waytoomanybooks's reviews
140 reviews

This is the kind of poetry that I love. Baer has a great balance of beautiful prose and accessible language. I was able to read a poem and reflect on without feeling like I needed to years of English Lit classes to understand it. Her writing is extremely relatable to anyone who has lived the female experience. I highly recommend it!

I adore books that are told through a first person narrator looking back over their life, but this isn't really a good example of that.

Felicity looks back over her time with the Guinness family as a time of in-between: childhood and adulthood, rich and poor, alone yet in a crowd. Felicity is down-to-earth, honest, moral, and sensible, and yet, it doesn't really get her anywhere. She's like a rock in a stream: life flows past her, around her, shapes her. She leaves little impact as she lives her life on the fringe. And yet, she accepts this as an unchangeable fact. She will make do because what other choice does she have?

I can't help but wish she had had a happier ending, or at least a life that felt fleshed out while staying true to her character and storyline. But as this historical fiction, it is based on real people and real events, so I suppose Hourican wrote Felicity as someone of her station, upbringing, and background would act, think, feel, etc. She is out of place, and so her narrative is as well. I assume that that is on purpose.

Though Felicity herself is hardly more than an observer, Hourican gives her a keen eye for detail. Through her, we get to enjoy a rich narrative of parties, political upheaval, and emotional turmoil. Hourican's writing kept me hooked on every midnight treasure hunt, alcoholic bender, and the inevitable morning after. Readers have the pleasure of feeling the emotions in the book as deeply as the characters do. They're all merry, acting as though the world might end tomorrow, not caring a bit that their hard partying and lack of care will ultimately hurt them in the long-run.

One issue I had is that the "twist" was revealed far too late into the book for it to have had an impact on me...or Felicity for that matter. It fell flat, and over all, the story ended abruptly. Although, to be fair, the Jazz Age of the Bright Young Things also ended abruptly when the stock market crashed.

Over all, I'  say it's...okay. If you're looking for a series with a similar tone and mood, but since well, I'd recommend the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen, which easy summer read that is easy to pick up and put down without feeling like I've missed something important.

It's been 15 years since I read this book, and while I remembered some of the big plot points, I picked up on a lot more of the nuanced messages this time around.

What I had once considered a time travel adventure story is actually much darker. Jessie, the main character, grows up in a cult based around around beliefs and life styles of the 1840s. It isn't until the people running the show--literally, the cult is on display to the public--introduce diphtheria to the tiny town that Jessie's "ma" decides that action needs to be taken.

Cue Jessie on a journey of modernity: 1840 --> 1996.

The main message of the story is what happens when anti-vaxxers and fake news mongers are revealed to be what they truly are. It is a cautionary tale that uncomfortably lines up with where we are as a nation in 2021.

I remember reading this as a child and enjoying it because I ate up historical fiction, especially if the story was about women banding together to overcome adversity.

This is the first time I've reread it in about a decade, and I still enjoy it, and I'm now old enough to appreciate other layers and implications in the story. The story is sadder than I remembered, which is saying something, but it was in keeping with the time in which it was set.

I have loved everything I've read that was written by Sharon Creech, and I don't know how I missed this one! She is so good about describing things from a child's perspective without infantilizing them. She let's her young characters truly feel things and express themselves in believable ways, and Moo is no exception!

Brutally sad, but gorgeously hopeful. This book has made it on my top favorites of the year. Holly Ringland's writing style is sweeping, descriptive, precise, and beautiful. I can't remember the last time I was so enthralled by a writer's use of language. The way she conveys emotion will tear your heart out. 

It's interesting to read this through a modern lens when everyone already knows the twist. I can see how shaken the audience of the day would have felt! The book is spookier and creepier than I thought it would be.

A sad book with sad characters who go through a lot of sad events. This was not a fun read, but I somehow found myself enjoying it anyway. Perhaps because my problems seem so minor in comparison to those of the characters. Only one character gets a happy ending.

Wow, I don't know where to begin. It's a stunningly beautiful, painful piece of literature. It hurt to read, but I was utterly engrossed the entire way through. I sank into the mystery of the book quickly, enthralled until the end. The twist ending made me want to pick up the book and immediately read it all over again. I cannot recommend this book enough. It undoubtedly lives up to the hype!

I never went to sleep-away camp, but I was the weird kid who struggled to make friends, so I found Vera entirely relatable. Brosgol did a great job capturing those tween year emotions and experiences. And her illustrations really tied everything together. This is the first graphic novel I ever read, and I'm so glad I picked it up!