this novel didn’t feel like it was categorized correctly. the writing felt very juvenile and the plot was quite confused. excited to see where the author goes, there’s potential!

DNF @ chapter 13.

The bee plot wasn't even the B plot. I got pretty much to the halfway point and the mystery storyline hadn't moved an inch. Instead, it's aaaaaall about Kymer's college life and how she loves college so much more than home. Kymer is a downright awful, hypocritical bitch. She's very much "not like other girls" from chapter one and she makes sure you know it. I wanted to quit early on because her actively planning to cheat on her boyfriend like it's no big deal just because they're 19 and probably won't last was gross. It felt more like a YA than new adult, aside from Kymer going on and on about how horny she is and how much she's willing to cheat on her boyfriend.

The one scene of Kymer and Siren kissing was written in a pretty typical way of sexualising sapphic intimacy. Did it have to be pointed out how "hot" they looked as they kissed, especially right after Kymer was sexually harrassed?

The dialogues are crearly Fraley's weak point. They're full of exposition, repetitive, and incredibly unnatural. The characters don't talk like human beings, it's all telling and barely any showing. I don't know if it was corrected in the final edit, but it's incredibly repetitive as well. Kymer and Zach have the exact same conversation over text only pages apart. Other than Siren and Mattie, the side characters are just names.

If you're hoping to learn something about entomology or find a ghostly mystery, look the other way. All you'll get is yet another college drama.

I enjoyed that the main character in the story was a woman pursuing her interest in science presenting a strong figure that could be seen as a role model. I was a bit disturbed by the free-wheeling discussion of her sex life both in high school and college though I think this may be more of a generational reaction on my part. I was very disappointed in the ending. It did provide a set up for a sequel but I thought it was too abrupt. I would recommend this as both an Adult and YA title.

I was not able to read more than 25% of this book. It truly had a lot of elements I like, but is was just a lot of white-nonsense, like no one really had issues and the protagonist was so whiny.
I'm sorry to write this, but it wasn't for me.

There were many likeable elements to this book, and I did read to the end although I speedread a few sections. The characters were engaging and I felt empathy with their relationships and challenges. The story of the bee was captivating, the language used was appropriate to the genre, and the 'ghostly' elements were fine. Overall, however, I felt the treads could have been woven in better with tighter plotting, and some scenes felt added to allow the writer to bring in specific elements, such as the visit to the grandparent and the use of condoms.

Amber Fraley’s New Adult debut has intriguing, entertaining aspects but didn’t live up to its initial promise. It features Kymer (aka Kylie), first-year student at Kansas University (KU), juggling all the usual issues associated with leaving home for the first time. Kymer’s slightly different from most of her classmates, she loves bugs: all the creepy-crawly, slimy ones that girls are supposed to hate. She keeps a small menagerie in her dorm room and fantasies about becoming a researcher when she graduates. It’s this unusual fascination, and a supernatural intervention, that leads her to the long-lost diary of Flora Ellen Richardson, student at KU in the nineteenth century, a would-be scientist who amassed an impressive insect collection. The diary contains a puzzling entry posing a mystery that Kymer sets out to solve.

Despite some flaws, the first two-thirds of this rattled along and I was caught up in the characters and plot. I particularly appreciated Fraley’s attention to detail, her careful descriptions of butterflies and insects Kymer encounters, and the environmentally-conscious approach these revealed. And I thought Fraley captured much of the experience of moving away to university: negotiating family expectations, making new friends and forging an independent identity. But then the narrative shifted focus to a tortured relationship between Kymer and a local townie, and my interest faded.

Fraley’s work’s a little forced and unsophisticated compared to writers like Malinda Lo or Mary H.K. Choi, but her prose’s mostly solid and she includes a diverse range of characters, although I felt that some of these verged on stereotype: the working-class roommate from a dysfunctional family, the over-the-top, gay, black film student and the resentful “red-neck” local. I found the fantasy elements particularly unsatisfying; they were dropped into the plot at various points but not followed up in any developed sense, and I’d happily see them cut.

I think part of my dissatisfaction with where Fraley ended up is because it wasn’t where I expected her to go, the publisher’s description highlighted LGBTQIA themes as central, but the last third of this is firmly in heterosexual romance territory - the sex scenes are presumably why this is New Adult rather than YA. I also found there was an increasing tendency for Fraley to go off on tangents – the didactic STI clinic scenes, the long visit to Kymer’s grandparents – so the mystery element was buried under the weight of extraneous material. But a lot of the general problems are standard first-novel ones, and I’ll be interested to see how Fraley’s work develops in future.

Reading The Bug Diary, I found myself invested in Kymer, her friends and family, and their relationships. The main characters were all multilayered, complex, and real. The storyline and setting were a great adventure through KU campus and Lawrence life, with some really satisfying nerdy bug facts. I'm looking forward to reading more!

I really was interested in the plot, but the writing comes off as very young adult instead of new adult. A lot of the dialogue is very "girlboss". I couldn't shake the feeling I was reading something off wattpad, what a fourteen-year-old would think college would be about. Philosophical classroom discussions and dudebros whining about liberals. (Not that life isn't like that, but it could've been handled better.) There's a lot of info-dumping disguised as conversation and bonding. I really couldn't imagine actual people talking about their families this way. It felt so unnatural. I could tell right away this was more for the reader to catch up on their family dynamics whether than natural conversation.
Writing these kinds of characters could work very well if the author was trying to do satire, but none of this felt satirical at all. I definitely get the idea of what Fraley was going for but it was a huge miss for me.
I can see how someone would like this, but it's not for me.

I want to thank the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. I selected book because I fondly remember my own college days and collecting insects for an Invertebrate Zoology course.
The book is about a girl named Kymer as she attends university in Kansas. It is a typical college story of parties, sex, drugs, and exams. The ghostly encounter in the library is very appealing and whimsical. I enjoyed the book and am anxious to find out what happens next.

This book is a fantastic read. At its heart, it is the story of a young woman finding herself through the first year of college at KU, far from her childhood home. Several supernatural episodes provide one catalyst for self-discovery, as she is given the means to pursue her personal and academic passion: entomology. Another comes by way of the everyday college experiences she has, navigating rigorous classes, friends (new and old), family, and sex. The characters feel real and lived-in, and some of the dialogue is downright hilarious. There are some wonderful sequences involving Kansas landscapes and history (an extra-special treat for those who have seen these places in person). Fraley also explores the social landscape, pinpointing the ways in which things have changed—or not—since the beginnings of the university’s history. Fraley is a natural storyteller, and I am happy to follow wherever she leads. More books, please!

Amber Fraley’s engaging first novel, The Bug Diary, joins Kymer Charvat for her freshman year at the University of Kansas. Readers will empathize with the ups and downs of friendships, family relationships, school, and romance. Fraley’s writing is humorous, insightful, and, all in all, kind as Kymer steps into adulthood, meeting new people, recognizing her privileges, making mistakes, and finding that home is wherever you want it to be. That there is a little paranormal activity in a coming of age story set at a university may be a surprise, but Fraley’s writing makes it easy to suspend any disbelief. All these elements come together so that it’s hard to put the book down. In addition to being heartfelt, The Bug Diary is impressively researched, from entomology to local history. As an alumna who worked at both a KU library and KU museum, the descriptions of the historic characters, campus, Lawrence, and Kansas were absolute treats to me.

Reading this arc was interesting because I think I went into the book expecting one thing, and it turned out to be something else. However, having said that, I really enjoyed this book. It was completely different to anything else I've read and it felt like a breath of fresh air within the genre of YA/ New Adult books.

The description given of the book on NetGalley led me to believe going in that it would primarily be a mystery, with supernatural elements, set on campus. However, having now finished the book, I would say that instead it is actually almost entirely a coming of age story about being young, being at College, growing up and deciding what you want in life... with a very light sprinkle of ghosts, and a really healthy amount of love for insects. I wouldn't class this book as especially sci fi, supernatural or fantasy, as the ghosts are a small part of the story and the rest of the story feels so completely based in reality - but I did enjoy the additional element of fun / whimsy that the ghost scenes added.

A highlight of the book for me was that the writing did a great job at capturing that specific feeling of being College-age (although I'm British, so for me, Uni-age). I actually graduated almost a decade ago (ah!), but this book really transported me back to that time and those feelings. It really captured what it's like to move away from home for the first time, live with people from different backgrounds and to question who you are as a person and what you want from life. It all felt very genuine and honest - particularly the part about visiting home after having lived away for the first time.

I enjoyed all three of the main characters and their friendships were fun and light-hearted and full of humor and love for each other. The other characters that (MC) Kyler meets throughout the book are diverse and the author has taken these opportunities to briefly highlight some of the types of conversations about privilege and inequality that occur when you're young and naïve and finally meeting people with truly different life experiences. At times, the naivety of the main character, Kyler, was a little uncomfortable, but it also felt very true and honest to the experience of being that particular age, and having a lot yet to learn (and thankfully - it felt that Kyler also had lots of willingness to do so!)

Kyler is a great main character and she tells this story with lots of humor and authenticity - and her interest in bugs and entomology was such a fresh theme to explore - it really set the book apart from other coming of age stories!

I also liked the queerness of this book, and not just the explicitly queer side characters (who are great). Although the main character Kyler does not define her sexuality, I felt that there was queerness in her inner voice and her friendships, and it was refreshing to feel this queerness built into the story so naturally without being picked apart and labelled. (Although her romantic relationships at the fore-front of this story are cis-straight.)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely return for a sequel to see what happens next in the lives of these characters! (- And of course for more bugs!)

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

DNF at 23%. I really tried to get into this! The promise of a nature/biology-based element, college kids, LGBT+ characters, bugs, a paranormal element, and a cool mystery, made the premise pretty eye-catching! I can see that the author was going for a character-leaning story with a lot of university life elements, and that is definitely up my alley.

Unfortunately it got buried in extraneous details. The quiz being narrated, up to how many wrong and right answers the MC, and random characters got, for example, as well as the floor meeting. I was hoping for some more character development, maybe a new character relationship to pop up, but it felt like those moments were just adding atmosphere, and could've been told instead of shown, in my opinion.

The worst crime of this extraneous detail is it buries the actual premise of the story, which is the mystery! It is a genuinely interesting concept to be delivered a mysterious book by a presumably dead librarian. But aside from delving into scenes that don't tell us much at all about character or plot, (in the fairly short amount of time I engaged with this) anytime Kymer finds a clue it's straight passages of the book, or because she's lying in bed thinking. It had potential to be much more engaging from the first quarter of the book.

Not to mention, the backstory sharing between Kymer and Siren, (as well as between them and Mattie, but to a lesser extent) felt unearned. We barely know anything about Siren or Kymer before they're sharing intimate, painful details about their lives. The political awareness is very clumsy too, and kind of brushed off.

All in all, a book with a lot of potential that just wasn't really achieved.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Ultimately this title was not quite for me, but in fairness I think that may be as much a feature of the New Adult genre as of the book itself.

The Bug Diary is at its best when its main character is enraptured by the exciting world of bugs. I haven't seen many books in any genre which feature a character who loves bugs and isn't portrayed as a weirdo for it, and it's refreshing how her genuine fascination with entomology shines through the book's other details and events.

The speculative elements of the story did not, I thought, quite fit into the plot. Because it was categorized as Sci Fi & Fantasy, I expected the fantastical to be a little more central. Due to the narrative circumstances under which they took place, the story and its impact do not really change if the speculative details are understood as metaphorical or substance-induced imaginings--which is too bad. I did enjoy the fantastical hintings, and would have loved to see more of them, and for them to take a greater hold of the story. But, again, that might just be a personal lack of interest in the story elements on which New Adult narratives tend to place the greatest focus.

Overall, while it didn't fully grab me, I think that plenty of readers may find lots to love in this story--particularly if they like bugs!

I received a free advance copy of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: DNF @ 40%. I got excited by The Bug Diary's blurb because bugs are, well, extraordinary; the concept is clever, the bits about entomology were brilliant and engaging and I won't dispute that the campus backdrop and down-to-earth details of college class day-to-day existence were well-done. In the end, though, what bothered me was the depthlessness of the central characters - especially Kymer - and their disputable behavior/dubious choices - but just because I didn't click with them doesn't mean anyone else won't connect with the trio and enjoy their escapades - or the edge-of-your-seat eerie developments under way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Anamcara Press for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫