readingpicnic's reviews
461 reviews

Warmed my heart or whatever

I loved this book, I had dreams about this book. The ending was really messy to me though and somewhat confusing since everything happened so fast, so I did knock off half a star for that :(

Honestly, this was such an infuriating book, but I fell in love with Amy Zhang's writing style all over again. I can for sure say that she's still one of my favorite authors. I adored her first two books while I was in middle school and high school, and she's still so good. Massive content warnings for depression, s*icidal thoughts, and an insufferable philosophy dude. I just adored the main character so much and wanted the best for her, and therefore wanted to destroy Constantine. The mother-daughter relationship and the found family friendships in this book were so touching and broke me down. Reminded me quite a bit of Night in the Woods with the secretive college enrollment situation and mental illness. Also, this is for sure new adult, not young adult! 

I adored them all. Incredible and hilarious audiobook narration with just the right amount of sass for the delivery of Gwen and Arthur’s incredulance towards each other. And the gay romances for each of them were so cuuute, GAH! I don’t usually pay much attention to the politics in books, but they were pretty interesting to me in this one. Wholeheartedly recommend to any former or present BBC Merlin enjoyers.

Okayyy, I'm obsessed with them. Love the Our Wives Under the Sea vibes and just the "they came back wrong" trope overall.

Love a weird motherhood story 🫶

I read this for Sue since it was her favorite

THE sexcapade book. I think if you’re like a trans punk dyke from the 90s, you would get all the references and eat this up. Robin was the most intriguing character for me; wish they were in this more.

What a genuinely hilarious book. Gotta love some queer siblings navigating some messy relationships and situationships. Such a lovely emphasis on family (including found family and adopted family) in this book that makes me wish my family was closer. Being gay and neurodivergent is the norm!! 

I thought the main character was pretty insufferable and was not captivated by the writing style at all. The time skips were a bit jarring. HOWEVER, the story really picked up about 70% through and I was glad I didn't DNF it earlier. I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this last night! An unsatisfactory but realistic ending, I suppose. I don't think that the author dove into the trauma olympics that Bodie was doing on Twitter, nor fully examined Jerome in a critical light like I would have wished. It was giving too much "people think anything is abuse these days!" for my comfort. There were some strange discussions about the age of consent and power dynamics in age gap relationships. And in the end, I do think it felt like a white savior story.