miscellaneous!!!!

i'm a sucker for the found family trope, which is what got me to read this book. the story is told in a very non-linear way, jumping between the two policemen's and the hostages' perspective, which i found a bit jarring at first, but i definitely loved how it all came together at the end. every character was very well developed as well as their relationships with each other and my favorite was probably estelle. the english translation preserved the witty and sarcastic narration, which reminded me a bit of lemony snicket and douglas adams. also i am ashamed to admit that i thought the bank robber was a man until it was revealed halfway through the book. and it is still amazing how despite not even knowing her name, i cared so much about her and what happened to her character. towards the end of the book, every time i finished a chapter i was expecting it to be the end only for there to be more (which i'm not complaining, it was like finishing a slice of cake and realizing there's more left) but i thought the book wrapped up all the loose ends very nicely. it was a lot sadder than i expected, but ultimately a wholesome book. def going to read more works by this author.

this was the kind of book they assigned you in middle school english class, but for whatever reason i never read it. so here i am, reading it as an adult, but now i get why it's so famous. i thought the beginning was a bit slow, but after jonas gets his assignment, i really started liking it a lot. every time it was revealed that they didn't have certain memories for the sake of Sameness, the more i realized how fucked up their society really was. like it really blew my mind when i realized that they couldn't see color. and it broke my heart when jonas asked his parents if they loved him and they ended up dodging the question. the anti-horny pills were kinda funny though.

every character in this book sucks and needs to get off twitter. jokes aside, the premise is so interesting and i never felt bored while reading it. obviously the book is from june's point of view, and she is far from a reliable narrator, but i do feel kinda bad for her. also this book poses some interesting ethical questions, but i'm not smart enough to answer them here, so go read it yourself.