The Neurospicy Bean

  You know, there were so many compelling, intriguing characters floating around in this book. Our protagonist Luisa was not one of them. She was simply the most generic straight white female protagonist imaginable; there was nothing about her that was memorable beyond the fact that she threw up a lot when she was stressed. Supposedly, she got top marks in her espionage program, but there was nothing she did in the entire book that demonstrated that aptitude to me.  Again, there were so many potentially compelling stories hinted at throughout the whole book. The one with the most potential was the group of musicians who eventually helped sneak Luisa into East Berlin. I desperately wanted them to show up more, to get a glimpse into their lives, to understand their feelings. But they were a tiny part of the book. It was just so disappointing. Also, there was surprisingly little action. Luisa just kind of passively bobs along from place to place; whenever anything worked out for her, it

  Perfectly enjoyable little romance here. In the couple of books of his I’ve read, Janovsky does a nice job of blending character growth with romance in a way that feels very sweet and meaningful, and not at all like the love interests are just there to help the main character be a better person. This one did strike that balance. But for whatever reason, it just didn’t emotionally grab me in quite the same way as You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince.  I guess I’ve always struggled with any kind of romance where one person comes into it with an entirely different understanding of their relationship than the other (I’m looking at you whatever the heck Marvel did to Peter Quill and Gamora). And I also struggle with this kind of magical realism where it’s a total mystery what actually happened to Nolan, but the mystery isn’t actually the point of the book. Because, come on, I really want to know more! Tell me about this mysterious wellness company! Can we get a book about that? This isn’t to

  Yeahhh this was a bit too much in the string of cis white lesbians for me. I don’t know why precisely but this one in particular just felt incredibly cisgender. I should have flagged some of the particular moments that rubbed me the wrong way and I didn’t, but there were definitely a few instances where it just didn’t feel like the author had ever considered the trans perspective. Similarly, it often seemed that the author was lumping bi and pan people in with lesbians, which…let’s maybe not. Also, I really struggle with speculation about celebrities’ sexuality. It’s one of my least favorite forms of discourse because a) it inevitably leads to accusations of queerbaiting and b) oh my God you are not entitled to information about anyone’s sexual orientation ever. Even if they seem really super queer. Even if they’re in the public eye. Even if you think it would be really super good for the queer community if someone with that level of influence came out. I. Don’t. Care. It’s not your

  So I’ll start off with the fact that there is a good chance I’m really not the target audience for this book. I really do not care about astrology even a tiny bit. I can tell you I’m a Saggitarius and that is literally it. And I have a suspicion this book is a lot more entertaining if the reader has any idea what the various stereotypes of all the different signs are, blah blah blah. I do not. So already not the best start. But I could absolutely set that aside if the rest of the book were amazing (see previous review about baseball). Unfortunately, this was not that book. First of all, Gray really irritated me. There was a whole lot of ‘cis lesbian trying really hard to be a trans ally’ in a way that got on my nerves. I don’t remember every instance of this, but one example was a conversation in which Gray is talking to her best friend Cherry. Cherry asks her if she’s still identifying as a lesbian, and Gray says she’s open to dating anyone except cis men, but that she still identif

  I am OBSESSED give me all of the trans romance and joy. Thank you so much to Katy Nishimoto from Dial Press for the advance copy of this beautiful book. I really loved so many different aspects of this book, so it’s going to be a bit tricky to parse through them all, but I shall try. First, and this is probably one of the things that has stuck most in my head about it, it was really amazing to see such a sex-positive trans romance. I do think this trend is changing, in the last couple of years in particular, but so often it seems like the reality of sex as a trans person gets completely glossed over. By that I don’t mean that sex is some kind of horrible ordeal, or that all trans people are uncomfortable with it; in fact, anyone who has read this book will know that’s not how it’s treated here at all. It’s more that a lot of authors – cis authors in particular – have seemed deeply uncomfortable committing to the reality of their trans characters’ bodies, whatever that may be. So havi

  Hmmm so many complicated thoughts on this one. I genuinely love the premise – anything with prehistoric creatures is an automatic draw for me. In fact, all of the bits of this that were original were pretty compelling. But man, as soon as it got into the traditional thriller elements, there were some problems. Most importantly, Cash was an incredibly one-dimensional cliche of a strong woman. She had no personality beyond being offended by men doing things for her. She kept dropping hints about some kind of incident in her past, but then it never actually got revealed? And then the sheriff was nearly as bad. Take a generic cop, put a cowboy hat on him, and that’s about the impression I got. All the characters were pretty much along these lines; every interpersonal dynamic was predictable. Also, content warning for animal death. Without spoiling anything, there was a scene I found deeply upsetting as far as that goes. But the fundamental concept was great, and there was clearly a ton o