pickledpotato1021's reviews
181 reviews

“I want to believe that we’ll make it together, even if it’s just for now.”

Four friends go to an escape room, but the game master has no intention of letting them out alive. I like the different points of view, especially when they show the same event from a totally different perspective, but the ending was far too open ended. I really want more info on Mint’s backstory, there’s so much that can be done with her.

“But history is written by the winners. Or, more simply, history is written by men.”

Medusa’s story told from her point of view. The writing was beautiful and represented how I believe Medusa truly would be and how she would tell her story.

“I don’t want to feel like I’m dying on someone else’s clock. I just want to die- on my terms, in my time.”
TW: Cancer; Negative online comments; Death
Astrid is 16 years old, and has cancer. Again. She travels across the country to a research facility to look at her options. This story gave a realistic view into adolescent cancer rather than a romanticized one. Mo was kind of a jerk sometimes. I wouldn’t have put up with a few of his comments, but he was overall a good guy. This book made me cry.

“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.”
TW: Child abuse
Omelas is perfection, in every way you can imagine; minus one small secret hidden in a basement or a closet, deep under one of the houses in the city. The symbolism and metaphors make you think a lot about what's actually being said, and how it translates to real life. There’s a lot of big words, and confusing sentences. There's also a lot of loose ends by the end of the story which leaves a lot of questions, but I guess that's kinda the point.

"'What ifs don't bring people back. They just make us worry,' Lia whispered."
TW: Blood; Gore; Violence
Senior year tradition turns deadly. It was a good premise, but that's where it stops. The cons: The half-done diversity. I am non-binary. If it takes me 3/4 of the book to realize a character is non-binary but they were only referred to when they were in a group it's not good. The randomness drove me nuts. The wtf moments made me roll my eyes. Lia took that game way too serious, the plot twist wasn't shocking or entertaining, the motive was stupid, and honestly Lia’s parents were in the right.

“To be part of nature was to be part of the will to live.”
TW: Death; Suicide; Depression; Mild sexual content
Nora is on the brink of death, but instead of seeing the light she winds up in a library. I love the concept of the story, I love how it was executed. I was hoping the ending wouldn’t be what it was, but I’m glad it was done in a dignified way.

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.”
TW: Toxic relationships; Marital abuse; Animal abuse
The Twits are awful people, and the monkeys they've held captive for years finally get their revenge. It’s funny, it’s stupid, it’s great… for a certain age range. It’s for children. While it is a funny, stupid, silly story, it has a lot of crude humor, negative statements about beauty, and talks about toxic relationships, marital abuse, and animal abuse. For a book targeted to children and written at a level for young children, it shouldn't be that heavy/dark. The book is written at a much younger reading level but because of the points I made previously I don't think anyone that young should be reading it.

“Say what you will about the world, but the world reacts to children’s tears.”
M Freeman goes to school to become a criminal, like her parents once were, or so she thinks. I love entire concept, and the plot twists made sense (unlike in Verity. Take notes CoHo). Sometimes the plot moved TOO fast, for example when M said she wanted to steal the painting, everyone was just like “yeah sure it's been stolen 3 times before and the people are always caught but hey you're like 16 you can probably pull it off.”

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.”
TW: Mild gore
M trains as a Fulbright to help defend the world against criminals, but it's hard to tell who the real good guys are. I loved the deepening of the story, and the clarity of the bigger picture starting to peek through. I didn't like how people change sides so quickly though.

“The people of Godspeed have gone years without knowing about the stairs. And I can’t help but think: if they’ve forgotten stairs, what else have they forgotten?”
TW: Sexual harassment/assault briefly mentioned
Elder is in charge of the ship without using phydus, and finally solves some mystery's everyone's been wondering about. Answers to the open ended questions from the first book were finally answered, but there's a few more left over. Elder is too soft as a leader. It seems like there's always a bigger picture that we aren't seeing, even if we think we finally put the puzzle together.