icarusandthesun's reviews
140 reviews

thoroughly whimsical.
i am in awe of the author's creativity, and the deadpan delivery was as funny as it was puzzling. 
a playful feverdream; not brutal or disgusting, but rather delightful.

reading this felt like listening to a child's invented stories, but with a certain sophisticated literary aspect to it, of course.

still, nearly none of the tales stuck with me, and were too short for the reader to really build an emotional connection to the characters.

slow and lenghty; 350 pages that felt like an eternity.

i found it really hard to enjoy this one. as someone who's read quite a few mythology retellings, surprsingly little was new to me, and even though it's advertised as very feminist and "epic", it didn't feel revolutionary at all.

i love that haynes introduced me to a couple of women and aspects in greek mythology that i hadn't previously heard of, but the stories themselves were a little, hm, flat maybe? i found myself unable to feel for the characters sometimes.
part of it's probably because of the amount of information in this book. haynes tried to fit the whole iliad (and odyssey) into 350 pages and all of it, all of the things that happened (though retold from the women's perspectives) felt textbook-dry.

i expected something emotional and fiercely feminist, but it ended up being unexciting and not entirely feminist either i feel like??? because though penelope wrote those letters, they were basically just retellings of the odyssey, of odysseus' adventures. we got the occasional "it's very lonely without you and there are suitors who invade our home", but other than that she was just retelling her husband's stories. idk.

i appreciate this book as a means to aquire knowledge (i learned many women's names that i've never even heard of), but as a novel it was mediocre at best.

this book was so badly written that it was actually quite funny. it made me physically cringe more times than i can count (for lines such as "you are a very bad girl, juliette" shudder) which is terrible, but also better than feeling completely indifferent to a book in my opinion.

the middle part

where they escaped and crashed at adam's for a while

was horrendously boring. people got shot and hurt here and there and yet i didn't care about any of it. if you take a look at the trigger warnings, you'll see lots of death and murder and blood but just know that every brutal thing that happened felt anticlimactic and shallow. 

i was also not a fan of the whole "she's the only girl among hundreds of touch-starved men and forced to wear skimpy clothing" trope that basically carried the whole first half of the book. it was silly how obsessed everyone seemed to be with her, and how "hot" everyone thought she was even though she was literally rotting in a cell for more than 250 days with only one meal a day and nearly no means to hygiene. who are you kidding?

i also didn't buy the romance at all.

adam and her never said a word to each other during their school days together, but they were still secretely in love with each other? because adam was the only one who looked at her like she was an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING?? (woah, and they say romance is dead🥴🤭)
and he fell in love with her because she was, uh, nice? because she gave up her seat to some girl on the bus? man, those two really are a low ass bar.

and you know a book is bad when the mysogynist side-character is the funniest guy in the book...

the action sequences were absolute bullshit, too. not them literally dodging bullets LMAO and "our movements made it hard for them to aim at us". girl what-
you're a slow ahh human being and not the flash, what are you on about...
if i were warner i'd fire all of the soldiers because a 15-year-old who's played ONE round of cod or valorant would be better at shooting than those nerds.

so yeah, needless to say, 80% of this book was teenage girl fantasy nonsense. i didn't hate the ending though. the whole concept—the worldbuilding—has potential. i'm just sad this potential didn't reveal itself until the very end. but i've heard people say the sequels are better, so maybe......

an okay read—really, just okay.

i read this poison heart some years ago and thought it was quite enjoyable—the greek mythology, the plants, the likable characters. this wicked fate still had all three of those, but somehow it just didn't have the same impact, the same excitement to it.

i found the whole story except for the ending pretty average and uninteresting. the storyline had this basic, linear feeling to it—it was pretty obvious what was going to happen most of the time. you knew in advance how the next chapter was going to make you feel.

the romance between briseis and marie was a little unbelievable? not because they weren't compatible but simply because they never really talked? not a lot of (deep) coversations, nothing. the only times they interacted was to plot or to kiss/hug. their relationship didn't go through any sort of development, wasn't deepened at all. i think that was handled way better in the first book. 

i did however like the ending! it made me tear up a little bit and was all in all just very wholesome. definitely the only extraordinary thing this book's got going on for it. 

this book was absolutely insane. and the ending hurt me in a very specific type of way. i feel betrayed. by the author, by the protagonist, by everyone involved in the making of this book.
but it was brilliant and so smart.
the ideas were creative as much as they were brutal and gory.

i loved the unflinching brutality of it all. i like that it made me physically cringe, that it made me uncomfortable, that it shocked me. all the characters were super sinister and made the whole setting even more atmospheric and dark. the themes explored were great, the details disgusting (amazing) and the ending thrilling in a "he did WHAT" type of way.

my only criticism is that i was a little bored at times, since this book felt more like a long info-dump with a bit of drama in between than an actual novel. like an autobiography written by a man who lives this strange life in this dystopian world. it just wasn't enough to keep me interested and entertained. everything, from the story progression to the writing, was too slow for me. 

so—great ideas, sick world-building, superb gore and body horror, exciting ending, but otherwise uneventful and dull story.

the delulu is strong with this one♥
lemme tell you what i think—tori spring is insufferable.

i guess i'm just too old for these books, i really believe that. because 12-year-old me would've eaten this up for sure. melodrama and excruciating self-pity, and "i'm so different", and "everyone else is stupid and immature but not me."
i shared these thoughts with tori once, and maybe that's why i hate her so much. because i used to be insufferable, too. the only difference is, i was insufferable at 12, she's still insufferable at sweet 16.

seriously, if i were this advice-resistent and on top of that incredibly rude to my parents (ignoring their questions for no reason other than being an absolute asshole) they would straight-up disown me for sure. at one point, tori's dad sighs and mutters "teenagers" under his breath and she goes on that tangent that her being a teenager doesn't explain everything about her, ... but it really does though.
i literally chuckled at her dad's remark because man, that's what i was thinking for the whole 390 pages this book sports.

i believe this behavior comes from a place of deep narcissism and lack of empathy. tori is incredibly close-minded and i understand that depression can do that to someone. it makes you selfish and self-centred and short-sighted. but the older you get the more you're able to put it into perspective. you realize that you're in fact not the only person who suffers, and you realize that the people you called "stupid" or immature for liking "basic" things have a complex internal life just like you do. they're simply not being as insufferable as you.

i also really don't understand why the characters in this book kept trying to become friends with tori. she's boring, she's no one, she's got no personality at all. she's not passionate about anything, and again, i understand depression can do that to you, but worse, everything her friends suggest or ask her about, it's always just "i hate it." i hate this, i hate myself, blah blah blah.

what's interesting about a person who hates everything, who keeps running away, who keeps shutting everybody out, who keeps venting without permission, who keeps seeking pity from herself and everyone around her?

this whole book was just so excruciatingly boring. literally a bad fanfiction. the diary of a thoughtless, selfish teenage girl. the ending felt like a fever dream and was more than unrealistic (it was literally "and then everybody clapped"). so many bad choices. remarks on depression and suicidal thoughts were thrown around like they mean nothing. pretentious ahh quotes.

i feel no pity towards tori, i'm really sorry. i can't muster up any pity for someone who desperately tries not to get better, who's an inactive, inanimate charity case, who can't say a single smart thing, instead pulling the whole "i hate myself, i want to die so bad, i'm nothing, i'm horrible" spiel on the reader over and over and over again. she's so delusional, it hurts.

i agree, she does need to seek professional help, and not only because of her depression.
maybe look into sociopathy, too.

maybe in another life for me was the definition of "right book wrong time".
taylor jenkins reid is super talented. her stories pull on your heartstrings and her characters are mature and wholesome (even a bit too perfect at times).

the problem is just that the book is far from where i am at in my life right now. i am not nearly thirty, i am not even close to thinking about marriage and children and all that good stuff. and i think relatability is extremely important when it comes to novels like these, in which the whole plot revolves around the characters and their messy lives and messier life-choices.

the book relies on relatability, because from an objective point of the view, the plot isn't very good nor interesting. the things that happen are quite predictable, because reid uses very common and done-before plot devices (

car accident, death of a sister and henry becoming a nurse because of that, all of them getting a happy ending through very unprobable and unbelievable circumstances

).

the book's theme is undoubtedly hope, based on all the profound pep-talks and conversations about "que será será"—moving on after tragedy, making the best of every situation, etc. it was refreshing, the way the characters never quite allowed themselves to despair completely. reid never lingered on the bad, nearly every chapter ended on a positive note, so you could say that the book was unrealistically perfect. great, of course, if that's what you're into.

i don't know what else to say about this book. it was good, fine, non-threatening. might put this aside for now or sell it and maybe pick it up again in a couple of years.
the characters in this book, especially the protagonist hannah, talk about fate a lot, and things that are "just meant to be". so i'm gonna go ahead and boldly claim that, if this book and i are meant to be, it'll find me again somewhen in the future.

reading this book felt like an eternity; the longest 355 pages i've ever read, but i didn't hate it at all.
i'm usually not a big fan of young adult and ya romances, but this was one of those pleasant exceptions.

the characters were likable and funny; especially chloe who essentially just roasted the hell out of most of these characters. her unflinchingly unfiltered opinions were quite entertaining. never before have i read someone refer to someone else as an "indie soft boy" in a book before, but turns out that's exactly what i needed in my life.
besides chloe, the other characters were fine as well. i thought rory was good vibes, and also really relatable because who doesn't want a couple of expensive stratoscasters on their wall??

i'm gonna be honest here and say that half of the time, i had no idea where the plot was going. the plot was a mellow rollercoaster and i was just in there enjoying the ride, wherever it might take me. 
as the plot and conflict neared their climax though, i became more and more unconvinved. 

i didn't really like how the conflict was resolved.

it didn't strike me as very realistic that every single important character would end up realizing they're queer. the jock, the stoner guy, the popular girl—all of their conflicts were rooted in the fact they're denying their being queer in one way or another. which is a little silly, not gonna lie, because it felt anticlimactic. shara started this whole mystery scavenger hunt just because she's an attention-seeking coward who can't deal with the fact she likes girls? what??

i wasn't a big fan of rory's and smith's relationship arc, either. it was esentially just fanservice for all the yaoi obsessed girlies (and i mean that in the most gender-neutral way) who believe two dudes can't have an intimate relationship with each other that's not romantic. simply didn't feel realistic.

i still enjoyed the book though, more because of the language and dialogue than the plot to be honest, but that's alright.
it was also really interesting to explore these themes in a christian small-town school typa setting.

a queer, lighthearted read.

i am floored. shooketh.
i'm an avid hater of christmas/new year's romances, simply because i hate it—christmas, romances, you name it. but genuinely, this was one of the best romance books i've read in a while.

the idea behind it was interesting, and there's really no better word to describe it. it wasn't exciting, it wasn't thrilling, but it was insightful, plain interesting. a great concept, "random acts of kindness."
maybe i'm just thinking that because i've tried something similar before (and failed, shamefully); i wanted to do a kind thing (doesn't matter how small or seemingly insignificant) every single day and write it down. i didn't last very long, but it was still a unique experience and something that continues to intrigue me.
that's why i picked this book in the first place, out of the many other christmas romances available.

the plot ended up being okay. some of the kindnesses were more entertaining than others, but that was to be expected and that's also sort of realistic. i loved how we got to read each of the different people's POVs after, really got to dive into how these acts of kindness actually affected them, their days, even lives. it also made you distinctly and bothersomely aware that every single person you see has their own life, their own thoughts, their own problems. it's kinda trippy.

the author also definitely knows how to write realistic and likable characters. they're all a little flawed, but very mature and willing to communicate with each other. (these 18-year-old kids actually do a better job communicating than some adults in other novels, just saying.)
they had their ups and downs, and failures and achievements and hobbies and goals. 
they were perfect—not in the sense that they were little mary sues, no. they were simply so very normal and sometimes reading about insanely normal and average people can just be so comforting.
if you're looking for escapism, this might not be it, but it's seeking out the nice side of reality, and that feels great once in a while.

i loved max's character arc, and his character development.

at the beginning, he struck me as someone who only lived to please others and cater to their needs, but at the end he actually starts seeking out what's best for him and i do respect kendall for making that possible, or at least encouraging it.

i also really enjoyed that there was no useless drama. i was really scared the author would villainize eliza and use her as the "jealous ex who wants to ruin the guy's relationship", but she didn't go down that road and i was so relieved. there were lots of choices made in general that i thoroughly liked and respected, like

them not having sex that first night

.

what i thought was a little bit weird was kendall's reaction to the ad girl.

why was she so rude, thinking all these negative things about this girl, simply because she was popular and beautiful i guess? that felt a little mysogynistic, and very random. sort of ruined kendall's character for me.

but whatever. still a comfy read, very much enjoyed it. i might re-read it around new year's!

just couldn't get into it.
the plot didn't interest me at all, i couldn't care less about the whole arlo/winter problem.
the relationship between jonah and max progressed way too quickly in my opinion, and jonah so assertively pining after max felt very out of character considering he's supposed to have an anxiety disorder.
i still thought the characters were mostly okay, though.
it was just the plot and the setting and the romance, ... and everything else, really.