My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was obsessed with Stargirl in elementary and middle school. Looking back, I think this book was probably my first exposure to a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (a phrase I wish could be eradicated along with “Mary Sue,” but alas, it’s the ubiquitous way of expressing the concept in the vernacular). I like how Monika Bartyzel introduces the trope in her article criticizing the use of the term MPDG : “As long as men have written female characters, entertainment has been packed with girls whose individuality is just a means for some tiresome hero to work out his own ennui.” Bartyzel’s description of the stock character is my adult criticism of Spinelli’s novel. Nathan Rabin originally coined MPDG to address the widespread occurrence of quirky fictional females who seem to exist solely to teach male protagonists essential life lessons while receiving nothing in return. If that isn’t an apt description of Stargirl and Leo’s relationship, I don’t know what is. However, ...

My rating: 3 of 5 stars “It’s not a question of worth, or cost... I have always done the best that I can for the people that I loved. There’s nothing else that anyone can do.” I spent the entire time reading this debating whether I found it four- or three-star worthy (admittedly, not a healthy way to read a book). On one hand, I loved the story’s originality, and I thought the writing was delicious. On the other hand, I had several idiosyncratic issues with parts of the worldbuilding and fixated on minor things I disliked. (I’ve recently decided this is a recurring personal problem while reading fantasy. It’s honestly just a me issue.) Ultimately, I decided to give this book three stars for the stupidest reason which has nothing to do with the narrative or the writing. There is a misattributed quote at the beginning of one of the chapters claiming to be from Frankenstein . Quote misattribution is neither uncommon nor surprising, and I think every quote-lover alive has been guilty of ...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars “I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.” — Ayn Rand First and foremost, this is fiction, not reality. In reality, I don’t believe strict individualism is any better than strict socialism. I think the general egocentricity and lack of human empathy displayed by American culture exemplify individualism gone wrong. Individualism, socialism, and many other ideologies look pretty on paper without accounting for humanity’s habit of screwing everything up. Anthem might not present the problems with individualism (since it’s essentially individualist propaganda), but I think it’s a decent critique of socialism. I believe the far left and the far right are two sides of the same coin, and books like this show the tarnish on only one side. But Ayn Rand grew up witnessing the worst of a socialist regime coming to power, so it’s no surprise that is the side of the tarni...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Imagine if you will the epitome of an angsty teenage girl. She lived in an uneventful rural town. She held the age-old adolescent belief that she was tragically misunderstood and utterly unique. In actuality, she was an average, goody-two-shoes daydreamer desperate to escape from reality. Her extreme idea of Teen Rebellion™ was painting her nails black, being constantly morose, and giving obnoxious, unsolicited hot takes about the most inane things. She thought she was different and special . If she had had any self-awareness, she would have realized she was just another privileged, boring, white girl whose greatest life trauma was the onset of puberty. Her two biggest problems were gym class and the world moving around her much faster than her desire to grow up. But for a middle school girl, every small problem tends to become a major calamity, and likewise, every minor interest tends to become an outright fanatical obsession. It was this girl who walked in...