Oh, I enjoyed this SO MUCH. I feel like so many YA fantasy books I read fall just short of being unequivocally good in one way or another -- the worldOh, I enjoyed this SO MUCH. I feel like so many YA fantasy books I read fall just short of being unequivocally good in one way or another -- the worldbuilding feels paper-thin or inconsistent or unbelievable or stale or unengaging, the characters feel like cardboard cutouts or obnoxious or too perfect, the relationships have no chemistry or hinge on terrible misunderstandings or instalove or simply do not generate any feelings of investment, the plot doesn't grab me or feels too predictable or hinges on big reveals out of nowhere, the writing is subpar or too purple-prose-y or just not engaging. It's been so long since I've read one that didn't fall short on any of these axes! It's been so long since I read one that I not only didn't dislike but actively enjoyed and wanted to devour! So -- I'll say up front that the sheer relief of how much better this is than a lot of the nonsense I've been consuming recently may be unduly biasing me to speak a little more highly of this than I usually would, ha. It's hard to say for sure, because I do truly think that this is a great, fun, enjoyable, well-crafted book, but do take my enthusiasm with a tiny grain of salt just in case.
But gosh, I had such a great time reading this. I loved the worldbuilding and the magic system, all of its layers and complexities; I loved the different ways the magic manifested! I loved that the story brought together three very different girls with very different lives and very different stakes, but gave them an unshakable bond that all three of them accepted at different rates and with different levels of reluctance (people overcoming objections in order to form lasting relationships is truly one of my favorite tropes and this book provided in SPADES). I loved all three of the girls!! And all three of their relationships!! (Aesa's was the iffiest for me, but it was nice to encounter who at least seems to be a totally unproblematic man in this world, ha, so I'll give him a bit of a pass.) I loved the plot -- some of the reveals were a little messy or a little undeveloped or a little eleventh-hour-y (and some more than a little), but I had already bought into the premise and the world and the characters so thoroughly that it only bothered me a little, nowhere near enough to totally throw me out or demote the experience to any less than four stars.
Were some of the plot twists predictable? Yeah, of course. Is some of the magic and some of the messaging pretty basic? Naturally. Do one of the romantic relationships feel fairly flimsy and one of the main characters a tad less compelling? Yes and yes. But honestly, once I realized I was invested in the book and the characters and genuinely enjoying myself while reading it -- once I realized I actively wanted to keep reading it both because I cared about what was going on and because I wanted to know more -- once I realized just how much fun I was having with it -- it had really sold me, because man is it a fun goddamn read. I liked it so much! I cannot wait for the sequel, I hope it delivers just as much as this did! I am willing to forgive all manner of flaws for a book that is genuinely an enjoyable time -- and honestly, the flaws here are minor enough that it was really easy to do. I'm so glad I picked this book up on a whim because it was so, so worth it!...more
I truly cannot express how much it breaks my heart to add this to the "books I've read this year that I wanted to like so much more than I did." I lovI truly cannot express how much it breaks my heart to add this to the "books I've read this year that I wanted to like so much more than I did." I love Becky Albertalli's writing! She wrote one of my favorite books; her stories always feel like a warm drink and a cozy blanket. And I felt so protective of her after the pressured-to-come-out fiasco; it's always a delight and a pleasure to welcome people I'm fond of (whether in my personal life or famous people I'm unlikely to ever actually meet) to bisexuality, and I do feel a strong kinship with queer woman whose partners are male and the fear of not being "queer enough." So -- I mean, of course I wanted to love her book about that. I truly, deeply did.
And I did love a lot about it! Becky Albertalli is really good at creating realistic teenage mindsets and relationships -- Imogen feels really, really real, endearing and frustrating in the way only a teenager could be, and her friendships feel true and enduring, and of course her relationship with Tessa is fabulous. Becky Albertalli is also really good at creating charming relationships, ones where you feel the butterflies of the crush and the incandescence of being liked back. It always feels magical every time; I always feel the sparks. (And truly, Tessa is a GREAT love interest, and she and Imogen are lovely together. I don't know if I quite feel a they'll-be-together-forever kind of vibe -- always a very tall order for real-world YA -- but it doesn't matter because they work together so well and I fully love seeing their relationship as is.) I like the humor and the heart, and of course the writing is super readable. I honestly did have fun reading this; I cared about most of the characters and their lives and their feelings and their relationships, and I thought it was well written.
But ... the truth is, I think that Becky Albertalli should have taken way, way more space from the coming-out incident before she wrote about it. I know it was almost three years ago, but that clearly wasn't long enough, because the exigence of this book is positively screaming from nearly every page. It's impossible to read it and know what inspired it and not feel like its entire point is to be an argument (not as in a fight, but as in a justification). And--maybe in a different book that would have worked, or at least not seemed quite as glaring? But in a story like this it absolutely swallows almost every other aspect of it and turns it less into a story and more into a standpoint, which--that's simply not what I want, even if it's one I mostly agree with. For one thing, it doesn't work as a one-to-one comparison; the context of Becky Albertalli being an author who made her name off of books about queer kids and feeling pressured and confused and pigeonholed by her earlier identification as straight and the context of Imogen being a teenage girl who is confused by her first queer crush and unable to figure her sexuality out because of the narratives of queer identity surrounding her not matching up to her own experiences are just ... they're different. They're so different! They're too different to make it feel anything but uncomfortable. Both make sense as general--not story arcs because the former actually happened, ha, but you know what I mean. They're both reasonable series of events. But it makes sense for readers to feel uncomfortable with an author they believe to be straight writing almost exclusively about the queer experience and for them to take the only words she's said about her sexual orientation as fact (and it makes sense for said author to find it difficult to navigate her sexual orientation among ironclad certainty from readers that she's straight and to feel upset and betrayed by invasive demands and pressure about her personal life; both of those can be true at once!). It makes less sense to assign that perspective to a bisexual teenager about her actual peer and supposed best friend, and it makes her feel like a one-dimensional villain. Most of what she says generally feels ... at least reasonable-adjacent? And they're mostly opinions I've seen other people have, or ones that feel like real opinions people hold. But to have her be such a condescending character, to cause so many problems and be so unyielding and never actually be portrayed in anything but a negative and incorrect light ... idk, man, it feels bad! It makes sense that Becky Albertalli would be mad at people who believe those things and would want to work them out in a story, but the package she's chosen to wrap those opinions in is not a satisfying character in the story, and it truly feels more like a narrative device than a real person, one who is ostensibly friends with the main character. I just couldn't get over it and it made the whole story harder to buy into.
Anyway -- that was the big giant hurdle for me, but there were a few smaller things, too. I did truly feel like the sexuality thing took up so much real estate of the book, a book in which so much else was happening in Imogen's life -- I feel like we spent so much time dithering about her appropriating queer culture that we didn't get as much of a sense of how she would feel about going to college, this big giant change in her life. What does she actually want to do? What's she excited about studying? What is she looking forward to other than having friends? How will she feel about leaving her home and her parents -- we get a little bit of this with her sister, but very little about her interacting with the rest of her family at all, which is a bummer because her parents sound very cool! And also this is just a giant pet peeve of mine, but I fucking hate when authors insert references to their author friends who apparently exist in this world, just to be cute about it. It annoys me to no end and feels like such lazy shorthand for pop culture references. So -- it's not a win for me, sadly, which is one of the more significant bummers of my lifetime....more
So many books I'm reading this year that I wanted to like way more than I actually did! This was -- readable, just engaging enough in premise and writSo many books I'm reading this year that I wanted to like way more than I actually did! This was -- readable, just engaging enough in premise and writing and character to keep me reading and curious about where it was going to go, but that's about the best I can say about it. The premise was a fun and promising one, but executed in such a shallow way (with the occasional too-clever nod to its inspiration and how ~in real life it's so different~, god spare me); by the same token, none of the characters felt like they were drawn in particularly vivid or engaging ways. I wanted so much more depth to lead me to believe that they were all invested in this absolutely absurd idea; I needed more of a pull to them to convince me that they wanted and needed this. Alex and Lily especially felt far too shallow in their depictions (which is a real bummer given that they're the love interests!), and Will and Irene both felt like they should be way older (so much unearned "everything always goes well for them/no one ever says no to them" for people who are fucking twenty years old???). And for all that the characters all did have different backgrounds and motivations, they ... were all still Ivy League students (or close enough to it), which was certainly a choice. (Also a choice: introducing that this book is set in realtime, aka several years after COVID, more than halfway into the book. WELL AFTER they had been on multiple transatlantic flights?? What a strange decision to point out that Will and Daniel still run six feet apart from other runners but have absolutely no issue going through crowded airports and lengthy flights and busy museums! Does not feel at all realistic!) And the writing was nowhere near strong enough to carry through all of these other weaknesses; so weird to keep starting chapters with characters' full names (like, yeah, that's their name, I know, I've been reading about them for 300 pages, what are you doing) and so many grandiose ideas stuffed into each sentence about ~changing the world~ and ~looking into the future~ or whatever without the depth of character to back them up or make me feel invested in it at all. Which is a such a bummer, because this had so much promise and executed with more depth, it could have been so, so good. Sigh....more
(Realistic rating: probably closer to a 3.5 than a 4, but because my biggest problems with this are honestly external to the actual story itself, and (Realistic rating: probably closer to a 3.5 than a 4, but because my biggest problems with this are honestly external to the actual story itself, and other people might disagree with my take on that, I'm going to go ahead and round up. Falls a tad short of my usual enjoyment of four-star reads, though.)
As an actual story, I liked this a lot! It's equal parts a loving portrait of the bonds of a family, especially between sisters, and a tender, nuanced, powerful depiction of a Black family at the brink of massive social change, confident of their worth as people and the importance of their identity and place in the world. Every single one of the girls is so, so good and I adored all of the bonds between them, the way each one knew exactly what she wanted and pursued it wholeheartedly and supported and uplifted one another without question. And their relationship with their mother was wonderful as well, of course! And another thing I absolutely loved was how many different perspectives we saw -- feeling connected to America as a home vs. feeling disconnected and wanting to go back to Africa, wanting to build up the free colony of Roanoke vs. seeing it as a feeble consolation prize and wanting more -- all of them portrayed as equally valid and understandable, which I legitimately don't think I've ever seen in a book like this? Usually there's a Right perspective, and this kind of nuanced, complex portrayal of different opinions within a community, all given equal weight and consideration, is truly so important.
As a retelling of Little Women, though... I really felt like there were few enough things it had in common with the original in terms of story, and only the barest connection in terms of themes, that it honestly would have been better suited standing on its own and mentioning the original as an inspiration rather than being marketed as a remix? Apart from Meg's storyline staying largely unchanged (an... interesting choice, tbh), the main commonalities are the names, the family bonds, a father in the army, Jo being a writer, Beth getting sick, and Amy marrying a rich man? I DID actually really like the way Jo's story was updated and adapted, for the most part (though god do people who insist she should have ended up with Laurie get my goat in the worst way, so I'm a little bitter about that storyline, ha), and I do think the way Beth's sickness was adapted (and keeping her alive, of course!) was a nice touch. Otherwise, though -- the relationship with Lorie felt forced, even personal distaste aside, Beth's story was entirely new, and Amy's romantic plot was entirely shoehorned in in a terribly awkward way. I really feel like selling it as an adaptation, and waiting for what I knew was going to happen and being kind of disappointed in a lot of the choices that were made, undersold the really original, creative, and engaging elements throughout it. There were a couple of things I didn't love about the story itself -- mostly that the pacing was often really off, with certain things dragging and certain things rushing, and the second half timeskip felt like a LOT was simply glossed over and not expanded on -- but the majority of issues I took were just with the ways this didn't work for me as an adaptation, and I'm disappointed by that. Again, I really feel like this would have stood a lot stronger on its own merits, because that's really where it shines....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
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
Oh, revisiting Tortall has been SO MUCH FUN, and revisiting this series in particular has been a real treat! Daine is such a fun heroine, and it's so Oh, revisiting Tortall has been SO MUCH FUN, and revisiting this series in particular has been a real treat! Daine is such a fun heroine, and it's so delightful to see Tortall from her perspective -- seeing her in awe of how cool and unconventional everyone is, when they're just the people we'd been following, and zooming out really gets us to appreciate anew just how cool and unconventional they are! I love how Onua and Numair ease us into the setting, how we get new perspectives and new characters to get attached to, but they're connected with so many familiar faces that it also gets us right back to the Tortall we know and love. Daine's magic, too, is such a cool new worldbuilding twist, and I love how helpful it ends up being -- I love watching Numair try to bring more scholarly methods to her total lack of magical training, and I love how attached everyone becomes to Daine, and there are SO MANY GOOD ANIMALS, it's by far the most fun part of this series (and so many new immortal creatures, some fun and some horrifying!). And I just! love being back in Tortall!! These books were so important to baby me, and I love revisiting this world and characters so very, very much; I can't wait to keep going through it, and I hope all of the books hold up just as well....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
(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: HMMM god this one is tricky! Between the romance and the ending, it's definitely not quite five stars -- but so much about it is so(Realistic rating: HMMM god this one is tricky! Between the romance and the ending, it's definitely not quite five stars -- but so much about it is so good, so enjoyable and emotional and engaging, that I've got to go stronger than four. A solid 4.5, I think, even if certain elements don't quite land for me, and improving upon them could have bumped it up to 5 stars.)
BOY, I LOVE GRISHAVERSE. I love getting to see the characters we say at what was, relatively speaking, the beginning of their journey -- close to the start of a struggle that defined their lives -- and how it's changed them, and how much they've grown since, and how hard they're working to shape the future of the country they love. It's a testament to how well Leigh Bardugo has built the character arc for all of them -- how they feel exactly the same, only older and wiser and more mature, and how hard they're all working to put things back together. I'm so, so invested in all of them (which makes it even harder when we lose one of them, NO SPOILERS BUT GOD I AM FUCKING DEVASTATED), and I love them so much, and they're all doing SO WELL, I AM SO PROUD OF THEM. (It's also so delightful to see Leoni and Adrik back in action in Ravka!! And my kids in Kerch, aaaaa!!!)
I've written tons of words over the course of this series about how much I love Nikolai, so I'll spare you here -- suffice it to say that I absolutely fucking adore him, and his POV in these two books has been an absolute goddamn gift. He's just my FAVORITE. I also love getting to see Zoya's journey -- here of all books, I think, we see the biggest shift in how her experiences have changed her, how she's grown and absorbed the lessons from the war and her family and her friends and what she's been through. I love her a lot, too, and I'm so proud of everything she's accomplished. (Her GARDEN!! GOD!!!) I also love Nina forever, of course -- I don't necessarily feel like she's grown or changed so much as gotten herself back, become closer to who she was before she went through her traumas and losses, found her passion and love again, and I truly, genuinely, wholeheartedly love that for her. Hanne's journey, too, is fucking amazing, and I'm so happy for the two of them.
I also enjoyed the new characters from the Shu Han, but I did feel like that particular aspect of the story was... not entirely necessary? I did really enjoy getting the peek behind the worldbuilding curtain to another country, and I love the bittersweet soldier/guard love story, and I love seeing Ehri with her family -- but there was SO MUCH going on in this book, and adding the POV of someone we only just met at the very tail end of the last book -- and an entire storyline happening at the same time as everything else! -- is just... a tad overwhelming. It MIGHT have worked better if this was a trilogy, but tbh I'm not sure I really wanted it to be? So as is, this seems better suited for, like... a companion novella! Or some other variety of material extraneous to the actual story, because as is, we really don't actually NEED to be kept abreast of the Shu Han portion of this plot; we can just learn about it secondhand. It's certainly fun to read about, but in a book as jam-goddamn-packed as this one, the fat really should be trimmed as much as possible.
And having said that, I also feel like certain plot elements in this book... came out of nowhere, a little? (view spoiler)[Like, with Hanne, I wonder how differently that King of Scars plot would read knowing how things go down here, but at the time I read it, it very much seemed like a woman chafing at the gender-based restrictions of her life, not a trans man fully trapped by them. Again, maybe now that I know, it'll feel like a better buildup? But as is it seemed like a tad bit of an ass pull, neatly and wonderfully as that storyline resolved. I felt the same way about Nikolai not wanting to be king and Zoya making a good queen -- like, didn't we JUST read in KoS that she'd be terrible at it because she's a general?? I kind of agree with that, quite frankly! I don't really think she'd be a good queen at all! Definitely a great second-in-command, but not a good ruler in and of herself. And I'm glad that it seems like there's a solid path for Nikolai to be at the head of Ravka again, but it does make me feel very cheated that he had to give it up! He's worked so hard! He loves his country so much! Why this, tbh!! I feel like it did get resolved as solidly as it could have been, under the circumstances, but... it still doesn't feel quite right. Sigh! (And I feel the same way about Nikolai/Zoya; I feel like if this had been a trilogy, the buildup would have felt better, more realistic and smoother? As is, I feel like we got hints of yearning and wonder in the first book, then... feelings here? Feelings that didn't feel entirely earned? I think the two of them will be good for one another, and Leigh Bardugo is really good at selling me on romance, but I wish this one had had a better build because both of these characters fully deserve it! (hide spoiler)]
So -- overall, I really loved the experience of reading this, as I do all the later Grishaverse books. Lots of enjoyable action and tons of deep heartfelt emotions behind them, and of course SUPERB Nikolai content. I wish it had been streamlined and had a slightly different ending -- or an ending that had felt, to me, more organic or built up better -- but overall, that's just things that would turn it from a very good book to a near-perfect book. I still loved it a lot, and I'm still really looking forward to revisiting it sometime in the future (actually very much so, because then I can evaluate better how the ending gets built to!). I'm so sad that this is my last entry into Grishaverse for a while, and I absolutely cannot wait to one day go back....more
This book was even more pulpy ridiculous nonsense than I anticipated, and -- man, I just wish a lot of these alternate reality books really reckoned wThis book was even more pulpy ridiculous nonsense than I anticipated, and -- man, I just wish a lot of these alternate reality books really reckoned with more of how significantly history and culture would change as a result of the changes they've made?? This REALLY doesn't want to account for what it would actually mean for America to have been a monarchy in any kind of real or weighty way; it just wants fluffy ridiculous royal romance, but set in the US, with modern-day American culture. Which, like... sure? I get it? But if you want to actually write a book with that premise, DO SO -- actually address what it would mean! Do some work to craft the world that exists as a result! Or just do some research on the UK if you want pulpy royal romance, or bring in a foreign prince or princess to the US or something! Or create an entire secondary world, even!! I am so tired of stories that are basically just Our World But Literally One Different Thing that want to explore that thing without actually creating the world that the thing would result in-- it frustrates me to no end. So once it became clear that that was where this was going, it was inevitable that I wasn't going to LOVE this book -- but I did get a decent amount of trash fluff enjoyment out of it nonetheless.
The Beatrice plot is pretty standard royal fare; I did find the Sam stuff fun and engaging, and I do want everything to turn out okay with her and her dude! I find it frustrating that we don't get a Jeff POV; it means it's hard to get a handle down on his characterization, what he's thinking and feeling, and thus hard to really get to know or even sympathize with him. I enjoy Nina, though due to aforementioned lack of Jeff POV it's hard to get to know and root for their relationship -- and Daphne, of course, is so terrible it's hard to even know where to start. Overall everyone is just... pretty caricature-y, and makes lots of terrible choices, and it makes it hard to fully root for or feel attached to any of them! Which I wasn't super expecting going in, of course, given -- you know -- the pulpy ridiculous nonsense, but there we go. Fun enough, if in an intensely trashy and half-baked way; I'll still read the sequel, because I Must Know What Happens, unfortunately....more
I am fully planning on rereading this book (although ngl, I'm not sure any experience will compare to being curled up in bed in the wee hours in the mI am fully planning on rereading this book (although ngl, I'm not sure any experience will compare to being curled up in bed in the wee hours in the morning, tearing through it during Readathon), , and will then give it the more detailed review it fully deserves, but I do want on the record here that I have read it, and I loved it, and it is incredibly good and incredibly moving, and fully merits five stars. Honestly really excited to revisit it, hopefully sometime soon....more
I remember very little about this book (other than the messy gays, and I WISH I remembered more about them because they are SO GOOD), but I do know thI remember very little about this book (other than the messy gays, and I WISH I remembered more about them because they are SO GOOD), but I do know that this entire series wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, and I WAS disappointed that we didn't get full ot3 with Soren, Astrid, and Baldur, and I might have liked this book better than the others in the series? (So we'll say a strong three stars, even 3.25, but not quite 3.5, I think.) But overall, as a unit, this series is underwhelming; I probably won't be revisiting it anytime, and I likely wouldn't really recommend any of it to people, either....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
God, this book is a goddamn MESS. I regret that I waited so long to review it, because a lot of the details of it have now been lost in the mists of tGod, this book is a goddamn MESS. I regret that I waited so long to review it, because a lot of the details of it have now been lost in the mists of time and my shitty memory, but also it's probably good that this'll be... at least 25% less scathing than it would have been on a fresher review? Not that it still won't be hella scathing, because GOD I hated this book, but less intensely viscerally so! Hopefully I can speak more clearly and concisely to the issues I had with it as a result of the distance!
So let's get this initial critique out of the way: this is more of something I would prefer than I think is a flaw, but I truly think this book would have been WILDLY improved if it had ended in a polyamorous relationship. I mean... all three characters have feelings for one another! It's such an obvious resolution!! I feel very "if Nic Stone didn't want us to ship the thing why did she write it that way" about it!! I almost feel gaslighted by the story veering so far away from that premise, because it seemed SO CLEAR that that would be the best resolution. And again, it's the author's story, and she's allowed to write it however she wants -- if that wasn't what she wanted, fine! But it makes some of the decisions she chose to make in order to veer away from that resolution -- which, imo, would have brought all of the threads introduced in the story together much more smoothly and tied up a neater and more sensical conclusion -- land very poorly, so that's what we'll talk about next.
Actual bad decisions this book makes: completely sidelining the character who questions her sexuality, being told repeatedly by the lesbian (who then later questions HER sexuality!!) that she's actually straight and being treated as manipulative and cruel for exploring what she wants and then being TOTALLY written off in the end in favor of the Cooper/Jupiter ship. (I didn't LOVE Rae as a character -- I found her affected and unrealistic -- but her discovering she might be queer did feel real and relatable and the story and characters' treatment of it was APPALLING.) Cramming tons of biphobia and transphobia into the story of the lesbian questioning whether she's actually gay or a more nebulous queer -- which I don't have a problem with as a story in and of itself (though it requires VERY careful handling, and honestly should probably be more of an ownvoices story), but it just feels done really harmfully here, especially when it seems to be done in service of letting the boy who continually inappropriately lusts after his LESBIAN BFF everything he wants in the end! (I also have to admit to not being a huge fan of Cooper -- for aforementioned reasons -- or Jupiter, who SLEEPS WITH COOPER SO AS TO NOT LOSE HIM TO SOMEONE ELSE?? BEFORE ADMITTING TO HERSELF THAT A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM IS POSSIBLE??? ??? ???? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, HOW RIDICULOUSLY SELFISH CAN ONE PERSON BE, OH MY GOD.)
The entire execution is just... so messy and awful and quite frankly offensive to every single identity (including straight men, tbqh), and it being carried out by wildly unsympathetic characters makes everything all the worse. I just absolutely hated the back half of this and the ending in particular, and there aren't really any other redeeming elements in this book -- even Jupiter's love of Queen, my favorite band, just made me mad on their behalf because she didn't DESERVE Freddie, ha. The writing is weak, the plot is terrible, the characters are unsympathetic, and I would not in good conscience recommend this offensive and terrible bullshit to anyone, even as a hateread....more
I remember this book being not my jam, but still solidly written and engaging, if highkey weird. I will probably never revisit it, so that's just goinI remember this book being not my jam, but still solidly written and engaging, if highkey weird. I will probably never revisit it, so that's just going to have to suffice for now, unfortunately!...more
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