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This is completely historically inaccurate. They keep talking about the Moroccan government, as if Morocco was independent in 1937, when it was in fact a French colony at the time. Not only that, but the Jstor and Jichmach tribes appear to be completely made up - not to mention how stereotypical a depiction they are of African tribes. Fuck this book.

This book is extremely good, but I'm not enjoying it at all. In fact, I kind of don't want to keep reading it - it makes me unhappy every time I do. I can't tell if it's because it hits close to home, or if it's just because it deals with a lot of depressing topics. Either way, this makes me feel awful.

I said early on that I thought Ian and Theo might end up being interesting characters, but they're really not. In fact, the characters are this novel's biggest problem - they're incredibly bland, and they don't have a good sense of what they're after.

Also, what's the point of basing your novel in Greek mythology if the bedrock of the story is a bunch of boring shit you just made up?

Jesus shit, this is depressing. But I think this is starting to click for me. I can't pretend thirteen year-old me wouldn't have totally related to Noah.

I once heard someone say of Twilight that instead of having a dramatic structure, it chooses a starting point and just fucking GOES. This book has the same problem. One event leads to another, but never in a way that leads to any sort of tension or sense of urgency. Over halfway through, this still feels like exposition. The characters don't even really know what they're after yet.

This book is really, really depressing. Noah isn't just antisocial and awkward, he's literally incapable of carrying a conversation with anyone outside his family. And I have no idea if that was intentional or not - the magical realism makes it hard to say what's weird on purpose and what's weird on accident. I just don't know what to make of this book.

Unless you've literally never read an MG fantasy book before, this opening is unbearable. We know that there are going to be serious supernatural elements, and we know an explanation is coming at some point, but over a third of the way in, it's still all mystery. It feels like the plot hasn't started at all yet, and this opening was just tediously drawn-out.

The reason I think Noah's chapters would work better in verse than in prose is because this whole book kind of has the logic of a poem. The truth is mostly in the metaphor. This isn't literally realistic - this isn't how people think, talk, or act - but it feels real. And I admire Nelson for trying to find that reality in a new and interesting way, but I can't shake the feeling she hasn't committed fully.

This is just meh. I'm having trouble thinking of anything at all to say about it - this book is very, very okay.

This is somewhat cliched, and the prose isn't great. But it's not outright offensive, either. I could still picture the story being alright, and I can definitely picture Ian and Theo being compelling characters.

"[The restaurant] didn't look like much - a low brick building that sagged in the middle like a collapsed souffle."

"[Clary was] willing herself to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. The caffeine in her veins fizzled like carbonated water."

I'm going to assume the octopus line is only shared so commonly because it's right at the beginning of the novel, because... yeah, the similes really do get even worse.

I almost wish this ending section was longer. Nixon's downfall is easily the most interesting part of his story, and it looks like Summers is going to cover the last year of his presidency in a very, very short amount of space. Too bad.

God, the pacing in this novel is terrible. Character development should go along with the story - I'm not saying you should never have to choose between furthering the romance and advancing the plot, but it shouldn't be a zero sum game between the two.

I'm finding that, for whatever reason, I can't work up very much rage against this book, even though a lot of the dialogue is very cheesy. It's not nearly as boring as some of Clare's other books.

I just don't know what to make of this. I'm afraid that it's a little to Poetic - the characters don't act quite like real people, and it's hard to tell if all of this pain is here in service of some kind of theme or if it's just for the angst. There is a lot of potential here, and I feel like I'm being a little harsh - this is certainly a unique book. But I'm not outright enjoying it.

Again, Nixon ordered one of the largest, most destructive bombings in world history, and only a single sentence is dedicated to the casualties. I get that this isn't a history of the war, but as I've said: showing how destructive Nixon was would be an excellent way to destroy his legacy.

On one hand, I feel like Noah's chapters would be about five times better if they were written in verse. But I'm still cautiously optimistic about this. It's been a long time since I've read anything this creative and unusual - I genuinely can't think of another book like this.

God, Nolan's really got me feeling sorry for Elly. I think the last time I felt this much sympathy toward a fictional character was over six months ago, when I read Like Mandarin. This book is just as flawed as that one was, but at the end of the day, I'm still going to remember it fondly because of that.

I find it interesting that after all the thought and attention put into Watergate from the public, we still don't have a definitive answer for why it was done. I think the fact that something so risky was done with no clear motive says a lot about Nixon's character.

This is better than I had dared to hope it would be. Elly's just such a strong protagonist, and Nolan does a great job of capturing her voice - it sort of compensates for the sloppy structure. Save for Crazy, this might be my favorite of Nolan's books.

I do think an analysis of the released tapes and what they imply about the motives behind Nixon's actions is extremely valuable. It's very rare that you get this kind of deep insight into a president's private thoughts and motives.

This has a pretty similar trajectory to Born Blue - a clueless girl gradually realizes how utterly fucked she is. But I think this works a little better, because it only covers a few weeks instead of the protagonist's entire life. I don't like most of Nolan's books, but this is easily one of the better ones. Still nowhere near as good as Crazy, but better than I was expecting.

Summers just said that Henry 'I-bombed-the-shit-out-of-Cambodia-and-got-a-Nobel-Peace-Prize-for-it' Kissinger was more qualified to make foreign policy decisions than Nixon, and I'm honestly wondering whether Summers cares at all about anyone except famous political figures. He spends pages on how Nixon bugged various enemy politicians, but only half a sentence on the human tolls of actual wars.

I really, really want this to work, because this story has a lot of potential, and Elly is an excellent protagonist. But man, Nolan just doesn't seem to have any concept of subtlety. The dialogue between Elly, Ziggy, and Jen was terrible because of how nothing was left to subtext whatsoever. I'm also worried that this is going to be girl hate-y.

On one hand, I don't like that we're just told the entire backstory in a huge infodump in the first chapter. On the other hand, I kind of like the prose? I can't remember the last time I read a distinctly teenage voice that was even mildly convincing, and while this isn't the best thing I've ever read, the voice does work. And the story does look interesting, if kind of lacking in subtlety.

Y'know, if you wanted to destroy Nixon's reputation, instead of portraying him as vaguely unstable, it might've been more effective to emphasize the consequences of his actions, all the senseless deaths and destruction that happened due to his foreign policy. But I guess that might reveal that he's not actually too different than any other president.

This flashback is a bit excessive, but it also does a lot to add to the series thematically. Fullmetal Alchemist will probably never be my favorite manga, but I'm still astounded that something this subtle and well-written was successful.

My god, the girl hate here is intense. I can't tell if we're supposed to agree with Clary when she hates Isabelle basically just for being prettier than her, or if Clary is going to learn a lesson later. But considering that Clary is kind of a self-insert Mary Sue, I'm betting on the former.

I honestly don't have much to say about this, mostly because I don't feel like the right person to talk about it. I feel like my job is more to listen here.

Li is a good villain. Reading about her makes me very angry.