designsbymeghen's reviews
238 reviews

Want by Gillian Anderson

3.5

Gillian Anderson is one of the few celebrities I follow on social media, so of course, I wanted to read her book. There is such a wide variety of fantasies: over-the-top freely, kinky, porn-level fantasies to soft, desperate yearnings to be held, and everything in between. It makes me appreciate how different and unique women can be. And at the same time, so many underlying themes were to feel wanted and desired. Many submissions from women in loveless or stale marriages made me feel less alone. 

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.

I was trying to finish my reading goal for the years d asked my followers for recommendations. This was one of them. I don’t typically enjoy war novels so it was already an uphill battle for me. 🥁the writing was dry, and overly cheesy characters. I tried to power through, but it just wasn’t worth it for me. 

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

2.0

I called this one from the beginning. It was an okay read, but it felt repetitive. I didn’t like any of the characters, so I wasn’t really rooting for anyone. The twist felt a little forced since we spent so much time worrying about these other characters that the "big reveal" at the end was rushed and put together clumsily. 

The Girls by Emma Cline

2.5

This was an okay read. It didn’t grab my attention, but I liked the cover art! The casualness of men willingly and eagerly having sex with young girls makes me sick. I wish Evie’s present-day life were more redemptive/positive, but honestly, it was pretty bleak. Add on her encounter with another young girl being shaped/manipulated by yet another man, and it’s just depressing. 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.

It didn't really grab my attention like I was hoping it would. 

His & Hers by Alice Feeney

3.5

I didn’t love the voice actors, but Feeney writes some delicious twisty-turny stories that keep you on your toes. Remind me not to send my future daughters to an all-girls school 😅 I suppose it just goes to show that women can be just as horrible as men.

I don’t think I could take my ex back after he was screwing the woman who groomed me and sold me to a rapist. Wtfffffff

 

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

4.0

Leave it to Picoult to put together an immaculately researched novel. Learning that Shakespeare might not be the renowned playwright we’ve been taught was incredibly interesting. Placing the story’s focus on Emilia Bassano and her modern-day descendant highlights that while some progress has happened since Emilia’s time, we still have a long way to go in telling more diverse stories more often. Plus, reading about two strong female characters vs. a man is much more interesting to me. Shakespeare’s name is a punchline, but we’ve forgotten that the joke shows that history, as it is presented, should always be taken with a grain of salt. 

Family Family by Laurie Frankel

4.0

Frankel writes some of my favorite types of book characters. They’re smart, witty, independent, and wholly themselves. This book raises so many interesting ways of looking at what creating a family can be. It also challenges readers to rethink adaptation as a “last resort” effort to make a family. 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

3.5

If there was ever a testament to how unbased and ridiculous racial bias is, this story is it. We waste so much energy as a species worrying about what “someone is” to fit people into a neat little box in our heads. How boring. How limiting. This book is full of people trying to fit in a box because, unfortunately, their survival depends on it. It was very well written and brings up quite a few complexities of how those boxes affect each characters' life. 

The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

1.0

This book is what happens when I don’t have multiple audiobooks lined up. It was…so bad 😅  The whole story is full of dumb and shallow characters. Like, gurl. It’s about as deep as a kiddie pool. The one redeeming quality is that I didn’t quite predict the ending, so kudos to McFadden.