zooegirlll's reviews
280 reviews

i devoured this book. it really make me think about my social media use, especially as I know I’ve been using it waaaay too much to cope with pandemic loneliness. Needless to say, after I finished this book I deleted all social media from my phone, and created a “Later” account to maintain my professional art instagram. Going forward, I will try to limit checking my personal IG account on the web only and even then limiting it to 1-2 times a week. I am definitely going to try to implement more face to face time — even if it’s just facetime / zoom calls.

more “high-quality leisure” is what I’ve been trying to integrate into my life, and this book really helped me see the path.

i really really wanted to like this but the writing was super painful at times, often dragging on and on and losing my interest. I managed to finish it by pure force.

a redeeming quality of this book is Orion Lake, I enjoyed his character. Concept of the book is good, execution was meh for me.

edit: also — after reading a few reviews from other folks, I took a star off for the portrayal of El as a BIPOC character. I totally missed it upon my first read, but some BIPOC readers have noted the inaccuracies of El’s culture and how her race seems more of an after thought than a component of her character and I definitely agree here.

easy actionable steps to a more simple lifestyle

i would’ve LOVED this book in high school. very perks of being a wallflower-esque with a bisexual main character named Zoe who is figuring out herself / her relationships / and all in all, just being a teenager.

25 year old me feels very Meh about it. it reads like a diary, can be super cryptic, and sometimes feels unbearably cringy reading about this girl whine over a lot of things.

oh WOW i really enjoyed this mostly bc i hated the Ivy but really wanted to see how her story turned out. I can’t say I was surprised by the twist bc Ivy is just ... overall a terrible person

ugh no one will ever understand my love for personal finance books and that’s ok!!! i really enjoyed this book, 90% of the info I already knew, but the writing was enjoyable and easy to read. perfect for beginners getting into financial independence

i found this to be quite an enjoyable book!!
i love a good forbidden romance mixed with a bit of 1920s vibes, but often felt that the whole “mystery” itself was lacking the suspenseful thrill of sleuthing, and felt the got the answers they needed quite easily. overall though i really enjoyed it despite it not being a perfect book and i will definitely pick up book #2 when it comes out!

as a personal finance enthusiast, i always find it fascinating why we make the money decisions we do, and this book was perfect for explaining that.

a huge take away from this book is that being able to have the freedom of choice - to choose how you want to live, choose who you hang out with, is the biggest investment. this is precisely why i went freelance - not for the money, but to be able to construct my life.

i think a lot of 20-somethings will get a LOT out of this book - the importance for anxious and risk adverse people to start investing NOW so that the don’t have to take larger risks when they are older and can be more conservative with money.

ultimately, money does help buy freedom and i think this book an important read for everyone who wants to be more in control of their life.

short and sweet, but was more "in defense of capitalism" instead of "how to dismantle capitalism"