curlymango's reviews
52 reviews

I think I wanted a different book from what I got. The romance is the central plot while, to me, it felt like the very real discrimination Genevieve faces is presented as background noise. Or worse, it would become an opportunity for the rich white man to come to her defense and prove he’s antiracist and self-aware. It felt like a lot of the dialogue between the two leads was just Jude announcing to Genevieve what he’s done to change, and then she would say something about how he’s still the same guy from four years ago. So all the focus ends up being on him (being a boring man) while Genevieve stays mostly undeveloped. Also throughout I found it very hard to believe that a green energy CEO from a suburb would make the cover of People magazine or the evening news multiple days in a row. Why does anyone in this town even care?

What I hoped for was for the romance to be the subplot to a racial scandal storyline. Something like: Genevieve uncovers an even darker history of prejudice at her paper (i.e. Jennifer), which builds on her own experience. She links up with Regina (who has her own blog/column or something about this that G doesn’t seem curious about??) to publish an exposé on her own employer. She grows tired of Jude’s dual personalities and inability to understand her struggle to fit in with his family. She comes back at the end to date the handsome Mexican restaurant server. Done.

But in the book the exposé part was outsourced to the New York Times shortly before it ends

So much potential here, but it’s just not what I hoped for.

I really dug this concept. Would have read a full novel’s worth of it but I liked having some uncertainty about how and why Sankofa became who she did. Her fate is an unfair and painfully lonely one and not having a reason why any of it happened makes that feeling stronger.

Deciphering Dunn’s dizzying, jerky, quixotic verbiage must be what dyslexia feels like.

HAH I finished it and it’s still 2024.
I thought some chapters went on a little too long

I actually almost gave up at ‘Pioneers’ bc it made me so annoyed. And also a lot of the Harvard stuff. I’m sick of writers who went to Harvard writing about Harvard in their fiction

but for the most part I liked the writing. It’s a book that’s kind of about everything and nothing at the same time. Just life and relationships.

A decent mystery. Lays out a number of possible solutions for the reader to consider. I thought the writing felt a little flat in tone, and for some reason the formatting of the dialogue didn’t flow naturally for my eyes (like the line breaks and punctuation made it hard to figure out who was speaking at some points). Though that’s probably just a matter of style…and me sucking a reading. It’s a shame the writing didn’t pull me in more because I do like the plot.

Nice and twisty. I was hooked for the whole thing. I’m a little disappointed by certain twist at the end that seemed over the top, but other than that I didn’t mind being taken for a ride.

I didn’t like that Kit’s father was the one directly responsible for her mother’s death. Like he cut Kit off emotionally but then tried to comfort her with the “it’s not true what they’re saying” bit… seemed inconsistent to me and felt like a cop out to avoid finishing Kit’s arc of her feelings toward her mother’s death.

Simple but compelling, a cool twist on a classic premise. The only thing that kept taking me out was the writing style, which felt overly melodramatic at many points. It’s a very quick read and fun read, though.

Unsurprisingly not my jam. I don’t think the author could world-build to save his life and the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese. All the names and nicknames for things are painful to read. Like, there’s a character named SUSSY ffs. How is even a middle schooler expected to take anything seriously here? He should’ve just written a hoverboard pirates adventure short story and not tried to make another unnecessary, half-baked “not like other girls” snooze fest.

In a world where we’re constantly confronted with cynicism, it’s such a breath of fresh air to read something that’s truly all about love. Everyone should read this.

So many times while reading I could physically feel my heart sink. You have to take all the dialogue and fine details with a grain of salt, but Julia’s memories of her feelings in each moment are as clear as day. She writes so well that it’s often difficult to read because it’s so visceral. She manages to infuse joy and humor into her story, channeling her brother’s undying optimism and the bond they had with each other. There’s a revelation at the end that left me thinking about where Julia’s story meets David’s story and how we tell the stories of loved ones who are no longer with us (to me it’s still hard to see as anything other than Julia’s story). A thought provoking and challenging read.