Review: Crystal Clear

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Rating: ★★★★½

I received this book for free from the publisher (Quirk Books) in exchange for an honest review.

So first off, I just want to mention that this is not a guidebook on crystals. If you are looking for a guidebook about different crystals and their properties, then I would suggest picking up another book. 

This book was an excellent collection of personal essays that connects the properties of certain crystals to the author’s own experiences. The author weaves the history and properties of the crystals into the essays very well. Sometimes with essays like these, they can become too textbook like when describing factual information. Here, it all felt very natural and not forced. The author has a very effortless and conversational writing style which makes reading the essays a breeze. 

My favorite essays were the ones on Pearl, Pyrite, Carnelian, and Obsidian. I liked that there were similar themes in some of the essays. For example, she discusses her mixed race heritage in a few of them. It made the collection cohesive. 

I also liked the brief mentions of tarot cards and astrology. Crystals, tarot, and astrology often go hand in hand so I was glad to see the connections. 

Design-wise this book is stunning. Quirk Books knows book design so well. There are cute illustrations before each chapter and the edges of every chapter are color coded to correspond to the crystal. 

The one thing the book was missing was a short concluding chapter. It had an introduction, but a concluding chapter with some final thoughts would have tied it all together neatly. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend it if you like personal essays. Even if you have absolutely no interest in crystals, the essays are still relatable and thought provoking. 

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Review: Good Things Happen to People You Hate

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Rating: ★★★½

I received this book for free free as part of an Instagram tour (TLC Book Tours specifically) I did to promote the book.

This was an interesting collection of personal essays. As with many essay collections, I liked some of them, but didn’t like others. 

This book is a pretty typical account of a millennial woman in New York City so there wasn’t anything ground breaking or new about it. I’ve encountered similar stories before. That being said I did relate to the author quite a few times. 

For example, the essay, “Real Men Will Disappoint You, Date Fictional Men Instead,” was so relatable. I took one look at the tile and went, isn’t that the truth! Also, all the essays had funny titles like these. Another relatable essay was “Sometimes Your Irrational Fears Come True and Fire Destroys Your Home.” That scenario (thankfully) hasn’t happened to me, but I related to her childhood fears. As a kid, I worried a lot over things other kids would never worry about (ex. car accidents, dangerous criminals, etc.) 

The writing style is very blogger like which I enjoyed. It worked well in telling her stories. 

I did feel like some of the essays fell a little short. Like they didn’t quite live up to their potential. Sometimes they just ended when I was expecting her to say a little more.

Overall, this was a quick essay collection with some hits and some misses. I did find it entertaining so if you just want to read something fun, go ahead and read it! 

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Review: Dead Girls

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Rating: ★★

I received this book for free as part of an Instagram tour (TLC Book Tours specifically) I did to promote the book.

Despite the title, this isn’t really a book about dead girls. It’s more a book about girls in pop culture, but also a book about the author’s experiences in LA. However, even that doesn’t seem to adequately describe this book. It’s kind of just a collection of essays that are very loosely connected. 

Basically, I felt a bit confused by this collection. The essays themselves were sometimes very interesting, but there just wasn’t a strong enough theme to connect them all together. 

Also, some of the essays themselves were a little disjointed. For example, “The Daughter as Detective,” started out as an essay about a book series her dad liked, then ended up discussing whether her father could possibly have Asperger’s syndrome. Not at all where I thought it was going to go. 

I did like some of the essays, like “Lonely Heart” which explores Britney Spears. I was also happy to see Lana Del Rey mentioned, since she alludes to the dead girl trope a lot in her music. However, I wish the book went deeper into her. The 3 page analysis of her was not sufficient. 

Lastly, the final essay, “Accomplices,” was a mess. I was ready to give this book 3 stars and then I read this essay and had to drop it to 2. I just didn’t get it. It was very long, seemed to try to cover too much, and didn’t really touch upon dead girls at all. It felt more like an afterthought. 

Overall, a few well-written essays can’t save this jumbled collection. 

Review: Would You Rather?

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Rating: ★★★★★

I received this book for free through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers.

It wasn’t until I actually read the blurb on the back that I realized that this was written by the girl who wrote Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date. I had really wanted to read that book and even marked it as such on Goodreads, but I never did get around to reading it. I’m glad that I was able to read this book because it does touch upon some of the themes that Never Had I Ever covered.

So basically, I loved this book. I loved it because I related so much to it. I’m not a lesbian, so I couldn’t relate to her coming out but I did relate to a bunch of other stuff. I related to the fact that she was single until her late twenties (I’m currently 23 and still  perpetually single). I related to her anxiety, especially when it came to googling medical symptoms and convincing yourself that you have some grave condition (I’ve done that many times). I related to her obsessive bed making. Pretty much I felt like I was a lot like Katie. I saw a lot of myself in her.

What really made the book so fantastic, was the writing. It was so conversational. It felt like she was talking to you. Every essay was clear, to the point, and a lot of fun. 

I also really liked the balance between the fun and the serious. There were a lot of quirky anecdotes, but also a lot of introspection.

Overall, this was a very touching and relatable memoir. 

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