A literally chilling tale.

I’m at a loss as to what else I can write without giving the details of this thriller away and also what words would explain the horror and the grief this book stirred in me.

Have you ever done something you never in the past thought you could have done?

This one was just about as good as the first one! Huzzah!

The first half of the book had me writhing around with laughter. Then it went a little south… but still an overall great read with a lot of oomph behind it. A sweet story that might challenge your perceptions and what you take for granted.

This book confused me a little bit. From what I’ve heard from others who’ve read it, they too had mistaken impressions about what the book would be like. Most people assume it will be a fluffy fun book about romances, dating, sex, etc, with some fabulous single women living it up and having hijinks… or whatever.

It’s actually quite a depressing and at times incredibly insightful collection of mini essays (articles, I guess is the story behind them) that paint a dark, disturbing picture about what it’s really like UNDERNEATH the parties, the drugs, the booze, the sex, the shoes, and the money. The weird thing is that I can’t tell if the startlingly jumpy “narrative” and the piecyness of it all is intentional or if it was an idiot savant like miracle. While a lot of it does nothing for me, there are parts where the effect is surprising and PROFOUND. It might be because who this books is about is SO far removed from me (younger and do not live in New York or even a big city) so I don’t really connect with it, but it might be because there isn’t much to connect with on a deeper level, I don’t know.

In short, not at all what I thought I was going to be reading, but probably better for it. I don’t know. Most people will probably be disappointed by the overall gritty, seedy, “real?” portrayal, and the fact that it’s not one cohesive story. Really it seems like the only thing the series has in common with this book is that some of the characters and settings are the same or similar.

Oh and there are NO BAD PUNS IN THIS BOOK. THANK HEAVEN.

It was poorly written and unbelievable. And I don’t mean the plot or characters (which were unbelievable, but hey, this is a fluffy romance or whatever right? I was willing to let that slide… to a point), I really mean the writing. The book is in the form of journal pages, PDA entries, and emails back and forth. But a lot of times what is being recorded doesn’t make sense. Like supposedly the MC writes in her journal things that happen AS THEY HAPPEN including conversations, with people in the book going “Hey, quit writing in that journal! Are you recording this conversation?” etc. It’s distracting because she can’t possibly be ruminating, writing, speaking, and playing cards or eating all at the same time like we’re supposed to believe.

It seemed really sloppy and lazy in terms of getting exposition in, too. At times characters wrote letters with things like “Hey did you blah blah blah?...Oh wait, I guess you told me that da da da da da, right? Hm, I guess I forgot.” or “Blah blah blah, oh wait, nevermind. I wasn’t supposed to say that.” You’d freaking delete that from your email, right!? This isn’t speech! But a lot of the correspondence was forced into sounding speech-like in that way that was distracting.

Finally, the love interest in the story was magically transformed SO unbelievably that I can’t forgive it. Come on, it’s not like Bridget Jones is THAT high of a bar to reach, but this book really makes it seem like it’s way up there (and it’s not like the men in Bridget Jones were even perfectly believable either!)

Very good! Fun, intriguing, and just as good as the last two. The action may have been slightly more subdued… but that’s barely worth mentioning. Every book introduces more and more interesting and bizarre facets of the world—I wonder what could possibly come next.

I have to admit though… I hate hate hate hate HATE Miss Havisham. She was what made parts of the previous book unbearable.

It was good and definitely worth consuming… but not as good as everyone hyped it up to be.

I would say that it is scifi because of the authors, the setting, and the content. The heart of the book is something more like classic, dark literature that always ends up being portrayed best in speculative scifi. The tagline on the back of the book reads “The lucky ones went first.” After reading the book, I agree. This “end of the world” novel is nothing like the more fun “The Stand,” and bears almost no resemblance to “Deep Impact” or “Armaggedon,” blockbusters about a similar event.

It’s a book that’s totally and completely worth reading, but also one where I almost wish I hadn’t read it because it will haunt my thoughts for a long while to come.

For once a book had an ending that I thought really delivered on the promises it made earlier on. The beginning and middle were rocky, especially compared to the first two books in the trilogy, but it was pretty good, especially for a book that is for kids (or at least teens). I appreciated the fact that Nix wasn’t explicit in detailing the “happily ever after” aspect of all the characters’ lives, and thought it was plainly obvious what would happen to them all, but I didn’t need to read it to feel satisfied. I think to have written any more than he had would have been to insult our intelligence.

The characters were very “middle school” or maybe early high school, but that’s who the audience is so I’m sure they appeal more to that crowd—the characters are whiny, self-involved and irrational, but still likable.

I hated this. I felt like M. Night was hitting me over the head with the message of this film, and also with smug superiority. I’m not one who just hates all of his work without care, I actually liked some of them, nor am I someone who is always on about how predictable they are or are not. This time though, it was way too predictable and I think the story lost some of what it was trying to do by being so blowfully unoriginal that I could guess it all the first time I saw every character. The message itself was massacred because of the awful storyline.

The one plus of the entire movie was that I liked the characters. Some of the more minor characters were extremely likeable, and Paul Giamatti was almost heart-breaking.

That said, I’m so sorry I wasted my time on this movie. I can’t help but feel like maybe it could have been done better, that it wasn’t a complete waste, but I can’t think of what would have helped… except to somehow alter the tone—it should have been more playful and less seriously SMUG.