downsophialane's reviews
167 reviews

Beth O'Leary has delivered a dual timeline second chance roadtrip romance that doesn't shy away from complex, difficult and at times unlikeable characters. While I was invested in Addie and Dylan, their relationship was just so stifled by Marcus' presence, almost from the beginning. I think we needed some real halcyon days completely apart from his friends. Though part of their arc together is recognising that their friendship is was toxic, the Dylan/Marcus plot could have benefitted from a little more evidence Marcus being, like, worth the trouble?

I would recommend Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren or Happy Place by Emily Henry over this for anyone looking for a second chance dual timeline, but I didn't have a bad time reading it so I wouldn't not recommend it. I will definitely be seeking out Beth O'Leary's other work. 

A mid-book

surprise baby

is always going to get a lot of people offside, and I'm sure the authors were aware of this (Sierra Simone in particular famously prefers to polarise her readers rather than play it safe). I thought this twist worked quite well for the heroine's post-purity culture journey. Winnie's subsequent distance and, yes, the miscommunication throughout stems logically from her purity culture trauma and Kallum's established flaws as a man who had never needed to step up and grow up. I understand miscommunication can be frustrating for some readers but honestly this seems like a good example of that trope to me... They're not just stupid, it comes from their own misconceptions and backstories... Exactly as miscommunication happens in real life! 

I was a little disappointed that apart from one fleeting mention that she still has a "connection" with God, there is no mention of Winnie's relationship to her faith (beyond the purity culture imposed upon her) but that's a me thing; this isn't another Priest so I won't review it like it was trying to be. 

Can I say, these epilogues from Teddy's POV are a stroke of genius  because all I want is more from him! 

I would have loved a more comprehensive exploration of the "Dark Days", the ascent of the Capitol and the initial origination of Hunger Games, but that's not the promise of the premise, so, okay. The beginnings of the mentorship and sponsorship programs is also an interesting piece of worldbuilding. I think young adult literature is a great way to grapple with big philosophical ideas about human nature, civilisation and our capacity for evil, and Suzanne Collins has demonstrated her capacity to facilitate this again in this sequel.

The subversion of the highly-produced, nail-biting Hunger Games of the original trilogy is a interesting change. Lucy Gray is a delightful heroine, though I will say staying in Coriolanus' point of view was an interesting choice... He was so relentlessly self-centred and untrustworthy, I was so distracting by how unlikeable he was;

(I know he had sympathetic circumstances in the Capitol and the trauma of the war in his childhood, but his consistent choice to choose seeking power over people, and deflect human connection is just... so horrible and sad.)

The end escalates so quickly, and

Coriolanus' descent into paranoia was so intense and so well done. I love the ambiguity of what Lucy Gray was doing in that climatic scene, but the reveal that the snake was non-venomous was just like... my dude, this is on you. As usual, I chose to believe my favourite character survive and live long and happy lives (just like Finnick, thanks very much Suzanne Collins.)

 
I definitely chose the audiobook because it was performed by Santino Fontana, who I adored in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella, whose lovely Disney Prince voice everyone would recognise from Hans. So I was pretty disappointed with the lack of music in this audio production. Obviously they hadn't set the songs to music yet, but let's be real, the film (which I haven't seen yet but I assume she's singing the whole time) was always going to be made so it would have been great to have mocked up the melodies to create a really high quality audiobook. As it is, I wouldn't recommend the audio over the physical book. 

I would recommend this, but not as a must-read the way the originals are. All I know is I couldn't move on with my life. 

My overwhelming impression of this book was underwhelming. The simple enough concept of a reformed "bad girl" returning to her home town and navigating an ongoing situationship with her ex is right up my alley. Unfortunately, the characterisation, dialogue and particularly the chemistry between the hero and heroine never reached their potential. The worst offence was that the sexual tension was entirely unearned - we are told that these two are crazy about each other, but the narration never bothers to actually ratchet up the tension. I found myself constantly wishing that this book had been written by Wild Seasons-era Christina Lauren - that's the level of spice these characters we're told are badasses felt like they needed.

I read almost exclusively romance, I love a sequel bait friend group, but again, the future couples being set up lacked tension to such a degree that I didn't feel any anticipation for future installments, and feel no obligation to go back to read the first book. 

Bad Girl Reputation really does read like the New Adult of the 2010s - that is, pretty readable but also pretty dated. The treatment of Gen's drinking just felt lazy, especially considering the increasing awareness of sober curiosity. It feels a bit out of touch to prominently feature a cop abusing his power to terrorise a young woman, without even a nod to the BLM movement. Reading this book felt like the past decade never happened. 

Overall, I wouldn't actively dissaude people from picking this up, but I'd recommend Emily Henry, Talia Hibbert or Christina Lauren over this book in a heartbeat. 

An accessible survey of the Biblical perspective on romantic love. Some sections read as a bit dated - particularly the chapter that conflates gender and sex characteristics, with no nod to trans folks. I suspect if JMC were to write this book today some of the language around this would be more inclusive. 

This book is by far the hardest of the series to read; it's just so bleak and so sad. Every character is so horrendously traumatised. It's hard to watch Gale becoming more and more warlike, especially knowing how that ends. It's hard to see Peeta as a twisted husk of the lovely boy he was before. The expansion of Finnick's character is emotional but very well done.

His death is just so incredibly unfair, and I had forgotten it... because we, and Katniss, are never given a chance to properly mourn him. Prim's death feels like such an obvious metaphor - an effective one - but we spent so much time with Finnick and understood so much of his trauma. And then, we aren't given a chance to mourn him - which is why I'm sure I totally forgot that it happened! In my mind Finnick will be living a long, peaceful life with Annie by the sea somewhere.

Mockingjay is a war book. It's not my subgenre and reading it is stressful and awful. But, some bloated pacing in the middle notwithstanding, it's a very good book, asking young adult readers challenging questions of culpability in oppressive systems. That passivity can be violent was a massively influential idea for me when I first read this book in 2010 (and forever after). 

It's wild that love triangle had the cultural grip that it did because it's actually so sophisticated and complex? The key relationships and characters are so fascinating. I will never not be thinking about Peeta Mellark and Haymitch Abernathy and Finnick Odair. 

Some of the pacing in the middle was a little bloated but that ending was something to behold. Every decision.

The rebels win the war.... off page? Our heroine is unconscious for it? Such an interesting subversion of the Chosen One trope.

Excellent narration by Tatiana Maslany. 

I will be thinking about Finnick Odair for the rest of my life. 

I had no idea what this book was about going in - I don't think I even realised it was apocalyptic when I opened it last night - but it grabbed me immediately and I ended up finishing it in two sittings.

New Yorker Daisy is sent to live with her cousins in the English countryside days before the outbreak of World War III. What transpires is a slow apocalypse, as the cousins deal with the short-term consequences, such as the lack of electricity and feeding themselves in the absence of their travelling aunt, and long-term consequences, i.e. the occupation of their house by the army and their subsequent separation. 

The elephant in the room is this: the narrator does fall in love with and have an underage sexual relationship with her cousin. It's bizarre the extent to which the novel allows you to take this in stride? The beats of this novel aren't the beats of a romance, for sure, but I also appreciated the light touch of the ending. Rosoff restricts the urge to overdramatise for the sake of a blockbuster ending, and I thought it worked well. 

The style is a voicey stream-of-consciousness which may not to be to everyone's taste, but which contributes to the fast pace and, in my opinion, the compulsive readability. I've just never really read anything like this before, and I think I'll be thinking about it for a long time.