Welcome to Litsy!

The Antidote is so different: it‘s historical fiction but felt fresh. The point of view is constantly changing so the action is slow and even feels a bit repetitive but I think that is actually a good thing for this novel. There‘s also Wizard of Oz vibes, weirdly. I hadn‘t encountered that in other reviews I‘ve read, but the town is Uz, and there‘s a scarecrow. Stolen lands, a collective misremembering & willful ignorance, it‘s America!

If id have read this aged 12 same as dizzy or a teen I‘d have loved it , but just sadly not for me , it was over long , magical realism I struggle with as a genre , however it is well written and I can understand the high ratings , the audio is excellent 👌 part read the physical but mostly listened on audio.

These “new” boy cats are full of personality! I have to tell them at every meal: what is not yours is not yours. They will eat from any food dish even while their sister is trying to eat. Steve has also broken into the treats stash.

But before the new boy cats there was Corey. I miss him. #haikuaday #haikuhive

Corey was my buddy
With a crooked smile and a
Grumpy/sweet meow

I don't get the hype. The translation was clunky, & it's repetitive & overexplained. Every single story involves women sacrificing themselves and their own lives & interests for others.

I guess that's what I get for breaking my guideline by reading a male author who doesn't come very highly recced by people I trust. And for reading SF by a non-SF author.

It did fill the swap shelf prompt in #urc2025 #URC though! @Faranae
.

This book is told from the point of view of 3 characters, Opaline, Martha and Henry. The chapters alternate between all 3. Opaline in the past, Martha and Henry in the present. I liked all 3 stories and enjoyed reading them. Opaline's made me the most furious with the injustices done to her. At the end of the book all 3 stories converge. There was a bit of magicalness in the lost bookshop that made the book more fun. This was a pleasant book.

Sally is the type-A sister who kept the house running from a young age. Gillian is a free-spirited and selfish sister who is fast to love and fast to move on. When Gillian‘s life hits a huge speed bump, she turns to her sister to clean up the mess, with mixed results.

I wanted to love it because I love the movie but I failed to find any of the charm and sisterly bond that was the core of the movie. Plus, a surprising lack of actual magic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lauren‘s attic keeps delivering her new husbands, and lives to go with them. She has to decide whether and how long to keep them and when and how to finally stop the cycle. Interesting to think about how to approach deciding whether to keep a fully formed life when you know all you have to do to reset it is send your partner into the attic and get a new one.

What a beautiful book so far 🌼🌸

For the first couple of chapters, I wondered if the form of this novel was going to become overdone and affected - a POV narrated by a book, disagreeing at times with the boy at the center of the story. But then i relaxed and just let the story wash over me - and I loved it.
This isnt an easy story. Benny and his mother Annabelle are having a very hard time, traumatised by the death of their father/husband, ⬇️