this series is so incredible, it didn’t even matter that I knew the answer to the mystery early on. rjb came out mad as hell and I love him for that. this was so good!!!!!

I have now read all of PRK’s books, and I would say this is a great narrative nonfiction book, but not the best PRK has. he is so talented, that even though this is not a subject I thought I’d hugely enjoy, I was enthralled the whole time. I don’t think this book aged as well as the rest of his will. I also think this one was missing the element of PRK’s voice, which has since become a trademark of his work. I enjoyed this a lot, and I would recommend because I learned a lot, but overall this does not stack up to his later work (complimentary)

I enjoyed this! the writing was masterful and the concept is so great. I’ve read a lot of reimaginings lately, and this is really high up there. the ending is fantastic

I loved the first one and I enjoyed this one, but it felt like for this one I could not suspend my disbelief about the plot, and it took away from my personal enjoyment. I couldn’t get over some of the strange character choices made in this book, and when misty felt like she knew better than all the women in her life and the only ‘reasonable’ people were the other drags (both of whom were cis men) I thought that was strange. also there was some internal language that read to me as journalist hate? I hate when a journalist is portrayed as selfish for wanting to break a story they have worked on for years. I do have to remember that this isn’t reality, this is an extended challenge segment of rupaul’s drag race where the power of drag and queerness saves the world, and it is a beautiful reality I’d like to live in. however, I still thought this one was not as good as the first one. and this is not spoilery to me but if you care about a minor spoiler stop reading: there’s a character who has incriminating photos they would like to hide with someone else, and instead of handing over the $20 SD card with the photos they give instead the DSLR WORTH PROBABLY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS??? no photographer would EVER do that!! I’m sorry but you’re prying my DSLR from my cold dead hands, I’m dying with that thing!! also I think based on the photos taken it was a zoom lens and probably a long one, so that’s easily another few hundred/a thousand depending on brand. lol never. sorry but it did take me out!! anyway that was a mild grievance, but overall book was okay

this is a fine book but not what it would lead you to believe. the author does begin this book by explaining that this is not a history of ballroom, and it is indeed not. I think it honestly needed to be. this is a memoir, with some academic interviews thrown in. I think that while I agree with many of the things raised in this book, it needed to be less opinion and more fact to truly celebrate ballroom culture. this book would be pretty confusing for a true outsider to read, and I think that was intentional, as the author said it was written for others in the ballroom community to read, however, I think if that is the case the marketing should have been clearer that that’s what this is. the personal narratives were fine, but I think not all of them fit the thesis of the piece. I think if this was meant to be a critique of capitalism it should have included more about how capitalism has infiltrated the scene. my biggest problem with the book: the title of the book is “inside New York’s vogue, house, and ballroom community”, but self-admittedly, in the introduction of the book the author says he is not a part of the ballroom community. why then is the book a personal memoir? the best parts were the transcripts of interviews (even though I feel the author needed to guide the interviewees into staying on topic about vogue more, and some parts did get a bit didactic for my personal taste). I wanted more about vogue, and ballroom, and houses. why was so much of the book instead about Madonna? I think the author clearly wanted to write the story of his personal vogue enlightenment and a critique of vogue’s brand of rainbow capitalism. that is what the book should have been marketed as, and not an insider’s look at ballroom. I did overall enjoy the book, but I had some big structural and thematic concerns I couldn’t shake. it does make me want to read more about ballroom though, and also the books mentioned in the piece sounded good!

here’s the thing: I think the information in most of this book is solid and relevant and important. however, this writing drags; it is so repetitive and basic. I always love when authors narrate their own work, but (and I’m sorry if this is mean) this author should not have, because her vocal fry and uptick actually detracted from my enjoyment of the book heavily. I think the parts about AI, about the actual internal politics of Spotify, and the artists’ unionization fight were the best. the hard facts were good and the writing was more engaging. the parts about the mood generated playlists dragged for me. I think this author needed a clearer narrative through which to present the information, to make the abstract facts feel more concrete. again, I agree with the author’s views on the subject and thought the info was important, I only had a problem with the presentation. it has all made me think more critically about my own streaming, as someone who has worked in radio and live music, and who loves music deeply. I appreciated the section towards the end on actionable changes you can make to your life to support artists. but, I think overall it was hard to know what her thesis was—was it Spotify is a corporation, run like a business, and not for artists? is that new information to most people? was it the thought that music based solely on mood and not artistry is wrong? then we probably did not need a detailed history, and instead could have focused largely on the mood sections. was it about indie vs labeled musicians on Spotify? and in that case, I think this was missing some perspectives. idk, this was fine but I did have some structural issues I couldn’t look past

maybe the greatest book of all time, a must read

he has done it again by golly. I really liked the part where keefe is exploring the idea of the state having “a monopoly on the legitimate use of force”. I think that is a very compelling idea, explored well throughout the book; the idea that only a recognized state has the right to fight for itself. we see this so many times in occupied territories, where people will agree with the message and not the means. very relevant and I enjoyed this book a lot!

patrick radden keefe has done it again! I think I’ve decided that if he writes it, I will read it. the way he crafts these stories is so well done, and you can just tell the insane level of research that goes into this. I think one of my favorite things about his writing is that you can just tell this is what he was meant to do and what he loves to do. each segment was a deep dive into a niche story, and while I did think some were more engaging than others, I think it speaks to the extremely high level of skill he’s working with that all of them were really good. my favorite was the death row lawyer, and closely runners up include the wine forger, the one about the Dutch gangster, and the guy who invented the apprentice and inadvertently helped trump become president. I just think radden keefe should be required reading

big fan of antigone, thought this was pretty good! I would say some of the world building was confusing, but I enjoyed the concept, it was short and sweet, and overall I don’t think it needed to be longer. I will say I somewhat did not enjoy the changing POVs, and I do wish we got a little more on the side characters (parth, maybe more of the brothers, haemon). but still glad I read and would recommend!

I love inej and kaz and i missed the crows so much, i think it’s time for a reread. the interactive aspect of this was so fun!

this was an interesting one. I really liked the beginning; all the commentary on the trad wife and faking the lifestyle, the way we find out Natalie’s backstory, her strained relationship with her kids and Caleb. I think the book did a fair job at balancing the fact that at first we’re supposed to pity Natalie and hate her. I hope the conversation around this book helps maybe generate attention on the real-life cases like this, and helps get the kids safely out. I think the book falls apart in the latter quarter, after the Big Reveal. I’m sorry but it just doesn’t entirely add up for me. I don’t think the execution was the best, and I think the book does not entirely earn the payoff it wants. the emotionality fell flat to me. I will say the very last segment, the section of the book within the book, was very good. interesting read, glad I read it ahead of the movie

I love f t lukens; I think this is not my favorite of theirs, and the writing was a bit heavy-handed, but I have to say if I were the target age group this was meant for I think this would have been a favorite, and I’m very glad it exists. it is absolutely vital in such a time that casually queer stories like this exist and thrive, and I am very glad for this

I liked this a lot, Clark is a great writer!

I devoured this, this was so good. literally inhaled the audiobook. at this point it’s Patrick Radden Keefe’s world and we’re just living in it, and I will read anything he writes. not my usual preference of subject matter but so good, so well written, so well researched, and I would highly recommend

cute!

tell me why I hated the mmc so bad, I’m sorry but there were several points throughout the book where I was incredibly mad on behalf of Odessa bc he was disrespectful, sexist, and nasty. she deserves better and I hated him. but also she was kind of a nothingburger character and I really do hate to say that. I also thought on a technical level this plot was predictable and boring (and at several points just ripped off of other classic YA romantasy such as the kiss of deception series), the narration was strange (why was every other paragraph just questions the FMC was asking herself? like seriously, every other paragraph), and the characters weren’t likable enough to salvage it for me. the saving grace was when there was finally some plot towards the end, I did start to enjoy it a bit more. I like Evie. but the rest made this unenjoyable for me and I almost quit several times in. sorry to say this was not for me!

really enjoyed this one! a great critique of the dark academia genre and of its inherent classism, racism, transphobia, and I think briar is so top tier

I really enjoyed this, and it read very quickly for such a long book! I think the twists were excellent and while I guessed a couple I could not have possibly predicted where we ended up. I will be SAT for the sequel

the beginning of this is kind of slow and I was not a fan of a couple of the things that happened to our characters along the way, but mostly I loved the mix of defeat and hopelessness with the love of humanity, for all its flaws. I cried at the end, but I am a big crybaby. I enjoyed the two main characters—I wish we had gotten a bit more fleshed out with them. the payoff of the end reveal is really quite good, and the end scene is top tier. glad I read this!