reading books I think will be 5 stars... but were they? 🤔 [body horror, summer reads, girlhood]

I've recently read Female Fantasy because of Kayla and this one also has like really low average ratings on Goodreads, but I loved this so much. Like I gave this book five stars.

And I loved The Bright Years so much. It was such a gorgeous story about family. And it was such a solid debut.

I just don't think that I felt as connected to these characters as I did with the characters in The Bright Years. And like this might be an unpopular opinion about this book, but like as far as family dramas go, I just don't really think this one brought anything new to the table.

I mean, don't get me wrong, there was some really great body horror happening in the second half of this book, and I feel like that's something that this author does really well. And I definitely connected with some of these characters more than the others. I mean, I still really did like Frank as a character, like I mentioned.

It reminded me so much of this book because in The Unhoneymooners, you know, we also have a couple who's like pretending to be married and it's like really fun and really bantery and there's a lot of great summer vibes in this one as well.

He's written The Troop, which is like one of my favorite books that I've ever read in my life.

Not only was this book a five-star for me, but I think this is actually like one of my top favorite books that I've read this year because this book reminded me of so many other books that I've loved.

I was crushed by this book. I was absolutely devastated and this is without a doubt the best horror book that I've ever read. That kind of talks about the fear of aging in a way that's just like really tragic and really beautiful because in the story you're following this elderly woman and she's kind of like fearing that she's losing her mind while she's living in this retirement home.