Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“With the bucket comes a sensation of total nothingness, which, in most ways, is more pleasant than the everything-ness.”
“Young humans would fail abysmally in the sea.”
“Hiding spots ought to be sacred.”
“’Conscience does make cowards of us all.’”
Remarkably Bright Creatures is about a woman who cleans an aquarium at night named Tova and a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus. Marcellus lives in a tank that Tova sees every night. We find out that Tova’s son disappeared years ago and she recently lost her husband. We are also introduced to Cameron who doesn’t seem to have his life together and is struggling. Tova and Marcellus strike up a friendship and from what Marcellus observes, there is something that needs solving. Will the mystery be solved? Will Cameron get his life together? How will Tova get along?
Shelby Van Pelt wrote a very interesting novel and it was different in a way I like. She intersplices chapters from the point of view of Marcellus. It does not come across as outlandish or too far-fetched. His chapters are funny and I could totally picture an octopus saying it. “It leads many humans to assume I am a squid, which is an insult of the worst sort.” His first chapter starts off extremely sad and adds an element of tension to the whole book. Marcellus’ chapters lend a depth and perspective to the story that is unique. I think he was my favorite character in the book. I did like most of the characters but at one point Cameron was not my favorite. He came across as creepy and whiny. He used the victim card one too many times. I love Vegas and whenever a book mentions Vegas I light up. Here the author has a character say “’Who spends a holiday in Las Vegas?” Well, me, I do. I spent my 40th birthday in Las Vegas at Christmas. There are subtle clues sprinkled throughout and whenever I read one, I got a little giddy like I added another piece to the puzzle. It had some good life lessons and the author made you think. “’No, the deal is never anyone’s fault. But you control the way you play.’” Some words/phrases that I pulled out are deadheading and incredulity. I found the ending very heartwarming. Even though I could kind of see what was coming, I think this was a well-crafted book and an enjoyable read. This is exactly the type of book I would recommend to a book club, anyone who loves octopuses, or dealing with grief.
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Author: kgpeters
Death By Tree And How To Cheat Without Remorse
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
SPOILERS BOOK CLUB DON’T READ
“’Beer is God’s reward for an honest day’s toil.’”
“’You have to fool yourself into thinking you already are the thing you want to become.’”
“You can never change back once you’ve had a child, even if that child no longer exists.”
Broken Country is about Beth, her family, and her love interests. She meets and falls in love with Grabriel but then conflict occurs. They have a falling out and then Beth meets back up with Frank, who has been in love with her since he was 13. They become a family and live on a farm that has been in Frank’s family for a long time. One day a dog comes out of nowhere and starts to kill some livestock then is subsequently shot down. The owner is none other than Gabriel. We follow the story as it flips back and forth between the early days and the present. Beth’s son died when he was younger and they are still carrying grief. There is a brother Jimmy and Gabriel’s son, Leo. Their lives intertwine again and it gets complicated. Will Gabriel and Beth rekindle their love? Will Frank and Beth survive? How will life go down on this farm? This pastoral life isn’t as perfect as it may look.
Clare Leslie Hall wrote this book and one thing I liked was the short chapters. It made progress seem quicker. I read it pretty quickly despite the fact that I didn’t really get into it. It was sort of boring. The love and passion didn’t show through the words and pages for me. Within the first few chapters, I did have a distinct feeling that I was reading something akin to Little House on the Prairie. The setting did conjure vivid images of the countryside and set the tone. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and I don’t know if it is because of the HR effect or not. It is what it is though. Frank to me was a very good guy but was a doormat and didn’t lay down the law with his brother. Gabriel seemed like a player who never stood up to his mother. The mother was a b***h. I guess Bobby was probably the best character despite the fact he can’t listen and his death was just plain stupid. Tragic, I guess is the right word but it just didn’t come across as tragic. Jimmy was a drunk. I just didn’t like Beth. She messed everything up and I didn’t really believe her regret. She knew what she was doing was wrong but kept doing it anyways. Some words or phrases that I came across that I liked were acerbic dissident, fervency, and alacrity. “My whole life moving forward will be filled with people who never knew my son” and “seesaw of grief.” I did learn that the original phrase is another think coming instead of another thing coming. There was a twist towards the end but it seemed like a foregone conclusion. Overall, I didn’t jive with this book. This is exactly the type of book I wouldn’t read again or really recommend to anyone.
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Hockey Smut And How To Show Love
Game Changer by Rachel Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ok so this post will make references to the show Heated Rivalry because it is a phenomenon right now and I am obsessed. It might be quite long winded, so I apologize for that. This is a rare case where I watched the show/movie before I read the books. I didn’t get the books right away and I wanted to see what it was all about. I was not disappointed.
“What do your abs taste like?”
“’Been around straight people too much lately.’”
“’What’s wrong with the closet? It’s a wonderful place crammed full of professional athletes.’”
Game Changer is about Scott Hunter who is a captain on the hockey team New York Admirals. We also meet Kip, which is short for Christopher, who works at a smoothie shop and is openly gay. One day Scott finds himself in the shop that Kip works and orders himself the suggested blueberry smoothie. Scott comes back on his next home game day and orders it again because if he wins then he wants to keep what he did on that day as much the same as possible. They flirt and Kip eventually gets invited back to Scott’s place and they have hot relations. But Scott isn’t out. There are no out players in the NHL. Kip is Scott’s secret. How will this relationship develop? Will it be able to survive the privacy that Scott’s profession demands? Will Scott be able to step into the sunshine?
Rachel Reid is an amazing person. This book was incredible. It was unbelievably sexy, hot, meaningful, and emotional. So right away one thing that struck me is that in the book Scott is blonde whereas in the show he is a brunette. As it went on, I kept on playing the scenes from the show as I read the same scene in the book. I would clock any differences (like book being NHL but show being MLH & Kip’s mother being in the book) and marveled at how true to the source material the show is, almost all. One thing I did miss in the book though was Maria saying “gurl” when Scott walks in. I loved that part. I like the mention of a cottage on page 29 because fans of the show will know what I am talking about. There is more hockey in this book which I loved. The first night they got together was so hot. This book does a good job of steaming up the pages and making the reader feel it. “There was an urgency in Scott’s eyes, but when he finally leaned in and kissed Kip, it was slow and deliberate. It wasn’t a conversation; it was Scott telling him something important, and making sure Kip was listening.” There were some typical romantic tropes that were brought up including when Kip was thinking he wasn’t good enough because Scott was rich and famous whereas Kip was working at a smoothie shop. It made Kip self-doubt. Reading the book and having Scott muse about his situation really got me thinking too. I don’t know who I side with or who is right, Kip or Scott? Does Scott have a responsibility to his team and support system or should he put his happiness first? One of my favorite scenes was when Scott was coming out to his three best friends on his team. I knew what was coming and I got this like anxious, excited knot in my stomach in anticipation. It was a wonderfully beautiful scene, and I had to go back to read it while I was writing this review. My eyes were wet when I finished reading it. A little later a teammate, Carter, stopped to speak with Scott and he made me cry. I need more Carter! The ending speech made me tear up as well. I did not run across any words that I felt compelled to write down. There are a lot of reviews and reaction videos online for the show and one, Empty Netters, is one I am in love with. I have watched episodes multiple times and those straight guys are amazing. On my review they mentioned a gripe they had was when Scott won the cup and he wasn’t gripping it. In the book he talks explicitly about gripping it and I was amused. So one thing I did not like was when they called the café in Barnes & Noble a Starbucks when in fact it is not. It just serves Starbucks coffee. I would know as I worked as a Café Manager there. In general, this was an excellent book and I will read it again and again in between rewatching the show again and again and watching the Empty Netters reviews again and again. This is exactly the type of book everyone should read if they like to be entertained and they like to feel stuff. Must read.
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Murder Unreliable And How To Ghost Write
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“’Everyone is an unreliable narrator.’”
“Once you lie about your past, you wall yourself off from the present.”
“’You can’t erase the past by not thinking about it’”
The Ghostwriter is about Olivia who is a ghostwriter, and her father who is prolific horror author. Her father, Vincent, has a history and she has been hiding this fact. She has fallen on hard times recently and has just been offered a job. Vincent is the only remaining sibling in a horrific murder that happened in his home. His brother and sister were killed but no one was held responsible. Vincent wants Olivia to ghost write a book for him but can she trust him? The secrets are numerous and are slow to be revealed. Will Olivia be able to uncover the truth about what happened so long ago? Will she be able to forgive her father?
Julie Clark creates a very engaging story and creates tension that lasts. I needed to know what happened. It was slow but painful in a good way. I was yearning for an explanation. I like how she threw in prospectives from other characters occasionally. This is the second or third book I have read recently that has mentioned Topanga, CA which is weird. It was on page 2 too, so right away. The description of Olivia’s house is amazing. I would love to have a very similar house in a very similar location. What she said that got her in hot water was totally the truth. Her rant was awesome and it sucks she was punished because she spoke out. Then she was told to not get too emotional and to calm down. What a load of BS. I could feel the anger physically in my body. There were some moments of levity like with a hamster. I think she is a good writer because some of the phrasing like “I recognize the way he moves, like a memory of a song” and the way she talks about light & dark. It is almost poetic. There is a gay character too which is always welcome. Yay for the best friend. I had such conflicting feelings towards Vincent. He could be a big asshole but then I could almost understand him. I am leaning towards not liking him though. He is extremely unreliable and I don’t love that storytelling technique. When will people learn that lying will only get you in trouble. I do not feel sorry for Olivia and the consequences of her actions. One of the lines struck me. It would have affected me much more in the past but in the present, I don’t necessarily agree with that feeling. “Of being the friend everyone tries to include out of pity.” There is a kind of voiceover at the end. I could picture it as if it was happening in a movie. It was well conceived and written. I didn’t come across any words that jumped out at me. This is exactly the type of book to read if you enjoy books that talk about writing in it and a slow unraveling mystery.
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Getting High And How To Face Off
Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“I’ve got way too many red flags to ever want to date me.”
“Religion is just another way that humans desperately try to control the chaos of reality…society is failing us all.”
“’Not every experience needs to be captured. It’s important to remember that your first love was the sound itself, not a secondhand recording.’”
“My friends’ behavior is not my responsibility.”
Breathe In, Bleed Out is about a woman who is still reeling from the death of her fiancé. This tragedy happened in the wilderness when they were on a hike but no one knows the true story. Hannah is barely getting through life. She is meeting with a psychiatrist that is prescribing mediation. She messes up at work and is forced to take some time off. Her best friend, Tess, that Hannah has been blowing off shows up for her birthday and then invites her on this retreat. Hannah eventually caves and decides to go but what they encounter is beyond what anyone would think. They are unsure of Guru Pax and what he is promoting. No one knows what to make of his assistant Kimi. This group of friends are in for a murderous weekend. Who will survive? Will Hannah heal? Who is doing this?
Right off the bat I love the cover! It reminds me of old comics or horror films. And I love the title too. Every time I read the title I just sang “Breathe In, Bleed Out” to the tune of Machinehead by Bush. It is a great title! Brian McAuley wrote a damn good book. You can see some influences from other movies clearly but it felt like it was done in an authentic way and not just a carbon copy. The dedication which went “For those who found release and those still seeking it” spoke to me. I liked how it could mean many different things but also was hopeful. Everyone is on their own journey, including with their mental health. The first sentence “Dragging a body through six inches of snow is even harder than I expected” grabs you and makes you want to keep reading. It was well written. The characters were well defined and I actually cared about some of them. Miles was a DJ and did EDM shows which I connected with because I love EDM and I am thinking of starting to learn to create some tracks of my own. Some of them though were typical assholes that you wanted to see get their comeuppance. This thought attributed to one of the characters made me pause and reflect, maybe I think this too but I never really thought about it before. It was around how “graveyards were a sentimental waste of precious natural space that should be filled with life instead.” Imagine what we could do with that space. Hmm. The author did write some wonderfully evocative lines including, “I was just about ready to crawl into an empty grave myself, pull the dirt over me and call it a life.” I have definitely had similar thoughts before but I never heard it articulated so well. The book had some funny moments too. One that involved being thirsty and another with a big snake. Towards the beginning there were some descriptions of the environment, and I thought that someone was going to die in that way. I was right! Well almost, because there was a twist I didn’t see coming and it was awesome! Other death scenes were gruesome and pretty cool. I was squirming. One thing I didn’t like about this book, and it is not unique to this book, is the reliance on drugs or alcohol to give the character flaws or to create unreliability. To me, it is a little lazy but I guess it does reflect reality for some. It is not the fault of this book but another storytelling technique that is used involves dreams and hallucinations, but the audience doesn’t know it at the time. I dislike these immensely and there was a part like this in the book. I am not sure about the ending. I don’t know if I like who the killer turned out to be. I am still wrestling with that, but it wasn’t an immediate OMG WTF in a bad way. I haven’t decided yet. I didn’t write down any words that stood out to me. This is exactly the type of book to read if you are a fan of horror.
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The Theft Of Indigenous People And How To Make It Not Worse
The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“You can give me back my people’s bones and you can quit digging them up.”
“The most pathetic lies are the ones we tell ourselves.”
“Some places might be close on a map, but they are still a world away.”
“I realize kids aren’t rational, but then again, adults aren’t really either.”
The Bone Thief takes place in New England, specifically the state of Rhode Island. BIA archeologist Syd is the main character. Her boss has recently retired and she is now the go-to-person. She works closely with this local camp and especially with this group of kids to teach them about archeology. A country club and secret society type place owns it. There are some shady things going on including native bones, artifacts, and children going missing. The group wants to open a center that displays items and talks about history but to benefit whom? What is the reason behind it? Will Syd solve what is going on and will people get what they deserve?
Vanessa Lillie is the author and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. This book was angering and frustrating. What the Indigenous People went through since Europeans landed on the shores (“as if the tribe wasn’t here from the first colonial boot on the ground stomping toward Independence Day”) is despicable and disturbing. I cannot believe it is something that is still going on. This novel sheds light on the desecration of native lands and belongings. “Power is power. People who have it think the way to keep it is by never giving an inch of what they’ve taken.” Firstly, I love that there are queer characters. I love the representation and how attention wasn’t drawn to the queerness. I also learned a lot reading this book including about the oldest powwow in the United States and the struggles that still exist today. When a girl goes missing, the person making signs asked if they should have put the race as white so maybe “people would care more.” This aspect plus the abuse of power is infuriating. There was a scene where cops were being bullies and assholes. It made my blood boil. And white people thinking that have a right to native babies? Unreal. “Lord, give me the confidence of a white man.” The words elucidate, immemorial, and desultory are the ones I captured and liked. So, I am currently watching this show, as part of my friends and my weekly show, that has this technique they utilize involving hallucinations and dreams without informing the audience. There was a little bit of this in the book as well. I am not a fan. I don’t like it and it annoys me so that put me off a little bit. There was also a scene that didn’t quite make sense logistically either. This is exactly the type of book you should read if you want to get a little more insight into the struggles of Indigenous People in a story setting. It was an ok book with some good messages.
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The Thief Of Focus And How To Decipher A 500 Year Old Manuscript
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“There’s no worse thief than a bad book.”
“Strange thing, time. It weighs most on those who have it least.”
“There was an unspoken prejudice among book-learned people, a secret conviction they all seemed to share, that life as we know it is an imperfect vision of reality, and that only art, like a pair of reading glasses, can correct it.”
“The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong.”
“The greatest violence in the world was against art, against knowledge.”
The Rule of Four is about a manuscript that is about 500 years old and the people that are enthralled with it. The main character is Tom. He is the son of someone who was obsessed with this work and ended up dying in a car crash when Tom was younger. We also have Tom’s friends which include Gil, Charlie, and Paul. Paul has become enamored with this text and spends almost all of his time digging into the secrets. He purposefully became friends with Tom. We follow Tom as he navigates school and the quest to discover the secret of the Hypnerotomachia. He must manage his relationships with the book, girlfriend, and his friends, especially Paul. This work has been around hundreds of years, but no one has been able to figure it out. The group must dodge untrustworthy characters and death. Who will survive? Will the secret finally be revealed? Who will remain friends?
This book has two authors. Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason did a great job of coming up with an engaging and engrossing story. This is the type of story I love. I get to learn about history and cultural things as well as be a part of a kind of treasure hunt. The different pieces of information that are provided gives me a jolt of excitement like when belladonna, Procrustes, and the etymology of sarcophagus are described. There were also several platitudes sprinkled throughout that caught my attention. I know I start these posts with quotes but I also like to sprinkle some throughout the text as well like “never invest yourself in anything so deeply that its failure could cost you your happiness” and “a good friend stands in harm’s way for you the second you ask – but a great friend does it without being asked at all.” It is funny the way it appeared in the book. It is the main character relaying things he learned from his parents. One chapter ends with what his father taught him and the next chapter starts with something his mother said. Another is, “The two hardest things to contemplate in life…are failure and age.” There was a section in the book that discusses the concentration of geniuses in Florence, and that really struck me. I am like that seems like a good premise for a book. Some of the words I came across and took note of were Nilotic, crapulent, autodidact, steganography. and ersatz. Something that bothered me though was how the timelines seemed sort of muddled. It was hard to discern if something happened before or after the main storyline. The details and stories involving girlfriends and school seemed unnecessary. They didn’t add to the story, and felt like sections you had to sludge through to reach the exciting puzzle work. Paul was also sort of annoying and selfish. I also found the ending sort of lacking. It was anti-climatic and boring. No resolution. I wanted the treasure hunt to have a finale. I did fly through this book, somewhat thanks to a snowstorm. This is exactly the type of book to read if you like Dan Brown or art history or literature in general.
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Where Dinosaurs Roam And How To Not Die Understanding Extinction
The Lost World by Michael Crichton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Too much change is as destructive as too little.”
“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”
The Lost World is the follow-up book to Jurassic Park. It picks up after the spectacular downfall of the first island where the park was built. We find ourselves with Ian Malcom again and there are weird, mysterious lizard-like creatures that are washing up on the shores of Costa Rica. Where are they coming from? Is there some kind of…Lost World? Using this island to try and discover more about extinction and what causes it drives a lot of people’s decisions. The novel is based on a rescue mission. Several people travel to Site B where the dinosaurs for the original park were created. Obviously, some people die but who will survive? How did the dinosaurs survive? What will happen to the island?
Michael Crichton wrote another great book continuing in the vein of Jurassic Park. I love the science that was brought in and a lot of it was fascinating. The explanation of extinction as a science, the history of species on this planet including the rate of extinction, Red Queen phenomenon, and the information around the “edge of chaos” for complex systems just left me wanting to know more. It is fascinating and I love when books teach me things and introduce new topics. Early on, there was a whole monologue from Malcolm explaining how “human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable…we are stubborn, self-destructive conformists.” I love it when books add a different way of looking at humanity and describing some accurate notions that most people don’t ascribe to or even know. It hit the nail on the head that money drives everything now. “People aren’t studying the natural world anymore, they’re mining it. It’s a looter mentality.” The movie had some major differences from the book including Sarah Harding. She was described as young and having black hair in the book. There were characters that were totally not in the movie like Levine, Doc Thorne, and kids. A bunch of characters were eliminated to simplify the movie. Eddie in the book was only like 24 years old and the little speech about the “nerve-conduction velocity” was given to him in the movie. It wasn’t his in the book. The author also gave a much better explanation of Site B than the movie did. It cleared up a lot of things, and it made it all make more sense. I wish it was included in the film. This book had a good antagonist (apart from the dinosaurs) in Levine because he was an ass. He was smart though and had one or two good intentions. He frustrated me and made me want to reach through the book and punch him. I also found the repeating chapter names frustrating. There were lots of words that came up that I took note of. This includes locus, atavistic, diffidence, imperious, friable, sequela, and integumental. This is exactly the type of book to read on the plane or if you loved Jurassic Park. It was a quick read that I was excited to finish. The pacing was good and it was intriguing. Even though it was not as good as the first one, I do recommend this one.
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Selling Coal And How to Save Your Soul By Helping People
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“To each was given days and chances which wouldn’t come back around. And wasn’t it sweet to be where you were and let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset, instead of always looking on into the mechanics of the days and the trouble ahead, which might never come.”
“It seemed both proper and at the same time deeply unfair that so much of life was left to chance.”
“Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?”
Small Things Like These is about a husband and father in Ireland. Bill has a wife and kids. He is a coal merchant and the story takes place around the Christmas holiday during the late 20th century. It seems to be a country town with a smaller population. Everyone seems to know each other and what is going on in their lives. We learn there is a place that unwanted women are taken to be hidden away. It is a religious institution. Bill has had some history with this as his mom was pregnant without a husband in the picture. Bill delivers coal to this place and discovers what is going on. What will he do? How will his and his family’s life change?
This is a short book by Claire Keegan. It had some good points that made you think. For example, when Bill is thinking “What was it all for?…The work and the constant worry…before waking in the dark to meet a version of the same thing, yet again. Might things never change or develop into something else, or new? Lately, he had begun to wonder what mattered apart from Eileen and the girls. He was touching forty but didn’t feel himself to be getting anywhere or making any kind of headway and could not but sometimes wonder what the days were for.” This is something that has cropped up in my brain a time or two before. It was nice to read on the page. There weren’t a lot of characters and even less that had speaking parts. You could only really get a sense of what Bill was about. His wife to a lesser degree. This story had a sort of It’s a Wonderful Life vibe to me, which I only realized after finishing it and now that I am looking back and thinking about it. The main character has a sort of moral quandary and thinks “was there any point in being alive without helping one another?” This book has a real Christmassy feel to it and not just because it takes place around the holiday. I liked how the book was prefaced by a mention of real places where unwed, pregnant women were taken. It is a shame that the attitudes were like that. The book was easy to read and follow. It was just a little boring to me though. It was really short and I don’t have a lot to talk about. I only took a few notes. There was only one word that I came across that I liked and pulled out. That was genuflecting. This is exactly the type of book that I would read if I want a book to finish it in one sitting, on Christmas Eve, while drinking a hot chocolate sitting in front of a fire.
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Super Hot Guy And How Not To Entertain Readers
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
BOOKCLUB PEEPS DON’T READ!
“A third child inspired in me more gratitude for my own circumstances than envy.”
“’If it sounds like I haven’t been in enough therapy, it’s because I’ve chosen Midwestern repression instead.’”
“’The point of life is to find the thing you’re good at and enjoy doing, and to do it for other people.’”
“’Real life is just awkward.’”
Romantic Comedy is about Sally who is a writer for a comedy sketch show. She has been writing sketches for years. She has had varying levels of success and some recurring sketches. On one show they have this musician named Noah Brewster who also acts as the host. He has been singing for years as well. Noah is described as very attractive with a good body. They meet, collaborate on a sketch, and then go to a bar with everyone for an after-party. They talk but that is where they part ways. A couple of years later the pandemic hits and Sally gets an email from Noah. They conversate. Is this real life or a romantic comedy? Will Sally think of herself as worthy? Will a relationship develop? Is Sally worthy of Noah?
Curtis Sittenfeld wrote this book while watching SNL on one screen and a generic romantic comedy on another during the height of Covid, it seems. I mean I don’t know that but that is the way it came across. The first thing I noticed when reading the jacket was the fact that it was an exact copy of SNL. Like couldn’t you move the show date to a Friday or not have the name be three letters? Alter it a little bit. Then the script that was presented as a movie was like a total rip-off of The First Wives Club. I didn’t like Sally as the main character. She was very whiny and insecure. She did some things that I didn’t understand and couldn’t fathom having a reason for. Her ex-husband was an ass. I also didn’t like how the book was arranged. There were like 3 chapters total and 1 was entirely made up of emails. That took up a lot of space without a lot of words. Emailing multiple times a day? Within a few minutes? I was surprisingly thrown when the font changed from the email chapter to the next chapter. It was weird. One thing I did like was the sprinkling in of commentary on the unraveling of our Democracy into Autocracy because of the 2016 election. They were nods to reality and something I felt deeply about and agreed with. “’Remember on election night, when it was like, the worse could happen? And then all of a sudden, it was like, Oh my fucking God, it’s happening. And then it had happened.’” Oh and the author lives in Minneapolis…where I am from! And there was mention of Duluth, MN as well as hot dishes…such a Minnesotan thing! There was also a very sweet moment about Jerry and a guitar. Noah was described as very hot with a great body so maybe a movie version with a hot guy could lift this story? The words that I picked up on when I came across them were vacuous, anodyne, axiomatic, piquant, facile, cloying, epistolary, and obsequiousness. I was not impressed with this book and thought it was generic and bland. It was frustrating and stupid. This is exactly the type of book that an alien could read and understand all romantic comedies ever.
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