unexplainabl's Reviews (220)

You'll Be the Death of Me

4.0

tense fast-paced

Enjoyed this one. But I can't say I'm surprised, I read 'One of Us is Lying' first and enjoyed it as well. I'm definitely going to be picking up more from her and reading them as well.

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal

Jeff Kinney

3.0

lighthearted fast-paced

So, I liked this. I thought it was a pretty decent, quick read. However, I much prefer Diary of a Wimpy Kid to this. I think I'd've also preferred Rowley's perspective from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books as opposed to this.

Game Changer

Neal Shusterman

5.0

adventurous medium-paced

I really enjoyed this book! I hadn't known it was released until about the end of February. It was nice being able to get into a book again because I'd been in a reading slump since about the beginning of the pandemic. I'm so happy that the book that really got me out of it was Neal Shusterman!

I liked the concept of this book, the whole parallel universe theory is really interesting and I think it was well done. I don't really know what else to say about it other than I really liked it and am so glad that I was able to get it and read it.

The Goldblum Variations: Adventures of Jeff Goldblum Across the Known (and Unknown) Universe

Helen McClory

1.0

slow-paced

I don't even really know what to say, I love Jeff Goldblum, he's one of my favourite people honestly. There's just something about him that I've always been drawn to. So, when I saw this book I had to have it. But it's nothing like I was expecting. I was expecting more something that went on about the roles he's played in movies and the different 'characters' we've seen him as. I never thought it would be anything like this book. There were some parts that were actually pretty funny, but overall I was just extremely disappointed in it.

ABC of Gender Identity

Devika Dalal

1.0

fast-paced

Honestly I expected more from this book. It's basically just a glossary with not very good definitions. While I didn't know some of these identities, the book just didn't do a good job of explaining what the identities actually meant. I feel like it would just confuse kids more than actually help them understand. It would be better almost to just talk to your kids and research with them rather than reading this book to them.
The art style in the book was simple but I didn't really like it. I think they could've done a bit more with it honestly. As for the definitions, I understand it's meant for children but give better explanations than a one sentence description. And to me using the alphabet like this just didn't work in the author's favour, it did seem like some of the identities were there just to fill a letter that didn't have a more well-known identity to fit. I feel that if it wasn't in the format of the alphabet you could have included these same identities as well as others and given better descriptions and examples even of each identity and made it easier for children to understand.
What I've noticed with some kids is that a definition only doesn't help them to understand something, but if you were to explain in depth a little more or even have a character for each identity, and have them explain what it meant to them, it would get the kids more interested and help them to understand it better.

All in all, thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.