Hillcrest High School

180,449 pages read and 4,405 team points

Team members

Hayley Gatenby

5,267 pts

(4,965 pages read)

Pick a Colour

By Souvankham Thammavongsa

3 stars

i enjoyed this! the length of it felt perfect, and i really enjoyed the concept of it being one day in the life. as an ex beauty therapist myself i enjoyed immersing myself back in the experience of putting everything that’s going on in your life to the back burner and making the person in front of you feel like the only person in the world, and i especially liked this perspective from the immigrant/asian experience which i feel like we don’t really know anything about but “mall nail” places seem to have a bad rep for white people. it was a great vignette into the experience of women especially POC in positions where people see them as lesser. i think it was an interesting addition to have the women working in the salon talk about the clients in their own language and be a bit shady and bitchy with it which is a real typical thing that white people think is happening when they enter these salon spaces. also having all the woman have name tags that say susan and the reasons behind it was another really insightful addition to the experience.
We Love You Bunny

By Mona Awad

2 stars

this was actually so disappointing! i was living the premise until like halfway through (all the different perspectives of events we are familiar with was something i could get behind - especially from Aerius’ POV which i enjoyed the most!!) and then it dragged so badly. this book 100% didn’t need to be this long, kinda wish it was a novella? cos it didn’t feel like she had a fully cooked plot and just wanted to do the diff perspectives bit and that’s all she had to go off. it was a little confusing to keep track of the girls be called so many different names from the different characters, though i did enjoy each of their perspectives of their own craft and the infighting between the chapters. overall this was ok, but didn’t feel exceptionally needed within the bunny universe. Mona Awads writing is always immersive and always shimmering with mystery and feels like you’re on a trip which i can appreciate. her writing style is really fun to read and very distinctive for her
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect

By Ernest Cunningham

2 stars

2.5 stars i wish i liked this more (and think i would’ve if it wasn’t breaking the fourth wall, narrator talking to the reader at all times) i didn’t really find it amusing, or care about the mystery (maybe cos i started with the second book so i didn’t really care about the character?? not the authors fault haha.) and honestly it dragged for me. probably wouldn’t read the first one. i like more suspense and i felt like the fourth wall breaking stopped it from being suspenseful for the narrator just dangled that he knew the answer the whole time. plus there were so many characters and sometimes they were referred to as first names and others last names and for me were all introduced so fast that i struggled to keep track of who was who which is annoying in a whodunnit situation
Heated Rivalry

By Rachel Reid

5 stars

Had to see what all the fuss was about!!!!!
The Wedding People

By Alison Espach

3 stars

I feel like I knew exactly what this book wanted to be but it just didnt quite get there for me. the poignant realisations about life and love were there but it just didnt really hit me at all? (the humour however did have me snorting out loud a few times) i think I needed more depth? I don't know what it was missing I can't put my finger on it but it was definitely missing something. It covers some real heavy topics like IVF, miscarriage, infidelity, loss of parents, and cheating but it also just felt like it kinda glossed over them? I didn't really feel the emotion behind these topics I was just kind of aware that they were the reasons behind the characters doing the things they did. Did think the side plot about Phoebe crushing on the groom and just like straight up going after him was a tad weird but hey but I was sooooo happy that we didnt end up with her going back to her husband because he came to find her, that wouldve been a real easy out This is also my complaint for a lot of books but I dont think it needed to go that long? or at least give us a little more character development if it is? I feel like both Phoebe and Lila ended the book very similarly to how they started (I don't think Lila got any character development tbh and was a placeholder for Phoebe to ✨realise things✨ and show how much better suited she was to Gary than her Phoebe was super likable though, and her dead pan humour really did it for me. I really wanted to like this I just don't think it did what it set out to do. The character drivenness didn't push the plot along enough and a lot of the time I was looking at the little percentage bar on the bottom of my kobo like how am I still only 'x' percent through
The Last Time I Lied

By Riley Sager

3 stars

3.75 this was super enjoyable, and the surprises shocked me which was exciting. i really enjoyed how unreliable emma was but also how much you wanted to protect her, because you could tell she was losing it. i liked how riley sager talked about female friendships especially as teenagers and how intense they can be, and also how intense crushes can be at a young age especially at a place like a summer camp. enjoyed the setting immensely would read another camp thriller
Problematic Summer Romance

By Ali Hazelwood

2 stars

2.75 stars. This definitely wasn’t my favourite Ali Hazelwood and unfortunately it all felt a bit one note? none of the side characters had the depth that i wanted, and i didn’t even feel like i knew Maya and Conor except for the fact that they had their thing going on. There also just wasn’t that much plot?? like nothing really happened except for the romance which i found boring. Will always give Ali Hazelwood a go because I like her books for a bit of an easy read with no pressure but this one would go at the bottom of my list to recommend.
I Hope This Finds You Well

By Natalie Sue

2 stars

1.5 stars. Unfortunately this went on for too long and was boring.. I was really enjoying it at the start, the MC Jolene was funny and snarky and I liked hearing about all the people involved in the office but then it also just didn't go further than that? There was lots of drama, but Jolene literally did absolutely nothing to help herself and neither did any of the other characters so by the time I got to the end I didn't care what happened to any of them. And when we did find out what happened to them there was practically no growth, or change and all of the carnage was just swept under the rug and everyone moved on? There didn't seem to be consequences for anyones actions. I was skimming to finish.
Victorian Psycho

By Virginia Feito

3 stars

I did enjoy this, it was atmospheric, witty, funny and had fantastic imagery. However I did feel every single one of the 450 pages it was on my kobo, feel like it could've been shorter and I wouldve rated it higher. This is a gothic horror novel about a Victorian Governess, she's unhinged, inappropriately funny and murderous. Trigger warning for body horror.
The Night She Fell

By Eileen Merriman

2 stars

Unfortunately this wasnt for me, it was too boring as a thriller and seemed to exclusively focus on the romance which was an affair which by the end I didn't care about the relationship.
Wild and Wrangled

By Lyla Sage

4 stars

Sometimes you just need a silly little romance in the summer. Have really enjoyed all of the books in this series and how they work in with each other without needing to necessarily read them in order. The characters are super lovable and the romance is sickly sweet.
Heist Royale

By Kayvion Lewis

3 stars

3.5 stars. Really enjoyed this series, I even read the second one which says a lot as I don't usually read series. All the characters continued to be fleshed out, and the things that happened/the characers did were really in line with their already described character traits. This one was a lot more tense than the first and I really enjoyed that!
The Silent Patient

By Alex Michaelides

3 stars

(2.75 stars?? This was unfortunately just ok. I may have read just one too many thrillers lately for it to hit the way I wanted. I didn't really vibe with the writing style and the characters were not as fleshed out as I wouldve liked. The twist was pretty good.
Thieves' Gambit

By Kayvion Lewis

3 stars

Really enjoyed this, was a fun YA thriller/mystery. The characters were all well fleshed out and the ending made me want to immediately read the next one! (which never happens to me!)

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Hillcrest High School

180,449 pages read and 4,405 team points

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