renatasnacks's reviews
2410 reviews

Hmm... I wanted to like this, and I did, but I wasn't totally on board w/the plot. Oh well! Still fun.

Good fun!

Oh my goodness, this was one of the most interesting, best-written books I've ever read. Not best book about food, just best book. So smart. It really made me think about the food I eat and where it comes from. But it was also funny and human. Pollan's voice--as a interested person really trying to find out where his food comes from--is unique and helps navigate through statistics and (gross) anecdotes.

I swear I already wrote a review of this but I just saw it on my to-read list still so, whatever. Anyway, this is John Green's first book but I read it after An Abundance of Katherines & Paper Towns. He definitely has a thing for writing about nerdy boys and hot, quirky girls, but this is, I guess, his first book about nerdy boys and a hot, quirky girl. Luckily, he also gives the hot, quirky girls personalities and depth so they move beyond Garden State-cliché level.

REALLY funny, which I expected as soon as I noticed a cover blurb from Jon Stewart. A lot of really clever jokes and footnotes. (I LOVE footnote humor.) I got pretty into the plot, too, even though the plot was kind of secondary to the jokes and concept (i.e. a 12-yr-old boy is secretly one of the smartest and richest people in the world and he uses his $$ to secretly significantly enhance his public school experience).

I liked this more than I thought I would. Obviously, just fun, fluffy reading, but really enjoyable. I think Mia's character was more developed (and smarter) here than in the movie.

What a hilariously weird book. I really enjoyed it. I think it lent itself well to audiobook because a lot of it was written in kind of a B-movie homage and the narrator did a good job of copping that kind of style. It kind of reminded me of Lemony Snicket in its weird postmodern-YA style, although it went further in that direction than the Unfortunate Events books.

OH MIA. OH GRANDMERE. OH MICHAEL. Ugh I want a cute older boyfriend to take me on a Star Wars date please.

I really should have liked a YA book about Scrabble players more than this. I mean, really. I did like the Scrabble scenes a lot. Ambrose, the protagonist, is kind of annoying and awkward. He knows it, and it's intentional on the author's part, but after a while I was like, "I get it, you have no social skills. God." I liked Cosmo, the ex-convict neighbor and Scrabble buddy. The crazy overprotective mom made me cringe, as she was supposed to do, I guess.

Ehhhhhh perhaps I am just too big of a lover of the original to appreciate this. But I feel like it could have been much better done. It felt really forced, especially the whole plot twist causing Beth's death. Also it was hard to buy the Marches as vampires. Better if they were humans and their father was off fighting vampires instead of the Civil War, I THINK.