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This book is just so bland

An microaggressions against a Polish person? What year is this?

This is already so melodramatic it’s funny

First book for Last Name book club. We actually were going to read Dark Places, but two of us finished it a month early and decided it was triggering, so we switched to this one instead. I can tell already that’s it’s going to be bad but hopefully fun writing.

Gotta love that ant scene.

We’ve been getting a lot of Casey lately, but the part with the rattlesnake reminded me: we haven’t seen his friends Taylor and Jake the Snake since book five. I hope they come back considering they were an initial obstacle to Sammy being into Casey,

Oh, she got held back and that’s why she’s older—I gotta stop doubting Wendelin.

The premise confuses me: Sammy’s mom lied about her birthday so she could start school early, so she’s a year younger than she thought she was. This means Sammy has actually been 12, not 13, this whole year, and she’s only turning 13 now, in April of seventh grade (not 14 like she thought)—but seventh grade IS when you turn 13. Her mom pretended she was a year older than the rest of her class for no reason?

Not something I’d pick up of my own volition, but two of my sisters, my mom, and I are doing a book club and this is what Em picked. It’s a pretty grim but realistic portrayal of someone who went through a horrific trauma, that’s for sure.

Surprised Sammy is on such decent terms with Officer Borsch so early in the series. Really curious about how their relationship will develop from here on out. (Also, I love that this is a book for 8–12 year olds that’s showing a party with alcohol and weed. Kids that age will probably experience that sooner rather than later, so it’s cool to see a book acknowledge that reality.)

We gotta be at least 50% through by now. Six and a half weeks left, and even if we’re getting a ton every day, I’d imagine the past several months add up to enough to balance it around the 50% mark.

Man, this is a cute series.

I wish there were a way to know how far along we are reading it the Dracula Daily way.

Compare Rachel in this book, very lamely lying to Chapman, to book thirteen, where she confidently tells Chapman about her bear feet being boots. Forgot how unsure of herself Rachel was when the series started.

Started a book club with friends from Taglit! I told them about Animorphs during our night out in Tel Aviv and they were interested in checking these out. First meeting is Wednesday afternoon, so I’ve got till then to reread this.

I think I’m having trouble with this because it is really really heterosexual