pastelwriter's reviews
1099 reviews

I don’t know that I can fully articulate why I loved this book so much without pouring my heart out to y’all…which I don’t want to do 😂

I just need to start by saying that I adored this book. It spoke to me in a deep and meaningful way. Reading it felt like I was holding a little piece of the author’s heart, and that’s something I always treasure. 

I can’t say this book will resonate with everyone, but it certainly did for me. A large part of why is mentioned in the author’s note. The author mentions how we don’t get as many stories about strong people learning to be vulnerable…and I felt that. The acknowledgment of the work it takes to break down those walls you built to survive…yeah that hit. It hit really fucking hard. 

Icarus and Helios have a place in my heart. They dug in deep without having to even try that hard. Icarus…was a vivid reminder of my childhood in many ways. The pressure he was under, the conflicting feelings, the raging need for love and affection… Yeah. I get that. Feel that in my heart and soul. 

Helios, on the other hand, although I didn’t relate to as closely… I still found myself loving him as fiercely as Icarus. I wanted to care for him and protect him. It’s what he deserves. Truly. He shined so brightly in this story, and it was devastating watching as his father tried to dim his beautiful light. 

Anyway. The friendships Icarus develops in here (especially with Luca and Celestina)? Those hit. Although I won’t deny that not each friendship was given full attention, the effect they had on Icarus was still obvious. I loved seeing Icarus get the tenderness he deserved. All his friends cared for him in different but meaningful ways. UGH. My heart 💖

So yeah. I loved this book. It’s gonna be in my top 10 reads of 2024. I have no doubt about it. Not a singular one. The chokehold this book and The President and the Frog will have on me this year…it’s gonna be unholy. 

I fucking loved this. No notes.

Well. I do have one note. The way women are talked about in this (and sometimes how they’re talked to) is 🤢 That part is definitely not great, so it does make most of the men / teenage boys in here sound like total misogynists. However, that’s not enough to lower my rating.

I was so invested reading this. Despite having watched the anime last year, I still read this volume with as much intensity and interest as if I didn’t know how the story ends. I think the characters and storyline are just that compelling. I can’t say most manga I pick up after watching the anime grips me in the same way.

I think so much of my interest has to do with how engaging I find Light and L. I’m personally one of the people with absolute brain rot for Light. I adore his character…and I love him because he’s a trash human being 😂 He’s horrid, and that’s exactly how I like him. I love seeing this charming persona he puts on in front of others, but then being able to see his grimy insides. It gives me absolute pleasure! Because of this, I still root for L without restraint. I want him to catch Light. Their cat and mouse game is the best part of this entire story. They’re consistently trying to outsmart the other, and it’s the best! 

I don’t have much else to say. Reading this manga series will likely just reaffirm what I love about it (while also reaffirming its weaknesses). 

This was an incredible story. It was heartbreaking and thoughtful. 

The artwork in this graphic novel went perfectly with Reynolds’ words. They painted a vivid picture of the feelings and events conveyed by his writing. 

Even in such few words, this graphic novel still ends up being an impactful read. It grips you and forces you to think of cycles of violence. It makes you think of how events are connected and how they may result in less than favorable outcomes. It is a story as much about love as it is about pain. 

The ending is ambiguous, but I think it works for this story. It’s the type of story that seems to say, “Here’s the truth of how things happen and why. At the end of the day, the choice is yours if you continue the circle or break out into something different.”

This was another fun installment in this series! Much like the last volume, though, I don’t have much to say. I just find this series soothing to read. 

I rather enjoyed the sections in this volume that had to do with the granddaughter of the “Boss.” She had the most iconic and hilarious facial expressions 😂 Clearly the mangaka had a lot of fun drawing those because he drew so many different ones. 

I also loved the little snippet we got of young Tatsu 🥺 I love him 💖

Also. Low-key in love with Tora. He’s so pretty…and it didn’t help my mushy feelings that he helped a kitty even though he’s allergic to them 💖

I finished this book quite frustrated with it ☹️

I would say that about 90% of this book I thoroughly enjoyed. 

I was invested in the story line. I was interested to follow Keera’s growth. She’s working for a king that she loathes, she’s an alcoholic, and finally there’s a flip in her life. I truly was curious to see where she would go and how she would change! And I learned to care about what Keera cared. I was also curious about the world and the people in it. All truly engaging (even if not groundbreaking). 

However, the ending truly soured it all for me. I don’t know what exactly I wanted, but it wasn’t what I got. Not only did it feel like Riven and Keera’s romance was being rushed, but then the big reveal we got at the end made me want to bang my head against a wall. I think mostly this had to do with the fact that it was executed poorly. We had a decent view of a character, and then quite suddenly it was turned on us in a way that felt forced. Ugh. 

Anyway. I have the sequel, so I’ll probably read it, but I won’t be as excited to pick it up as I was before I reached the end of this book 😕

Another read for work ✌🏼

Honestly, I read this mostly to start thinking of potential summative assignment ideas. I already knew I was going to pick this as a read for my ESL II students (even though I haven’t previously read Dracula). I just knew the vibes would be there 😂 

The main reason this gets 3🌟 is because it’s (obviously) written in simpler English and GREATLY condensed the narrative of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Most of the tension is killed by how quickly issues get resolved. Still, I do think I can use it to teach students about foreshadowing and how authors create tension. So, in the end, worth it. 

There are books in this world that speak to you in such a visceral way that it becomes near impossible to articulate their significance. Still, I must try.

The President and the Frog is not for everyone. Although it overwhelmingly has positive reviews, I would not lightly recommend this book. It was not written in such a way to be loved by all. I loved it because, from the first page, I knew Caro de Robertis was going to tell me a story that would ring true for me.

The simplest way to explain my immediate love for this novel is that I love the way that De Robertis crafts sentences. At the sentence structure level, De Robertis writes sentences that feed my brain. Sentences that make my brain go, yes yes yes more please! This is in many ways something that comes to me from being a Spanish speaker. Many writers who write in Spanish write meandering sentences that may seem like they’re running off to nowhere, but these very deviations are what build the cadence of the story. The story would not feel right if the authors were, instead, to get right to the point every single time. It’s a writing style that some authors from the Romanticism era capture (which is why they are in the small handful of classics I love). All this to say, the writing style of this novel suits me perfectly.

Beyond the writing from a craft perspective, I’m always surprised and slightly torn open (in the best way) by stories that force me to confront the fact that I used to suffer from depression. I’m someone who has been more accepting of my anxiety and been prone to downplay my depression. This is mostly because depression is not an ongoing battle for me. It was in my life because of the circumstances I was in. Many quotes in this book verbalize how I felt at the time and what I longed for.

“He’d finally lost his grip on reality. Well, good, all the better, and about time too, fuck reality, he thought, I don’t want to hold it anymore my fingers hurt too much for that.”

“What superhuman mental strength does it require to lift your thoughts to the right frequency for survival, how to find that strength, where to source it, what’s the way? […] Sometimes he longed only for the stupor of forgetting, a falling as if into sleep, only into a state more numb than sleep, more permanent […] Every time temptation slunk toward him, he found himself rattled by and yet.”

Quotes like this spoke to that time in my life perfectly. I struggle to find the words for that time of my life, and I cry in joy and pain when I encounter a book, an author, that has found the words. It feels like a labor of love. They did not do it thinking of me specifically, but I feel the love of being known. The love of recognition. It is an experience I’m always grateful for. It is a gift that I could never express properly the thanks I feel. Beyond a simple, thank you thank you thank you.

Outside of this, I think the last parting thought I can give for why I loved this was that it perfectly encapsulated the complicated creature that is living in our world. The fear for the state of our planet, its health and the health of the people and animals on it, and simultaneously the hope for survival. Both a sense of hopelessness yet refusal to give up. This refusal born from the little things that make this world worth saving. But most of all, the love we should all feel for the earth and how it nurtures and sustains us.

There’s not much else I can say. As I told my friend when I tried talking about this book, I loved it because it is. I loved it because it exists. 

I don’t have much to say about this. I read it mostly to determine if I wanted to pick it as a book to use in my ESL II class in the future. 

After having read it, I do think it works well for my class and a unit I need to teach. It’s not personally super up my alley or fit my interests, but it is high interest for my students. 

Mostly just marking it read here because I did, in fact, read it 😂