pickledpotato1021's reviews
197 reviews

This read like a horror movie. Really amazing, creepy, spooky, kinda scary even. This is the kind of feeling I crave from horror and thrillers that I often don’t get and am left disappointed. 

More psycho than Victorian. 
Very disjointed, very confused. 
Interesting premise, poor execution of the beginning and middle but the last chapter was great.

Philip and Nancy deserve much worse than. Jaycee hasn’t even been free longer than she was held captive at the time I finished her book. Let that sink in. She will not be free longer than she was captive until after 2027. 
There was a part of her journal entires that passed my birthday and I thought “I’m born now.” I was born and Jaycee was on her 11th year of captivity. She would not be free for 7 more years. 
Yes the language is juvenile, yes it’s jumpy, yes she talks about cats and dogs a lot but for gods sake cats and dogs and birds and ants and spiders were the only living creatures she had that weren’t responsible for her captivity. She wouldn’t have another innocent human to talk to until she was 14, 3 years into captivity, and birthed one. 

Let all of that sink in.

I can relate to Lonnie in a few ways. While I wasn’t Jewish, I was in a very strict Christian household. Strict religion and queerness does not mix well. It’s really painful, honestly. And don’t even think about leaving the religion, that’s worse than murder. 
I’m glad Lonnie shared his story, because there’s so many queer kids like us who deserve to know there’s a community for them.

Thank you NetGalley for a free digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review. 
My review is my true and honest thoughts and opinions with no outside influence. 

This book was a slow burn roller coaster. I could not put it down (it took me longer to read it because I kept getting distracted by other books lol). This was a very out of my comfort zone book but I loved it. From the first line I was absolutely hooked. I was disgusted, interested, curious, and disgusted some more. I took some emotional damage from the ending, but it was so well done. The language shift in the last sentence (I don’t wanna spoil so I won’t give more detail) spoke VOLUMES. It was a one word shift but it was loud and clear and intentional. The ending  made me feel so many emotions that I typically don’t even think about when reading thriller/horror books. 

Again thank you to NetGalley for the free digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

First things first: no the actually writing is not the absolute best. But this isn’t a book you read for the writing. This is a book you read to understand what this poor woman went through. 

I am wholeheartedly against mommy bloggers. As Sherri has said, there is no ethical mommy blogger. Children cannot consent. Children do not understand the implications of putting their face, their lives, on the internet. And they won’t until it’s too late. 
Educational mommy bloggers, moms of special needs children who share educational videos, can do so without sharing their child’s face or name. 

This book is an example. An example of the justice system and CPS/DCFS failing miserably. An example of how going to church or being religious doesn’t automatically make you a good person. An example on how being a bystander to abuse does not make you innocent. 

Sherri and her siblings suffered greatly. Jodi and Ruby are horrible people who deserve more than 4-30 years in prison. They deserve to be in the same conditions they left those poor children in.

The positive reviews and ratings speak for themselves. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said about how amazing this book is, and normally that wouldn’t stop me cause my reviews are really for myself to go back to when I talk about a book. 

I would instead like to use my review intentionally for other readers this time, and to touch on the ignorance and racism from the negative reviews. 

“What’s going on in Syria is not a revolution” 
According to multiple sources this is flat out false. Do more research. 

“This book is a romance! How can someone marry someone they met a week ago?!”
1. It’s a war. The mind and body look for escape and distraction. The distraction for hate is love. Get over it.
2. If you read this book and think it’s just a romance, you have no critical thinking skills. I said what I said.

“The romance was haram!”
It’s a literal war. I think the boundaries of haram are more gray than if it wasn’t a war zone. 

“Just because your parents are from somewhere doesn’t mean you get to talk about it!”
So because I’m from Ohio I can’t talk about Black culture? It’s no longer my culture? Ignorance it’s its purest form. 

“ISIS sympathizer!”
Racism and ignorance in one comment. The FSA is absolutely not ISIS. Do real research. 

“She talks about lemons too much.”
Well I’d be more surprised if the focus was oranges considering the title has the word lemon in it and the cover is a literal lemon tree in the shape of a lemon with lemons on it.

I loved it. The characters, the story, the 4th wall breaking, the humor, the touch on serious topics, it was great. I am had such a good time. I will say there was a LOT of mentions of Stevie Nicks which got kind of annoying and one relationship between 2 characters I wasn’t fond of, and I was a little confused by (no, not the queer one, but I don’t want to spoil), and that’s why I bumped it down to a 4.75 instead of a 5. But overall super lovable and fun. 

Okay so.. no. Firstly I’d like to say as someone who actually has agoraphobia, that plot twist is a pretty big middle finger. It was a predictable plot twist that was almost interesting. Almost. If you take away the very in your face clues and ignorance on agoraphobia.  I was almost excited for a representation of my phobia, while I’m on the mild side of the spectrum it’s nice to see it being represented but NOPE it wasn’t. 

Secondly, this story has been told before. This is almost a carbon copy of M3gan. M3gan’s story, evil AI and a haunted toy/doll has also been told before. If you’re going to tell a story that’s already been told before you need it to be creative, unique, different, and good. M3gan was at least creative in blending those 2 popular tropes. W1ll1am was not. It was M3gan but “don’t make it obvious you copied”. 

Thirdly, there’s  a lot of just incorrect things in this book. For example water turns to gas past 212° (that’s relevant about half way through the book). Water simply does not exist at 220°, that’s vapor, steam. At least in the environment it was used in the book. 
Another example: 
“He feels the floor drop out from below him like an elevator falling too fast. A metaphor that doesn’t come from experience.” 
That’s not a metaphor. That’s a simile. Which as an author you should 100% know the difference between a metaphor and a simile. Metaphors say something is something else, where a simile says something is LIKE something. The quote could be a metaphor simply by saying “the floor was a moving elevator, falling too fast” but I digress.