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Teri is really interesting. Anderson does a good job of making her a legitimate asshole, instead of a character who's transparently only mean because she has a hard life.

I think I like this version of The Snow Queen better than Frozen.

I'm not gonna pretend I feel some deep connection to Judaism or Holocaust victims. Even though I'm technically Jewish on my mother's side, I've never really identified with it. So I guess this is kind of an important experience for me, to understand the oppression that Jews have been victims of. Or maybe this is a bad way to learn about that, since this is just one case study. Whatever, I'm enjoying it either way

There's just not much noteworthy here. I expected to really like at least some of them, but honestly, there are barely any that stand out in my mind. The Jewish Girl was kinda anti-Semitic, and Something was kind of entertaining. But other than that, there's not much to say.

I guess I'm kind of disappointed, just because I wasn't expecting this to be where the story was going. But it's still really well-written, so we'll see.

This book does have potential. I think I would've really liked it if it were narrated jointly by Leonard and Madeleine, and it was about their relationship and Leonard's bipolar disorder. That could've been a good novel. This... wasn't.

The problem with this collection is that so few of the stories are really noteworthy. I guess The Red Shoes had an interesting idea (although the ending was lacking), and I kind of enjoyed The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. But other than that, I barely remember anything I just read.

I've always despised The Ugly Duckling. Such a terrible message - "someday, everything will be alright, because you'll be even more beautiful than the people calling you ugly". It's useless wish-fulfillment. The Loveliest Rose in the World is also pretty bad, too didactic for my taste. I kind of liked Good Humor, but other than that, I haven't been enjoying most of these stories.

I do have problems with this book, but there are a lot of things I like about it. I like how Draanen shows how Jessica's perspective changes due to her disability, and how she shows the ways Jessica was lucky before the accident, and is still lucky after. It's deeper than what you'd normally see in MG.

I love how pointlessly gruesome The Hardy Tin Soldier is - so much fun. The Daisy was also really cool, probably my favorite so far. The ending genuinely surprised me. Other than that, not many noteworthy stories.

Great Claus and Little Claus was really clever - probably my favorite story so far. Thumbelina, though, was surprisingly forgettable, and The Naughty Boy was entirely pointless.

I think the problem here is that Jessica just isn't a very well-rendered character. We know nothing about her except that she likes running. There are only a few little details about her life that make me feel like I have an idea of who she is. This stream-of-consciousness prose is well-suited for the topic and the audience, but it skims over details and doesn't give Jessica as much of a voice as it should.

The story isn't even that interesting, but Kate is such an amazing character that I'm invested anyway.

That was super uncomfortable. The implication that when Madeleine was saying no, she was actually liking it... eugh.

Now that Leonard's part of the story is over, we're back to having no reason to care about anything in this novel.

These are alright so far. The Tinder Box was pretty clever and entertaining. I do suspect that the anthropomorphised objects are going to get repetitive, though.

Kate is a very relatable character. I get a strong sense that I know people who are like her, in a way that I rarely see in YA. It's hard to describe.

I saw a review say that the stuff about bipolar disorder was badly researched. I don't know shit about bipolar - is there anyone who read this book that could tell me how accurate the portrayal was?

Yeah, as I hoped, this is really good. It's difficult to describe how amazing this is, the reasons why it's so realistic and the writing is so good. Although I will definitely say that it's nice to see a book that acknowledges the stress of school, which so few YA books do.

It's been too long since I've read one of Anderson's YA books. I try not to get my expectations too high before any book, lest I be disappointed. But it's hard not to expect this book to blow me away.

I might've liked this novel a lot better if the whole thing were about Leonard. He's way more interesting than Madeleine or Mitchell.

I wonder how much research Draanen did into how people feel after losing limbs. I can't really speak to how realistic this is, so I'm curious.

Wait, was that the twist? The really predictable one that everyone was talking about? It's certainly a twist, but I'm less than halfway through the novel. I was under the impression the twist was a big climax. The twist I just saw was spoiled for me, so that's an anti-climax.

This is well-written so far. I think I'll enjoy this.

While I'm not really digging this novel, I am kind of surprised that it hasn't gotten great reviews. I'd think that it would at least find an audience - it's well-written, and it has interesting characters, even if the story isn't much of a story.

I'm struggling to figure out why this is so popular. It's not bad or anything, I just can't find anything special about it. It's honestly kind of boring.

Is it just me, or does Eugenides have a thing for writing protagonists with older siblings that got extreme left-wing beliefs in college?

I guess my problem here is the lack of focus. I don't see any central plot thread or theme meant to unify this story, at least not so far. So I can't tell which scenes are supposed to be significant.

I kind of feel like I'm at an arm's-length from Cinder. Maybe it's the third person narration, but I don't feel like I know her that well, even though she has a personality and a background and stuff.

So, finally things are actually happening. I guess. Maybe if I forget there's any story and just enjoy the prose, I'll have a better experience.