radhikag's reviews
72 reviews

I’ve really been struggling and this was such a beautiful, joyful, needed book for me. Will be reading it over and over again. Love every single illustration! And also loved the bit about fireflies! I didn’t grow up in an area with them so the first time I saw fireflies was in 2022 when I was in Detroit for the last allied media conference and it was sooo beautiful and joyful and wonderful! Loved it :) and remembering that experience through this book — and so much more, was just really special. I was so good about reading last year and the start of this year and I wasn’t able to this year — for many reasons. But this makes me want to try again & makes me less sad about what I feel like or thought I had “lost” — and that is sacred and beautiful. 

so sweet! Saw this in the children’s section of my favorite lil gift shops and got it for a little one in my life. I like the texture of the hearts, too! It’s a rhyming book that doubles as a self love affirmation — super cute for kids but also, honestly? As a disabled adult this was also v sweet to read. Had some friends visiting and were all ND lol and I showed them and they read it out and we all cried a little because it was just so tender! 🥹

Kinda wanna get a copy for myself esp since I babysit but it’s also just so sweet n affirming! is that weird? Oh well! 😅

I just finished this and I’m still on a high! First thing I did was just laugh n cry then I found the author’s IG to leave a long, loving + super grateful comment because this was such a treat to read! I saw so much of my young self & my best friend, even though these two were in the UK, I just? 

Best friendship is so sacred and special and magical. I know because I’ve been blessed with the most incredible best friend & she really feels like my soulmate idk if it’s lame — it’s the truth! Even more than Zayn Malik, FR. but just! This was healing and heartbreaking and I cried and laughed and this is probably a terrible review in terms of usefulness but if you’ve ever had a best friend, you need to read this. Even id you haven’t! 

But wow. I wish for everyone a friendship like Natalie & Zoe’s and I feel so lucky to have one (even better tbh we wouldn’t do their “bit mistake” just logistically can’t but also wouldn’t) and this was such a beautifully written story. I know I’ll be re reading it again & again. Perfect wisdom tooth recovery material!! 🥰

I know I just finished but I wish I could read it for the first time again. Maybe I’ll start over, we’ll see! But wow what a joy to read & how sweet to see myself and my loved ones in the types of love in this book. So much to love & celebrate. Lemmie go type an essay to my best friend about how wonderful and spectacular she is. I could say it every second of every day and that still wouldn’t be enough or anything compared to who & how she is. 

I love this book I love my best friend and I love one direction!! not in that order haha but :’) so sweet and tender, so needed, I wish I could give this more than 5 stars. More books about best friends — I forgot how much I loved this. Made me feel like sisterhood of the traveling pants did tbh — but like a sped up / single book version, I guess & focused on two friends. Anyways please go hug your best friend, then read & love this together, then hug each other again. 12/10 :’)

Truly also funniest + sweetest and most perfect ending. Thank you for that. I hope Lucy Vines is always held & surrounded by her best friends and I’m thankful to them for their friendship’s role in creating what is absolutely a fave book now. 

also wrt content warnings esp around the fat phobia & biphobia, I want to be clear that both of these are reflected throughout, and come up either through conversations w bigots who get out in their place and / or through internalized beliefs / monologues (esp with fatphobia) and I appreciate that these were all brought in with (imo) intention and were confronted within the plot, but also written with care and emphasis that neither biphobia or fat phobia is okay. Lots of love for this book and for so many reasons. I think this healed a lot of things in little me, too. Or opened up more room for grace + compassion and care with myself. Sweet ❤️‍🩹

Got this for some younger ones in my life, hopefully as a helpful aid in having some necessary conversations in ways that are accessible and understandable to them. I have some issues w some of the language & phrasing but overall I think this is a useful tool in broaching this topic. If you get it for kids in your life I would use this as a loose guide and be prepared with your own, additional info and other resources or things to engage in together. I’d also be prepared to have conversations with them + answer questions — this book is a beginning not an end! 

saw some disappointing TERF rhetoric from the author & decided I’d rather not finish. Looking for more aro + ace work and authors but ideally not harming my other queer siblings :-( 

Such a treat! Had the chance to hear the author speak in early 2023 but didn’t actually get to start reading this until this year. It also coincided with me visiting India (family wedding) for the first time in six years. For reasons I don’t want to + won’t get into during a book review, the authors note at the end around Phoolan Devi and honouring her were resonant for me. The questions that came up, all there is to consider. And as a survivor of SV & that so much of my work is focused on anti GBV support n stuff idk! n the DV prevalent in the lives of my loved ones too idk this just felt so so close to home 

And it was satisfying to see the women take agency & come together in that way. I appreciate this as a story of friendship & feminism and maybe it’s just because of what came up for and what all of these stories meant to me but I loved this. I want to read more of the authors work :’) and im so happy for Geeta & Saloni and Geeta’s new fridge! <3 

Also the revelations with Geeta & Saloni about Geeta’s parents + her marriage? my tender heart! :-( ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Loved this book so very much! I think I have some questions around some of the themes (eg. Fatphobia) and their purpose? Some of the casteist or misogynistic language, even the anti SWer/whorephobia (halkat randi over n over again lol) felt more clearly like it was known to be bad + used to show the bigotry and evil of the characters in question. The fat phobia was …not this, or not as clearly. There’s just a lot of questions there & for someone who seems to be aware of other systemic harm, it is strange to not understand fatphobia a) as harmful but b) as intertwined with the other harms she notes (eg. sexism, GBV, casteism & colourism, etc.) ….much to think about. 

but yeah the “she decided” part really really did something for me! almost made this 5 stars for me for that alone lol 

Very sweet! Bodies are indeed cool and I love the disability rep and hairy rep and fat / not straight size rep like !! Ooh u gotta love it :’) I can’t remember any kids books I read w disabled people or at least not named as such but idk. Regardless! Happy this exists for the lil ones :) 

The timelines were hard to follow in the beginning for me but at about the halfway point it really picks up and I was able to follow the threads more closely. I do feel it’s misnamed because we don’t really hear much about the actual midwife though she does set the events of the book into motion a bit but yeah idk this wasn’t what I was expecting or what was advertised I feel. There was a lot of jumping between timelines and characters who were different ages in the various timelines but again that got easier to follow at the end. Someone said they took a pic of the family tree for reference and I wish I’d done that. 

Really picked up towards the end and revealed a lot of things quite fast. I appreciated the letter at the end, well written and powerful especially with the fall of Roe. Not something I’d recommend just because of length and again, it being hard to follow but I’m glad I finished because I was thinking about DNF-ing. I’d maybe recommend it if someone said they were into historical fiction and don’t mind jumping timelines and POVs 

I love Roselle Lim! And her debut is no different :’) I’ll admit, it took me a chapter or two to really get into the flow but once I did, I was invested! Let me start by saying I do NOT think this is the authors strongest work *AND* it’s still very good + in my mind speaks to her talent in that she’s only ever improved from her debut. 

I found Natalie to be quite relatable in her stubbornness, I appreciated the magical realism that seems to be present in many of Lim’s stories, and I loved the details about food and the inclusion of each recipe. The neighbours are charming and make the story fun and it feels a bit like going to actual Chinatown. 

For what I didn’t love — I do feel some of the prose around her grief got repetitive, the language of tiny crystals came up a lot and while that may have been a magical realism thing, I do wish there was just a bit more variety I guess? It just felt like I’d read it before in this book not too long before it came up again. I don’t think that the storyline with Daniel, her romantic interest, was unnecessary but the end did feel a bit fast — I would have liked it to be an opening or beginning of something rather than how it seemed to end but it wasn’t a huge bother. I do appreciate honestly that the love story was NOT a major focus because I think her story with her mother and grandmother and neighbours is far more compelling. I loved the backstory about her parents and that reveal felt sweet and well done! 

I really enjoyed this story and want more Roselle Lim books! I would definitely give this one a chance and just let yourself be swept up in the story. And then check out Vanessa Yu & Sophie Go’s respective stories also by Roselle Lim! 

I love Jasmine Guillory! This is on me for starting this then leaving it at home while I was at school then losing it during my move before I finally found it n finished the last 30% in the last few days 😅 

I loved Margot and Luke and their dynamic — I appreciated Margot’s whole dynamic n need to prove herself to her brother, that felt very true of sibling and family relationships lol and the love story was fun! Sydney is prob my fave side character, I’d love to read her story! Or one about her and Margot just as best friends lol like more of that story! Some day perhaps!  

TW: it does take place largely at a winery (Margot co owns it w her brother, Luke begins working there which is how they formally meet) so if you’re not down to read about wine n people drinking (mostly pleasant, there’s one drunk party guest but that’s mostly it) then maybe skip this one. <3