miss_laura_smith's reviews
87 reviews

the prose is beautiful and it’s a masterclass of mood. 

I used to think I was an over thinker but elio makes me look completely rational. 

Overall I just felt like it went on a bit too long? and I was like ok I get it (but I also didn’t get it) 

really intricately crafted narrative with a compelling cast of characters. at first I found it hard to keep track of all the characters and their complicated relationships, but by the end I was fully hooked. I just thought it was so well done. 

if you like Sally Rooney, The Rachel Incident, Coco Mellors, and/or Good Material by Dolly Alderton, you will probably also love this book. 

(also, any book that quotes “peanut butter” in the epitaph is pretty much guaranteed to be right up my alley)

funny, realistic, and engaging. somehow took me a while to get through and I felt like it dragged in bits, but the payoff in the last quarter was immense… I just wish we could’ve gotten there easier (although I suspect that is the point) 

probably my least favorite of the trilogy and I’m not sure why… just struggled to connect to the characters and finish the stories. However, the last few pages/final twist were really well done. 

if you liked little fires everywhere you will like this book too 

I can’t decide how I feel about this but it was engaging and thought provoking and less depressing than the title suggests 

acid trip
edit: I like this one better after processing it and reading various interpretations on Reddit. From a technical level I think the way the author uses language (dialogue, metaphor, POV, etc) is extremely skillful and effective. The concept is super creative and explored with humor and intensity. My biggest complaint would probably be the pacing—it took a while to get going, then the action seemed to move a lot faster and I finished the second half in one sitting.

Also I loved Victoria for being so horny and unabashed about it lol

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An Insanely compelling and fearlessly honest account of possibly the most chaotic life story I’ve ever heard. Julia’s voice is by turns heartbreaking and hilarious. My biggest complaint is that the book could’ve used a bit more solid infrastructure (ie time stamps on chapters, photo inserts, timeline, an appendix possibly) because it got confusing trying to figure out how old Julia was at any point and trying to distinguish her many intense female friendships. 

Can’t fully decide how I feel about this one…. fascinating concept and very well written, but I wasn’t satisfied with the ending and its thematic implications. I also thought that Letty’s character arc was laughably shallow/obvious compared to the relative complexity of every other character and it was disappointing to see how Kuang used her. 

really fascinating concept but I just felt like something was missing??? It was hard to feel invested in the characters