This book is the definition of "you're good, but I'm waiting for you to be great" (but more like, you're great, but I'm waiting for you to be exceptional). I truly love the combination of themes in this book: the dark fairy tale-esque atmosphere, the imagery of thrashing seas and old creaky houses, fantasy used as an allegory for real-world issues, the representation of trauma and mental illness, the parallels between mythical creatures and human beings, and the cruel nature that often links them, the feminist themes about women's rights to knowledge, to claim authorship, to have agency, and the critic of academia and how it often creates this awful space where women and other marginalized groups are explored by men in positions of power, not only on a physical level (their bodies, their beings) but also intectually (their work). I'm sure I'm forgetting some other thing that I really enjoyed about this book, but mostly those were the things that captivated me, alongside the beautiful prose.
However, I think this book could've been an adult novel. I know this is Ava's debut in the young adult genre, and she often writes very dark and intense adult fantasies that explore similar themes to this one but in a more brutal and raw way. I think this book is actually pretty dark for a young adult. At times, it was very hard to read because of how real the things Effy was experiencing are; in fact, as a woman in the arts and in academia, I was literally living a much lighter version of what she experienced as I was reading it.
Being in her head, a girl so traumatized, anxious, and constantly doubting herself and making herself smaller because of all the lies she's been told about herself, was a very intense experience, and it truly felt like I was drowning alongside her. The prose, the themes, and the plot were all there to make this an adult novel.
If only the romance was a bit less present, because though I loved the lightness and hopefulness it brought to the book, it also was what slowed down the plot and took me out of the story sometimes, especially towards the end when I really just wanted closure and more information on the main plot, but the whole time it was focusing on the romance and not the main themes of the book.
In the end, I think it was an almost perfect book; those things I pointed out were not bad by any means. This is still better than more than 60% of the books I read since last year. I just wanted to point out some aspects that contributed to my rating not being 5 stars. One last thing I have to say is that I loved the plot twist even though I predicted it. That didn't stop me from respecting and liking it since it brings to light such an important message.

Content Warnings

The No-Show by Beth O'Leary

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emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I read this book in two days in a daze. I had no internet and no phone, and I wanted to read something fast-paced and engaging. I chose the perfect book. The story is strange, intriguing, and mysterious. Even though it's marketed as romance, I think it falls more under the category of general fiction or women's fiction since the story is more about these women's lives and how Joseph, the guy who's dating them, fits in there. I think the women are definitely very different from each other and have interesting personal and internal lives, and I think that everyone can sympathize with at least one of them. I personally really liked Jane and Siobhan and didn't really get Miranda or her storyline; it felt like she belonged in another book altogether, which maybe was intentional but was very hard to follow (especially one particular character in it that always behaved very questionably).

I do have to say I clocked it right away that they were on different timelines and even who was first. I just didn't expect that to happen to Siobhan, but I guess it's because she was the strongest character and had more chemistry with Joseph, so the author chose her to have that ending. Jane definitely suffered a lot and had second-love vibes, and Miranda was Miranda. I hated her love interest; he was a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. I also realized that Richard was the guy who was abusive to Jane from the beginning.

I think one difficult thing about the story is that it is really hard to trust or root for Joseph as a character because there's always this aloofness (which is constantly mentioned by all the characters and gets a bit repetitive) around him, which is intentional and explained at the end but makes him a hard character to empathize with. I think the author did a good job within her limits, and I still managed to care about him, though I don't think that might be true for everyone who reads the book.
Something that I realized as well is that I don't think Beth's writing is for me. Though I loved the themes, the characters, and the plot, I don't particularly love the way she writes prose and dialogue. There were some very out-of-pocket things, either said by a character or in their inner monologues, that I found weird or maybe outdated, and I just can't put my finger on why (nothing super problematic, but that struck me as weird, and I can only attribute it to a lack of compatibility between me and the writing).

Like when Joseph said he felt emasculated because he cried in front of Miranda, AJ's character as a whole being seen as endearing when he was straight up inappropriate, Richard in the beginning, and how he was perceived by Fiona and Siobhan when he was clearly awful even then.

Overall, I think the story was pretty great. It had loveable and interesting characters (for the most part), a good message about starting over and how community can help someone through hard times, was emotional and mature, and it had a feel-good ending; and though I can't give it 5 stars because of the things mentioned previously, I really liked it and empathized with a lot of the characters and it kept me hooked from start to finish.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced