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abbyknud's reviews
338 reviews
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
3.5
Book Lovers follows Nora (a literary agent) as she reluctantly falls in love with Charlie (an editor) while on a trip to the small town where her main client’s last bestselling book was set. As someone who’s pursuing a career in editing, this was obvs a very compelling premise.
Here’s what I liked—Nora’s character. I found her, unfortunately, relatable. Her arc was so fun to watch as sort of a critique but also as an embodiment of typical romantic literary leads. I also loved the constant banter and constant genuinely funny humor. In that podcast I posted about, the interviewer said something to Emily like, “I just want to go to a dinner party with you. You seem like the funniest person in the world!” I basically had that same thought. Emily Henry, teach me your ways!!
However. I’ll say it. I got a little bored. As was my complaint with People We Meet on Vacation, it was a little repetitive and a little lacking in, like, action. Idk. I just wanted a little more happening in the present and a little less brooding about the past. I never got to the point where I was fully sucked in. I put I down while I was halfway through and didn’t pick it up again for five days. But maybe this is just a genre complaint, because generally I haven’t been a fan of adult romance. But I’m trying!
My main conclusion is that if/when I do have a career as an editor, I expect nothing less than to fall in love with a super hot literary agent. It’s nonnegotiable!!
Here’s what I liked—Nora’s character. I found her, unfortunately, relatable. Her arc was so fun to watch as sort of a critique but also as an embodiment of typical romantic literary leads. I also loved the constant banter and constant genuinely funny humor. In that podcast I posted about, the interviewer said something to Emily like, “I just want to go to a dinner party with you. You seem like the funniest person in the world!” I basically had that same thought. Emily Henry, teach me your ways!!
However. I’ll say it. I got a little bored. As was my complaint with People We Meet on Vacation, it was a little repetitive and a little lacking in, like, action. Idk. I just wanted a little more happening in the present and a little less brooding about the past. I never got to the point where I was fully sucked in. I put I down while I was halfway through and didn’t pick it up again for five days. But maybe this is just a genre complaint, because generally I haven’t been a fan of adult romance. But I’m trying!
My main conclusion is that if/when I do have a career as an editor, I expect nothing less than to fall in love with a super hot literary agent. It’s nonnegotiable!!
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Yerba Buena begins with sixteen-year-old Sara as a fresh runaway after the death of her first love. When we first meet her counterpart, Emilie, she is in her seventh year of undergrad and has taken a job at a floral shop. The two women first meet in a chance encounter in the novel’s most important setting, the restaurant Yerba Buena, where Emilie arranges the flowers and Sara, now a bartender, consults for the drink menu. It’s a story of briefly meeting, finding each other later, growing apart, growing together. A little bit of fate. The feeling that you know a person is meant to be in your life. Complicated families and complicated pasts, and being a person for the other who feels new and healthy and healing, like home.
Reading Nina Lacour’s writing feels like being taken by the hand and pulled along at a constant gentle pace, only slowing down to linger in the sensory details. Throughout the story, both women participate heavily in tactile work, whether that’s bartending for Sara or floral arranging or home renovating for Emilie, and their crafts are written about as art forms. Lacour lets you sit in the details of ingredients and flower types and wallpaper. The attention to sensory detail extends through all the prose, always emphasizing taste, touch, smell. Bare feet on hardwood floors, a simmering pot on the stove, a slice of lemon in a bright citrus drink.
Absolutely beautiful. I didn’t want it to end.
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
When Shara Wheeler, the queen of her small-town Alabama Christian high school, vanishes on prom night, the only path leading to her is a series of cryptic, monogrammed clues that she leaves for her academic rival, Chloe, her boyfriend, Smith, and her neighbor Rory. Each member of this unlikely trio has their own reason for wanting to find Shara, and along the way, their perceptions of Shara and of themselves drastically change for the better (to phrase it in the cheesiest way).
I have reason to believe that Casey McQuiston wrote this book specifically for me. False Beach could easily be swapped with my Utah hometown, and Chloe and her academic obsessiveness (mixed with a bit of Georgia) could be me in high school (or a more self-actualized version of me in high school). I felt called out but totally seen.
I’m consistently impressed with Casey McQuiston’s ability to make every side character feel so developed. Smith and Rory weren’t just Chloe’s companions in the quest but had full arcs in their own rights. Their relationship was one of my favorite elements, and Casey McQuiston deserves an award just for making me love a jock character (a nearly impossible feat!!). Georgia’s storyline hit a little tooo close to home too, and like all the other side characters, she didn’t fit simply into the tropey best friend role.
But the most fascinating part of this book was Shara and the puzzle of what was going on inside her head. This book has drawn many comparisons to Paper Towns, but unlike Margo, Shara’s deeper internal world is actually deeply explored, subverting the characters’ and readers’ initial impressions. Shara was the primary manifestation of the main theme: that in repressive environments, everyone is hiding something under the surface.
Definitely my favorite of Casey McQuiston’s books, and maybe my all-time favorite YA book??? Wish I had a time machine so I could give it to high school me.
I have reason to believe that Casey McQuiston wrote this book specifically for me. False Beach could easily be swapped with my Utah hometown, and Chloe and her academic obsessiveness (mixed with a bit of Georgia) could be me in high school (or a more self-actualized version of me in high school). I felt called out but totally seen.
I’m consistently impressed with Casey McQuiston’s ability to make every side character feel so developed. Smith and Rory weren’t just Chloe’s companions in the quest but had full arcs in their own rights. Their relationship was one of my favorite elements, and Casey McQuiston deserves an award just for making me love a jock character (a nearly impossible feat!!). Georgia’s storyline hit a little tooo close to home too, and like all the other side characters, she didn’t fit simply into the tropey best friend role.
But the most fascinating part of this book was Shara and the puzzle of what was going on inside her head. This book has drawn many comparisons to Paper Towns, but unlike Margo, Shara’s deeper internal world is actually deeply explored, subverting the characters’ and readers’ initial impressions. Shara was the primary manifestation of the main theme: that in repressive environments, everyone is hiding something under the surface.
Definitely my favorite of Casey McQuiston’s books, and maybe my all-time favorite YA book??? Wish I had a time machine so I could give it to high school me.
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ever since I read the synopsis for Portrait of a Thief a while back, I was hooked. Five Chinese-American college students, fifty million dollars on the line, and a heist mission to steal five Chinese zodiac head statues from museums around the world to return them to Beijing, their rightful home. The crew is headed by Will, a Harvard art history student, and includes his sister, Irene, her roommate, Lily (a street racer), recent MIT dropout and software engineer Alex, and Will and Irene’s childhood friend Daniel, whose father works for the FBI investigating art theft.
Rather than a heist novel with the heist as the central plot focus, this book feels more like five character studies with a heist going on in the background. The heists themselves are left mostly undetailed and aren’t thoroughly planned, so you may be left disappointed if you’re interested in specifics. What the book really is about is the characters, their individual motivations for joining the group, their relationships with one another, and their relationships with their Chinese American identities. Sometimes the character explorations felt a little too repetitive—by the end, I felt like I’d heard some of the same background information and key motivations directly spelled out too many times. But the in-depth character explorations were necessary for exploring the main themes: colonization and art ownership. Can and does art belong to the conquerors, and if art should be returned to the original owners, how?
Even though it’s heavily character focused, I promise it’s not boring. I read it all in one day because it was so suspenseful and so fascinating. The characters really drew me in, and I would honestly die for any of them. Mostly Alex. I also especially connected with the characters because they’re my age, down to the exact year and current timeline, which made it so easy to initially connect with them.
I super highly recommend!! One of my favorites I’ve read this year.
5/5 ⭐️
Rather than a heist novel with the heist as the central plot focus, this book feels more like five character studies with a heist going on in the background. The heists themselves are left mostly undetailed and aren’t thoroughly planned, so you may be left disappointed if you’re interested in specifics. What the book really is about is the characters, their individual motivations for joining the group, their relationships with one another, and their relationships with their Chinese American identities. Sometimes the character explorations felt a little too repetitive—by the end, I felt like I’d heard some of the same background information and key motivations directly spelled out too many times. But the in-depth character explorations were necessary for exploring the main themes: colonization and art ownership. Can and does art belong to the conquerors, and if art should be returned to the original owners, how?
Even though it’s heavily character focused, I promise it’s not boring. I read it all in one day because it was so suspenseful and so fascinating. The characters really drew me in, and I would honestly die for any of them. Mostly Alex. I also especially connected with the characters because they’re my age, down to the exact year and current timeline, which made it so easy to initially connect with them.
I super highly recommend!! One of my favorites I’ve read this year.
5/5 ⭐️
Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer
2.5
This book was just okay. It follows the YA romance formula of pairing two social outcasts with big problems (Rob, who is getting the social blame for his dad's embezzlement, and Meagan, who cheated on the SAT and invalidated hundreds of scores). It's along the lines of Holding up the Universe or All the Bright Places. It's not my favorite formula.
I didn't care for the characters or the romance, but I thought the author did a good job addressing the moral dilemmas and also some other controversial issues—namely abortion (relating to Meagan's sister's side plot).
I didn't care for the characters or the romance, but I thought the author did a good job addressing the moral dilemmas and also some other controversial issues—namely abortion (relating to Meagan's sister's side plot).