Thank you to Penguin/Crash Course Books for a finished copy.
I read The Anthropocene Reviewed last year and loved it and was excited when I learned of Thank you to Penguin/Crash Course Books for a finished copy.
I read The Anthropocene Reviewed last year and loved it and was excited when I learned of this novel. Before I read this, I learned of an outbreak of TB in Kansas and then YouTube recommended John's youtube video about TB. I would confidently say that I am one of the majority who assumed TB was mostly a thing of the past, but I am sad to say that I was wrong.
When I rate nonfiction, I am rating based on new things I learned and the delivery of the story. I listened to the audio in addition to reading along with the physical & annotating. Hybrid reading is my favorite way to read non-fiction. John Green has made YouTube videos for years, so I think that lends him to being a good narrator. I enjoyed his narration of this story, but also his writing.
The story gives you the history of tuberculosis and the current state of it but intertwined with stories of real people who are living with TB or have passed from TB. I think this approach really helped cement how many people are still affected by this disease worldwide. I also appreciated that in addition to the factual information about how it's spread, how to treat it, the statistics, he also commented on the societal ways that TB affects people. He talked about how people are often shunned when they develop TB. He speaks about the ways people who may be receiving treatment aren't getting better because they also don't have means of transportation to get to the clinic to take their meds regularly or enough food to eat.
I got through this relatively quickly and while there was a lot that enraged me, the stories of people like Henry, really lifted my spirits. I hope Henry and Isatu get to thrive and flourish. And I hope that one day TB is truly a thing of the past...but in these items, who knows.
"And so we have entered a strange era of human history: A preventable, curable infection disease remains our deadliest. That's the world we are currently choosing. But we can choose a different world. In fact, we will choose a different world. The world will be different a generation from now. The question is whether we will look back in gratitude at the virtuous cycles, or in horror at the viscous ones."...more
I wanted to love this but like another reviewer mentioned, something is missing.
The writing is great and I think the characters were well written forI wanted to love this but like another reviewer mentioned, something is missing.
The writing is great and I think the characters were well written for the most part but I wasn’t rooting for the endgame couple to be together.
I liked the angst between Jo and Ezra. But with Mal it felt dull. He’s a good guy and has little baggage and trauma (which is nice. He’s up front with his feelings. He’s a successful author. Has a great relationship with his parents. He was just so nice. Maybe I’m in the mood for something more angsty.
I would read from the author again because I liked her writing but I needed to feel more between the characters to be invested in their love story. ...more
*Edit 3/7/25 to add: Thank you to Berkley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
I would like to start off by saying the general pubBig sigh.
*Edit 3/7/25 to add: Thank you to Berkley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
I would like to start off by saying the general public (romantasy lovers) is going to eat this up. I have read the romantasy books and if they like what's been coming out, they'll enjoy this. Also, I do read Dramione fanfic and have read this author's fan fiction. I won't be commenting on it here because we don't review fan fiction and this is NOT a re-write. This author does have a very popular Dramione fan fic but THIS STORY IS NOT HER FAN FIC RE WORKED. Let's make it clear!!!
Aurienne is a Healer. Osric is an Assassin. He has an illness threatening his magic and she's the only one who may be able to save him. This is how their paths cross. She must figure out how to save his magic, while they both hide their interactions from their respective Orders, and resist the urge to fall for each other.
Now, I have seen reviewers that gave this 2-3 stars and say that it would be for Dramione girlies. I am a Dramione girlie and this was not for me and there's many reasons. Let me list them for you.
The world building, just kidding, there isn't any! We know this takes place in London, there's some kingdoms and possibly a war brewing with??? Is it France? Unsure. That. Is. All. I don't know the time period, I'm guessing a 1800s ish? because of some words used (jiggery-pokery, pettifogging < The magic system-- it exists?? But it's never explained. It's just there and I have no idea how it works. We know there are Orders and that our main characters, Aurienne and Osric are members of two of eight Orders. But the most you learn about the Orders is in the glossary in the back and that is unacceptable. It should be better explained throughout the story.
Speaking of the characters: dull, flat, and lacking. Aurienne is a Healer, she has morals. Osric is an assassin, he's dark and broody. I guess you can see the Dramione inspo but just barely because these characters exist in many romantasy. There isn't much "Dramione-coded" about it except they're "enemies to lovers." I can't tell you much about either character because the author doesn't tell us much about them. They're enemies because they're in opposing Orders. She's good, he's bad. She's healing, he's killing. She came from a loving family, he didn't. That's about it.
And since the characters fall flat, so does any semblance of romance. This is a slow burn, so there's nothing that happens until like 90%. You did get some internal conflicting thoughts about the other (this is dual POV) around maybe 50-60% but the burn is glacial and the burn isn't burning, it's lukewarm at best. They have no chemistry because they're not fleshed out characters. There were distinct moments I should have felt something but didn't because the characters are cardboard cutouts.
Other things that didn't work for me: the humor. It's so many dick and ball jokes and other stupid humor that did not make me chuckle. There are critters called "critique crickets" that critique people who cross their path. Some examples: "Face like a bollock.", "suck a fart out of my arse", and "perhaps you should deal with your daddy issues first." I never cracked a smile.
ALSO, this is basically a romantic comedy with fantasy. A romcomasy? Whatever, it's a very unserious book. His killing is there and we get some descriptions of the kills, so maybe a little gore. But none of it is that serious. Everything is a goddamn joke.
The banter was decent but then I got tired because that's all there is. Like we get it, they're quippy, give me something else. The random big words thrown in. I love learning new words but they need to make sense for the story and these seemed like every few pages, the author went to the thesaurus app and swapped out a word like "inutile" instead of useless or "opprobrium" instead of criticism.
There was also random French. There are two characters from France, but there are random French words thrown in even when those characters weren't on page. Sorry, we're in London, and I don't speak French. Thankfully on the Kindle, it helped me translate, but it was just obnoxious. Why are we saying "saucisson" just say sausage.
AND, AND! The author kept capitalizing random things. I know this happens in fantasy because they make up their world and certain words but sometimes, it made no sense. For instance: "Aurienne said that this was Most Inopportune." or "...part of her brain that wished her to take note that he was, once again, Being Handsome." or "Osric pondered Why That Could Be." Annoying.
*Edit 3/7/25 to add I did like the deofols which were like a Patronus familiar. They don’t choose them, they manifest in childhood (kind of reminded me deamons from His Dark Materials but not exactly). Honestly felt they had more personality than the person they belonged to lol.
I could go on and on about the text and writing of this story because there was so much that bothered me. It's not the worst thing ever written but it is a disappointment. This is a duology and I don't know why. This would be better paced as a standalone. The whole curing him thing was getting boring after a couple times of them meeting, but at 70-80% we find another plot. Had that been introduced earlier, this could've been a better story. Again, the burn is sloooooowwww and lukewarm.
Also, this story ends so weirdly. It didn't feel like a concluding chapter of a book. It felt like we got cut off mid-paragraph. I went to the next page looking for more story and it was over. The heck?
Overall, not a fan and I won't continue with the next one. I can forgive a lot in a story if I'm invested in the characters but I didn't get that here. Sometimes the characters don't even have to be the best but if the plot and world is good, I can vibe. But the vibes were off here! Again, the romantasy girlies will probably eat this up because this is another "good girl" falls for a "bad boy" story. But it's really all jokes and banter, and then hope we cure his illness. I can't take this serious as a published novel. But that's just me and my OPINION....more
DNF @ 23%. I was already feeling this was repetitive and then I read through reviews and see that’s a common complaint. Also was waiting for studies oDNF @ 23%. I was already feeling this was repetitive and then I read through reviews and see that’s a common complaint. Also was waiting for studies or books to be referenced and according to reviews, that also doesn’t happen.
Great premise and I like her overall thesis and thing she has going with the Nap Ministry. But this felt like it could’ve been an essay at most.
I also kept feeling icky when she kept referring to things as “divine� and referencing her Pentecostal upbringing. Just not what I want in my nonfiction. I think I’m good to drop this one. ...more
I am unsure how to write this review because this was such a unique reading experience. I would give this book a 3.75/5 but rounded up because it was I am unsure how to write this review because this was such a unique reading experience. I would give this book a 3.75/5 but rounded up because it was just unhinged and was such a quick read.
This story follows Winifred Notty, a legitimately unhinged, mentally unwell, psychotic governess and the children and family she is responsible for. As I said before, this story moves fast. You quickly learn that something isn't right with Winifred. We get her inner thoughts about the family and the violence that is constantly on her mind. We also get flashbacks to previous times in her life and things that happened. She lost her mother, but even when her mother was alive, she accused Winifred of having an inner darkness. This darkness continues to grow as she goes through life and we see it on display in this novel.
This story is very graphic. The prose does an excellent job of helping you feel as if you're in the room watching the madness occur. You have to pay attention though, because sometimes you think something has happened but then find it out that maybe it did, but in the past, or maybe it was just a thought, a hallucination? There is much violence on the page and again, Winifred has a darkness within her, and that is clear in the story.
I don't know who to recommend this to. It is very much a horror novel. There is a loose plot, although it takes a while to figure out what that is, but that's also a positive, once you know what's going on. The story is wild, murderous, gory, and fast-paced. Very unique, but again, I still have such mixed feelings. But I enjoyed (?) my reading for the most part, so for now I'll stick with my rating.
Content Warnings: much (graphic) murder, including babies and children. ...more
“To those convinced that a secretive cabal controls the world; the usual suspects are Illuminati, lizard people, or globalist. They are wrong, natural“To those convinced that a secretive cabal controls the world; the usual suspects are Illuminati, lizard people, or globalist. They are wrong, naturally. There is no secret society shaping every major decision and determining the direction of human history. There is, however, McKinsey & Company.�
I would rate this 3.5/5 but obviously rounded up. I feel really torn because I rate non-fiction primarily on if it teaches me something new and then on its delivery.
I thought the writing was good and so was the narration, and I did learn a lot from this book. I had heard of McKinsey before but didn't know much about them. This book is a long-form piece of investigative journalism as they dive deep into the company that is McKinsey and all of the various governments and corporations they have advised over many decades.
If you've heard of it, McKinsey has probably been involved in it. American government? Yep. Major League Baseball? Of course. National Basketball Association? Definitely. National Health Service? For sure. Juul Vapes? Yuppp. I could go on and on and this book did. It was separated into industries that McKinsey was involved with/consulted. I would have preferred a chronological story of how McKinsey came to be and all the entities they were involved in, but that's just me.
It is fascinating and infuriating to read about how much influence they have. How many companies call them in for help for various reasons and in numerous fields. Here's the thing, they're consultants yes but they're not experts on everything. How helpful can you actually be to doctors and how their budget should be spent or to basketball players and how their health data affects the way they play? They can't know all and they don't! They know how to go in and make companies more money which in the end usually hurts the majority of employees at said company and makes the CEOs more money.
McKinsey appears to be a company with no morals or values except MAKE MORE MONEY. They will work with any and everybody. However, my biggest gripe with this book is that they don't put equal blame on the government or companies that choose to hire McKinsey. Maybe in the beginning of their business, it was less known how they operate. But they've been around for decades and they keep getting hired. And they're not making chump change, these corporations are paying them millions of dollars for their services, while simultaneously laying off their own employees. So I was both disgusted at every company that hired McKinsey and McKinsey themselves. But the authors don't really seem to place fault on the businesses, as if McKinsey was forced upon them.
In the end, this was informative. And it just cements the fact that capitalism is the devil. CEOs suck and only care about more making more money and paying the people who do the work even less. I hate everything. ...more
I think it's important to note this book is not anti-porn, it is anti-child abuse, rape, and sex trafficking.
I am so confused by some of the reviews tI think it's important to note this book is not anti-porn, it is anti-child abuse, rape, and sex trafficking.
I am so confused by some of the reviews that are upset at the author for making a clear distinction between porn between consenting adults and child abuse, rape, and sex trafficking. Hello, those are distinctly different. And very important to repeat the different and make note that she was not trying to come after the porn industry because that's a slippery slope. But some of these reviews, people are like porn leads to sex trafficking, it's evil, it leads to abuse?? Maybe I haven't read the studies (do they exist?) but I think that's a REACH.
ANYWAY, to the book. I listened to the audio and I was engrossed, got through it in 2 days. I have seen an article at some point talking about this, but didn't read much into it. I did not realize the extent of abusive sexual content was on PornHub. I didn't realize how popular the site/company was/is or how many subsidiaries they have. The CEOs make stupid amounts of money and of course one of them barely pays their own staff, EAT THE RICH. They make all this money but don't have enough moderators to review content because they want MORE MONEY. AGAIN, EAT THE RICH.
There's nothing wrong with consenting adults, professionals or not, who want to make sexual content and post it. THE PROBLEM IS THE AMOUNT OF SICKOS WHO ABUSE PEOPLE AND RECORD IT AND PUT IT ONLINE. The amount of young women who had videos of them put on PornHub, would try to get it taken down and couldn't?! Or they had to go through numerous steps to prove it was them, prove they were underage when it happened, but no one had to confirm any information when it was uploaded? Also, that there was a DOWNLOAD button??!?!?!?!? So nasties could have this content on their computers or phones, my god. DISGUSTED isn't the word.
And then the CREDIT CARD COMPANIES!!!!!! DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THEIR RAGGEDY ASSES. I am so proud of (I don't know her) this author for not giving up and hounding these trifling ass companies until they did the right thing (and parted ways with PH). I thought it was really compelling listening to all she went through while fighting this. Feeling like she wasn't spending enough time with her kids or her husband, the threats, the attacks.
It really goes to show you that CAPITALISM runs everything and truly is the root of all evil. They want to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible and the feelings, emotions, mental health, safety of people do not matter. I think this is a worthy read. I also appreciate the message to fight for something you really believe in and the call to action at the end if you want to join the fight because sadly it's not over. But kudos to Mickelwait and all the people who worked with her because they've done amazing work, gotten MILLIONS of abusive/underage videos taken down, and it wasn't easy.
So again, PORNOGRAPHY is NOT THE SAME AS CHILD ABUSE/RAPE/SEX TRAFFICKING CONTENT. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE AND IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT.
ALSO A BIG EFF YOU TO ALL THE HIGHER UPS AND THESE CORPORATIONS THAT WERE/ARE COMPLICIT IN THE PROLIFERATION OF THIS CONTENT BECAUSE ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS ANOTHER DOLLAR. SUCK IT....more
I was one of the many people that was following the case against Jodi Hildebrant and Ruby Franke. I never watched Eight Passen*I do not rate memoirs.*
I was one of the many people that was following the case against Jodi Hildebrant and Ruby Franke. I never watched Eight Passengers, and I don't watch family vlogging content in general (and yes, I'm very proud to say that.) I do, however, keep up with happenings in the Mormon space and that's how I was alerted of this case.
I think that Shari and her co-writer did an excellent job, this story was well written. I did listen via audio which Shari narrated. I did learn things about Shari, the abuse she experienced, and her family from this memoir. There is a lot that the public will know if you were following the case. I still think it's a worthwhile read because it's Shari's accounting, and she was an actual victim of the abuse from her mother and Jodi.
Shari is still very young, maybe 22? So I don't think you should expect this memoir to read as if it was written by someone who is late 20s, 30s, or 40s. Shari is still very close to the abuse she and her siblings endured. I think that with time, age, and experience, she may have a different perspective on the entire situation. And even with this, I still think it's worth it to read her story.
Shari shares growing up with Ruby and how she also questioned if she was loved, and I think that's something many people can relate to. She chronicles life as a young child and how her mother got into family vlogging. She talks about embarrassing life moments being captured and put on the internet for content. I didn't know that Shari had a channel, but she followed the footsteps of her mother and created a YouTube channel where she vlogged her life and her siblings. She owns that she too benefited from her siblings by using them as content, but it's what she was shown by Ruby. I also appreciate and applaud her for not naming her younger siblings or going into detail about them in this memoir.
Some people are upset because at the end of the day, Shari is still a member of the Mormon faith. I too find this frustrating but then I step back and remember she's 22. She's so young. I was never in a high demand religion, but I was naive at 22, so I'm not surprised. She also shows a lot of grace for her father, Kevin Franke, who I don't think deserves it, but he's not my father. If that is part of her healing, then so be it.
Overall, I think for someone so young, this was a good memoir. I would be interested to hear from her again in 5-10 years, when she's had more life experience and distance from the trauma, to see what she would say. I wonder if she will stick with the Mormon faith? She is currently engaged and to me, that's super young, but very in line with a traditional Mormon. I wish her the best in her healing journey, and hope that she can enjoy her life offline, and only come back into the spotlight if she wants to. ...more
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