Bookish Belle

I received this book as a Christmas gift as it was a high priority on my wish list. I read the book with a person whose genre is NOT Fantasy, feeling a bit bad for them as they might be confused. Naturally, they asked many questions but they seemed to get the hang of it pretty quick.  I'm only doing a SPOILER FREE review since this is such a relatively new book from 2019.  SPOILER-FREE: The book’s main character, Galaxy (Alex) Stern, is a force to be reckoned with as she is the only human known at Yale University (the secret occult sector) that can see dead people (cue Sixth Sense scene.) Not only can she see dead people, but she can see them IN COLOR, something no one else can do. Throughout the book, she is solving a mystery and her past is slowly revealed throughout.  What I liked: I liked the main setup and the world building. It’s detailed and there’s a guide in the back of the book to help readers along the way. I also like the main protagonist (fo...

I received this book as a gift for my birthday and as soon as I saw the author’s name, I was really excited to read it. It did not disappoint! What I liked: There is so much vulnerability in her writing but not in a “pity me” way. She also backs up her essays with sources that you can research for yourself and form your own thoughts on each topic. She’s not afraid to be candid in her writing either, slipping some swear words in at times. Most importantly, she’s honest. Her last chapter is definitely proof of this fact. She knows she is an imperfect feminist and she owns it. What I didn’t like so much: Sometimes the topics went over my head or were too short. Some essays were only a couple pages and I wish she had expanded it a little more. It felt like I had just gotten into the topic and then it would be the end already. Also, I couldn’t understand all the topics or references as much as I would have liked. Overall: I would rather call this book “imperfect feminist.” I...

Wow was this book all over the place (in a good way)  I read this book for book club. I had passed the title by a few times in the library, not really sure what it was about. As soon as our leader described it to us as “multi=genre,” I said SOLD.  I guess the best way to review this book is to break it down into the parts.  NON SPOILER REVIEW: What I liked: This book was so mind-bending, I couldn’t just read into the next section. I had to read each section and then wait a few hours to begin another. Even though all sections are different, they reveal different parts of the story that are important to the cohesion of the entire plot.  Each section expands on a certain character or part of the story, so it’s not just the same old same old but written in a different way.  What I didn’t like as much: The fourth section didn’t really work for me. I can’t give details in this section (hint hint spoilers review below if you’ve read the book ...