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marieintheraw's review against another edition
2.0
i will fight my way into liking magical realism dangit.
sarahch's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked it although it was a bit slow-paced. I think it was a very thought-provoking read and I loved its message. A.S. King definitely knows how to write ! :)
biblioberry's review against another edition
3.0
AHHHHH IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A FANTASY NOVEL, GOT IT - the "fantasy" aspect just didn't work for me, then. Too weird. But...this was definitely a very important book.
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06/04/2020, approximately 16 months since reading this
3 stars. Personally don't remember much about this at all, but I did love the more realistic parts of the novel. It handled a lot of serious, difficult, nitty-gritty topics - bullying, abuse, grief - wonderfully well without feeling preachy and made my heart ache for Lucky. HOWEVER...it was kind of boring, especially the second half. The whole section on the "Vagina Monologues" and the girl starring in it - Lucky's friend, I can't remember her name but you probably know who I'm talking about anyway - made me want to throw the book across the room in frustration. Yay for feminism and sex-positivity, though. This book discussed sex pretty honestly and openly, although there was nothing graphic and it restricted those discussions to a few scenes which were few and far between. ALTHOUGH. THIS WAS SO HONEST AND RAW AND REAL AND IT HANDLED ABUSE SO WELL AND AHHHHH. Yay for more rep like this.
But...the second half is nothing like the first. It just veers off course, taking the book somewhere you'd never anticipated it'd go...and not in a good way. This was really shaping up to be a five-star read...and then it lost all sense of it's identity and what it was in the first place. What got me, the reader, engaged. Just keeps blabbering on about a bunch of boring plays and new, vapid characters and...okay, that's enough for me. I physically can't.
The dreams in this book, although a nice touch, didn't totally work for me. They were compelling enough at first, I guess, but then they just got plain weird. Maybe I'm missing something? They just felt very off. For more context, people who haven't read this book, Lucky has recurring dreams about his grandfather who he's never met and who fought in the Vietnam War. Like, dreams of and during the war itself. Which was definitely initially very compelling, but...he could pull stuff out of his dreams, like souveniers? I'm approximately 98% sure that was supposed to symbolise something or had something to do with his mental illness, but I've always been terrible at decoding subtext and it just went way over my head. Maybe I'll Quora it. Or maybe read a more coherent, educated review.
Also...this book is incredibly short. If that's relevant to you in any way whatsoever. Although if it was...you probably got that from it's GR page. (Silly ol' me.) Which...WHY HASN'T IT CAPITALIZED EVERY WORD OF THE TITLE. GAH THIS BOTHERS ME.
And...that's all, I guess. For now. This IS supposed to be a mini-review, after all.
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hello vaguest and most obscure corner of the internet aka probably nobody,
it's close to midnight, I don't want to sleep and really feel like I need to get some kind of writing in some shape or form done to stop myself from going crazy (as part of my goal to write a little every day, even if I'm kind of cheating because this obviously doesn't count). I'll be up writing these mini-reviews for a while. even if the concerned books have been reviewed a thousand times already and I'm probably writing his into the void, thus defeating the purpose of this site.
(okay, it's mostly because I started blogging recently and feel like I should be writing a post right now but don't feel like writing anything I'll need to edit later. hopefully if I ever need to recommend/rant about this to a friend or on my blog (optimistically assuming I continue with it), it'll come in use. and it'll make it easier to sort through crap if I'm looking back, I guess.
I'll be picking these out of my "read" shelf randomly so who knows what long-forgotten nuggets i'll be finding!
(also, yes, I'll be copy-pasting this onto every book that I'll be reviewing as part of this "project", even if it's longer than some of the reviews themselves. whopee.)
~me
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My Blog: https://creativeclubworld.home.blog/
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06/04/2020, approximately 16 months since reading this
3 stars. Personally don't remember much about this at all, but I did love the more realistic parts of the novel. It handled a lot of serious, difficult, nitty-gritty topics - bullying, abuse, grief - wonderfully well without feeling preachy and made my heart ache for Lucky. HOWEVER...it was kind of boring, especially the second half. The whole section on the "Vagina Monologues" and the girl starring in it - Lucky's friend, I can't remember her name but you probably know who I'm talking about anyway - made me want to throw the book across the room in frustration. Yay for feminism and sex-positivity, though. This book discussed sex pretty honestly and openly, although there was nothing graphic and it restricted those discussions to a few scenes which were few and far between. ALTHOUGH. THIS WAS SO HONEST AND RAW AND REAL AND IT HANDLED ABUSE SO WELL AND AHHHHH. Yay for more rep like this.
But...the second half is nothing like the first. It just veers off course, taking the book somewhere you'd never anticipated it'd go...and not in a good way. This was really shaping up to be a five-star read...and then it lost all sense of it's identity and what it was in the first place. What got me, the reader, engaged. Just keeps blabbering on about a bunch of boring plays and new, vapid characters and...okay, that's enough for me. I physically can't.
The dreams in this book, although a nice touch, didn't totally work for me. They were compelling enough at first, I guess, but then they just got plain weird. Maybe I'm missing something? They just felt very off. For more context, people who haven't read this book, Lucky has recurring dreams about his grandfather who he's never met and who fought in the Vietnam War. Like, dreams of and during the war itself. Which was definitely initially very compelling, but...he could pull stuff out of his dreams, like souveniers? I'm approximately 98% sure that was supposed to symbolise something or had something to do with his mental illness, but I've always been terrible at decoding subtext and it just went way over my head. Maybe I'll Quora it. Or maybe read a more coherent, educated review.
Also...this book is incredibly short. If that's relevant to you in any way whatsoever. Although if it was...you probably got that from it's GR page. (Silly ol' me.) Which...WHY HASN'T IT CAPITALIZED EVERY WORD OF THE TITLE. GAH THIS BOTHERS ME.
And...that's all, I guess. For now. This IS supposed to be a mini-review, after all.
------
hello vaguest and most obscure corner of the internet aka probably nobody,
it's close to midnight, I don't want to sleep and really feel like I need to get some kind of writing in some shape or form done to stop myself from going crazy (as part of my goal to write a little every day, even if I'm kind of cheating because this obviously doesn't count). I'll be up writing these mini-reviews for a while. even if the concerned books have been reviewed a thousand times already and I'm probably writing his into the void, thus defeating the purpose of this site.
(okay, it's mostly because I started blogging recently and feel like I should be writing a post right now but don't feel like writing anything I'll need to edit later. hopefully if I ever need to recommend/rant about this to a friend or on my blog (optimistically assuming I continue with it), it'll come in use. and it'll make it easier to sort through crap if I'm looking back, I guess.
I'll be picking these out of my "read" shelf randomly so who knows what long-forgotten nuggets i'll be finding!
(also, yes, I'll be copy-pasting this onto every book that I'll be reviewing as part of this "project", even if it's longer than some of the reviews themselves. whopee.)
~me
------
My Blog: https://creativeclubworld.home.blog/
mischief_in_the_library's review against another edition
5.0
The voice of the novel is exactly the type of writing I love to read - conversational, draws you in straight away, you want to be the narrator's friend. A.S. King somehow manages to use that lovely light-hearted tone of voice throughout the whole book, even when it comes to describing some truly horrific episodes of bullying - and I mean the sort of passages that made my stomach clench in fear and horror. I love finishing books, but I did not at all want to let go of Lucky.
nikabartoo's review against another edition
4.0
This book was beautifully written. It is the story of a bullied teenage boy and how he comes to terms with who he and his family is. This book I would recommend to any young adult reader who likes an intense read.
trid_for_kicks's review against another edition
4.0
This book was really weird, and confusing, and I kind of liked it. Things almost never went the way I expected, which I love. It was just... bizarre. That's the word I'm looking for. Bizarre.