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A flying gigantic bear? A strange plant-like, shape shifting, creature that constantly grows, has an obsession with lizards, but never poops? All in a post apocalyptic world? This had the means to be great, and I'm sad to say I was disappointed.

The first half was excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed Rachel teaching Borne about the world and the sheer absurdity of this strange but loveable creature. But the book rapidly became more and more unhinged. I've read other Jeff VanderMeer books, and while building unhinged worlds is his thing, something about this one just didn't work for me.

A lovely story about working through grief and finding yourself, and who your loved ones really are, along the way. Made me want to go back to the Amalfi Coast immediately!

I do find it a little hard to believe it took her a week to realize she was 30 years in the past, and not that it was just her mom that jumped through time!

Poor representation of a neurodivergent character, and of course the Mexican without a work permit had to be the one caught up in a drug scheme. The entire book was filled with cliches and stereotypes. Molly had moments where she appeared to be a mastermind criminal, which is not in line with the rest of her portrayal. The entire epilogue was so frustrating and it completely changed my already negative perception of the rest of the book.

3.5 stars. With the protagonist a suffragette, I was hoping this love story started more with the duke falling for her brain rather than her looks, but he was clearly just infatuated with her looks and grew to accept her brain.

The book is meant to be the stories of three women woven together, but the Varina and May Belle stories weren't explored nearly as deeply. And even Rue's story, I didn't feel like we really got to know her. Bean was clearly important, but also felt like an afterthought? For me, while the idea of the book was a good one, it just wasn't as powerful as it could have been.

I could definitely tell this was the author's debut novel, the writing wasn't as polished as the other book I've read by then but I still enjoyed it! As a large F1 fan myself, this was the perfect book to read in the midst of the break between seasons. Looking forward to picking up more of this series.

I had a hard time with this one. Not much really happened. It felt more like set up for the next book, which is fine, but that leaves me with high expectations. I also wasn't expecting the ~magic~ arc and I'm not sure how I feel about it...

I still really enjoyed the world this takes place in!

Such a fun and heartwarming read. I wish Goodreads had half stars because this was a 4.5 for me.

(Everyone is all up in arms about the toe sucking, but the food scene! Omg all I could think about was the mess...

Was definitely expecting more humor based on the overall premise of fire children. I would have preferred more fire children related disasters and less about about they ~changed Lillian's life for the better~

Mary stealing pots and pans was my favorite part. You go girl. I hope you got some expensive knives at the same time.

(Also Madison was a terrible friend. I didn't even like Lillian and yet I hated Madison for how she used her)

I enjoyed that it was more of a flipped mystery. We didn't know what happened until the end. But overall the characters weren't compelling for me. Maybe that's my fault for picking up a book about drama within a book club of suburban moms.

I wanted to like this, but I'm not sure what the book was trying to be or accomplish? If it's about immortals, why did we only get 20 pages of that. If it's about a girl in the 1930s, why not give her more depth and explore her character and life more? It just felt like too many different stories smashed together.