expecto_padronum's reviews
139 reviews

So cute, I wish there was a little more to the characters but hopefully that’ll come in the later books

This was not at all what I was expecting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was shook that the protagonist was so toxic -  Rory Gilmore level of terrible friend and girlfriend - and the constant cringiness of her choices knocked the rating down a little for me. I wonder if the author intended for readers to dislike Danielle as much as I did. That being said, I was hooked and I devoured this book in 2 days so points for that + the unique premise. I’ll go on a rant with spoilers but at the end of the day, this book is a reminder that characters don’t need to be likeable for a story to be interesting and thought provoking. 

your best friend is literally DYING and she gifts you a whole apartment, personally decorated, and you repay her by…. Kissing her fiancé?!?!? Wtf!!! And when her best friend was diagnosed with cancer she called her weak and said she couldn’t handle it!! I repeat: wtf!!!! I was cheering for David when he finally broke up with her AND kicked her out of the apartment. Should’ve done it 3 years earlier but better late than never Dave. Her re-proposing to you and then only wanting you to finish her off instead of having a mutual intimate moment was a big fat red flag (waving proudly among many other giant red flags from this woman). And I know Rebecca Serle didn’t invent the concept of the  best friend + boyfriend hooking up after the funeral, but good lord I hate that trope. So uncomfy.  Lastly, I found some of the details in the premonition scene to be a bit of a stretch to make us think she and Aaron were together. I personally probably wouldn’t wear my best friend’s engagement ring after she died. I also find it hard to believe that Aaron left sweatpants at her apartment from when he was working on it… in a drawer… after she’s been living there for weeks…. Oh well.

I think I might have liked it more if I hadn’t seen the movie first. That being said, the movie is pretty bad and the book is definitely better. Entertaining and fast-paced which somewhat makes up for the lack of character development. 

The writing was beautiful but I would have enjoyed if there was more to the story

This book was so fun. A solid cozy mystery and a page turner that I devoured so fast! 

The interview format was interesting and unique. Overall I enjoyed it, although all the jargon made it hard for me to really understand what was happening at times and I didn’t love the way women were  talked about. It’s what you’d expect from an action novel written by a man in the early 2000s - not outright sexism, but not feminist by any means. 

I want to appreciate this book for what it is (a cool way to approach a zombie apocalypse story) rather than judge it for what it’s not (equal in its treatment of men and women). However, in reflecting on this book, I think it’s worth noticing that the women POVs were: an ignorant wife, a woman who was institutionalized, a woman who was in the military but hated that she “acted like a girl,” a birther, and a woman who solely talked about her dad’s choice to bring them north when she was a kid. The other 20+ POVs were men. He made a statement at the beginning saying the interviewees’ viewpoints were not his own & he’s preserving journalistic integrity by not editing their words or putting his own opinion…. But the author seemed to like writing from the POV of misogynistic assholes a lot…. 

Also, I wish there had been more of a narrative thread connecting the stories, maybe fewer narrators that would repeat instead of so many disconnected ones. 

I think it was a cool idea, and the author clearly did a lot of research to make each interview sound authentic. Still, I personally would love to read it written by someone else with a more modern, inclusive perspective; with more narrative and less jargon. I’d keep some of the interviews but get rid of or change a lot of them.