mossybean's reviews
360 reviews

This was really lovely! I only skipped one story, which is pretty good odds for a short story collection. I've liked Rainbow Rowell for a long time, and it was nice to revisit her, having read everything else of interest in her author library. There was an interesting mix of adult and YA love (or romance adjacent) stories. I think my favourite of the collection was the prince and the troll, which melded fairytale with social commentary. I thought it was very clever. I also really loved the ending message, when she says

"This isn't easy. This is just another kind of hard. That's all that's left now, for any of us."

. She was so right. I expected all the stories to be cute romances, and though I liked those ones too, the ones that stood out were the stories that strayed from that a bit. Mixed Messages too, I thought was quite profound. And of course, the most anticipated story of this collection featured my favs, Simon and Baz. It was cute and lovely and perfectly satisfied my expectations. 

I read this after watching the show, and was surprised to see how closely the show actually follows the book. I had previously attempted to read this and found the jokster narrative voice too irritating, but after enjoying the show I tried again, and I liked it this time. It's quite funny and well written. A success for something outside my usual wheelhouse. 

I found some of the stories dragged on a bit, but the other ones were quite lovely. Once you read a few, you realize the pattern the stories will follow-- main character has a life problem, they somehow get directed to the community house and then the library, and they get recommended a book that changes their perspective. It's cozy and gentle. 

I liked this sequel less than the first book. The plot jumped around a bit too much, and sometimes got stuck in these little eddies of story that took too long

like when they were solving puzzles underneath the island for SO MANY CHAPTERS

. I liked getting Dami’s story though, and I still liked them as a character. I think one issue was that the characters were always facing these life or death situations, so at some point you don’t believe they’re actually in danger, because they always miraculously pull through. Once that suspense is gone, reading those sequences is far less interesting. Additionally, it’s not always interesting to read people think out loud about logic puzzles or strategy. Or maybe just these people. Anyhow, I got bored at parts. I still liked the queerness, the found family, and the magic. 

This was about what I expected, fast-paced, a lot of fighting and escaping and magic. It was very readable though, and I enjoyed many parts of it even though it's not a new favourite. I never read this as a kid, so it's fun to participate in a slice of reading culture that most of my peers are now nostalgic about. I also read this in tandem with my brother, our first "buddy read" of sorts. That's the best part of it I think, the connection drawn from having read it. 

I really wanted to be into this, but I think that blending theory with poetry just didn't work for me in the end. I just wanted all the poetry and memoir, and forget the complicated "word salad" as my aunt would say. 

I always like the Anne books, and this one was no exception. I found it surprisingly heavy in parts, I was unprepared for Anne's adulthood I suppose. I appreciate the slowness of the narrative, and the descriptions of nature. It reminds me to slow down too. 
I felt it was too bad that Gilbert didn't feature more in this one, as he was absent in the previous book as well, and though they were living together this time, we didn't see much of him. I missed Green Gables too, but Anne has grown and moved away now, it makes sense. Her little house of dreams was lovely to visit. 
Leslie's story arc was compelling, and I was happy with how it resolved, though that kind of story could never have happened now. 
Miss Cornelia was quite the character, she made me laugh quite a bit. I wasn't so sure about how her arc came to an end, maybe Montgomery didn't know what to do with her. I think she was writing a lesbian and she just didn't know it. 

It didn’t grab me, and the premise was weird. The main character didn’t feel real. 

This was my first Novel by Toni Morrison. And wow, it was pretty amazing. I've been meaning to read her for a long time, but I was saving her for a moment when I could handle a hard story, because that's just sort of what her stories are like. I found the tumbling narrative sucked me in, and though it was confusing at times to sus out who was talking, I didn't mind. Her writing is magnificent, so many lines or turns of phrase or ways of describing things made me pause and turn back to read them again. I have surely not seen everything there is to see here, and will read it again I'm sure.