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eemilycolleen's reviews
532 reviews
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
5.0
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, AMIRITE LADIES!!!! writing this review tipsy feels right; let's get into it. SJM, you crazy bitch, you GOT me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i feel utterly bamboozled and still REELING at how swept into adoration & frenzy i became. truly, truly, TRULY one of the most passionately fun, exhilarating books i've read in YEARS. whatever drugs sarah put in this book, it worked on me. when i read acotar last week i was like, lol this book is goofy, and reading this i am like: lol this book is goofy and i'll sell my entire soul for it.
it's over-the-top and proud of it; it's the straightest romance novel alive; and yes, yes, i am here to tell you, it is, as the poets say, a fucking masterpiece. it's the harrowing, disgusting, bone-aching process of picking yourself up after shattering. call me a sucker, but above all, i was most taken with just one motif, which really encompassed the heart of the book for me: feyre's painting, her constantly shifting relationship with art in the midst of pain and healing. this is very much a story about the repercussions of abuse, and how we move within and through and around trauma, and i found myself genuinely moved every time feyre thought so tentatively about wanting to paint again one day, and especially when she finally does. (yeah, fuck you, the scene where they fuck on the paints made me emotional. i'm a romantic! sue me!) and in that same vein — there's this one scene around the halfway mark that's like a first date, and it ends in such triumph; and the triumph isn't sex or anticipating sex or EVEN dreaming of the hot faery boy across the hall — it's a nightmare of the atter hurting her, and her sleeping through the night anyway. it's not that the bad things stop happening, or stop bothering you; it's that they stop controlling your every move. you start being able to sleep.
it just feels so clear to me that this is the story SJM really wanted to tell, and maybe i’m simple, but it meant a lot to me. I BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF HEALING!!!!!!!!!!!!! i really do.
some details because you simply CAN'T appreciate acomaf without the details!
- "you said i could be a weapon. teach me to become one."
- "you sent that music into my cell. why?" / "because you were breaking, and i couldn't find another way to save you."
- good lord when he describes falling in love with her when she flipped him off because "for the first time in decades, i wanted to laugh"??? kill me, thanks
- "we deserve each other, and we deserve to be happy." IT'S REALLY THAT SIMPLE, ISN'T IT.
it's over-the-top and proud of it; it's the straightest romance novel alive; and yes, yes, i am here to tell you, it is, as the poets say, a fucking masterpiece. it's the harrowing, disgusting, bone-aching process of picking yourself up after shattering. call me a sucker, but above all, i was most taken with just one motif, which really encompassed the heart of the book for me: feyre's painting, her constantly shifting relationship with art in the midst of pain and healing. this is very much a story about the repercussions of abuse, and how we move within and through and around trauma, and i found myself genuinely moved every time feyre thought so tentatively about wanting to paint again one day, and especially when she finally does. (yeah, fuck you, the scene where they fuck on the paints made me emotional. i'm a romantic! sue me!) and in that same vein — there's this one scene around the halfway mark that's like a first date, and it ends in such triumph; and the triumph isn't sex or anticipating sex or EVEN dreaming of the hot faery boy across the hall — it's a nightmare of the atter hurting her, and her sleeping through the night anyway. it's not that the bad things stop happening, or stop bothering you; it's that they stop controlling your every move. you start being able to sleep.
it just feels so clear to me that this is the story SJM really wanted to tell, and maybe i’m simple, but it meant a lot to me. I BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF HEALING!!!!!!!!!!!!! i really do.
some details because you simply CAN'T appreciate acomaf without the details!
- "you said i could be a weapon. teach me to become one."
- "you sent that music into my cell. why?" / "because you were breaking, and i couldn't find another way to save you."
- good lord when he describes falling in love with her when she flipped him off because "for the first time in decades, i wanted to laugh"??? kill me, thanks
- "we deserve each other, and we deserve to be happy." IT'S REALLY THAT SIMPLE, ISN'T IT.
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
4.75
paused in my relentless pursuit of acomaf to finish this and yeah it was worth it. absolutely searing. boys go to jupiter really got me
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
this book is UNHINGED!!!!!!! i can’t believe the balls sjm has to introduce the character who’s clearly her favorite almost HALFWAY THROUGH. i read this on audio while obsessively playing sudoku and i was absolutely riveted the entire time. it’s somehow extremely, comfortingly formulaic while also being ABSOLUTELY outrageous. i will be starting the sequel immediately.
thoughts of note-
- shocking how straight this is. faeries should always be at least SOMEWHAT queer??? under the hand of a different author, lucien & rhysand & even tamlin would all be queer and i still am reeling that sjm didn’t see that. no offense but it feels so obvious.
- the beauty and the beast stuff is so wildly unsubtle. so goofy. i love
- rhysand fascinates, lmao. the way all my friends talked around his character the whole time to avoid spoilerating me: hilarious. obviously he seems like the precise type of character i will love Most Of All, and the thing about those types of characters is that it’s always possible they’re irredeemable abusers. so!!! we’ll see!
- because when the legends get written, i didn’t wanna be remembered for standing on the sidelines!! because i didn’t want you to fight alone!!! or die alone!!! yeah, i’m a sucker, that shit works on me
thoughts of note-
- shocking how straight this is. faeries should always be at least SOMEWHAT queer??? under the hand of a different author, lucien & rhysand & even tamlin would all be queer and i still am reeling that sjm didn’t see that. no offense but it feels so obvious.
- the beauty and the beast stuff is so wildly unsubtle. so goofy. i love
- rhysand fascinates, lmao. the way all my friends talked around his character the whole time to avoid spoilerating me: hilarious. obviously he seems like the precise type of character i will love Most Of All, and the thing about those types of characters is that it’s always possible they’re irredeemable abusers. so!!! we’ll see!
- because when the legends get written, i didn’t wanna be remembered for standing on the sidelines!! because i didn’t want you to fight alone!!! or die alone!!! yeah, i’m a sucker, that shit works on me
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
3.75
maybe love isn’t a judgment you render but a chance you take!!!!!!!! maybe it’s something you choose to do over and over!!!!
kind of zany and goofy and i really rolled with it. would make an incredible romcom
kind of zany and goofy and i really rolled with it. would make an incredible romcom
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
4.25
“oh, come on! as if there’s a clear distinction between real and fake for any of us. aren’t we all performing ourselves?”
sally, you’ve confused the romance of comedy with the romance of romance.
aw man, i just love curtis, okay? prep is one of The formative texts of my youth. so reading this was EXTREMELY fun, largely because i didn’t know until, like, 90% through just how straight curtis was playing the whole romantic comedy schtick, you know? i thought for SO long she might pull the rug out from under me. and do i wish she had? well!! kind of!!! i think that push-pull might displease a lot of readers, because it’s very much curtis sittenfeld doing romance, and those two genres are,,, at odds.
but it worked on me, and i found myself deeply, intimately charmed by the romance of it all. i was reeled in! i FELT that crush. if there’s one place curtis really shines it’s in the details, and she Got me. loved sally’s relentless self-sabotaging and insistence on the danny horst rule. loved the handmade mad libs. loved when she responds with such excitement that she accidentally spits on him and he doesn’t wipe it off. loved noah explaining the joke before making it, and her calling him on it. LOVED the moment where she sits admiring his music and feeling lonely/jealous because his talent doesn’t involve her, and then stops and wonders if anyone feels that way about her and her talent. just!!!! loved sally. what a finely drawn character: barbed, arrogant, winning, slippery, boring, performative.
i didn’t really care for the last bit set in KC; i thought covid as a plot device was kinda hamfisted, and i didn’t feel the emotional conflict resolved in a terribly compelling way. so. not a perfect book, but the most fun i’ve had reading in ages, and very excited to revisit prep :)
sally, you’ve confused the romance of comedy with the romance of romance.
aw man, i just love curtis, okay? prep is one of The formative texts of my youth. so reading this was EXTREMELY fun, largely because i didn’t know until, like, 90% through just how straight curtis was playing the whole romantic comedy schtick, you know? i thought for SO long she might pull the rug out from under me. and do i wish she had? well!! kind of!!! i think that push-pull might displease a lot of readers, because it’s very much curtis sittenfeld doing romance, and those two genres are,,, at odds.
but it worked on me, and i found myself deeply, intimately charmed by the romance of it all. i was reeled in! i FELT that crush. if there’s one place curtis really shines it’s in the details, and she Got me. loved sally’s relentless self-sabotaging and insistence on the danny horst rule. loved the handmade mad libs. loved when she responds with such excitement that she accidentally spits on him and he doesn’t wipe it off. loved noah explaining the joke before making it, and her calling him on it. LOVED the moment where she sits admiring his music and feeling lonely/jealous because his talent doesn’t involve her, and then stops and wonders if anyone feels that way about her and her talent. just!!!! loved sally. what a finely drawn character: barbed, arrogant, winning, slippery, boring, performative.
i didn’t really care for the last bit set in KC; i thought covid as a plot device was kinda hamfisted, and i didn’t feel the emotional conflict resolved in a terribly compelling way. so. not a perfect book, but the most fun i’ve had reading in ages, and very excited to revisit prep :)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
dark
tense
4.0
the more he had treated her as something special, the more she’d become human.
he had to think of just the right way to break the news. but what would that be? “i love you deeply, but i love officers’ school more?”
okay, i can see why people didn’t like this, but the things that made it boring & unsubtle also largely delighted me as a satire. was it very long, mostly pointless, and wildly anticlimactic? yes. did i have fun? YES!
i was a little unconvinced by lucy gray, but i can see how that’s a necessary byproduct of his not viewing her as wholly human. still i think i expected her to more clearly figure him out sooner? shocked me when he got to 12 and she still appeared to trust him. but i guess we can’t really know her feelings since we were so deeply embedded in his skull, which is the main thing i enjoyed about the book, so alas.
extremely “he loved big brother” ending. idk, like, for me it can probably be summed up by the moment where he’s crossing out the dead and automatically excises the tribute but hesitates on the mentor because it feels “pretty cold.” i’m a simple guy, okay! i was amused the whole way through. sometimes dystopia is just a fun time
he had to think of just the right way to break the news. but what would that be? “i love you deeply, but i love officers’ school more?”
okay, i can see why people didn’t like this, but the things that made it boring & unsubtle also largely delighted me as a satire. was it very long, mostly pointless, and wildly anticlimactic? yes. did i have fun? YES!
i was a little unconvinced by lucy gray, but i can see how that’s a necessary byproduct of his not viewing her as wholly human. still i think i expected her to more clearly figure him out sooner? shocked me when he got to 12 and she still appeared to trust him. but i guess we can’t really know her feelings since we were so deeply embedded in his skull, which is the main thing i enjoyed about the book, so alas.
extremely “he loved big brother” ending. idk, like, for me it can probably be summed up by the moment where he’s crossing out the dead and automatically excises the tribute but hesitates on the mentor because it feels “pretty cold.” i’m a simple guy, okay! i was amused the whole way through. sometimes dystopia is just a fun time
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
5.0
devastating, thanks!
i can’t BELIEVE how much stronger this book is than i gave it credit for in 2010. it’s brutal!!!! it’s awful!!! it’s just page after page of suffering and yet the pain never feels gratuitous or pointless? and STILL it manages to craft a believable hopeful ending? i love prim’s death, i love the debate to reinstate the games, i love the assassination of coin, i love the plodding circuitous path we take toward healing. when peeta plants the primroses???? sue me: i wept. “the promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. that it can be good again.” DEVASTATING! THANKS!
more Thoughts of Pain:
- “i must have loved you a lot.” / “you did.”
- “you’re a painter. you’re a baker. you like to sleep with the windows open. you never take sugar in your tea. and you always double-knot your shoelaces.”
- “the mast of a boat, a silver parachute, Mags laughing, a pink sky, Beetee’s trident, Annie in her wedding dress, waves breaking over rocks. then it’s over.”
- “i’m with the mockingjay.” (ok honestly the relationship between katniss and haymitch is so finely calibrated and the movies never QUITE managed to capture it? just how similar they are and how they hate in each other precisely what they hate in themselves. ugh good shit!)
i can’t BELIEVE how much stronger this book is than i gave it credit for in 2010. it’s brutal!!!! it’s awful!!! it’s just page after page of suffering and yet the pain never feels gratuitous or pointless? and STILL it manages to craft a believable hopeful ending? i love prim’s death, i love the debate to reinstate the games, i love the assassination of coin, i love the plodding circuitous path we take toward healing. when peeta plants the primroses???? sue me: i wept. “the promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. that it can be good again.” DEVASTATING! THANKS!
more Thoughts of Pain:
- “i must have loved you a lot.” / “you did.”
- “you’re a painter. you’re a baker. you like to sleep with the windows open. you never take sugar in your tea. and you always double-knot your shoelaces.”
- “the mast of a boat, a silver parachute, Mags laughing, a pink sky, Beetee’s trident, Annie in her wedding dress, waves breaking over rocks. then it’s over.”
- “i’m with the mockingjay.” (ok honestly the relationship between katniss and haymitch is so finely calibrated and the movies never QUITE managed to capture it? just how similar they are and how they hate in each other precisely what they hate in themselves. ugh good shit!)
Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly
4.5
absolutely delightful!!!!!!!! the epistolary section didn’t do anything for me but everything else i thought was great. bonus points for the care kelly takes with religion — it’s slippery up there, but i was moved
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
2.5
i have to say this didn’t do very much for me; i felt very removed the entire time, like allende was just walking us through years of the past without giving us anything to hold onto, any reason to care. i want to care!!!!!!