samarakroeger's reviews
577 reviews

CAN WE ALL NOT SEE THE MASSIVE RED FLAGS OF THIS EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATIVE AND CLINGY-ASS MAN???

and so much telling with very little showing and all I got for it was an aggressively mid sex scene dear god this should have been a psychological thriller instead

This passage from the endnotes sums up my biggest complaints about the collection:

I never want to see an ampersand again, especially when paired with waaay too much alliteration and gimmicky homophonic wordplay. I’m done with poetry written with the collective “we” as a shield to hide behind. It was jarring (in a good way?) to read her best poem, The Hill We Climb, at the end of the collection — it uses the word “and”!

This collection felt super rushed (I blame the publisher) and incredibly outdated/out of touch at this point. It’s my fault for finally reading it 3 years after it was published (and 4 years after it was relevant) and having no interest in 200 pages of over-generalized pandemic poems better suited to a high school poetry project, but still. Also, her style can really work for motivational settings like a commencement or an inauguration while feeling vapid and basic when written on the page. 

While Amanda Gorman might not have truly found her own voice and mastery of craft yet as a writer (ironic given her propensity for boat-based metaphors), she is clearly a supremely talented public speaker. I’d be somewhat interested in a more personal and succinct second collection from her, if she was given the time and support to properly polish it. 

it took me a long time to get into this book -- I didn't feel invested in it until Esme shows up nearly halfway into the book.  given the very slow start, I'm really glad I kept going because this is a novel that gradually builds on itself and kept improving as it went on.  granted, there were easily 150 pages that could have been cut with very little consequence to the story.

I was surprised by how deeply moved I felt by the ending and I'm trying to not let that paper over the cracks of some of the shortcomings.  

I really enjoyed this! I think it’s actually New Adult and not really YA (characters are 18 and 20) — which is probably a reason why I got on with it. I don’t get why people thought this was too scandalous or ~spicy~ to be YA, though — it’s totally age-appropriate for an 18 yr old to be sexually active and there’s no on-page smut or anything. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by how much actual chess was in the book (especially compared to most sports romances where the sport itself feels like an afterthought), even if it veered into the improbable for the sake of a well-paced plot. I do feel we were robbed of some juicy games in the world championship though — I would have happily read another 100 pages of tense, exciting chess games and relationship development, lol. 

this was fantastic!  I'm impressed by Miles' narrative abilities (Isabel Wilkerson should be taking notes) and I'll definitely read more nonfiction from her.  I didn't expect this book to focus so much on women's work and textile history (another interest of mine) but I'm grateful it did!

this reminded me of Big Swiss and I have similar feelings about both books.  There are parts I really disliked but the wacko narrative and characters somehow won me over in the end.

I usually struggle with oral histories but this one was well put-together!  It took a little getting used to at first but then I really enjoyed it.  Also, the full-cast audiobook was totally the right call.

like if Wendy Cope had written An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell (very high praise, indeed).

I’d like to thank Juliet Stevenson’s dulcet tones for allowing me to enjoy this book. I tried reading this (on the beach? wild) ~3 years ago and was too confused by the setup of the story to bother continuing. 

I’m not a huge family drama fan but I enjoyed the sense of place and relatively small cast of characters. I think this novel is a glowing recommendation for going to Bath or wherever to look for a husband instead of picking between your two cousins (ick!).

The absolute messiness and self-destructive nature of the relationships reminded me of The Good Soldier. 

the only good thing to come out of Election Day was the publication of this book