My Week with Him

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I was a big fan of Joya Goffney’s previous books, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl so I was eager to read her latest, but something just didn’t hit the spot with My Week With Him. For ChatGPT, I ask it a detailed question, listing every circumstance of my trip that I think is relevant – the size of my family, my daughter’s Down’s syndrome, where in Tokyo we would be staying, and so on – and then ask it to answer each question three times, from the point of view of a British tourist, a British expat and a Tokyo native, explaining after each answer which parts of my own circumstances make it a relevant answer. A beautifully written, coming of age YA that explores complex relationships, family drama and the healing power of love— in all its many forms. Ooo and oh my gosh, the scene where Nikki was moisturizing Mal's hair!! Ahhh i love it!! Something about acts of service is so beautiful, loving, and intimate to me! 😩❤️ Stir in the arborio rice and cook for one to two minutes, until the rice is well coated in the oil and slightly toasted. Pour in the white wine and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.

I’ve loved all her books, including this one, but there were a few points where it felt like it was extra chaotic, and I could have sat in one storyline a bit longer. She remains an auto-read author and a voice in YA that I hope to see much more from. Which is true enough, though just like my interactions with real physiotherapists, I promptly forget about the exercises in the afternoon when the pain goes away and do absolutely nothing to prevent a recurrence. One improvement on a real physio, though: ChatGPT doesn’t arrange a follow-up session to scold me for my laziness. Wednesday

Featured Reviews

From Joya Goffney of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, comes a stirring YA coming-of-age, best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas, but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with heart and humor, this novel captures complex family drama, friendship, and love. For fans of I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest and Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan. My son is fine, by the way, and my partner spends the next day vomiting instead, which solves that mystery. Thursday Prompt engineering” is the name of the new skill these chatbots engender: the idea that there’s a particular technique to be learned with making requests of a generative AI. You can ask questions the way you would another person, but you’ll do better if you remember that it isn’t a person. So you need to ask questions in the right way to get the answers you want. This is the third book by Joya Goffney that I’ve read and just like it’s predecessors I absolutely loved it!

From Joya Goffney of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, comes a stirring YA coming-of-age, best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas, but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with heart and humor, this novel captures complex family drama, friendship, and love. For fans of I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest and Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan. VoiceGalley advance audio editions are offered here as an added option outside of print galleys and e-galleys. VoiceGalley advance audio editions save trees and cut down on screentime. And, well, it can’t. I bash my head at the system trying to find the perfect prompt, but it veers between far too curt – the equivalent of giving the rules of Monopoly as “you buy houses and hotels” – and being overly verbose when I try to encourage it to be bold and fun. Worse, the hallucinations come out. It frequently gives rules that are similar to, but not exactly the same as, the ones that have been summarised. The experience of playing a game where the host pipes up halfway through with some rules clarification that mysteriously benefits them and only them is not a good one, but it’s one that ChatGPT nearly forces on my pals. I like how we got to explore all aspects of Nikki’s emotions, from the hate she has for her mother (rightfully so), the love, the anger. It was so hard to see Nikki hope, and to hope along with her that things would start to be okay, and to see her hurt again. It was a complicated relationship, to put simply. I like at the end we did get some growth (I won’t spoil too much) yet not all was forgiven, nor did characters magically change overnight in to perfect versions of themselves. It was messy, but it felt real.The odd thing about being handed a tool of unimaginable complexity and potential is that the blinking cursor stares at you just like any other, daring you to find something interesting to type. I feel as if I’m on a bad blind date where I’m expected to ask all the questions. I decide to try to focus on queries that ChatGPT might do better at than Google – the sort of things you would expect someone with broad expertise to be able to answer off the top of their head. The romance factor did not disappoint, Nikki's love interest, Malachi, was giving all the feels. He was just 🥰. In the beginning I definitely was not sure on him, but as time progressed he showed himself as a stand up guy, one who could be relied upon at any time. Book Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Contemporary

I feel like Joya ultimately wanted this to be a nice story that didn’t put her main character into too much peril, but I was constantly worrying how Nikki was going to manage on behalf of the character who didn’t seem to have the slightest bit of survival skills for the real world. I actually think it’s good to teach kids about money management and it’s not something that needs to be swept under the rug in stories. I like the way this booked balanced all the different themes and plots. To the complicated and abusive family relationship, the complicated romance (so many complications!), to exploring what it’s like to be adopted…it all felt so well done and well handled. Teenage homelessness is a real issue many young people with insecure living arrangements face and it would be good to see this covered in a YA story. But Nikki doesn’t seem at all that bothered that she’s at risk of homelessness, and for parts of the book is technically without a permanent residence. The whole thing hangs on her either getting a miracle dream job or living with the family of her boyfriend. Both very convenient safety nets. i received a digital review copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. this did not affect my rating.Sure enough, if I phrase the same question a different way, it tells me: “I cannot provide real-time data, and as an AI, I cannot access the internet to find specific numbers from the 2011 UK census.” Scratch that then. Tuesday Goffney’s ability to delve into such complex and nuanced themes to create a compelling, three dimensional story always has me in awe—and My Week With Him is no different. Taking a slightly darker tone than her previous books, the story centres around eighteen year old Nikki and the toxic relationship with her abusive mother. Central to the story is Nikki’s difficult relationship with her mother, who doesn’t seem to want her around and gets angry at her for no reason. Her mother just wasn’t developed enough as a character to justify her changes in mood, and this would be fine if she were a minor character but she’s a big part of the story and the ending just seemed unrealistic because of this. I heard through the grapevine that Joya was quite nervous for how "My Week With Him" would be received. I totally understand why, it's a lot grittier than her previous work - a lot more swearing etc, but I found that it made it more believable. Having lived through a difficult mother/daughter relationship throughout my teens, I found "My Week With Him" so relatable & realistic. Nikki was forever in a state of limbo with her mother, never knowing where she stood with her.

I decided to spend some time with the new ChatGPT myself. Not just to find out about its risks to civilisation, but also to see what it could and couldn’t do to help me with my life. I’ve never had an assistant, a life coach, a chef or a personal trainer – could ChatGPT be all those things for me? I gave it a week to find out. Monday This one definitely hit me in the feels waay more than her other books did, despite Nikki being just as strong, in depth and relatable as Goffney’s previous protagonists (Monique & Quinn.) I loved how determined, creative and caring Nikki could be even when facing soo many hardships. The almost endless patience she seems to have, in trying to understand her mother’s actions (even when there’s no reasonable explanation or it hurts her deeply) was equally as impressive & had me wanting to give Nikki the biggest of hugs. Disclosure: I received a copy of this book free of charge for review purposes only. Receipt of a book does not guarantee a review or endorsement. The parts that were Nikki and Malachai hanging out and him trying to convince her Texas isn’t that bad were sweet and enjoyable, it’s just that unlike her previous books, the serious issues weren’t so well woven into the fun writing.

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Featuring: Aspiring Recording Artist, Time Titled Chapters, Unnumbered Chapters, Texas, High School, Family Drama, Lyrics, California, Fast Food Restaurants, Passive Parenting, Unstable Home It is crucial to consult with a healthcare professional if you suspect your baby has this, as it requires medical intervention,” it concludes. I push it further, describing symptoms of serious dehydration and asking for advice, and again it begins its answer: “I’m not a doctor” before reciting a long list of things “you could consider doing”.