carleesi's reviews
744 reviews

I listened to the podcast as it was released and this book was a very well written encapsulation of the feeling of being part of that story.

I am so glad we’ve seen some kind of justice for Lynn and so disgusted at all of the corruption that led to her murder being ignored for so many years. 

Love and power to Lynn’s family, friends and Hedley for working so tirelessly to make sure she was never forgotten.

My only qualm is how strange it was that hedley talked about how much he loved the name of the podcast and book. With all the discussion of protecting and respecting “Jenny” it’s odd to pick a title that makes her the subject. She was the teachers pet, but this is a story about a murdered mother, daughter, friend and wife, as well as a narcissistic pedophilic man and his evil deeds. The title suggests a lot more culpability for Jenny, and that’s never what Hedley was aiming for.

What a weird book. I am not a fan of unlikeable protagonists so I was doomed to have issues with this story. I don’t really know how I feel about it. It started as an interesting read but it was just so off the rails. That being said, I couldn’t put it down and I often thought about the characters when I wasn’t reading it.

Loves: 
- I loooved the magic system in this book
- the code-switching with a glossary in the back
- the main character 
- the way anger was a power and a curse and the lessons around wielding anger
- the full circle cat calling moments

Not so love:
- the pacing was off, I had trouble staying in this world and I think it just wasn’t paced right for me
- the romance just didn’t do it for me. I think it could have been more powerful as a friendship
- too many characters that weren’t fully fleshed out, needed more information about Quinton early on as I just didn’t understand the what’s and how’s behind his relationship with the MC (don’t get me wrong he’s clearly a dick from the get go, but I felt like I was missing something

that didn’t feel resolved by the reveal towards the end

)

Harrowing and heart breaking account of life inside the heights of Scientology. 

I love Buffy too much to keep reading this sexist, racist, ableist, bi-erasing, Xander loving nonsense.

I love Samantha Shannon’s world building. It needs to be said after every book.

I did find this book a bit repetitive, I wanted things to change a bit more rather than the same patterns on repeat. That being said I loved the ending!

WHY would Paige not have tried to enter Arcturus’ dreamscape when she thinks he’s switched sides??? As a reader it was such an obvious ploy, it was painful to see her not use any of her skills to dig a little deeper. And even after she did, she saw him come back for a moment and didn’t question that? That whole thing was just kinda annoying. We got past him being untrustworthy several books ago.

This was a breath of fresh air! So original and silly and fun and campy. Bloody great book! 

The story was a bit too slow for me and I wasn’t drawn to keep reading.

Beautiful prose. Woodson writes in a way that meant I felt like both the 4 year old child and the omniscient adult, experiencing the confusion and darkness with a greater understanding of what it all means.

Really interesting concept and overarching story.

Reading the info from the authors at the end helped contextualsie some parts of the story that annoyed me, but I think I would have liked the book more if those contexts had been more clearly articulated in the story itself rather than as an afterword.