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This is still kind of entertaining, but I'm fearing that the episodic nature is going to get predictable soon. There's only so long you can tell variations on the same couple of jokes before it gets old.

My main observation so far is how little Prunty is aware of the rhythm of these poems. For the most part, he's not actively using the line breaks or the lengths of stanzas to achieve any particular effect. The result is that the poems tend to blend together, and it makes the collection feel pretty monotonous. There are some decent poems here, but there are a good number of forgettable ones as well.

Yeah, the prose here clearly hasn't undergone as much editing as McVoy's books normally do. There are too many blatantly awkward or improper sentences and word choices to ignore. It's a shame, because I kind of like the book otherwise - this is the first McVoy book I've read where the protagonist doesn't feel like a clone of her other narrators.

This writing is pretty awkward so far, and I don't like the way this opening basically infodumps Brynn's entire life. The only saving grace is that the infodump is at least kind of interesting - the writing may feel unpolished, but Brynn does at least have a nice voice.

Maybe this dialogue sounds better spoken aloud, but written like this... jeez, this comes off as choppy. I kind of like this other than that, though - May and Raleigh are pretty engaging characters.

The Picture of Jonathan Collins by Karl Edward Wagner: 3/5 Interesting premise, and well-plotted, but the characters aren't well-developed enough for this to be memorable.

Happy Couple by Danielle Willis: 5/5 Easily the best story in the anthology. Well-developed characters, very well-written, and there's something atmospheric about it that really resonates with me. Worth the price of admission.

I guess I just don't care much about the characters? I'm mainly in it for the funny stories about animals - I don't care what happens to their business.

Even the small details in this book are similar to Fire from the Rock - they both involve racists setting fires in the middle of the night, they both have a grocery store run by a sympathetic white person, both narrators find solidarity in their black school (and specifically mention that, as the book puts it, "everyone is ashy"). This isn't a bad book, it's just... Draper has already done this.

I appreciate how unabashedly dark this is. When I was kid, I don't recall ever reading or seeing anything that emphasized how dangerous it was to be black the way this does.

I'm trying to figure out what's not working here, other than the fact that Stella is exactly like the narrator from Fire from the Rock. I guess it's just too straightforward? I dunno, there is definitely a lot to like here - this is a very well-written book.

This is a very gross book. Which is probably for the better - it keeps things from getting too cheesy.

This is okay, I guess, but it's not really doing anything for me. It feels a little too much like a rewrite of Fire from the Rock, in the general mood and especially in Stella's characterization. Maybe if this were more evocative, it would work better? Well, Draper at least does a good job of showing how dangerous and scary it was to be black, so maybe this will develop into something worthwhile.

Facets of Solitaire by Christopher Golden: 4/5 This was a nice twist on a typical forbidden romance, and the main characters were surprisingly well-developed. The dialogue and situations were a little cheesy, and I didn't get some of the worldbuilding, but on the whole, this was one of the strongest stories here.

Is this actually supposed to be based on reality? Because a lot of this stuff seems really unlikely.

Overall conclusion? Not as well-written as other Dickens books, nice story, just doesn't interest me very much.

This is pretty entertaining so far. I'm kind of enjoying this.

Dear GoodReads: Next time you want to change the format and font of the website for no goddamn reason, consider giving us an option to save reviews as drafts. Or get rid of the green 'want to read' tabs that people with some reading disorders can't use. Or fix the horribly glitchy infinite scroll on shelves. Or make lists check for duplicates automatically.

This is a lot like Great Expectations in that it's a largely fine book that just doesn't happen to interest me very much.

This kind of reminds me of the classics they make middle schoolers read (Little House on the Prairie, A Day No Pigs Would Die, ect.), only it's about an adult instead of a kid.

Some of the story is pretty interesting. I've always liked the French Revolution, so parts are enjoyable to read.

Watermelons, the short story I'm working on now, takes up almost half of the book, and unfortunately, I'm not enjoying it very much. Mae's prose is better than it was in the first two stories, but it wasn't great. And there's just not enough romantic or dramatic tension for this story to work. It's too idyllic and fantastical. Maybe if Jules were a better character, it would work, but as it is, not really.

This is one of the most blatant cash grabs I've ever seen in YA. I really hate calling people sell-outs, because I don't like claiming I have insight on an author's private motivations. But dear lord, this had to be done at least partially for the money.

One of the obstacles to me understanding this book well is that a lot of the characters have multiple names. The cast is already pretty large, so it's very difficult to keep track of everyone. I have no doubt it would be easier if I understood the language better, but as I read it now, it's a struggle.

Jesus shit, this has to be the worst book David Levithan has ever written. Tiny is an over-the-top caricature of himself, and it's getting physically painful to read. Maybe I'd tolerate this quality level if this were on his blog or a free ebook or something, but as a professionally published book from a seasoned author, this is completely inexcusable.

I hate to say it, but I'm not liking this as much as I liked Deeper Water. Mae's style is just better-accustomed to poetry. Her prose tends to feel unpolished - it's too adverb-heavy and it tells too much instead of showing. The one poem so far has been pretty good, but none of the short stories have done it for me. Hopefully, it improves with time.

I can't say I expected this to be good, but... jeez, I was hoping it wouldn't be this bad. There is a certain amount of cheesy campiness that I can take, but this is so over-the-top that I'm cringing more than I'm laughing. We're learning nothing new about Tiny - it's just a bad attempt to make jokes about how gay he is.

I will say that while most of the prose is kinda overwritten, some of the dialogue is pretty good. Some nice character interactions.

The story here seems to be jumping around. It's not so much a chronology as a bunch of somewhat-related events. Which is odd, just because that isn't at all the impression I got from the reviews. The reviews make it seem like this sweeping, epic thing. Maybe it's just a lot of buildup. But to be honest, this is pretty boring so far.

I am trying very hard to follow the story and not lean on SparkNotes. I missed a lot of Book the First, but I've concentrated enough to get all of Book the Second so far.

This writing style just isn't very well-equipped to the story at hand. Maybe I'm only saying this because I'm reading it from a modern perspective, but it seems too pretty and flowery to describe poverty and pollution.