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divineauthor's Reviews (402)
“Come,” she said to her friend Death. “It’s time to join the party.”
leigh bardugo isn’t a stranger to switching genres, and her experience with THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS lends herself well with a melodic foray into children’s’ literature with THE INVISIBLE PARADE. both melancholic and heartwarming, bardugo’s words and picacio’s illustrations make for a classic tale of growing up after grief!
“It’s not that I can’t feel love. It’s just the expression that’s different. My version of love is a type of obsession. It’s consuming. It’s control. It’s fixation to the extreme.”
—Adrian Ellis, Chapter 25
okay, let me preface this by saying i wasn’t expecting anything life-stoppingly good, but i was expecting to have fun. and i did! for the short period of time this book spans, i did! it’s just . . . this book is lacking so much substance. i was two thirds of the way through, and i texted my friend and said, “this feels like i’m only 40% done.” guys, i didn’t even mind the time jump—i was straight up ready to just take it for what it is, but what was there wasn’t ENOUGH!!! adrian and poppy are still themselves, and i do believe that, but ugh. also, for a dark romance, i was expecting a little more dark romance, but perhaps that’s my cross to bear. anyway.
“I need you to know that no matter what happens, it was worth it to me. Being with you, loving you. It was all worth it.”
—Conrad Fisher, page 276
the euphoric highs and inescapable lows of reading this was so mind-boggling. high: conrad povs (imagine me pounding my fist into a wall). low: jeremiah acting like a manchild (now imagine me with a deep frown on my face). another high: peaches/domestic bellyconrad/wound care. another low: belly telling everyone and herself over and over again that she’s choosing jeremiah.
okay, so i love belly. i love conrad. [pointed silence] the last fourth of the book made me insane in both good and bad ways. especially the night before the wedding . . . i was so fucking aggravated like you cannot even believe. anyway, this is short because i shan’t think about that too long. have fun and know that i only had enough will in me to write this after watching jenny han-directed conrad pov episode (you changed me forever s3ep05). happy birthday to me fr
“I wanted to memorize it all in case I didn’t get to come back again. You never know the last time you’ll see a place. A person.”
—page 124
i have nothing intelligible to say about this one ngl other than jenny han i understand your want and need to make changes for the show. you’re a real one for that. oh! that reminds me, han does such a good job at writing such tiny moments as microcosms of conrad-belly-jeremiah’s relationship. so many moments where all three of them were on the page, and she really captured the base energy of their dynamic so well. anyway . . . u shall see me soon for the last book ig
It’s hard for throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.
—pages 186-187
never thought i would be back here reading jenny han books like i’m a teenager again, but here i am. i, of course, watched the first season of TSITP and simply had to understand the source material! and the changes from book to show were ultimately made for the better of the story: the lack of other girls, the flatness of the mothers’ characters, the off-color jokes, the absence of the fathers and steven. i do think the differences make for such a unique way of looking at the book through han’s eyes because of her role as executive producer, though. like conrad lost his teeth and jeremiah lost his deep friendship with belly. it’s interesting to say the least. anyway, is this book good? well . . . i will simply just say it’s entertaining!
also i listened to the audiobook while reading <3 lola tung, u do such a great annoyed little sister fr ur doing amazing sweetie
“To my friends and colleagues, I’m just a farm boy in the big city trying to make his mark. To the rest of Metropolis, l’ve become a protector. A symbol of hope. Me? I just hope I don’t screw up.”
—Clark Kent / Superman, #1
yet another superman story that brought tears to my eyes (not hard to do concerning him, i admit it). cooke brought in a different vibe to kryptonite that i DO enjoy: a looming, heavy presence that brings both joy and pain. paired with sale’s art—and dear god, sale always draws clark in such a friend-shaped way it makes my heart ACHE—this standalone is such a good slice of clark’s life and him always reaching out to humanity. ugh. i love him so bad.
HELMER. […] there’s no one who gives up honor for love.
NORA. Millions of women have done just that.
HELMER. Oh, you think and talk like a silly child.
NORA. Perhaps. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could join myself to.
so it’s been at least five years since i’ve read an ibsen play, and i’m so surprised i never picked up this one. i’m reading this in preparation to watch a play that follows the end of these events, and oh my god guys. ibsen was smoking some proto-feminist work fr like nora is so sheltered and so controlled by every man in her life . . . she’s so so so strong and i’m so so so enraptured by her choice to leave.
“[…] joy and grief are human birthrights, but mostly, being alive is everything in between.”
—page 152, Lewis Woodard
some people hear ‘magical realism, experimental, nonlinear narrative’ and run for the hills, but i love a book that does something funky. i’m a freak like that.
SHARK HEART is quick-footed and warm-hearted. there’s a deeply human quality to it—never mind that people are turning into animals—that leaks through every bit of it: the play scenes, the back-and-forth of the POVs, the enduring love between all these characters. it’s a love story, really. a bittersweet one. habeck’s prose is lyrical and curious about the world. my few qualms are how part two was handled; i came to appreciate the history of angela’s story that grounded wren and her experiences, but there was a long stretch of time where i simply was coasting along the narrative, not really diving in it. then by part three, i struggled to connect back to the love-grief of part one, but this could also be an issue if it being a debut. all in all though, i enjoyed it fr. i’m interested to see habeck’s upcoming work to see if her writing decisions affect her prose though. okay, that’s it. love n light y’all.
“What do you think he should have done?”
“For the one you love? Anything. You unmake the world and build a new one. You do anything to give them what they need.”
—page 216, Alice Scott and Margaret Ives
with a heavy heart, i have to say GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE is probably henry’s worst adult novel. and that’s not to say that it’s bad, though. to a weaker writer, this would’ve been their magnum opus, a shining jewel. but in trying to delve into a new realm of part mystery, part historical drama, part contemporary romance, henry juggles all of these and drops them all. she’s usually so adept at contemporary romance that to embed that in a narrative that is half someone else’s is a bit of a misfire for the whole thing. alice and hayden are sweet and lovely, and the premise of the novel is honestly so delicious i was frothing at the mouth for it. but when i was reading, i was more interested in margaret ives and the fall of the house of ives, peggy and cosmo, peggy and laura, the complicated, fraught-with-love relationship of freddy and bernie. was this part of the book a little slow at first? yes. the pacing of the entire novel is lacking a little. too slow for the iveses, too fast for the alice-hayden romance. the mystery unraveling at the last few pages stumbles over itself. and i shan’t even get started on the epilogue.
i do love seeing alice’s mom on the page and how much it grounded her. i think henry does hayden a disservice by not putting more of his thoughts onto the page—he rings a little hollow compared to her other mmcs, but he’s so endearing to me anyway that it makes me sad we don’t really get to see him in a more meaningful way, especially with . . . mmhmm. i won’t get into that.
anyway, this is still an enjoyable book, and i vibed for sure, but this isn’t even close to breaking the top 3 ranking for me. anyway, love n light, guys.
“You take everything I give you, sweetheart. You take it all, and you never break. You never even waver. You withstand me in a way that nobody else ever could. That’s how I know you’re mine. We are made for each other.”
—Adrian Ellis
i’m not even gonna pretend i read this with my brain on. poppy’s voice is so 18-year-old funny and adrian is such a freak, and they do deserve each other yayyyyyy! i WILL be reading the next installment. this shit was so fun. i giggled and kicked my feet and everything. love n light, guys hehehehehe