Manuscript Musing

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** I love to hate watch The Bachelor/ette . It's a guilty pleasure I've watched for three or four seasons now, and every time a new season starts, I say I'm not going to waste my time with it. I waste my time with it. In that respect, I really enjoyed this book. The Bachelorette  in book form? Yes, please! It could have used more focus on what the men were up to throughout the week, who the secret (to the bachelorette) villains were, who was the most catty, who was actually decent to everyone, etc., but it's not a book about them, so I understand why we didn't get that. The "winner" was pretty obvious from the start, but that's fine--I sometimes find it more interesting to know that so you can watch the relationship develop without any mystery. I read this in about three days because I was so into The Bachelorette  story. I also really liked the epistolary segments--they're my jam. That's about where my enjoyment stopped. Th...

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** Honestly? Meh. I expected a lot (too much?) since I enjoyed The Vanishing Half  so much, and it did not live up to those expectations. It was kind of boring. The characters didn't experience any growth, and none of the characters resonated with me. There were really random things thrown in (the Marine and Aubrey's flirtation comes to mind). It was just fine . Some parts were interesting to hear about, like Nadia's mom's suicide, Luke struggling to come to terms with the abortion, and Nadia getting away from California, but in the end...meh. She didn't change. Luke didn't really change and there wasn't enough focus on him coming to terms with the abortion. And we never really got to hear why Nadia's mom maybe committed suicide. The setting confuses me too. Why a church? Just so Luke could be the cliche preacher's son? It really didn't matter. If it was just because of the abortion (which, again, what a cliche), maybe that sh...

 **SPOILERS FOR BOOK AND NETFLIX SERIES** I knew I'd probably like this book but I didn't know how much I'd end up enjoying it. What a compelling story. I was riveted. I think that's mostly because I kept waiting for her to run away to Germany as in the Netflix series, but that never happened; honestly, I prefer the book. The series was spectacular but after reading the book, I came to the realization that it was a quite over dramatized. My favorite parts were reading about her childhood. Her school, sneaking out to secular libraries, listening to illicit music—it seemed so other worldly, but then there would be a bit about her running to the cornerstore for some ice cream that made me realize, "Oh, she's a relatively normal girl living in modern times." I said those were my favorite parts but I don't really think I had a least favorite part. Maybe the ending? Her going to college was a little boring, but overall I was captivated but her tale.  Like I ...