James M.

“Stay Golden Ponyboy”

Revisado: 08-26-24

I’ve heard this quote a lot throughout my life but I didn’t read this book until my husband started teaching it to his students. I made it through this audiobook in one sitting (very rare for me). I loved it from start to finish. It made me cry, it made me think. The whole time I was just shocked it was written by a 16-year-old - even though maybe I shouldn’t be. Highly recommend.

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Wonderfully weird

Revisado: 06-05-24

So glad Miranda July narrated her own book. She did it beautifully. This book is… very strange. Kind of like… shock art for liberals (I’m pretty liberal). There were moments where I was disturbed, confused, uncomfortable. But in the end we are all weird and it was heartwarming and refreshing to listen to something so unique.

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The first book got me

Revisado: 03-26-24

Something about this story had me pretty disinterested the whole time. I liked the first book which is why I got this one… but I am so not into Darlington as a love interest. I want Galaxy to have an insane romance - even if it’s with Dawes or Turner! Or a random side piece! I just do not feel the chemistry between her and Darlington. The love story isn’t smoldering enough for me. She saves him from hell and he doesn’t even like… thank her profusely? Snooze.

Also found it annoying Eitan makes a comeback in this book. Who cares about a drug dealer when we are dealing with daemons and hell?

I don’t even know if I’ll make it to the third book.

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Worth the listen

Revisado: 06-29-23

Let me start by saying the narrator smashed the performance. So so good. I’m usually really bothered by narrators that do different voices for different characters (esp when a male narrator does a high pitched one for women characters) but it really helped me to keep up with who was speaking.
The book itself could’ve been written today. Such a crazy mash-up of unlikeable characters and a raw portrayal of race, privilege, and the media in America. It’s my first Tom Wolf book but I don’t think it will be my last.

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Predictable yet completely unfeasible

Revisado: 04-16-23

Come on. This is like the third book suggested to me by Audible that has fantastic reviews (thousands of them in fact!) but the storyline and writing are so subpar.
A therapist that is also a detective? Who is also being followed by shadow people trying to ruin her life? Ugh.

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Wow tired, offensive tropes

Revisado: 04-16-23

*broad spoilers included* This was suggested to me by Audible and kept showing up. With all the five-star reviews, I thought, Sure! I'll try it out.

The first sign that gave me the ick was all the talk about how fat the main character's new boss was. How disheveled and unattractive she was - How could she POSSIBLY not be cleaner and skinnier since she doesn't have a job!?! Wow. Look, I'm someone who loves an unlikeable main character. But damn. I don't think the author means her to sound unlikeable - these comments came off as wholly unfeminist and offensive. And this was BEFORE the main character (Millie) decided she wanted to boink her boss's husband. How could this RICH BEAUTIFUL man settle for this overweight, older, LAZY, mentally ill mother?!

Then, you have the mysterious Italian gardener. Millie just can't get over the fact that he has had this job for THREE YEARS and doesn't speak any English. She routinely tries to communicate in broken Spanish (she ~thinks~ it's Spanish lol wow she's so appalled he doesn't know another language but she doesn't know another language herself hmm...), it comes off as super racist because all foreign gardeners must speak Spanish, right?? But don't worry! He's hot so she tries to hook up with him anyways.

The last straw for me was when it's revealed *through gossip* that Millie's boss did this very UNMOTHER-like thing; Millie is disgustingly judgemental and gullible and still, STILL can't stop thinking about how great her boss's husband smells and how hot he gets her (this coming from someone who loves a juicy affair in a book - but paired with the other woman-hating tropes I just couldn't deal). The author's writing concerning mental illness just really threw me over the edge.

Anyways, I returned it two hours in. I guess I just have to stop trusting reviews. Just so insane to me a story like this could be published to such "acclaim".

*for reference, I'm a woman. I use my partner's account.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Oof

Revisado: 04-06-23

It started interesting, but wow within the first few minutes I already knew how it was going to end.

The way this author wrote about women? The way she wrote about teenage GIRLS? The way this author wrote from a woman’s perspective? Insane! On top of that - the story itself was wildly unrealistic (which, yes, part of the appeal of these psychological thrillers is how neatly tied up they are in the end but like… what?). I found her characters really dated and honestly offensive. I have family that lives in Baton Rouge, so I was excited to hear her talk about LSU and BR and NOLA but yikes. Just really hated this story.

I also had a really had a hard time with how breathless and halting the narrator was. I probably wouldn’t listen to another book read by her. It sucks to have to write this because I know it takes a lot of work to produce a story like this but… yeah not for me.

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Really really brutal

Revisado: 03-21-23

I had a hard time getting through this story because it was so brutal. I understand she was trying to make a point about how this Greek tragedy would’ve been realistically from the women’s point of view - and I appreciate that she unromanticized so much of it. I thought the writing was beautiful, the performance was lovely - but wow a warning that you will feel heavy afterward listening to this story!

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I’m glad I bought this on accident

Revisado: 06-13-22

Somehow, my butt purchased this book with an audible credit. I’d put it on my wishlist because I loved the cover design (yes - I absolutely judge books by covers). I am SO glad I got it. Dolly’s writing touched me so much; it was insanely relatable, timely, beautifully believable. And I loved the narrator as well (I’ve listened to other books narrated by Holiday and I highly recommend). I finished this audio book within 48 hrs! I couldn’t stop wondering where it would go.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas