gr3ywaren's reviews
30 reviews

Funny Story by Emily Henry

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

MIDDDDDD I got ARC access through Edelweiss and was excited. I have enjoyed Henry's work in the past, mostly because I am a bookseller and I like the element that they all have with the book industry being somehow important. However. I think I've had enough. Maybe romance just isn't my genre, but I can't make myself care about her characters anymore. They're kind of all the same to me.

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

"would you still love me if i was a worm" the book. 
Our Wives Under the Sea did it better sorry

There Is A Light by Ban Gilmartin

Bit too ao3 for me but gay indian guy who was a bit mentally ill so i WAS seated! #Twins. Indian rep bit sus at times but again. Whatever as long as hes brown i guess 😭

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

medium-paced

Genuinely life changing and gorgeous and i love michelle zauner i am listening to machinist right now and Thinking........

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

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

2.5

Wanted to love this soooo bad bc i need to read every book about queer south asians  but the writing was just. Not good. and the plot was. Strange. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

If you scroll through my profile on Storygraph or Letterboxd or any of the other apps I have solely to Log and Review things, you may notice a severe lack of 5 star ratings. It's not that I dislike most of the movies and books I consume; I actually love most of them. But my nature is to overanalyze, and I find it difficult to rate things based on how they made me feel overall, instead honing in on minor flaws and docking points. I think it makes me uncomfortable to assign perfection to anything, because there's always something to find issue with.
This book has its flaws. Not all of the essays are created equal, and a few felt very redundant. But he wrote much of this during a time of uncertainty and change for so many people, and I'm still feeling uncertain now, and there were some essays that felt like they were directed at me (Academic Decathlon, Sunsets, Harvey, Auld Lang Syne, Googling Strangers, The World's Largest Ball of Paint, Sycamore Trees, and "New Partner" were among my top ten). Green talks about the world with such honesty and hope without it feeling like false positivity. I learned so much about Piggly Wiggly and Monopoly that I'd never know otherwise (Green clearly put research into this), and more importantly, I am definitely feeling our capacity for wonder.
The last 3 paragraphs of "Sunsets" were possibly my favorite in the book. The final one says this: "And so I try to turn toward that scattered light, belly out, and I tell myself: This doesn't look like a picture. And it doesn't look like a god. It is a sunset, and it is beautiful, and this whole thing you've been doing where nothing gets five stars because nothing is perfect? That's bullshit. So much is perfect. Starting with this. I give sunsets five stars."
I'm going to try and see the perfection around me from now on. I'm going to watch Harvey and Google strangers I'm curious about because I hope they're doing well and listen to music that carries me to places I need to visit without asking me to stay in them. 
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.

My Not-So-Great French Escape by Cliff Burke

4.75

i read this months ago but i love cliff burke author and this book

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

fun book. kuang's other works were more up my alley but this was enjoyable. worst main character i've ever read. thats the point but all my annotations Sound like a june hayward top 10 racist moments compilation. also i personally am a very chronically online twitter user and also a bookseller that's interested in the publishing industry, so i had fun with that aspect. i think the main things i had issues with were just the style, i don't enjoy reading first person. also i needed june GONE

My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i'm in my last year of high school applying to small colleges across the country for english. daisy alpert florin's prose was beautiful and she gets it !! story took a little bit to get into though

One of Us Is Back by Karen M. McManus

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

only read this bc  i got the arc. uhmmm crazy mediocre. idc about any of these characters. i hate first person present tense and the characters do nottt read as college aged They sound 14-15 max personality wise. Unnecessary book. not everything needs a sequel