It was so bad at times, but so fun most of the time. I'm torn! It was an enjoyable, easy read. I appreciate that the main character has Ehlers Danlos It was so bad at times, but so fun most of the time. I'm torn! It was an enjoyable, easy read. I appreciate that the main character has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I've never read a book with a character who has EDS before. It's...actually been emotional to have a character who has one of my disabilities. I like that healing doesn't make everyone ablebodied. Violet's mother is a lunatic to send her to Dragon Death Camp, though. Tl;DR I would have died.
The end battle was excellent, very engrossing. Tern is my favorite He's appropriately grumpy about all of this. . But I don't read books that are purely romance because I find it boring. There aren't that many romances that move me. I am not unmovable, but I was not interested this time. They had that hate/love, mysterious sad scary man/girl who is super unique energy that is way too common. It happens so much that it was somewhat cringe.
I swear the sex scenes read like fanfiction, to the point I wondered if the author wrote fanfiction first. Especially because this book reminds me of a lot of other fantasy I've read. There isn't anything wrong with fanfiction; I've written plenty. But I expect a different vibe in books. Also, I thought these people were in their 20s, but both seem quite teenage with their love. There isn't anything wrong with that, but make them act their age or change their ages.
Also, school was so strange. Oh no, we don't have enough people to protect our country! How could this be? No country as low on soldiers as this one supposedly is should let dozens of perfectly functional, willing kids fall from parapets. If they don't cut it, send them to the infantry! A school can be terribly hard and weed out people without killing everyone. The stakes don't have to be this high. You could be banished from your family if you fail. Experience eternal family shame! Anything, really.
But I have to read the next one! I don't know how to feel about this....more
It was really fun, generally 4 stars. One star off, though, for the endless Sex and the City chapter. I have never seen it, and an hour and a half aboIt was really fun, generally 4 stars. One star off, though, for the endless Sex and the City chapter. I have never seen it, and an hour and a half about alternative episodes and random characters, etc. was too much. I almost always read the whole book, but when I fell asleep listening, I admit I did not go back....more
I didn't know how to rate this book. I haven't felt so disappointed in a book in a long time. But my disappointment is personal, so I don't know how tI didn't know how to rate this book. I haven't felt so disappointed in a book in a long time. But my disappointment is personal, so I don't know how that's the book's fault.
I lived with someone who thought she was a sociopath for four years. If she wasn't somewhere in that vague sociopath/psychopath/narcissism/etc spectrum, I'll eat my shoes and my hat. I have no background in psychology, so I can't diagnose. But if sociopathy is a spectrum, the woman in this book has mild sociopathy, and the woman I knew did not have mild anything.
In the book, Patric makes clear that she wants to lesson the stigma surrounding her disorder and make treatment possible. This is such a noble goal. But she really is a benign sociopath, one who feels genuine love, one who doesn't want to hurt people, one who realizes she should go to therapy. She values her friendships. She wants to help other sociopaths. Not everyone is like that.
She wants to remove the stigma of sociopathy, and that's great. But as she does that, she should acknowledge that it isn't just movies and books making people think sociopaths are dangerous. It's real-life experiences of abuse.
How do you treat someone who doesn't want treatment? How do you treat someone who doesn't understand why people think pedophilia is wrong? How do you treat someone who belittles, abuses, and destroys for fun?
The woman I lived with did not fall in love with her middle school boyfriend. She had shallow, short-lived relationships and got bored of people quickly. She told me she shouldn't have a child because she wouldn't love them if they weren't perfect. (It was a good thing to realize!) Patric loves her children so much.
Once, I had to stage a murder intervention because she was planning to kill a romantic rival. She was able to be bubbly and sweet in public, then oscillate quickly to vicious cruelty as soon as we were alone. She really didn't seem to have a moral compass.
Despite that, we had tons of fun together, and I truly loved her, forgiving her over and over again. I have never felt so close to another person (possibly trauma bonding, lol), and I have always wished her well in life. Funny, she has a Ph.d. now. So, I read this book to try to understand her better. But the book was not much help. I don't know if the woman I knew had this "stuck stress," but she seemed to love to inflict emotional damage in a methodical, planned way. It wasn't like she slowly built up and exploded.
When I left, I had to escape to a secret location my college had and get a school-issued restraining order. She found me at my first dorm room, and I had to leave. It's not just movies that make people afraid. I think Patric needs to acknowledge that her mild case is not the same as lots of other people. I hope the treatment plans she's devising take the more dangerous aspects of the disorder seriously....more
Oh, I made it through! I agree with the supposed premise of this book -- that Christian Nationalism is un-American. Absolutely. Keep religion out of tOh, I made it through! I agree with the supposed premise of this book -- that Christian Nationalism is un-American. Absolutely. Keep religion out of the government. The first and last parts are historical and very informative. But the author is so biased against all religion that he's unobjective and even offensive. It crossed from "I'm an athiest and this is my opinion," which is all good, into "and anything anyone else believes is stupid," which is agonizing to listen to for hours. I'm not a Christian or an athiest (I'm a Buddhist), so I don't have skin in the game, except I don't want people to force their religion on me. However, I think dialogue has to start from a place of mutual respect and the assumption of good faith. Bringing people to a place of understanding, even if there is still strong disagreement, is important in this time of division. The author will turn off every moderate and progressive Christian who attempts to read his book, and how will that help anything? I felt like I accidentally got trapped on angry athiest Twitter and couldn't get out. I felt a lot of empathy for him when he mentioned the terrible things people would write or call in to his Freedom from Religion Foundation. You can see part of where the anger comes from. It's understandable but not helpful....more
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