sarah2438's reviews
1043 reviews

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

4.0

So glad I read this with the audiobook because that really helped me with the AAVE. Sad but heartwarming in the end.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

3.0

It feels a bit criminal to not love this, and yet, I did not. This is my first time reading something by Toni Morrison and I wasn't expecting her writing to be so dense. Very poetic at times, but I struggled both with the writing and the narrative of the story-- it was always fluctuating, not linear at all. I'm embarrassed to admit it but Morrison's works may take more careful analysis than I was able to do this time around. Maybe I'll reread this at a later date.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Pedophilia

Artemis by Andy Weir

2.0

So thoroughly unimpressed with Andy Weir. I was bored out of my mind with Project Hail Mary and Artemis was the same way. Generic tough-girl FMC that doesn't actually walk the walk, lots of science I didn't even pretend to understand, and stakes I don't really care about. Technically I still have The Martian on my shelves, but do I even bother? At least this one checked another Book Nerd box.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

4.0

It's crazy to think this book came out 20 years ago. Walls's storytelling almost made this feel like fiction, and I kept having to remind myself that it wasn't. It reminds me a lot of Educated by Tara Westover.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.

I'm a good chunk in and not invested. Also it makes me sad given where our country is-- this might not be too far off. DNF without prejudice.

All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki

3.5

I liked the family dynamics and Yummy's complicated relationship with Elliot

(reminded me a lot of My Dark Vanessa)

but I'll be totally honest, I did not care about the plots revolving around GMOs and farming. I knew that was something I wouldn't get excited about so this wasn't necessarily a surprise, and obviously it wasn't a deal breaker because I still overall liked the book, but more an observation for myself. I read this for the library's Ultimate Book Nerd challenge and it was a great choice for the prompt (read a book set in the region you're born in) and I would say I'm pleased that I read it, and it's not something I would normally have picked up-- in that regard, this was a big win!

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.

The MC is obnoxious (not in the fun way) and I don't have any interest in the magic. The world building feels half assed, a lot of "everything is chaotic and evil the end" vibes.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

3.0

Liked it, didn't love it. It has a bit of humor and gothic vibes but never very spooky and the humor got a little cringe at times. But it's a quick, fun read. 

There There by Tommy Orange

3.0

I liked it but didn't love it. There are so many characters that are interconnected and it gets difficult to keep track of everyone. To make it more disorienting, the point of view also changes sometimes. And the big event we spend the entire book building up to is so brief, with no resolution at all. It just felt unfinished at the end. With all of that said, I did overall enjoy the writing and it was interesting to get a small sample of so many different lives. I just wish they had between more fleshed out. 

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

4.0

I think I need some time to digest this and then come back. I read this VERY quickly because I was so caught up in it. The writing is so well done! I'm glad I decided early on to annotate because I was constantly underlining sentences. Opening to a random page for example, I underlined "He wants to extinguish us-- we are the ones who remind him that he's not that smart, not that good-looking, that there's nothing particularly special about him." Another: "For weeks, I'd been a wave cresting, searching for a shore on which to break. I immediately dissolved into my mother's arms." These are just a couple of random quotes but they get to the heart of this novel. It's so much bigger than a murder mystery.
And, I have to say that at times that was to it's disadvantage. I think what holds me back here is that the book tried to tackle too much. It was destined to be more than a murder mystery, I wholeheartedly agree with that. But there were so many topics the author wanted to cover all at the same time, that I think it did a disservice to them. These topics include: familial homophobia, victim compensation in legal cases, unethical prosecutorial/investigative practices, buried trauma, internalized homophobia, and more. These are explored through several different perspectives that also take place at different times, to the point that I started to get confused which character was narrating-- "is this Ruth in 1974 reflecting on her relationship with her mother, or is it Pamela in 2021? Was it Pamela's dad that died or was it Tina's or Ruth's?" It's ambitious to try to pull off such well rounded characters over several decades with alternating chapters, and I think it just didn't quite work as well as I wanted it to. Still, I think this was a phenomenal read and I'm looking forward to a re-read after some distance. Highly recommend.