That's what she read.

I hate to sound like a broken record because everyone out there is saying that "Riley Sager's books just keep getting better and better"...but Riley Sager's books just keep getting better and better. For me this one is tied with Lock Every Door, but I think that's merely a personal thing. I have SUCH an affinity for Rosemary's Baby. Although I do love The Amityville Horror as well. Ugh. The struggle. Anyway, this book was *chef's kiss*. Just the right amount of creepy without becoming cheesy. As well as keeping us guessing until the last 30-40 pages (which, I'm sorry but if you saw those twists coming you're a genius) and then blowing our minds. Riley, you'll always have a place in my spooky little heart.

This book has some of the most absolutely, heart-breakingly, beautiful writing I have ever come across. Seriously. Entire passages are going to stick with me for a long time just because of the prose. The main thing I struggled with was the format. I get that it's a letter to his mother, and in that sense it was very touching. But it seemed super choppy. And it didn't necessarily have a plot (which I understand was not the purpose of the book anyway). Overall I'm glad I read it, but I don't necessarily ever see myself revisiting it in the future. I got what I needed to out of it.

This was a cute, fun, summer contemporary and exactly what I needed right now. It gave me such a huge urge to watch all of my favorite old movies. The romance was pretty cute, not gonna lie, but the thing that stood out was the positive mentions of sex and consent! Since the main characters in this book are older teenagers, I was super happy to hear them casually mention masturbation and sex in a non-gross way. Because they are learning about their sexuality! As is the main audience reading this book! I loved it, and I loved that the main love interest continuously tells her he doesn't ever want her to feel pressured into doing things she doesn't want to do, and even vehemently tells her she can say stop whenever she wants to. NORMALIZE THESE THINGS. I did find myself rolling my eyes a little bit at the main character though because the "twist" was so beyond obvious that she should have seen it coming a mile away. But...young love, I suppose.

This book stressed me the hell out. Once I got about 2/3 of the way through I COULD NOT STOP until I finished. So so good. The man's a genius. This is cracking my top ten King's list for sure.

Let it be known that I am screaming from the rooftops THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE GRADY HENDRIX BOOK. I'm obsessed. This book had everything. Family, heart, humor, gore. Ugh. Perfect. It took the vampire trope and instead of recycling it into the same tired story we hear time and time again it freshened it up and made it something completely new. Also the women in this book could have seriously been my mom and her friends. Or my aunts. I felt so much love for them by the end and I was so fucking proud to be a woman. This may be a contender for my favorite book of the year, I loved it that much.

I went back and forth between giving this 4 and 5 stars and eventually relented and gave it the full 5. There's absolutely nothing I would change about this book. It was beautiful and lyrical and I cared so much for the characters by the end. I think the main reason I was conflicted was because it didn't elicit a huge reaction out of me like most of the recent books I have given 5 stars too. But I don't think this was necessarily meant to elicit a huge reaction. I got a little misty near the end, but this book was soft and gentle, much like Kya herself. In short, I loved it and can see myself recommending it a lot in the future.

This book was a fun, easy read, but it was so two dimensional. I felt no depth to any of the characters. There was no reason for the synopsis to state that it was "set in the late 90's". It was literally mentioned twice and that was it. Kinda felt like that part was thrown in after the story was already written to reach out to teenagers who are "nostalgic for the 90's" right now even though they didn't live through any of it. Also the characters read a lot younger than they actually were, which is why the sex scenes really threw me off. Idk. I'm not mad that I read it even though there were some very problematic themes that weren't dealt with in the best way. Trigger warning for eating disorders.

I enjoyed this story overall but during the course of reading it I noticed that something seemed...off. And considering I've read over 30 King novels and no Peter Straub, I think it may be that I didn't mesh well with Straub's narrative/writing. To me the story seemed like Straub was a huge fan of the Dark Tower series and The Shining, and being close friends with King, he offered to collab and create a story with those major influences. Speedy Parker was obviously the Dick Halloran of the story. Also so many parallels with fathers and sons and "inheriting" a gift from them. Also the long journey to reach one thing is obviously an allusion to the Dark Tower. And the weirdest thing is I love the Dark Tower series and The Shining is my favorite book of all time. So you'd think I'd lose my mind over this. Which means to tell me it has to be that I wasn't a major fan of Straub's influence. Am I going to finish the duology? Absolutely. Is it going to be any time soon? That's to be seen.

This book was INCREDIBLY important and I hope it's taught in schools very soon. Even if it's not, I will make sure that my children read this. So raw and honest. Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn't sugarcoat anything. He merely lays out all of the facts and encourages the reader to do with them what they will. Racism will not end until we all educate our selves to do better. This is just a drop in the bucket of the educational journey that I intend to take, but I feel a little more empowered with the knowledge that this narrative has provided and that's all that I can ask for. It is not a black person's job to teach people how not to be racist, but I am incredibly grateful that Mr. Coates shared his story with his son and ultimately the world.

One weird niche I have when it comes to books and movies is I love anything set in a hotel/motel. I mean, The Shining is my favorite book of all time. As soon as I heard buzz surrounding a new ghost story set in a motel I was sold! And it didn't disappoint! This book was a lot of fun. It was filled with spooky moments although I don't think there was a time where I was genuinely scared (it takes a lot to scare me though). I didn't guess the twist, great setting, spooky ghosties, a mystery, what's not to love? I have another Simone St. James book on my shelf that I have also heard good things about and now I can't wait to get to it.

After hearing all the rave reviews that this book had received I finally decided to pick it up for myself. And in my opinion Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was completely...fine. I didn't really have any problems with this, but I didn't absolutely love it either. Raymond was my favorite character. I kept picturing him as Chris O'Dowd from The IT Crowd and honestly if they don't cast him when they make the movie it's a huge missed opportunity. It was just so slow going to begin with, although the ending was redeemed it a little and was very sweet. And I did guess the slight "twist" from a mile away. Middle of the road.

I was expecting this book to be akin to The Omen and it kinda just fizzled out near the end. After hearing everyone rave about how INSANE this book was and how UNBELIEVABLY evil the little girl was I was intrigued. Maybe I'm just desensitized, but I feel like it wasn't as dark as some people made it out to be, although it definitely had the potential to be which is what made me sad most of all. It had some extremely sinister undertones in scenes leading up to the climax but the end just felt like a bad horror movie that didn't quite know how it wanted to be wrapped up so it was left up to the reader. My main enjoyment came from not knowing that the author was local to me and this story was set in my city. All of a sudden the characters started mentioning boroughs I'm familiar with, radio stations I listen to, and grocery stores I shop at which is always a fun little nugget of entertainment.

So...here's the thing. I realize this book may have some flaws. But it's heart was in the right place and the message was so pure. I loved it! Being a chubby girl from a small southern town I could relate to Willowdean. And I may be a little biased having watched the movie first but let me say that SO much was left out in the movie. As in...entire characters. The one thing I wasn't a fan of was the way that they portrayed her relationship with Mitch. The dude was a super nice guy and although she was going through some stuff I feel like she could have been upfront with him about that. It just felt like that whole side plot ended up being unnecessary. On the other hand, although I know Willowdean and Bo's relationship was problematic in the beginning...whew boy was I swooning over Bo Larson by the end. Fictional crush FOR SURE. Would super recommend for someone looking for something uplifting right about now.

I won an ARC of this before it was ever published and decided to finally get around to it (it only took me over a year...cough cough). This book was interesting to say the least. The main thing I loved in this story was the atmosphere. I could feel the breeze coming off of the sea at Summerbourne. I could smell all of the baking that Laura and Edwin were doing on those rainy days. But unfortunately, even though I enjoyed the overall story, I had quite a few problems with this book. Firstly, it was SO slow getting started. Secondly, at the heart of this story there are a bunch of rich people that are pretty self centered. They are so beyond focused on "me me me me me" (Seraphine especially) that I found myself rolling my eyes quite a few times. Also the two major plot twists just made me mad. The first one was completely unrealistic, and the second one was just confusing. I felt like at the end of this I needed to create some weird family tree just to understand what I read. Am I glad I read this? Sure, I guess. Will I read more from this author? Not sure.

So I'm ending with a 2.75 star for this and that's being GENEROUS. I loved Megan Miranda's other books. This one just did not sit well with me. Firstly, I hated Jessa, the main character. You can't be completely mourning (I mean not getting out of bed, not going to school) mourning your boyfriend yet start feeling romantic feelings for his best friend. It just doesn't work that way. And if it does work that way...I'm judging you a little bit. Also Caleb's mom was the worst. And Jessa's parents!? Where were they!? Sorry, but if someone was forcing my child to clean out the bedroom of their deceased boyfriend and just acting super hostile towards her...yeah I would have had a problem with that. It was a solid 2 star for me up until the very end and I bumped it up. I actually liked the end. I hate that I'm not meshing as well with YA as I used to.

I have always been transfixed by the original photo that inspired this story. Under what dire circumstances could a mother sell her children? This book does a pretty decent job in showing a fictionalized account of what could have led up to and followed the snapshot. Although of course my heart went out to the children (and the real children in the photo), the story for me fell a little flat. I didn't particularly find myself caring about any of the other subplots in this book, just the well being of the children. I am glad I read it though and will definitely pick up more from this author in the future.

Bryn Greenwood does this amazing thing where she takes characters that have grown up in awful situations and adds just a little bit of wonderful weirdness to the story in order to give them...is hope the word I'm looking for? Maybe not. Maybe it's just to give them a glimpse of a life that doesn't have to be as shitty as it always has been. This book is no exception. I love her writing. Not flowery, not raw, just realistic. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, I felt like these characters could have been cousins. I don't think that Gentry's character will be for everyone, (it took a little while to get used to the old English) but I found him super endearing. I want only the best for him and Zee. Can't wait to read more from Bryn.