(Realistic rating: uggghhhhhh I mean I kept reading and I want to know how this shit ends so I GUESS that earns it 3 stars?? But truly the vibes are s(Realistic rating: uggghhhhhh I mean I kept reading and I want to know how this shit ends so I GUESS that earns it 3 stars?? But truly the vibes are so much closer to a 2 and I simply would not recommend this shit to anyone, ha. I'm being generous rounding up but I do feel very grumpy about it :"))
I simply cannot comprehend how someone can sustain such an insufferable book with such unbearable characters over such an extended period of time?? I truly could barely tell you a single thing that happens in this book -- like, there's Libby back in time and she sure did some things, and Nico and Tristan finding and communicating with her, and Gideon and Parisa's thing with Dalton, and ... that's straight up literally it? Like, what the fuck else happened? Hundreds of pages of people just ... thinking about things, and having realizations and not having realizations, and simply not actually doing anything about any of the thoughts that took way too long to cross their minds. HOW IS THIS A BOOK? HOW IS THIS A SERIES? NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS! And normally I would forgive an introspective plot-light story if a single person in it were at all likable or if the relationships were at all compelling, and -- you know, the book doesn't totally fail on those fronts? Libby's story is interesting, even as her refusal to take full agency for her actions is increasingly irritating, and despite myself I did feel feelings about Gideon and Nico, and I did enjoy how irritated with each other Nico and Tristan were by working together -- but oh my god Parisa and Callum and Reina all drove me up a fucking wall because NONE OF THEM DID ANYTHING and all of them just, like, said things about themselves and life and the human condition and none of it meant anything?? I can't get a decent handle on any of their characters except that Callum is depressed and Reina doesn't care about anything and Parisa is perfect, apparently, and it's completely infuriating.
Having said all of that I WILL read the last book because I DO want to know how it ends and I'm mad about it!! Fuck all these people, why do I need to know what happens to their stupid selves!!!...more
This was a perfectly fine book -- interesting ideas and a lot of threads of engaging plot elements, but written in a way that, while decently readableThis was a perfectly fine book -- interesting ideas and a lot of threads of engaging plot elements, but written in a way that, while decently readable, was simply not terribly engaging. A lot of it felt like it was fairly surface level, with very few elements actually properly explained or delved into; the relationships mostly felt shallow and the backstory and worldbuilding was simply not there. But while I considered DNFing pretty early on, I'm kind of glad I stuck through it; I found the romance surprisingly compelling, and the conclusion to the plot about Brigid's daughter surprisingly rewarding. I also liked Ophelia and Fiona and I wish they'd been developed more! So many hints dropped about the characters and the world and then not followed through on, which was a bummer because there was so much fascinating potential here. The execution was just lacking, which means I didn't have a whole lot of strong feelings about the book, other than that I had a decent time reading it and don't regret not DNFing....more
(Realistic rating: definitely closer to a 2-2.5 for me, but it was decently readable and I'm reluctantly morbid-curious-ly picking up the sequel, sooo(Realistic rating: definitely closer to a 2-2.5 for me, but it was decently readable and I'm reluctantly morbid-curious-ly picking up the sequel, sooo credit where credit is due, I guess.)
Oh my god did I ever want this book to be so much better than it was. I liked its take on magic, and the prose did a decent job of drawing me in, and the basic premise is... mostly interesting?, though that's hard to gauge based on just how thoroughly muddled and uninteresting its actual execution is. But DEAR GOD have I never encountered such an unlikable messy antagonistic group of characters (ostensibly protagonists!) before. A friend has routinely described The Magicians as "Hogwarts for assholes," but no, THIS is Hogwarts for assholes. Or, like, Hogwarts for assholes meets Six of Crows for assholes. Every single person in this book is SO fucking insufferable, and in exciting and different ways!! Reina gets sort of a cursory "by the way she is SOOOO POWERFUL, POWERFUL BEYOND REASON AND EXPECTATION" and then is barely given any kind of development or things to do; Callum is simply a nonstop dick for the sake of it, with no actual depth or exigence behind it; Tristan is a dick who then spends dozens of pages feeling guilty and trying to rationalize why he's being a dick, which is simply unbearable; Nico is actually kind of fun but just has so MUCH going on that it's absolutely impossible to keep track of; Libby is also fun but is going down Asshole Road at top speed and I am NOT stoked about it; and oh my god do I ever agree with the reviewer who said that Parisa is the author's favorite and so she really, really wants everyone else to think she's the coolest person ever, and SPOILER ALERT SHE IS EXTREMELY NOT, she's fucking terrible and I hate her and I do not give a single shit about whatever the fuck is going on with her and Dalton! It's a book that is incredibly dense but in which very little actually happens, and there is so much potential for interesting relationships and reluctant allyships and slow grudging trust and instead we get childish sniping and unreasonable rudeness and every single person constantly thinking that they are so much better than everyone else around them and it is SO. FUCKING. UNBEARABLE I absolutely could not deal with a single one of these fools.
HAVING SAID THAT: the twist was interesting, I am begrudgingly curious to see if any of these people grows so much as a single likable trait, and I kind of hope someone knifes Parisa in the back at some point, so I'm still reading the sequel. So, like, I guess that merits 3 stars on the whole. But please don't be like me and open a way better book instead; it will NOT be hard to find one....more
(Realistic rating: AH GOD probably just over 4 stars?? Definitely not quite 5 and I think not quite 4.5, even, because of some of the things I get int(Realistic rating: AH GOD probably just over 4 stars?? Definitely not quite 5 and I think not quite 4.5, even, because of some of the things I get into at the very end, but that's mostly about me and my own personal tastes!)
This book was a lot!! I have been really excited to read it for so long -- I love urban fantasy/dark academia as a genre, and I loved the Poppy War books, and I love linguistics (real Maja fans know it was almost the field I went into, so this really overlapped so many of my interests that I knew I'd love it. And even if it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I did love it! It's the kind of book where the overall plot arc feels inevitable, but the particular beats and the way that certain narrative epiphanies are reached are shocking in the best possible way. It makes points that aren't (or shouldn't be) new or particularly revelatory, but nonetheless important, and done in a way that doesn't feel stale or anvil-dropping but real and painful and earned. It gives great characters and worldbuilding in an alternate history that feels familiar and foreign all at once (and makes you wonder which bits are real and which aren't, which I always love!). It's written in a dense but very readable way. It ends on a note that's both heartbreaking and hopeful. It was absorbing and fascinating and painful and funny and just so, so fun to read. Like I said -- I loved the book, and I loved the experience of reading it.
A lot of the front end of the book was written in a much more... old-timey, I guess, tone than I necessarily anticipated? There was a bit of tonal shift in the first Poppy War book about a third of the way in, where it went from being more of a classic fantasy tone to a kind of casual dirtbag-protagonist tongue-in-cheek narration and dialogue, ha, so I think I was subconsciously expecting something less played-straight for this book, too. But it's alternate history rather than secondary world fantasy, and one that relies really heavily on academia as a structure, so it does make sense, but it did also make it hard to fully emotionally invest, since that sort of narration by its nature keeps you at a bit of a distance. For a while it's didactic enough that I felt interested but not absorbed, and I'm not sure the footnotes were entirely necessary on that front, either. I did really love the characters, though; Robin is a great protagonist and I loved his character arc. I felt like I could understand and sympathize with every stage of where he was, from the very beginning to the very end, and I think he was the best possible lens through which to tell the story. I loved the friendship between the four Babblers, and I loved that (view spoiler)[while Letty was clearly portrayed as making the wrong choices and espousing the wrong perspective, she wasn't like... cartoonishly evil? She still made some solid points and it was clear where she was coming from, even as the basic assumptions underlying her beliefs and actions was clearly not the right one. (hide spoiler)] In general I appreciated that even Robin acknowledged how logical and reasonable a lot of the racist pro-imperialist positions sounded, while still knowing very clearly that they were very incorrect; it's true that it can be so hard to fight against all of the things you're told throughout your life that just SOUND like they should be right before you know better to interrogate more deeply that they're not, and I thought this book did such a good job of unpacking that in the text. (I also, of course, really loved the linguistic elements and the notes on translation and how it powers magic, though I would also have enjoyed seeing a bit more actual different languages used!)
I also did appreciate that this was a standalone, though I had to admit to feeling desperate for any crumbs of backstory or further fleshing out of the world as I got more and more into it (give me Griffin's childhood with Lovell! or more about Griffin and Robin's moms! or tales of how Griffin's cohort fell apart! or more Hermes content!!), and by the time I reached the end I was absolutely frothing at the mouth to know WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS NEXT. I am still glad, I think, that this is all the story we get, but also I URGENTLY WANT SO MUCH MORE. Also speaking of things I wanted more, I know R.F. Kuang is not so much a Kissing Book author, but this would probably rank at least .25-.5 stars higher for me if it HAD been more of a Kissing Book, the little hints of romance we got were simply nowhere near enough for me and I was DYING for more. (A lot of that, too, is in the way that it IS so much easier for me to get emotionally invested in a story with a little romance, even if it's not a main focus, and a lot of my not-quite-5-star feelings about this are simply that I wanted to be more emotionally invested than I was. Which -- it's not that I WASN'T, but given the tone of the book and the fact that so much of it centers around Robin's internal processes and pontifications and coming to terms with the world he lives in and the impact he wants to have on it -- it's tricky to get FULLY absorbed, under those restrictions. And I think even my worldbuilding/sequel desires feed into that a little, ha, and of course the best possible problem to have with a book is "I wish there was more of this." But, you know, I do! And I think it would have improved the experience for me just a little -- which, again, not that it was even remotely bad, because I did really love this book. I just, you know, again, wanted more!!)...more
I waffled REALLY hard on whether to round this up to three stars on potential and on the fact that it was readable enough to take me through to the enI waffled REALLY hard on whether to round this up to three stars on potential and on the fact that it was readable enough to take me through to the end, or down to two stars on sheer fumbling of the execution and the rendering of an interesting premise and potentially engaging world into the flattest, most annoyingly written, least well developed nothing -- far from the worst it could have been, but not THAT much better. As you can see, I did land on the latter, not in the least because I had a similar reaction to Not The Witch You Wed -- a book with a similar premise, urban-fantasy witch world starring a magicless witch with two unique besties and several close sisters and an enemies-to-lovers arc with her love interest -- but even though I thought that one was just above decent at absolute best, I did like it so much more on basically every level, so ... this one wasn't great to begin with but definitely suffers by comparison, so sorry not sorry, down we go!
The tone of this was simply unbearable to read; both protagonists felt unbearably young and twee (and don't get me started on the talking-to-you-the-reader tones it sometimes takes, like, what??), and their narrative voices were simply too close to indistinguishable despite how different they were. So much happened and basically nothing was explained -- I had no idea what Gil's family's magic was all about, or what exactly was going on with the magical politics of the world, and so many characters were mentioned and then barely explained or followed up on?? The worldbuilding and characterbuilding was an absolute mess, and the chemistry and buildup of the romantic relationship was so uneven and messily executed as well, it made it impossible to get too invested in the whole thing. I'm semi-reluctantly picking up the sequel to Not the Witch You Wed because the world and characters are engaging enough to hook me even if the writing and plot are subpar, but this one simply did not engage my curiosity enough to make me wonder what happens next. Miss this series entirely and you'll be much better off....more
(Realistic rating: honestly possibly as high as 4.5?? I'd probably have to reread to know for sure -- and I'm always hesitant to rate books in a serie(Realistic rating: honestly possibly as high as 4.5?? I'd probably have to reread to know for sure -- and I'm always hesitant to rate books in a series too high until they're over, and Leigh Bardugo does not have a history of sticking the landing, ha -- but--maybe--!! I loved this a whole lot.)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
... what, is that not enough of a review? Okay, fine, here's some actual coherence!
I really, REALLY enjoyed this book, but I think I'm going to have a hard time talking about it because it absorbed me so thoroughly that I both have trouble disentangling specific things that I enjoyed about the entire experience of reading it and am having a hard time emerging into the real world out of the world of this book! It's both a blessing and a curse that this loses some of the hazy grey gloomy darkness that hangs about Ninth House: the latter because that was part of what made said book so interesting and singular, and even as it becomes a more accessible story for me I do kind of mourn its loss, and the former because with those clouds parted, the book draws me in much more and lacks any sense of distance I had from the characters and the plot in the previous book. I'm on the record as almost always loving second books in trilogies most, and it would not even remotely surprise me if this ended up being true for this one; this book really, really got me.
So much of Ninth House was Alex trying to figure out her new life while the person she used to be crept in around the edges; in this book, she both fully embraces that new life AND makes her peace with who she had become to survive her old life, and the way she melds the two together makes her such a compelling heroine. I absolutely fucking loved that rather than her previous, much more solitary nature, she formed a whole little chosen family -- I love how Mercy refused to let Alex get rid of her and she and Dawes were basically fire-forged and she pretty much strongarmed Turner into becoming her ally and friend, and I'm DELIGHTED by the context in which we see Tripp again. It's so compelling to me to see this weird little crew knitting themselves together into this strange but unbreakable bond and I'm so stoked to see where this goes in the next book, because I love every single one of them so much.
I loved the arc of the story, too -- the journey into hell, the push and pull of the demons, the unexpected consequences, Alex navigating the surface obligations of Lethe with the much deeper issues at play -- the villains, too, are so menacing and terrifying and I'm VERY nervous for the next book, ha. (I will say that reading Ninth House and this back to back made it so blatant just how unrealistically and thoroughly the villains keep monologuing once caught?? I know it's a narrative staple and from a plot perspective it IS fascinating to watch their plans unfold and hear the rationalizations, but god it TRULY tests my suspension of disbelief. Why on earth would any of them do this!!) I do love that each book, too, uncovers a deeper and deeper conspiracy about how far men in power will go to keep said power; I feel like it's building to a really satisfying reckoning in the last book (or at least, I sure hope so! But again, Leigh Bardugo has classically not stuck her series landings to my full satisfaction, ha, so I'm ready to be underwhelmed :")).
And, of course, we GOTTA talk about the Gentleman Demon, because AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. (view spoiler)[DARLINGTON, MY MAN, PRINCE OF MY HEART. I'm so happy he was in so much of this book and I'm SO happy they got him back!!! Even the fucked up demonic version of him!!! I find his mix of human and demon SO fucking fascinating and I hope we see even more of his fucked up internal conflict in the next book. (This version of him, as I was horrified to discover, is basically Nikolai if Nikolai were Gansey, and it is a PERSONAL ATTACK on me that Leigh would dare to do this!!) I know we all love a tightly wound gentleman coming undone and this is SUCH a good take on it; the slow simmering tension between him and Alex is like... I'm not SURE if I ship it/want it to be endgame, but I am really enjoying the process of what is actually going on between them?? It's disastrous and hot and I am so, so here to see where it goes. (Also, I just love him so much?? Brilliant tortured good bitter tired demonic horny classy broken boy!!) (hide spoiler)]
So -- yeah, I loved this a lot, I kind of already want to reread it, and I simply will not survive the wait for book 3. I just want to live in this world and I am very sad that I cannot do so!!...more
(Seriously, how the hell do I tag genre for this??)
What a wonderful, weird, introspective, incisive, sprawling, soft, thoughtful, thoroughly lovely li(Seriously, how the hell do I tag genre for this??)
What a wonderful, weird, introspective, incisive, sprawling, soft, thoughtful, thoroughly lovely little gem of a book. I did not have incredibly strong feelings about it, but it had a fairy-tale-like feel to it, with the interconnected sibling stories and the musings on destiny and the shape of life throughout and the messages it landed on, that left me with a warm and cozy feeling even through the decidedly non-cozy storylines (which were... most of them, ha). So even as there were some bits I had issues with and no parts of it that really sunk their hooks fully into my heart, reading it was still really enjoyable and I can tell it'll be a book I'll want to return to in the future.
I love the arc of books like this, where each character gets their time to shine but the stories are inextricably intertwined, and the familial love burns strongly at the core of it. I loved each of the characters -- Simon's determination to live and to find out what that means for him, Klara's stubbornness and dedication to discovering what else there was to life beyond life itself, Daniel's quiet resignation and guilt and the goodness behind it, and Varya's slow, late bloom beyond the confines to which she'd limited her life. The pacing sometimes felt a bit off, though I understood that Daniel and Varya got more narrative space because they also had longer lives, but I loved the way that Simon and Klara lived on long after they were gone in the echoes of their lives -- Raj and Ruby especially for the latter, but I was so glad we got to see Robert again, however briefly. The way that each death shook out made sense both in the context of each sibling's personality and in the way that it shaped their lives and how their actions and choices led to it. It felt fatalistic and tragic, but not in a relentless kind of way. (Though Klara's and Daniel's both, uh, really hurt. Jesus.) And I loved that Varya's story closed us out, and ended on such a lovely hopeful note; it tied everything together very well and left me feeling very satisfied about the way the story left off.
Minor things that stop this from being a five-star read for me: while I didn't feel like any part of the book was relentlessly sad, like I said, the culmination of Klara and Daniel's stories both landed in a really heavy fatalistic way that was just... a bummer to read, ha. Not that any part of it was badly executed or narratively offputting, just -- I don't always love to read things that make me feel that sad and frustrated and wishing it could have ended differently if only people had made different, better choices!! Fully a me problem here. :") Similarly, it made me really sad to see how much the family drifted apart and how relatively solitary the later parts felt, with Daniel and Varya both so unmoored; the ending turned it around somewhat, but for a while it really did feel like the story was just being stripped of all of its color and connection and life the further along it went. And I also sort of understand the reasoning for ending with Ruby, as the only real member of the next generation of the family, but given that we'd spent so relatively little time with her it didn't quite land for me as the best, most affecting way to close out the story.
And finally -- this also isn't really a flaw of the book, but I always feel a little uneasy with stories that may have a single magical element and then everything else is just normal and real-world? I know it's left kind of ambiguous here as to whether the death date is real or if acting as if it's real is what makes it so, but given that Bruna seems to think it is, and also that the rest of her family is also magical, it just instinctively raises some questions about the nature of the supernatural in this world. Again, I don't actually want a treatise on it or for the world to be more magical or anything, it's just a thing that never sits super well with me in worlds that are constructed this way, because it always makes me wonder! But again, all of these are just things that stop this book from reaching the highest level of things I enjoy; it's sitting quite comfortably at four stars, though. I did really, really like it....more
DNF at about 50%; I really wanted to give this a shot, and I was so hopeful after all the potential in A Song Below Water and knowing that follow-up nDNF at about 50%; I really wanted to give this a shot, and I was so hopeful after all the potential in A Song Below Water and knowing that follow-up novels are so often better than debuts -- but god, I'm sorry, but this simply did not work for me in any way. I couldn't bring myself to care about Naema, who seemed wildly hypocritical and totally unwilling to acknowledge any hurt she had caused while obsessively fixating on any semblance of slight from others; I didn't feel like any of her friends or family had too much personality, and I just didn't care about the stakes, possibly because the subpar underbaked worldbuilding in A Song Below Water failed to give me a sense of purpose or place in the story. I kept hoping it would get better, but I was dreading picking it back up every time I took a break from it, and -- you know what, life is too short. This book simply isn't for me, and I'm throwing in the towel on it....more
The premise of this is enjoyable, and it was a lot of fun to get to see different lives of Nora's play out -- kind of like a novel of AUs, which I canThe premise of this is enjoyable, and it was a lot of fun to get to see different lives of Nora's play out -- kind of like a novel of AUs, which I can never resist! I did feel like it was dragging a little by the end, especially given that the conclusion felt pretty inevitable, and I have to admit to losing patience with Nora from time to time -- but regardless of how obvious it was, the overarching message and eventual close of the story were both pretty powerful. I also have to admit for being a sucker for certain things being -- maybe not inevitable, or maybe not fated, but always working out in the same or similar ways in different scenarios and universes? So I liked some of those similar threads throughout the different lives, and the way it looked like things were going to shake out at the very end for Nora. (I also LOVED the presence of another life-traveler, and the way it works differently for different people based on their lives and their attitudes!) Unfortunately, the writing was so aggressively mediocre that the bits I genuinely enjoyed actually took me by surprise more than anything else, and a lot of the messaging around suicide and motivation seemed... rather on the simplistic side, if not outright condescending from time to time? So while it was a fun premise and story, the often subpart execution means I definitely won't revisit this and I certainly wouldn't unequivocally recommend it; definitely didn't really live up to the hype, even though I'm glad I read it....more
(Realistic rating: probably hovering in the 4-4.5 range, closer to the latter -- the first one was just so perfect, it's hard for me to unequivocally (Realistic rating: probably hovering in the 4-4.5 range, closer to the latter -- the first one was just so perfect, it's hard for me to unequivocally give this one the same level of rating?? But I'm very open to rounding this one up upon rereading, because I did really love it a lot!!)
Oh, I am simply SO HAPPY I read The Golem and the Jinni just in time to be ready for this sequel, because GOSH was it good. It's so lovely to be back in this world, to experience Helene Wecker's intricate prose and detailed descriptions and wrenching emotions and fully realized characters; there are times when these books read like the most engaging of history books, and times when they read like the most immersive of high fantasy, and at no point do they ever lose even an ounce of their heart. They're simply lovely start to finish, and they have instantly become eternal favorites of mine.
This one had basically everything I loved about the first -- perfectly immersive historical detail intertwined with perfectly immersive magical worldbuilding, along the lines of the first but still adding new things, characters with intense and complex backstories that you slowly fall in love with and inevitably root for with all your heart, fascinating tangles of relationships between everyone, a twisty and complex and detailed plot -- and had the extremely welcome addition of an actual relationship between Chava and Ahmed, which I LOVED WITH ALL MY HEART, OH MY GOD. It hurt me SO deeply whenever they talked at cross-purposes or fought and OF COURSE when they broke up, but god, it was SO realistically done, and it made me all the happier when they finally came back together, two people so different inevitably stumbling their way through couplehood but unable to be apart or with anyone else!! I love them SO MUCH and I'm SO HAPPY we got to see it all happen, and I'm SO fascinated by the way things are left for them in the end.
I also really loved all of the new elements -- Sophia getting adventures! A new jinni AND a new golem! Grown-up Toby trying to track down the mystery of his past! Kreindel, so nerdy and so determined! The world changing around the characters and them figuring out how to change and adapt along with it! There were some elements of the story that frustrated me -- the jinniyeh's intense selfishness and its impact on both Sophia and Ahmad (although I do admit that I deeply shipped her and Sophia, especially with that END, GOD), and this sometimes happened in the first book as well, but there are times when the story just... starts to unfold a way where you KNOW it's going to end badly and you just HURT waiting for it?? And there were moments when the pacing felt a bit off or when I hated the terrible decisions characters were making, ha, and like I said, I'm just going to have to reread it in order to see exactly where all of the new elements rank in my heart, whether they can fully live up to the established ones. But otherwise -- god, like I said, it's just got EVERYTHING that made me love the first one so much, and even a couple of things that made me love it even more, so it's honestly very likely this will be a double five-star upon rereading. What an absolutely wonderful duology that I am so, so grateful I read; I would very much recommend these books to anyone and everyone....more
Gosh, I wanted to like this book so much more than I did? There were SO many fun and creative and engaging elements to it, even past the incredibly coGosh, I wanted to like this book so much more than I did? There were SO many fun and creative and engaging elements to it, even past the incredibly cool mythos of Black girls as sirens and friendship and sisterhood between Black girls as the central conceit! I loved the way Tavia's powers worked, and how casually the supernatural creatures were woven into the story; I loved Effie's involvement in the Renaissance Fair, how it was so important to her life and ended up being even more so than she knew. I ADORED the gargoyle reveal, and I loved how Tavia got to save the day in the end. I loved how powerfully and clearly the siren mythos was woven into actual real-world issue facing Black youth and Black girls in particular (the protest was SO goddamn good all around). I deeply loved Tavia and Effie as individuals -- how distinct their voices and personalities were -- and as sisters and friends, how deep and true their bond was. The Effie reveal was also very, very good, and the ending as a whole did feel satisfying without wrapping everything up too neatly.
But -- and with three stars, you know there's a huge "but" coming! -- I simply did not like the way most of this was written. The first couple of chapters started out really solid, and there were definitely moments throughout where it felt very readable and engaging, but a lot of the time the style was disjointed and confusing, and in large part this is due to how absolutely messily executed the backstory, worldbuilding, and mythos all were. There are large chunks of the book where you just have no idea of, or context for, what's going on -- why Effie is living with Tavia's family, what some of the more obscure mythological creatures actually are, how much the world knows about each of them, what the deal with Tavia's family is -- and it's so frustrating and makes it hard to keep pace with the story when you often feel like there's a chapter or two of context that was just cut out entirely. As it all starts to come together, it stands out less and less, but by the end I still felt like so much about Effie didn't get properly explained, and I still had no idea what the deal with Tavia's dad and grandmother was, and I feel like there were a bunch of small red herrings scattered throughout (like, I really thought Priam and Isabella were going to play more of a role than they ended up playing??) that made the revelations at the end even harder to keep track of. The good in this definitely merits an above average rating, but the execution really takes it down to a book I wouldn't be interested in revisiting and might not even recommend, unless someone was really desperate for more of the (admittedly extremely important!) content covered in it....more
(Realistic rating: I'm giving it four stars with the knowledge that depending on how the third book goes, it could get bumped down to three -- but for(Realistic rating: I'm giving it four stars with the knowledge that depending on how the third book goes, it could get bumped down to three -- but for now, it was enjoyable and engrossing and emotionally investing, so--four!)
I!! wish I knew the end of this trilogy so I could have a better sense of how I feel about this book!! Is it a bridge pivoting the story into a wider world of magical intrigue, a missing puzzle piece that flows into the conclusion? Or is it a steering wheel being jerked wildly off course, into a left field of narrative that takes the story away from its center and its logical conclusion? It's impossible to tell without knowing how it's all going to turn out, and knowing Maggie Stiefvater, it could EASILY go either way. :") So -- in a lot of ways, I feel the need to reserve judgment, because the way it all plays out is going to inform how I feel about the direction this story took.
There's a bunch about it I very much did like, though. I liked the degree to which we learn more about dreaming, and both Ronan and Hennessy's world expanding more -- how the mythology of the dreamers connects back to the ley lines, grounding this a bit more in the story we already knew. I like the continued expanding of the world around dreams as well -- hearing more from Matthew, and seeing a possibility for him and Jordan getting their own lives. (The sweetmetals are very cool!) I LOVED the focus on Boston and art and Boston-specific art -- I first read the Raven Cycle in Boston, and I met a dear friend through the fandom there, so it brings me immense feelings to have Maggie Stiefvater writing about the city! And I love the art museums of Boston, and John Singer Sargent, so very much, it's lovely to see such a focus on them here. I love Declan and Declan/Jordan!! I love the glimpses of Adam!! I LOVE CARMEN AND LILIANA KISSING AND CONFIRMED INTO EACH OTHER, AAAAAAAA. And Carmen moving on from the Moderators!! It's great and I hope it goes well for her!! (I am VERY nervous about how it's going to go for her, aaaaa.)
Things I liked less (or, rather, things that are hard to evaluate whether or not I liked without knowing their endgame): no idea how I feel about Bryde's entire deal (especially with the end, SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK); the end in general, really (again, WHAT THE FUCK, AND WHAT THE FUCK WILL HAPPEN NEXT); that thing Maggie Stiefvater does with her writing where she cares more about constructing a turn of phrase that sounds really clever rather than how much actual sense it makes (this is definitely just a thing I don't like, ha, and I kind of feel like she's gotten worse about it over time??); and... again, the entire arc of the plot feels like it's careening off a cliff, and I have no idea yet if it's going to be a cool Fast-and-Furious-franchise-like stunt or a Thelma-and-Louise-like destructive nosedive, and it's hard to say how I feel about it without knowing! I'm so, so impatient for the next book, both because I want to know what happens and because I want to know what all of this is leading towards and how I feel about it! ahhhhhhhhh...more
Okay, let's get this out of the way: I'm not going to bother rehashing the obvious Problematique elements of this book -- the beating, the consent issOkay, let's get this out of the way: I'm not going to bother rehashing the obvious Problematique elements of this book -- the beating, the consent issues, the tired romantic tropes, the Evil Gay -- because honestly, by this point, if you're going into this book knowing all those things, you've heard enough, and if you don't, other people have discussed and rehashed those things to death over the years, and you're better off investigating elsewhere to learn more. No part of it is great, and while I first read this book long enough ago not to really be paying attention to most of those things, I certainly read it with a more critical eye these days, and many things that I'd glossed over on prior rereads always jump out at me and snag my attention. And it's very much something people should be aware of going into the book, and if it ruins people's enjoyment of it, I absolutely would not blame them!
But the truth is that I DID first read this book a very long time ago, at an impressionable age, and as a result it has a hold on my emotions that no amount of critical thinking can ever really dislodge. So I can, and will, objectively acknowledge all of the issues with it -- which are myriad! there's no shortage of things to critique here! -- but the truth is that I just love these books! I love them a lot, and they get me in my feelings every time I revisit them. And honestly, that's what I want to talk about -- I want to talk about why I love them, and not rehash the problems that are basically common knowledge by now. So because this is my review, and I'm writing it for me, that's exactly what I'm going to do. So there!
And honestly, there is just so much TO love. I always forget just how wonderful Claire's narrative voice is -- so incisive and dry and chock full of personality at all times -- I know people have issues with first-person narration, but honestly this story simply wouldn't work any other way. (Which I know, because we actually have a basis of comparison later on! In fact, I would go so far as to say that the story suffers the further away from Claire's POV it zooms. PROVE ME WRONG.) The book is a monster, but I do love how intricate and full it is for all that; it contains so many moments that are totally irrelevant to the greater plot, but that still breathe life into the characters and the world. It's really, really intense -- we go from Claire's shock over her temporal displacement to her nearly being burned at the stake to deciding to stay in the past to Jamie's entire ordeal at the end, and the feelings evoked in all of those things are so real and visceral and overwhelming, you just feel very PRESENT for all of it, and it's horrifying and all-consuming and just... SO MUCH, in the best possible way.
And then, of course, there's brilliant tender fierce beefcake virgin warrior diplomat farmer James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, ACTUAL DREAM MAN. To quote myself, Diana Gabaldon has a whole hell of a lot to answer for as a person, but she gave us Jamie Fraser, so... you know, it might not QUITE even out, but it sure as hell comes close. HE'S JUST PERFECT (stupid outdated romantic tropes aside) AND I LOVE HIM MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY. And the relationship between him and Claire is, of course, ALSO perfect, and I ALSO love it more than words can say. They are, for me, the absolute gold standard of "couples that make me want to lie down on the floor and only think about their love whenever they say anything to each other," and their hold on my heart will never go away. They just love each other SO MUCH and I HAVE MORE FEELINGS ABOUT IT THAN I DO ABOUT 99% OF THINGS, and no matter what else this book contains, that is the part of it that means the most to me and the part that I always love to revisit....more
(Realistic rating: probably, like, 4.25? Definitely a strong four stars, but still well short of forever fave status on its own, just kind of... grand(Realistic rating: probably, like, 4.25? Definitely a strong four stars, but still well short of forever fave status on its own, just kind of... grandfathered in through Raven Cycle fondness, ha.)
I just!! love getting to revisit this terrible disaster child!!! Unsurprisingly, this slightly more mature closer-to-new-than-young-adult Ronan appeals to me more than angry bitter brash teen Ronan -- he's still recognizably himself, still angry and traumatized and figuring himself out, but he's more introspective and mellow -- he understands himself more thoroughly and is beginning to figure out his place in the greater world around him -- and I just love it. I love how much more growing he still has to do (there wouldn't be more story if that wasn't the case, after all!), but I love how clearly you can see how much he's grown since the first time we saw him. I love that he and Adam, while far from perfect, are basically their version of settled old marrieds!! It's cute as fuck and I want only the best for them!!! It's just so satisfying to have this version of Ronan as a hero, and I'm absolutely all in on it.
There are a lot of other elements of this book I love too; I LOVE getting to see more of Declan, rendering him more three-dimensional and relatable and real, and I unfortunately love him a lot now! I love Hennessy and Jordan; it's so, SO interesting and fun to see dreamers other than Ronan (and Niall and Kavinsky, but, You Know), ones for whom the rules are different and their experiences are different, and Jordan is just a wonderful character (and I love her and Declan together!!). I love the focus on art throughout the story, how important it is to so many characters and how integral it is as a passion and a metaphor. I love Farooq-Lane and Liliana (and am very eyes-emoji about them, tbqh!). I love poor doomed Parsifal!! I love Adam and his crying club!!! I love the glimpses of the wider world of magic and dreams after how insular most of the Raven Cycle felt.
Having said that, even though I do love the wider world, it feels... a little overwhelming, as an introduction? There would have been more than enough going on in this book even without the Moderator plot, which feels sprawling enough to belong on its own series and poorly explained enough that I kind of feel like it should have been, ha. Farooq-Lane is a fun character and I love her relationships with both Parsifal and Liliana, but it just... feels like too much! The book definitely bites off more than it can chew, and it sometimes feels exhausting jumping from complicated plot to complicated plot. I also have my usual lowkey issue with Maggie Stiefvater's writing here, which is that she sometimes cares more about being clever or poetic with her words than about actually making sense on a sentence level, and it's sometimes jarring and sometimes confusing and sometimes eye-roll-y, and always takes me entirely out of the story. (Also, I miss Gansey and Blue!!! I loved the brief glimpses of them here, but I WISH WE SAW MORE, SOB.) But -- overall, I loved reading this the first time, and I loved revisiting it. I can't wait to keep coming back to it over and over whenever my Raven Cycle feelings need a boost....more
(Realistic rating: I am NOT EVEN GOING TO LIE, some bits of this come as low as three stars! But other go as high as 4.5, and the overall experience o(Realistic rating: I am NOT EVEN GOING TO LIE, some bits of this come as low as three stars! But other go as high as 4.5, and the overall experience of reading it -- both as a book in and of itself and as a link in the entire series -- is definitely four stars all around. I do love it, despite large aspects of it not being my thing!)
Unpopular opinion: this might be my least favorite book of this series (though boy, does The Raven King give it a run for its money!). Not that I don't love it -- I do! There's a lot in here that's so, so good: the slow development of Blue and Gansey's relationship, Ronan's slow coming out, Adam trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be, so much MAGIC. But the truth is that although I love Ronan very much, he's both my least favorite of the main characters and the one I relate to least, so given that this book is basically a deep dive into his id, it inevitably keeps me at a distance in a way the other books don't, and I can't make as deep of an emotional connection to its material (or, frankly, too much surface-level interest -- I don't care about cars and I hate Kavinsky! I'm sorry, but it's true!!). So -- it's a book I love, but not one that gets me where I live as much as the others.
So first and foremost, this is a book about Ronan, so let's talk about him. As I said, he's the character I relate to least, so his narration definitely keeps me at arm's length and I inhabit his emotions less thoroughly -- but I feel for him so much, and I love him a lot, so I can't help but root for him (or, you know, shake my head in dismay at all of his terrible decisions, RONAN HONEY NO). It's impossible not to feel moved by how significant of an arc he goes through in this story, though, especially on later reads. He grows and changes so much -- still staying himself, of course, but the subtext and the emotion behind the Ronan of book one and the Ronan of book three are drastically different, and the change even from the start to the end of this book is dramatic and significant and poignant. And I love that a lot! It's obvious when an author feels a really deep emotional connection and investment in the material, and even if it's not one I necessarily share to the same degree, it's hard not to connect a little to it when it's as clear as it is here. So I love that aspect of it, of course, even if it's not the content or the character I would ideally focus on myself.
And unfortunately that leads to a lot of the things that Ronan gets up to in this book, as I said earlier, really not being my jam. Everything involving cars really goes entirely over my head, and Kavinsky is a fascinating character and a great foil to Ronan and just... a fucking shit-awful human being, which makes reading about him actively unpleasant! I do really appreciate the role he plays in the story, of getting Ronan to unlock parts of himself he's shied away from (his dreaming ability and his sexuality) and also to acknowledge freely that that type of person isn't who he is or wants to be (his rejection of everything Kavinsky is SO satisfying), but... he sucks! He just sucks! I hate him and I hate how much he's in this book! I can acknowledge and appreciate his role in the story and still feel like his presence in so much of it stops me from enjoying the story as much as I otherwise could have, which is exactly what I'm doing here, ha.
Everything else in this book, though, is GREAT. Adam coming back to himself! Blue developing feelings for Gansey! Gansey and Adam breaking my fucking heart all day every day! Noah and Blue kissing! Cabeswater!! RONAN COMING TO TERMS WITH HIS SEXUALITY AND HIS FEELINGS, AND ALSO ADAM/RONAN!!! There's so much that's enjoyable and emotional and good here, and even as what might be my least favorite installment of the series, it fully has my heart. I love books!!! I love kids!!!...more
(Realistic rating: mmmmaybe 2.5? Like, it's enough to make me morbidly curious about what happens in the second book, so... about half of the possible(Realistic rating: mmmmaybe 2.5? Like, it's enough to make me morbidly curious about what happens in the second book, so... about half of the possible stars seems right, ha. But very much not rounding up here.)
I'm not going to lie to y'all: the moment this book started to center around an incredibly obvious and cliche love triangle, I checked out almost entirely. It didn't quite ruin the whole potential of the book as much as I feared -- there were still good moments near the end, and the premise I found so intriguing wasn't entirely squandered -- but honestly, there was only so much additional grace and leeway I was willing to give it after it went SUCH an obvious and stereotypical route and very much did not do anything new or exciting with it. Like!! We have outgrown the need for mediocre men coming between strong female friendships!!! SIGH.
I'm especially disappointed because the premise of this was really fun: girls who were switched at birth meet and become friends before Uncovering The Truth! Plus magic!! I loved both Poppy and Ember, Poppy's discomfort in the normal world and Ember's softness among the sharper witch coven -- and the way they instantly became friends and bonded so strongly, UGH, I honestly really wanted them to kiss but also just loved and appreciated their bond as is! I also loved the entire witch mythology, the parallels between Poppy and Ember's friendship and Raven and Charlock's secret rivalry, Ember's sweet earnestness and Raven's scheming, Poppy's yearning for maternal affection and Charlock's sharper and more protective sort of love... all of the connections were so layered and complex and intriguing. I loved the darkness inherent in a lot of the story and in Poppy's magic especially, and how much she loved and embraced it regardless. And the end definitely makes me wonder how it's all going to pan out!
But... even if it weren't for the love triangle, so much about this is so poorly executed? There's next to no sense of place or time, which makes all of the confusing and ambiguous parts feel even more rootless and aimless. (I have no idea how old Poppy and Ember are, even! That feels important! The story reads totally differently if they're 13 or 15 or 17!) The plot jumps around wildly and with SO many threads -- some of the tinier vignettes feel sweet and meaningful (like Poppy and the guidance counselor), but some feel totally pointless (like all of Leo's encounters). Sorrel's POV really doesn't add anything to the story; she's not a particularly likeable or even very fleshed out character, so it's just even more distracting noise in the background of the main plot.
And, of course, the love triangle is just SO FUCKING DULL. Even if it weren't pure boring nonsense to insert a man as a point of rivalry into a close relationship between women, Leo is just SUCH a goddamn boring character and I have no idea what Poppy or Ember saw in him! (Like, maybe Poppy in that he was the first other outcast she really connected with, and Ember in that he's the first actual boy she's ever met? But that's LITERALLY IT and it's nowhere NEAR enough to get me actually invested in any possibility of anything real or lasting between either of them!) He just did not even REMOTELY seem worth all the fuss (especially when Sorrel started getting into him, too!), and it just made vast swathes of the book nearly unreadable because I was either rolling my eyes or falling asleep. Ugh. UGH. Maybe he'll gain some semblance of substance in the second book?? One can only hope, honestly....more
(Realistic rating: man, it's... a pretty weak four stars? But I really thought, for most of it, that it would be three -- but I was surprised by how l(Realistic rating: man, it's... a pretty weak four stars? But I really thought, for most of it, that it would be three -- but I was surprised by how lovely the ending felt, slightly heavy-handed though it was. It just made me so happy! It was such a nice place to leave the story! So -- four stars it is, because I do appreciate the existence of this, and I like a book that knows how to stick the landing.)
I honestly wanted to like this more than I did, and in so many ways it should have really objectively been my jam? Queer Shakespeare sequels! Magic and intrigue and deception! So many layers in such a short story -- and really surprisingly solid pacing and structure! I really expected to feel shafted by its length, but it managed to set up a satisfying conflict, mystery, and resolution (for the most part -- the climactic confrontation definitely wrapped up a BIT too quickly and conveniently, but other than that!) in a way that really didn't really make it feel lacking or make me wish it was longer.
But -- honestly, for most of the book, I wasn't really feeling it! It's always hard to write a story in which the main character is kept in the dark about so much, because it means we as the reader are also kept in the dark, and it gave most of the book a pretty disconnected feeling. I also did feel like a lot of the "women have no power and men are terrible" message was... a tad overwrought, especially in such a short book? It's a fairly easy twist on The Tempest, and of course I don't disagree with it as an angle, especially in the era, but it's hard to pull off without feeling a bit like you're beating people over the head with it! And like I said above, the climactic scene just... resolves so easily, within only a couple of pages?? (view spoiler)[Beatrice just SHOWS UP and IMMEDIATELY overpowers Prospero, and it happens in the blink of a fucking eye, and then everything is suddenly resolved?? It happens INSTANTLY! It's so anticlimactic! Don't get me wrong, I love it as a resolution -- I just wish it had drawn out SOME of the tension at least a little bit more. (hide spoiler)]
Having said all of that, though, like I said, a lot of the content in this book really appeals to me, and the execution is great -- Duriya is a wonderful character! I love the relationship between her and Miranda (although I would have liked to see a little more build; even a slightly slower burn would have felt more satisfying!), and the way that both of them feel isolated and apart in different ways (and how it helps them relate to one another, with Miranda still having to overcome her whiteness to relate to Duriya better). I liked Miranda's conflict and uncertainty, how hard it was for her to fit back into society and how hard it was for her to decide if that was even what she wanted. Her journey felt very real! And like I said, I just loved the ending; it left me feeling so satisfied and warm. (view spoiler)[Women who don't fit into society's role for them, for whatever reason, striking out and finding a place of their own where they can find their own home and carve out their own place in the world!! I love it!! It just felt so right and lovely and a perfect place to end the story. (hide spoiler)] Like I said, I love a book that sticks the landing; it can help me forgive and forget a lot of other flaws because it just leaves me with a last lingering positive impression. So -- four stars it is, and I'd definitely recommend anyone who's looking for creative and magical sapphic interpretations of Shakespeare give this one a shot....more
Reread note: Reread this, 4/24-4/30, because it needs to go back to the library soon and not being able to remember more details about why it didn't rReread note: Reread this, 4/24-4/30, because it needs to go back to the library soon and not being able to remember more details about why it didn't really work for me was bothering me, ha. And I enjoyed it enough for it to merit 3.5 stars! But I still stand by what I said before -- a lot of the details are muddled or inadequately fleshed out (the backstory is kind of flimsy, and introduced in such a haphazard way, and the entire way the events of the end unfold are like... what the FUCK just happened? What was Roux-Joubert actually doing and what did he and his associates want and how did it fail?? probably this will get explained in future books, but it feels WILDLY incomplete as is), and there's not enough good found family emotions to make a plot like this resonate with me (though of course the end is very sad!). There's just a lot that it does that other books (ahem Six of Crows ahem) have done way better, and it falls short by comparison.
I will say that this is getting rounded up to a 3.5 because I did find a lot of aspects of the characters fairly compelling! Laila's backstory and ability are fascinating; Enrique is a delight (for all he feels like a paler version of Jesper, I do still love that character archetype very deeply), and Tristan is so sweet. Despite myself, I do really enjoy Severin/Laila! And Hypnos is so much fun -- I love how much he wants to be FRIENDS with everyone, and I really hope him/Enrique is endgame bc I love my charming terrible ships. (I do also appreciate the existence of Zofia as a character, even if she doesn't particularly resonate with me.) And I do appreciate the central purpose of the story -- shining a light on the racial diversity present in historical settings like this and the atrocities committed against people of color in the name of imperialism and white supremacy. I love the degree to which tearing that down is woven into the very essence of the story, and how oppressed people are allowed to take center stage with agency and magic and power! Even if I don't love a lot of the execution of this story, I can certainly appreciate that serving as its exigence.
--
Sadly I have forgotten a lot of details about things I enjoyed or disliked about this book, but I do remember feeling impressed and intrigued by the worldbuilding and political plot (and the twist at the end!), but also a little confused and overwhelmed by a lot of the backstory and frankly a little leery of just how much this reminded me of Six of Crows (especially Severin and Laila and their relationship; I kept reading it like, hmm, where have I seen this before??). I also didn't really buy the attachment and partnership between everyone in the crew, so it was hard for me to feel invested enough to want to continue in this series (or, apparently, to retain too many memories of the details, ha). Still liked it enough for three stars, but that's about it....more
(Realistic rating: if I'm nitpicking, I'd say it's closer to a 4.5 -- really solid and wonderful and deeply moving and enjoyable, but not a book I wou(Realistic rating: if I'm nitpicking, I'd say it's closer to a 4.5 -- really solid and wonderful and deeply moving and enjoyable, but not a book I wouldn't change ANYTHING about, if given the chance, because there are almost always ways to make something more tailored to my ideal! But really, like I said, that's nitpicking for nitpicking's sake. This is unquestionably a five-star read in my heart.)
Full disclosure: the author of this book is a friend of mine. Even fuller disclosure: I wasn't originally planning on buying this book, because I honestly didn't know if it would be My Thing. I figured I'd enjoy it to some degree, because I don't have a single friend who writes badly or even mediocrely -- but I had no guarantee it was going to be a book that would speak to me enough to earn a place on my shelf. I was already anticipating the potential of having to hedge the review, to some extent -- to speak highly of the parts I enjoyed and soften any criticism or any way in which the story didn't work for me. (This is what I do, you see, even months before the possibility would even come around. I prepare! Just in case!)
I preface with all of this to say that, fortunately for my basic sense of honesty and dedication to accurate book reviews, this book is really, really fucking good. It's SO ridiculously good. I'm blown away by every aspect of it -- the writing, the setting, the characters, the story arc, the very metaphor at the heart of its existence, both the idea and the execution. I think that it'll resonate especially with anyone who has PTSD, or anyone who's ever experienced a trauma -- but more broadly, I think it'll resonate with anyone who's ever been hurt. With anyone who's ever experienced loss. With anyone who's ever been terrified to share what they believe to be the worst of themselves with someone else for fear that that belief will be validated. It's such a visceral acknowledgment of those feelings, followed by an equally visceral (if much more comforting) reassurance: it's okay. Your feelings are valid, but the thing you're afraid of isn't true. You're okay. I love books that are engaging and entertaining and creative and enjoyable to read, but even more, I love books that achieve all of that, and also achieve a real, genuine, cathartic emotional reaction, one that resonates beyond the characters themselves and to my own feelings and experiences. One that makes me set it down, sit back, and set a hand to my heart because I feel it so viscerally! And boy, does this deliver on every level.
That particular aspect of the book was what blew me away most -- it's so well crafted! It resonates so deeply! It's so thoughtfully executed and so thoroughly interwoven through every aspect of the book! -- but there are so many other aspects of this book to love. It's very hard, I think, for modern-era books to strike a balance between writing that's genuinely lovely and dialogue that feels authentic and true to how people actually speak -- in fact, I just read a book that I feel did not do this very well at all! -- but this one absolutely nails it. The teenagers read like teenagers, and the adults read like adults, and the first-person narration is STILL beautiful and lyrical and enjoyable while still feeling true to character! The setting hovers perfectly in the intersection between lowkey horror and slightly unsettling small town and desert oasis; the mood is unsettling and urgent without feeling too rushed or unbalanced, building slowly and creepily until the action just overflows. The story unfolds at the perfect pace, building slow and steady and leaving plenty of space to breathe after all the action is done.
And, of course, the characters are wonderful. I would happily die for Alex and Felix, my PERFECT BOYS; I love all of the interconnected webs of history and relationships between all of the adults in the town. Cassie is utterly flawless, and Rose is a genuinely magnificent protagonist -- so relatable, with such a strong voice, reading so realistic to her age but also so clearly affected by what she's been through. (Her little note-to-self flashbacks!! So good!!) (Also, I LOVE RUDY SO MUCH. A GOOD MONSTER!!) (Also also, no spoilers, but the Flood is SO FUCKING FASCINATING, both as a concept and as a metaphor and as a character. [That's three things, but I DON'T CARE.]) I also just love that Rose has a family who loves her, and that her issues with them are clearly just a mix of typical teen stuff and also trauma-related, and that she acknowledges that and is vocally appreciative of them!! SO rare in YA stories involving families, and it's so, so good here.
And in the interest of continued full disclosure, and lest anyone think I am being dishonest or excessive in any of my praise, I'll go ahead and nitpick the honestly pretty minor things I'd say are flaws of this book. First, just based on the sheer nature of the kind of story this is, there are spots where the writing feels a little abstracted, a little too intangible, and it makes it hard to follow what's actually happening in terms of the concrete story and plot, and makes several parts feel just a tad unmoored and rootless (though it always reorients itself pretty quickly and I never really felt like I was missing anything from those moments). Second, while I did think the story was mostly paced exactly the way it should be, there were probably some tweaks I would have ideally made -- a couple spots where events unfolded a bit too quickly, a couple spots where things dragged just a bit. And finally, this is less a criticism and more of a personal preference: I wanted to see SO MUCH MORE of most of the side characters!! There was so much rich potential with all of the residents of the town, and I desperately wanted to see more of them -- more of their interactions, more of their backstories, just more. If there ever were to be a sequel, or a prequel, or a series of loosely connected short stories set in Lotus Valley exploring these characters in more depth -- ahem, hint hint -- I would preorder it yesterday and absolutely devour it.
But, honestly -- as I said, those are pretty minor things. They didn't detract from my overall enjoyment or my very strong feelings about this book's quality -- both of which are very high! I really, really loved this book, and I would firmly recommend it to just about anybody. It's amazing in its scope and its execution, and I am so happy that I have a copy that I can treasure forever, and reread over and over again, and lend to everyone I know once I'm able to see people again. And I'm even happier to know the incredible human with the incredible brain responsible for creating it! <3...more
This book was one of a streak of YA novels I read for a few months that I would describe as "solidly fine"! Nothing outstandingly wrong with it -- notThis book was one of a streak of YA novels I read for a few months that I would describe as "solidly fine"! Nothing outstandingly wrong with it -- nothing I can really point to as a solid flaw or something I'd fix if I could -- but also nothing that particularly grabbed me, nothing exceptional that's going to stay with me after the reading of it. Not sure whether this is a more recent trend with the higher numbers of YA coming out more regularly (so, like, by definition more of them are going to be mediocre/not my style?) or if I just got unlucky with a series of mediocre ones, but that's how it is!
This book I'd put solidly in the 3.5-star range -- it was fun and engaging and readable, with some intriguing ideas and a fun central romance and a few interesting twists. But other than the writing carrying me smoothly through the story (and a REALLY delightful love interest), there wasn't a whole lot else that really stood out to me. I might read the sequel and I might not, we'll see how I feel! I think I would enjoy it if I did, but also wouldn't really feel like I missed out on anything if I skipped it....more
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