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everyone smokes, including blair and dan. rufus is still with his wife and is a party animal. the party where dan meets serena is actually at his house, he threw the party. vanessa has a shaved head. chuck goes to riverside prep with dan. nate goes to st jude's. cyrus is a hornball and is with eleanor even before the kiss on the lips party

writing is very simple and yet manages to make things feel very salacious. characters and plotlines are different from the tv series.

story is good but plot structure not as good towards the end. writing is also good. shes def not a seasoned writer, only some natural abilities.

fantastic and very enjoyable to read. the osprey thematic motif is cool. it jumps between then and now, and does it well. the writing really makes you feel and understand: the heartbreak of the surprise ending, the worldbuilding (privileged and yet is not obnoxious), the love she has for her life and her husband, her awareness of her letting of her autonomy, the small red flags.

Trying this book again. She's at the restaurant job when a dad and two kids walk in for the dad's birthday brunch and the two kids offered to pay for their dad. She thinks that he is hot.

lesbian drama on page 40(?)

she's attracted to her teacher because he was really honest in his shortcomings of choosing comfort over the pressure of being a writer. there is a really great part where he has a monologue about this. Apparently her vagina pulses.

first things first I'm sure the author has schizophrenia or something, the hallucinations and talking to her dead lover is a very clear indicator of this.

ending feels abrupt and convenient, the soviet section feels undeveloped, the reunion doesnt really give the desired effect.

weird how lale distances himself from his jewish faith. probably resentment of his own religion that caused him to be in auschwitz. he escaped right into a soviet army and basically acts like a pimp for the soldiers to get girls. one day he escapes too and then went to slovakia and bumped into gita

lale smuggles food to other prisoners in exchange for money and jewels. he got caught and got tortured but still made it out thanks to sulka, whos a sex slave for a general. leon got his balls chopped off. him and gita had sex. gita while being transported to another camp escaped. lale got transported to another facility and escaped.

families of Jews in Europe have to volunteer one person or else they're going to take the whole family to a concentration camp. Lale volunteers himself, and gets to Auschwitz. Because of his language skills, he gets to be a tatooer. he likes gita, she was sick with typhoid, so he uses his position of power and relationship with the guard to trade for food

there's a great potential to explore being comfortable in your own skin here. this is ruined by the author's insistence that this girl is apathetic about sex and attachment. the plot has to be better or else this will be a 1 or 2.

we're off to a rough start. she's having sex with someone and it sucks. the writing also is already not great. i don't like sentences that just has 2 words. the repetition of refering to his hair as the mop is boring. i feel like she can better describe bad sex

michael and francesca has a much closer rapport than in the show. john kilmartin dies in his sleep because of a headache. they're trying to figure out if francesca is with child or not

Massie is currently in a different school and has a friend group that ostracizes her. Her ideas are being shut down and she realizes that her potential is more useful elsewhere. Her, Dylan, Alicia are attending Dylan's mom New Year's party. Massie and Dylan meets each other first when Massey accidentally went into the green room. Alicia is a dancer for the party. Kristen is babysitting, Claire is in Florida.

she met jean luc, falls in love and move in with him. the trials start, and she shocks everyone by requesting an open trial. she also built up the bravery to watch the videos shes been avoiding. she describes her emotions realizing women are coming to avignon to support her

lots of intimate details of his relationship with trevor and his relationship with drugs. trevor also overdosed multiple times and died. his grandma also died from bone cancer. despite his tough upbringings, we can tell that he loves this decrepit place without romanticizing it, its still very gritty

she found out luke is married. while they were hanging out, her writing was stalled. luke tried to reconnect but the hurt stopped her from feeling it again. but now he calls again...

his mother's mental decline, presumably from ptsd, is very sad. describes lots of his personal life like his first boyfriend, first sexual experience, the internalised misogyny in his boyfriend (not wanting to be bottomed because he doesn't want to feel like a girl), how being a sub bottom empowered him (trauma response?), when he came out to his mum

The main character's mom died, and she's really feeling the loss. She is working as a waitress, in crippling debt from undergraduate and grad school, she moved around from different places, but now is based in Boston.

happy ending: bennett remarried, alice and fred married, sven and marge married, happily ever after

margery got thrown into jail by the police chief and van cleeve for murdering a local drunk. great plot lines, really shows the despair and desparation. bennett tipped them off of a surprise witness.

michael came for francesca's wedding to his cousin and was in love with her. the 3 of them seem to have a really good relationship.

definitely if I saw read. Apparently, the flood that happened is not because of rain, it is a slurry dam from Van Cleve's mine. You can really feel the anger and frustration and emotions of all the characters involved. This is a great read.

van cleeve shot margery's dog, this made the book a 5-star for me. lots of intersectionality with race, gender, poverty, the patriarchy. fred and alice have dinner together. now they're also in a flood(?)