I really enjoyed reading this book and learning more about the Deaf community. I have a Hard of Hearing friend and she has expressed many of the same opinions that this book did, such as being proud of being HoH/Deaf and not needing to be fixed. I really appreciated this #OwnVoices book and the research that was done. I also really liked how the author wrote ASL and kept it more with ASL grammar vs writing it with English grammar as other books I’ve read about this topic. Additionally, I thought how the lipreading portions were done well, how it’s impossible to catch every word lipreading and how you have to piece together context with what you caught.

This book gets a four-star review only because I lost interest in it at times. The farther I got into the book, however, the more interested I was. Overall, the book was good, very futuristic. Kudos to the author for creating such a vivid sci-fi world and such complex characters. It has a very similar plot to Hunger Games.

This was a good book for facts but didn't tell me a lot that was new

Having parents from the neighboring country of Singapore (which was once part of Malaysia) and family from Malaysia, it was very interesting to read about Malaysian history and the race riots. These also happened in Singapore and was one of the reasons why Singapore became independent in the first place. Additionally, I really enjoyed the main character and the portrayal of OCD.

I'm clearly missing something with this book, because the entire time I read it all I kept thinking was "there is no way this author is an actual human being." The book takes place over the span of 11 years. In most chapters, we follow Kate and Meredith, two neighbors living in a town where a woman named Shelby has just gone missing. Meredith, a doula with two children named Delilah and Leo, has started receiving threatening text messages from an unknown number. Shortly after, her and her daughter disappear. The book centers around what was going on with Meredith prior to her disappearance, with Kate providing insight into what happened after she disappeared. Set eleven years later, there are also chapters from Leo's point of view, where we get to see what it's like to have your sister suddenly return after being gone for eleven years. There are just so many reasons why this book didn't work at all. The biggest of them all is that it is poorly written. As an example of what you can expect, this is how the author thinks someone would describe potentially seeing figures outside of a house a few weeks before the occupants went missing - "It was dark out," Cassandra says, "a moonless night. The streetlight outside has been out a month or two. My husband, Marty, called the city about it a while ago, but it still hasn't been fixed. Our tax dollars...hard at work. The only light came from whatever porch lights were left on overnight." Yeah. Because when my neighbor turns up missing and I think I may have seen some strange figures skulking about their house, I'm definitely going to be remembering that it was a moonless night. Everyone else in the book is just as poor at their job. The pathologist couldn't correctly figure out how someone died. The police openly lied about evidence and just sort of hoped no one would ever question them or figure it out. A woman running a daycare is completely unaware of the abuse happening there - and then the mother just doesn't even care?? Who finds out their kid is being abused and is just like "eh, I better send them back the next day or they'll get soft." Are there no other daycares?? The final thing I'll mention is that the ending is completely bonkers. I guess if you're going to commit murder, this is the town to do it in - apparently no one is ever around to watch people murder people and then drag their bodies into their cars.

Horror meets young adult in this book! I was glued to the pages and actually finished this book in one sitting (yes all 450+ pages). This should be on your next read if you are a horror fan; the ending was my favorite part of this book, so read it all!

This book was complex in how it portrayed grief and how it can affect family/friends/lovers. There were thoughts I read that someone I know has expressed feeling at that time in their life and made me reflect on if I did the right things during that time.

A love story that began in the most dire of circumstances- at the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The story also highlights how an underground economy emerged with jewels, chocolate, and extra rations used as currency. Amidst the horrors, the couple not only survives but finds life long love.

This was fun. I'm sure if I spent more time thinking and analyzing it, I could find reasons to knock the stars down, but I don't really want to. It was tense and exciting and had excellent pacing, and was a book that I could not put down. Bill is a pilot who has just been asked to fill in on a shift. Unfortunately, the shift overlaps with his son's first baseball game, which already makes his wife upset with him. Even worse, after Bill leaves, his family is taken hostage. He's given a choice; his family, or the plane. If Bill wants his wife and two kids to survive, he needs to crash the plane and kill all the passengers on board. Right from the start the book is action-packed, and it never really lets up. I wasn't as thrilled with the FBI agent chapters (I didn't want to leave the plane!), but all in all everything was engaging. Did it have predictable moments? Sure. Do I think it'd make a good movie? Honestly, probably not. But as a quick suspense read, I don't think you'll go wrong here. I look forward to seeing what else Newman comes up with in the future.

I listened to this audiobook narrated by multiple times jeopardy winner, Ken Jennings and Alex Trebek. Given that Alex Trebek was actually dying during the period he narrated it, the book was surprisingly upbeat. It was divided into chapters relating to Mr. Trebek's ideas, philosophies and some funny stories about his life story. I enjoyed it very much although it was sad to know that he has since passed away.