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silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read this for book club, and for the first couple chapters I thought this was going to be a three star book at best. The characters were annoying, the set up seemed insipid, and yet somehow left enough room for everyone to be making bad life choices (but I just repeat myself about the annoying part)...
It really, really grew on me though. I liked the themes about family, and how difficult family can be, but difficult doesn't mean it has to be bad. I found I really related to some of the situations, even though the versions in the book were more extreme than in my own life. I loved how the book didn't paint either small town or city life as 'bad' or 'boring/shallow/etc', but did expose some bad reasons for choosing either/any type of life.
It really, really grew on me though. I liked the themes about family, and how difficult family can be, but difficult doesn't mean it has to be bad. I found I really related to some of the situations, even though the versions in the book were more extreme than in my own life. I loved how the book didn't paint either small town or city life as 'bad' or 'boring/shallow/etc', but did expose some bad reasons for choosing either/any type of life.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Alcohol, and Mental illness
Minor: Sexual content, Death, and Car accident
rinnykitty's review
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
As someone who has mostly been watching Food Network for the past month and have a guilty pleasure of watching reality TV, this book was right up my alley.
This book was so goddamn wordy I found myself skimming a lot of paragraphs. I felt like it was going so slow and not going slow at the same time. I've seen reviews complaining of the miscommunication, but that's what makes good reality TV so I thought it was somewhat fitting. Despite my first complaint, I thought this was very well written. I felt Amanda's existential crisis of living in a small town only working at a chicken place every day for possibly the rest of your life, and I dont even live in a small town. This book also made me crave fried chicken, all I wanted while reading this was a big bucket of fried chicken. The drama was good enough to get me anxious thinking "oh no you messed up real bad this time, let's see how you solve this". The ending took a lighthearted turn which I enjoyed, but oh wait did I say the ending? I meant the last chapter. Because the publisher thought it'd be a good idea to take the epilogue out of the kindle version and put in a link to enter my email. I never got the email with the link to the epilogue. So I'm sitting here wondering what they ended up doing afterwords. I dont know, maybe never will, but damn I hope they all live happily ever after.
This book was so goddamn wordy I found myself skimming a lot of paragraphs. I felt like it was going so slow and not going slow at the same time. I've seen reviews complaining of the miscommunication, but that's what makes good reality TV so I thought it was somewhat fitting. Despite my first complaint, I thought this was very well written. I felt Amanda's existential crisis of living in a small town only working at a chicken place every day for possibly the rest of your life, and I dont even live in a small town. This book also made me crave fried chicken, all I wanted while reading this was a big bucket of fried chicken. The drama was good enough to get me anxious thinking "oh no you messed up real bad this time, let's see how you solve this". The ending took a lighthearted turn which I enjoyed, but oh wait did I say the ending? I meant the last chapter. Because the publisher thought it'd be a good idea to take the epilogue out of the kindle version and put in a link to enter my email. I never got the email with the link to the epilogue. So I'm sitting here wondering what they ended up doing afterwords. I dont know, maybe never will, but damn I hope they all live happily ever after.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Miscarriage, Child death, Death, Chronic illness, and Death of parent
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