skudiklier's reviews
614 reviews

I read over a hundred books in 2023, and out of all of them, Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was my favorite. Because of that, I had really high expectations for Interesting Facts About Space, and I was honestly worried I had too high of expectations, and I'd be disappointed because of that. Given all that as context, it's saying a lot that this book didn't disappoint in the slightest. It's exactly what I wanted, and even though we're only a week into 2024, I feel confident that it'll be among my favorites this year again.

I loved the way this was written, in every way you could love how a novel is written. There's something about Austin's writing that's just so perfect to me--it's relatable, it's interesting, it's funny, it's real, it's entertaining, it's engaging. I never had a dull moment while reading this, and couldn't put it down. I was rooting for Enid so much. This book also kind of fucked me up in more than one way, not gonna lie. I cried, I found some of it a little too relatable, and I got so sucked in at a couple points that I was worried the book would ruin my day (in a way that's both actually bad but also a real credit to the writing, in my opinion). But! It didn't ruin my day. I'm so glad I read this book and I can't wait for Emily Austin to write more books so I can get to experience feelings like this again. Genuinely, both this and Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead are the kind of books I would pay money to be able to forget and read again for the first time. I want to reread this again for sure, and I can't wait for it to come out so more people will read and talk about it.

Smaller comments for anyone who has read Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead and maybe could be worried it's the same for some reason (? idk): in comparison, I found Interesting Facts About Space to be less tense/stressful to read, and maybe more hopeful/happy in a way. (Moderate spoilers ahead for both books:)

One of the most distressing parts about Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead (again, in a good way, I loved everything about that book, but still) was how hard Gilda found asking for help, and how much she lied to those around her and said she was fine. It was a relief when Enid finally went to therapy and started confessing what was going on to some people in her life. And again, I truly loved Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, and honestly don't know which book I like more at this point. But just in case anyone else found reading that one stressful, I think this one is less stressful to read. Less tense, even if it's still pretty dark and existential and all that.

Oh and another even smaller note--I wondered at many points while reading Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead if Gilda was autistic, but the book never addressed that, which was fine. While reading Interesting Facts About Space I kept thinking "this is the most autistic bitch I've ever read," so I was excited when the therapist mentioned she might be autistic. (For context I'm also autistic.)

 

I have so much I could say about this book but I don't even know where to start. Maybe when I inevitably reread it I'll come back and update this with some of my favorite parts. But genuinely it's like.....the entire book is my favorite? Everything about it? I'm just so glad I got to read it, and I'd recommend it to anyone (with my only reservation being if your mental health is *really* bad in similar ways to Enid's, then maybe this would be a little too real sometimes...but that's such a personal thing so who knows).

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

I really liked this! I sped through it in about two days because I couldn't put it down. I love the way the characters do their best to communicate and treat each other well even in a complicated and tense situation. I love how realistic the authors tried to make this while also making it engaging and a bit over-the-top in the way so many romances are. I loved the Portland-specific things, as it's always fun reading books set where you live. 

I had a couple very minor criticisms but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt since this was an uncorrected ARC, and I hope that those will have been fixed by the time it's published in May. All in all I'd definitely recommend this to queer romance fans! 

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

The only Martha Wells I've read is the Murderbot series, and in a lot of ways this was quite different from that, so I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. And honestly there was a period in the beginning where I was worried I wouldn't like the book and thought about DNFing. But I'm glad I stuck with it because in the end I really enjoyed it.

You just sort of land in the middle of things without a lot of context in the beginning, so it can be hard to follow, especially with the time jumps. But I think it all came together really well and I cared about the characters and was engaged in the story. That said, I do think if I hadn't been reading an audiobook, I would have struggled more. It probably would have taken me a lot longer to read it. 

All in all I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested, especially if you like Wells's writing or if you like fantasy more broadly. However, if you're just looking for more Murderbot, you might be disappointed. I wasn't though, and I'm glad I read it. 

It's hard to overstate how excited I was for this book; There There has been one of my favorites ever since I read it, and I've been checking for news of its sequel for so long now. When I found out I could read it on Netgalley it was the highlight of my week.

That said, this didn't disappoint at all. I will admit it took me a bit to get into it, given how different the first third or so is from There There. But I trusted Tommy Orange and his process, and I found the entirety of the book engaging, even if it took me longer to read the beginning.

I read the last two thirds of this book all in one day, and basically couldn't put it down. I love the way it balances hard depressing real-world shit with love and hope for the future. The characters here go through so much, and at times it can be really hard to read, but I don't think it should have been written any other way. It's a great sequel and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

This series is interesting in that I find it really engaging and can't put it down, but I also am not 100% sure I like it? Part of that is probably because I've learned more about the author since reading Fourth Wing, and I think she's said/done some problematic things, both in the way she writes these books and just in general. So I'm less inclined to just enjoy everything about it, and want to think more critically about this series. I do think that I'm just kind of along for the ride reading them and I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to anyone. That said, it was a fun ride, and I'll probably read the next in the series. Those cliffhangers/plot twists really get me.

This was a lovely little holiday novella! I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the next full length one.

This book was beautiful; I loved nearly everything about it. I loved the characters and their relationships, having a nonbinary main character, all the art, the way the book doesn't shy away from the really hard parts. This so perfectly captured the best version of falling in love for the first time.

This story is such a necessary depiction of how awful the United States's immigration system is, and it accurately and fairly villainizes ICE. It's heartbreaking and amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone. It made me cry but was still so joyful and hopeful in so much of it. 

Also I saw a different review talking about how the gen z slang was too much, but I thought it felt pretty natural and realistic. Just to offer a different point of view with regard to that!

My only complaint is sooo small and I'm only bringing it up because I can't find any other reviews mentioning it and I just want anyone looking for this to know if this matters to them (but I'm also spoilering it because it's kind of a spoiler and also I don't want people to see me talking about this lmao): 

I was a bit confused by how closed door it was? Not that I expected it to be open door from the start, but there were several little comments/lines that pointed towards it being more open door throughout the first third of the book or so. Like usually I feel like there are hints toward what will happen that help manage expectations, and this book kind of did the opposite--hinted at being open door then was closed door in the end. Which again, is fine, but I'd rather just not have had all those little comments at the beginning that made me think that. It was a little annoying. But overall not at all a huge thing in the scope of the book, and I still would absolutely recommend it and rate it 5 stars.

 

I never really like reading short story collections because it takes me so long to get into them and then by the time I'm invested that's right when it ends. Then that's on loop the whole book. But that said I did really like this collection! Super super interesting worlds, some of which I really wanted more of, but the stories were all a great length on their own. Lots of beautiful writing and apocalyptic stories with at least some hope in them. 

I've liked every book in this series and this was no exception! This one might have even been better than some of the others--there were so many moving pieces and factors but it never felt confusing or overwhelming. I was fully engaged the whole time. I love reading a series like this where they're definitely readable on their own but reading them all together gives you more insight into the characters and the progression of their relationships.

I loved this series as a kid and I'm finally rereading it as an adult for the first time. It's definitely got a couple things that haven't aged well (this book definitely had some annoying sexism/faux feminism, and all the books in the series so far have had some (minor?) fatphobia and ableism), but all things considered it's not too bad. In my opinion this book holds up and I would still recommend it to anyone interested in the series, with the caveat that it's aimed at middle school kids. I'm really enjoying my rereads and getting familiar with these characters again, especially since I forgot so much of the plot specifics.