July, 2021
July 6th, 2021, 5:04 p.m. - Eh
29. The Other Black Girl (Zakiya Dalila Harris)
Up next: Dream Girl (Laura Lippman)
July 13th, 2021, 5:23 p.m. - "Gerry simply cannot plot his way out of this"
30. Dream Girl (Laura Lippman)
Up next: Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing (Lauren Hough)
July 20th, 2021, 5:12 p.m. - A second coming-out story
31. Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing (Lauren Hough)
Up next: The Final Girl Support Group (Grady Hendrix)
July 26th, 2021, 5:19 p.m. - I see your Stab/Julia Campbell reference, Mr. Hendrix
32. The Final Girl Support Group (Grady Hendrix)
Up next: Hot Stew (Fiona Mozley)
Harris basically wrote two stories, jammed them together, and led with the boring one. I don't get the hype here.
This was good enough, but not quite worth all the rave reviews. I enjoyed Lippman writing a man who doesn't think much of women, though.
Hough is...not great with criticism, it appears, which is too bad, because I really like her writing and I think she has great stories to tell. She'll need to overcome her missteps to be respected.
It falls into the clichés it tries to skewer, the deus ex machina is ridiculous, the Michelle stuff is a pointless detour, and I called the ending early on. That said...I couldn't stop reading it.