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I can't tell if this book is repetitive, or if the curriculum for the class I'm reading it for is repetitive. All of the reading kind of blends together for me.

If this book seems pretentious to people, I think it's the fact that Nietzche seems to hate nearly every person mentioned in this book, but at the same time, he doesn't seem to have much passion for improving or changing the world. He just positions himself as above people, in an almost petty way.

Maybe I'm just incapable of understanding abstract concepts. Maybe I just need everything spelled out for me in concrete terms.

I can barely understand a word that Nietzche writes. Based on the reactions from the rest of my class, not everyone has this problem, so I guess this is my fault and not the translator's. But it's still incredibly frustrating to read.

I really would've loved to go more in depth into Wasif Jawhariyyeh's journal. This book is good in the sense that it's making me more curious about the history it talks about.

This book is very successfully depressing, if that's what Green was going for. I do buy, for the most part, that this is how people would feel after a close friend dies.

This mystery aspects of this book suck. It's at its strongest when it's just showing the emotions of mourning - the way these characters try to figure out how Alaska died just doesn't match with my experience of how people act after their friends die.

I am starting to suspect that Nietzche might have his head far, far up his ass. Not sure though.

Now that I'm on my second time reading this book, I can say definitively that this book would've worked better had the twist not happened. Maybe the book wouldn't have gotten as much attention, because it wouldn't have been as attention-getting, but it just doesn't work this way. Just as we're getting to know and understand Alaska, Green rips away any hope of her and Pudge ever having a mature connection.

I'm glad this goes out of its way to refute misconceptions about why the Middle East is the way it is, and to place the blame primarily on imperialists for present-day problems.

That chapter would've been a lot easier to read if I'd already had some background on 19th century philosophy. But the parts I could understand seemed to be pretty accurate to my beliefs, although I worry that Nietzsche is going to down-play the extent to which our environment shapes us and oversell the way that we shape ourselves, which is something I don't agree with.

I think the worst thing about this book is that, if you know what's coming, you can see how incredibly calculated it all is. The setup for the mystery of the second half involves all these little clues that are clearly there to make you try to guess the answer to the mystery, which should be the opposite of what you're doing as you read the second half.

I really shouldn't like this - there are a lot of bad moments here. (Green trying to write Alaska as a feminist, for example, is one of the more cringe-worthy things I've come across). It's also worth noting that the first half of this book is basically only interesting if you already know what's going to happen. But I dunno, man, it's still speaking to me for some reason. I wish I could articulate why.

Stories about slavery are always very difficult to read, but that was a very interesting and revealing one.

Even though the dialogue and character interactions are clearly completely unrealistic, this book is really getting to me. I guess it's just how atmospheric it is? I can't explain it. I know I shouldn't be enjoying this, but I do kind of like the writing, and it has made me laugh more than a few times.

This is in the uncanny valley of realism. Like, it's almost realistic, but it doesn't quite hit the mark - it's just a little too exaggerated. The characterization is kind of stiff and forced, and everyone kind of talks and thinks like Green does in his vlogs, just through a different lens.

The Heart's Filthy Lesson by Elizabeth Bear: 4/5 Very good characters and writing, story decent.

The Machine Starts by Greg Bear: 1/5 Confusing story, boring characters.

Blood, Ash, Braids by Genevieve Valentine: 3/5 Good premise that the story doesn't explore adequately.

That was a really interesting look at how societies in decline try to save themselves. The various power structures at play really says a lot about the nature of power and governments in general, I think.

Damn. That was very powerful. This book is flawed in a lot of ways, but in spite of everything, I really do care about these characters. I really wish the story had been stronger, because the characterization and the writing are both very good.

If the rest of the book is like this - stories of individual Middle Eastern people - I think this book is going to be really interesting. I'm really enjoying this so far.

Well, if nothing else, I'm glad that this section of the book actually makes sense, from a framing standpoint. I guess I probably am going to finish this book, although there were several points where I thought I'd probably abandon it. Maddie is a more interesting character than I realized, and this section definitely has the potential to be good.

God, Wein snuck up on me there. She's clearly an immensely talented writer, and why she decided to tell this middling story that doesn't make sense is beyond me.

This is barely more than a school textbook, so I'm not going to have very many thoughts about it. It's well-written, readable, and informative - that's about all I'm asking of it.

This book has a lot of problems, but probably the biggest is that Queenie is way more interesting than Maddie. Every time the book focuses on her, things get interesting, and I enjoy myself. But Maddie gets most of the book's attention, and I find most of her sections boring. Given that the device the book uses to focus on Maddie doesn't make any sense, I have no idea why Wein didn't just tell Queenie's story.

This is actually pretty interesting. It's a bit too abstract for my taste, but there's something that appeals to me about the idea of trying to categorize actions and create a framework for judging what we should do and why. I guess you could argue that it's too reductionist, but it appeals to how I want to think about these issues.

I really am close to giving up on this book. Every time I think I'm going to do it, the book does something interesting that makes me want to keep reading. But I am just not that invested in Maddie's story - I think I'd like the book a lot better if it focused on Verity.

My translation is not nearly as user-friendly as is introduction promises. Simply using fewer pronouns would do wonders to link these ideas together more readably. But anyway, the ideas themselves are pretty interesting, better than what I had been lead to expect.

This is just barely interesting enough for me to keep reading. I like the sections Verity writes about the prison cell, and I like her friendship with Maddie - the whole bicycling sequence was nice. But I don't buy the premise of this novel at all, and the story about Maddie advancing as a pilot is honestly pretty boring.

I just don't buy that Verity has any way of knowing Maddie's thoughts this deeply, and I don't see any reason for her to just make them up. This book's premise just doesn't make any sense, and the story is frankly not that interesting so far.

I've only read the introduction, so I don't have much to say yet, but this looks very interesting so far.