Predictably, I read this because everyone has been so crazy about the release of the new film. Ah, Mary, Mary when will you learn?
So by now I’m sure ePredictably, I read this because everyone has been so crazy about the release of the new film. Ah, Mary, Mary when will you learn?
So by now I’m sure everyone knows what this is about but just in case, this is story revolves around Lara Jean, who writes letters to her past crushes as a way to vent her feelings & get over them, and is forced to deal with the consequences when those private letters are mailed out by accident.
That description is slightly misleading in my opinion. While there are 5 boys on Lara Jean’s list, this story is mostly about how she navigates her situation with 2 of them specifically.
So really, you should know that the premise is closer to a love triangle than the summary would have you believe.
And then the fact that one of the boys in this triangle was/is involved with Lara Jean’s older sister kind of squicks me out a little. (This is revealed almost immediately in the book so, no I don’t consider it a spoiler.)
So, I’d say my major complaint about this book is that, while it definitely fulfills the role of “cute rom-com,” I’m personally not a huge fan of a story in any genre where the main conflicts are driven by a nonsensical lack of communication between characters.
I guess at this point it just feels? Cheap? Like a fast way to create drama where there would otherwise be none?
This is pretty much the case for all the central characters involved. If any of them would just? I dunno, talk to one another, then most of this drama could be resolved immediately.
Lara Jean’s personality (or lack thereof) is grating at times, and I noted down a couple of times where she resorted to physical retaliation when upset. I think it is meant to be endearing but needless to say, it isn’t.
Lara Jean’s little sister, Kitty, is particularly annoying for me. She frequently acts like a brat, throwing tantrums, refusing to speak to her sisters, bossing others around, with little to no intervention from their father.
None of the other characters stand out in a meaningful way. They all occupy tropes we’ve seen before. The story follows a mostly predictable path with what I consider an unnecessarily open ending.
I know this is a trilogy but I can’t imagine it needs to be. Another 50 pages would have resolved this in a way that was plenty satisfying. But instead we’re left without much of a conclusion.
Needless to say I won’t be continuing on with this series, but I did watch the Netflix Original Movie adaption of this book and it is SO CUTE AND FIXED ALMOST EVERYTHING I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK!
Do yourself a favor, skip the book, go watch the movie, it’s way faster & a much better experience!...more
Gen is a thief. The story begins with him being rescued from prison by the King's Magus in order to help him steal an object of political power that iGen is a thief. The story begins with him being rescued from prison by the King's Magus in order to help him steal an object of political power that is so historically obscure it is almost considered a myth.
So there's a lot I didn't enjoy here.
To begin with, this book is mostly composed of a very, very, very long travelling sequence. Now, I should take this opportunity to point out that I don't dislike journey stories. In fact, one of my all time favorite novels is The Lord of the Rings, which is, at its core, a massive journey.
The problem with this book is that nothing even remotely interesting happens while our characters are travelling. Somehow a relatively short 280 pages ends up feeling more like 2800 pages while trudging through scene after scene of riding on horses, campfire chatting, and bickering.
It was over halfway through the book before I really distinguished between all the side characters that weren't the Magus. And of course I had the unfortunate experience of accidentally imagining the Magus as Governor Ratcliffe, aka this guy:
So yea. That was.. not the book's fault but it was certainly interesting.
Anyway, once I finally had a firm handle on who everyone was, I realized they're mostly stereotypical in nature. Angry, masculine rival. Soft, young apprentice who isn't good with a sword. Tough, stoic guardian. Eh.
I suppose it's important to remember that this was published in 1996, and so these stereotypes were probably a lot less abundant at that time. This definitely doesn't read like a modern Young Adult book, but this doesn't change the fact that my experience with these now is no more welcome than it would be reading a book published more recently.
The dynamic between the characters is even confusing for me. I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel about Gen or the Magus because their statements & actions are just a slew of contradictions.
One minute they're all messing around, joking, the next characters are threatening other characters with actual, physical violence. One minute Gen is at the complete mercy of the Magus, the next the Magus is allowing Gen to contradict his mythology stories without reprieve.
Gen even points out the Magus' inconsistency so honestly, I'm just now sure how I'm supposed to view these characters.
Speaking of mythology, this book spends a lot of time exploring mythological characters of the realm & telling their stories, and much less time than I would've liked expanding the world. These sections of the book come off very info-dumpy, and I could feel myself zoning out whenever they would pop up.
Honestly, I can only think of one scene where I chuckled near the beginning of this boring trudge of a book. Otherwise, I spent most of the time hoping it would be over soon.
Relieved to finally make it to the end of this story, I was planning to stick it with a 1 star & forget about it. But then something interesting happened.
The twist at the end practically flips this story on its head, contradicting everything you may have thought about it up to this point. It's almost a brand new story which is the ONLY REASON I am considering continuing the series.
I'm not 100% sure I agree with a twist like the one presented here. I'm not clear how it works, to be honest. It seems contradictory on many levels, but I'll definitely give it points for originality.
This twist brought the book's rating up a bit for me. It doesn't make up for how hard the rest of the of it is to get through. 2 stars it will have to be, but I'm kind of excited to see where the story goes from here because it feels like a fresh beginning.
Though it pains me to say this, Assassin's Quest is the weakest installment of the Farseer Trilogy. It's not necessarily a badActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Though it pains me to say this, Assassin's Quest is the weakest installment of the Farseer Trilogy. It's not necessarily a bad book but I am pretty split down the middle on things I did & didn't like about this conclusion and so a 2.5 stars felt appropriate.
While the opening scene is very strong, this book ultimately suffers from a monotonous journey with an indistinct & rushed conclusion. Unfortunately, I won't be able to explain myself further without spoilers.
***SPOILER ALERT***
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So the book begins with the resurrection of Fitz's human form from Nighteyes. Burrich, Chade, & Nighteyes now accompany Fitz in a hidden cabin in the woods while he attempts to relearn what it means to be a man instead of a wolf.
This is a strong opening & is by far one of my favorite scenes in the book.
The sequence ends in an emotionally charged battle of words that scatters our heroes onto their own separate paths. The conflict is written incredibly well, with each character having a justifiable perspective. It pierced my heart to watch them allow their disagreements to fracture the group, but overall it felt like a realistic & necessary development for all involved.
So now Fitz strikes off with only Nighteyes to assassinate Regal & we come to one of my biggest qualms with this final book.
IT'S. SO. DAMN. REPETITIVE.
Events proceed as such from this point on:
1. Fitz is captured.
2. Fitz's situation looks completely inescapable.
3. Fitz escapes (usually with help from Nighteyes).
4. Fitz uses his Skill to peek in on Burrich & Molly.
5. Optional: Fitz meets a young woman who tempts him to sleep with her.
I haven't measured, but I can confidently say at least 60% of the book is made up of this cycle repeating itself.
The first time Fitz is captured, I was on the edge of my seat wondering how in the world he could escape from Will's grasp & from inside of Regal's castle. But when Fitz is captured twice more, the excitement of the moment is quite dampened by the fact that I'm certain he will find a way out of his situation.
This renders Fitz's capture/escape scenes pointless & uninteresting for the most part.
All the while, Fitz manages to meet three separate women (none of which are Molly) who all want to fuck him. Look, I know Fitz is supposed to be dashing or whatever, but this is overkill.
If this weren't enough to make me roll my eyes, all of these women turn out to be insufferable.
The first, Honey, makes Fitz the butt of all her jokes & sarcasm, only to sneak into his sleeping quarters within a couple days of knowing him. When he refuses, she goes back to being sour & self-important for the rest of the time she is in Fitz's company (even after he saves her life & her sister & father's lives).
The second, whose name isn't even important enough for me to remember, is part of a travelling caravan that Fitz briefly joins. He is momentarily tempted by her offer, but eventually declines out of loyalty to Molly. When thwarted, this girl threatens to go to the caravan leader with her suspicions that Fitz is the Farseer Bastard King Regal is searching for. So to put it plainly, she's a piece of shit.
Lastly, we meet Starling, a minstrel who Fitz also encounters in the traveling caravan. Starling begins with a lot of potential & seems at first to be one of the most realistic female characters Fitz meets in this installment. My opinion of Starling quickly goes downhill when she first reprimands Fitz over how he treats Molly, then immediately tries to sleep with him.
What the fuck?
Fitz refuses, and from this point on Starling is nothing but a headache for Fitz. She tags along with him simply because she wants to bear witness to something amazing that she can write a song about & secure her own future. Along the way, she ends up revealing the existence of Fitz's child against his will, constantly puts off angry, angsty vibes, and goes on a weird & largely unresolved tangent about The Fool being a woman who is actually in love with Fitz.
I mean what the actual fuck???
Am I supposed to like this character? Am I supposed to sympathize with her?
At one point, Fitz is in a situation where he can ambush a group of people who absolutely will torture him if they catch him. Starling is horrified by the prospect, suggesting the heroic thing to do would be to issue a challenge to his enemies instead of taking them down unawares.
Bitch what do you think this is? A fairy tale? OF COURSE I'M GONNA TAKE THEM OUT IF I HAVE THE CHANCE WHY WOULD I ISSUE A FUCKING CHALLENGE???
Near the end of the novel, she reveals her sad story to Fitz & once again tries to sleep with him. By this point, I am so done with this character that I couldn't even feel bad for her. She's completely irrelevant & a huge distraction from my enjoyment of the story.
Needless to say I'd probably strangle her if I were Fitz so kudos to my boy for maintaining his composure in the face of all that nonsense.
But please don't think Fitz is an angel here because he isn't.
Fitz constantly uses his Skill sense to check in on Molly & Burrich, even though he is repeatedly warned that doing so puts their location at risk of being discovered by enemy Skill users.
Once, perhaps I could understand. But he literally checks in on them like 10 times, each time being cautioned by Verity that doing so is incredibly dangerous.
One of the last things that really bothered me about this last installment is that I still have no idea why the magic systems function the way they do.
I understand how the Wit works. I understand how the Skill works. But I don't know know why.
This is perhaps due to the First Person nature of the story, as Fitz isn't an expert on his abilities either. But Hobb found ways to fill the reader in on the historical situation of the Six Duchies & the Mountain Kingdom through Fitz, and so I'm not sure she couldn't have done a similar thing with the magic system.
This lack of understanding becomes super apparent as the finale of the book plays out. Verity's creation of the Dragon, Kettle's release from her Skill burning, The Fool's 'betrayal', the effects of the Skill Road on Skill users, the Pillar to the past, the wakening & control of the Elderlings. All of it just floats around in a hazy sea of "it works that way because it works that way" & that's not always enough for me to feel satisfied.
Otherwise, Hobb maintains her excellent writing all the way through to the very end of this trilogy. She could probably write a detailed to-do list & I would be hanging on every word - that's how addicting her words are.
I also particularly enjoyed the glimpses of scenes we get with Burrich & Molly. I found the endgame of the two falling in love a bit... strange to say the least, but they definitely have some of the most compelling scenes that break up the intense monotony of Fitz's travels.
The Fool & Fitz have some really gratifying relationship development, as does Kettricken in her struggles to find Verity & serve the people of the Six Duchies.
Upon reading this conclusion, I'm definitely torn. I'm glad to have finished this trilogy, as it is surely a story worth reading. I've grown close to Fitz, Nighteyes, & The Fool (along with a couple other characters), and I enjoy the world Hobb has created here.
But after falling in love with Royal Assassin, I was hoping for something a bit more satisfying from Assassin's Quest. As a whole, a good trilogy with a killer middle book. I'm quite excited to move on to the Liveship Traders Trilogy!...more
So I must say, Melokai begins on a strong note. This self published title immediately introduces a ruthless land ruled by women, prosperous under theSo I must say, Melokai begins on a strong note. This self published title immediately introduces a ruthless land ruled by women, prosperous under the leadership of Melokai Ramya, but heading swiftly toward a dangerous prophecy. Quite an intriguing premise!
Unfortunately, after a beautifully promising opening, I found myself quickly losing interest in the way this story unfolded. More than anything, I just couldn't keep myself fully engaged as I read through new character introductions and events, which made for a rather slow reading experience for me personally.
I rather enjoyed author Rosalyn Kelly's writing style. She captures a multitude of diverse landscapes, bringing each one to life in its own unique way. Thanks to this, the world building aspect succeeds in creating depth both far and wide across multiple kingdoms.
At times, dialogue between characters felt a bit bland & caused the wide cast of characters present here to read similarly. But Kelly's action scenes were on point, being both gruesome & well choreographed.
My biggest issue with Melokai is that I couldn't fully get on board with any of the main characters or their actions. I felt as though I was wading through decisions & events without really understanding why they were occurring. This prevented me from really identifying with anyone & thus contributed to my overall lack of engagement.
Unusual details arose in a way that took me by surprise. Strange romantic formations that felt a bit all over the place, unclear physical appearances, lots of sexual encounters, and contrived conflicts often plagued my reading of this story.
There is a lot of writing talent here & a solid foundation (and of course a stunning cover!), afraid the actual story itself just wasn't my flavor. I'm certain this story will work for others where it didn't for me. I would most recommend this book for hard core Grimdark Fantasy Fans!
Jack has a history of aligning herself with rebel causes. She is pirate in the sense that she reverse engineers drugs and distributes them to the publJack has a history of aligning herself with rebel causes. She is pirate in the sense that she reverse engineers drugs and distributes them to the public for reasonable prices. When a stimulant begins to manifest deadly addiction, Jack sets out to try and bring down the manufacturer responsible for overlooking the side effects.
Having distributed a knockoff version of this drug, Jack finds an agent/bot duo, Eliasz & Paladin, hot on her tail.
So really, I must say the only area in which this book met my expectations is the writing style. I think the straightforward prose worked well alongside the scientific subject matter & provided a good contrast between the expectations of the society (slavery) and the desires of the main characters (autonomy.)
But unfortunately, this positive stands alone in a sea of negatives.
First up is the characterization. I can't tell you with honesty that I connected with any of these characters.
I wanted desperately to like Jack, but I think the "Robin Hood" label from the synopsis is a bit of a reach. Yes, she wants to give to the poor but not necessarily at the risk of taking from the rich. This label set up an expectation in my mind that the character did not meet. Her personality is mostly flat & uninteresting & there's too much of a focus on who she's sleeping with at any given point in the story.
Eliasz & Paladin are characterized almost entirely through their interactions with each other. We get the sense that Eliasz is a tough, does-what-needs-done type & Paladin in an innocent, curious bot. Paladin is probably the most interesting character in this book, but I am incredibly disappointed over how the situation between these two characters developed, and so I'll save those details for the spoilery section of my review.
Next is the world building. Or mostly lack thereof. From what I understand, there is a system of indentured servitude amongst humans & bots. Pharmaceutical companies have a strong presence in the everyday lives of citizens. But what else???
I can't tell you much about this world otherwise. How did it come to be? What's the political structure? How do cities function? There's some talk of holographic info screens only the user can see & watches with internet panels but nothing incredibly distinct from the technology you'd expect to see in a "futuristic world."
Now for the plot. Do you ever read a book & feel as though its ending is a foregone conclusion? That's how I felt reading this book. It takes forever for the plot to develop. Usually I'm a fan of a slow build, but none of the sections prior to the climax served much of purpose or held my interest & thus ended up feeling like slow trudge through thick mud.
On top of this, there is entirely too much emphasis on romantic engagements between characters & it took me pretty far out of the story.
***Below this point I'm going to discuss a development between Eliasz & Paladin that DID NOT sit well with me at all. It will contain spoilers, but I think at the very least it deserves to be pointed out since this book is being hailed as LGBT+ friendly.***
So for most of this book, there is sexual tension between Paladin & Eliasz. Paladin can read Eliasz's physical reactions & notices things like his heart rate speeding up whenever they're together, or him developing a boner occasionally. Paladin begins wondering if sex with Eliasz is a thing that can happen, and decides to research the topic in his down time.
Eventually a conversation pops up between the two where Paladin is testing the boundaries of Eliasz's interest, and brings up the topic of military bots receiving sex education. He may have mentioned it in a m/m context, I can't remember. Elias responds by saying something like "I don't know anything about that, I'm not a faggot."
So Paladin, having never heard the term "faggot" before, decides to research it & try to discover why there's such a discrepancy between Eliasz's physical reactions vs. what he says. Paladin also discovers that the human brain he has been implanted with once belonged to a female soldier.
Upon revealing this information, Eliasz asks Paladin if he should start using female pronouns instead of male pronouns. Paladin, realizing that he probably won't be able to sleep with Eliasz if he keeps projecting a male persona onto him, says yes & begins using she/her pronouns.
A couple scenes later, Paladin & Eliasz are sleeping together. Because Paladin's a female now, and Eliasz doesn't have to worry about being a "faggot." During sex, Eliasz is saying things like "I knew I wanted you. I must've known subconsciously that you were really a female."
For the sake of not ruining any more of the plot, Paladin & Eliasz live happily ever after.
Now, this entire set up leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
There's no real addressing Eliasz suppressing his sexuality or his homophobic use of the word "faggot." We find out that a childhood bully called him a "faggot" once, and can assume he's perhaps a bit sensitive about being considered gay, but there is no moment where adult Eliasz realizes that being gay or bisexual is not a negative thing.
There's also no meaningful discussion about Paladin's gender identity. There's a lot of emphasis on how pronouns mean nothing to bots, and are entirely used to make humans feel more comfortable. So Paladin's switching from male to female pronoun use doesn't effectively create a transgender robot character, because Paladin expresses multiple times how he could care less about gender identity as a whole.
Paladin changes his gender identity entirely to assuage Eliasz's fears about being gay & the fact that that path is presented as their only path to happiness together sort of throws up warning flags in my head. The narrative tries to spin it as the first real moment of agency Paladin experiences, but it doesn't change the fact that the motivating thought behind the decision is "As a male I can't sleep with Eliasz, as a female I can, so I guess I'll be a female for his sake."
Like???
I'm not sure what exactly the takeaway is from this plot point. If the book wanted to tackle the idea of a transgender or nonbinary robot, I think it missed the mark entirely. It doesn't help that Eliasz comes off as an asshole & is never corrected or made to acknowledge that he has homophobic tendencies. For all intents & purposes, Eliasz & Paladin run off into the sunset together & that's the end & we're supposed to be happy about it I guess?
Perhaps if the event of their forming a couple had not been spun in such a sympathetic light, I would be less uncomfortable. Because no, I do not sympathize with Eliasz, & it's difficult to see the conclusion of the best character in the story be what I'd consider an abusive relationship disguised as a "happily ever after."
Now, important thing. I'm not telling you to boycott this book. Go read it & see for yourself how it makes you feel.
I actually would love to hear more opinions about this particular point of the story. I've talked with a couple people who agree with me that it doesn't make much sense, but my opinion is just that: an opinion.
Even outside of this major issue, I didn't enjoy this book much. The synopsis sounds amazing, but the story does not deliver. Much of the time I felt as though I were reading a Young Adult Science Fiction novel, and I couldn't connect with it in the way I hoped I would.
Thank you Kaylin for reading this with me (at least for 38% of the time, haha!)...more
Ever since I was a young girl, I've been obsessed with the musical performance of Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby (which you can view here on YouTube.)Ever since I was a young girl, I've been obsessed with the musical performance of Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby (which you can view here on YouTube.) I don't think I've ever seen Disney's adaption because my mother & friends could not convince me that any other version in existence was worth watching.
As I've grown up (boooooo) I've really enjoyed the movie Hook, & didn't mind the concept behind the mini-series Neverland. However, nothing has ever stuck with me the way the musical did, and so I figured it was about time I read the book.
While I read this, I had the distinct feeling that I just wasn't as into it as I expected myself to be. When I expressed this unfortunate feeling to my cousin, she had this to say:
"You've been drowned with the same content over and over until the original feels like a bad clone of itself."
Honestly, I think she hit the nail on the head. It's the same exact feeling I had while reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass & The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. So many iterations of these stories have over saturated the media, and now I'm left feeling very underwhelmed in the present day where I may have felt how special & magical & wonderful this was had been alive during the time it which it was published.
So really, I don't know if it's this book's fault that I didn't love it. I didn't hate it, but I don't see myself ever choosing to read it again. The whole time I was transposing scenes from the play over my imagination instead of focusing on the book itself.
Also, I want to mention how much I don't care for the end of this novel? It's such an antagonistic conclusion about adulthood (I guess the whole story is too but whatever.) & I'm just saying if my child pulled that whole "Yea mother, you can't go to Neverland! You can't fly anymore, you're an icky grown up!" shit, she better damn well expect them bars on the windows.
I appreciate this work for all the originality & subsequent works it has influenced into creation, but I can't say you're missing out on much if you've never read the book.
So this rating might seem a bit harsh but I have to say while I didn’t hate this book, it is so highly unoriginal that I strugActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
So this rating might seem a bit harsh but I have to say while I didn’t hate this book, it is so highly unoriginal that I struggle to give it higher than a 2.5 Stars or even round up.
It’s not written badly, but it’s so much in line with books like Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train that it feels like it was created specifically to capitalize on the success of those books & not to tell its own unique story.
It also sort of put me in mind of the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle but more focused on the child/mother relationship.
The story never reached a point of being so dreadful I couldn’t continue, but specifically I was incredibly disappointed with the ending. There’s a show of character growth without it feeling like a genuine conclusion to a story like this.
I want to think perhaps I’d have felt the emotions I was meant to feel if I were a parent myself, but I shouldn’t need that personal connection for this book to mean something to me. Overall, readable but disappointing....more
Well friends, my expectations for this book were sky high & 2 stars is actually being generous. Considering it tI know, I know. 2 stars? 2 stars!?
Well friends, my expectations for this book were sky high & 2 stars is actually being generous. Considering it took me a whole month of slogging through 10 pages at a time of this 176 page book, I think 2 stars is being very generous indeed.
McGuire largely missed the mark with her third installment of the Wayward Children series. In fact, the only part of this I thoroughly enjoyed was her writing style. She is whimsical & straightforward in the same breath, and it really serves the offbeat tone of this series well.
Otherwise, this book is a bit of a disaster for me.
It begins with the introduction of a new main character, Cora. The thing I know about Cora is that she is very fixated on how other people think of her as fat. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood here, so please pause with the pitchforks at least until I finish my point.
This series has thus far used a very small amount page space to tackle some very prominent & important issues with grace & clarity. Obesity & the abuse that can be experienced because of it absolutely fall under that umbrella of importance. However, Cora's allusions & inner monologue about being only seen as "the fat girl" came up so often that I began to feel beaten over the head with the message.
Most of us know what it's like to get stuck in a mental loop about our imperfections, and so in that singular way Cora is relatable. But as a main character being introduced two books after the group has been established, it felt as though this was the only reason I was given to really care about Cora.
Her personality is sort of flat, and I found her quips & interactions with other characters borderline annoying. She's nowhere near as compelling as the characters we've been introduced to in the previous books, so the overall lack of connection was a bit of a let down.
By the end of the book there's not any real unique & hard hitting conclusion about Cora overcoming how others view her in favor of realizing her personal worth, which is what I was expecting after all the page space that was dedicated to acknowledging the problem.
Again, I want to emphasize that my issue is not with the topic itself, but more with how it was presented in context of this particular character.
To continue on the subject of characters, the familiar faces from the past two books may as well have not even shown up for this adventure. Kade's southern charm & happy go lucky sense of justice are reduced to a lackluster minimum, Christopher's clever sarcasm is all but gone, and Sumi's abundant & nonsensical energy is completely absent.
For a series with such consistently strong & diverse characters, this is the last thing I expected to be disappointed in.
Now we come to the plot. I just... did not care about it at all? I won't tell you that the plots from the first two books are most distinctive stories I've ever read, because they aren't. But I was captivated by them, and I was engaged with the other aspects of the series enough that the combination is what made it special.
Unfortunately the plot of Beneath the Sugar Sky felt like a tangled & directionless mess for much of the time. It's worth noting that much of the story centralizes around adhering to a world that employs "Nonsense" rules, and so to a degree it makes sense that nothing makes sense. However, I spent a lot of time thinking "Is this ever going to go somewhere interesting?
Needless to say, it didn't. I'm distressed over posting a negative review for this book, because I really really really really wanted it to be amazing. But it isn't. It just isn't.
The nature of this series is to tell smaller stories that are mostly encompassed within each book. The characters overlap & books should be read in order, but the stories aren't necessarily told sequentially. Because of this, I will likely read the next book & pray that it's on par with Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones.
As for this one... truly the best part about it is the gorgeous cover. *shrugs*...more
Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed in those people who condemned this book before giving it a chance because the truth is, it's really nSo, I read it.
Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed in those people who condemned this book before giving it a chance because the truth is, it's really not racist.
Yes, a defining motivation for almost everything that happens in this book is racial tension between a handful of fantasy races. No, I do not feel that the author condones racist, homophobic, ableist, etc. ideologies about races that exist in reality.
My opinion? This book was preemptively dragged through the mud for nothing.
Seriously though, since when is portraying characters with shitty belief systems the same as condoning characters with shitty belief systems?
And I must ask, have we not made it past the point where we accept that people are not all good or all bad? That it's the part of ourselves we act on that make us who we are? Wasn't this one of the fundamental lessons in the Harry Potter series?
Speaking of Harry Potter, any of you who ever found it in your heart to sympathize with Draco Malfoy but concluded this book is problematic (likely without reading it) may want to reevaluate. The Black Witch is similar to what we'd be reading if Rowling had written Harry Potter & cast Draco as the protagonist.
Not similar in plot, but similar in that we have a young person, raised with a certain set of beliefs, perpetuating those beliefs for a time, and eventually coming to question whether or not those beliefs are valid when confronted with real world experience & knowledge.
This is exactly the process the main character, Elloren Gardner, goes through.
Elloren is surrounded by people from different races who all hate each other, and for her first bit of time at University she has a lot of her biases confirmed. Everyone in this book is acting on their contempt toward everyone else, and this is the very first time she's been exposed to others outside of the Gardnarians.
Broadly speaking, does it make sense to judge actions of a few & apply them to everyone in a certain group? Of course not.
Does it make sense for Elloren, who has lived an incredibly sheltered life up to that point, to take her first impressions as an initial confirmation for the prejudices her religion has taught her? Yes, in my opinion, it does.
& I have no clue where this "she doesn't learn her lesson" idea is coming from. Elloren absolutely questions whether the religion she's grown up with is bullshit, begins breaking down deeply ingrained prejudices, and ultimately undergoes a large transformation from who she was at the start of the novel.
Is she perfectly "woke" by the end of the book? Well fuck, no, she's not. But this whole story takes place over the course of what, a year?
Let me just real talk for a moment.
When you are faced with working through the tangled mess of indoctrination you've been drowning in for the majority of your life, it's not a quick & painless process. And it certainly isn't going to come full circle in a short time; you'd be lucky to see significant progress over the course of a few years.
Especially when you're walking that path alone without the support/encouragement of people who love you & accept your evolution. It's a process that I myself have been through, and so it's literally amazing to me that Elloren's character is being so harshly criticized for what I consider to be a very realistic amount of growth.
I'm listing these three quotes because I truly don't think an author who writes a book with the intention of bolstering a racist/homophobic/ableist ideology would have the capacity to write these lines.
Quote 1:"Professor Christian is right, I think, it's time to start paying attention to what my own government is doing..."
Quote 2:"People see what they expect to see [...] through a filter of their own hatred and prejudice."
Quote 3:"I know my grandmother did a lot of terrible things [...] Since coming here I've learned that my people do a lot of really terrible things. But don't you think it's possible for someone to be different from everything you've heard about their kind..."
It's my opinion that a lot of the condemning examples I have seen are taken out of their proper context & slanted to fit a certain perspective.
But here's my thing, I'm not going to spend anymore time in this review trying to convince you that this book is not what it's been accused of being. If the premise of this book interests you at all, I encourage you to go read it and find out for yourself what is true and what is not.
This is a wonderful example of why it's so important to educate and think for yourself. Stances with a foundation in ignorance are poison.
As for my opinion on this book outside of the maelstrom of controversy it's garnered, I didn't really find much here that appealed to me.
The best aspect of The Black Witch is the style of description. Laurie Forest's words are infused with whimsy, laying out gorgeously intricate scenes that were lovely to imagine. The details of places & people really leap off the page in a way you don't often see in debuts.
But unfortunately, those beautiful words were not backed by beautiful world-building. There is a decent variety of races present (fae, lupines, demons, elves, etc.,) but most of them are incredibly derivative of what we have seen countless times before in other Fantasy novels. The world-building element of the story also suffered greatly from the choice in POV.
Elloren's story is told in first person, and I found it quite difficult to connect myself to the world because we spend a ridiculous amount of time trudging through Elloren's squabbles with basically everyone she encounters.
We come to understand some of the details behind the tension between races through Elloren's eyes, but we are largely uninvolved with the degenerating situation outside her bubble of existence. There are a handful of prologues written from different perspectives, but it didn't quite resolve the issue.
There is such an enormous focus on Elloren's petty rivalries & revolving love interests that it really destroyed my ability to relate to her. She has a couple shining moments scattered throughout the story & some of her connections to others develop in a satisfying way, but she is so heavily characterized by her relationship to typical, cliche, YA trope characters that I found it difficult to invest in her as the protagonist.
We've got the Regina George-esque mean girl who is unabashedly awful & hates the MC, the quiet, soft-spoken best friend, the male love interest who oozes testosterone & trails along behind the MC just waiting for the opportunity to corner her with a steamy kiss, and adults that don't listen or understand the MC & love jumping to conclusions. Oh & everyone is drop dead gorgeous with one exception that doesn't really follow through on being an exception by the end of the novel.
Forest's dialogue also edges a bit too close to the line of over dramatic for my tastes. I couldn't help but imagine the characters speaking the same way theater performers sometimes do, with so much exaggeration that the performance becomes more of a caricature.
It seemed like every situation Elloren got into was "wildly scandalous" or "wildly embarrassing" or "wildly confusing" or "wildly inappropriate." I get it, her people are conservative, but Forest may be in a competition with Maas to see how many times she can use the same word in a single book.
As with the world-building, the plot of this story also suffers from a lack of clear focus. Elloren is just existing at the University for most of the time. There's a mini plot near the end of the novel, but it doesn't do much to salvage my attention when almost nothing happens until the 80-90% mark.
Not to mention the novel ends in what I consider to be an abrupt place. It's not even a cliffhanger, it just cuts off with some weird, minor plot developments unresolved.
So it's safe to say I didn't love this novel. I knew going into it that I had no intention of softening my opinion of this book if I disliked it; I wanted to write an honest review to the very best of my ability.
My rating has nothing to do with any racist/homophobic/ableist messages & everything to do with the fact that I just didn't like the book.
I'm glad to have read this so I can finally put to rest my suspicions about the controversy surrounding it.
Thoughts Before Reading:
I have no problem with calling out a book for racist/ableist/sexist/etc. themes. If a book supports any of thee above then it deserves to be rated poorly.
But I am disappointed to see that most ratings are coming from people who haven't read the book.
Deciding not to read a book that may be harmful to you is 100% valid.
Deciding to use GR's review function as a means of drawing attention to a book and warning others about its content is 100% valid.
But I can't support destroying a book's ratings when it hasn't been read by the majority reviewers or quasi-threatening/blacklisting people who express interest in forming their own opinions about content. This book may be an absolute piece of shit but I won't claim to know that for sure until I have read the damn book....more
Alright. So I said I was going to review this book. I posted the infamous "RTC." but I am thinking honestly it might be a wastActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Alright. So I said I was going to review this book. I posted the infamous "RTC." but I am thinking honestly it might be a waste of time to do a full blown review in this case.
I liked this book, but here I am barely a week out & already it's fading from my memory in a big way.
I appreciate what was attempted here. A story about Tiger Lily's history with Peter Pan told through the eyes of Tinker Bell.
It didn't shy away from mixing in darker themes with the Neverland we have all come to know & love, which is actually much closer to the original story of Peter Pan.
But I was more than 75% into the book before I felt myself forming any real commitment to the story. It was just sort of... *shrugs*
I get the distinct feeling that this book's simple writing style was meant to come off a lot more whimsical & charming than it actually did for me, but that could very well be because it harkened back to the original tale a bit too much for my liking.
Spoiler Alert: I didn't enjoy the original.
Anyhow, I'm sure many people will like this more than I did. It's not bad by any means but I don't expect to remember it a year from now, or at this rate even a month from now.
Buddy Read this with Chelsea & Wren! (who I will tag when I get home!)...more
EDIT 07/22/17: It has been brought to my attention that I may not have the proper Science Fiction background to understand what this book's purpose isEDIT 07/22/17: It has been brought to my attention that I may not have the proper Science Fiction background to understand what this book's purpose is. It's been said that it's poking fun at the genre (specifically Heinlein's work) in a way I don't have the context for.
I'm often frustrated when I see others misunderstanding The Magicians trilogy in the same way I seem to have misunderstood Scalzi's work. I'm going to leave my original thoughts/rating posted because they are genuinely how I feel, but I wanted to post this disclaimer so that other readers may take my opinion with a grain of salt!
I've been wanting to pick up something by John Scalzi for a very long time now. He's a pretty big name in Science Fiction & Old Man's War seems to be one of the most highly praised of his series, so I figured that would be a promising place to start.
Unfortunately I just didn't like this book.
There's nothing I found glaringly wrong with it but I can't really tell you anything amazing about it either?
I am disappointed because I expected a premise that involves 75-year-old men and women raging an intergalactic war against a multitude of alien species to be wonderful and hilarious.
I imagined arming bitter, old grandparents, who curse loudly at the dinner table & rail on endlessly about the entitlement of the younger generations, with a renewed sense of purpose & enough high-tech firepower to blast E.T. into the next life.
That isn't what I got here.
To say that my expectations were not met is a bit of an understatement.
This is not a tale of Earth sending waves of savage senior citizens into the stars to defend their home planet. I should've realized what I was in for when I came across the following quote inside the book:
"The universe isn't going to be conquered by legions of geriatrics..."
What I did get from this book was some decent humor. And that's about it.
There is a strange juxtaposition between humor and brutality here that didn't necessarily work for me.
I guess when I read a Science Fiction book, I don't expect the most interesting parts to be the multiple, creative ways in which different alien species inflict death upon their enemies.
This, coupled with a rather boring plot & characters I couldn't feel connected to at all left me with little to praise.
Around the 90% mark I felt an overwhelming apathy to see the book through. Painfully, I did finish it. I may give Scalzi another shot later, but I won't be continuing on with the next book in this series.
Admittedly, I just don't know if Urban Fantasy is a genre I can say I enjoy. In fact that only major Urban Fantasy I have enjoActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Admittedly, I just don't know if Urban Fantasy is a genre I can say I enjoy. In fact that only major Urban Fantasy I have enjoyed is the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, and even that puttered out for me around Shadowfever.
Now, I don't claim to be an expert in the genre, there's still a couple hugely popular authors I haven't explored yet (Jim Butcher, Ilona Andrews, Anne Bishop, etc.)
But generally there's this feeling that comes along with Urban Fantasy and I still haven't decided if I am a fan of it.
It's like a "smell of rain & blood on asphalt" or a "leather jackets & blurry carnival lights" type of vibe. The premise almost always catches my attention, but sometimes the execution doesn't keep me enthralled.
Sometimes I was really invested in where things were going, but sometimes I wasn't. I could've done with a more thorough explanation of the magic in this book, and perhaps a little more show of that magic in action.
I didn't mind the characters, but I didn't adore anyone really. I don't foresee myself thinking much about them outside of the book.
However, as it was pointed out to me by my crustacean-wielding friend, I didn't notice hardly any of the sexism that plagues this genre in Schaefer's work. Which is pretty refreshing.
But it seems that Schaefer's writing just doesn't grip me the way it should. It doesn't dig it's claws in and give me that sinking, dreadful, panicky feeling of anticipation. Instead it holds my hand gently while we stroll through the park, insistently tugging me back toward the path whenever I get distracted.
I do think this book will be a pleasure for Urban Fantasy fans, but it didn't capture me personally.
I have to wonder if perhaps I just enjoy this type of story better in visual form. I was really loving Supernatural before studying inevitably ended my affair with the show about 4 seasons in.
But actually seeing the magic & the monsters & the danger unfold on the television has had a much greater impact on me than any Urban Fantasy series I have read thus far.
So... I believe I will give the genre a couple more chances. Sadly I'm not sure I will be continuing with this particular series.
It's going firmly on the "Maybe" shelf!
♥♥♥ My first buddy read with the crazies over at BB&B! ♥♥♥...more
I have finally reached the end of this long,long journey.
The Bone Witch has an amazing sounding premise, interesting writinActual Rating: 1.5 Stars
I have finally reached the end of this long,long journey.
The Bone Witch has an amazing sounding premise, interesting writing, and semi-diverse characters. Unfortunately, it's a book that sounds better in summary than it proves to be in execution.
Premise:
In the grip of sorrow, Tea accidentally raises her brother from the dead. Her newfound ability sends her into an apprenticeship to become a Bone Witch, or a Dark Asha.
Dark Asha generally serve to protect the kingdom from monsters called daeva, which periodically rise from the dead and wreak havoc. Bone Witches are rare, and so for the sake of the world's stability, Tea must study hard to harness a power within that she never knew she had.
This all sounds pretty promising, but reading through Tea's journey bored me to tears. I had to physically will myself to pick this up and it took me two months to finally finish it.
The story largely consists of walking you through every painstaking detail of Tea's apprenticeship over the course of two years.
I felt like it kept going in loops: "Tea's learning this now. Ok Tea's learning that again, but she's a little more advanced now. Tea has started learning this new thing here."
BUT WHEN IS SHE GONNA RAISE SOME MORE SHIT FROM THE DEAD??
It was just so repetitive & boring. This book is overstuffed with descriptions of Tea's life in training and severely lacking in compelling action scenes.
When we aren't following Tea's training schedule we're listening to her superiors make obscure references to other Kingdoms, to past wars, fallen heroes, and lurking threats.
Name drops everywhere and mentions of events that mostly had no impact on our present story line. I felt lost while wading through these history lessons, and largely apathetic about keeping it all straight.
Writing:
The writing at times was beautiful, but just as often it was convoluted. Run-on sentences that carried on for half the page with poor word choices in some areas.
TOO. MUCH. DESCRIPTION.
If I knew anything about this book, I knew precisely what each character was wearing down to the individual stitches. The clothing and food details were overwhelmingly superfluous.
It got to the point where I just stopped trying to picture it. It was mentally exhausting.
Every so often I would find myself completely captivated by a sentence or two, but there wasn't enough good here to outweigh the bad.
I feel Rin Chupeco has a lot of potential, I could see her writing style morphing into something amazing with a bit more experience.
Characters:
I appreciated that these characters were racially diverse. It's wonderful to see different cultural influences and an array of skin colors in our books.
But personality-wise I found almost every character incredibly dull and predictable.
I wanted desperately to like the relationship that bloomed between Tea and the brother that she raised from the dead, Fox. But a large portion of the interactions between characters felt forced.
I didn't buy Tea's friendships or her rivalries. I wasn't invested in anyone's cause. I don't even have a favorite character. That's how uninteresting they were.
At the end of the day, I feel like this story had potential but that it could use a lot more editing before publication. It's missing some vital pieces of characterization and doesn't deliver a compelling narrative.
***I received a copy of The Bone Witch from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Sourcefire Books and Rin Chupeco for this opportunity.***
”Too many Heaven borne souls find out too late that eternal bliss comes at a price. Their scriptures and verses never illuminaActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
”Too many Heaven borne souls find out too late that eternal bliss comes at a price. Their scriptures and verses never illuminate just how one can be in joyous rapture while their mothers, fathers, children, burn for all eternity.”
This book had no right to disappoint me as much as it did.
It centers around Chet Moran, a man recently out of prison & determined to get his life back on track for the sake of his pregnant girlfriend & unborn child. But circumstances find him forced to navigate through the depths of Purgatory to find the soul of his murderous grandfather & save all that he loves.
You wouldn’t think a story about a man fighting his way through a terrifying rendition of Purgatory could manage to be boring, right? Well. Think again.
While I quite enjoyed the beginning & ending, the middle 60%-70% of this book is an absolute snooze-fest.
Brom presents to us a Purgatory where souls are reformed without their earthly afflictions, where dying for a second time means being absorbed by the invisible winds of chaos, and gods both past & present command, enslave, and kill souls unlucky enough to wander into their domain.
It’s grim & imaginative, and at times a more frightening take on the grey limbo space between Heaven & Hell than my little heart was ready to process.
Brom’s talent for macabre description really speaks to his talent as a gothic fantasy/horror artist. He pens his grotesque imagery in a way that provokes a visceral revulsion in the reader.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much else here that I truly enjoyed.
Once Chet establishes himself & his mission in Purgatory, we’re treated to a small host of side characters & a handful of distracting secondary plots that do next to nothing for me.
On his journey Chet gets wrapped up in so many different aspects of the political situations unfolding in Purgatory, when all I wanted from him was to focus on his primary objective.
There exists a faction of what I imagined to be rough-riding vigilantes called “Green Coats” who police the realm & advocate for the abolition of the gods’ powers. There are weapons shops & saloons & production facilities all set up in makeshift towns where copper is the most valuable currency. There are gods submitting champions to Roman-style gladiator competitions.
As I mention, quite imaginative. But with it being set in Purgatory, the existence of all these different dynamics felt a little... pointless?
I know, I know. What did I expect? Purgatory to just be a roiling mass of blackness? No, I didn’t.
But with everyone already being dead & the continued existence of souls in a manner much the same as you’d expect when they were living, alongside literal gods squabbling for territory & believers, and the only real outcomes being varying levels of suffering...
I just kept thinking ”What is the real point of all this?”
There is a bit of talk about souls “finding themselves” & the concept of souls being damned to Hell & hiding from Lucifer’s hellhounds, but even by the end of this book a soul’s existence in Purgatory doesn’t end up feeling very consequential.
On his journey, Chet is continuously derailed by all these different aspects of Purgatory to the severe detriment of his primary goal. Several times I felt as though Chet had completely forgotten about his girlfriend & baby back in the living world because he actually does that much dicking around.
When Chet finally resumes his original cause, it becomes a mash up of smaller conflict resolutions that I had no investment in as he makes his way toward the final confrontation.
I’m happy to report at least that this book does not conclude with a cop out rainbows & flowers happy ending. Something this consistently terrifying would not have been served well if everyone made it out unscathed, which I can very much appreciate.
There are teases of philosophical discussion that I would’ve died to see more of, and Chet definitely experiences character development. But alas, there just isn’t quite enough here for me to say I enjoyed my reading experience.
But I wish Lost Gods would have dedicated more page space to the finer details of the mythology & tightened up the plot, and maybe spent less energy trying to shove in a ton of shocking scenarios, as it would be much better equipped to capitalize on its interesting premise. ...more
I wanted to LOVE this book, as it was recommended to me by a dear friend of mine. But I don't think we were meant for each other, sadly.
I wan*SIGH*
I wanted to LOVE this book, as it was recommended to me by a dear friend of mine. But I don't think we were meant for each other, sadly.
I want to stress that it wasn't BAD, I just don't think it was memorable. Which is kind of a problem when it comes to fantasy, in my opinion.
The main issue I see is that this is a foundation novel, it spends most of it's time setting up the premise for the novels to come. And it does nothing to disguise that fact. So very little action, lots of introductions.
The second, third, and fourth issues are that I didn't care a whole bunch about most of what was introduced. I have a hard time even summarizing what this novel is about?
There's a magical force called the Medium... and you can sort of harness it? It depends on your lineage... but you can fuck up the power really easily & lock it up? If you worry too much? And there's a King and a squire and an orphan... and??? They wanna stop a fight from happening at a place? And keep the squire from dying? I don't know...
MEH.
I know the author had some religious influences in there, but I'm not a religious person by any means so I wasn't really able to pick up on them. The MC was a Mary Sue in more ways than one.
And there was a moment where the MC's just get a lot of information about their purpose dumped onto them from a VERY random source.
I just...
I think I'm going to give the second book a try before completely writing off this series. Partially because I've heard the series gets better, which can tend to be the case when the first of a series is a foundation novel. So we'll see where it goes! ...more
"Comparison is the thief joy." - Theodore Roosevelt
The above sentiment couldn't be more true, even in the context of comparing books. This comparison"Comparison is the thief joy." - Theodore Roosevelt
The above sentiment couldn't be more true, even in the context of comparing books. This comparison may be a small insult to these novels but for me, Mr. Mercedes read like a less clever cross between Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba & You by Caroline Kepnes.
The dynamic between depressed, retired cop, Bill Hodges & your friendly neighborhood psychopath, Brady Hartsfield, is reminiscent of that between L & Light Yagami. Two intelligent men caught up in a game of cat and mouse, quickly moving pieces back & forth on a chess board of "Who Will Catch Who?" Except their story is not nearly as compelling.
Brady is written similarly to Joe Goldberg. They're both hilarious in their excessive judgement of everyone around them. They're both overwhelmingly fixated on one individual. They both have weird ideas about what it means to be aroused. Except Brady is not nearly as relatable.
It's possible that without having read these books prior to, I would've enjoyed Mr. Mercedes a bit more. But even without those comparisons, this story fell flat for me.
There was never a time while reading that I found myself wondering what would happen. Which is kind of a bummer for a novel pegged as a Mystery/Thriller.
It's as though the two main perspectives were not written distinctly enough to be convincing. Multiple times throughout, one character would decide to do something & the other character would immediately think of that specific thing in the next chapter or two. Why? Because they're just that on the ball?
I'm not buying it. The back & forth between hero & villain is supposed to be powerful and exciting. It's not supposed to read like a script. Instead of building suspense, it comes off as cheesy & predictable.
Not to mention for a murderous mastermind, Brady is kind of an idiot? From the synopsis, we know he stole a Mercedes, drove it into a crowd of folks, and evaded capture by the local authorities. However, none of his subsequent actions actually lead me to believe he's the same guy who committed that crime & got away with it.
He exhibits some capability with computers, but in general he seems too impulsive & hot-headed to be much of a threat. Brady's characterization by association sort of weakens the effect of Hodges' ability as a detective.
On top of that, Hodges does a very poor job convincing me that he truly has the best interest of the public at heart. Much of the time I was hoping he would break down and take the case to active police, but even at the risk of harming others Hodges is determined to occupy the vigilante role.
My absolute least favorite aspect of this novel is the female characters.
Unfortunately, Mr. Mercedes suffers from Women in Refrigerators syndrome. Most of the female characters in this novel are used entirely for the benefit or characterization of the male leads.
Take this quote:
"The woman he slept with after he'd come to a point in his life where he thought he'd never sleep with any woman again. The woman who made him laugh and gave him comfort. [...] The woman who wrinkled her nose at him and mocked his 'yeah.'"
Notice how this paragraph is constructed entirely to explain the role of the female's importance to the male character, and not to explain her individual attributes. She's not the woman with an impeccable sense of humor, she's the woman who made him laugh & gave him comfort.
Without having read the book, this point may not be as apparent. The problem is, I can't tell you a damn thing about this woman outside the context of her male counterpart.
If this wasn't enough, we're then treated to this lovely sentiment:
"Hodges has never even considered the idea that Mr. Mercedes might actually be Mrs. Mercedes. He supposes it's technically possible, and it would make a neat solution for an Agatha Christie novel but this is real life."
Oh wait, I forgot women don't actually kill people in real life? Sure, you can cite statistics about male vs. female crime rates, but does it make sense for a retired cop with years of experience to relegate this possibility strictly to fictional circumstances?
This novel was written in 2014, for God's sake. I realize that Hodges is a 60+ year old man, but seeing as he's the sympathetic hero of the tale I just can't get on board. Neither the novel, nor the characterization would've suffered by omitting this line.
So why 2 stars instead of 1?
It's because this wasn't bad enough to fall that far from grace. It made me chuckle a couple of times & it wasn't written terribly. But I could've gotten the same thrill from turning on the television & flipping to the nearest episode of Law & Order or CSI.
As pointed out by my friend Celeste, "With a show like that, you're giving up an hour of your life. Not 14."
Unfortunately, Mr. Mercedesis just not the intricately woven tale of murder & mystery & originality that I wanted it to be. It's entertaining to an extent, but it doesn't leave a lasting impression. It doesn't cause me to contemplate or question. When the book runs out of pages, it doesn't continue to live in my mind.
With this being my first Stephen King book, I didn't go into it with any real expectations. I know he's hit & miss even with some of his biggest fans, and so I intend to give his other books a chance! Perhaps a horror story next.
Thank you Celeste for buddy reading this with me even though I was an asshole & read it way too fast.
So Theft of Swords is actually a bind up of two novels, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha. It follows the adventures of sworActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
So Theft of Swords is actually a bind up of two novels, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha. It follows the adventures of swords for hire, Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater.
My main struggle with this book is that neither of the stories really delved deep enough for me to invest. Every so often a scene would catch and hold my attention, but it was a bit of a roller coaster on my end.
I feel like I don't know Royce or Hadrian hardly at all. Aside from some good comedic moments between the two, I can't really tell you why they're friends with each other.
I also wasn't incredibly fond of the plot for either story. Avempartha is the superior of the two, but I believe the element lacking in both is complexity.
Theft of Swords is decidedly less elaborate than I prefer my High Fantasy to be. On one hand, it was a nice break to read a lighthearted story, but on the other hand it was tough for me personally to ground myself in this world and feel invested in the outcome.
There are plenty of noticeable fantasy elements in these stories: kings, monsters, wizards, etc., but nothing specifically unique was done with those elements (yet).
Despite my issues with the depth, I believe that the book was well written and the humor was spot on. There were some moments that had me giggling out loud!
Near the very end of Avempartha there were some hints revealed about the overarching plot of this series, and right here is where it snagged my attention.
This is a debut fantasy novel, and also was originally self published. Knowing both of those things, I think Sullivan should be incredibly proud of producing this book. It suffers from the same pitfalls that a lot of debut novels do, it's a little bit "paint-by-numbers" if you will. But there is no denying the potential here.
I've been told by many that this story is one that starts out simple and builds up to a magnificent ending, and so I am excited to continue on with the series and see where it will go!...more
For a series that had so much potential in it's first book, I'm definitely saddened by it's second and concluding novels. Rea**spoiler alert** Sigh...
For a series that had so much potential in it's first book, I'm definitely saddened by it's second and concluding novels. Really, I don't know why this series wasn't relegated to one book. There is no reason for it to be a trilogy. At the very least, two installments would've been plenty.
ANYHOW, I had many problems here.
The plot was boring. The characterization (especially of our villains) was lacking. The world building was almost nonexistent. In particular though, there were a few things that just rubbed me the wrong way.
This magic system - it's completely intriguing and yet it's almost entirely unexplored? At the end of the second novel, we find out that a magician can actually bond to more than one type of magic material. Apparently, our young Ceony is the only one who's left with the knowledge of this... because no way any other magician before her could have ever figured it out? I mean overall it was a pretty simple process, you can't tell me that another magician wouldn't have figured this out. And it just seemed incredibly convenient to me that Ceony can just flick a switch and have control over whatever material she wanted.
The villains - Lira was by far the most compelling villain, but after the first book she just falls out of relevancy. Graff and Saraj were boring as hell, and I still have no idea WHY they wanted to be able to bond to more than one material.. In fact I also have no idea why the Excisioners were "bad" either. Like what was their motive? Graff's motive? Saraj's motive? Was Graff in love with Lira? Was it one sided or did she return the affection? Why did Lira become an Excisioner?
The world - This series is set in the 1900s, but I never really made the connection there because of how underdeveloped the world building was. We have Ceony, 19, pining after Emery, 30, and I suppose that sort of age gap is supposed to be excused by the time period? I'm not saying 11 year gaps never work out, but it's just really unusual to find two people of those ages who are in it for good reasons. There were a couple times where Ceony's inner monologue sort of grossed me out...from thinking about "a woman's proper attire" to literally feeling like she needed to cook for every male character it just felt...blah? I know that this behavior is completely normal for the time period, but what bothered me was that this story could have been set in ANY time period and worked out exactly the same way. The setting was completely inconsequential to the core aspects of the story. It felt like the author needed to place a female main character into a setting where she was an anomaly in order to convince readers she is special. It just...didn't work for me.
Ceony - Holy static characters Batman. At 19, it was reasonable for her to go gallivanting off into danger without considering the consequences of her actions. When she did the same shit again in The Glass Magician, and then AGAIN TWO YEARS LATER in The Master Magician, I was worn out by her idiocy. Like, people are dying because you refuse to use a bit of common sense and maybe not go rushing into peril head first? None of the other main characters really made any strides in development either, and the side characters were forgettable on a good day. They existed for plot progression and nothing more.
I could go on but I think I hit the major points of contention. This series just lacked the depth and development for me to take it seriously. Great magic system here, but it wasn't utilized. Very disappointing indeed....more
Upon glimpsing something outside, people are driven into a murderous rage that usually ends with the taActual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Don't open your eyes.
Upon glimpsing something outside, people are driven into a murderous rage that usually ends with the taking of their own lives. Mallory's story is told in two pieces.
Four years ago, pregnant & alone, Mallory strikes out toward a group safe house. Now, she and her two children begin a blind, treacherous journey down the river, away from that house & toward a only a vague hope of security.
This book struck me as a combination between The Happening and The Walking Dead.No, there aren't zombies, but there is a big focus on the shifting group dynamics between survivors once society has reached the "post-apocalyptic" stage.
What Worked:
The writing style. The story is told in brief sentences that very effectively communicate an eerie & desperate atmosphere.
The imagery. Picturing yourself, surrounded by people who may or may not be trying to kill you, and without the ability to simply walk outside without wearing a blind fold? The idea that an unknown number of the "things" driving everyone crazy may be out there, close to you, watching you when you can't see where you're going or what you're doing? That's some creepy shit.
What Didn't Work:
The plot. I just couldn't get fully on board with Mallory's past, nor her present. Her time at the safe house didn't capture my attention; it feels more like she is just going through the motions of existing in a horror scenario. Mallory's trek down the river with her two children is distinctly more interesting, but only makes up a small part of the actual story.
The ending for Mallory's past came about way too quickly by comparison to the rest of the novel. It's a tangle of events happening in such rapid succession that it ends up feeling contrived & unrealistic.
The horror. While the imagery & writing provided support on the horror front, the actual development of the story just wasn't that scary. The characters fell into tired, tropey categories, and thus became predictable. Predictability is the death of an interesting horror story.
The endgame. The most disappointing aspect of this novel is that THERE ARE NO ANSWERS. I sense that the reader's imagination is meant to fill in the blanks & create individual nightmarish situations, but in this instance it comes off as lazy. The small twist at the end of the novel is satisfying in its own right, but it left me feeling as though there was another tale here that would've been more interesting to tell.
All in all, this is just a bit too derivative of everything we've seen before in the Horror genre. It's not scary enough to have an impact, and it's not original enough to overcome it's flaws.
A large part of me wants to give this book a 1 star, but that part of me would be denying that I WAS interested enough just to see how this damn serieA large part of me wants to give this book a 1 star, but that part of me would be denying that I WAS interested enough just to see how this damn series finally ends, so I'll settle with two stars.
Man there was just so much wrong with these books but I think my main issue was that this was a love (and I use this word lightly) story with a dash of dystopian thrown in just to keep the plot moving. The plot was so pathetic I was almost in tears from laughing. The ending took 2.5 milliseconds to wrap itself up.
Pages upon pages of metaphors and similes that were either too convoluded to remain meaningful, or they were so juvenile that I felt embarrassed reading them. I also take MAJOR ISSUE with one particular point in our disaster of a love triangle. MAJOR ISSUE. I don't even know why a character like this asshole needs to exist, but as it was so eloquently put but another character, he is "a bland, utterly replaceable automaton." And if you've made it this far I think you all know just who I am speaking of.
I'm just glad this series is over. It was fun in parts, but there were flaws left, right, and center and it was just too much for me to seriously recommend to anyone....more
**spoiler alert** I really wanted to like this series more than I did. I didn't hate it. I think that despite its strong points, its weak points reall**spoiler alert** I really wanted to like this series more than I did. I didn't hate it. I think that despite its strong points, its weak points really affected my rating. I wanna say that overall I really appreciated the heavy Russian influence on this story, and I really liked the Grisha Magic system.
As for this installment, I once again feel as though Nikolai and the Darkling (maybe Baghra also) carried the majority of my interest. I loved the Darkling's history, I liked the show of religious influence that came out in Tolya and Temar, but as a whole I found myself largely uninvested in the fate of these characters?
I also felt very disappointed by the ending - Mal should have died, in my opinion. I just hate how that fucking resurrection loophole brought him back. I have disliked Mal since the beginning, and I feel like allowing Alina to live a happily ever after with him is really contradictory to all that self discovery she did in the previous installments.
It's like "Oh just kidding forget all that stuff I said Mal and I can figure it out, I'm sure." Alina, Mal is awful please stop.
It's nice that they opened an orphanage, I suppose. But I just feel everything came together too nicely. It's not a realistic representation of the devastation, and that sometimes messes with my suspension of disbelief.
And in general I was pretty bored with the pursuit of the firebird. I dunno, it just wasn't super compelling and I threw up in my mouth a little bit every time the focus shifted to Mal & Alina's relationship.
I wish I could say I enjoyed this more, and I would definitely recommend it for someone less picky than myself. It could also have to do with the fact that my expectations for the series were higher, but regardless I'm stoked to begin Six of Crows soon!...more
The reason I am giving this book a 2 stars is because I expected so much more from both this book & this series overall and I am not very satisfieThe reason I am giving this book a 2 stars is because I expected so much more from both this book & this series overall and I am not very satisfied with the development or the ending. Schwab had so much potential going into this series, but ultimately I find myself very let down.
I honestly don't know how to review this book without spoilers and so from this point on there will be unmarked spoilers for the entire series.
***SPOILER ALERT TURN BACK NOW***
I feel as though this final installment was very disjointed.
We've got:
✔Perspectives tossed in here and there that ultimately amount to nothing. ✔Unnecessary emphasis on characters who haven't mattered at all in the first and second books. ✔A plot that takes almost 400 pages to really get going. ✔Questions raised without answers given. ✔A villain who feels neither scary, nor provides a real reason for his being a villain.
So the story begins right where A Gathering of Shadows leaves off. Lila runs off to save Kell and immediately kills Ojka. What was the purpose of creating this neat character, giving us a glimpse of her background, just to kill her off immediately? It felt rather pointless??
Then we spend the next almost 400 pages listening to Kell brood, Alucard jab at Kell while he broods, Rhy float around from room to room (after he avoids death again), and being incessantly reminded that Lila is a cool chick.
If you guys don't already know, Kell and I don't get along. I don't sympathize with his plight, and I find him unnecessarily mopey in most of his scenes (especially in the second book).
I don't mind Alucard, but I find his character to be a bit static. Even by the end of this book, he doesn't grow into anything new and he doesn't really participate in the action scenes in a meaningful way. His sole existence in this story is to create drama for Kell, Rhy, and Lila.
Rhy, though not one of my favorite characters, undeniably experiences the most growth of the four over the course of the book. He evolves his perspective on being given a second chance at life, and ultimately comes to understand what it means to be king. SO bravo I guess on that front?
Lila... Ugh. I want to like Lila so much but she's basically the same Lila we met on the streets in Grey London all those pages back.
Lila's character on her own doesn't bother me as much as the way the Schwab handles telling us about her. I got weary of reading phrases like "thief-soft footsteps" and "she was a mystery" used to describe her. Like... I get it. She's interesting & capable. You don't need to keep reminding me.
Outside of these characters, we get chapters devoted to random one-time characters that don't really add up to anything, and we get chapters about King Maxim & Queen Emira & Tieren that don't really add up to anything.
Throwing in perspectives like Nasi, a little girl from White London who admired Ojka, did absolutely nothing for the plot or the world building. This character appears two times, around page 140 and around page 520, but her existence bears no consequence on the story.
Using this character to explain more about Ojka's background could have worked, but since ultimately Ojka didn't end up mattering either it amounted to nothing more than a waste of time.
Adding perspectives like Ned Tuttle & King George IV was so incredibly boring, since once again nothing of consequence happens in Grey London while this plot unfolds.
Writing about Maxim and Emira was too little, too late for me. For the first two books, we've known these two to be side characters. This sudden shift to semi-main character status was jolting.
We only scratched the surfaces of the King's and Queen's lives, and there simply wasn't enough there for me to connect to. I felt completely unattached to them, so their eventual deaths were reduced to plot devices for Rhy's development instead of being meaningful on their own.
After a huge stretch of monotony, the plot finally gets itself going when the crew arrives at the floating black market. Here is where I started to become interested in where the story would go. The Inheritor was an interesting solution even if it's existence felt very tailored for defeating Osaron.
For the last 200 pages I was engaged, but pretty disappointed that the resolution of the plot played out exactly the way it was supposed to. Hell, it played out better than it was supposed to really, seeing as Holland survived to see the plan through to completion.
No twists. No surprises. Our four main characters all survive. The end.
Now I'm left wondering:
What about Kell's past? Sure he decided he was better off not knowing about his true parents, but what about me as the reader? Resolving this question with Kell deciding he doesn't need the information was lazy on part of the author.
What about Lila? Where did she come from? How did an Antari originate in Grey London? How did she lose her eye, and why? No, we are too busy being reassured that Lila is sly and mischievous and special to worry about her past, I suppose.
How did the original tokens get into the different Londons? Can we know a little more history so that these worlds don't all feel like cardboard?
What exactly caused Osaron to manifest into Vitari? Shouldn't we be looking for a solution to this problem since this is the second time it's happened? Maybe a way to eliminate the threat that Black London poses by just existing as a magical black hole that spits out perilous villains every so often?
And that brings me to Osaron himself. He just doesn't scare me.
When I read A Darker Shade of Magic, for the first 100 or so pages I was totally and completely enticed by the threat that Osaron presented. His unwanted presence felt menacing and dangerous in Red London and I was intrigued.
But by A Conjuring of Light, he's still... just possessing people? Sure, they're chanting some creepy shit. Sure, he's killed a couple unimportant side characters.
But... Is that all you got?
Oh, and he creates an obsidian replica of the palace for... posturing? Intimidation?
Once all the citizens of Red London are asleep, he's back to being a temperamental, smoke bitch until he's defeated at the end, which wraps up nicely and neatly and quickly in the last 50 or so pages of the book.
I'm not impressed by Osaron.
All three of these books suffer severely from pacing issues, on both a microcosmic and macrocosmic scale. Each book begins with a slow to medium pace, then concludes in a rapid whirlwind of events which is jarring to say the least.
The series takes place over the course of what, a couple months? Maybe 4? Sometimes this can work, but in this case I don't feel it did.
I wish Lila had been gone for two years instead of two months. It would've made much more sense for her to come back after two years of studying with Alucard to feel confident enough to enter the Essen Tasch.
It would've given all of these characters time to grow into people I cared about.
Now, perhaps you noticed I have been neglecting to mention Holland.
That's because Holland was undoubtedly the star of the show.
Holland's moments were such a treat for me. I was immediately entranced by him, and I drank in every one of his stories that Schwab graced us with.
We get his backstory. We understand his motivations. We glimpse the events that have shaped him, hardened him, softened him. Holland's development causes the others' to pale by comparison.
He possessed a depth I could sink my claws into. His death in the Silver Woods was beautifully tragic, and wonderfully appropriate. I just wanted to wrap him in my arms and die with him.
If this series had been about Holland, I would likely be giving it 5 stars right now.
Aside from Holland, Schwab's writing once again is absolutely stunning. This is an author who always impresses me with her writing style. She is whimsical in her descriptions, unique in how she conveys emotion to her readers. I am truly a fan of reading her words.
But this series just did not deliver for me. I craved more intensity. I needed more unpredictability. I wanted meaningful characters that danced their way into my heart & a rich world that beckoned me to keep turning the pages.
What I found here was a superb concept with a less-than-superb execution....more
So I'm a little bit torn on how harshly I should judge this book. I realize it's early fantasy, and so I understand it's not going to compare to someSo I'm a little bit torn on how harshly I should judge this book. I realize it's early fantasy, and so I understand it's not going to compare to some of the newer fantasy books I've read. But at the same time, masterpieces like Lord of the Rings were written and published before this... So...
I wanted to rate this a 3 stars, but the further I got into it, the more I realized I would be lying if I rated it anything above a 2 stars.
My main issue is that I was bored for at least 80% of this book, and so I can't in all good conscience rate it higher.
This story has all the usual fantasy elements. War torn lands. Magical races. Prophecy. Chosen One.
That in itself is not a criticism. These elements are all very expected when I pick up a high fantasy novel. But there was nothing new here.
Nothing surprised me. No new twists. There were one or two interesting revelations, but no "Oh my god!" moments. When there are a laundry list of expected tropes and themes all crammed together into a novel, I need there to also be a few stand out features that compel me to care.
The writing style was also incredibly rudimentary. Some of the dialogue was... weird to say the least. Take this example:
"I don't care if we listen to the words of a pox-ridden whore whose brain is riddled with the diseases of her trade!"
Yea that's not an awkward thing to scream out in a perfectly serious situation...
I'm very confused by the author's choice to write in third person omniscient perspective for the entirety of this novel. More than once, situations were set up in one character's mind and immediately addressed in another character's mind. It went sort of like this:
Character 1: -does a risky thing- Character 2: "Ah yes that was precisely the only acceptable thing that could've happened in this situation."
It felt cheesy, and like the author desperately wanted me to believe her characterization by confirming it with her other characters. And it needed to be laid out plainly, just to be sure we didn't miss it.
There were only two characters I genuinely connected with. Otherwise this book is teeming with pompous assholes. I like morally gray characters, but these people don't seem redeemable. It's just the first installment, so I'll try to withhold judgment, but I didn't enjoy reading about most of them.
Overall, this wasn't my kind of story. It was too bland, and it took me TWO MONTHS to finally slog through it.
Buddy read this with the boos, Sarah and Celeste! Thank you guys for patiently waiting for me to finish a whole month after you both did!...more
I think it's an understatement to say I am disappointed.
The premise of this sounded pretty neat. Skinshifting? An International motorcycle race? A JI think it's an understatement to say I am disappointed.
The premise of this sounded pretty neat. Skinshifting? An International motorcycle race? A Jewish girl's sole purpose to assassinate Fuhrer Hitler?
That sounds badass.
Honestly though, I was really bored for an overwhelming majority of this book. I kept hoping that with a little patience this story would take off, but for me it just didn't.
Literally the only interesting sections in the story dealt with the main character's past. Yael has a tattoo of wolves on her arm, one for each person she's lost under the brutal rule of Adolf Hitler. Learning about these characters was heartfelt, and I did enjoy those bits.
Between those little glimpses of her past we have a lot of internal monologue about personal identity, which was relevant but boring. Mandatory interaction with hot guy character/love interest. And overall a very uneventful race to the finish line.
I am not someone who often predicts endings or twists. I'm bad at it. Plus, I think it's easy to get caught up in guessing what will happen when you should just enjoy the story and see where it goes. However, I saw this ending coming a mile away because there was really nowhere else for it to go. When I am able to guess one of the only twists in this story without even a moment of concentrated effort, that is a problem.
I'm giving it a 2 stars because the premise was interesting, and there were some small parts I actively enjoyed. Overall though, not my cup of tea.
Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~
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Books:
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