MichelleClownfish47

Never knew this history

Revisado: 10-07-23

This is powerful right through the epilogue. Thank you to the author for sharing this important history! I read this book after watching the series The Good Girl Revolt. They never should have cancelled that show. We need to bring it back for season 2 that never happened! Excellent show and excellent acting! Great work!

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Loved it!!

Revisado: 08-16-23

A wonderfully compelling novel with characters that feel real and personal. From the main heroine to side characters in one scene, everyone has a fully realized life and purpose and we as the reader are only seeing a slice of that. I loved Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I love Malibu Rising just as much! Reid's writing is so effortless and yet it pulls you in with each new sentence. The story is about family, about love, about new beginnings and set against a back drop of Malibu in the 80s, it's an amazing ride.

Julia Whelan's narration is also perfect! She is quickly becoming my favorite narrator.

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Interesting Dystopian Story

Revisado: 09-07-22

I stumbled upon this audiobook purely by chance and I’m grateful I did.

I had no idea what to expect from this African dystopian and it certainly delivered a wild ride. Focused on leading lady AO, Noor explores the idea of what it truly means to be human. AO has extensive, life saving body modifications, and while most of her community views her as damaged or even evil, she embraces the technology and eventually masters it.

The narrator was perfectly suited to the story and delivered the sass and perseverance of AO well.

The classic theme of “fair is foul foul is fair” is explored in humanity vs. cold technology; morality and biology aren’t inherently tied and the unknown isn’t always scary.

The adventure of AO and the partner she finds along the way in DNA was unexpected from start to finish as they battle inexorable forces. I didn’t always find myself interested in the secondary characters and we were definitely thrown into the world with limited world building, but overall an intriguing futuristic exploration.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Good but a little outdated

Revisado: 08-30-22

An intriguing story, but I find their relationship problematic at times. It definitely calls upon the trope of a man from another time having outdated views on relationship roles, which is painted as endearing and masculine rather than controlling. I enjoyed the tie ins to history, the mystery the first book begins to unfold, the relationship of the two aunts, and the magical and sassy house. However the romance at the center just doesn't do it for me. She is expected to follow his lead without question, the falling in love seems a bit rushed, and their physical relationship is delayed for no real reason. The world Harkness creates is interesting, but I found the story to be only okay.

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Misogynistic and Predictable

Revisado: 04-14-22

How on Earth did this book become popular enough to sprout a trilogy and a film adaptation? To be quite frank, it was not good. There is no clear plot, just meandering through one espionage mission to another. Not to mention the blatant misogyny. If only I had a dollar for every woman whose clothing happened to slip and reveal her breasts while she was being murdered, just ridiculous. It managed to be both confusing, as it had a large cast of underdeveloped and two-dimensional characters, and yet also predictable as the handler and his female agent start an elicit affair. There were parts in the first third, after sparrow school, where I had hopes it would pick up, but alas, it just fell back on tired old tropes and sexist stereotypes.

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A Classic Beautifully Read

Revisado: 12-23-21

Tim Curry is the perfect narrator for this story! Highly recommend for the holiday season. A whimsical, spooky, heartwarming classic that's short and wonderful. This is my favorite rendition of it this far.

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Funny and Insightful

Revisado: 12-19-21

Highly recommend!! I personally am I huge Kal Penn fan, so I was excited to see him release a memoir. However even I was unprepared for how funny and raw it was. I would recommend this book even if you were unfamiliar with the actor's work because of his insight, his reflections on the progress the industry (and the country) have made, and his discussion of how far we still have to go in overcoming systemic racism and personal bias. I literally laughed out loud and cried (at different parts of the book obviously) despite that sounding cliche. He shares many stories from his career, his childhood, his time working in DC for Obama, and his personal life in a wonderful blend of authentic and funny without sugarcoating anything.

I also love the slight adjustments made for the audiobook, such as describing a photo rather than just referring to a pdf and hearing Kal Penn laugh himself at certain parts.

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Just Ok

Revisado: 12-08-21

I struggled to finish this one about 2/3 of the way through because of the toxicity of the friend Amber and the gaslighting our lead Noel experienced. From the start it was cheesy, but that was to be expected with a holiday romance like this. I was prepared for small town cliches and a happily ever after. I wasn't prepared for losing the choir solo to be realistically compared to losing one's parents at 16. I wanted to throw my phone out the window, which detracted from the sweet holiday story vibes. What made it worse was that any time Noel tried to stand up for herself against blatant bullying and aggression, her defense was seen as just as bad as the initial attack, which is just victim blaming and I really thought we had evolved past that. I get that a jealous ex-girlfriend is pretty typical in a rom com like this, but yikes this one went too far.
This book is about a level 1 on the spice meter, maybe 2. If you're looking for a pg, lifetime movie type book, this is not the book for you. But if you read spice often this will register as pretty tame. It was also mediocre spice, some of the descriptions a little awkward.
The were some sweet passages towards the very end, with both Nick and Noel becoming better people with the support of the other, but it wasn't enough to make up for the frustration and the cringe earlier on.
Narration was good if not overly nuanced.

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Excellent fantasy tale!

Revisado: 12-02-21

I loved it! I started the series after falling in love with the Netflix adaptation and was still blown away by how good these stories have been. The ending of the final story is just *chef's kiss* Also, the way Sapkowski writes fight scenes is some of the best I've read. I highly recommend if you're a fan of the show or game, if you love high fantasy, if you enjoy epic quests and morally ambiguous characters. This is definitely an adult series, there is some steam and some heavy topics.

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Everyone Should Read This

Revisado: 10-21-21

This book was so much more than I was expecting. Peterson was raw and honest in her tales of her life, the good and the bad. Her narration was perfect and felt like she was sharing stories with an old friend. This is a great read for everyone, not just Elvira or horror fans.

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