Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Cover Art from GoodReads

*I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own*

Okay, so you know how in the Am I The A**hole forum on Reddit there's an option that says Everyone Sucks Here? That's sort of how I felt about most of these characters. Alex was awful without realizing that she was awful. Throughout the book you kind of KNOW she's not a great person,but you don't really find out the extent of it until later on. 

Then there's Kelly. He doesn't seem that bad either, but the more you go on the more toxic he becomes as well. He sort of skeeved me out from the beginning though. 

Emira was literally the ONLY redeemable person in this book to me. I think the author meant for this to be the case though. You're not necessarily supposed to like Kelly or Alex. Essentially those characters represent some of the different attitudes that white people can have toward people of color, where they come off as racist without meaning to or realizing it. Doesn't mean they aren't offensive, both just chose not to learn to do better. 

Honestly the children in the story had my sympathy the most. This book was somewhat difficult to read because the topic is such a sensitive one (especially for a white girl who lives in the south where racism is still rampant). We want to bury our heads in the sand and act like this isn't something to worry about, but it most definitely is, and Reid tackles some tough topics in a brilliant way. 

Would definitely recommend!

Followers by Megan Angelo

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*I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own* 

Well. This was. A. Ride. I haven't read a book that I just couldn't put down and didn't want to end in a while, but Angelo NAILED it. I am very picky about the Dystopian types of literature that I read because it really just isn't my genre, but this was in the same vein as "Bumped" and "Pretties/Uglies" in that technology has taken over and made life "better", rather than the end of the world dystopia like "Hunger Games' (though I did enjoy those-- just using it as a comparison point). 

"Followers" switches between the POV of Orla, a writer in 2016, and Marlowe, a reality celebrity from the 2050s. Orla and her friend Floss do some questionable things to make Floss "famous" and she is stuck facing the consequences of those actions. Meanwhile Marlowe lives in a town where everything she does is broadcast to the rest of the world, and they follow her every move. She (like everyone else in the town) was implanted with a computer that does all of the googling through her brain, instead of using a screen. Marlowe eventually has to decide if the life she lives is one she wants to continue to live. There is a connection between the two women that the reader learns about later on in the book. 

I read this in a matter of a few hours. I couldn't put it down because I just had to find out what else was going to happen. Reading how easy it was for this one random woman to become "internet famous" struck a cord with me, because we as a society give so much credence to these random things, and that sort of fame can become all encompassing. I was thoroughly interested in how oversharing on the internet can lead to a downfall of sorts. We use technology for almost everything we do, and even though we think no one is watching, "Followers" brings up the point that just because you don't think anyone is recording whatever you're searching for, or texting, Google is always there :) What would we do as a society if an event such as "The Spill" happened? It's terrifying because it could EASILY happen. And honestly, could I be okay with having my every move scripted and followed? We see that as odd now, but frankly I could see how it could happen. Ahhhh. So many thoughts. 

If you were considering reading this one, DO IT! It was publsihed in January of 2020 so it's available at your local library or most bookstores. 

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan

covere art from goodreads

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own* 

Once again, I am a bit late with reviewing, since this book was published in January of this year, but c'est la vie. Full disclosure, I didn't really WANT to review this book. I keep thinking of  Thumper in Disney's Bambi: 

Thumper :) 

And honestly I don't have a whole bunch to say about this. The book is about a group of graduate MFA students who don't like one of their teachers due to something they feel she has done to another classmate. So they ruin her life. None of the characters are really memorable or even likable, with the exception of Pearl, and only for me because I had a teacher like him, who I thoroughly enjoyed. 

The writing was pretty. But it seemed pretentious. The author seemed to string a ton of prose together but never really had a point to the story. I was damn near 60% into the book before SOMETHING happened and once it did I wasn't all that shocked. I was more surprised by the fact that a group of "adults" would behave this way. Honestly, I probably should have just DNF'd this one, but I've been doing that a lot lately so I stuck with it hoping for some payoff, since I was really interested in the synopsis, however that payoff just wasn't there. 

Ce n'est pas it chief. 

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

cover art from GoodReads

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. My opinion is my own. 

This is the first solo Tarryn Fisher book I've read. I read her "Never Never" series with Colleen Hoover, and honestly I wasn't over the top impressed with it, so my expectations for this weren't super high going in. I finished the book on the plane from Baton Rouge to Nashville, so it wasn't a very long read. I got hooked into it more than I expected to. 

The premise: Thursday is married to Seth. Seth is a polygamist who is also married to two other women. Thursday is not supposed to know about the other women, but she meets one of them and finds out that she may not know her husband at all. 

I love love love books with unreliable narrators, and Thursday (what kind of a name is Thursday) is definitely one of those! As we learn more about her relationship with Seth, I wasn't overly impressed with him (although I don't think we are supposed to be) and I kept waiting for her to wake up and realize she could do better, and not just say "but I love him". The other wives were interesting and I would have liked to delve into their lives a bit more too. I don't want to say too much about this book because too much will give away spoilers, and this is one of those books that you've got to experience for yourself. I'm glad that this was the first Tarryn Fisher book I read, because now I want to read more! 

Raven Lane by Amber Cowie

Cover Art From GoodReads

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

This whole book was a hot mess. To start off, a couple is driving home from a party when the husband runs over one of the neighbors who is riding his bike. He is subsequently arrested, and the rest of the book alternates between how the couple got to that point and what happens to the husband after his arrest. I don't even want to touch the story within a story aspect because honestly it was so boring and kind of irrelevant that I skipped it. #sorrynotsorry

Honestly, everyone in this book sucked. None of them were likable characters. The victim used the wife in order to get a story for his next book, the wife was miserable due to trauma she couldn't talk about and so she made everyone else around her miserable, the husband was an addict who CLEARLY needed help, and everyone was trying to sleep with everyone else. I just kept waiting for there to be a point, and even after the *shocking* death toward the end, there still wasn't. It just abruptly ended. 

What even was this? 

The Dead Girl's Club by Damien Angelica Walters

I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. 

I'll be honest, the cover is what drew me to this book in the beginning. I love the color scheme and the flowers. It looks like something I would use as my phone background. And of course the title is catchy as well. 

The story is about Heather, who as a child, had a group of friends who called themselves the "dead girl's club" where they essentially had their own true crime podcast before podcasts were a thing. One of their favorite topics, the Red Lady, (think Slenderman) was a belief that got too out of hand, and because of it their friend Becca died. The story goes back and forth between what happened the night Becca died, and who is stalking Hannah about it now. 

The whole time I was reading this I was reminded of the case in Wisconsin about the girls who stabbed their friend because "Slenderman" told them to do it. Frankly I didn't believe their story then, and I wasn't too taken with Hannah's story either. There's no way that at her age she honestly thought that she could stab her friend and put dirt in her mouth and that she would "come back". However, those feelings don't necessarily reflect on the book. I thought it was interesting, it held my attention, and I would definitely recommend it to my true crime readers. 

All About Evie by Cathy Lamb

Cover Image from GoodReads

I was given an eARC of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. 

I really wanted to like this book. The premise with the premonitions seemed right up my alley. And the life changing discovery about the past? I called about two chapters in. This book wouldn't have been quite so awful if the characters weren't all completely obnoxious. 

Evie- "Oh I love Marco but we can't be together for reasons I won't disclose to him". " I love him so much even though I avoid him at all costs and have never even been on a date with him because I flat out refuse all of his advances". And then there's the fact that she is super judgy to her customers in her bookstore, trying to force them to read what she wants them to read rather than what they would actually like. If this was the real world, and not book world, she wouldn't have a business. 

Evie's sister who's name I can't even remember. Every time they asked her what she liked about her husband all she could talk about was how he was in bed. I don't know if that was supposed to be a joke or if the author thinks that is all it really takes to make a relationship work, but no. 

Then there's the police officer. He was an over the top harasser.  I know that sort of thing does happen, but it was like the author tried way too hard to make this cop seem like the bad guy, and it ended up just being very cringe. 

All in all, I was hardly invested in the story and was just ready for it to be over. I don't know that I'll be recommending this one to anyone.