If the general writing quality had been better, I wouldn't have minded a lot of the other issues as much. But because I was so far removed from the story, I was more critical of the whole than I would be otherwise. I genuinely don't know if there's a massive quality difference between this book and "The One" or if listening to it covered it up, but I was really disappointed. I think I have to let this be the last Marrs book for me.

This book was neither a good mystery/thriller nor a good romance, which left it feeling identity-less and shallow, especially given the strong moral messaging it tried to have. Maybe I need to vet my books more before I read them. Maybe books should be better written! Who's to say, really.

I hated this. It made me genuinely angry, to a point where I'm finding it difficult to write this review. Nothing happens, the mysterious murder is nothing, the writing is atrocious, and the biggest victim of the book is never acknowledged.

Following the release and rave reviews of her first book, the provocatively-named autobiography I'm Glad My Mom Died, people (it's me, I'm people) were intrigued by the announcement of her second book. This time fiction but equally provocative, Half His Age has an in-your-face cover and a shocking premise. This book was published, and that is the extent of what it accomplished.

Look, I’m a certified McFadden hater. I thought the one book of hers that I read was unbelievably bad and wasn’t interested in picking up anything else because I don’t trust her output speed. But I love a gimmick, and I could not help myself from getting her latest book, The Dinner Party, a “Pick Your Poison” adventure.

You're not going to believe me, but I did like the story beats of this book. It certainly made me want to try biang biang noodles. But I was overall unimpressed with the writing and the implementations of the central allegory.

I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. After all, I like crafting, and I tend to enjoy critical looks at Christianity. While it wasn't the worst book ever, but I stopped enjoying the experience of reading it at, like, 30%. Unfortunately the book just didn't manage to live up to anything it promised.

When I finished this book, despite having just finished a story attempting to be very moving and emotional, I just felt confused. While this is a creative concept, the execution falls flat and fails to deliver on all of its promises.

No matter how you pitch it, mystery/thriller books that expose the dark side of social media are never that revolutionary, and "Everyone is Lying to You" is no exception. While I was interested by the idea of looking at trad wives specifically, the author did not deliver on this idea. This ended up being an underwhelming, inexperienced, and apolitical perspective exploration.

This book was weird. If I hadn't won it in a Giveaway, I probably wouldn't have finished it. The writing wasn't anything impressive, the topic was strange, and the mystery was underwhelming.

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, and it took me a long time to read it because it just wasn't grabbing my attention. In a lot of ways the book was just fine, but the execution was really lacking.

Listen. This is not a kind review. I read the first book and hated it. I would've been incredibly happy to leave it in the past, but the description was about Hamlet. I had to read it, even if I knew that I'd hate it. I did hate it, and it really wasn't similar enough to Hamlet for me to be even a little gracious.

I just simply did not enjoy this book. And it was far too long, which gave me a lot of time to ruminate on all its flaws. It may not have been the worst book I've ever read, but with an irritating main character, shallow political messaging that overpowered the already-weak plot, and a personality that doesn't know what its trying to be, there were very few things about this book that helped redeem it for me.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing of this book, though I did like it overall. The author is clearly competent and knowledgeable about how to write a mystery, and I did enjoy the concept.

This book was a terrible reading experience. Everything about it was annoying, confusing, and so bewildering that I couldn't even find my footing enough to pretend to care.

I had read Worst Case Scenario by this author last year, and I really liked it. I saw that Newman's debut novel was available from the library and figured it would be a quick, tense, and safe read while I'm in a little bit of a slump. Unfortunately, this one did not match up to the quality of the other one. For the most part, the actual experience reading it was just fine. But the glaring plot issues and the weak characters made this book a less-than-stellar experience.

This book was originally published in 2009, and unfortunately, for everything I enjoyed about it, there was another slur spoken that drew me out of it. And I get it: it was a different time.

I knew from the cover of this book that it was probably not going to be my thing, but because it's about "Hamlet," I decided to give it a shot anyway. I thought that perhaps it could be fun in an "early 2000s teen movie" kind of way. What I got instead was a lazy, reductive version of this play that talks down to its readers and shows a blatant disregard for the things that make the original so loved.

This book wasn't good. Had I not won it in a Goodreads giveaway, I probably would've stopped reading it.

Looks can be deceiving, and in keeping with the tradition of Shakespearean tragedies, this book starts off in a rough spot and gets worse.