My problems with this book: 1. Patroclus, the main character, had very little personality or ahow do you make the iliad boring
how is that even possible
My problems with this book: 1. Patroclus, the main character, had very little personality or autonomy. This is actually in contrast to every other version I've read/encountered which generally has him having an actual life.
2. Romance. I was a very big Patroclus/Achilles person coming into this book. But you really can't root for a romance if one of them is completely passive. They barely even talk to each other in this book. There are whole chapters where they don't have a single meaningful conversation and the whole book is about them.
3. The role of women. Look, I know it was a bad time to be a woman. But, this book makes the choice to make Achilles and Patroclus especially seem more virtuous than I think their actions allow especially in regards to how they treated the women in their lived. In The Iliad, Achilles is a dick. Once you accept that, then you can read the nuanced story. But this book takes the most charitable approach towards him at every turn and it cannot be solely blamed on Patroclus's narration. It's a disservice to the overlooked women in this book; Circe succeeds here where SoA fails.
4. The writing. 10 year old's should not have the same narration or dialogue as 20 year old's. There was no progression in the writing style to mark the passage of time. The pacing was so off.
The overarching plot was fine but the credit to that could hardly go to Miller. Such a letdown....more
Shadow and Bone mixed with A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Wildly predictable and so formulaic to the other new popular YA fantasy-romances. The sex sceneShadow and Bone mixed with A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Wildly predictable and so formulaic to the other new popular YA fantasy-romances. The sex scenes were infinitely less cringey than Sarah J Maas's though which was a plus.
(view spoiler)[ OKAY. YA FANTASY ROMANCE HAS A PROBLEM. When your beau turns out to be your enemy (even if it turns out he isn't the "real" enemy or he's actually the good guy etc.), YOU. SHOULD. FEEL. BETRAYED. Why does Poppy have sex with him after? Why does she change her mind so quickly? Super unrealistic and also lowkey problematic especially since sex by deception is considered rape sometimes and at the very least fraud and is just generally super unethical. (hide spoiler)]...more
The concept of Cinderella is Dead is interesting. Almost like mixing the Chemical Gardens Series (Wither, Fever, Sever etc.) with the Red Queen.
BasicThe concept of Cinderella is Dead is interesting. Almost like mixing the Chemical Gardens Series (Wither, Fever, Sever etc.) with the Red Queen.
Basically starting at 16, girls are forced to attend a ball where they will be married off (or they will be killed/suffer consequences if they can't find a husband by their 3rd ball). The main character is gay, doesn't want to be married off, so she manages to escape and finds an ally. And from there it's a pretty basic let's kill the king story.
There's just way too much instalove for this story to be compelling. And it's also very repetitive with the "mystery" of what happened to the original Cinderella. But points for diversity and actually having a unique fairytale retelling....more
Odessa is a necromancer, a magic ability common to all those with blue eyes that allows them Full review is available here at my blog Reading Recluses
Odessa is a necromancer, a magic ability common to all those with blue eyes that allows them to raise the dead. The dead however come with a catch: If anyone looks under their shroud, the dead transforms into Shades, monsters with no recollection of their life. There’s someone purposefully creating Shades to attack the city, and it’s up to Odessa to stop them.
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Reign of the Fallen had the kind of diversity that I expect from all novels, especially fantasy novels. Odessa was described as having dark brown skin! A main character in a fantasy novel who isn’t white. My mind is blown.
The characters were great in general.
Rating: 70/100 Age: 14 & up Warnings: sex, grief, addiction
The author provided me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest reviA longer version of this review is available here at my blog Reading Recluses
The author provided me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not in any way affect my review.
Sandy Koufax had an imaginary friend, Peter, for far longer than is normal. When she starts seeing reminiscents of Peter (in the form of Mick, her neighbour) and other weird coincidences in her life, Sandy must reconsider just how imaginary Peter is.
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Guarded Wish is mostly a romance novel between Sandy and Mick/Peter. Sandy is such a great protagonist with a very sympathetic story. I really enjoyed reading about her struggles as a foster child and I wished the book focused more on her past than on her romance.
All the characters on their own were well developed and had their separate plots, which was refreshing to see in a YA fantasy-romance. Sandy was strong and powerful in her own right.
Guarded Wish is an interesting fantasy-romance novel with a solid protagonist. I rate it two stars because I felt the romance detracted from the plot. I recommend for fans of Lauren Kate’s Fallen and The House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast.
Rating: 40/100 Age: 14 & up Warnings: mild violence, mild sexual content
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DEC 2020 UPDATE: Shruthi, indeed, did cringe upon remembering this book in a few yeFor more reviews like this one, check out my blog, Reading Recluses
DEC 2020 UPDATE: Shruthi, indeed, did cringe upon remembering this book in a few years. Bravo to 2017 Shruthi for predicting that one. _______ July 2017 Okay so this is going to be a long review. Get comfortable everyone. There might be some mild spoilers, but nothing that would be surprising if you read the first 2 books.
So Feyre. Feyre was awesome in the first 200 pages. The scenes in the Spring Court were really interesting and Feyre's slytherin side was awesome. Ruthless Feyre when she's screwing everyone over is basically who I aspire to be in life. After she left Spring Court and reunited with Rhysand the book just got less interesting. The war scenes bored me and the ending was lackluster.
Tamlin as a character did undergo a lot of character development and we finally got some closure with him. Lucien's storyline was also expanded upon. But there were so many damn characters in this book that most of them did not get enough time to properly deal with their personal crises.
Another thing I did not like about this book was (view spoiler)[ how cutesy and convenient the ending was. This was supposed to be a war. With risk. And yet very few people actually die/get injured. Take a lesson from J. K. Rowling and kill some people off. God knows you have a ton of characters anyways. (hide spoiler)]
Also have to say Mor's declaration (view spoiler)[ she's lesbian?? and in the closet for a few millenia? and Azriel doesn't know? I support her, of course, but leading someone on for thousands of years is not cool. Also I don't know why but Mor coming out felt really similar to Nico (from Percy Jackson) coming out. Like they both of the coming out scenes felt forced like the author was trying to be more inclusive for the sake of being inclusive. (hide spoiler)]
Also can we talk about the really poorly written sex scenes. How much innuendo can you use in one paragraph???
I cannot deal with 3 more books. This was a 700 (!!) page book. That's crazy long. We do not need more books. There is no conflict, at least not enough conflict to be worthy of 3 more books. This is literally the same thing that happened with Cassandra Clare and The Mortal Instruments series. The author realizes she's getting rich, runs out of ideas for new stories, and decides to extend a perfectly good trilogy. Maybe that's kinda harsh, but I absolutely can not imagine the need for anymore books in this series.
While this is a fairly negative review (cause there were a lot of flaws especially compared to ACOMAF), it wasn't bad. I just had high expectations after ACOMAF. It was just a disappointing and ultimately forgettable book. I enjoyed this book for five minutes after I read it but the more I thought about the more flaws I found. So yeah this is a good YA fantasy romance book, maybe even a great one. But I wouldn't call this a great book. This is definitely one of those books that I will cringe upon in a few years (like The Selection or House of Night) and it will not grow with me like Harry Potter did.
Rating: 85/100 Age: 14 & up Warnings: cringey sex scenes ...more
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A mediocre, ultimately forgettable retelling of sleeping beauty. It was way too lonFor more reviews like this one, check out my blog, Reading Recluses
A mediocre, ultimately forgettable retelling of sleeping beauty. It was way too long, repetitive, and predictable. The idea of 'story' cursing people and forcing them to follow a certain plot could've been interesting if only the characters weren't quite so bland. Also Rose and Griff were so freaking annoying and had as much personality as a vegan omelette with no vegetables or fruit in it. Rating: 65/100 Age: 13& up Warnings: sexual assault, really repetitive scenes, boring characters Pages: ≈ 400 ...more
This is a total guilty pleasure book. Filled with indulgent fae courts, special snowflake characters and stupidly convoluted family trees, one wouldn'This is a total guilty pleasure book. Filled with indulgent fae courts, special snowflake characters and stupidly convoluted family trees, one wouldn't expect Seven Black Diamonds to be a good book. But somehow everything worked really well and I loved how intricate the world was. I found the beginning too slow. I also wish Lily was less perfect (although she's fae so it makes sense).
Cassandra Clare needs to stop writing Shadowhunter books. Honestly, it's just lazy because it means she doesn't have to create a new setting and she cCassandra Clare needs to stop writing Shadowhunter books. Honestly, it's just lazy because it means she doesn't have to create a new setting and she can reuse old characters. Also I love all the characters from the previous series but they should NOT have showed up so frequently in this book. Cassandra knows that the main reason people are reading this is because of her previous series but those not mean she can just add in these stupid plot twists. (view spoiler)[ Christopher fucking Herondale? The random Tessa mentions. Jace and Isabelle being the first crushes for Emma and Julian respectively. Magnus Bane's random scenes. (hide spoiler)]
Quite frankly there were so many flaws in this book. I loved it anyways cause I'm a sucker for romance, fantasy and Jem Carstairs. I loved Julian, and found him to be a very interesting and mature character. I loved all the Blackthorn children (especially Tiberius). Mark was so sad and he made me so sad. I didn't really like Emma, Cristina and Diego (unpopular opinion, I know). Cristina felt too perfect. Her backstory was lame and she had very little character development.
This book was in a few ways superior to her other Shadowhunter series. It felt a lot more mature than the other books, and dealt with mental illnesses. Parabatai were focused on, which was interesting at first but later annoying. The interactions between the Blackthorn children was realistic and adorable. The writing was also more sophisticated.
Lady Midnight had a really weird pacing. The first 100 pages were slow with random bursts of information. This book could've easily have been 200 pages shorter if the useless repetitive parts were taken out. Once Mark's subplot came into play, the plot got interesting.(Oh and I ship (view spoiler)[Kieran/Mark so much. When Mark was about to be whipped my heart broke. (hide spoiler)]) I'd be interested in knowing more about the faeries and Helen. Around the 400th page, the mystery actually got interesting and the plot came together. The ending was interesting, to say the least.
In conclusion, a decent read with a few interesting characters and a few breathtaking scenes and plot twists.
Rating: 79/100 Age: 13 & up Warnings: mental illness, death, bad parenting, sex...more
This was a roller coaster of a book. Heartless is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland or rather the backstory behind the Queen of Hearts and her court.This was a roller coaster of a book. Heartless is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland or rather the backstory behind the Queen of Hearts and her court.
This book was almost perfect except for the fact that I hated the main character Cath. I could write symphonies about how perfect Jest is (view spoiler)[ was. MY HEART CAN'T TAKE THIS KIND OF CHARACTER DEATH (hide spoiler)] and this book had the perfect balance of fairytale influence. And while Marissa Meyer's writing has really improved since the Lunar Chronicles one thing that didn't change is how she writes characters.
All of Meyer's main characters are written as these perfect little dainty girls who always have a boy to save them. Now before you attack me, yes I know Cinder and Scarlett were both badass but even they were reduced to damsels in distress. The main character of this book, Cath Pinkerton (I know, stupid name) was weak and stupid. And also insanely pretty as was informed to us every other page. Oh and let's not forget that she's "not like other girls". Honestly the only thing I liked about her was that she was a baker (and I loved the detailed descriptions of food) but she only ever stood up for herself twice in this incredibly long book.
If Cath wasn't in this book, Heartless would be perfect. The plot ties together so well and everything just makes sense. I loved the ending (although it was a tad rushed) and the setting was perfectly whimsical. Jest (the joker of the court) was great, and all the side characters added something to the story.
Rating: 92/100 Age: 12 & up Warnings: death, constant mentions of dessert (be sure to have food with you while reading) ...more
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DEC 2020 UPDATE: This just isn't a good book. I can't believe I liked it but hey I For more reviews like this one, check out my blog, Reading Recluses
DEC 2020 UPDATE: This just isn't a good book. I can't believe I liked it but hey I was young(er). I'm leaving my original review with the caveat I highly disagree with it now. Also the sex scenes were terribly written, this is more NA than YA and good god someone teach Maas how to do character development instead of resorting character assassination. ________
Okay this book was evil and played on my emotions so much. This is now one of my favourite books and it was so much better than the first book. There are a few allusions to it being a retelling of Hades and Persephone.
This book is 600 pages of awsomeness.
Rhysand- he actually is on my list of favourite characters. Because he is sweet, hot, kind, smart, loyal AND a feminist. He always listened to Feyre and accepted her choices. He was absolutely perfect. (view spoiler)[ When it turned out he was Feyre's mate, I actually started squealing. IT's perfect (hide spoiler)]
Feyre- she grew as a character and I really enjoyed seeing her gain a sense of self worth.
Tamlin- well... let's not go there.
Lucien- I can't blame him much for his inaction. (view spoiler)[Plus I'm super interested to see him with Elaine in the next book (hide spoiler)]
Cassian-He's all charm. And he's a fabulous friend. Azriel- Quiet and sweet, I adored him. Mor- She's exactly what Feyre needed to remake herself. Amren- I actually loved the relationship she had with Feyre.
Rating= 90/100 Warnings= Graphic Sex Scenes, Tamlin, allusions to rape, jealousy, lies, murder, mystique, betrayal, stupidity, language Age= 16 & up (due to the sex scenes mainly. If it's skipped over then 14+)...more
This book was so good, especially compared to the books I've been reading lately (I'm looking at you "99 Days". It was rich with Hindu mythology, a stThis book was so good, especially compared to the books I've been reading lately (I'm looking at you "99 Days". It was rich with Hindu mythology, a strong plot and interesting characters. Vaguely reminiscent of Fallen by Lauren Kate but with no love triangles.
Rating: 96/100 Age: 12 & up Warnings: Talking Horse, harems, bad parenting, horoscopes...more
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DEC 2020 UPDATE: This is the book that ruined Chaol and for that itself, it deserveFor more reviews like this one, check out my blog, Reading Recluses
DEC 2020 UPDATE: This is the book that ruined Chaol and for that itself, it deserves 1 star. I don't care what 2017 me said, she was an idiot. ___ Where do I start with this. I have so many feelings. There was a lot going on here.
So the pros. 1. Manon- She is the only reason this book has 5 stars. In HoF, her plotline bored me. But wow, she was such an intriguing character and her plotline had so much depth to it. Her POV actually had some interesting insights on morality.
2. Lysandra- Finally, female relationships!! For some reason I've noticed Maas doesn't write a lot of healthy female relationships. There was Nehemia in ToG, but that's all I can recall. Even in ACOTAR there is maybe 2-4 female friendships across the series. There are of course minor character friendships but that doesn't really count. So yeah, Lysandra and Aelin's interactions was great. Lysandra's the only one who brought out the beloved Celaena "I'm a badass assassin princess" Sardothien part of Aelin.
3. Plot- I have hopes for the plot. This could go in a very interesting direction.
Cons 1. Chaol (?) - Absolutely not. Chaol is my baby, how dare you Maas ruin his character to further along Aelin and Rowan's cheesy little romance. Chaol is a general. He is a soldier. He didn't do anything bad enough in the past books to deserve this. Chaol is the only character who challenges Aelin. You can't just crush his spirit to make Rowan seem cooler. Chaol might not be immortal but at least he has personality. I reject every scene involving Chaol in this book.
2. Rowan- How boring. Rowan was so much more interesting when he hated Aelin, or when they had a platonic relationship. Can Aelin have one platonic male friendship (Aedion doesn't count, they're cousins). Also can we acknowledge that Ronan is old. Imagine dating someone 10 x older than your grandfather for a second. Yeah, gross. I do not ship Rowaelin or whatever it's called. It's nauseatingly cheesy.
3. Aelin- From Celaena, the assassin to Celaena/Aelin, the vengeful to Aelin, the faerie princess, this character has gone through a lot of character growth. But perhaps, all of this character growth has not been positive.
4. Diversity- There is very little diversity in this book/series and I get that Maas has been trying to change that (I think?). But anyways this is a very white book with very straight characters. Nothing unusual but in 2017 (and in a fantasy land) I expect more.
Rating: 87 Age: 13 & up Warnings: Ronan/Aelin, butchering of characters ...more
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