anna's website of low expectations

Welcome back for what I believe is the final blog. How sad I know you must be. I read this book a little bit ago. I believe it was around spring break when I started it. Just a warning, if you ever plan to read this book, it is pretty weird. I still do not totally understand what happened in this book, but that is part of the fun.

This book mainly focuses on a grad school student, Sam, who is finishing her final year of school, when she gets invited to join a friend group of four fellow classmates. They call themselves “the bunnies” and they address each other as “bunny”. It is very creepy and cult-like, but Sam is interested to see what they really do in their free time. She has a nickname for each of the four girls, based on their personalities and looks. There is Cupcake, Creepy Doll, Vignette, and the Duchess. She gets invited to come to a “smut salon”, where they all read poetry or some kind of erotic writing that they have come up with. It is like a cultish, erotic, writing club, where they drink and eat and share writing. I should also mention that they are all literature or english majors of some kind. I do not remember what exactly, but they all take creative writing and story telling classes. Once she has become closer into their group, they finally invite her to attend a “workshop”, which is a ritual they perform. Pretty much, they slaughter a bunny, and create these hybrid creatures, that somewhat resemble men. It is never really explained how this occurs, but I guess there is some kind of magic involved. This is where a get kind of confuse as nothing is ever confirmed for sure.

Eventually, Sam manages to create her own hybrid, who appears to be the perfect man, and all the bunnies fall in love with him. It is not known at this point though, that Sam created him. He just kind of appeared one day and joined the story. Sam’s hybrid, Max, is intent on punishing the bunnies, which I believe is from Sam’s inner feelings that have been transferred to Max, since he kind of embodies her unconscious and desires, maybe?? Like I said, nothing is known for sure. So Max pretty much terrorizes the bunnies and makes them fall in love, but breaks their heart and they get really really upset. In retaliation, they kill a swan from the nearby pond where Sam met her best friend, Ava, a long time ago. When Sam and Max discover this Swan, they realize that it was Ava and that Ava was an imaginary friend all along. This part had me so confused because I am not sure if Sam is just schizophrenic or if magic is real and Sam made Ava come to life like a hybrid, but with a dead goose instead of a bunny. I leave it up to interpretation. The story ends with the bunnies fighting over Max and Sam kills Max, who turns into a stag, kicks each of the bunnies, and runs away. So this is when it kind of confirms that Max was a hybrid created by Sam. It’s kinda crazy.

I am already at 500 words so I will shut up, but I really enjoyed this book and gave it 5 stars. Although it was confusing, the ending leaves a lot up to interpretation and I thought it was very well written. I wish I had more words to explain more, but oh well. Good floppiness too so I can’t complain there.

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope it was not too painful and annoying. Best of luck with finals and other classes.     :))))))

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Jennette McCurdy and her role as Sam on iCarly and other shows. I used to watch iCarly quite frequently so I was very interested when I heard Jennette was writing an autobiography, especially with a title like this. I am not usually a nonfiction or biography person, but this book was very interesting and kept me entertained the whole time I was reading it. If you want to get an inside perspective of Hollywood and the children show industry, specifically from an actress you have watched, I highly recommend this book. Quick TW, mention of eating disorders.

The book starts off when Jennette was about 5 years old and describes her family and life circumstances. She grew up in a pretty poor, Mormon family with three older brothers, and idealized her mom. She would do anything to please her mom and keep her happy. Her mother forced her into acting at a very young age because she always wanted to be an actress, but could never do it. Jennette talks about how she never really wanted to act, and preferred writing screenplays and books, but she wanted to make her mom happy. She goes on to describe her life as it continues, and she becomes a bigger child star. Around the time that she got her role on iCarly, her mother helped her develop an eating disorder so that she would remain skinny and small so she could play younger roles. This eating disorder continued long into adulthood for her, even after her mother died, and transformed from anorexia to binging to bulimia. A little later, her mother’s cancer comes back and continues to get worse. Despite this, her mother remains very clingy and controlling of Jennette. Their relationship gets very strained, yet she still does everything to appease her mother.

Eventually, Jennette’s mother gets very sick and becomes permanently hospitalized. She ends up passing away and Jennette feels very conflicted. She has idealized her mother for so long that it is hard to adjust to a life without her. On the other hand, she finally has some freedom and do what she wants. The books goes into much more detail and talks about relationships, jobs, and other things happening in her life.

I really enjoyed this book and found it particularly interesting because I was watching her on TV at the time when all of this was happening. It is kind of weird to think how all of this was going on while I was laughing at her show. I gave this book 4 stars because I really liked her writing and the progression of the book. I found it really fascinating to find out about so many different things she dealt with and went through.

Unfortunately, this book was a hardcover so I can not flop it at all. :(((((    That made me sad, but I still really enjoyed the book. Sometimes I must sacrifice book floppiness for a good book with good writing.

Welcome back for another book review. This is a pretty weird one for sure so get ready. This book takes place in a world where all animals have supposedly gotten a virus that makes them deadly to humans and therefore humans can not eat animal meat anymore. As I am sure many of you can guess where this is going… they start breeding humans for food! It is pretty gruesome and they get into some graphic details in this book so I do not recommend if you get squeamish easily. They explain the whole butchering and packaging process along with how the humans are bred and chemically enhanced to grow faster. They also remove their vocal cords so they can not talk or scream.

Most of the book revolves around Marcos, who works at a processing plant for humans. Recently, his baby son has died, his wife has left to live with her mother, and his father is slowly losing his mind in an elderly home. Everything is pretty depressing for Marcos, but he seems like a decent guy overall. Out of nowhere, he is given a gift, to make up for a mistake someone made against him. This gift is a pure bred female, which is considered very valuable and “tasty” because it has not been bred with or treated with any chemicals. Marcos does not really want this gift and does not know what to do with it so he keeps it in his barn. He says he can not bring himself to kill her, so he just takes care of her for a while.

Here is where the plot takes a bit of a turn. After a while, he starts bringing ‘Jasmine’, the pure bred female, into his house and treating her a little more like a human. Eventually, he impregnates her, which is very very illegal to do, and he now has a pregnant, mute, woman, stuck in his house, who can’t really do anything without his supervision. He goes on and start to form a more intimate and caring relationship with Jasmine. He is very excited for the baby to be born since he is still grieving the loss of his son severely. Marcos has a very strained relationship with his sister, and this is expanded upon throughout the book, like when their father dies and his memorial service happens. He also takes a lot of time visiting the old zoo, where his father used to take him, when animals were still normal and around. His connection here is very deep and also gets into a lot more detail throughout the book.

Okay, so here is what happens in like the final chapter. Its a bit insane. Pretty much, Jasmine goes into labor, but it goes wrong and he needs help. He can’t call a specialist because him impregnating her is illegal, but he calls his wife since she used to be a nurse. She comes to the house, delivers the baby, and everyone is happy, if not a little surprised. Then he turns to his wife says “He’s ours,” and proceeds to kill Jasmine. So I guess it really shows that no one in this book is actually a good person since the only decent seeming person literally used a woman to breed a child since his previous one died. Oh, and his wife exclaims “Why? She could have given us more children.” Some everyone pretty much sucks and is greedy.

That was a lot, but I did enjoy this book and thought it had some complex, interesting perspectives and ideas. I gave it 4 stars overall, however the floppiness is not amazing because it has a really thick cover so it doesn’t really flop much.

We’re back and this one is a rough one. This is definitely the most traumatic and tragic book I have ever read so be prepared to get depressed. On that note, I would like to include a trigger warning for mention of self harm, suicide, sexual assault, eating disorders, and pretty much any other triggering subject so please advance with caution. I will not discuss them in detail in this blog, but they are consistent themes throughout the book, so I if you consider actually reading this book, I highly recommend looking through the trigger warnings beforehand because it does discuss many of these subjects in graphic detail and can be very triggering for many. So on that joyful note, let’s get into it.

I really liked the writing style of this book and it had a lot of great quotes with eloquent writing. It was not too difficult to understand, but it was a long book. It is 814 pages with pretty small print and I will admit, it could get boring at some points. It basically tells the life story of these four men so some parts are pretty bland and not as exciting as others. I still think it is very well written and has many relatable descriptions and emotions expressed throughout the book. The relationships and friendships shown throughout this book are both heartwarming and heartbreaking and I am still not sure if the ending left me happy or sad.

This will a review with lots of spoilers because I can’t really discuss anything significant that happens without spoiling the book. This book basically follows the lives of four men who become friends in college. You learn about all of them throughout the book, but the main plot mostly revolves around Jude. The other three are Willem, J.B., and Malcolm. Willem becomes a famous actor, J.B. becomes an artist, and Malcolm is an architect. They have all had their personal traumas, but they end up doing okay in the end. But now for Jude. *this part may be triggering*. I will list a few of the traumatic experiences Jude has faced in his earlier lifetime including becoming an orphan as a young boy, being sexually abused by a brother at the ministry that raised him, being forced into prostitution with the same brother, being in physically abusive relationships, and being hit by a car by a doctor that said he would help him. Needless to say, Jude has faced very severe circumstances, but we finally seem him growing up and becoming his own person. He eventually starts dating Willem and they are finally somewhat happy. He still self harms, but he is getting better. He has to amputate his legs because they are so infected after all the years of injury from the car accident. This book is loaded with depressing events, but it had its happy moments too. Jude has a successful job that he enjoys, he gets adopted by his father-like figure and wife even though he is about 40, and he is finally in a good relationship with one of the few people he trusts. I am already out of words, but I wish I could say so much more about this book. This book made me feel so many emotions and it is truly beautifully written. The care and love that you see in the relationships Jude forms is amazing and I gave this book 5/5 stars.

Also, very nice floppiness because it has so many pages and they are really thin so it is very floppy and satisfying.

P.S. you don’t have to read this, but if you really want to know how depressing this book gets(VERY), you can read this part if you want. I literally finished this book today so I am still in shock and overwhelmed by everything. I can not get over how much happened in this book. It just kept coming and getting worse.

Once Jude and Willem are finally happy and getting oldish together, Willem gets in a car crash with Malcolm and Malcolm’s wife and they all die. Jude kills himself. J.B. is the last one alive out of the original four and pretty much everyone else dies soon after from unexpected health reasons. The final chapter is told from Harold’s POV (Jude’s adoptive father) and I literally cried. This book is seriously messed up, but somehow amazing. I can’t even explain all the trauma and emotions in this book.

For this week’s book blog, I am going to write about “One True Loves” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I have read two other books by her and have had mixed feelings on her writing. I loved “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, however I did not really enjoy “Daisy Jones and the Six” as you can see in a previous blog from last semester. I had high hopes for this book and was hoping to find another Taylor Jenkins Reid novel that I loved, especially since I heard good things about this one in particular.

The main conflict of the story revolves around Emma Blair and her love life. She married her high school sweetheart, Jesse and traveled the world with him for years. But then he goes missing on a helicopter ride over the Pacific Ocean and is never found. Boo hoo. So sad. In her grief, Emma moves back to her hometown and helps run her family bookstore, where…you guessed it! She falls in love with an old high school friend, Sam. How original right?? Anyway, they get engaged and life goes on and everyone is happy. The end. Just kidding. I probably would have been happier with that ending.

Emma and Sam

Suddenly, Jesse reappears and Emma doesn’t know what to do. Now she has two men that she loves, and she has to decide who she wants. Honestly, I liked most of the book and I thought the plot was fine, if not a little cliché. I did not particularly like Jesse if you could not tell, but even I will admit, their backstory is pretty cute. I did enjoy how she told the stories of both couples falling in love so you got to see how they met and felt about each other. It made the plot stronger as it actually made both men seem like good people who she should want. I just think Jesse is kind of a dick, particularly when he comes back from his little expedition. Needless to say, I was team Sam for most of the book, especially because he accepted Emma and realized that she wanted to settle down, and did not want to spend her whole life traveling. Jesse could not really grasp this concept in his tiny, little, self-centered brain.

Emma and Jesse?

Now for the big spoiler section. You’ll never guess it, but Emma chooses Sam!!! She explains to Jesse how they were perfect for each other at one point, but they are different people after all these years and they need to live different lives. He still wants to live in California and travel, while she wants to run the bookstore and build a life. He finally agrees, and here is where the book when to absolute shit for me. And I apologize, but there is really no way for me to put this nicely. They both agree to move on and go their separate ways. Perfect right?? NO!! They both decide (including Emma who just decided she is going to marry her fiancé who is not currently in the cabin they are staying at) to fuck one final time, just for old time’s sake. This honestly ruined the book for me and I lost a lot of respect for Emma. I know she was pretty much dating and fucking two people this whole book, but to verbally state your decision and still have sex, just felt wrong to me. I am going over my word count so I will wrap this up, But I gave the book 3 stars, only cause I enjoyed the rest of the book and read it in one night.

It had a decent floppiness, but nothing special. I am starting to think Taylor Reid Jenkins just might not be for me, despite me loving her one book.

p.s. sorry for going over the word requirement, but this book just pissed me off and I needed to release my feelings.

p.p.s. Apparently they also made a movie that comes out this year in April?!?!?! At least Simu Liu is playing Sam

For my first book review of the semester I wanted to do a book I read in early January. I actually read the book in one night and started it and like 6 pm and finished it just after midnight. I have a lot of books by Fredrik Backman, but this is actually the first one I read by him.

The main plot of this book centers around an accidental hostage situation that occurs at an apartment open house. The “criminal” had tried to rob a bank outside the building, but the bank went cashless so there was nothing to rob and in a panic, they ran away and into the open apartment. At this point, the failed robber is panicking so they hold up their gun and claim it a hostage situation. It quickly turns awkward when the failed robber does not really know what to do or want to continue the hostage situation anyway and starts sobbing. When all the hostages realize this person is no real harm, they start to relax and talk to each other, including the robber. At one point, they even order delivery pizza.

The robber explains their backstory and reasons for trying to rob the bank, and most of the hostages feel quite sorry for them. They were about to lose their children in a custody battle if they could not pay the rent and they just needed exactly 6,500 kronor. The hostages take pity and develop a plan to help them escape.

I really liked this book because it is written from many different character perspectives so you see all kinds of ideas and viewpoints. I also really like how connected everything is. By the end of the book, about 20 loose ends get tied up in a very satisfying way that I was not expecting. There is also a decent plot twist toward the end of the book that I was not expecting, but it made a lot of things less confusing once I figured it out. I just really liked the complexity and multiple story lines that you follow throughout the book. You get to know about all the different hostages and their backstories, the police officers, and people who aren’t even related to the hostage situation. I just never expected all the lies and twists that just kept coming and I really did not expect the ending. I will admit, I did cry a couple times. Another thing that I really liked about this book is how it accurately described anxiety and the thought processes of a bunch of people who don’t quite know what to do. Everyone agrees they don’t want to get the robber in trouble, so they all just kind of sit around for a while. It was also extremely funny in my opinion, as one of the characters is literally an old man in a bunny suit. Unsurprisingly, I gave this book 5 stars and could not put it down.

Of course, I also have to say that the book had a pretty good floppiness and I think the pages were a good thickness. It is a paperback book and just a pretty satisfying book overall.

P.S. apparently they also made it into a series on Netflix and I didn’t even know that, so all pictures of characters are the actors from the TV adaptation.