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This narrator’s cadence and inflection is unlike any I’ve ever heard before

Reading this feels like being trapped in conversation with my slightly drunk conviction-prone great-uncle in 2017. Dude, what are you on about? Replacing one dogma (religious conviction) for the next (certainty in the scientific methods of any given moment) is not an antidote to totalitarianism. The world changes. Knowledge changes. This book is already quite extreme in its understandings. I am wary.

This guy is awfully dogmatic about his disapproval of dogma.

“Christ, woman! Read a waterfowl blog!”

To the rhetorical question of how often do you try to memorize meaningfulness nonsense material: frequently. This question underestimates the amount of time, energy, and memory storage childcare workers dedicate to memorizing entire libraries of nonsense made by children. Ebbinghaus makes a lot of sense to me.

“Basically, I was the Goldilocks of jobs, and I had yet to find one that was just right.”

“Who _doesn’t_ align on the Nazi issue?” conversation plus the publication date of April 2025 and generally contemporary setting is a helpful reminder of just how quickly things have changed here.

I understand why people have recommended this to me specifically.

Ohhh I’m gonna be insane about this. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED FOR MY STUDENTS

“Infants are actively motivated to invite others to interact with them and to do whatever is necessary to sustain that interaction.” 55:20 ish

“In a country where labor was the scarcest resource, cotton growing pioneers had a workforce that couldn’t quit and could even serve as collateral to finance their operations”

Incredibly strong start, incredibly meh middle

My gripe with the love interest thing isn’t so much that this girlie has a truly incredible amount of luck in love (good for her); it’s that Hannah uses the love interests to break up the horrors of war bc she knows that’s the best way to keep readers engaged. It feels like she’s dangling a cupcake in front of us every three seconds to make sure we’re still paying attention.

How does she have THIS MANY LOVE INTERESTS in ONE book

This story is relentless.

HARVEYYYYYY! <3

This book is exceptionally well written but unfortunately, and I cannot overstate this, it is also a nightmare. Pushing through for the Goodreads bookmark

This guy is the worst. Well done, Crouch.

Moray eels are not reptiles. They’re Anguilliformes

Struggling with the structure a bit, but interesting ideas. Hanging in there only bc this is on one of the goodreads lists and bc that one section featuring almond milk was SO incredible that it almost makes up for everything else feeling lackluster

“My family has been inordinately preoccupied with my body since I was thirteen years old”

I wasn’t ready to read this when I first tried it many moons ago. I’m ready now.

There is a LOT going on

Unhinged romcoms are keeping me going, man. I started this bc it was recommended to me, but I’ve stayed for the unexpected Pygmalion/Galatea narrative. I love when people use their free will to make bonkers art. <3 Sure, why not!!! You go, girlie. Be insane! Love this for you.

Not terribly intersectional despite the numerous references to intersectionality