exteenawreads's reviews
354 reviews

I remember back when I first heard of Dylan - her video about having tampons in her purse just in case someone needed one in the ladies room was going viral made it on to my algorithm, and I was instantly amazed with who she was and what she represented. Her first instinct is always to be kind and thoughtful despite so much hate and negativity thrown at her. Especially where we are now in the US, voices like Dylan's are so important. Trans people exist, and they are just people trying to live their lives, and it's so insane how obsessed people are with hating something that has no effect on them.

The audiobook with Dylan herself narrating is great - she is so charismatic and entertaining, and it feels extra special to hear her story from her own voice. Hearing about her journey and struggles and all the highs and lows from behind the scenes was funny, inspiring, and powerful. I wish her so much happiness and success in years to come, and I am sure this memoir will help many of the struggling trans folks find confidence and hope. 

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

"I'm not a regular stalker, I'm like a cool stalker"
- the MMC of this book, probably 

Actually though this was great. It toes the line of just acceptable enough levels of consent to be a bit dark but also didn't give me the ick, and honestly that is an art form in and of itself.

I give this re-read 5/5 sexually frustrated hand flexes.

It is hard not to love this classic that basically set the groundwork for my favorite genre of romance - witty, clever, average girl manages to beguile broody, rich, mean man. Jane Austen has such a way of writing that gives so much life to these characters and really makes you feel transported to the era - it is just timeless. Admittedly, there's a good chunk in the middle that is absolutely boring, but I don't even care enough about that to have it affect my love for this story. And the ending is so anticlimactic, so do not expect modern romance book level drama or you'll be disappointed.

I'm not sure what more I could say that hasn't been said much better by others, so here are some of my favorite quotes:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

"You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.” “You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”

“Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance.”

"By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self- complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

"I have, therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all— and now despise me if you dare.” “Indeed I do not dare.”

Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.

"“I do assure you, sir, that I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere."

“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”

“Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures! They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me— I should infinitely prefer a book.”

I give the Anthropocene Reviewed 100 out of 5 stars. 

John Green has a way of speaking directly to my soul - picking at the smallest seemingly meaningless bits of life and dissecting them into the beautiful wonders that they are. I have been a huge fan since his books basically shaped my consciousness in middle school, and that he continues to dig his little fingers into my brain and massage it all around now that I am an old jaded adult, is truly miraculous. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed essentially pokes fun at the need of modern humans to "rate" everything on a 5 star scale, from movies to restaurants to park benches. Each chapter focuses on a single subject, giving often a brief history, some introspection of how it relates to the human experience, and personal connections he has to the subject that has somehow affected his life. The subjects range from Canadian Geese, to sunsets, to the QWERTY keyboard - and in each short chapter, Green manages to provoke a range of feelings from pure joy and wonder to profound grief and loneliness. Each chapter then ends with Green's personal rating of that subject out of 5 stars. 

It's hard to explain how and why this collection of essays is so powerful and unique and beautiful. It is like a time capsule of the human condition, how wonderful and tragic it can be, and how we find our place and meaning in it. 

It's hard for me to pick a favorite - but I feel a need to shout out the "Googling Strangers" chapter. It starts off a bit silly, with Green explaining how his social anxiety drives him to Google known attendees of a party before he arrives so that he feels he already knows them. It then meanders into the strangeness of social media, and how terrifyingly easy it is to find personal information on people, and how intrusive being a perpetually online personality can be. It then ends with a story from when he worked in a hospital in his early 20s and witnessed the tragedy of a very young child fighting for his life - and how years later, he struggled with whether or not to Google the kids name and see if he lived. I fully sobbed by the end. Just masterful storytelling from a fascinating, thoughtful, incredible person. 

Highly highly recommend 🙏🏻

Despite the very.... interesting cover, this book is 
1. Not really that smutty. It is 95% action, money, politics, and urban magic/fantasy with like one or two romance scenes that are pretty vanilla. There are whole ass car chase scenes and shootouts and kidnapping attempts and heists, and it is all high stakes and tense. 
2. Like actually pretty good

Second in this series, we continue to follow Nevada who is a private investigator with secret magic powers to tell when people are lying, among other things. She is in a forced partnership with a guy, who has the terrifying magical ability to basic level buildings with his mind, in order to solve a murder being covered up by some important rich magical families. It reads like an episode of SVU or Bones or one of those similar guy/gal detective duos with respectful sexual tension but with magic, and tbh it slapped. I liked it more than the first one, and wasn't planning to read this whole series but now I actually might. 

(3-4 ⭐? can't decide) I have two wolves within me: one finger-gunning and saying "Niiice, hot slutty vampires" and the other screaming "The Bechdel Test! Misogyny! Fridging!! Gross obsession with sexualizing underage kids!" 

So ya, I dunno. 

I think the writing was excellent, the world was immersive and thrilling, and the story compelling. The battle scenes are expertly written and many moments are truly exhilarating. The prose is beautiful and poetic, the characters are memorable and unique. I really enjoyed what was basically a randomly generated DND party of diverse folks, forced together and fighting against all odds on a quest to save the broken world. It seems to heavily take inspiration from other media I love like The Witcher and The Last of Us, though that meant I wasn't too surprised by the direction. It was just so painfully obviously written by a man the feminist in me couldn't help but cringe often. And don't get me wrong, I get that the point of showing all of this violence and hatred of women is to highlight it as toxic and wrong. But the way it's written also glorifies it, and the story isn't about fighting the patriarchy - it's about a man out for revenge and glory, his enemy just happens to also be thinly veiled patriarchy and religious zealotry. 

Ex: A vampire obsessed with teenage girls and turning them to be his unwilling slaves, literally pulling his carriage all half naked? = Evil, this is a villain, we don't root for him. But the writing itself directs the reader to see these things moreso as acts of great power and strength, and the simple truth of what a man would do if they were infinite and unkillable. This vampire is described very positively as beautiful, strong, something to be respected and feared. Yes he's a villain, but I'm also not convinced the author doesn't sort of revere men like him or at least see this as the average man's ideal. And the many examples of this throughout are hard to ignore. 

Overall I did really like it, I just feel a little icky about it. And I truly could have done without the underage kid sexualizing. And the animal deaths :(

A cute, geeky, low-stakes quick and easy read about a video game CEO and a streamer/activist working to make gaming more inclusive. It's very insta-lovey, sort of workplace romance, and the communication is so healthy it's damn near out of a therapy textbook every time they talk. 

What I liked:
- I'm always a sucker for nerdy MCs. This definitely seemed to be written by someone who knows and understands the gaming and convention world
- The focus on DEI, specifically women and black women and how they are treated by the gaming community, and the importance of creating spaces where everyone is welcome
- Aron the MMC is an absolute simp for his woman, immediately and strongly 
- Sam the FMC is badass, well-spoken, and intelligent throughout the story. She has a few moments where she is quick to anger and defensive, but that's understandable considering her background. 
- Representation for those with special needs in gaming. I love these types of initiatives IRL and it's awesome seeing them highlighted here

What I didn't like:
- I will never ever like a Third Act Breakup! And this one also was silly IMO
- There really wasn't much drama...everything was almost too easy? Which felt weird considering the serious subject matter
- Aron seemed to flip a switch and be a different personality in the spice scenes. It was a little jolting. 

Overall i'd recommend! I listened to the audiobook and it was a quick comfy listen. 

This is my favorite thing I have read so far this year. It's also my first TJ Klune book, and after this I am feral for more. I feel like he'd hate this description, but this felt basically like if Twilight was just about (mostly) gay werewolves, more focused on the fated mates and alpha structures and found family like the Cullen's, and it's just small town simple life meets the extremes of the unknown mixed with teenage angst that just rips your insides apart. And I mean that as a high compliment.

I'm not sure if I was just perfectly in the mood for angsty, wholesome, queer paranormal found-family journey or what, but I was fully obsessed the entire way through. I laughed, I cried, I yearned, I ached, I felt way too many feelings. This is just the kind of story that perfectly tugs on all of my heartstrings and buries itself deep inside my soul. It is written so beautifully, and the characters are all so fascinating in their simplicity. A large cast of characters can sometimes get overwhelming, but each person here is integral and unique and memorable. 

There is a bit of a creepiness factor with an age gap romance - they meet as children with a 6 year difference and the story is told over a decade, but there is no romance aspect to the relationship until the youngest is 17- not nearly as creepy as Rennesme but in that vein a little. It is handled...as well as it could be, though. It's hard to explain. It gave me a bit of an ick but the rest of it more than makes up for that. 

I just loved these characters and how they cared for each other and supported each other so much. It's the kind of story where I look at fan art now of certain scenes and want to cry. I just really really loved it. And I can't wait to read the rest of the series. 

My feelings on this kept going up and down throughout reading, and I think it just was just too inconsistent in its delivery for a higher rating for me. I think the concepts and magic were really interesting, but some aspects are poorly explained and others are beaten over your head over and over. I wanted to love the FMC Rune, but I don't think enough was done to build her up into the clever badass we were supposed to believe she was - she spends most of the book showing her lack of skill and poor judgement, despite her reputation being extreme enough to be hunted by the upper echelons of authority. I also don't think there was enough buildup of the romance, and I had a hard time rooting for the enemies-to-lovers when there's an inarguably better choice for her waiting on the sidelines. The ending wasn't too surprising to me, I think the clues left made what had to happen to further the plot a bit too obvious. All that said - the world and base concepts I still find compelling, and I'd be willing to read the next book and hope it answers some questions and gives Rune a chance to actually show her power.