2017 Reads #55-57 [CC]

Hey, BookTube, it's Sylwia. So, I'm so behind
on reviewing books that I actually have
a shelf and a quarter shelf of just
books that I've recently read that I
haven't reviewed for you yet. I have a
whole stack of them on my lap right now.
I don't even know how many of these I'm gonna
get through. So because I'm kind of, kind
of smart sometimes, sometimes I could
be kind of smart.
I got myself a binder and I printed out
all my, like, little questions that I ask. As
you can see here: "does it have adequate
representation?" blah, blah, blah, blah, so
because I'm so behind on reviewing I
didn't want to forget when I read
books, so I've been keeping my thoughts
jotted down in this little binder so
today I will try my best to review these
books for you. Lately I've been trying to
script videos but this one's going to be
unscripted, guys, we're going- we're going
old school. I read Maybe Someday by
Colleen Hoover. The love interest in this
book is part of the Deaf community but do
I feel like he was portrayed well? I
really don't. I really can't say that if
you wanted to read about the Deaf
community that this would be the book to
pick up. I thought I picked up on some
ableism in this book so I don't think
that was represented well. Also,
relationships you're not represented
well because it's about cheating. Did it
perpetuate healthy ideals? The female
protagonist hits people a lot, just a
phenomenal amount. This normalizes and
excuses cheating. Colleen Hoover likes to
write about men pinning women down or
otherwise physically forcing them into
certain positions. The concept of
virginity is mentioned in this book.
Ridge, we find out later on, is also
violent so they're both kind of violent
people and Ridge at least in two
instances shows that he's controlling in
terms of talking about who is and isn't
allowed in the apartment and also, like,
telling her- well,
I won't spoil the other part but
there's another controlling part. Did it
teach me something or make me think? In
my notes I have a big fat blank on that one!
What was the writing style like? The only
thing I really appreciated about the
writing was that some things that
authors usually use for convenience, I
feel like calling Hoover used those
things for convenience but then later
also explained those things to kind of
back them up so it made them seem less
cliche less ... less convenient, I guess. Are
the characters now my all-time favorites?
Absolutely not.
The only character I felt anything about
was Maggie
but Maggie is written as a
two-dimensional kind of Prim from The
Hunger Games kind of character so that
sucks. Was the plot cleverly-written? No.
It's a tragedy porn.
I think Colleen Hoover was trying to be
clever by having- the protagonist is
cheated on in the beginning and then
this love story she's the mistress so I
think Colleen Hoover thought that was
clever but it wasn't. It sucked. Did I
enjoy reading it? No. I was mostly bored.
And no. I hated it. Then I read The Girl
on the Train. Did it have adequate
representation? This is a, I would say,
rare kind of book where I feel like
everything could be argued and I really
appreciate that about this. I feel like
we could argue that the female
representation was the best and we could
easily argue that it was not the best. So,
I appreciate it for walking that middle
very well. I personally enjoyed the way
alcoholism was shown. I personally enjoy
the way it was portrayed and used in the
story. I thought it was believable and
respectful. The protagonist is fat which
nobody talks about but all of the other
characters and even maybe the
protagonist sometimes talk about being
fat as a bad thing. I think that's very
unhealthy for the reader to see but at
the same time these people are all
flawed so it makes sense that they would
think of fatness as such a bad thing.
However, I'm very against fat phobia so I
love that she's fat I hate that
everybody talks about her being fat as a
bad thing.
Did it perpetuate healthy ideals? This is
what I put in my notes: "I appreciated
what happened through Anna's storyline
and the ending especially." Did it teach
me something or make me think? I put down
"not really" but that I appreciated the
way that cheating is villainized. What
was the writing style like? I liked that
it took me one Saturday to read it on
audio. Are the characters now my all-time
favorites? I enjoyed Anna, Rachel, and
Megan. I don't think I enjoyed them
enough to remember them for the rest of
my life. And I enjoyed Anna as a sort of
antagonist. Was the plot cleverly-written?
I think it was extremely predictable but
very fun to read. Did I enjoy reading it?
Yes I did, especially the ending. Then I
finally read My Life Next Door by
Huntley Fitzpatrick. Did it have adequate
representation?
I appreciated the inclusion of the
protagonist's ex-boyfriends, like, she was
constantly thinking about or talking
about her ex-boyfriend and I feel like
that's very true to life. I found
the classism issues in this book very
believable and not tropey. I think- I
don't know how Huntley Fitzpatrick
managed that because that's, like, such a
cliche trophy idea, but she did it well.
But only later on in the book did it
seem like it was well done.
The female friendship was not great.
Does it perpetuate healthy ideals?
I think it handles teenage sex well, if I
remember correctly. So for those of you- I
know a lot of you are really into, like,
researching YA books that cover the
topic of sex in a very healthy way, so I
recommend this for your research papers,
(but not ... but not for anything else.) It
also handles substance abuse and
recovery well, I believe. Did it teach me
something or make me think? It made me
think a lot about audiobooks because I
hated this one. I thought this audiobook
was terrible. What was the writing style
like? This is what my notes say, alright?:
"I appreciated the focus on contemporary
and fattening the story and the
characters up with details. Outside of
the mother and Clay, everyone else was a
believable character." And I liked that
there were a lot of elements to the
story. Are the characters now my all-time
favorites? Absolutely not. I almost don't
remember them. But Tim's subplot was
important to me because it's, like, a
substance abuse subplot. Was the plot
cleverly-written? According to my notes I
wrote that the mother-daughter/family
-themed issues were developed well. I'm
surprised that I wrote that because I
remember hating those elements at the
beginning but I guess that means that by
the end they were resolved. But that was
a back and forth struggle for me, the
mother-daughter relationship. I at first
found it's completely unbelievable but I
guess at the end it was believable,
I guess? Did I enjoy reading it? No, but I
also couldn't DNF it. Going back to what
I didn't like about the audiobook, my
notes say that the narrator used the
same bored rich person voice for every
character. This was especially deterring
with the love interest because it made
him extremely unattractive to me. And the
voice she used for Tim was, like, so
jarring and unbelievable, like, it sounded
like a girl trying to be a dumb goofy
teenage boy. It sucked.
About halfway through, I was able to get
over that and read the rest of the book.
So I got a lot of reviews to catch up on,
guys. I hope you don't mind that I'm
using my notes for a few of these
reviews.
Come talk to me in the comments! <3

2017 Reads #55-57 [CC]

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