Alyssa > Recent Status Updates

‘“Love is supposed to be a kind thing, a beautiful thing. That is what the world has always told me.”
“The world lied,” Miriam said.
“Yes,” Esther replied. “It did.”’

Your honors this book has me going NUTS

So apparently my last book of the year is my kryptonite! I don’t even just feel attacked, I straight-up feel DISEMBOWELED

Trying very hard not to DNF my third sapphic rom-com of the year, but the relationship between Bailey and the rest of the town piss me off

Like what do you mean Bailey tries to take one vacation for herself, the town guilt trips her into cancelling it because they’re used to her solving the Wonderfest festival problems, and then the narrative blames Bailey for just not having enough Christmas spirit?!? WTF

‘“Haven’t you told me repeatedly to trust my gut?”
“You don’t have a gut,” she said, dry as a bone. “You’re dead.”’

I am already in LOVE with this book

I’m so pissed at both Ali AND JT’s parents at this point

In a good way! Their parents have understandable reasons for doing what they do, at least in their minds, but at the end of the day they’re excuses and I just want to strangle all of them :)

On one hand, I appreciate the emotional maturity from our leads. On the other hand, they both constantly reassure each other and usually sound like they’re each others’ therapists, and it’s grating on me

Yeah, I’m definitely gonna need to read a bunch of Christmas rom-coms after this one. This book is EXTREMELY dark.

Still good! I’m enjoying it! But it is NOT for the faint of heart

…And I’m only in the first quarter 😅😬

C.L. Clark as an author is doomed to be my kryptonite. The way they can write not just one, but SEVERAL hot, compelling, badass women, and make me have crushes on literally all of them— excuse you, this is UNFAIR

I fear if this doesn’t improve soon, I’ll be DNFing 😭 I want to like this so badly but I’m nearly halfway through the book and still can’t connect to either of the characters

Wow, I chose a perfect time to read this, because it’s seriously hitting the spot for the post-Halloween season

Two thoughts:

-This is a perfect book for Fall
-I love Emily with all my heart, but I am so glad her flaws are getting more called out in this book. I think it’s slowly starting to inspire growth!

I knew this was Jewish-coded beforehand, but I was NOT prepared for the amount of antisemitism in this sapphic fantasy

That’s not a bad thing, when its brutality is the point. But I wish I’d known what this was going in, because this gets pretty fucking dark at points

The writing is quite lovely and the atmosphere is dark and haunting, but I can’t deny I’m struggling to feel connected to the protagonist. Crossing my fingers that this changes soon

I am enjoying this SO MUCH

I definitely expected this to be good, since I liked The Phoenix Keeper, but the sheer entertainment value is immense. It doesn’t even feel like 200 pages have passed

A sapphic spy rom-com sounded SO delightful but instead it’s been tough for me to get through

Like maybe it’s me going in with the wrong expectations, but I do feel like ‘sapphic spy rom-com’ sounds like a book that should be balls to the walls zany. Instead it’s taking a more grounded approach and IDK how to feel about that

…Okay, that was actually a GREAT plot twist that just happened and I’m really interested to see where this ends

I’ve been taken off-guard by how surprisingly hilarious this book is xD

‘“Let the world be as I see it, for just tonight, without too many gray areas and caveats. Where I know I’m mortal, but I’m not sure you’re not a god,” she said, and then her voice got barely above a whisper as she leaned in. “Can you do that for me?”

And what escaped Joan’s lips was, “Yes.”’

😳😳😳

Ahem. GAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY

‘It was true, she’d never had a real boyfriend, and had only been on a few dates. She’d been kissed a few times by Adam Hawkins, and she had not cared for it. She was not offended, or grossed out, but she felt like people were making a very big deal of what was essentially no different from eating a cracker.’

. . . Joan you sweet, sweet baby gay, I can see you coming out from a mile away

This started out hilarious, but right now I’m at the point where I’m lowkey annoyed by all three viewpoint characters

But it’s still a little less than a fourth into the book so it has time to improve, we’ll see if it does

I am up genuinely sobbing at 4AM because this stupid goddamn book has one of the most GUTTING endings I’ve read in a long time

Goddamn you, Ava Reid, Fable for the End of the World will stay with me for a long time

‘Maybe enough fear can add up to love.’

Oh shit, this book just went HARD

Kicking off Pride Month by reading one of my girlfriend’s favorite books 🥰

Me while reading this book: Hmmm I think I want the plot to start picking up the pace a little m—OH MY GOD PENELOPE NO CRAP FORGET I ASKED

Marketing points to a female character and says, “Oh boy, a villain!” And she’s just a prickly woman who won’t let people walk all over her

(I’m still really enjoying this book though)

‘Most people feared what they were capable of doing, but I . . . I was starting to fear what I was capable of ignoring.’

Ohohoho I like the smell of character development!

Okay, maybe I should be generous, but the beginning has been VERY rough for me. There’ve been a few moments I liked? But all in all I’ve already been wondering whether I’ll DNF this down the line

I’ll give it at least until 30% before I make a decision, in the interest of giving it a fair chance

So far the vibes of this are like a combination of The Office and Nimona

So on a brain level I can admit that Ballad is the superior prequel and this is a book meant more for Hunger Games fans . . . but with that being said, hi, it’s me, I’m Hunger Games fans 😅

Oh wow, that was such a GORGEOUS story. Literally the closest anything’s come to the feeling of listening to fairy tales as a kid