This thing moves at breakneck speed but still has enough heart to maintain itself as a narrative. Binti is an interesting girl destined for an academia that isn't ready for change but is out of time to hold onto its old ways.

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

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adventurous lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this but also found myself a bit confused. Oona is immediately thrust into her future and the following novel chronicles 7 years of heartbreak and turmoil and a frustratingly difficult to escape future. She’s pushed into all of the hardest years of her life immediately after her 18th birthday and we somehow end the novel on the year you find yourself wanted to see through the most. I got lost a couple of times thinking about unlikely it feels for the Oona of whatever age to remember the events of the coming year that she already lived through enough to write letters to herself as warnings. It popped into my head frequently and made me question how her REAL first leap went. Or was there never a time where these events didn’t already happen? I think I simultaneously wanted more and less. I wanted less of the spiral but more of the effort to change. Fewer back half chapters that just summarize good and bad years as a string of travels and more jumps to the relationship developing years that show both an effort to connect with her own future and understand her unlived past. Her life appears to be cyclical so I don’t understand how she genuinely seems confined to the whims of destiny or fate.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon

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informative fast-paced

2.5

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon

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informative fast-paced

2.5