i relate so incredibly much to the main character (27, bisexual, misses uni, stuck) but this book has “everyone talks like they’re a therapist� syndroi relate so incredibly much to the main character (27, bisexual, misses uni, stuck) but this book has “everyone talks like they’re a therapist� syndrome...more
had to do a reread before starting on the golden raven because my memory and brain is mush recently, but i’m so glad i **spoiler alert** feb 28, 2025
had to do a reread before starting on the golden raven because my memory and brain is mush recently, but i’m so glad i did.
thoughts: - all the dog metaphors for jean i am barking up the wall. like i could comb through and wax poetic on the significance of dogs in this book - i am so FOND OF JEAN MOREAU!!!! he is bad-tempered and rude and almost completely lacking in social skills or any sort of social awareness (cult deprogramming, trauma, being french, autism�?) and so, so deeply exhausted, and yet he is so loved and cared for by people i am screaming through my teeth. - he is also very funny in a completely humourless way. i relate to him on many levels i think - jeremy knox stepford smiler - on another note this book is such a powerful picture of getting out of a traumatic situation, of not knowing who you are or having anything to live for, and the space between the immediate aftermath and healing. like jean is so not okay but his slow discovery of what it means to live � rainbows, the cool evening air, open sky � especially knowing that in every other draft of aftg he died by suicide � i’m weeping. sometimes it is the little things that keep you going
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i’d like to congratulate nora sakavic for catapulting me into the depths of insanity in less than 10 days bro im genuinely tweaking. nothing is real but exy
- i thought this would be a lighter story but holy fuck the shit jean has been through is HEAVY. i went in blind, but as with the original series, check the trigger warnings. - jean is fully in a mafia book and jeremy is in a sports rom com and it’s whiplash in a good way - jean, jean, jean. i barely noticed him in the original trilogy and now he’s in my top three of this series. the character work was excellent � jean’s such a misfit in the trojan lineup, and so thoroughly traumatized that it’s heartbreaking, but he’s normalized it so much. seeing how the trojans react to jean really drives home how massively horrific the ravens� lives were - is jeremy okay? what is he repressing - seeing kevin and andrew from a pov other than neil is crazy. seeing neil from an outside pov is even crazier. andrew shows up, serves cunt, and leaves - “Jean noticed how Andrew and Neil moved like they were caught in each other’s gravity, in each other’s space more than they were out of it, cigarette smoke and matching armbands and lingering looks when one fell out of orbit for too long.� [deep breath] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH� - (view spoiler)[neil quickly, casually, and without hesitation ordering a hit on a rapist (hide spoiler)]. the way jean describes neil as terrifying, egotistical and insane
oh, i really wanted to like this one. i've heard a lot of good things about jennifer dugan's books, but unfortunately Love at First Set was not it foroh, i really wanted to like this one. i've heard a lot of good things about jennifer dugan's books, but unfortunately Love at First Set was not it for me.
i actually really quite liked our protagonist lizzie as a character! she works front desk at a gym with her best friend, whose parents own the franchise. yes, she was a little bit over the top in that sort of romcom way, but lizzie was actually really endearing; she's a hard worker and has dreams, which i like seeing in my contemporary protagonists. my main problem was that the two people lizzie is closest to, her best friend james and love interest cara, were just dickish enough so consistently and ignorantly that the whole time i just wanted lizzie to make better friends. a lot of the conflict revolves around the class difference between lizzie and the two siblings, and neither james or cara really make an effort to understand where lizzie's coming from or actually stand up for lizzie.
also, lying and miscommunication trope. lying and miscommunication are so rampant between all three of them; i really don't like when the entire plot rests on characters lying to each other. in the end, i wasn't invested, and even though i liked seeing lizzie's character development, i really wish the actions of other characters were given more pushback, because i was just so frustrated with james and cara i couldn't buy into the romance plot.
i did read this book in between sets at the gym though, so there's that. ...more
ooh, this book hit really hard with teenage me � it’s a fun little mystery starring a very anxious teenager and their group of friends.
i did think thooh, this book hit really hard with teenage me � it’s a fun little mystery starring a very anxious teenager and their group of friends.
i did think the main plot was a bit � out there in that the tone wasn’t congruous with the amount of danger that the characters were in? which made it hard to care about them because plot wise i didn’t feel like they were in any danger. i guess it didn’t take the mystery part too seriously, but it does take the coming of age, discovering identity, and overcoming fears part seriously, which is more important.
bianca has a very strong voice and it was quirky funny, which isn’t my favourite, but if you like it then it’s very well written, fun and refreshing ...more
when i saw the premise for r.f. kuang's debut contemporary, i found myself skeptical first and foremost. who, outside of publishing, is interested in when i saw the premise for r.f. kuang's debut contemporary, i found myself skeptical first and foremost. who, outside of publishing, is interested in publishing drama? and then i saw this book at, of all places, costco - not where i expected a niche book about publishing would be. kuang's debut fantasy series blew me away, so even though i was unsure about this book, i picked it up anyway. and god damn, yellowface was one hell of a ride.
i think one way i’d describe this book is "publishing dear evan hansen" except the author is actually aware that the main character is a terrible fucking person. and is june hayward ever a terrible fucking person. she’s entitled, jealous, egotistic, and yes, racist. if you're looking for a multi-dimensional anti-heroine, june hayward is not it. you don't like her, you're not supposed to like her, and you might even be cheering for her demise. june is such a incredibly delusional person, and it’s scary to realize that there are actual people who justify their actions like june does.
and yet no one in yellowface is pariculary sympathetic, even the people who righteously call june out. even athena liu isn't perfect - the publishing world digs up dirt on her too, and in the end it becomes a part of the justification that june uses for her continuer plagiarism of athena’s work. it’s kind of interesting to see athena as kuang’s literary counterpart, but i don’t know if that was intentional or not.
this book reads like a booktwt drama doomscroll in prose form, and it’s not even a particularly outlandish one, if you have spent any amount of time on booktwt. (at the time of writing, an author is getting 1 star review bombs for cussing out a reviewer in a tiktok.) it’s a car crash in slow motion and compulsively readable because you’re waiting for the fall. there are also some elements of the Hot Sad Girl book - june is isolated, unlikable, and there’s a lot of black comedy - but it’s not as character focused as a book in that genre would be.
yellowface serves a snapshot of the publishing industry in 2023 and asks a lot of the questions that are hashed out in publishing spaces online so often it’s tiresome. what are the ethics of writing about a painful history that isn’t yours? how does ethnicity and race affect publishing prospects? and despite kuang coming down somewhat heavy handed in her writing, i think the book still leaves some room for the reader to contribute to the conversation, or at least think about it a bit more than they might have otherwise.
yellowface was honestly a ride and nothing like i’ve ever seen before, and if you are or have ever been part of booktwt this should be an entertaining read. otherwise i hope the people at costco like this...more
none of this is serious is a book about a chronically online young woman in her twenties who can't find a job in her field, spends most of her free tinone of this is serious is a book about a chronically online young woman in her twenties who can't find a job in her field, spends most of her free time doomscrolling, has meandering thoughts about the State of society yet no means to do anything except exist in a world where there has been a great upheaval and yet everything is exactly, stubbornly, insistently, absurdly, the same.
aka: she just like me fr.
i did pick this up because a youtuber i was watching was talking about how sophie, our protagonist, is too chronically online and insufferably depressed. there's got to be something meta about that.
this is one of those books that is clearly a pandemic book without being a pandemic book, meeting Hot Sad Girl (White/Cis/Heterosexual) archetype, with the surrealist conceit of a big crack opening up in the sky, which i think is a metaphor for a phone screen. also, the protagonist doesn't speak directly, which gives the book simultaneously a more stream of consciousness vibe but also creates the impression of sophie having no voice irl - we only see her words through text. i think a lot of people in the millenial/gen z age range -- oh, heck, me included -- feel more themselves online.
this book really captures a lot of the post-pandemic isolation and loneliness people are feeling in their twenties, especially if you've graduated university in this time period and have to deal with this economy and job hunting and changes in friendship. i think that this book had a lot to say, and i enjoyed it for the most part, but eventually i feel like a lot of its more impactful points were lost under sophie dealing with men (or maybe that's just not a part i can relate to, lol). ...more
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC!
I haven’t been reading much YA or contemporary lately, but this enemies to loverThank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC!
I haven’t been reading much YA or contemporary lately, but this enemies to lovers fusion food queer rom-com definitely caught my eye enough to take a chance. And if you’re looking for a fun, food-filled rom-com that will make you hungry, then you’ve come to the right place � enemies to lovers, though, not so much.
Our two protagonists are Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno, the sons of two rival businesses. Theo is hot-headed and the star soccer player; Gabriel is anxious and sticks to the sidelines. They’re polar opposites in every way, but forced to work together to save their family businesses. I liked both of them well enough � they’re both two sixteen year olds being crafty out of desperation and familial pressure, which I could empathize with.
Even though the romance is advertised as enemies to lovers, it’s really a one-sided dislike to lovers, so I found that aspect really underwhelming. I liked the slow burn, though, and that we saw their relationship to each other change (even if it felt faster than it should have been). I also liked the coming of age part with both boys finding themselves getting to know more about each other.
If you’re looking for a fun queer rom-com, Café con Lychee is definitely something to look forwards to....more
disclaimer: this review will discuss eating disorders/disordered eating. i'll put a full cw at the bottom
I'm on a Unhinged Girl Literary Fiction kickdisclaimer: this review will discuss eating disorders/disordered eating. i'll put a full cw at the bottom
I'm on a Unhinged Girl Literary Fiction kick, I guess. Normally I don't do myself the disservice of reading about eating disorders - like for a lot of others out there, body image and unhealthy relationships with food are a rough thing to think about, and I generally prefer to dwell on other things. However, Thin Girls caught my eye while just scrolling through the e-library catalogue from the title alone, and I read it in one sitting. Oops.
But honestly? I enjoyed it, as much as you can truly enjoy a book that makes you uncomfortable to your very bones and makes you want to crawl out of your skin. It's a deeply fucked up book, and on second thought it falls into a lot of the stereotypes that a lot of eating disorder books fall into. (I thought too long and knocked it down a star because it really, really does, but you know what, at least this book isn't marketed towards teens?) I did find Rose and Lily compelling enough to have me keep reading, and their complicated sibling relationship and Rose's underlying sexuality crisis throughout the book made it more than just an Eating Disorder Novel.
Compelling as it was, I'd suggest not reading this if you have a history of eating disorders or disordered eating, because I can see this book being incredibly triggering. (God, but the title of this book would probably be enticing to people with eating disorders, which is ... probably not good.
content warning | eating disorders & disordered eating behaviours, diet culture, fatphobia, body image, self-harm, abuse, sexual assault...more
- ̗̀ jess ̖́-
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