jdamae11's reviews
84 reviews

Really appreciated how Viola didn’t pull any punches in this. Very honest, raw, at times brutally so. Viola does not shy away from talking about the actual reality of growing up in poverty in the US, especially as a Black family living in poverty. As a low income first-Gen student I can’t describe how much her college experiences resonated, from having to work a billion jobs to be able to eat and make it through school to STILL experiencing impostor phenomenon decades later as an already accomplished actor. And she shares a lot about how much she knew how to mask that so that no one ever knew her reality. WHEW. So grateful for how much she kept it 100% real in regard to sharing that experience. I also appreciated how she kept it real around her experiences of colorism, featurism, and misogynoir especially in the entertainment industry. I’m not usually a fan of memoirs (no shade I just usually need escapist fiction), but this was so vulnerable and inspires a lot of reflection. This book basically told me to get my a$$ back in therapy stat LOL. Viola has been through A LOT & her willingness to tell the story is very appreciated. If you can listen to her narrate it, highly recommend!

This book is way heavier than initially expected, I think the reader can tell when they’re about to enter some intense territory but just a warning on depictions of physical and verbal abuse and sexual violence.

I needed a day to process why this book was so special for me. This book was just so satisfying and heartfelt, and an incredible journey exploring the special and deep kind of love that friendships, especially lifelong ones, allow us to experience in life. Not only was I emotionally attached to our two main characters, but I felt like EVERYONE in the book was so well developed and REAL. I laughed, got really tense and frustrated, and sobbed. I literally cried in the shower a whole day later thinking about things that happened in this book. Zevin I think does an amazing job tackling grief, chosen family, chronic illness, depression, hustle culture, generational changes, and the messy complicatedness of relationships. I was really struck by how she was able to paint so clearly the ways miscommunication and avoidance can completely derail even the strongest of friendships over time, and I felt myself screaming at the characters to just talk to each other 😂 i think in the middle it got a little tedious and I was wondering where it was going, but to be fair this was also paralleling what our characters were experiencing at the time — jadedness and frustration at being stuck. I can’t do this book justice with all its well placed moments and connecting threads, but I think the best thing about this for me was that the author makes the book feel like a game itself. There’s so many little gems you figure out she’s done style wise after you read a section and are like OHHHH WOWWW I SEE WHAT SHE DID THERE!! It’s the exact feeling you get when you’ve passed a really hard level in a video game or figured out the “trick” or “plot twist” to a game or show.  There is amazing continuity, EVERYTHING always circles it’s way back to an earlier moment, it’s so satisfying. As someone who escaped into video games as a kid and still loves them, this story was personal too. A lot of it was also set in L.A. and made me miss it there so much, Zevin painted it so well. I think if you’re not a gamer or less familiar with the settings it may feel less special, but should still be a great read. I got this from the library but am buying it so I can have it forever! 

Nina LaCour’s writing is mesmerizing, definitely going to pick up her YA stuff after this one! This one definitely revealed things to me about myself through it’s characters that I kind of wasn’t prepared for, and I personally love when a book gets you / makes you reflect in such a way! Something about this just really got me in the feels…it does a really great job at exploring loss and just how devastating life can be, and how we can find beauty here and there and our own ways to make it through. It was heavy hitting and realistic in the same way that life is, in that sense. I enjoyed the style of going back and forth with character POVs, it was really well done / not jarring or disjointed. The pacing got a little rough towards the back half, and I wished we had gotten to see our two main characters together a bit more before the end. Overall, really lovely read.  

Wow - this book was so well written and surprised me in so many ways. I loved all the horror elements blended perfectly with fantasy. Alex, the main protagonist, is a really fun sort of antihero, she’s so great to root for while also getting on your nerves, makes her so deeply human and easy to relate to. Being from LA and being first-Gen I could resonate with a lot of what underlied her narrative - feeling undeserving of where she was, not belonging, trying to navigate such foreign spaces, and winging it to find answers that no one had ever thought of before. I can’t wait for the sequel, this is my fave book of 2022 so far !

This collection was a trip. I liked the last 2 stories more than the first, the last one being my definite favorite. I got whiplash from the first one LOL and I think it’s the reason I had wild dreams right after reading it. The writing is beautiful and keeps you hooked in, I will likely reread these at some point. Thanks to my library for having this one! :)