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coralinejones's reviews
413 reviews
Out There Screaming by Jordan Peele, John Joseph Adams
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
how disappointing... i'm sure there's at least one good story within this collection, but from what i've read none of these authors can actually write. at least not horror. these stories are boring, lack depth, and aren't satisfactory in the "horror" genre. too many "what is the point of me reading this?". unfortunate.
Gone to the Wolves by John Wray
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.
i was hit with 15 slurs before the actual plot of the book happened and i can't even tell you what's really going on despite that
The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Hunt for an Evil Genius by Scott C. Johnson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
poorly written and choppy
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Maryanne Vollers, Yeonmi Park
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
i didn't realize who the author was until i looked into this a little more. i remember some serious controversy with her on twitter not too long ago. also looking into this i'm seeing that a lot of accounts here are fabricated or simply a lie? so. not great i guess. i would like to look more into this and come back to it as i think a book like this is important and worth the read
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
this was too much for me. both content wise and narratively. i don't really like this writing style and can't find myself to gaf about the plot
The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere
2.0
would've loved this if i was white and boring and conservative and christian and in love with lifetime movies
The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia by Samantha Leach
Like at this point the book might as well be a fiction novel to the likes of "The Virgin Suicides". The author doesn't know any of the girls she's writing about, not really. She hadn't seen the main "character" Elissa for YEARS. Everything she's writing about is written as if she was right next to her, holding her hand while these drugs were taken, and kisses were placed, and shots were drunk, but she wasn't. It's all fictional bullshit. I can't take it seriously.
3.0
I'm conflicted with my rating. On one hand, there was much I could relate to. Not in personal events, but with the pop culture references. The discussions on girlhood in this time period were nice to read about. I wasn't a rich, suburban girl, but I knew of some, and I certainly was around and on the Internet to see this lifestyle unfold. Being the "ugly duckling" to your "pretty developing friends" in particular was something I could relate to while reading the beginning of this novel. Much of topics brought up by the author I could see in my mind because I've either watched the show she was talking about (Skins UK, for one), or saw the magazines she was referring to (Tabloids, mentions of Perez Hilton), or simply was alive to understand the connections (Paris Hilton, early 2000s "it" girls, diet culture, Tumblr, fashion trends, and more). Since I existed while all this was occurring, I felt connected to the story in a way I think I wouldn't if this happened in, let's say, the early 1990s. For that, I give it 3 stars.
However, as we got deeper and deeper into the narrative, I acknowledged how weird and inappropriate this book felt. There's a review on Goodreads by Paige Hettinger that explains it better than me. I will copy and paste what it says below:
However, as we got deeper and deeper into the narrative, I acknowledged how weird and inappropriate this book felt. There's a review on Goodreads by Paige Hettinger that explains it better than me. I will copy and paste what it says below:
"The ultimate problem is that Leach doesn’t know shit about these women. She hardly knows shit about Elissa. She is spinning myths in this book. Your childhood best friend will be unrecognizable to you by college if you have not stayed in touch, and even then still unrecognizable from their former self. Piecing Elissa’s life back together by picking apart the lives of two other women does every single girl involved a disservice.
My major, massive problem hit from the beginning: creating literal dialogue for these women’s conversations that she cannot even begin to guess at. It is nothing but fiction. What makes it unbelievably stranger is what she chose to put into dialogue: their sex lives? She had them all talking about boys, boobs, asses, grinding, music, and using what can literally only be called AAVE for it. I know the early 2000s were rife with white women appropriating that vernacular (and white women still do it en masse) but lord, if you’re going to, just acknowledge it."
Like at this point the book might as well be a fiction novel to the likes of "The Virgin Suicides". The author doesn't know any of the girls she's writing about, not really. She hadn't seen the main "character" Elissa for YEARS. Everything she's writing about is written as if she was right next to her, holding her hand while these drugs were taken, and kisses were placed, and shots were drunk, but she wasn't. It's all fictional bullshit. I can't take it seriously.