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Admittedly, I do like the parts with Grace's parents, more than I did in Linger. But other than that, there's very little that works here. I didn't think Stiefvater could write a more cheap and contrived climax than the one in Linger, but here we are. The central conflict has a laughably easy solution, and it's only a threat because of a completely unexplained shocking swerve.

I really was enjoying this book at first. But it's becoming increasingly clear to me that Palahniuk has nothing to say, and he's just trying to be as weird and vulgar as possible. There's nothing real or substantially interesting in this novel, and it's getting old quickly.

I can't decide if this is pretentious bullshit with nothing to say, or if it's one of the most unique reading experiences I've had in years.

This is not Stiefvater's worst book. But this is her worst book that feels like a Steifvater book. Like, Lament was bad, but not in a way any other Stiefvater book has been bad. This has the same problems that Stiefvater's books usually have, just worse.

I'm not sure how I feel about Brandy's portrayal. Maybe this was progressive for 1999, but today, it's kind of stereotypical. I'm particularly bothered by her obsession with being feminine and with vaginas in general.

Man, everything about this book is so contrived. The problem could easily be solved by just telling Isabel's parents what's going on. Sam's lack of knowledge about Beck's past was not at all set up, and adds nothing to Sam's arc. It's like I can feel this book actively resist existence.

I say I'm on page 30, but I'm actually on page 274. It just happens to be the 30th page I've read so far. What I'm saying is, this book is really fucking weird. But it's also somewhat well-written, so I'm going to continue.

It just occurred to me - why have they never told anyone about the wolves? Like, at least Stiefvater gives a (contrived) explanation of why they don't tell now. But this is a huge worldbuilding flaw - their lives would've been so much easier if they had just let everybody know that they transform into wolves every winter.

I have no idea why Stiefvater decided to write another sequel to Shiver. Like, this book serves no purpose. It has nothing to say. It doesn't seem to be advancing any of the character arcs. It doesn't even have much of a plot.

This is not going to be a very plot-heavy book is it? This is a lot like Shiver, without the atmosphere or the compelling romance.

Dear lord, is this book going to be about how saving the environment is good because it protects the magical creatures that did nothing wrong? Seriously? I'm not sure if I'll be able to read this if that's what it's about.

This book is too low-key. And some people are going to say that that's the point, but I honestly don't think it needed to be this low-key to work. This is still a very good novel, but it's not nearly as impactful as Chaos Walking or More Than This.

Maybe this is just because of how slow I'm reading this book, but I'm getting very bored of this. It was entertaining at first, but Herriot has very little to say here, and it gets old quickly.

This isn't Ness's best novel, just because calling something "Patrick Ness's best novel" is an extremely high standard to live up to. This is still quite good.

I can't tell if this is a fascinating exploration of cliched tropes, or a normal contemporary novel trying to convince me it's something more.

This is not at all what I was expecting, but I kind of like it so far. Definitely, the characters are well-developed, and the worldbuilding is... odd, but intriguing. I guess it just seems a little underwhelming so far, compared to Ness' other work. But then, you could say the same about the early pages of More Than This, so I'm not too worried.

This dialogue is atrocious. Apparently, Villarreal attended the Rachel Cohn school of writing, in which awkwardly forcing a curse word into every line equals making your dialogue sound gritty and realistic.

Alright, so there's finally some focus here. And it's actually kind of interesting to see Brynn's character arc progress like this. These last 100 pages (of my edition) seem to be a lot more engaging than the beginning. I just wish the buildup to this part wasn't so clumsy.

I think I'm starting to like this better. They're still kind of monotonous, but I'm starting to appreciate more of the images, and the topics of these poems interest me a bit more.

I'm kind of conflicted about this book. Because Brynn definitely is a really well-written character, maybe my favorite that McVoy has ever written. But basically nothing else about this book works. In particular, there's just an overall lack of focus - there are a bunch of subplots, and no main thread to tie it together.

I won't say that all of the poems here are bad - I really like The Taking Down and Falling Through the Ice - but there are a lot of mediocre ones to get through.

I guess I just don't feel like this was the best way Tharp could've executed this. The revelation that Bobby had PTSD was so obvious, I was amazed Mr. White acted like it was such a big deal. And in general, the plot is a little obvious and lacking subtlety.

This is alright, I guess, but it lacks the focus that The Spectacular Now had. I'm not sure what the underlying theme is supposed to be. But perhaps I'm judging too early.

I'm not sure how investing this plot is going to be. Certainly, it's not something I would've picked up if I didn't already like Tharp. But maybe it'll end up being worthwhile.

I don't know why this isn't doing it for me. I think it kind of had an uphill battle to make me like it, because I have so little interest in the general tone it's trying to evoke.

This story just isn't very well-suited to a graphic novel form. Dave McKean's illustrations were all it really needed - anything visual more than that honestly ruins the effect. It's pulling on tropes from classic kids novels - putting that in graphic novel form just makes the intention feel confused and unfocused.

Also, was this plot thread always that predictable?

I'm not sure if I would call this a good book so far. Certainly, there are good things about it - Ceejay is a great character with a great voice - but it's too off-putting and weird for me to make an immediate judgement. However, this has the potential to be one of the best YA books I've read in a while.

A lot of these poems are based on very simple concepts (for example, the POV of a dog, or an old lady crossing the street). Most of them are fairly pleasant to read, but I doubt they'll have any reread value for me. This certainly isn't true of every poem here - I really liked The Tent, for example - but for the most part, this is fairly forgettable.

It is nice that Russell is getting better on not relying on narration quoted directly from the book, even if a lot of the dialogue is. This would be a lot easier to appreciate if David Lafuente's artwork didn't look terrible.

There's not much of a plot here. I was under the impression that this would be about Brynn self-destructing with bad decisions - that's certainly what Summer of Firsts and Lasts seemed to suggest. This just feels kind of unfocused. It's a good thing Brynn is such an engaging character, because so far, that's the only thing that works about this book.