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gracescanlon's reviews
730 reviews
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation
Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and War
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I didn't read the precursor to this novel, When in Rome, but Practice Makes Perfect stands perfectly well on its own.
I can't believe that first guy, Mr. Khakis-and-no-effort-or-personality, had the gall to call Annie boring! Any time the story was told from her POV, I found myself laughing out loud at least twice. She's a total hoot! I could completely understood the ideas her family and the town at large had about her and the boxes they put her in could chafe over a lifetime of living in Rome. Annie was hilarious, interesting, smart, original, and caring, an excellent female MC.
Will was a sensitive and sexy, but not flawless, male MC. His imperfections made me love him, because he felt real. I loved how he sees Annie - really sees her - and how amazing she is, from page one. He doesn't want her to change, and he's right that she neither should nor needs to change.
The sibling relationships were all lovely. I thought the opposite reactions Will and his brother had after their upbringing was both an interesting contrast and quite believable. Their opening up to one another was a heartwarming moment. The love between Annie and her sisters, especially with their wholehearted addition of Amelia Rose to their ranks, was a delight. I love seeing women support and love and have fun with one another!
Man oh man, I didn't know that a closed-door romance would be so...steamy. I don't know how Adams flustered me so fully without any explicit scenes, but she did, and I'm impressed!
Steamy without being explicit, but also funny and adorable, I'd definitely recommend Practice Makes Perfect!
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Dementia, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Kidnapping
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Drug use
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Strike one: The story was odd, as was the main character. Also, the narrative voice continually switched from conversational to more lofty prose, often from one sentence to the next and back again. Many of the more conversational ones were actually dependent clauses, which brought the immediate shift in tone from literary fiction-esque sentences to non-sentences into even sharper contrast.
Strike two: The book touched on issues around those who grew up with money and those who didn’t, but didn’t delve deeply into them. This was fine, actually, as the MC idolized the old-money characters for most of it. However, her shift in opinion of those types of characters neglected to address topics like entitlement and never knowing financial struggle or hardship. She did, however, shift her thinking on theft from such people. So to see one side of her opinion about the “haves and have-nots” change, but not the other (at least not on the page), rang insincere.
Strike three: The entire book was so predictable that when it met the tired tropes and twists without deviation, I was truly in disbelief — disbelief that anyone could be that unoriginal.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
5.0
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Wonder State combines my favorite story elements within its pages: the Southern Gothic, friendships, magical realism, and a quest. It’s an utterly captivating and enchanting story about a group of six unlikely friends on a quest for local magical locations during their senior year of high school. It also follows the continuation of that unfinished quest 15 years after high school graduation, after one of them goes missing.
In The Wonder State, Murphy touches on many important themes, including classism, poverty, addiction, and abuse, among others. Her characters, their prejudices, insecurities, and struggles, are all believable, especially in their teenage minds. She has a talent for capturing the moral complexity of the human person - no one is wholly good or wholly bad. Murphy shows through her characters that people make mistakes (it’s inevitable); it’s what they do after making that mistake that determines if they are more of a good person or bad person.
I found putting this book down difficult, even if moments before picking it up I was ready to turn out my lamp and sleep for the night. I always seemed to read the whole of at least two or three chapters every time I began to read it.
The ending, though I can see how some might find it disappointing, was perfection - to me. It was, after all, the falling action. I loved how quiet the ending was, how peaceful and hopeful - a perfect contrast and conclusion to a high-tension story.
I have only one more word: Brava!!!!!
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol