For a highly hyped book with rave reviews, I was shocked by how little I enjoyed this read.  I even went back and re-read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn thinking maybe I needed a more recent read of that book in order to appreciate it, but even after that, I was at a complete loss as to why this book is so popular.  The premise of the book is fine--the reimaging of the Huckleberry Finn story from the perspective of Jim.  But the execution of the story is confusing.  The plotting is problematic, the character development bland, and the writing style gimmicky. 

Just as a starting place, it is unclear whether this is supposed to be historical fiction or historical fantasy.  Most of the time, it seems like the author is genuinely trying to present an imagined history in which a slave could be exceptionally well educated entirely in secret and able to move between a facade of being uneducated in front of white people, but then seamlessly shifting to talking like an educated white person when no white people were around. While this seems like it might be an empowering retelling of history, I was just baffled because in other places the story was so far fetched, especially at the end, that it was more like historical fantasy.  And there was no way for me to see that ending as empowering, knowing the impact that outcome would have had in actual history for the slaves involved.

While this might just be my inability to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy a book and revel in an alternative narrative that could be seen as having a happy ending (and I will accept that this is perhaps a flaw in my reader skillset in general), this wasn't even what bothered me the most in this story.  What bothered me the very most was the portrayal of women and girls in this story.  Jim is supposed to be entirely driven by his adoration of his wife and daughter, but the Big Reveal at the end of the book  MAKES NO SENSE on the surface and was never explored in any depth.  SPOILER ALERT: In the telling of this story, he is actually Huck's biological father because he had a relationship with his mother, whom he grew up with, and which was always kept secret. Despite allusion to this by one random character earlier in the book, it is ignored until the very end and then never explained.  Was the wife that Jim was so committed to freeing aware he had a clandestine affair with his childhood friend, who was also his owner's wife? If his daughter was 9 and Huck was 13 and Huck remembers the fighting in the household when his mother died, was Jim in a relationship with both mother's at the same time? Obviously possible, but why is this never addressed? 

I have so many questions that are completely ignored because the sole purpose of women characters in this book is to be introduced in the context of their rapes.  Jim's reaction to Sammy's disclosure that she was being raped by her owner only makes sense in a modern context.  It is impossible for me to believe that Jim would have been shocked to hear that slave owners raped their slaves and his huge reaction to this revelation, resulting in reckless behavior that put at risk his ability to free his own wife and daughter, whom he was afraid were being raped, just didn't make sense. Could it have made sense?  Yes, it is possible, but it was never explored.  All the women were introduced in the context of their rapes (or sexual relationship with Jim, such as his wife and Huck's mother) and then written out of the story before anything of interest was said.

Do not recommend.
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This book is supposedly shelved as a YA book, but I found it to be much more sophisticated than that with layers to the story that could hold multiples truths at the same time. It is a harsh depiction of white feminism that is also able to appreciate the complexity of the criticism. To be able to honor the work without shying away from its imperfections, shortcomings, and both subtle and overt racism is not easy, yet here is done exquisitely.  

The book reads like a memoir and follows the growth of a starstruck college student from The Bronx as she moves in with a feminist Queer icon in Portland for a summer. On one level, it is a coming of age story, but it is just so much more than that.

Any white woman trying to be a supportive mentor to women and girls of color should make time to read this wonderfully nuanced and beautifully written book about the complexity of these relationships and how the insidiousness of racism and privilege are pervasive, even when white people are trying to do better.  I loved the layered relationships, the hard work reflected in the characters who were trying to hold people accountable and the ones trying to be held accountable, even when their failures were cringeworthy.

Set in Portland in 2003, the author's description of the quirkiness and cringy-ness of the city and its inhabitants conveyed the love-hate relationship that so many people have with the sometimes performative, sometimes genuine progressive and woo-woo culture there. From the public reading at Powell Books, to the hangouts in Pioneer Courthouse Square, to navigating the neighborhoods on foot and by public transit, it is fun to read a book about a city you know well.

Highly recommend.
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I really enjoyed Beyond the Cerulian Sea and so I was disappointed that I did not love this book.  I really don't like being spoon fed morality in my novels and this one left nothing up to interpretation.  The metaphors and symbology were just too obvious and the pionts felt like they were being rammed down my throat at some points.  I obviously think that having trans representation in fiction is important and powerful, but my underlying take away from this book was that only magical beings (read Queer) can take care of magical kids and magical beings can only depend and trust magical beings. I can understand where this mentality comes from, but I just think that there is a lot more nuance than what this books allows for.  I found it pretty depressing, rather than inspiring, and a letdown.  The first book took quite a while to grow on me, but once it did, I was all in.  This one had the benefit of my coming in really excited for it and just progressively getting more and more let down as it went on.

Do not recommend.

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​This is not what I was expecting.  Not only was it no what I as expecting, but even when I was well into the story, things would happen that I did not see coming.  Twice in a short period of time, I was out walking and audibly gasp at the unexpected turn of events. It wasn't that I didn't find the story plausible, because once it happened, it was obvious that it could have happened that way, but I was just so surprised and I cared so much about the story and he characters.

The "women" here are the women who joined the military as nurses and were deployed into combat hospitals during the Vietnam War. From deciding to enlist to deployment to coming home to the many twists and turns of life after that, I loved everything about this story.  The complicated relationships, the struggles, the trauma, the recovery, the heartaches, and the way she writes about the constant, crushing sexism of that era was all so tangible, so well conveyed.  

I didn't realize this was the same author who wrote The Nightingale, which is an absolute all time favorite of mine.  If you loved one of those, I think you would love the other, even though they are quite different in nature. The writing is impeccable.  I can't say that I am anything close to an expert on either WWII or the Vietnam War, but I know enough to have been impressed by the amount of research that had to have gone into the books.  I'm focused on my 50 bookish friends list, but I loved this book enough that I contemplated diverting from the list to read more of her books.

When the book was over, I left wishing there was more.  Not an epilogue -- I didn't think that was warranted, but more of the details of the story along the way because the storytelling was just so good. The depiction of the friendships that weave through the book were so vivid and impressive.  I loved the ending.  I love the middle parts.  I loved the twists and turns and the heartbreaks and most of all I loved the women in the story.
 
Highly recommend.  
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I was under what I now know to have been the quite mistaken impression that this was a trilogy.  I was sadly, sadly disappointed to discover at the end of this book that it is not in fact a trilogy.  Indeed, it is now planned to be a full series.  I am very aware that this is likely the new Outlander series, where I will get 20 books into a series that is promised to be a 21 book set, with no estimated release date for the last one.  I just don't know if I can emotionally invest at this level again.  I miss the solid trilogies: Hunger Games, Legend (which added a fourth book years later, but the trilogy stood alone), Xenogenesis, Discovery of Witches (I know she added more, but the original trilogy was also a set), and Anne of Green Gables (again, the first three culminated an ending and if you didn't know there was more, all would be good in the world). This was not a solid trilogy. This was a telenovela, designed to suck you in and then using the ridiculously stupid amnesia plot twist to leave you completely hanging at the end of the book. 

This was just such a disappointment.  It was particularly a disappointment because all three books were really intricate.  The plotting was so complicated that half-way through the second book, I went back to the beginning of the first book to read it again because I want to make sure that I was following the interwoven stories of the secondary characters.  These side stories are so compelling and I didn't realize how much they would tie into the main storyline as things progressed.  They are written like backstory, not foreshadowing, and what is included there is really rich in detail that is needed to understand the big picture.  In the middle of the third book, I also backed up and reread about 10 chapters for the same reason.  And if I am completely honest, I also backed up because I didn't want to get to the end. This was because I expected that it was going to be over.  Now, I feel like there was no reason at all to have pre-ordered the book and started reading it on the day it was released.  I definitely should have waited until the series was completed before I even started the first one.

Likely, if there is ever an ending to the series, I might update my recommendation here, but after being rivetted through all three books, completely captivated by the magic and the politics, as well as the love story in this complex universe that was created, I just cannot recommend something that ends on such a cheap cliffhanger.  I really just felt like this was designed to make me have to buy more books and for her to get a deal with Netflix or Max for a series that never ends.  It was just such a disappointment.
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You don't have to read very far into this book to recognize it is a train wreck ahead.  I didn't know exactly what type of a train wreck, but the author's ability to write with forbordence (which apparently isn't an actual word, but should be).  The foreshadowing is intense, if cloaked in mystery.  The writing is exquisite and enthralling.  I could not look away, despite the horror of the self-centered narrator-protagonist.  Without spoilers, it is hard to describe her midlife crisis related choices.  Even being in her head since it was written in the first person and her momentary glimpses of insight into the damage she was leaving in her wake, it as hard to understand her choices and impossible to find compassion--even when the strings of hardship from her life were woven together to explain how she got where she was.  Mostly, she demonstrated a level of narcissism that I found unsympathetic at best and often irritating, even infuriating.  The sex is explicit and tawdry, but the writing of it is alluring. I don't know quite what to do with the recommendation here, since I was captivated, have been thinking about it for a few days since finishing it, have talked to multiple people about it, and had a strong reaction to the content of it and yet at the same time, I can't recommend it because the character is so completely unlikeable, but in that complex way that narcissists can be charming and convincing, making their choices seem acceptable.  But, it is  novel!   So, do I really not recommend a book because I had such a visceral response to a made-up character?  The answer is yes, I really can not recommend a book because I just didn't like the main character, despite the quality of the storytelling and writing.  Finally, it feels like the author has a clear agenda to justify, even glorify, the choices made by the narrator.  Maybe I am reading more into this, maybe not, but unlike similar books (Normal People comes to mind), sometimes it felt like there was a lack of awareness by the author of what was playing out and a little too much emphasis on how avant-guard and "ultramodern" the situation is.  At one point towards the end, the narrator is proselytizing about her newfound lifestyle in a way that only a newly born-again believer can, trying to convince others that they have found the secret answer to the meaning of life, and it is hard to tell if the author is poking fun of the narrator or is indeed preaching this to the reader.  Does this add to the complexity of the novel? Maybe.  But did it make me wonder if I just got sucked into reading a really long piece of propaganda? Yes, yes it did.

P.S. I marked this as "romance," even though it isn't a romance, just because of the explicit sex scenes that as stand alone sections would appeal to folks in those who love a good erotic novel.
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Not recommended. 
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As a general rule, when reading a microhistory, I either really love it or really hate it, but in this case I came out of the book with mixed feelings.  Perhaps it was because a lot of this book is about art history and, not being very interested in that topic, I was often bored and found it difficult to even listen for the larger themes in those sections because they were so detailed about things I just don't care much about.  Yet, there were other parts that I did find really fascinating, including the history of BMI and the focus on weight as part of health having been started by the health insurance industry glomping onto bad data and then pushing this idea that to be thin was to be healthier than to be plump.  I also thought the shift in Christian thought towards austerity and self-denial went hand-in-hand with the idea that it was unChristian to be "fat" because it was associated with gluttony and indulgence was interesting.  Finally, while I had heard about the racist history of fat shaming, I was surprised that for quite a while, "doctors" and purported "scientists" had strong opinions that considered the Irish to be much closer "racially" to Black people than white people with respect to the heathenism they associated with larger bodies.  I was also not expecting the discussion about pastors pushing "diets" to lose weight and, in particular, how messaging from the Seventh Day Adventist church leaders played a roll in these cultural shifts.  I didn't know that the vegetarian, high water diet came from a religious judgment about weight rather than a place of health.  The book is full of side-facts and small details that I found interesting--like that Kellogg and Post cereals both came about as part of the movement that valued slim builds and saw vegetarian diets that included a lot of milk as the answer.  So, overall, lots of obscure and fascinating tidbits, but not enough to hold my attention for the whole book. I suspect people who are more versed in art history would like this a lot more than I did.

Not not recommended.

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This is the best book I have read in a long time and I absolutely could not stop reading it, while also knowing while I was reading it that I didn't want it to end.  Even during the weird Part IX that doesn't go with the rest of the book's style, I was so drawn in that I was confident it was going to eventually tie back in and be worth it.

A rare story about friendship, I just don't understand how this is shelved in "romance."  While the characters have romantic relationships, this book is about deep, long term, complex relationships amidst the pain of grief and loss, illness and disability, and outgrowing relationships.  The main characters are gamers and then game developers---with their lives are consumed by their shared passion for their work, which is also their play.  We watch them go from the youngest geniuses in the room to the oldest ones.  

Since I was born within an year of the main characters, it was just so much fun to walk through their story, which is so steeped in technology and the evolution of technology, knowing exactly what those limits were at the time.  The worlds was so different before cell phones when you couldn't get in touch with someone and the ways in which those differences are weaved into this story, along with all of the games I grew up playing gave the story rich emotional depth for me.  

I loved how one character compares friendship to a tamagotchi-- you have to pay attention to it every day or it will die.  And so much of this story revolves around how video games are and are not like real life.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, just like a video game.  Shouldn't we be able to do back to the safe point and try again, have a do-over.  This idea that when someone dies, we yearn to have a do-over, but also just anytime we do something that results in a less than ideal outcome.  The characters are so obsessed with Mario Bros at one point in the late 80's, that if they miss even a single coin, they would immediately restart the level.  As I read, I felt so much melancholia for the characters wanting to do that, but also reflecting on the ways in which I wish I could go back to the save point and start over.

Everything in this story relates life to video games.  A theory about child rearing and not wanting or guiding your child to be someone they aren't is to not get attached to the details of a new game project you are working on too early because that will just cut off the flow of ideas and stunt the potential of the game.  You have to just see where it organically goes first.  A theory about grief is that our brains create an AI version of those we love and when they are gone, your mind is tricked into thinking they are still here for a while.  But over time, the coding gets old and the hardware becomes obsolete until the high resolution, 3-D virtual rendition of them fades until it is just a black and white photo, without sound or smell or feel.  

There has been some push back against this book for its depiction of the relationship between a professor and a student that is abusive.  The criticism seems to be that the relationship is "normalized" in the book and, for sure, at the time the relationship is happening, the character in the relationship believes it is consensual and the other characters ignore it in large part, but if you finish the book, it is clear that with maturity, that is not how they situation that relationship in retrospect.  I think the way the author handles this issue is quite realistic and sophisticated.  I appreciated the nuance brought the topic, which clearly depicted not only how it was playing out at the time, but how the various people involved created narratives that allowed them to cope with the situation.

I love a book full of new ways to think about life and this one brought that, along with a wallop of emotion, initially in small moments, but ultimately in big waves.

I didn't realize until after I finished the book and looked up the author, that she is the author of another of my favorite books: The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry, which you can purchase here.
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Highly recommend.  

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I do love a self-help book that is filled with useful suggestions that are neither judgey, nor self-aggrandizing.  So often, the authors come across as having figured out some magic solution to life and relationships that they are sure could help everyone, but in reality just piss me off.  I was expecting no less from this one, with its too-long-title.  In fact, I figured the book wouldn't offer anything more useful than what it told us in the title.  I, however, was quite surprised that you don't have to identify as a push-over or people pleaser for this book to provide some helpful tips on how to better to determine what boundaries you want, how to convey your feelings, and to live life more in line with how you want.  I read parts of it twice and the whole book made me think about some new strategies and approaches I can use in my life.  I will definitely be recommending this to folks.

​Recommend.

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I really liked Cutting for Stone when I read it about a decade or more ago, so I was excited for this book, which many people have raved about.  However, I found this book to be unnecessarily graphic and depressing.  For one, the descriptions of medical procedures were just too graphically detailed for me.  The lengthy descriptions of things like a swollen testicle surgery and seemingly endless GI procedures just grossed me out.  The many deaths of children was painful, but weirdly situated in the context of hope and resilience in a way that did not resonate with me.  The drug use, intimate violence, and generalized misery made the somewhat joyous tone of the novel feel like toxic positivity in a way that had me not enamored or inspired by the characters, but constantly aware that these were characters in a book, not actual people, and I found them shallow.  Even Baby Mol, called that well into her adulthood because of her developmental disabilities, was portrayed with a stereotypical sweetness that was overdone.

​Do not recommend.

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