ellemaddy's reviews
1094 reviews

 At my very core I hate it when rich people win. 

 Interesting concept but i feel like there are certain themes that i wish were explored further, for example the relationship that Vesper had with her mother. Even to the end it’s unclear what was the purpose of Constance. I feel like the author doesn’t know whether she is the villain or the hero, just like how she’s being portrayed in the movie at the end of the book. I think if we had more in depth exploration of a mother-daughter relationship, something more than ‘she hated her daughter’ it’d be a better book. Also i don’t like the mc voice and character, she’s weak from start to finish, she’s unlikable, she doesn’t have any redeeming quality about her. The only way you can feel any feeling but dislike for her is when you acknowledge that she’s a victim in this story. And yes she is! but there should be more to her than that. Why is she /just/ a victim who behaves badly and rarely ever gets any punishment? why does she think that the world is mean to her when she’s been treated like she was special, beautiful, and amazing her entire life? Only when she left the commune did she finally see the real world and how everyone might not be so nice to her. In the end, we don’t really get to see any character development from Vesper. She is STILL just the victim and there’s nothing else going on with her other than that.
Overall I think this book would be so much better if Vesper had more going on in her inner monologue or if she had more power, especially as someone who’s been steered by everyone for the entire book. 

 This is the kind of book that you need to experience through the audio production. I’ve learned that there are just some books that I can’t read on my own because i have a very monotone inner voice. This story needs a narrator that could really sell the story and Sophie Amoss really did that so well. The grief, the mania, the voice of the character as a child, it was perfect.
I did find that the story drags a bit on part 3&4 but it’s so worth it. I had a fun time reading this and I will always love mother-daughter stories, I think Mona Awad did a good job with this one and this is coming from me! a person who hated Bunny! (starting to wonder if I should listen to the audiobook version of that one)
Overall this is not a perfect book by any means but i’m loving it!! 

 I think this is a problem that is uniquely mine but I hate reading about books where the characters are so beautiful, gorgeous, soft, and perfect. And I don’t want to read about ‘plain’ girls who are secretly pretty, either. Where’s the representation for the butt ugly girls like me? 😞
Anyway. I enjoyed this book. I love how atmospheric it is and I also think the lore was cool. I don’t really have anything to say about the romance itself, I think it’s just a basic romance plot and nothing about the characters particularly stood out to me. The theme about drowning felt, again very atmospheric and poetic. Overall it was an ok book. 

 emily henry, stop airing out my trauma like this pls...

Ok after sitting with my thoughts for a couple of weeks now, I think I’m ready to say what I gotta say.
Emily Henry? enough with the characters-going-to-a-small-town-where-they-finally-found-love-and-happiness-forever trope. We see it in beach read, we see it in happy place, we see it in book lovers. Enough. Find another formula.
Because here’s the thing, I know miss girl knows how to write. There’s a reason why I buy her books every year despite being broke as fuck, hoping just for a brief moment to be entertained and to get attached to fictional characters and to fucking cry my eyes out. I love her books, clearly. But I’m starting to get sick of this wholesome cast of characters living in a small town and visiting the local dumpster fire pub that turns out to be kinda offbeat and charming or whatever. If I wanted to read something like that, I’d just go back and pick up beach read or book lovers or people we meet on vacation. And the characters honestly start to blur together. They’re all fucking perfect and wholesome and they’re all going through some form of trauma which is like yass relatable queen, but please.. something else I’m begging you.
And i know that authors have their own ‘trademark’ tropes, right? Like with Ali Hazelwood it’s always some variations of men built like double door fridge and tiny tiny women with big ass fucking brains who work in STEM. But she branches out a little, sometimes, right? We’ve seen it with Bride.
When I read Beach Read and i was like “okay yes i love that, give me a 100 more” i don’t mean that literally. Please please I’m so tired of the ultra white ultra straight stories. And you might say “well, go read somebody else’s books then” but that’s the fucking thing. I love Emily Henry’s writing! She knows how to write relationships and friendships and characters but at the end of the day, after years, I’m now expecting something different. You know what i mean?! This might be a controversial opinion! I don’t know!
At the end of the day I still gave this book a good rating. I still enjoyed it. But I’m feeling a little bored. I’m feeling like I’ve ate too much white bread and now I want something else with ✨flavor✨. How about write a mean character for once? Or some guy with flaming red flag who finally redeems himself through the power of love? Or whatever, idk. 

 thank you reylo fanfic writers for your contribution to the commercial romance fiction genre and to society! i laughed, i cried, i frowned, and i shook my fists at the sky. you, again is a perfect blend of slow burn, enemy to friends to lover trope and i enjoyed every second of it. 

 absolutely broke me, this was so devastating.
i love the way this was written and how we are given a back and forth timeline between the now and then of the main character’s life. i think it was super well done!