i did enjoy this book, but there was just not enough on the actual development of the relationship between brynhild and gudrun for me to really become invested in them.
also loved loved loved the conflict between odin, freyja and hel and the exploration of the different afterlives and worlds. i could have read an entire book focused on brynhild creating and negotiating her new afterlife as well as her relationships with the other valkyries.
the ideas in this book were so cool but i feel like the best ones were just crammed into the last few chapters, which is a bit of a disservice to the beauty of the story heartfield’s telling
on a more. serious note, i loved the way this book was written. although it's not really 'light' reading; i want to go back and analyse every single story down to the barest bones of its meaning because i do not felt like i understood it enough the first time around to do machado's writing justice
i feel like the message just got completely lost and the haunted house metaphor was trying to be so many things all at once that i just. couldn’t understand.
also so much fucking trauma and it just felt a bit like layering all this awful stuff for shock value and to justify that something bad happened.
idk the concept was good and maybe i’m a bit too dumb to understand it all but this just didn’t really feel like a coherent story
it was kind of insane how i went from liking andie and hating ivy and dot to hating andie and loving ivy and dot. like mad kudos to the author for being able to make me pull a 180 like that.
idk i just really like ivy and dot’s relationship and how it developed and how they managed to create something that worked for the both of them. and how that wasn’t easy, but they did it.
the idea that the, like, ultimate goal in life doesn't have to be as capable as possible.
Why did I think the only real Ivy was who she is when she's miserable?
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
i have such a soft spot for australian wlw novels like i think i’d die without them.
this book is wonderful, and just perfectly captured the giddiness of being able to come to terms with and be comfortable with your sexuality, especially combined with a long time high school crush.
idk it’s just very nice to have a book that i can relate to so deeply
There is something so completely raw about this book that really caught me off guard.
The way June talks about her uncle, and Toby to an extent, made me deeply uncomfortable but i’m willing to be a bit forgiving because i remember being fourteen and having a messy family where i didn’t get to see people for years and that was a weird time. but it’s definitely something that marked the book down for me.
depiction of the aids crisis, however, and the way that it affected the people involved was beautiful in a terrible way. my heart breaks for those who we lost and whose stories have died with them.