Jaime Leigh > Recent Status Updates

Reallllly not loving the whole "torturing and drugging children for information" thing. Also not feeling great about the "mystical group swaps unsuspecting mother's IVF" plot point.
TWs: for torture, drugging, poison, kidnapping, physical injury from fire, death of a daughter by fire, brief discussion of faked suicides and funerals.

Finally made it through all of the graphic novels that I grabbed from the library recently. Really vibing with the no fines, overdue books policy they just implemented.

I think this is the fourth time Sophie has been in the hospital in this one book 🤦‍♀️

I'm kind of getting tired of how super uber special Sophie is. I get the "chosen one" trope but being 71% of the way into the book and still being kept in the dark about why she is so special makes it that much more annoying. I feel like it could be sped up. And there's so few hints that someone might be up to something, it feels like there's not a lot of tension besides Sophie just dealing with her inner self.

I don't love that this book has divulged into mostly boys crushing on the main character and that becoming a competing plot thread to the main story. Feel like there could be substantially less of that, and I'm hoping it actually goes somewhere cool.

The Elf thing really threw me off. I was not expecting that part of the story at all. But I also went into this without rereading the synopsis and without knowing anything about the series expect for remembering people said enough good things that I got it a couple of years ago.

I've had this on my shelf for at least two or three years and it's made my tbr list every year. I have been collecting the other books in the series when I see them at the used bookstore so I could binge them if I loved them. So let's hope I vibe with these. 😊

I think a new trope category should be "middle grade books that start in museums." There are a surprising amount when you think about it.

I put some of the pieces together, but this ending is better than the beginning by far. It's surprisingly gotten better as it's gone on.

A DOUBLE dose of "let out a breath I didn't know I was holding"!
Feel like it's become so well known I haven't heard it in a while 😅

Actually really liking this now!

The printing on this is weird. It's like it got moved slightly during printing and some of the text is like seeing double. It's also hard at times to tell which order to read the speech bubbles in. I like the Tangled Series like design but it's also not unique feeling. I'm not having the same problems with the story others have noted but it's hard to have one of the protagonists speaking a barely decernable language

Being reading this during the mornings. May be my favorite mental health non fiction book I've read. Highlighting like crazy.

I feel like it took a good while to get where it was going. I almost put it down. But now we're in full midsummer swing. Still not sure how the hungry dad plays into it. The most I can think of is being turned into a donkey in the original, but it doesn't match exactly.

I'm actually really liking this. I like the four characters together and I still feel like Milo is a good representation of autism without being a caricature. I can't wait for the villain to get absolutely wrecked.

TW: torture, massacre in the past, PTSD

TW:Slit throat, scene of sexual manipulation and pressuring by a religious figure, as you can imagine a lot of murder, manipulation by intimate partner, mocking of autistic character by others/ostrasizing by society.

I really really like the way Milo and his autism are portrayed here.

I just saw how few reads/reviews this has. I thought it was way more popular!

I'm digging this. Milo's autism is evident but not heavy handed in a "See. See. He's autistic. I get points for that right?" Kind of way. Thank goodness.

I also am all for Gia's vengeance.

Will this be it? We'll see.

I hate that I'm adding this to the pile but it's getting on my nerves and it's not the "gripping syfy mystery thriller" I thought it would be. Or with nearly as compelling writing, characters, or themes.
I'm genuinely so disappointed.
If you want a better mystery space thriller, listen to the Illuminae audiobook.
Only points are for a wide range of pronouns and some disability rep.

I'm not sure if the fact that these characters sound and act exactly the same as children as they do when they're adults was an intentional choice, but it feels like the author just doesn't know how to write a group of women. Someone else mentioned the fact that the whole pregnancy part seems added just because "Syfy women in space duh" and not because it makes sense and I totally agree.
This is so disappointing.

This book is really trying to do something by interweaving a World War, a failing environment, extreme political groups, teen girls groomed to birth the next generation of society in space, censorship, biracial and refugee struggles. But they all feel plugged in, not actually handled. They don't work with characters that still sound like teens, even though their in their 20s and a tone that feels more YA than adult.

Maybe it's just me but the tone seems incredibly nonchalant for her having just been blown up, seeing her partner killed, and then having to go and retrieve the destroyed bodies.
She just got impregnated like it wasn't a big deal and is now just chilling during her off shift.

It is so weird that this girl just got blown up by a bomb that killed her team mates and captain and then she goes to the nursing bay and the nurse is like "while you're here, let's impregnate you!" O.o

So disappointed by this. The love interest is basically a god with perpetually twinkling eyes. The mystery is more just a flirty show and tell. This gal has no motivation sans her ex-boyfriend and her paper, which she will remind us multiple times a chapter. The themes are incredibly heavy handed where they aren't even woven in, they're just told straight to the audience. And the most interesting parts are so short!

No, please. Remind me again how his eyes are a gorgeous burnt sienna 🤦‍♀️