Mike > Recent Status Updates

I like that Diamond isn't afraid to not be ridiculously professional. It makes the book less of a chore.

History has never looked so boring.

Aww, man, a computer mistake! And we were doing so good up until now! Why would Tony, an experienced computer person, have a password that could be figured out? It's just not believable.

But more importantly, this book suffers from a severe case of Can't Catch a Break Syndrome. Eliason is trying to deal with too much, and she's not able to do it in the depth that she wants to.

Okay, that last chapter actually kind of surprised me. I didn't realize that my knowledge of prehistoric people was that lacking. Although I feel like Diamond is drawing a lot of conclusions based on things that only may or may not be true.

This Holocaust stuff? Kinda feels like it's pulled out of a history book. Too clinical.

Jesus, that was ridiculous. I almost bought the bullying earlier, almost. But that? Bullies don't have political motives. Bullies do not talk, act, or think like people with political motives. I don't buy this bullying anymore, not one single bit.

Hey, guys, the other day, I was checking out a book, and it didn't really look like my kind of thing. But then, I saw that it was a New York Times Bestseller, and suddenly I was just completely sold! Man, publishing companies oughta do that more often!

I'm really starting to like Hilary's voice. It was kinda cheesy at first, but it's rapidly improving.

I feel like I already know the outlines of what he's going to say, and he's just going to give more detail. Which I guess is the reason I was assigned this book, but that's going to be really tedious.

This story was going really well until Mike entered an honest to god fortune-telling shop. *sighs* Another cheesy one. Oh, well.

So, now that we've established that the question is a thing, let's answer it, shall we?

*sighs* I'm having trouble getting invested in this. The writing is good enough that I don't want to give up, but I keep on skimming without realizing it.

This is exhausting to read. Courtney Summers would be proud! But I have no idea where the line is between what's unusual but still real and something completely exaggerated for dramatic effect. I was willing to buy it at fist, but things just keep piling up, and I don't know anymore. Anyone who's read the book have any insight?

Okay, this is a little ridiculous. Every few paragraphs, Taylor stops to give another huge piece of background. It's not quite infodumps that are happening, but it's still distracting.

This is very information-dense. I like it.

Hey, YA authors: maybe more boys would take the genre seriously if all the male characters weren't ridiculously good-looking.

Man, people aren't kidding when they say Taylor is a good writer. This is gorgeous.

I can't decide which story is less interesting, the Holocaust or the present-day. They're both pretty boring.

"He nodded no."

...so, apparently, the book is set in Greece. That probably should've been mentioned earlier.

This guy vehemently rejects the idea that white people are genetically superior to non-whites, then immediately claims that Native New Guineans are overall smarter than whites, with little more than anecdotal evidence and explanations. It makes sense to him, so it must be true, right?

I guess I'm warming up to this. It's still not as good as I expected.

Todd Strasser's story was terrible, but David Levithan's was alright. I dunno, though, overall, I feel like I'm going to dislike this.

Oh, my god. This is so bad! But... but it's by the author of Crazy! NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!

This is kind of like Empress of the World, only boring.

I'm not quite sure how much I buy this bullying. It's not too over the top to be believable, necessarily, but something about it just feels off.

Also, I like Clark as a character. Whatever problems the book has, at least Eliason's characterization of him is strong.

Something went wrong in Friar Lawrence's plan. I'm sure nobody saw this coming.

This isn't bad, just not as good as Empress of the World. And not very interesting. Well, maybe it'll get better.

What's the plot supposed to be? Because I can't tell.

Hmm... I don't want to say that the quality is amateurish, but it definitely could've benefited from tighter editing. There are lots of punctuation and grammar errors. But it's not too bad, other than that, for the most part.

Also, turns out, it isn't just small southern towns that are filled with assholes. It's all small towns!

And Juliet is unconscious! We're approaching the ending of the play. COMMENCE DOUBLE SUICIDE!