kyarabereading's reviews
62 reviews

New Moon is a book that allows us to see who Bella is after meeting then losing Edward and the world of vampires - and though her reaction is a bit melodramatic, I think after reading the book, it makes sense she reacted like that. It truly helps you understand that she had access to a world that no one in Forks knows about but her, and to lose that access and have no one to talk about it with would drive anyone insane.

I think certain aspects of New Moon made it a better book than Twilight in my opinion. I liked seeing Bella’s personality when she’s not paralyzed by her depression or talking about the “hole” she feels inside. The way her and Jacob’s friendship blossomed was really nice, and I loved seeing the moment they shared together. I think the most frustrating aspect about their relationship, however, is the fact that Bella makes it explicitly clear in her narration that Jacob is never truly a choice love-wise for her because Edward is her one true love. It kind of makes this not a great “love triangle” story if the second guy isn’t even an option. Writing-wise, I think it would have been cool to see Bella explore her and Jacob’s relationship as a potentially romantic one. I think it would make Bella choosing Edward feel like a more powerful decision in a way. But Meyer is so set in making Edward and Bella soulmates that that was never even a possibility.

Seeing Bella and Jacob’s relationship also made me realize how much of a foil Jacob is for Edward. In this book, we essentially see Bella go through the same story with Jacob as she did with Edward in Twilight. Bella and Jacob start hanging out more but Jacob sees himself as a “monster” who can’t be near Bella until he realizes Bella doesn’t really care so he lets her more into his world (even going as far as meeting the family) and together, the family works to protect Bella from an outside threat that wants to hurt her. Like that’s literally Twilight but with werewolves.

As always, I also liked learning more about the world of vampires and werewolves. It’s interesting seeing this world - meeting the wolf pack and the Volturi for example - as an outsider alongside Bella. It really makes you feel how Bella would in those situations - the human being who has no real idea what’s going on, who will never fully understand the years of history that led to this point. Meyer does a really great job of giving her characters motivations and movements and choices that exist outside of Bella’s point of view, so when Bella is brought into the mix, it’s like we have to get caught up to speed alongside her. It’s the mythical equivalent to joining a new friend group and not understanding any of the inside jokes.

Like all Meyer books I’ve read so far, one of the biggest flaws in her writing is repetition. Repetition of themes and plot points we’ve seen a hundred times before in this series and this is only the third book I read. For example, I thought Bella and Edward’s reunion moment was nice up until the point that they started acting fucking corny and repetitive and going over the same issues as the last book. “I left you to protect you because I’m no good for you” “It’s okay if you want to leave me again, I know I’m not interesting enough for you” oh my god you two are so BORING. The times I find their relationship the most interesting is when Bella takes some agency for herself instead of acting like an insecure weirdo or a big baby (more on the big baby shit later).

And seeing both of them have this “I don’t deserve you, you’re too good for me” mentality gets old and feels unrealistic. You’re telling me Edward left Bella and all she did was feel grateful for the bit of time they shared together, time she doesn’t feel she deserved because he’s sooo much better than her? She never once blamed him or got angry with him or nothing, and I think that would have been a much more realistic reaction than whatever the hell she had going on. And the fact that even after all that, she still defends Edward against Charlie like girl wtf do you think your relationship looks like to Charlie??? It looks like you’re in a literal emotionally abusive, co-dependent relationship - any parent would be worried - and she’s acting like he’s being ridiculous. Even Edward knows he deserves some lashings but nooo in Bella’s eyes, Edward is perfect. Meyer is set on making these two look like the perfect couple, and instead it makes them both boring & insane.

On the big baby shit: I am honestly sick and tired of Bella damsel-in-distressing all over the place. I can’t say that I would act much better in any of these situations but she’s pathetically weak in a way that’s giving “uwu I’m so small and fragile and my big, strong boyfriend needs to take care of me.” Every other chapter gotta mention how small and frail she is, and I am sick of it. I feel like this book series really pushes traditional ideas around men and women’s roles in relationships, marrying young, etc in a way that is very concerning. And I think Bella is such an interesting character when she’s not perpetuating those ideas in the way she behaves.

I also think Meyer’s decision to make Bella lose her connection with her friends this book was really shitty, especially when you’re aware of the fact that she’s doing all this to make it seem like Bella doesn’t really have any connections to the human world so she’s destined to be apart from it. I understand that Bella was depressed and it distanced her from her friends but even before that, she was not a great friend to them. There are times where you can tell she sees herself above them, and that’s why I can’t even blame Jessica for acting toward her the way she did. I think it would have been more interesting if Bella did genuinely love and care about her friends, so it would make her deciding to be a vampire a tougher choice, but a choice she wanted anyway. But I think Meyer really wants to make it seem like Bella isn’t being ripped from her life by not making her care about anything or anybody from her human life. It’s such a cop-out to make sure Bella and Edward have their eventual perfect happy ending.

Finally, this book was pretty anticlimactic. Like I said before, I think Meyer is more focused on telling a love story than anything else and it makes any nearly exciting moment feel like…that’s it? This book kinda felt like a filler book to get you prepped with what you need to know for Eclipse, so I’m hoping Eclipse will have a more interesting plot than this one.

Midnight Sun was an interesting read in a lot of ways. I loved learning more about the Cullen family and seeing Edward’s relationship with them. I loved learning more about how Edward felt during his time with Bella and what he was doing when he wasn’t with her. I loved learning more about the Cullens’ pasts and seeing how their abilities work (especially seeing how they use them to work as a team). And I definitely loved psycho-analyzing Meyer through this book and the obvious grip Mormonism had on her while writing this series, despite her many attempts to make parts of this feel super feminist-girl-boss-y. What an interesting individual

However, although this is only the second book I’ve read from this series, I can already tell it’s my least favorite one. This book drags and could have honestly been like 200 pages shorter. Meyer has a tendency to repeat the same things over and over again - especially when it comes to Edward’s extraordinary abilities and his feelings for Bella. Here is everything she could have cut down a bit more so this book wouldn’t end up being over 600 pages long:

- 90% of the use of the word “conspicuous”
- Any part where Edward goes unnecessarily into great detail about how powerful his mind is. I didn’t need to know he counted every bug in that damn field.
- Any part where Edward goes unnecessarily into great detail about how cool and amazing his family is. I didn’t need to hear how fashionable he thought Alice was 5 different times on the same page.
- Any part where Edward goes unnecessarily into great detail about how amazing of a person Bella is, how selfless she is. Like we got it the first 400 times bro.
- His main conflict, his main reason for his mental anguish: “I’ll stay with Bella as long as she wants me around…as long as she isn’t scared of me…Wait, did I finally do something that will make her scared of me? Will she finally leave me?….Oh, no…she’s not scared of me because she loves me too much…It shouldn’t but…that makes me feel relieved…but also breaks my heart” like omg !!!! we GET IT BRO !!!!

There are so many other thinge I felt  drew out this book, but those were the main ones. I’m genuinely not kidding when I say this book could have been so much shorter, and unfortunately, I have to say that’s a sign of bad writing - which is insane considering this book is by someone who has been writing for nearly 2 decades. As I previously mentioned, there were a lot of things I did genuinely love about this book and what we got to learn about Meyer’s world of vampires, but those things are completely overshadowed by how annoyed and bored I felt through most of it.

I also kept having this feeling that Meyer possibly wrote this “Edward’s POV” book for the same reason I think Anna Todd started writing parts of the After series from Harry/Hardin’s POV: Because when you only see the girl’s POV, the relationship looks concerningly toxic. I truly feel like she wrote this book so we could see what was going through his head, how much he truly loved her, how he truly felt about the possibility of taking her away from the life she knew. If we saw this, then we would see that this isn’t an unbalanced relationship. But what I couldn’t get past is the fact that for the beginning part of the book,

Edward genuinely sounds like a deranged serial killer set on murdering her ??? I’m supposed to find their romance endearing knowing that he wanted to kill her and Bella was like “I really don’t give a fuck, Edward ❤️”

But whatevs, that’s just my theory.

I also had issues with a big plot point in the book that literally sets up the whole series:

Alice’s vision of Bella turning into a vampire and living with Edward forever. Though I think Alice’s abilities are cool and it was interesting seeing how Edward and Alice worked together with their abilities, I hate that so much of the series depends on this vision, this prophecy. What excitement is there in them having chosen to love each other if Edward already knew he’d be in love with her? What mystery is there in their future if Edward already knows she could turn into a vampire? Additionally, how can Alice even see Bella’s future if Bella is supposed to have a shield over her mind? If I were Meyer, I would have made it impossible for Alice to see Bella’s future and I think that would have made for a more interesting conflict. The lack of knowledge of what’s to come, the ways they’d have to work around this blindspot…it all could have been so interesting and would have been more consistent with the lore Meyer herself created.

But again whatevs, that’s just my idea!

Also, I lowkey started disliking Edward and Bella a little bit through Edward’s POV. They’re cringe as hell as it is but somehow it’s so much more amplified through Edward’s eyes that I almost couldn’t handle it. I also hated how much Edward judged the people around him simply because he could read their minds. It was like he himself was the sole decider on which humans were worthy of respect and admiration, and it’s really interesting the ones he chose. It was so clear so much of it was coming from Meyer’s own biases.

She wanted to set certain characters up to be perfect angels (Bella, Angela, Jacob) by making everyone else bitchy, catty, rude, overly horny (Mike, Jessica). I feel like it would have been more believable, more human to give characters like Mike and Jessica thoughts past “Damn, Bella fine as hell, I’m tryna tap that” (Mike) and “What does Bella have that I don’t?” (Jessica) Like you’re telling me they have no other inner thoughts? Just the ones that make the characters Meyer wants us to like look better in comparison? Ok then

I’m still looking forward to reading the rest of this series, of course, but it’s just insane that this book was not more exciting than I was hoping. You would think reading Edward’s POV would be this incredible, mindblowing opportunity, but honestly, it just made me miss Bella’s narration more. Anyhoo, if you actually read this long ass review, you’re stronger than me because I wouldn’t have

The Twilight movie series has always had a special place in my heart, so finally I thought it was about time to read the books. Reading this for the first time, it’s crazy seeing that Edward and Bella were this toxically obsessed with one anothe after just a few months 😭

Inarguably, Twilight is not the greatest book of all time, but it was still a really enjoyable read. I loved getting to better understand what drew Edward and Bella toward each other, what made them fall in love. I loved getting to learn more about how vampirism (& other magical elements discussed in the book) works in this world Stephenie Meyer created. And I loved getting to see more of the characters’ personalities - especially Bella and Edward. I was surprised that they didn’t necessarily act the way they do in the movie - they aren’t super serious & brooding all the time. They joked around a lot, were very sarcastic…It honestly made me wish we got to see more of that in the movie. I feel like Bella’s personality especially felt very watered down in the movie. It’s also reading this being completely aware of Meyer being a Mormon because it is VERY obvious when you read the book.

However, there were some things I thought were better done in the movie. I think the movie did a better job of setting up Bella’s relationships with everyone other than Bella. I was surprised at how little time we spent getting to know her friends/family/the Cullens, how long it took before Bella even meets another member of the Cullen family, how little attention the 3rd angle of the Twilight love triangle was given. The movie also did a better job of setting up the main conflict (James wanting to kill Bella) and creating more drama around the big moments of Bella and Edward’s relationship (e.g. Edward revealing he’s a vampire). These were things I was looking forward to learning about more, to seeing how they played out in the book, so it was disappointing not to see any of that. Every moment I was excitedly looking forward to ended up being so anticlimactic.

The book spends a LOT of time focused on building up the relationship between Bella and Edward through a series of very long conversations. I didn’t necessarily mind these conversations - it was interesting getting to learn more about Bella and Edward & getting to see the way they interact with one another. But unfortunately, that meant this book was one were not much happened - and that surprised me for a book about vampires.  It wasn’t until  the last few chapters of the book that something actually happened, and it’s insane that it took so long to get there. 

Nonetheless, I’m excited to continue reading the rest of the series & getting to learn more about these characters and the world they live in. I’m hopeful that now that we’ve set up Bella and Edward’s relationship, we get to learn more about this world & the other interesting characters in it.
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Slightly unrelated to my review, so I’m putting it down here, but is it not insane that Edward literally wanted to kill Bella, stalked her, watched her sleep…& we’re supposed to find all that charming ??? If he wasn’t a vampire - his one excuse for his behavior - he’d be a weirdo like ???

I’ve been a Halsey fan since their Room 93 EP, so I knew some day I’d get around to reading her poetry collection - despite the fact that I don’t typically enjoy reading poetry (I don’t give myself time to dissect & reflect on poems, which I’m trying to get better at).

Like all of Halsey’s work, this poetry collection is deeply personal - a deep look into Halsey’s mind, past, struggles, and more. It covers a range of topics we’ve seen them cover in their other work - her relationship to sex & sexuality (both positive & negative experiences), struggles with her mental & physical health, the hard parts of womanhood, her childhood & growing up poor, her work as an artist & how it impacts her life. I truly commend Halsey for being willing to bare it all in this incredibly intimate & honest way. They truly put so much of themselves into their work - even the parts that aren’t so perfect, the parts that one necessarily may not want the whole world to see. I think it also makes for some interesting reflection, and there were a lot of poems that truly stuck with me because of that. It was also cool to see those bits and pieces from these poems Halsey eventually used in her songs for Manic & even IICHLIHP!

I will say, however, that some poems were definitely stronger than others in this collection - and I personally thought there were fewer strong ones than there were weak ones, which is disappointing to see in a poetry collection. Although I had some poems that I really loved, I feel like there weren’t enough of them for this book to get a 4+ star rating from me - as harsh as it may sound. I think this poetry collection is great in its own way and I genuinely hope that Halsey writes one again in the future, but I feel like there are ways it falls short. It’s missing that oomph that we see in her  songwriting.

I would definitely give this poetry collection a read once some time has passed! I’m still trying to understand how to read poetry so I think maybe there were things I could have missed during my first read-through that I’ll understand better next time.

It’s a shame this book wasn’t longer because it’s a really interesting premise that I believe could have been taken a lot further. I think if it was a bit longer, we would get that opportunity to flesh out those characters and their stories. We would get to learn more about this world they’re in. Something about it felt slightly incomplete to me. It felt like there were whole plot points that could have been explored a lot further.

But I do think Woolston achieved plenty in the 224 pages she worked with. Considering this book was written a little under a decade ago, I couldn’t believe how on point it is with its exaggerated version of where society could be headed under a capitalist surveillance state. 

A lot of the things she wrote about are things we see today due to capitalism - climate change, lack of individualism, people assigning their worth solely to their productivity, not having time or money to have a life outside of work, push towards high consumerism even during times of extreme struggle, the criminalization of homelessness, etc. 

And I think the thing that I appreciated the most is that all of this is told through the lives of totally ordinary people. Zöe isn’t going to be this dystopian world hero - she’s just a girl who feels powerless against what’s happening in the world around her, a girl who is just trying to survive, a girl who just wants to find her own piece of happiness in a very tragic world. 

Aspects of the book I was kind of half-and-half on…

Not my favorite book I’ve ever read, but it’s definitely interesting & I enjoyed the social commentary it provides. I liked it more than I expected.

Elizabeth Oliphant is Completely Fine is a true “weird girl” story in a way that really made me fall in love with it. I love Elizabeth’s voice as a narrator - so unique & so her. I also love the lessons that the book teaches us when it comes to dealing with loneliness, building a community with those around you, and finding joy in the little things.

It’s not a perfect book by any means. For one, it’s a book where not much happens. Usually, I don’t mind that, but I would often put the book down for long periods of time because it would bore me a bit. But I stuck with it because I really wanted to know what would happen next. Also, the ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied as a reader. I don’t mind that it left things a bit open-ended - I think it makes sense for this story - but I feel like Elizabeth had really serious trauma to work through that didn’t feel like it could be wrapped up that quickly. The ending felt a bit rushed, honestly! 

After reading this manga the past few years, my journey with this new version of Fangirl has come to an end! I loved this final part of the manga - the story was beautifully wrapped up & I loved seeing the character development from the first part to now. They’ve all grown so much and learned so much from their experiences and that was really nice to see!

Fangirl has always been my #1 comfort book and the manga truly perfectly reflects that comfort in the way that made me fall in love with the original book: by not being afraid to show you the harder parts of life, and what you can learn from them. It’s comforting in a lot of ways but to me, it’s mainly because it serves as a reminder that this is what life truly looks like. It can be messy and simple and fun and sad and mundane…

It’s a good representation of how we’re shaped by our experiences, how our pasts can affect how we navigate the world. It’s a reminder that you’re never truly alone in what you’re feeling because someone out there has felt the same way before. I’ll always love Fangirl and I’m really glad I got to read it in full in this unexpected & new way. 

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was a bit slow-moving with a writing style I didn’t think I’d love. I assumed too early on that I wouldn’t like it, but I’m glad I gave it a chance, because in the end I really loved it. This is a book you can tell was written by a songwriter - poetic with the types of lines that feel like a punch in the gut. I fell in love with Zauner’s writing style - the level of detail she gives when describing food and music and art. You can really tell her connection to it all/love for it all and how it all helps her feel more connected to her mother.

This book was incredibly sad and honest and reflective. I appreciated Zauner’s honesty when it came to her relationship with those around her (especially her parents, especially her mom), as well as her honesty when it came to the disconnect she felt to her Korean culture. I think what she described is an experience that unfortunately a lot of people could relate to. Although it can be saddening, I hope it makes the readers of Crying in H Mart dealing with similar experiences feel a little less alone. 

It can’t be easy to write about such a tragedy and I commend Zauner for sharing her story with the world! 

Really interesting getting to see President Snow’s POV after having read the Hunger Games series. A lot of people may see this book as a way to humanize Snow to justify the decisions he made later on in life, but I slightly disagree. I think it humanizes him to show how an ordinary person can be capable of evil even when faced with every opportunity to do the right thing. And Coryo had MANY opportunities to do the right thing, but in the end he chose a life of power and greed over one of love and community. I don’t think Coryo had love in his heart for anyone - not even Lucy (he never really tried to understand her, mostly just to control her) - so every decision he made was led by fear for his own self-preservation. And that was very saddening to see considering the amount of love he had around him.

Coryo is a smart, capable individual. In another life, Coryo could have seen the circumstances he and other citizens of Panem and realized that they were all under the same boat - all under the Capitol’s control. He could have chosen a life with Lucy Gray. Instead, he let years of propaganda and fear of the unknown (the districts and its people) & fear of perceived disorder (the removal of the current class system) get to him to the point he treated district people like the enemy instead of the ones actually responsible for his hardships (the Capitol). 

I think this book, like the entire Hunger Games series, is a very interesting commentary on our world today. On the way propaganda works to make us hate one another. On the way the elite treats & views working class people. On what it takes to create real change in world and how quickly the government will try to shut it down. On the excuses one can tell themselves to not do anything about the pain and suffering of others even when you have the power to do so (SLIGHT SPOILER: like multiple of Coryo’s classmates not approving of the Hunger Games despite being active participants in it and deciding that ultimately there was nothing they could do). A heart-wrenching read because of how  much it parallels to the real world. 

There were some places I think this story fell short however. I think the writing was not as captivating to me as Collins’ past books in the series, but I think that’s probably mostly because I loved seeing the world through Katniss’ eyes. I felt much more connected to her as a reader. I think this book serves as a very self-reflective book, and it’s evident in the amount of time Coryo spends just thinking and planning and asking himself questions and reflecting on the state of the world. The long passages of Coryo going over the same topics over and over again got a little meh after a while. But I do think that Coryo is a very interesting narrator nonetheless, and I think those passages were meant to make us reflect on our own biases and understanding of the world around us, and for that I appreciated them. 

A beautifully written book with characters you just can’t help but love as if they were your own family. Reading this book was a beautiful journey, and I loved seeing all the little adventures that helped the characters within it change & grow. 

As a woman who grew up with a single mom & two sisters, this book ended up being very near & dear to my heart. It
kind of surprised me because I’m a WOC living in the 21st century & yet this book feels very relatable. I could see so much of myself & the people around me in these characters, which is a true testament to how universal this book can be & how relevant the lessons within it are to this day. I think a big part of that is due to the fact that  Alcott was insanely progressive, and it truly shows in her writing.