alex鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

8,240

pages read

books read

alex

Shortest Book

100

pages

Longest Book

585

pages

Average book length in 2024

343

pages

Most Shelved

1,238,238

people also shelved

Least Shelved

501

people also shelved

alex鈥檚 average rating for 2024

3.2

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.27 average

alex鈥檚 first review of the year

liked it

2nd time re-reading and I will say that I do appreciate the down-to-earth quotes in the book about learning to accept the simpler things in life as what鈥檚 really necessary versus having everything planned out meticulously. I really liked the themes of perseverance and strength from both Max and Sadie to go after what they both want out of life and love.

That said, I still feel like there鈥檚 way too much misunderstanding, unnecessary conflict, and ...more

础尝贰齿鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss by Amy Noelle Parks

The Mostly Real McCoy by Julie Christianson

Betting on the Boy Next Door by Melanie Jacobson

it was amazing

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

it was amazing

alex鈥檚 last review of the year

it was ok

2 猸愶笍

This is the fourth book I鈥檝e read from Sarah Dessen and I have mixed feelings but the longer I think about it, the more satisfied I am with how I rated it for myself. On one hand, I appreciated how complex the MC鈥檚 life is and being able to analyze how it influences her thoughts, actions, and her relationships with the people around her. It鈥檚 good to see MCs especially in YA who have depth to their character. But I鈥檓 getting the feeling that 2 猸愶笍

This is the fourth book I鈥檝e read from Sarah Dessen and I have mixed feelings but the longer I think about it, the more satisfied I am with how I rated it for myself. On one hand, I appreciated how complex the MC鈥檚 life is and being able to analyze how it influences her thoughts, actions, and her relationships with the people around her. It鈥檚 good to see MCs especially in YA who have depth to their character. But I鈥檓 getting the feeling that all her books have a certain formula that is almost the same for each one鈥攖he MC is put in a new environment (moves schools, starts a very niche-specific job), has a very dysfunctional family life, gets close to friends as a found family, etc. Which works for some I guess, but it鈥檚 always nice to have better variety in books in my opinion.

Honestly, it was really hard to want to read the book because of the MC, Ruby Cooper. Like her older sister, Cora, she鈥檚 someone who鈥檚 had years of trauma and hasn鈥檛 fully processed it. People do questionable things and don鈥檛 make the best decisions when they struggle to cope, and I completely understand that. But she was really ungrateful and rude to everyone who wanted to make a difference in her life for 50%-60% of the book? It was just hard to want to read it at times knowing all these people were trying their best to meet her halfway and she completely took them for granted for most of the book. The dreaded trope of 鈥淚鈥檓 not like other girls鈥� was also very painfully spread out throughout the book with Ruby 馃檮 like okay, we get it. You鈥檙e seventeen-years-old and want to run away because you hate everyone and you鈥檙e not girly like people you鈥檙e age. Carry on, please.

I think my biggest issue with this book, and other books written by this author, is that there is so much filler. Chapters of it. I like when scenes are super descriptive because it really paints a picture so well. But like the other three books I鈥檝e read by Sarah Dessen, almost 50% of the story is filled with descriptions about the most mundane things that don鈥檛 advance the plot. Maybe this author just isn鈥檛 for me. I can鈥檛 even say what the descriptions were about because of how forgettable and time-consuming it was. I really wanted to stop reading this book numerous times because of how slow the storytelling was. There鈥檚 so many scenes with characters that aren鈥檛 essential to moving the story forward that I seriously considered not finishing the book several times. It makes the book too chunky with the overboard details and it really took me out of reading it consistently 馃槙

My favourite part about this book was probably Ruby鈥檚 sister and brother-in-law, Cora and Jamie. I think I would have been more interested in reading their story, how they met, all the relationship work they would have had to develop together with Cora鈥檚 trauma, etc. They were so much more likeable than Ruby because I could see the rationale between all of their actions and feelings. They really tried so hard to give Ruby the childhood she should have had in the first place and Cora especially tried so hard to reach out to her sister and make sure she didn鈥檛 end up the same way she did, fearing for her life from their mother. They were a very healthy couple and actually showed them talking things out and being there for each other unconditionally 鉂ｏ笍 Everyone else, including Ruby, was very forgettable and either 1) not very fleshed out or 2) very boring and not worth trying to connect to.

Overall, would I read this again? Maybe not, but if you value a coming-of-age story and navigating trauma more than romance with tons of lengthy descriptions, maybe this one is for you 馃し鈥嶁檧锔�

Tropes:
- YA coming-of-age
- Romance subplot (for maybe 20% of it?)
- Broken family
- Found family
- First person POV ...more

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