impacts everyone in the way the author wanted it feels very one dimensional.
Nothing feels fleshed out. The characters feel flat. It reads like poor y/n fan fiction the author wrote and made every character herself. Which is funny because sometimes it reads as self-aggrandizing and other times more self hating.
This wasn’t good. Don’t waste your time. Anything that feels similar was done 10x better. This isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. There isn’t even any point talking about the plot or characters because it truly doesn’t matter.
There is no connection to anyone, everything that feels like it could possibly be significant is thrown out the window during the last 5? Chapters anyways. Nothing matters.
The characters are flat, the world building is almost non existent. The science doesn’t make sense (girl eggs? Wtf). The climate disaster is only described as hot HoT HOT with everything except New York flooded. Anything that managed to feel marginally significant actually really isn’t and gets thrown out.
