Reading, Writing, and Me

The Girls  by Emma Cline Overview: Evie was a part of a cult that ultimately committed murder. Except she wasn't present the night it all went wrong in 1969. Instead of prison with the rest of them, she lives a quiet life with an intimate knowledge of the group from The Ranch who committed the brutal killings and why they did it. With intersecting timelines between middle age and her time as a fourteen-year-old running away from home to spend time at the Ranch, her experience with this band of people comes to life showing how dangerously close she got to having her life forever altered. Overall: 3.5 Characters: 3 I found all of the characters in this book flat and hard to relate to. Evie in middle age was perhaps the most relatable. Her ability to reflectively look back and her nurturing feelings towards her friend's son's much younger girlfriend humanize her. But Evie as a teen feels removed. Her main defining trait is trying to desperately be older than she is. She's ...

This whole blog started with a trip to my local library to get a pile of books to fill time over spring break. That was my first trip to the YA section of the library, and it changed my life when the first book I read on that vacation inspired me to start the blog. This time, the library trip was less life changing but fun nonetheless. My mom had picked up a few books I'd put on hold ahead of time, but on the day we got into town, she dropped me by the library to check out the new releases shelf. My hometown library gets all the brand new books people are buzzing about, and there's never a wait (perks of a small town?), so I always take advantage of trying to read books that have months long waits on Libby when I'm home. I didn't want to leave her waiting too long, so I felt a bit like a contestant on a cooking show gathering ingredients from the pantry while the timer ticked down. I was overwhelmed by all the books I wanted to read. So, here's what I managed to gat...