Monthly Wrap Up: August

Not a lot to say with this month. Mostly I just wasn't in the mood for reading or writing (which is why this is late). I tried to do 2 readthons and didn't fully complete either of them. I only read 6 books and while overall they were good (only having one 2 star), they were almost all disappointing to a certain degree. I did still manage to have a good variety of books (including a non fiction), read my classic of the month, and continue with my yearly reading challenge. Also midway through the month I started impleneting a new star rating system on a scale of 10 stars that I would then translate into a scale out of 5 stars. For clarification numbers on the left is out of 10 stars and the numbers on the right is out of 5 stars: 1-2 stars=1 star, 3-4 stars=2 stars, 5-6 stars=3 stars, 6.5-7 stars= 4 stars, 8-9= 5 stars (if a book manages to get 10/10 it's obviously going to be 5 stars). Not a bad month, just wasn't what I hoped it would be.  

More Than This by Patrick Ness: In the past I've read two very different books by Ness. A Monster Calls and The Knife of Never Letting Go. Also had very different opinions about the books. I've stayed away from Ness' other books because they've gotten mixed reviews, at best. The one exception seemed to be More Than This, which everyone seems to like but also tip toed around what it's about. Now having read it, it makes sense why very little is given away about this book, but I really didn't like it. The only reason I kept reading it was in the hope that I would get answers by the end of the story, which I didn't. I will say that the first quarter of this book, when Seth is waking up and just experiencing the environment around him, was actually good. Lyrical and introspective, the pacing was just right and really pulled me into the story despite little action or dialogue. It was definitely my favorite part of the book. After the mysterious Driver shows up, however, the entire novel goes downhill. Instead of being a slow, tender story that would focus on people, and life, and mortality, it just degrades into this weird action packed dystopian. Characters were just bland, absolutely devoid of personality and minimal back story to establish how tragic they are. As for Seth himself, I liked that he was gay and in the big scheme of things it wasn't a big deal, but I don't get why their had to be such extreme hatred for him being gay when that was only a very small part of the story. What's most frustrating about this book is that nothing makes sense and it provides no answers. Even the ending makes no sense! I can't go into any details because of spoilers but this is definitely one of the worst post apocalyptic/ dystopian stories I have ever read, and there are a ton of generic ones out there. This novel was just a cheap Matrix rip off with sloppy execution. Based off my opinion of this book, and what I've heard of other works by Ness, I don't think I'll be reading any more material that produces. More Than This received 2 out 5 stars (3/10) and was my pick for the Treasure Hunting Readathon: Door.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I was initially going to read this one next month, as my classic for September, but I picked it up for this month as part of a reading challenge (which I did not complete). I know it's classic that a lot of people read as a child, but I wasn't one of those people, and I was curious how I would feel about it as an adult. There were definitely some problematic aspects of this book that are honestly staples of Victorian literature, child abuse (neglect) and racism. That being said, I rather enjoyed this book. It's a simple story, a sour girl discovering a secret garden, with a lot of depth due to the themes of love, friendship, and growth, making it both easy to read but something that lingers with me. It's a pretty book, with both the writing and the setting, that works as a timeless classic. The Secret Garden received 4 out 5 stars (7/10).  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: When I read this book in junior high, I liked it but I honestly didn't get the hype. Now rereading, I realize that I missed so much as kid and this is the type of book I would recommend everyone read. Taking place during WWII, this book follows a young girl named Liesel as she grows up in a small town in Germany with her foster family. This is a book that nails everything that a historical fiction should be. The war serves as a backdrop while the spotlight is put on the struggles of daily life and the effects of the war. Characters are all well written, to the point where they come off as life like. Each one stands out as an individual with their own story to tell: from the book thief, to accordion player, to the Jesse Owen's fan, to the Jewish fist fighter, even Death himself. Even the plot, which is simple war time slice of life, really pulls me in with it's humanity and stellar characters. It's honestly hard to restrain myself in this quick wrap up because this book evokes so many thoughts and emotions in me. The best thing about this book is that it shows the humanity, it shows the light even in dark times. There's very little fault to this book, if any, and is the kind of book the comes along every once in while that you know will withstand the test of time and evolve into a modern classic. Needless to say The Book Thief received 5 out 5 stars (9/10).  

The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship by Marilyn Yalom and Theresa Donovan Brown: While the topic of this piece of nonfiction did appeal to me, since I'll read just about any history book that focuses on women, but I think because it was a topic I had such high hopes for, I was ultimately disappointed by it. There were only a few chapters that I thought were actually informative, which is actually the problem I have with most shorter history books. When it's a history book there's generally a lot of ground to cover, that can't be properly condensed into a book under 400 pages. The result is usually a text that glosses over the more intimate and intricate details, which is what I'm really looking for. I really wanted to get a sense of the real world history of friendships among women because it's something I feel like doesn't get the spotlight it deserves and even in fiction I'm always looking for good examples of friendship between female characters. The first few chapters focused on the philosophy of friendship, while emphasizing how male dominated it was at the expense of women. That theme remained to almost the halfway point, which I really didn't want because that lesson has been driven in my head and I don't want to see it everywhere I go. Those chapters really only focused on a few notable female friendships at various periods of history, and only in 3 countries (sort of 4) in the entire world. There were a few solid chapters in the middle, and the book did end better than it started, but the last few chapters kept repeating the same thing. I felt stiffed because most the book just wasn't informative or memorable. An interesting subject that just fell short in it's delivery (and possibly research). The Social Sex received 3 out 5 stars (6/10) and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book by 2 female authors” (which was really hard to find).  

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson: Every century, someone is chosen to be the bearer of the Godstone. Princess Elisa is the current bearer, and while she is prophecised to perform a great act of service, the path to that destiny is filled with danger. When she is married off to a king from a neighboring kingdom she must finally face what it means to be the bearer and begin her long journey with an uncertain ending. I am excited to talk about this one but I'm finding it hard to. When I first read it back in high school, it instantly became one of my favorite series and remained one of my favorite series all these years. Because of how much I loved it, I put this reread off for awhile because I was super nervous that it wouldn't live up to my previous experience. It didn't, but to be fair it would be almost impossible since my reading tastes have changed, I have a better understanding of what I think makes a good book, and I've been hyping up this book for years.  What made this first book so beloved to me (an intelligent female protagonist who experiences amazing growth and the role of religion) were still all there with the depth that I remember them having. There even some surprising elements: like I still thought the romance was well handled and I loved the world. Everything about it from the religion to the geography to the language and even the fact that all the characters have darker skin (seriously if you're looking for more diverse YA I would totally recommend this one), clearly has influence from a certain culture in our world but is still its own thing. There were however, a few things that did disappoint me, one of them being a big deal (at least for me personally). The pacing of the narrative itself was fine, especially since there was a lot of journeying in this book, but it almost felt like the narrative was moving too fast and I just wish there were at least a few moments where the plot settles and we get more intimate character moments. The major issue I had with this book the lack of girl power, something I thought this series had but upon reread I was confronted with the fact that it really doesn't. Again I would like to emphasize that Elisa is a fantastic character, not only because she proves her intelligence and puts it to good use but she's someone who grows past her insecurities and becomes a better individual for it, but she's the only female character that gets this treatment. Most of the other females, like her sister Alodia, her nurse Ximena, and her new handmaid Mara, get little screen time and are hardly relevant to the story, while the only female side character, Cosme, is a total bitch to Elisa for basically the entire novel. It was the exact opposite of what I wanted in terms of girl power, and I was really disappointed by that, but that's my only major complaint. This book has its strong points that elevate it beyond the typical YA fantasy but it isn't all that I thought it would be. The Girl of Fire and Thorns received 5 out 5 stars  (8/10) and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “reread of a past favorite.”

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson: Immediately after I finished The Girl of Fire and Thorns I started reading this one, since I want to marathon read all the books in the Fire and Thorns series, like I did last time. Where the first book focuses on Elisa's personal growth (the whole series does but its most prominent in the first book), introducing the world, and the battle of good vs evil (Joyans vs Invierne), the second book focuses more on Elisa being a ruler while still having a looming destiny and the political machinations of the world, and starts to blur the line between good and evil. Based on that summary it sounds more like the kind of book that I would love, but I struggled more with this book than I did the previous. I think it's due to the fact that this book tried to tackle more mature subject matter, but kept the narrative pacing the same as its predecessor, and also didn't really remedy the issues I had in the previous book, which were only more prominent. I didn't like the political intrigue because almost everything about it was just kind of dumped in the book with no prior development, which it really needed in order to create a believable scenario. I discussed in The Girl of Fire and Thorns wrap up that I was pretty disappointed by the lack of girl power which only got worse in this book. Mara as a character frustrated me because she only existed to talk about boys with Elisa, but there's also a lack of females being major characters or even important figures in politics. Even Elisa being a ruler is undermined by all the males in her court (except Hector), which is something I've seen done with YA fantasies with female monarchs, and I really don't like it because it reduces the queen down to little more than a figure head. Carson clearly shows that she can write amazing characters that are also female, but I don't know why she reserves it to only 1. Speaking of Elisa though, she is the best thing about this whole series. Like I love everything about Elisa. I love that she retains her core characteristics (strong moral code, her faith and intelligence) but she continues to progress as a character, constantly evolving to reach her full potential. She's honestly what drives the narrative, her decisions as a queen, her destiny as the bearer of the Godstone, and her internal growth. As YA fantasy, especially one from the time period it was published, this is a good book, but it's frustrating seeing the obvious potential this book has to be a rather sophisticated fantasy series, but then just not having it reach that potential. The Crown of Embers received 4 out 5 stars (7/10).

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Monthly Wrap Up: July

July didn't quite go how I planned it to. First, there was my families vacation to South Carolina. I brought several books with my because I thought I would just be able to crank out within a few days, but our stay was much shorter than usual and even during traveling I wasn't able to read as much for various reasons (fear of planes and driving in the dark). So in that time frame I was only able to complete 3 books, which was good but nowhere near what I was hoping. Than work started getting busy, and I had to deal with some graduate school stuff, so I didn't have as much time for reading. That all being said I was still able to complete 10 books, most of which were good and I gave 3 or 4 stars to (there were a few notable exceptions), and accomplished various reading goals, like completing the Reading Frenzy's Runaway with the Circus Readathon (which consisted of 6 prompts) and did my classic of the month. I will also say this month had a huge variety of books, both in the genre and status, and while I still definitely gravitate toward adult fantasy, I feel like picking up books outside of my preferred genre is becoming easier as I end up liking more and more of those selections. To summarize, despite not getting to all the books I wanted to and the three 1 star reads, this month was really solid and I definitely found some books that I could add to my favorites of the year.  

Morning Star by Pierce Brown: Darrow must complete the mission of the Sons of Ares, to break the chains of Society, but the events of the previous book have completely changed things. With dwindling resources and allies, Darrow and the Sons of Ares make a final stand against the tyranny of the Sovereign and the Jackal. Upon rereading this book, I'm definitely glad that Brown is continuing the series because I don't think this works well as a finale. When I read the last book in the series, I want to feel that full emotional impact and want a sense of resolution from the ending. I'm not saying everything needs to be completely fixed, I like having a few loose threads, but this ending leaves me with such a sense of uncertainty that I almost feel anxious, which is not something I want from a finale. My biggest issue with this book was probably the pacing of the book, and how everything was just rushed so it could be crammed into one last book. I know there's a lot that this book had a ton it needed to cover, and without a doubt one of this series strongest feature is its action, but something was off and this seemed to produce a ripple effect that tainted other elements of this book. The stakes didn't feel as high, despite the fact that they were potentially world ending stakes. Characters arcs were incomplete, with only Darrow and Sevro having really progressed in any way (and even then I have mixed feelings about Darrow's arc), and romances were really forced into the narrative with little chemistry between the couples. New characters that were added in honestly had little impact. There was, however, 1 major highlight of this book, and really the whole series. That was the villain, The Jackal. As a villain, he is terrific. He's terrifying, amoral, cunning, and deceptive. He isn't a fighter, but that's what makes him so dangerous, because he knows how to get others to do the fighting so that all opponents underestimate him. His petty grievances against his family, and self worth issues make him human, but he is anything but humane. He's honestly one of the best villains, ever. Morning Star was a fun, enjoyable read, but it really lacked the development that it needed to elevate and complete it, and as a finale it really is disappointing. Morning Star received 3 out 5 stars and for the Circus Readathon was my pick for the Flyer prompt “a book set in space.”      

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys: When I completed Sepetys novel Salt to the Sea, I loved it so much that I decided to read the rest of her books. I took this one with me when I went on vacation because I would be in South Carolina, and since this book is set in the south I thought it would be the perfect time to read it. This is a historical fiction set in New Orleans during the 1950s. Josie is the daughter of a prostitute with big dreams of leaving behind all the prejudice and brothel that she has grown up in and starting fresh with a college education from a prestigious college. I admit I had high standards going into this one because of Salt to the Sea, and while Out of the Easy wasn't as good, I still liked it. There were a few hiccups however. This narrative lacked direction at times, to the point where things just stalled, with no action or quiet moments. I also didn't like the romance. It wasn't awful but very predictable and just didn't have enough substance or development, especially when compared to almost every other relationship. The one other thing I struggled with was the setting itself. The writing just didn't convey the vibrancy of New Orleans, which is shame because New Orleans has such a colorful reputation. Most of these complaints, however, were minor and this book managed to pull of a really solid, more mature narrative without being depressing. Characters were the highlight of this book because all of them had a life like quality to them, but the best one was probably Josie. Watching as various relationships shape who she is, working hard to achieve her dreams, and having to tackle disappointments and harsh realities made her She's definitely a flawed individual, but I think that at least makes her relateable and sympathetic. Still not as good as Salt to the Sea, but a decent good and one of the better historical fiction novels that I've read. Out of the Easy received 4 out 5 stars.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang: Since I was going on vacation, I just wanted a nice quick read, and I tend to overall like short story collections. I wasn't sure what I expected going into this, I think I was hoping for something like Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie anthology, but that wasn't what this collection was. It was exclusively science fiction stories (though there were a couple stories that blurred the lines) but the most surprising aspect was definitely how many hard SF stories there were, which is a sub genre I'm not comfortable with yet. Those stories were definitely my least favorite because not only did I disliked what they focused on, physics theorems and mathematical proofs (which I've always struggled with) but also from a writing stand point these stories were the weakest. There were several issues present in most of the stories (weak endings, cold tone, impersonal characters, and disjointed narratives) but they were just really all present and emphasized in the 2 hard SF stories (Story of Your Life and Division by Zero). On the bright side, there was some very good stories that I really loved that I think nailed everything a short story should be. My favorite 2 stories were Tower of Babylon and Seventy Two Letters, both of which would get 5 stars. The individual stories get mixed reviews from me, ranging from poor 1 star, to average 3 star, to excellent 5 star, and despite the fact that execution felt weak in most of the stories, most of the stories at least had some interesting themes. Overall thought it was a decent collection and I'm glad I read it, but I wish I had known it would be just SF stories. As a whole, Stories of Your Life and Others received 3 out 5 stars.    

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle: This is classic fantasy story that somehow managed to stay under my radar until a couple years ago. I honestly didn't expect much out of it, but at the very least it would be a quick, easy read, with a simple premise of the last unicorn going on a quest to find the rest of her kind. After completing this one, it actually managed to exceed my expectations. It definitely hit all the beats of a classic fantasy: a long quest, medieval European setting and myths, wicked king, magic and prophecy. There's a lot of elements about the book that could make me dislike it, because I have struggled with several epic fantasy novels in just this past year. The difference is that The Last Unicorn is significantly shorter than the other books, and that is without a doubt what makes it work for me. Instead of dragging the story out as long as possible to make it seem grand and epic (because everyone's trying to emulate Tolkien), Beagle gets right to the point and keeps everything at a smaller scale. This pays off because almost every scene feels worthwhile and I'm actually invested in the characters, who were all interesting and well written. Even things I would normally irritate me, I thought was well done. Specifically the prophecy aspects of the narrative. Prophecies are so overused, and rarely done well, they usually make the story feel cheap. In The Last Unicorn, the prophecy wasn't a fundamental part of the story, but it did add layers and the way it played out was done in such a poetic way that it really was a satisfying addition to the narrative. There were also some great themes in this story, in fact the whole thing felt like a mystical allegory for growing up, and I personally love finding good coming of age narratives. There was a lot about this novel that just worked for me and I thought was well executed, but there were a few missteps. Most were minor, like one filler scene (that was a bit weird), and the juxtaposition of modern pop culture reference being present in a medieval setting, but the biggest issue I had was the ending. It was a vague and just felt like I was missing something (though I can't pin point exactly what), but the ending definitely dropped the rating a little. All in all this was a solid fantasy that stands the test of time, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good stand alone fantasy novel. The Last Unicorn received 4 out 5 stars and was one of the books I read for the Reading Frenzy's “Runaway with the Circus” Readathon.          

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: Long books can be a struggle to get through, especially if you become increasingly frustrated with the story, and oh boy was that the case for this one. Over 700 pages, and I'd say about 600 of those pages was just filler. Most of the story was dedicated to sub plots which I think were supposed to add to the characters and the world  (like the Dwarves electing a new king) and the only events that tied the book to the rest of the series was at the very beginning and end of the book, which makes the entire book feel unnecessary. To add insult to injury, this tome of a book was almost exclusively in the POV of people I didn't care about. Eragon was annoying at first, but now he's just bland because his purpose in this book seemed to just be a mouth piece to spew exposition. There's also the detail of him having made allegiances to everyone he comes in contact with, and while this could have been an interesting plot point and character flaw (since everyone points out that he's basically spread himself to thin) nothing really comes of it. Roran got a lot more screen time in this book, and I hated his POV in the second book and I disliked it even more in this one, because he doesn't do anything and doesn't deserve all the leadership he gets. He's basically a discount Eragon, his chapters were so grating that I just started skipping them all together. The ultimate slap in the face though, was the removal of Nausada's POV. She's my favorite character, by far, the most complex, and I really felt her absence. In general I was so disconnected from the story and the characters, that after days of finishing it I honestly don't remember most of what happened. It sucks because not only was this a favorite series of mine as a child, but also because I see glimpses of potential for this series to be elevated for adult audiences but nothing is done with it. I'll read the last book at some point, just to finish the series, but I'm in no rush to get to what will probably another disappointing tome. Brisingr received 1 out 5 of stars.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: For a little over a year I've wanted to read this book. Granted it's a mystery which falls out of my usual genre, but it was receiving enough attention to make me curious. Almost immediately I had issues with this book, and those issues stretch through the entire narrative. First is the writing style. Larsson (or at least the translator, since this was originally published in Sweden) seems to use a very dry style, utilizing the precise words that are needed. I have a history of disliking books with a dry style and this one was no exception. The result was that I was honestly bored, felt like I was reading a lot of filler that focused on what exactly everyone looked like and what they were doing, and just in general very detached from the narrative. The other part of this book that was off putting for me was the sexuality and sexual violence. Like this is definitely a novel I would only recommend for an adult audience. I already knew there was going to be a rape scene with Salander, but there was more than just that, which I was not expecting. It just builds up, from the male protagonist constantly having casual sex, to the way men regard Salander, to Salander being explicitly raped twice, then a missing person case turning into a hunt for a sexual sadist with a trail of bodies. It was so bleak and really turned me off from the narrative. Combining the writing style and sex, and I ended up skimming the majority of the book, because every time I tried to fully read, I just felt worn down. Speaking of which the mystery narrative wasn't that good. I've seen worse but I wasn't invested in this one at all, there were some notable holes in it, and toward the end it was pretty obvious who was the killer. I wasn't invested in the characters because they basically felt like archetypes that I either disliked or had seen way too many times, although Salander did manage to have a few shining moments. Basically there was nothing that I liked about this story: the tone, the writing, the violence, the characters, and the story itself. I personally would recommend just watching the movie if you're curious about this one, since I could see it potentially being better in movie format. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo received 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompts: “set in Scandinavia,” “published post humously,” and “features an amateur detective.”

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: The only reason I read this book is because I wanted to knock out some challenge reads. I didn't expect to love this one, it's not in a genre I gravitate towards and Rowell's books strike me as a mix between John Green and Nicholas Sparks novels, neither of which I have any interest reading. However, this novel fulfilled 2 prompts, so I really needed to get this one done. Honestly, this one felt like I was reading fanfiction. The writing was choppy and juvenile, the dialouge was awkward and unnatural, the characters were card board cutouts made from a collection of cliques, there was no chemistry with the romance (love interest was a bit of creep at times), and whenever there was a plot it was melodramatic moments that the author was trying to force. Even though this was supposed to be a coming of age book, with the protagonist going off to college, and being in a fandom (with the fictional fandom being a blatantly gay Harry Potter), it delivered on none of that. If you want a good book on fandoms, with a well written protagonist with social anxiety, I would skip this book and just read Eliza and Her Monsters. Everything about this book was lazy and awkward and was even uncomfortable at moments, and I'm just glad I got it over with quickly. Fangirl received 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompts: “set on a college campus” and “author whose 1st and last name start with the same letter.”

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss: This book was in a word, fun. All this book wanted to do was tell a fun story, and I think it delivered on that. The whole story focuses on Mary Jekyll as she discovers that her late father was part of a secret organization of scientists that might be connected to a recent string of murders in London. Along the way she meets several other women in the same predicament as her, and together they work to stop the mysterious Society of Alchemists before it's too late.  Loved how the whole book is just a nod to several iconic literary figures, especially of Victorian Literature, but it really focuses on the females and the effect that their “fathers” had on them. The way the book was written, as a sort of memoir with each of the girls adding in their own commentary, worked well because it gave us some insight to each of their personalities as well as making slight commentary on the Victorian Era. Surprisingly I also liked how the mystery was handled, because that's usually where a story comes crashing down for me. I think that's because it took it's time to develop and arise naturally, kept the stakes relatively small, and set the groundwork for a series long conflict. I thought Mary was a pretty good protagonist, a practical minded leader and good hearted individual. While the book keeps the plot simple, which worked, its also kept most of the characters simple, which did not entirely work. For most of the girls, and even other side characters, I felt like they weren't developed much outside of their original context. Which meant that I didn't feel much attachment to them, nor did I get a feel for their inner dynamics, which is rather important for group based stories. Granted the book didn't suffer too much from it and we have the whole just of the series to further develop them. In my opinion this book is ultimately just a fluffy story that's great for reading slumps. The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter received 4 out of stars and was my pick for the Circus prompt “Cotton Candy: a fluffy and light hearted read.”

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff: Hyped books always make me skeptical, because more often than not I've been burned by them. Initially I got this one as a gift for my sister because it seemed like the type of book she would enjoy, but I was intrigued because of all the praise it had been receiving. If the premise of this book sounds familiar, a young girl training to take revenge on a corrupt government that executed her family, that's because it is. At the start this book does feel just like a copy of Arya Stark's narrative, and even the rest of the story features overused tropes that I don't like (Mean Girl and Mean Teacher) but I think everything else about this book makes up for that. The world was really interesting, a blend of various real world time periods and cultures but injected a healthy amount of fantastical elements. Loved the Red Church and the various classes, aka Halls, because you actually get to see what the acolytes learn and how it would be useful. “Truths” was definitely my favorite because that was the class with poisons and chemicals. I also appreciate the fact that while this definitely is an adult fantasy, and has dark and grim elements, it never steps over the line of being bleak to an absurd degree like a lot of fantasy (adult and YA) currently is, which is nice because I hate grimdark books. Characters were all interesting to say the least because while each was unique, with their own quirks and motivations, they all have a cut throat streak to them since all are either assassins or training to be assassins. While I did like Mia and found her to be an excellent protagonist, she wasn't actually my favorite character, which speaks to how good the side characters were. All the relationships in this book were artfully done and really tugged on my emotions. Like I wanted to trust others and for true friendships to be developed, only for the rug to be ripped from under me and those relationships only to end in death or betrayal. Even liked the romance, which is saying something because it's hard for to find a romance I think works well (still didn't need the sex scenes though). As for the plot, I've already stated that there were some tropes and the story did drag at times, but overall I liked the story. I liked seeing the various twists and turns that it took, I thought the flashbacks were well utilized, all the pieces just clicked together, and by the end of the story I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation. There's also a matter of the footnotes, which I know some people don't like, but I personally liked them because of how they added world building but also conveyed the narrators wit. This book wasn't super original, but everything about this book was really solid and I honestly loved it. I'm eager to see where the rest of the series goes. Nevernight received 4.5 out 5 stars, and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “religious setting,” and for the Circus Readthon prompts: “Big Top” (red, white, black colors on cover), “Grandstand” (hyped book), and “Ringmaster” (first book in a series).    

The Art of War by Sun Tzu: Over the years, I've read a variety of books. Mostly fiction, mostly fantasy but I've also read plenty of non fiction and classics, yet this one is really isn't like any other book I've read. A blend of classical writing and non fiction, above all it's a book on military tactics. While the concept is good, and I did find this insightful, I don't read books that focus on military. It's such a dry, technical form of writing that I struggle to visualize and can't connect with, and as a result I just tend to glaze over battle scenes, even in fiction novels that I'm really liking. I also didn't like how the supplemental notes and translations were placed within the book, to the point where the writing felt very choppy, and I honestly struggled with getting through the last 50 or so pages. On that note, I think Art of War is an interesting read, that illuminates the delicate relationship between peace and war, and does make the subject of military strategy approachable and understandable, but the subject still isn't something up my alley, and there were times I was just bored when reading it (both due to the subject and the writing itself). The Art of War received 3 out 5 stars and was my classic read of the month.  

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Monthly Wrap Up: June

Okay, so I'm actually a bit surprised that the month turned out the way it did. After the past couple of months, I accepted that wasn't likely to read a total of more than 5 books. This month I was able to read a whopping total of 15 books. 15! I haven't read that many books since January. Granted 2 of those books were DNF, one was a short classic, and another was only 7 pages, but still it's an impressive amount for the month. As for ratings it was all over the place. I had everything from a 1 star DNF to even a 5 star book, but the majority of books fell in the middle with 3 stars. This was also a surprise because toward the middle of this month, I was just reading 1 and 2 star books back to back. I lost my enthusiasm for reading, resigned myself to the possibility that this would be a horrible reading month, and even went a few days where I didn't read anything. After soon detox time, I pushed through and even managed to end the month on a relatively good note. Also got back on track with the reading challenges. I read a total of 6 books for the PopSugar Reading Challenge and finished at least 1 of the books I set out for the Reading Frenzy's Pride Month Buzzword Challenge. Biggest achievement was completing my Goodreads Goal of reading 50 books within the year. By the end of this month I completed 60 books, and now I want to see if I can make it to 100. Probably won't but, it will be an amazing accomplishment. So despite a significant low point, June was actually a good month.

Armistice by Lara Elena Donnelly: The previous book Amberlough had been a thorough disappointment, and I was nervous this one would be the last straw for this series. In fact it came close to being the biggest disappointment of the month. If this book wasn't impressing me by the halfway point than I was just going to give up the series. That did not happen, in fact I really ended up enjoying this book. Continuing some time after the previous book (I honestly couldn't tell you how much time, probably no more than 5 years), we follow a few characters from the previous book in their new circumstances, as well as a new character with connections to all the old characters. As I said in my Monthly Wrap Up for May, characters were the driving force for this series, which is part of why the first book struggled, because the character weren't done well. In this book however, the characters are much better because they now have some sense of identity. Aristide and Cordelia were tolerable, if not a little likeable at times. Cordelia's clearly been through some tough times but keeps grinding through to achieve her goal of destroying the Ospies, and her skills are good enough to convince other to help her cause. Aristide seems to want out of the criminal life, enjoying a new life of luxury in film, but the past won't let go of him. The new character, Lillian, was fantastic, like without a doubt the best part of the book. I like how she's connected to the other characters, both with her profession and the fact that she's Cyril's sister. Her work with the press puts in several politically delicate situations, but she demonstrates the smarts and the drive to accomplish her goal of saving her son. Through her you also finally get some behind the scenes political machinations, something this entire series needs yet usually fails to deliver on. Onto one of the stronger aspects of this series, and that suprisingly is the romance. The series stretching relationship is Aristide and Cyril, and with Cyril being absent, you see how much Aristide is effected by Cyril's absence. While having the main relationship be a gay romance, my favorite relationship was between Lillian and Jinadh, a minor royalty from the lush, tropical country where half the books takes place (I think the name is Liso, but I honestly don't know). They have a history, which resulted in their son, but can't be together due to her profession and social taboo's in his country. Yet when they meet again they still feel the chemistry, they want a relationship. They have their differences but are willing to put it aside in order to get their son to safety. I also thought some things that the previous book struggled with where partially remedied in this book. There were actual examples of Ospie atrocities, actual political intrigue (but I still struggle to fully grasp what's going on), and complex motivations that make sense. The setting was lush and tropical, and again had that 1920s feel with the film industry and airplanes, but I still struggle with knowing anything about the world (I don't even know where half the book takes place). So while this book does greatly improve from the first one but it doesn't take things to the extent that it needs to and I'm more than a little worried about how the last book is going to go. Armistice received 4 out 5 stars.

City of Lies by Sam Hawkin: I wanted this to be a 5 star book. All of the reviews I read made it seem like it had the potential to be 5 stars, but it wasn't. Part of issue might have been how long to took to get through this book. First I kept putting off reading it because I was worried that I wouldn't love it and the beginning chapters were very involved and were also fairly long. Than in the middle of reading it I had to put this book on hold so that I could get through other books that I needed to finish in May. This constant delaying of the book contributed to the feeling of the plot dragging, but looking back at the plot itself, there really wasn't much action after the second half of this book except for in the last chapter. The whole story revolves around a murder mystery that begins shortly before the city is under siege. As our protagonists try to find the killer and stop the siege they must figure out who is loyal and delve into the dark secrets of their city. This was a book that had so much potential, it really could have been a 5 star book. Even as I was going over my tag notes for about the first quarter of the book I saw a tone of potential for the world and characters and really saw how nuanced the story and themes could have been. Then the story starts to drag on and on and really starts to show it's true colors as a debut novel. This all culminates in an extremely lackluster, completely out of left field climax with one saving grace scene. Everything in the first quarter of this book was great: the writing was detailed and intriguing but not overwhelming, the POV characters had some depth, with their own sets of assets and flaws, and were immediately put to the test with a change in circumstance, the world was rich and unlike so much grimdark fantasy that I've been reading by portraying that while there were relevant grievances against those in charge it wasn't all bad, and the whole emphasis on poisons was cool. The mystery for the majority of this book was actually done well, which I haven't really seen well done mysteries in SFF books. I was as lost as the protagonists were, it made sense why they couldn't figure out who was behind the conflict of the books, and everyone made for an equally believable. Then things shifted and for some reason the story starts to drag on and on, with the same points being reiterated over and over and no real progress is made, and really starts to show it's true colors as a debut novel. Characters lose their depth (and prominence), the conflict becomes more black and white in morality, new things are just thrown in with little development, and the mystery loses its suspense. This all culminates in an extremely lackluster, completely out of left field climax with one saving grace scene. I really wanted this to be a 5 star novel but it just wasn't. City of Lies received 3.5 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “debut novel.”

Gone by Michael Grant: Much like City of Lies, Gone was a book that had a 5 star start. You are immediately thrown into a tense and strange situation with all the other kids, who are now trapped within a confined area and everyone over the age of 15 has disappeared. Aside from trying to survive without adults, new threats emerge in the form of bullies, mutants, and a mysterious creature known only as The Darkness. I loved this series as teen, completely wrapped up in the action and the characters, and was really hoping it would live up to those expectations. It did, at first. The beginning really grabs you and doesn't let go. I didn't want to put the book down, I needed to read how everything played out, and I loved that. Things went downhill when they POV started shifting to less interesting characters and the story really started to lose its tension. Also as weeks have passed between me finishing the book, I find myself forgetting most of what happened and just not being attached to the characters. There were a few that were compelling but they were put aside for Sam and Caine's rivalry which was both clique and not well done. Once the series started slowing down, it never really recovered and even during a high stakes climax, which the entire book has been building up to, I wasn't as invested in the story as I was at the beginning. Above all else, this very much felt like a YA book, with the simple writing, archetypal characters, and underdeveloped plot. Gone received 3 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “about someone with a superpower.”

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman: Here it comes, the inevitable 1 star DNF of the month. Though I will say this book wasn't bad, it just really wasn't for me. While I like warm books, I don't usually prefer light hearted books (another reason why I don't reach for contemporary). I will, however, still read these books if they fit the following conditions: they contain certain things within the narrative that I like, I'm aware that it's a light hearted story, and I'm in the mood for a light hearted story. I was not in the mood for that kind of story nor did I know the book would turn out to be one of those kind of stories. I went in there for the library bits because I am a book lover, and I think that is why many people are initially interested in reading this book. Unfortunately, the Library itself was hardly seen or utilized from what I read, so that things could focus on a book retrieval mission, which I found to be both absurd in its execution and boring. It felt like a bait and switch, intentionally drawing in readers with the promise of this really cool library that the story and characters revolved around only for it to actually be about a wacky retrieval mission and murder mystery in a weird alternate world. Which is a shame because what we see of the Library (lots of training with numerous people, vast sectors of different books from different worlds, the various classifications of different worlds based on magic/ chaos and technology, ancient meets modern) was really cool yet is completely underutilized and underdeveloped. Like, why is it so hard to write a good library setting? Seriously, the only good one I've ever seen was the Clayr Library in Lirael, and even that was underutilized. It's not just the bait and switch nature of the narrative that upset me, but literally everything else in the book was disappointing. The writing was so zaney, almost trying to emulate an episode of Doctor Who, and it was so absurd and over the top that it just grated on my nerves. Like for awhile Cogman seemed to be deliberately putting Liechtenstein in every other paragraph to sound clever and funny, but it became very irritating, very quickly. The world that the characters spend most of their time in could have been interesting, an alternate Steampunk London (still don't fully grasp why Victorian London is such a popular setting) with faries in it, but it was so focused on being as weird and over the top as possible that I couldn't enjoy the world, and we never really get much of a sense of what any of the other worlds are like. The character were at best lack luster and at worst irritating. I wanted to love Irene because she's a book lover, relies on her smarts, and I love those kind of characters, but she failed not just as a book lover but as a character in general. We are told Irene a book lover but never shown it, and other than her reading a few books, nothing is really known about her. I don't know really anything about her personality, her likes, her dislikes, her history, what she's like on missions. I don't even know what books she prefers to read or her opinions on various books. She was a very flat character that felt like a prop in the story. This emptiness is further extended  with her relationships. Her parents are always absent but she's not mournful or glad of this fact. She has no attachment to them, in fact she doesn't really show attachment to anyone. Like seriously, this woman seems to have no close friends despite the fact that she works in a large multi dimensional library with other book lovers. This again serves to make her come off as more of a cardboard cut out rather than a fully fleshed out character. The only other “relationship” we see is this petty rivalry she has with literally the only other on screen female. It was so annoying witnessing the only 2 female characters being catty toward each other. This may improve because the rival seems to stick around up to the latest book, but I couldn't stomach it with the rest of the book's contents. Despite how disappointing Irene was, Kai, her new partner, somehow managed to be worse. He was this smoldering guy, wearing a leather jacket and being incredibly gorgeous. He could have been interesting because apparently he's a dragon, or part dragon, but he's so forgettable outside of his looks that you have to be constantly reminded in the story that he is a dragon. The best thing I can say about him is that he wasn't a snarky jerk, but he was just devoid of personality. As far as I got there wasn't any romance going between Kai and Irene but I wouldn't be surprised if that's where it goes. This is a book where characterization, setting, and even plot are sacrificed in favor of writing in a particular style, and this felt a little insulting to me as a reader, but mostly the style just did not mesh well with me. Gave The Invisible Library 1 out 5 stars, since it's a DNF, and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “favorite prompt from past reading challenge,” which asked for a book that features a library. One day I'll read a book with a good library!

Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly: While this wasn't a bad finale, it was disappointing. In fact this whole series was disappointing. I thought based on the covers, and the premise, and other people's review, the series would sweep me away with it's dazzling characters and plot. What should have been a firework, was a sad a little party popper. This book takes another time skip and takes place after the Ospie regime is put out, and follows various characters as the deal with the aftermath of the previous 2 books. All the issues that have plagued the previous books in the series were repeated in this one, and I was honestly over it. Focusing on how tragic mediocre characters are doesn't work if I don't care about them. Even after completing 2 books I didn't really know these characters, I didn't have a grasp of what made them tick, and I felt no attachment to them. While I was disappointed with the characters, the worst thing about this book, and really this entire series, was how the plot and themes were handled. If this book had focused on the election and all the political turmoil, or even the effect these events were actually having on citizens, it would have been a much stronger series. Unfortunately, readers are only given scraps of that narrative, while the author prioritizes the melodrama between characters. This is most telling with the climax, were the results of the current election aren't divulged, it's just left hanging in the void, but several chapters are dedicated to detailing the journey of 2 characters leaving the country. There were some interesting themes that had a lot of potential but aside from giving a few nods to it, there isn't anything done with them. Lillian was once again the only source of anything good in this book. It's through her that we get the election subplot, and I felt for her going managing sticky political situations while having to deal with her brother Cyril who's been labeled a war criminal. Honestly without Lillian, this entire series would have been only 1 or 2 stars. Potential isn't enough to carry a series, and when execution fails the end results are disappointing, which sums up not only this book but this entire series. Amnesty received 2 out 5 stars.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente: This one is going to be short because there isn't a lot to say. I only managed to get about a third of the way into it, which I haven't done in years. Whenever I DNF I make an effort to get 50% of the way through so that the characters or plot has a chance to improve. The reason I quit at 33% was because my issues with the book had nothing to do with the characters or plot. The writing style was awful. It was pure word vomit, overloading the page with every word that sounded like it could fit, and some that didn't. The writing honestly starting resembling a Donald Trump speech with utilizing the quantity of words used (and how cool they sounded) versus the actual quality of word usage. It was about at that point that I had to put the book because I couldn't take it anymore and I knew that this was something that was not going to change as the book progressed. I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the characters or the plot, because everything was so weird. Granted I expected an eclectic writing style based on my experience with Valente's other novel, Deathless, and the general premise of this story, but it was so over the top it was just nauseating and unbearable. I've read a short story of Valente's and really liked that, but I just don't agree with her novels. Space Opera received 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book about a game or puzzle,” since it's not about a game exactly but more about a competition.    

Hunger by Michael Grant: I don't have much to say about this one for a few reasons. I hit another mini reading slump because when I was reading this book I wasn't reading anything I was enjoying. This lead to me just skimming like the last half of this book so that it could be over. Even doing that, though,  this book still lacked the level of action that the first book had set up. Not to say that there wasn't some significant things that occurred, but I really think this book suffered from second book syndrome. This book picks up immediately where the first book left off, all the kids still trying to survive in the FAYZE with dwindling resources and Caine recovering from his previous defeat and plotting against Sam. Most of the book is similar to the first one, kids being kids and not really managing things and different power struggles, and once again things being built up just to serve their purpose in the climax, which I think is the biggest fault of this book. Nothing was organically developed, the story seemed to drag on and at slow pace (despite the majority of the book literally taking place within 24 hours), characters were being stupid and generally assholes (heroes and villains), and there was a lot of forgettable material in this book. The saving grace of the previous book was the strong beginning, which this book lacked. The only saving grace of this book was that there were some compelling themes, but even that's a bit of stretch because they were once again poorly developed. After finishing this book I was really tempted to quit the whole series, which is telling of how frustrated I was with this entire book. I will at some point continue with this series, but I need to take a little time off after completing this disappointment. Hunger received 2 out 5 stars.  

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu: Close to the beginning of the year I was wanting to read a classic novel each month to widen the genre of books I read each month and get back into regularly reading classics like I used to in high school. I read Little Women, but that was really it. Last month Barnes and Noble had a sale on classics, so I picked up a couple that I really wanted to get. This one was the first one I read, and is actually a reread. I first read it for a literature course I had to take in college and I really liked. I liked the soothing tone it set and I found it to be a very thought provoking classic (even if I didn't always agree with what it was advocating). I figured I would probably enjoy rereading it and I think I liked it even more the second time. It's got a very serene tone, the philosophies presented are quite humbling and ones I think should be implemented in daily life (to certain extent), and it makes in interesting contrast to Confucianism with both having their virtues and weaknesses. There was supplemental reading that went along with the edition that I had, which I definitely think helped improve my reading experience because it added context to much of what I was reading. It's the kind of classic that you can see why it has lasted so long, and that you can enjoy reading because of it's simplicity and calm tone. Tao Te Ching received 5 out 5 stars.    

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: Initially I intended to read this book in September to help get ready for the eerie October reads I have planned. Then I noticed I'm behind on my PopSugar Challenge, so I wanted to do some quick reads to catch up. I looked up this one to see how long it is and it's only 7 pages, so I definitely gave this one a quick read. There's a lot you can break down even in this short story, and I like that. I always like something that gives me food for thought, and this work in just a few pages manages to do that better than some works do in over 400 pages. It manages it tackle and satirize themes of tradition and war, again, in such a small amount of pages. Suspense was also something done really well, which I did expect because it's a Shirley Jackson. At the beginning everything seems fine but then the story starts building up this sinister feeling around the lottery until the horrifying reveal of what the lottery actually is. It's an intelligent, satirical, chilling piece of short fiction that I think everyone should read. This book made a brief appearance on Netflix's Haunting of Hill House, which is another book by Jackson I want to get to later this year, but also thought it was a clever nod to Jackson's stories, and fits perfectly for the PopSugar prompt “book you saw someone else on TV reading.” The Lottery received 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown: Going into this reread I knew it wasn't going to be as good as I remembered. Despite this, and some frustrating aspects, I still managed to find it somewhat enjoyable. It has a rather generic dystopian premise, a boy at the bottom of the hierarchy rebelling against his leaders, there's something about the story that adds enough of a breath of fresh air for it to be engrossing. This book's greatest strength is definitely it's action and pacing. I was never bored while reading it and at least when there was a filler chapter, it was over quickly. It kept adding new twists and turns, creating multiple conflicts for the protagonist, Darrow. As for Darrow himself, he's a character that I both like and dislike. He's arrogant and stupid, but it feels in character and fits quite well for the series as a whole. He's generally a well intentioned person who is fighting for a good cause so you want him to win, but the book does display him as almost being too perfect. Speaking of which, I didn't like most of the side characters, especially the women, because their entire characterization revolved around Darrow. The core trait of every woman was that she's beautiful. Either kind and beautiful or evil and beautiful but always beautiful. It was really annoying, and I wanted more from these characters. The only one I liked was Sevro, who was really an underdog and weirdo, but didn't seems to care. The story in this first book is really an underdog story about overcoming the odds, which is straight forward and something people are both familiar with and inclined to like. The world was kind of cool, a sort of Roman Empire in space, that actually felt like the Ancient Rome and appreciated seeing that. While this book is a bit too shallow for me to love, it's a fun, quick read that can help pull you out of a slump. Red Rising received 3 out 5 stars and was my first book for the Reading Frenzy Pride Month Buzzword challenge, which asked you to read a book with a color in the title.  

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen: Oh boy, this one was a hot mess.  Much like the previous book, I knew I wasn't going to like this one, in fact I was almost sure I was going to hate it. Unlike Red Rising, however, which balanced out things I thought were good with things I thought could have been improved, this book only had a sparse few moments of compelling narrative but was jammed full of stuff that just made me angry. So the series is about Kelsea, a 19 year old who has been raised in isolation until the day she ascends to the throne. When she does become queen she discovers that her kingdom is in massive disarray and full of corruption. As she tries to work and internal problems and avoid assassination attempts, she also must address the looming war she will likely have with her powerful and mysterious neighbor, the Queen of Mort. While, there were several issues I had with Kelsea (which I will get into in a second) there were a few good moments with her. As a book lover, I was glad to see a ruler who wanted to put an emphasis on education, deeply valued her collection of books, and even worked with the church (which she makes clear her distrust of) to start something of a library system. That's something that I liked not just because of my own love of books but because it's good to see a ruler with those values and implementing them. The other thing was Kelsea ending the Mort Treaty when she learns what it means for her people. It's a tricky situation, and one she probably could have handled better, but I do admire her for sticking to her morals and doing what she believes is right. Feels a bit like Danerys Targyern (before she got power hungry). And that's about it. That was honestly all I enjoyed about the book. Other than what I just talked about everything else in this book actively frustrated me. Characters are very flat, usually either being written as angsty or evil (and those evils ones always being sluts), the plot has a ton of holes in it (biggest example being Kelsea raised in total isolation for 19 years) and generally dragged on with very little action despite the books length, and the world building was, in a word, bad. I'm not going into a detailed rant here, talking about all the issues I had with this book, but there is something I want to go into a little more depth with and that's Kelsea herself. Kelsea has to be one of the worst protagonists I have ever read. She's supposed to be intelligent, or at least book smart, yet consistently makes stupid decisions. She's a condescending brat who insults everyone around her, which isn't a smart idea since she's a brand new ruler. Insists on doing everything her way, and has mini tantrums when it doesn't go her way. Above all else is her hypocritical ways and her obsession with her appearance, considering her attractive mother beneath her for focusing on vanity, but Kelsea spends most of the time focusing on her own plain appearance (which is emphasized at every opportunity and usually in the worst way) and insults other people's appearance. Also when she's talking to her attractive servants who had previously been abused because of their beauty and they try to warn her of that, she completely disregards them, only wanting to be gorgeous. Kelsea is the kind of character this book tries to say is a savior figure, but all the narrative does is present her as a hypocritical brat that shouldn't be within a mile of the throne. I knew this book was going to be bad after reading some reviews, but I didn't think it would absolutely tank. The Queen of the Tearling received 1 out 5 stars.

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore: Going into this one I knew little, only that it was a magical realism because that's what McLemore usually writes and there's a curse on this family that causes their lovers to disappear but something changes when a boy shows up. Also you can tell flowers are going to be a central motif based on the colors and title. The flower's provided beautiful imagery and I liked what the meant to the girls and the land of La Pradera. In fact this novel's imagery was probably the best thing about it. It felt distinct, quiet, personal, lush, and colorful. I also liked the family dynamics in this book. All these women tied to the land and each other by the curse that has plagued them for generations. This has the double effect of making them intimately close with each other, but also dislike and distrust each other. I felt their pain just as much as I felt their love. Speaking of love, I also liked Estrella and Fel's dynamic at the start (and only at the start) of the book. Fel mysteriously shows up in their garden, meets Estrella and the 2 quickly develop an odd connection, both being plagued by their pasts in different ways. For a little while I wasn't sure if they were going to become lovers or platonic soul mates, and that's what made me like the 2 of them together because I would be happy with either. I also liked some the themes presented in the first half of the story and how they were handled (within the first half). That being said there was one thing I didn't like and that was Bay. She was kind of annoying and artificial, this figure that all the girls put up on this pedestal, and I honestly found the  Nomeolvides girl's obsession with her (yes obsession, not love) more than a little irritating. Also Estrella was really the only one in the group of girls that stood out to me. The rest were just kind of there, and I would have liked more development of them. The ending was what really dropped the rating of the book. Standalone novels are hard to cram a good, complete plot into, and magical realism tends to sacrifice plot for atmosphere. At the start, Wild Beauty had a vague plot that was slowly developing but there was solid direction with good themes and great atmosphere. Then it took a hard right and the plot seemed to be trying to hard to have something happen at the price of sacrificing everything else and the message took a dark and almost destructive meaning, the girls ripping out everything that makes them who they are. At the end Estrella makes it clear that she has no sense of self love, in fact she seems to hate herself even more because of something she wasn't aware or responsible for. That left a very bad taste in my mouth. The romance also seemed to fall apart in the end too. I already went in with certain expectations, but was still okay with romance. At the end, Estrella's self hatred seems to add an unnecessary amount of angst, and even has a toxic feel to it. It also feels very rushed, though I can't say exactly why. This was a pleasant novel with a solid start that unfortunately was bogged down by an unnecessarily depressing and empty ending. Wild Beauty received 3 out of 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “plant in title or on cover.”  

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen: Not since last year have I read a series that has made me so enraged. This series is an amalgamation of lazy, generic world building, toxic tropes, and ripping off of other popular works. There's honestly too many issues in this book to properly go over in a Monthly Wrap Up. There did manage to be a few slightly redeemable aspects but even those were tainted by the rest of the writing. Kelsea started to develop interesting parallels to the Red Queen, but Kelsea became on awful character who showed her true colors. She's petty, violent, doesn't listen to anyone, and isn't as bright as she likes to think she is, yet other praise her as being the True Queen. Also having read the final book, I know that things don't get better, which makes me dislike her even more. The only other character that remotely stands out in my mind is Lily, a character from our world shown in flashbacks. Her narrative is basically a Handmaid's Tale rip off, but she at least seems to have a little more drive. The other character I thought I would like was Ewen, a mentally slow prison guard because he's a sweet bean who always does what is right, but he didn't stand out to me as much this time. This book also really pushes the anti religion message. This could be an interesting theme, because religion and those in charge are capable of doing both good and bad, but it's done in such a black and white manner that all good will of the message Johansen is trying to deliver goes flying out the door. This one's arguably my least favorite book in the series, just because I was so mad after reading it. It's just another example of why I'm always cautious about hyped books, because they are rarely worth the hype they get. The Invasion of the Tearling gets 1 out 5 stars.

Golden Son by Pierce Brown: I was a bit surprised I enjoyed this one as much as I did. Not that I thought I would dislike it, but this book still managed to get a reaction from me. Continuing a year after the events of the previous book, Darrow must maintain his persona as a Gold while hiding his true heritage as a Red. With mounting tension between various faction, war seems to be an inevitable outcome. The start was slow and a bit painful, there was some convoluted moments, but the book overall keeps up the momentum that the previous book developed. This was also the book that made me respect Brown as an author. Darrow still has the same flaws, because that's just who he is, but now he's starting to see consequences. The themes become more developed, mostly focusing on the fine line between revolution and terrorism, imbalance of power leading to civil war, and breaking caste systems. Brown also clearly tried to develop the side characters more, especially the females. However this ultimately falls a bit short and I think the main reason for that is because the entire story is told from Darrow's perspective, who is seeing the world and people through his own distorted filter. That specific element is I think biggest fault this series has. On a good note, the ending of this book was without a doubt the best moment of this entire series, it's the darkest moment and was done perfectly. Even knowing what happened, I was still shaking from the anticipation. It's a book with enough solid assets to balance out the flaws, and is possibly my favorite book in the series. Golden Son received 3.5 out 5 stars and was my second book for the Reading Frenzy's Pride Buzzword Challenge.    

The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen: I'm worn out by this series. I knew I was going to hate this book because even when I first completed the series and still liked the first 2 books, I thought this one was incredibly disappointing. I skimmed most of this book, and outright skipped sections in a certain characters perspective, because I just wanted to complete this series. Like honestly the story repeats the same issues as the previous books with new issues in pacing (moving very rapidly), character arcs (stagnates and does nothing), the ending (huge cop out), the origins of the “magic” crystals (confusing and just doesn't work) and the villains. The main villain was actually the one interesting thing about this story because he could have been this eerie mysterious force or could have been at the center of a compelling conflict about power and politics, and he just wasn't. He was irritating brat who thought way too highly of himself (spurned on by his nut case of a mother) and is another reflection of the poor writing that plagues this entire series. I didn't actively hate this book like the previous one but that's only because I was tired from this series. This is a series where I honestly don't understand the hype and don't know why I liked it so much the first time I read it other than the hype. Disappointing book and sub par series. The Fate of the Tearling received 1 out 5 stars.  

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday 

Topic: Blue Covers

I absolutely love blue covers. I don't know why put I just generally gravitate toward them, and I don't think it's just me because many series I've read have a blue cover in them. Out of all the blue covers I've read I picked ones that are the most standout to me, generally tie into the story itself, and that I find aesthetically pleasing, irregardless of the contents.  

2. Like A River Glorious by Rae Carson: This series as a whole was disappointing to say the least. I'm only still holding onto it for 2 reasons. One is that they are Rae Carson books and I loved Carson's first series and don't hate this series enough to immediately get rid of it. The second reason is the covers, which are without a doubt the best thing about the books. The first book really sets the tone of what the series is about, with a black or dark brown background helping bring out all the gold colors. This cover doesn't tie into the story as well, but the vivid refreshing blue colors does feel like a cover and you can see speckles of gold in there, plus the girl at the top is wearing a blue outfit and the sunrise on the mountains. It's a very pretty and lush cover, and a real shame that the story couldn't match the quality of the cover.

3. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach: I like this cover due to it's simplicity. Just a navy blue background with a white graphic of a seagull. It's straightforward, no nonsense, yet is still pretty and rather profound (much like the story itself). I almost picked American Gods for similar reasons, but I thought the seagull was a more appropriate image for the cover than the tree was for the American Gods cover (though I do understand why it's there).

4. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer: If anyone were to ask me what the most serene setting is, I would pull up this cover as one of my answers. I just get very calm looking at it. With a single house surrounded by a snow cover field, a bright clear sky with a full moon, really conveys a quiet, almost isolated tone.

5. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Septys: Now there's 2 different covers for this book. There's the paperback version with different pairs of shows, and there the hardback version with an ocean background a 4 life preservers. I prefer the hardback edition because while I do now understand the significance of the shoes, I immediately get what the narrative and tone will be. It's a beautiful shot of the ocean that has a rather haunting feel to it. Each life preserver represents a different POV, and each one is significant in different ways. It's a beautiful blue nature setting, the kind of picture you would honestly expect to see in a magazine like National Geographic.

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Books I DNF

For a long time I did not DNF books. The concept was something that was just so foreign to me. Even if I was hating a book, I pushed through it, for better or worse. As I've gotten busier in life and my TBR list continues to grow, I just don't have the time or energy to read books I dislike. I will push through to make it to the halfway point, but if I get to that point and nothing's improved and I don't see anything improving than I quit the book. Over the past 2 years, I've accumulated more than enough books to do a Top 5 DNF list, so I picked the top 5 worst. The ones that made me mad, the ones that have deeply disappointed me, the ones that will always stand out in my mind for all the wrong reasons.  

2. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray: I don't know how I made it 80% of the way through the book because I can't think of anything good about it. Unlike the other books, where I can usually pinpoint the one thing I hated, I hated everything about this book. Any potential that the first book had for the series was obliterated in this book. The 4 girls were honestly such petty, idiotic brats who were focused on gaining more power and doing things they explicitly been told not to do (seriously I think these girls had a death wish) or internal squabbles among the group. In fact these girls were actually incredibly toxic toward each other (not that any of the side female characters were any better). The plot dragged on and on, and when there was action all it did was highlight how selfish and stupid all the characters were. The world could have been interesting but was shown through the lens of these awful girls who were blind to everything around them, and only served to show that any woman vying for power will only do awful things, which really goes against the initial theme of this series. Can you tell how much I hated the 4 central girls?

3. Daughters of the Storm by Kim Wilkins: This is another book that just made me mad. I went into it with certain expectations, the biggest ones being that this would focus on the bonds between 5 sisters and that it was a standalone with a simple straight forward quest. Turns out it wasn't a standalone, so the plot dragged on and on, with no action. That wouldn't have killed the book if the characters were good, but they were awful. They were all trash, except for maybe Rose. Ash was a gloomy, flaky character. Ivy was an obnoxious, lazy flirt who caused so much unnecessary drama. Willow was a creepy zealot, and Bluebell. Don't get me started on Bluebell. She was a character I was actively rooting for her be killed, yet she lived, got what she wanted, and got the most screen time. Between this book and Rebel Angels, I have never seen a more deplorable cast of characters accompanied by a boring, lack luster story.  

4. The White Princess by Philippa Gregory: So all the picks above I hated because they had awful characters and little narrative. While this one did have that, that isn't why I hated this book. When I read a historical fiction I either want a very personal narrative about how the times and events shape a person and their life, or I want a detailed story describing others behind the scenes involvement (would be great if I got both). This book failed to deliver on either. The main character was clueless, wishy washy, and had no involvement in any of the action despite her position. This was a book that failed to deliver for the genre that it is.  

5. When She Woke by Hilary Jordan: This book didn't make me mad so much as disappointed. It was initially pitched as a futuristic retelling of The Scarlet Letter, one of my favorite classics. I thought it would be an introspective look at several moral dilemma's plaguing society and individuals. I'm not quite sure what story this was trying to tell, but it felt like a poor mesh between The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale, 2 books that I really like. I think the book tried too hard to be the modern Scarlet Letter, yet seemed to miss the underlying themes of it, plus I read that the second book took some weird turns. It's disappointing because not only did it fail to live up to a classic, it failed to stand up as it's own book.

Monthly Wrap Up: May

For the past few months I've been in a bit of a reading slump. The majority of the books I've been reading were either mediocre or bad, with very few good books. It got to the point where last month I wanted to spend this month just focusing on books that I wanted to read and going back to focusing on fantasy or science fiction reads.  Despite the low average ratings for the month, and the fact that I only completed 1 “challenge” book, which is unusually low for me, I actually don't feel that I had a bad month. I've come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to read as many books as I had at the beginning of the year, but as long as I can get through 5 books a month I'll be fine. I did have to put “challenge” books or rereads on hold, but it was to get to other books that I really wanted to complete this month. The majority of the books were some kind of fantasy read, and while that definitely helped none of them were the highlight of the month. That honor actually goes to my completed “challenge” book and the 1 historical fiction of this month. In fact I loved that book so much that I gave it 5 stars. For next month I want to stick to my initial reading schedule of 3 books at a time, so that I can get through more challenge books and rereads since that I only did 1 challenge books and 1 reread. I also want to see if I can maybe read 1 classic a month, since I purchased a couple I've really wanted to read.  

Angelfall by Susan Ee: This was my third time reading Angelfall, and because I enjoyed it so much, not once but twice, I thought I would enjoy it this time. That didn't happen, and the reason why became apparent pretty soon. This book falls victim to a lot of tropes seen commonly in YA, and doesn't handle them well. I like the premise of the novel, a teenager trying to save her crippled younger in an apocalyptic wasteland ravaged by angels. This book is fairly action driven and things progress at a fairly quick pace, which was both appropriate to the narrative and was one of the better aspects of the book itself. Penryn, the protagonist, actually started out as a solid character. She a competent fighter, who has years of training to back up any tough talk she delivers, and even saves Raffe multiple times at the beginning of the novel. While at first glance she might appear to be a typical YA protagonists, she at least has the skills and results to distinguish her. Towards the end though, she started doing some stupid things and was clearly relying more on Raffe to handle things, which was clearly being used as a way to force in a romance. So yeah, started out good, but slowly became an irritating characters. Raffe on the other hand is a very generic paranormal YA love interest and I really didn't like him. He's hunky, broody, snarker and there really isn't anything to him other than that. His banter with Penryn felt so awkward because it felt out of character for him, but it also made him come across as an arrogant ass. There's a lot of emphasis put on how sexy he is, which on top of being annoying, is the cause of all the girl on girl hate in this book. Literally every female that isn't in her family that Penryn meets only serves as her competitor for Raffe's attention, and I f**king hated it. Also despite being an angel I would honestly bet Penryn is more likely to survive because there are several instances throughout the novel that Raffe comes off as naive and flat out stupid. I liked Penryn and Raffe's relationship the first couple times I read it because it seemed like just a tense partnership and nothing more. Now it's very obvious that this is going to be a hate to love forbidden romance, which, again, is super common in YA and I personally am sick of seeing those type of relationships. I felt zero chemistry between the 2, and especially hated how Raffe regarded Penryn for the majority of the book. Yet at the end they realize they love each other only to be separated and it's oh so tragic. Gag! I think if they had just stuck with a partnership built on mutual respect then I would have felt at least something between them. The rest of the characters are just kind of there as one dimensional set pieces so I neither got attached to them, nor really liked them (with one exception). As I stated at the beginning, and have illustrated through the rest of this review, this book really relies on overused tropes. There some tropes I like, but none are present here and there are a few present that I dislike. Hate to love, forbidden romance (at least no Insta Love), absent parents, pure younger sister, brooding love interest that's actually a paranormal creature, a warrior type female protagonist, a brewing revolution. It was just too much. I think what weighed this book down the most for me, aside from how tropey it was, is the fact that I know where the rest of the series goes and things really go downhill. Penryn goes from strong survivor to damsel in distress (which I saw a bit of at the end of this book), a full romance blooms between Penryn and Raffe, characters I don't like or think were poorly done get a lot more screen time, and the book suddenly shifts from a simple story of survival and a rescue mission to being like every other YA dystopia and focus on saving the world. While this book did disappoint me, it did posses a few redeemable qualities and is a decent book to read if you want quick action or find yourself in a slump. Angelfall received 2 out 5 stars.

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly: Going into Amberlough I thought it would be a book I liked because it's supposed to have a lot of political intrigue, an alternate art deco setting, and eclectic characters.  Sadly this book fell apart pretty quickly for me, to the point where I had a hard time motivating myself to pick it up than skimming over the last third of the book because I just wanted it to be over. All of the things I expected in the narrative were almost entirely absent, and everything from the plot to the characters to the setting even was kept at a surface level with nothing beneath it and not only was that bad in itself, it also ruins the climax. The characters were clearly what was supposed to drive the story because there was a lot of focus put on their lives and interactions and there was very little plot. However the characters were almost all flat with little to no development, and one of the POV characters could even be omitted from the story without changing the narrative or it's outcome. Based off the reviews I read Cyril is everyone's least favorite POV character, but I thought he was actually the strongest. Cyril is definitely an unlikeable character, he's spineless and self serving, his actions lead to bad consequences, and even kills a boy that was trying to help him. He is completely governed by his sense of self preservation, BUT I at least get a sense of identity from him and actually think he makes a good topic of discussion. Again, he's not a good person but given the circumstances I do think he's a compelling character which by default makes him the best character, in my opinion. Aristide was a disappointment because he showed the most promise at the start but then nothing is really done with him. I mean he's a gay, flamboyant drag queen that performs at the Bumble Bee but also works as a smuggler. He has a stutter but it turns out this is only a front to hide something about him. Sounds pretty cool right, however, there isn't any depth to him. I don't know his history. I don't know why or even how he does the things he does. All I know about him is just what I've stated, so I can't really get attached to, or even like, a character that doesn't have any depth even though I want to like him. I may get some hate for what I'm about to say but in my opinion Cordelia was by far the worst POV character. Her part of the narrative could have been omitted all together and the story would have held up, and the fact that this is also the only female POV just adds insult to injury. She's an incredibly generic character: this girl that grew up in the dregs who has lived a hard life but still has a heart of gold (which I never really see any example of that), she goes around and gets it from different guys. There was just nothing compelling or even distinguishing about her and it's a shame because she could have provided a good pedestrian narrative about an average person having to adapt to an oppressive new regime, but that's not what we get. Also she's a dancer but again that's something about her character that is easily forgettable. There's also a ton of side characters that are forgettable which negatively impacts the story by making it both more confusing (because I couldn't keep straight who was who) and when stuff starts happening to these people at the end, I just didn't care and that's not the reaction I was supposed to have. This ties into the larger issue of the overall conflict of the story. The world of Gedda is blatantly based off of our world, with no magic or new technology being filtered into the story. The only difference is in geography and names. This really becomes a problem when the main antagonists, the One State Party, or Ospies, are presented. I knew going into this book that this political party is the Amberlough equivalent of Nazis. Knowing this fact is the only the only thing that makes me root against the Ospies, but even then I didn't really care what the outcome was because I didn't feel any attachment to Amberlough or the people their. Yes Amberlough is in stark contrast to the Ospies because of it' diversity but I don't get any emotional attachment to it or it's identity because I have no attachment to the characters. Also for the majority of the book, we don't see or hear what makes the Ospies such a threat, we only get a vague impression that they're bad. It's until the last quarter the book when Ospies show their violent streak, but by then it's too late (both for the characters and me as a reader). Instead of stuffing the rest of the book up with chaotic filler, there should have been time spent creating action to show each characters depth and grit, as well as what makes the Ospies such a bad threat that people don't want in Amberlough, or taking quite moments like there was at the very beginning of the novel to create a stronger sense of identity in Amberlough and stronger dynamics between each character. This book could have been an interesting “calm before the storm story” and while the story did get better it was way too little, too late and ultimately the book did not deliver on any of premise's that I expected from this book. The only reason I did not DNF it is because I have the rest of the series that I do plan on reading in the hopes that it gets better. Amberlough received 1 out 5 stars.    

Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson: Even though I didn't love the first book, I knew I was going to complete the rest of the series. My pen pal in the Netherlands recently finished Kiss of Deception and had the rest of the series on hand, and we've been wanting to do a buddy read together for awhile. So we both agreed that completing the rest of The Remnant Chronicles together would be a great idea. The story picks up immediately where it left off in the first book. Lia arrives in Venda and must survive a dangerous game that the Komizar is forcing her to play. Meanwhile Rafe has also been captured and hides his true identity while plotting his and Lia's escape and Kaden must grapple with his conflicting loyalties. Lia was probably the best part of this book because even though she had a few frustrating moments, especially at the beginning, I could see her grow into a more capable person and enjoyed seeing her rely on her wits to survive being imprisoned by a man who is both ruthless and cunning. There's also her growing faith and strong morals which help guide her through the darkness. Rafe was okay, there just really isn't much to talk about him aside from his relationship with Lia and the loyalty his men feel toward him, both of which show he's a good royal. Kaden on the other hand was a bit frustrating, he kept going back and forth, just being indecisive about where his loyalties lie, and was only wanting to help Lia because he's attracted to her. However I liked that his relationship with the Komizar was complex and that there's more to him than there initially seemed to be. I struggled a bit with the world in this one. I liked worlds that feel realistic, that feel fully developed on a personal and practical level. While all the texts involving Morrighan and Venda and Gaudrel were kind of interesting, they weren't expanded on outside of being a plot device. Also this entire world feels like a watered down grimdark fantasy (ruled exclusively by men, generic medieval world, all courts festering with corruption, Venda being full of atrocities against their own people) and I just did not like that because A) I hate how depressing grimdark B) it felt underdeveloped to the point of being lazy. Kiss of Deception made me think that there would be a more in depth exploration of the world and the history which would be relevant to the plot in an unexpected way (kind of like The Girl of Fire and Thorns series), but it doesn't do that and I was definitely disappointed. Also, I have an issue with the women in this book. They weren't bad (except for Gwenyth and Pauline who I just found to be irritating) but they only existed as disposable side characters to further Lia's narrative. As time passes I find myself forgetting more and more of this book except for Lia, but I still think it was an okay book. The Heart of Betrayal received 3 out 5 stars.  

The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson: Despite this book between 600 and 700 pages, I managed to finish it in 2 days. I was very motivated to finish it. Now having completed the entire Remnant Chronicles I can definitely say that it's a series that improves with each book. This book left a more lasting impact on me, but was still had plenty of forgettable moments and there were issues that I had over the whole series. Rafe and Lia have now escaped Venda but must flee to Dalbrech if they have a chance of withstanding the Komizar's oncoming army. Also Lia must now return to her own court and root out the corruption within. Everything reaches it's climax in this finale book and while think many of the story threads were concluded well, especially character arcs, there were a few things that I felt the ending was bit rushed for like in the last book. Rafe and Lia were absolutely the highlight of this series, and this book really allowed them to reach their full potential. I loved seeing them grow as individuals, as leaders, and as romantic partners. I personally like arranged marriages growing into love, and this was an example of one done well because of the various struggles that they face. The final battle was probably the biggest disappointment of the series. While it did need to happen, if only to fulfill a prophecy (which I have issues with), but I thought everyone already had a decent close to their arc and the battle kind of went against what the series had previously set up both in terms of conflict and character. While the series itself is a decent, more romance heavy, YA fantasy series, but I thought this was a solid finale. The Beauty of Darkness received 4 out 5 stars.  

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant: I'd like for one month to go by without me reading a 1 star book. After reading Feed in February (or was it January) I was hesitant to read any other science fiction by Seanan McGuire (uses pen name Mira Grant for her science fiction works) but Into the Drowning Deep seemed interesting, with an undersea expedition trying to find out what happened to the previous vessel that traveled to this area and possibly discovering if mermaids are real. So I saved this book specifically for May to do the MerMay challenge (reading mermaid books in May) and it is without a doubt the biggest disappointment of the month. I ended up DNFing this at 50%, and after looking at reviews and spoilers for this book, I don't regret not continuing with it. This book feature's many things that I've noticed McGuire putting in her books, irregardless of genre. Now these things aren't bad per say but a lot of them felt unnecessary to the point of being annoying, and the fact that McGuire seems to struggle expanding outside of familiar territory is also a bit annoying. Let's start with the setting, California. I don't know about the Wayward Children, but every other book I've read by MCGuire is set in California. I get that it's her home state and what she's familiar with, but really does every book need to be set in California. Even this one could have started out in any coastal region. The rest of the book takes place in the Marina Trench, and I kind of wish the book had started here because it already gives a claustrophobic setting and a submarine's a pretty unique setting, with flashbacks bring used to tell people's life before they were on the mission. The majority of the story takes place in the future, in the year 2022. McGuire also did this in Feed, and while it makes some sense in Feed, it makes no sense here. There's nothing different about the world and there is no need for a large time gap. It's minor but it's still really annoying because of how unnecessary it is. Siblings are another thing that McGuire frequently puts in books and this one has both good and bad examples. Good examples include the sibling bonds in the Wayward Children series and the Stewart siblings in this book. Bad examples include the sibs from Feed and the other set of sisters in this book whose names I'm forgetting. While one of the Stewart sisters is killed at the beginning, we still get impressions of what their relationship was like and it's clear that Tory's still grieving over her sister because she wants to go on the same dangerous mission for closure. The other sisters are introduced a third of the way through the story and I know nothing about them as individuals or what how they interact with each other (also didn't help that one of them made the dumbest decision I read in the story). So McGuire can write good sibling relationships but it's irritating when she doesn't. Some of McGuire's more recent works feature a diverse group of characters, like the Wayward Children series which I love in part because of it's diversity and how various issues are both presented and dealt with because of the diversity. Into the Downing Deep is also supposed to be diverse but unlike in Wayward Children series it doesn't feel natural. The diversity here feels like it's put in just so that there is diversity, and to be honest I can't even pick up on the sources of said diversity. There's sign language, which I don't think I've seen before in written fiction, but nothing is done with it (at least as far as I got). There's a lesbian character, but there weren't any hints of her being a lesbian until almost half way through the story, so it very much felt like it came out of left field. There might also be a physically disabled person but it's really unclear, and those are about the only sources of diversity that I could find. Maybe I was missing something or didn't get far enough into the book, but I would not say this book is a source of a diverse cast. Also speaking of a large cast, I hated this cast, not because they were bad, but because they were poorly written. At first we're introduced to Tory and given her back story and an understanding of her personality and why she would go on this expedition, but then there's a ton of new characters introduced all at once who aren't given the same depth as Tory, but are now given equal amount of time. It was really hard to keep track of who was who, and I really just didn't care because I didn't know these characters like I did Tory. If the book wanted to have a large cast of characters it should have taken it's time and let us get to know them instead of cramming them all in at once when we're a third of the way through the book. I think the book honestly should have focused solely on Tory so that I could be fully invested in her story and the outcome of it. McGuire also seems to like mysteries but I don't think she does them well. I definitely think she does a better job when they're in a fantasy context, like in the October Daye series, but I hated the mystery in her science fiction novel Feed because it was so predictable. At the beginning the book sets itself up to have a potentially good mystery that could span the entire book. This potential is immediately obliterated by explicitly telling the readers that mermaids are real and are the cause of all this underwater devastation. That immediately takes a huge chunk of the tension out of the story because now the characters are coming across as willfull idiots. This could have been recovered if once mermaids were discovered the crew was both cautious and clearly making signs to study them. This didn't happen, instead I just have characters spouting facts about mermaids as if they've known mermaids were real and have studied them for years, which was jarring to say the least. They're an alien species you've just discovered, you need to work from the ground up to understand them but also need to be careful because they have clearly proven themselves to be vicious killers. The way the “mystery” was handled and the lack of scientific investigation were frustrating because now I have nothing keeping me invested in the story, and it's not like it got any better. After learning what had happened at the ending, I honestly thought it made no sense based on the evidence presented in the first half of the book and the fact that there was no hinting of it at all. The only good thing at all in the entire book was a few short paragraphs that did make the situation tense because there's an understanding that something awful is about to happen or already happened. These moments, however, are watered down by everything else in the story which I've already made clear I hated. At one point I wanted to try all of McGuire's works, and I'll still try her major fantasy series, but I'm not going to reading anymore of her science fiction works. Into the Drowning Deep received 1 out 5 stars.    

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: Now we go from the lowest point of the month to the highest point of the month. I had heard good things about this book and author but I've had a streak of historical fictions that have disappointed me, so I was worried about how this book would turn out. In fact this one had been on my TBR list the longest and I just kept putting it off again and again. May came around I couldn't put this book off any more because this was the only book I wanted to read that fit the Reading Frenzy's “May Buzzword Challenge.” This was a book I flew through, not just because of time constraints but also because of how good the story was. It's about Operation Hannibal (which occurs near the end of WWII) and is told through 4 different points of view. Joana, a nurse who's originally from Lithuania. Florian, a German solider on a mysterious “mission.” Emilia, a young Polish refuge, and Alfred, a Nazi sailor. What I love about these characters is that the book managed to make them real and you really see who they are (for better or worse) and the effect that the war has on each of them. It's a book that shows how dark and grim a war is because of it's affect on all people, especially civilians, but there is still light in the narrative. You see some the characters become very attached to each other and start to regard one another as a found family, which makes their deaths all the more devastating. This also shows the atrocities that both sides, the Germans and Russians, commit. The Nazi's are awful in their prejudices and we repeatedly get examples of that, especially with Alfred and Florian, but the Russians are also doing terrible things, like killing refugee's and raping women. Operation Hannibal and the ship Wilhelm Gustloff were actual parts of history that I wasn't even aware about and that's another thing I appreciate about this novel. It takes place during a very familiar time period but focuses on one explicit event that isn't as well known as events like Pearl Harbor or D-Day, but is no less important. I honestly loved everything about this book. The characters, the setting, and just the raw emotion that this book delivered. I'll definitely be picking up Septys other books, and I am so glad I finally read this one. Salt to the Sea received 5 out 5 stars and along with being my May Buzzword Challenge book also fits the PopSugar prompts “book title with the words 'bitter,' spicy,' or 'salty,” and “clothing on the cover,” since the paperback edition has pairs of shoes on the cover.

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Books Featuring Mental Health

This was a very difficult topic to discuss. Not only is it a sensitive topic because of how many people can struggle with their mental health but also because it's a topic that I think should be talked about but I'm not exactly qualified to do that. I also wasn't sure to what extent mental health needed to be featured, if it needed to be the focus of the story or if it just needed to be present. All of my entries feature protagonists that I think has mental health issues, and I will try my best to dissect the problems the protagonist must deal with and how this impacts the character and the story.  

2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:  It may be a little surprising that this book is on this list, but when it popped in my head I realized that it really fit. While the primary focus of this book is on the revolution, it also takes time to analyze and satirize many things about our current culture (something the movies forget to do entirely), including how damaging war is to a persons psyche. Katniss suffers from PTSD, even before the Hunger Games has actually started. She has nightmares about her Dad being blown up and because of this death had to grow up very quickly to ensure that her family didn't starve to death because her mother was in catatonic state. As a result she comes off as very cold, trusting very few people, and seems to be desensitized to the injustices of her world and only cares if it affects her family, but she's also very resilient and a capable survivor. Both during and after the Hunger Games, Katniss's PTSD only gets worse as the world around her becomes more unstable and now she must watch those she cares about actually get killed. It reaches a breaking point in the third book where the majority of the story has a very dazed, depressing tone because Katniss has basically checked out of life, suffers frequent episodes of depression, and keeps herself on morphine. She's even seeing a therapist, because it's that bad. Let's not forget that she's just a teenager being thrust into a war that she didn't want to be a part of, which is guaranteed to screw up any kid. The trauma is so severe that even years after the war, when Katniss has kids, she still suffers from nightmares. Her recovery is an active process that takes years, but Katniss does little thing to remind herself that there is good in the world, like making the memorial book. Plus she has a good husband who understands what she's been through. War and trauma are serious things that have long reaching consequences and takes effort to recover from, and the way that The Hunger Games series demonstrates this is part of the reason it's become something of a modern classic.  

3. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira: Much like the entry above,  this one is also about overcoming trauma. Unlike The Hunger Games though, it's on a much more personal level and the story focuses more on the trauma and grief and even guilt that the protagonist, Laurel, has suffered. The source of her suffering stems from her relationship with her older sister, who has recently perished. Laurel idolized her older sister, so much so that she tries to emulate her at the start of the book and it comes off as cringe worthy. This idolization was unhealthy and unrealistic but also didn't give the complete picture. Laurel's relationship with her sister both before and after her death was, complicated to say the least, and this has a strong impact on who Laurel is, but Laurel eventually comes to terms with the fact that both she and her sister are flawed and that isn't a bad thing. Also smothering your suffering doesn't make it better, or go away, and it's good to get help from people you know and trust. This book is similar to Perks of Being a Wallflower but I picked this one because it has a more positive and hopeful ending with recovering from trauma, which I felt Perks of Being a Wallflower lacked.          

4. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: The protagonist in this book, Eliza, appears to suffer from social anxiety. As a result she struggles with relationships in the real world but seems to do well with internet relationships. After a new boy arrives at her school and starts to open up more to him. So there are thing I like about this one and there are things I don't like about this one. I don't like the fact that it was this new boy who's obviously going to be the love interest and only him that Eliza opens up to because it makes her growth feel more artificial. I like that the online friendships were treated as genuine ones because that's something that is both topical and can be a good way for people with social anxiety to interact. I don't feel that Eliza really grew as a person. Yes she starts going to therapy which I think could be helpful, but she still doesn't open up even to her own family and this is after her brothers confronted their parents about the big mistake they made and how it's going to negatively impact Eliza's online experience, which does lead into the other thing I liked about this book. Eliza can be selfish at times. She's put herself in bubble so that her entire world revolves around her, which is a very human thing to do, but even when the people she is closest with are clearly struggling all she wants to focus on is her own issues. This happened several times throughout the narrative, and  I appreciate for being there because it highlights the fact that the world doesn't revolve around you and part of being a better person is striking that balance between caring for yourself and caring for others close to you. Unfortunately this still made Eliza an unlikable character because she never realizes that she's at fault. This is definitely a decent book for talking about social anxiety or internet culture, but I can't say it's great because of the protagonist and romance.    

5. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko: I actually forgot about this one because it was a required reading that I did in college, but it was actually one of two reads I enjoyed that semester. Like most of the other entries on this list, the protagonist suffers from PTSD during a time when PTSD wasn't really a thing (he's a recently returned WWII veteran). He's also half Caucasian and half Native American, which has made him an outsider his entire life, even among his own family. This was a beautifully written novel that also focuses on recovery, but in a very spiritual way where the protagonist learns to be accepting of himself and cutting out the toxic aspects of his life, like violence.

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Emerald Covers:

I had to cheat on this topic a little because I own very few green covers, let alone emerald (the only way this topic could have been harder was if they asked for purple covers). That being said, I did manage to pull together 5 options, however, I have not read all my picks. I had to look at all the books I've read (whether I had them or not), books the rest of my family had, and books that I want to read in order to come up with this list. I made my ranking based on how pretty I think the cover is, how vivid I think the emerald is, and my opinion on the book itself.

2. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini (cover illustration by John Jude Palencar): This one gets second place just for being almost entirely emerald. The image focuses on a green dragon, which is surrounded by a thick border of the same color. I haven't read this book in years, and I honestly don't know what my opinion would be of it. Having already read the books I knew the dragon on the cover won't make an appearance until the very end of the book, so they aren't that relevant of a character, but it is nice green cover that keeps the image simple and focused.  

3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: So I haven't read this book, yet. It made so many top books of 2018 lists that I'm intrigued enough to want to read it, even though it's outside my comfort genre. The cover focuses on the bright emerald dress that a woman is wearing, and while the dress itself is pretty and vivid, I do get a sense of identity from this book and am curious to see if and how the dress ties into the overall narrative.  

4. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer: I was a little surprised that this one worked, but comparing the cover against a picture of an emerald, I had to admit that the colors are fairly matched. The book is about an apocalyptic New York City where the moon has been knocked closer and the cover manages to convey that grim premise very well. The first book used sapphire to create a calm atmosphere set in the country, while this cover used emerald to create a bleak, dirty atmosphere with an urban setting. Unfortunately I didn't think the book lived up to that grim impression you get from the cover, which is why it's near the bottom.  

5. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Cover illustration by Talexi): I don't actually own, this book (my sister does). Nor have I ever read this book, and never plan to. However, it does fit the requirement of being an emerald cover, and I personally like the Throne of Glass covers.

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: SFF BFFs

I've come to the conclusion that talking about things I like is hard because of how detailed I have to get. I love reading about friendships, particularly in SFF, and there were several options that I had in mind, but I managed to narrow them down to 5. For this topic, I also decided to focus on a friendship just between 2 people and not any friend groups since that's a topic I've already done. So there won't be any Harry Potter, Six of Crows, Wayfarers, or A Court of Mist and Fury characters here.  

2. Isabella and Tom from The Memoirs of Lady Trent series: While the series did go downhill, and this relationship was highlighted less and less, I still fully appreciate for being a great platonic friendship between a man and a woman that remained that way through the entire series. At first these 2 didn't like each other because they were jealous of the others position in life (him being a man and her being nobility) and viewed the other as competition. As they are increasingly forced to work together to achieve a mutual goal, they grow to respect each other and even start seeing each other as allies to help one another achieve their goals. In the second book, rumors start spreading about the 2 being romantically involved, and while it's a relationship I could honestly support I think I like it better because there was never a romance. Much like Jesper and Inej from Six of Crows or Kenji and Juliette from Shatter Me, this is a good example of a platonic F/M relationship because it develops over time and you clearly see the 2 being mutually supportive of each other.

3. Nessa and Meghan from The Call: Last autumn I was non stop gushing about this book because I was honestly stunned by just how good it was. Well I'm back on the hype train to provide yet another example of why this book was good and you should definitely read it. They posses contrasting personalities and motives, and despite each one having moments where they question why they are still friends, they still clearly remain loyal to each other. They defend each other from the bullies in the school, and when one of them dies it's clear how traumatic this is for the other one. Their friendship is honestly a minor thing, but it's something I really appreciate both because of how strong it is and how natural it feels.  

4. Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens: This is going to be hard explaining why I like these 2 so much but I will try to put into words as best as I can. The best way I can describe the interactions between this demon and angel is like an old married couple. The 2 have been on Earth for centuries, and while they have differing goals they start to appreciate each others company and this strange planet that they reside on. So with the apocalypse coming, they work to achieve a mutual goal. They are just so fun and quirky, both individually and together

5. Darrow and Sevro from the Red Rising series and Sam and Edilio from the Gone series: I had to talk about these 2 together because they are so similar. Darrow and Sam are both hero figures, who develop a bit of an ego. Sevro and Edilio start out as a nobody who helps their partners in the beginning and the pairs eventually evolve into best friends. While I do like these relationships, it's mainly because of Sevro and Edilio carrying the relationship (like Magnus Bane in The Mortal Instruments). Both display unwavering loyalty and I love their personalities, Sevro weirdness and Edilio being a sweet bean. Not that I don't like Darrow or Sam, I just think there archetypes are a bit more generic and don't display loyalty to the degree that their best friend's do.

Thank You Everyone 

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Favorite Mothers

Man, this was not an easy topic. There's an overwhelming trend in books, especially YA for some reason, that parents are usually dead or absent from the narrative. This can be applied to both mother's and fathers, but it seems to be worse with mothers. I had to go through all of my books individually almost all of them where irrelevant to the story or protagonist (like Darrow's mom in Red Rising) were dead and irrelevant (like Maya's mother in The Star Touched Queen) or ended up having a more negative impact in the protagonists life, dead or alive (like Meira's mother in Snow Like Ashes). Needless to say I tried to avoid mother's who fall in these categories and that unfortunately only applied to small percentage of books I've read. What I was really looking for is mother's who are a positive influence on their children and show clear devotion to them while maintaining a good, if not complicated at times, relationship, and many of them even feel like their own individual characters (albeit minor ones). Also while I did try to pick mothers who are actually alive through the entire narrative (so far), there is an exception but that's only because they fit all my other criteria of being a good mother. Finally there will be no Harry Potter mothers on this list, since they are all awesome and we already know that.

2. Maggie Walker from The Year I Turned 16: While there isn't any specific reason I like this one, this mom manages to defy so many parental tropes in YA. She's a single mom that is struggling to raise 4 daughters as they grow through their teenage years and running low on funds. Despite losing her husband and the struggles she has, she still maintains a positive persona, a good relationship with her daughters, starts a successful catering business and even manages to find love again. She works well not just as mother but as a character too.  

3. O-Shizuru and Burquila Alshara from The Tiger's Daughter: Much like my top entry, these mother are minor characters who remain a part of their daughters lives, even when removed from the plot. They both stand out as strong women and have a close relationship similar to that of their daughters, despite their different backgrounds. They both have a strong influence on their daughters, to the point where their children work to emulate their mothers. It's also clear that these mothers care very much for their children and will go to great lengths to protect them but also alert their daughters to the harsh realities of their world.  

4. Sally Jackson from The Percy Jackson series: Now this is a book series that I don't think gets enough love despite how reminiscent it is to Harry Potter (I blame the movies). I haven't read this series in years, but I remember Sally being a pretty decent mother. She's not in the series much but she's still a positive figure in Percy's life and stays alive for the entire series.

5. Essun from The Fifth Season: While motherhood is a major theme of this series, I've only read the first book and have only seen glimpses of Essun's maternal side, which is why she's at the bottom. I liked seeing her at different stages of being a mother as well as the grief and trauma she goes through, but it just wasn't enough for me. I still really wish that there had been a growing maternal relationship with her and Hoa, but that didn't happen. I have faith that Essun as a mother will become more of a focus in the next books but there just wasn't enough in this book.

Thank You Everyone 

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Monthly Wrap Up: April

So April has been my lowest month of the year. While some things improved, my reading slump didn't really didn't and it shows. This month I only completed 7 books (but I'll be reviewing 8 in this wrap up), which is by far the lowest amount of the year. The month did not start out well, with a DNF, then a 1 star that I really wanted to DNF. The next 2 books were better, not great but still decent with 3 stars, and the last few books managed to pull off 4 stars. I was able to continue with the PopSugar Reading Challenge, and completed both books I read for the Pick-It-For-Me Challenge, but I didn't manage to do Tome Topple this month, which was disappointing. I think my continued slump, and the reason the ratings were so low this month is because I spent more time away from my preferred reading genre (Adult Fantasy) than I would have liked. The first 3 books of the month were a mix of literary fiction genres, but were all distinctly lacking in any mystical elements. While I thought one of these books was decent, I hated the other 2 and found them incredibly disappointing. The rest of the month transitioned into more fantasy reads (and 1 dystopian) and from there things slowly improved. Next month I'm definitely going to shift things to focus more on the books that I want to read, regardless of the genre.  

Eldest by Christopher Paolini: Technically I finished this one at the end of March, but I forgot about it and didn't want to go through the stress of adding it to my already posted March wrap up, so I just decided to add it in this one. Eldest is probably my least favorite book in the Inheritance Cycle series, and while that remains to be seen, it definitely was a step down from Eragon. In fact I ended up skimming quite a bit of it to ensure I finished it on time (since I was renting it from the library) and didn't take notes, so this review isn't going to be as thorough as it could be. What was probably the biggest cause of the book's slump was one of the 2 new POVs that was introduced, Eragon's cousin Roran. In Eragon Roran  leaves to train as a blacksmith so he can marry is sweet heart and has a close relationship with Eragon. While he's just got the bare bones, and was only in the first quarter of the book, he's still an established character. So why did I dislike his POV? I was so bored with it. It was basically Eragon's story but with a lot less excitement. A young, noble boy fights to save his village and is admired and respected by everyone except the villains. It was just one of those wonder boy, chosen one narratives (which I'm already pretty tired off) and unlike Eragon, who is novice but very powerful and deserves respect, it makes no sense why everyone seems to make Roran the de facto leader. I knew his POV was coming but I didn't realize how much his POV character dominates the narrative. I used to like his POV as kid just because it had a long journey/ escape aspect to it and I used to love those as kid (at this point I think they work better on TV) but this time around it helped emphasis one of the flaws in the series, and that is the fact that long journey's are over quickly. I mean the people of their hometown left at around the half way point and reached their destination before the book was over despite the issues they encounter. Roran's POV contained the most glaringly obvious flaws, but I can't say that it was irrelevant because it was it's own independent narrative, and in the later books it's nice to see Eragon and Roran together as family. Speaking of Eragon, I thought his chapters were okay. Didn't love them, didn't hate them. Ultimately I thought they were pretty forgettable because of how generic they are. He definitely is still this wide eyed wonder boy at the beginning of the book, and then he goes off to do training and ends the story a different person. I still don't like that he's one of those characters that the universe just seems to hand everything too, and most of his time with the elves I found to be simultaneously boring and rushed, but they did show his evolution as a character (sort of). By the end of this book I think he's more aware of who he is, the role he has to play and the power that wields. At the end he has a startling revelation about his lineage and his relationship with another characters. It was a twist that I think both made sense but was genuinely surprising (although not the second time reading it). I have yet to see if this is something that Eragon will brood over, which I really hope he doesn't because I think that will drag his character further down into that of a generic fantasy hero. The one thing I do remember of his chapters because it surprised me was his romance with Arya. When I first read the series as a kid, I totally shipped them. Now I don't ship them, at all. Arya and others repeatedly make it clear to Eragon that their romance would never work, including the fact that she is grieving the loss of her previous lover. In this book I thought there was so little chemistry between that I honestly don't understand Eragon's romantic feelings toward Arya. This might change in the later books, but this was something I just wanted to briefly mention. The other new POV was actually my favorite part of the story, but it was only 2 f**king chapters, out of 60 . The third POV follows Nausuda, the new leader of the rebel group the Varden after her father's death at the beginning of this book. She was briefly introduced near the end of Eragon, and while I liked her I was worried she was just going to become a Eowyn type character. That, fortunately, did not happen. She demonstrates herself as a capable leader, and a threat to her enemies. Despite her young age, she is well aware of the political machinations and is able to maneuver things well. She can come off as harsh at times, but it's because she grasps the severity of their situation and doesn't have time for any nonsense. Most of the people she is closest with or relies on the most are women, which I love because it means she respects and values a persons abilities, regardless of gender. My favorite scene in the entire book is where she asks the head warlock (who is woman and whose name I am forgetting) to make lace because it's easier and quicker to make by magic than hand, and can be sold for a profit that will help support the war effort. This shows Nasuada's ability to take a situation, however minor it is, and make it work to her advantage in a way that makes sense and can be applied to real world tactics. If the entire series had been filled with moments like this, than it would have worked much better for an adult audience. As a whole there were bits and pieces that I thought were good and helped propel the story forward, but there were a ton of generic fantasy elements and filler narratives which really dragged the story down. Eldest received 2 out 5 stars.  

The White Princess by Philipa Gregory: I've been wanting to dip my toes into more historical fiction, especially ones that aren't set during WW II because there are so many of those (not that I'm unopposed to them) and Philipa Gregory's novel's seemed like a good place to start. I was initially going to read the White Queen but I happened to find this one at a book sale, and thought it would work out fine. What I really want in a historical fiction is you take familiar historical figures or events and make them come to life, you make them personal, and it's probably difficult to find an author that does just that. This book is set during the Late Middle Ages (a period of history that has always fascinated me) at the conclusion of the War of Roses with the marriage of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII, which I believe was the inspiration for Game of Thrones, and featured an introduction discussing women of that time period and how even though they are constantly being put in the corners of history, they certainly weren't doing nothing and could even be quite powerful in their own right. Basically this book had a very promising premise and during the first few chapters it seemed like it was going in a good direction. Unfortunately that quickly came to a halt. Elizabeth was an insufferable protagonist. She had zero agency whatsoever, kept being pushed from one bad situation to another had did little or nothing to change that, was blissfully ignorant about everything around her, and served as nothing more than a mouth piece for the narrative and a baby making machine for the king. To put it simply, she was early Sansa Stark who wasn't even being subjected to a psychopathic despot (at least that wasn't how the narrative was portraying Henry, though he did have other issues which I will get to in a minute). She was the exact opposite of the protagonist that I expected for this book, and it was very disappointing. In fact there are only 2 women that seemed to hold any sort of power, Elizabeth's mother Elizabeth Woodville and Henry's mother Margret Beaufort. Elizabeth Woodville has both power and experience at playing the game, but we don't get to see much of that because she's sent away about a third of the way into the story and Elizabeth of York remains ignorant of all her mother's doings. Margret Beaufort, on the other hand, wields a considerable amount of power because she is the only one the king trusts, but she's clearly being portrayed in a villainous light. She does everything possible to undermine Elizabeth and her family, exercises absolute authority without anything keeping her in check and does this to accomplish some awfully petty and mean tasks, and on top of that is a zealot. There is fine line between being devoted to one's faith and being a zealot, and since Margret again uses her power to get in with the Catholic Church, uses her faith as the justification for most of the things she does to Elizabeth, and brings about how the outcome was “God's will” in every other conversation she has, I think she's leaning more on the zealot side of things, and one of the fastest ways to make me hate a character is to make them an obnoxious zealot. I think Margret could at least have been put in a sympathetic light because she does know how costly the game is and wants her son to be safe in a dangerous and constantly shifting environment, but we never get this. So the female character that clearly has the most influence and power is the one that the readers are designed to like the least. This seems to go directly against everything that the introduction set out, and it's not just disappointing, it's a bit infuriating. The other major black stain on this book was the romance, and just like the female empowering narrative, was something that had potential in the beginning and was shattered upon Elizabeth and Henry's first meeting. I don't mind arranged marriages, in fact they are something I like to see if done well, and this was not done well. First there's Henry ignoring Elizabeth, like keeping her family sequestered in one area until after he's coronated. While not a promising start it was a reasonable political move and is something the relationship could still recover from. Then they final meet, I believe around Christmas, and the very first thing Henry does to Elizabeth is have her dance for him so she can feel like a slut, then proceeds to rape her when they are alone together. Gregory has now created a relationship I absolutely cannot get behind. After that he insults and degrades Elizabeth, is very blase about the rape (like he's entitled to it and even says when they are married it's not rape), doesn't try to form an emotional relationship with her and is constantly accusing her of conspiring against him (despite her crippling ineptitude), and even makes it clear he would have raped her sister if she hadn't proven fertile. This doesn't just make the “romance” awful, but it also makes Henry a pretty awful character. Plus the fact that he has a rather unsettling relationship with his mother, who again, constantly works to undermine Elizabeth's family. The fact that the only happy and tender moments between the couple that I can remember occur after Elizabeth has given Henry the son that he wants, makes those moments just feel cheap and unsatisfying. Ultimately I didn't see the characters improving, I didn't the relationships improving, and if I wanted to know how the rest of the story goes I could just do basic history search (and probably get more details on the events of the time). I ended up DNFing this book and needless to say I gave it 1 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “based on a true story.”  

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake: I received an ARC of this book from Macmillian Publishers back in February, completely out of the blue. I had never heard of this book or author before, and it's not the kind of book I would consider reaching for unless there was a ton of hype around it (like The 7 Husbands of Evelyen Hugo), but because it was my first ARC I felt compelled to read it. Almost immediately, I had issues with this book. The writing of the book was a strange hybrid between dry, precise writing and the flowery purple prose, and it just didn't work. The other big issue I had with the writing itself was that the time lines and character POVs were all over the place. During almost the entire first half of the book, so for around 200 pages, I could not grasp what decade it was unless explicitly stated. The POVs weren't much better. The story was written in third person, but this didn't actually help me with identifying who was who because the POV would jump around so much, even within a chapter, that it took me awhile to finally identify who was who. This may due to the fact that there wasn't anything distinguishing about any of the characters, they could have literally been the same person with different names. This did change, but that didn't reflect well on the characters. One of the first scenes were I felt any sense of identity came from Kitty, in the first generation time line, and it made me hate her pretty quickly. I was already inclined to dislike the Milton family because they were privileged snobs, but again I didn't really get any sense of character. There was nothing specific about them that I liked or disliked. That all changed in the scene with Kitty at the Island, where I think she rejects taking in a woman and her son specifically because the woman is Jewish, and the rest of the group present constantly shut down this woman's conversation because her valid points about Hitler's rise to power made them feel a little morally uncomfortable. This was the scene that really defined who the Miltons are, and the thing is they never really improve even in later generations. Evie, one of Kitty's grand daughters, is struggling to ensure that they keep the Island. She tries to project herself as this progressive woman yet works to hold onto the very symbol of her family's corrupt and racist history. It makes her come off as a hypocrite in the worst way. I also had issues with the minority characters (mostly how they felt like token characters that served the purpose of redeeming the racists) but honestly I wouldn't be able to do a good job of discussing them because of the last major issue I had with this book, and that's the overall story itself. So this is definitely a “slice of life” narrative and while I don't generally gravitate toward those, I have found ones that I enjoy. In order to do this well I think you still need good characters and a complex plot with a clear conflict, even if it's just a personal one. For this book nothing works. The characters are bad on multiple levels, and I don't want to see racists who are vehemently denying their racism and issues be redeemed, and there wasn't any real conflict except for the family trying to keep their Island house. What plot I could identify was boring but most of the time, I couldn't tell what was happening. This is the main reason why I couldn't really review this book in detail. Ultimately nothing worked in this book, not the characters, not the story, not the writing. This wasn't a book I expected to love but I at least thought it would be decent and go somewhere, and it still failed at that. The Guest Book received 1 out of 5 stars from me, and if you want more articulate reviews them I do recommend looking at the Goodreads reviews.  

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: I guess I've lately been reading books that are outside of my typical SFF genre. As my reviews of the previous 2 books indicated I have not been having a good time exploring other genres. Fortunately this was an improvement, but I still didn't love it. The biggest struggle I had with the book was my inability to connect with the main character Eliza, and I blame that more on my personal issues than the book itself, and here's why. Eliza lives something of a double life online, where she is the creator of the popular web comic, while in reality she's a quiet nobody who struggles with daily interactions. Her 2 worlds start to collide when she meets new kid Wallace, who happens to be one of the most popular fanfiction writers for her comic series. The two slowly start to form a relationship and Eliza starts becoming more active in the real world, while starting to struggle with her online personality. Above all this entire story felt like a love letter to fandoms and online culture. Talking about online friendships, trolls, fandoms, creative pressure and escape. I really, really liked the story that was told, and Eliza is the kind of character that I think many young adults can relate to. I liked reading about Eliza's various relationships, from her online friends, to her family, and romance. Each one brought out a different aspect of her and each one had their own set of issues. So why didn't a get a higher rating. Well like I stated earlier I still I was never fully invested in Eliza, despite liking the book objectively for the narrative it tells. I think it's because outside of her being “average” in real life and a famous creator online, I never got much of a sense of who she is. It also took a little while for me to get into the book, and I don't feel that the rest of the book was good enough to fully recover from that slow start. The other thing has to do with Eliza and Wallace's romance. It started out really cute, but I don't like how things ended with them. They had their struggle's, which I thought was good because I wanted to watch them overcome their issues. Once they did encounter a problem though, things went downhill pretty quickly. Their dynamic got worse until it exploded and then quickly remedied itself and is never addressed again. I didn't like how often it's implied that things are fixed and getting better but we're not really shown any of it. I wish I could have liked this book more than I did because I think it's a good story that works well with a modern audience, but I just couldn't get fully attached to the characters and the conclusion left something to be desired. Eliza and Her Monsters received 3 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book about a hobby.”    

Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson: Oh man. I picked this book up because I was in the mood to read a lighter fantasy, and I wanted to get around to reading the rest of the series. I had hoped that my opinions of the book would change from the last time I read it, but my reactions and opinions were all exactly the same. The best thing that probably came out of the reread was now I can discuss more precisely what exactly it was that I didn't like about the book (which is one of the reasons I reread books). First there's the pacing and the plot, or I should say lack of. The book immediately kicks off with Lia running away from her arranged marriage on the day of her wedding, so we're immediately thrown into the action. I usually don't like that, but the book remedied that problem by using the first few pages to show Lia's feelings on the wedding and how others in the court regard her, including her own father. So when she runs away, we sympathize with her and want her to succeed. Then the book shows her and her loyal hand maid arriving in the city of Terravain where they intend to live the rest of their lives working at an inn. This time delay and again was used well because it showed Lia's determination and adjustment to her new life. The book also splits POV's between the prince she was supposed to marry, and an assassin who was sent to kill her. Since this is my second read through, I already knew who was who, so the suspense of those scenes was gone, and I started to view them as unnecessary to the plot. A few chapters after the prince and assassin arrive, is when I started to have problems. The book really does nothing, there's no romantic, political, or personal drama. It's just a bunch of filler until Lia decides to go back which leads to her being kidnapped, and that's well after the half way point. After that things do pick up a bit and the book starts to resemble the beginning narrative, but it's a case of too little, too late. By the time we got to Lia's cross country journey (which I've made clear I struggle with those story lines) I just wanted the book to be over and while I could identify interesting, relevant or even emotional points, I found myself not caring. For example when Lia finds her brother killed in a battle near the end of her journey, she buries him and his entire platoon with her bare hands because she refuses to leave him for the animals. It's clear that this is supposed to be emotional scene but it doesn't work for 2 reasons. One, like I already stated I just wanted the book to be over and didn't care but that's a personal reason. Two, we only saw this brother in 2 short scenes through the entire book, and during Lia's entire time in Terravain, there are no moments when she's fondly thinking of her brother. So the readers aren't emotional attached to this guy, and even Lia doesn't seem to come across as emotionally attached to her brother, so the burial scene fails to make the impact that it was trying to. My other big issue with this book was the female characters. I have mixed opinions on the female characters in the book. On the one hand, it's great to see multiple female characters with different personalities that Lia gets along well with. Even Lia herself seems like a decent protagonist, she's rebellious but matures, and she has that underlying intelligence and determination (which is actively demonstrated in the book). On the other hand none of the female characters, besides Berti, really has a personal conflict that doesn't involve a male. Lia running away from her arranged marriage and not going back because she doesn't want to marry the prince. In fact whenever she talks about her past with the other characters, it always has to do with the marriage and how it makes her feel like a set piece and she's determined to hate the prince she's never met. Gwenyth and Pauline are both women with children but no husbands, and Pauline spends the majority of her screen time gushing about her beloved, then spends a decent chunk of time mourning his “death.” It undermines the independent female narrative when it always comes back to the men. Even the conversations among the women does this, where almost all, if not all, are on the subject of the males in their lives, be it family or love interest. I'm not even sure if this would pass the Bechtel test, and that really bugs me, because the narrative really tries to present Lia as this strong independent woman. Surprisingly I didn't really have any issues with the romantic plot, in fact I think I would have liked to see more of it. Originally I thought that the love triangle was pretty good because I could see Lia falling for Rafe or Kaden. During this reread though, it's apparent that Lia prefers Rafe because he's the one she's always thinking of and wants to spend time with (which is fine, he's the one I prefer). There is still a good chance for a love triangle to arise due to the reveal of which boy is the prince and which one is the assassin, which completely changes Lia's dynamic with the 2 boys, so it will be interesting to see how the romance is played out in the next book. Ultimately there were things that I liked about this book, there were things I didn't. There's a lot in this world that I think was underdeveloped (like the world, conflict, and even characters) but there is clearly a lot of potential for the series, because this first book gives you that feeling that it's building up to something. I have heard that the series improves, so I am hopeful that I will like the next book better than this one. Kiss of Deception received 3 out 5 stars.  

      Princess Academy by Shannon Hale: This is a reread that I have been putting off for awhile. Why? Because I was worried that it wasn't going to be as good as I remember it being. The last time I read it was probably in elementary school, and based on the fact that there has only been one reread I liked, let alone loved, from all my junior high rereads I had some legitimate concerns. Princess Academy ended up being a delightfully cute reread, that I overall enjoyed. With the last 2 books, I knew I wasn't really enjoying them because I got to a point where I just wanted the story to be done and rushed to the ending. I didn't have that feeling with Princess Academy, and it probably helped since the book itself was fairly short. Since it's a book geared for more children than teenagers, it does keep things fairly simple and quick, yet still managed to convey a good story with a positive message. The story's about Miri, a 14 year old from a village in the mountains who, along with other girls from the village, must now attend the titular academy because the prince will choose his wife from this group of mountain girls. Miri at the start is a delicate and sheltered girl who lacks confidence and sees herself as a burden because she's not allowed to mine the mountain, and by the end she is confident in who she is and what she wants. Of all the books I've read I honestly think she has one of the better character arcs. I liked how organic and straight forward it was, and that education played a huge role, and her determination and love of learning become core traits. With her growth in confidence also comes friends. In the beginning she's basically an outcast, which drives her to fill the void with books, and then she slowly makes more friends due to a mix of her new confidence and selflessness. The book has a few plot driven moments, like entering the Academy, the ball, and the bandits, and I think these moments were well spaced out and appropriately added in at the right moment so that things are moving forward at an appropriate pace. The romance is cute and light hearted, with 2 good people who were childhood friends being sweet on each other. It's not a romance that tugs at my heart, but it's the kind of romance I love seeing and wish I could see more of. The world building was kept fairly simple (it is a children's book) but it still felt plausible and had a distinct identity with the quarry. There were only 2 things that I did dislike, the “magic” and the teacher, Olanna. So the magic in this book is called quarry speech, and what it does is allow people to communicate through the linder stone itself (the stone in Mt. Eskel). What I didn't like was how subjective it was, but it really is a minor aspect that connects to some bigger themes of the book very well. It's an important part of the identity of the people of Mount Eskel, and helps Miri connect to the other girls and grow in confidence. So while I don't love the quarry speech itself, I like what it does for the characters. Olanna on the other hand was something that had no redeemable qualities. In the beginning she acts as more of an antagonist than a tutor. Not only was she very snobby, constantly talking down to the girls and trying to belittle them, she was also flat out abusive to them. Hitting them, locking them in a closet, and wouldn't allow them to go home to their families. Olanna also acted as a hindrance for Miri gaining any friends because she would collectively punish the group for something Miri did, essentially putting a target on Miri's back. I really like good student/ teacher relationships (not romance) and those are hard to find, so it's disappointing that Olanna is the exact opposite of the supportive teacher that I wanted, but that isn't her worst offense. She only changes because the girls force her to change ways, and ultimately sees no consequences for her horrible behavior, which really grated my nerves. Putting adults like this in positions of power, and letting them go free after they've proven what an ass they are is something I put under the category of “yes, it happens in real life, but I hate seeing it in fiction.” I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, since it is geared toward a young audience, and ended up giving it 4 out 5 stars.    

The Fifth Season by N. K Jemisin: I finally, finally got around to reading this. This was my other Pick-It-For-Me Challenge (the first being Eliza and Her Monsters) and I was a little worried about because everyone (and I mean everyone) that reads it loves it, and it's an award winning series. I also tried reading a bind up of Jemisin first work, The Dreamblood Duology, and I put it down after a couple of chapters (I might pick it back up). While I do think this book was as amazing and unique as everyone says it is, and it worthy of the praise it receives, I think the bar was set just a little too high for it. As more time passes I'm beginning to realize that while I don't love this book. It's good but not great. It's unique, it's heart wrenching, it's contains relevant themes, but I personally didn't get super attached to this book, and there are some opportunities that I think the book missed out on. I noticed that one of the best elements of this book and probably the driving force for the narrative are the themes. Books that are theme driven do generally leave a good impression on me and have a good impact, but I don't fine myself loving them as much as could because I think they kind of lack a personality (the exception to this is In An Absent Dream whose themes and the way it presented them happened to really strike a cord with me). The major themes in The Fifth Season are oppression and motherhood, as well as humans being tied to the earth. All important topics and I do think this first book handled well, for the most part, but it's that “most part” bit that drives the book down a smidge. I wanted more of Damaya's POV because I wanted to see more of how a child deal's with oppression and how it shapes them (also school setting). I wanted to see more growth in Essun and Hoa's relationship since he starts out as this strange surrogate child who follows her after she's lost her son and is searching for her daughter. These things might be further developed in the later books but I just don't know. There a few other things that I wish were done differently, but since they contain spoilers I'm not going to go into it here. The strange thing is I think this book was so hyped up I expected it to be a perfect book rather than just a good book. I still really liked this book but it also disappointed me to an extent. The Fifth Season received 4 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “own voices book.”  

The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood: It's a little surprising that I enjoyed this one as much as I did. I fully expected it to be a very depressing read that I just wanted to quit and get rid, so I thought I would be putting this off for awhile. Instead something compelled me to pick this book up and I ended up reading it much sooner than I expected. While there were definitely some uncomfortable scenes, I think this book did a fantastic job at conveying the message that it did, and this was a book I wanted to continue reading despite my initial hesitancy. For those who don't know what this book is about, it follows Offred, a Handmaid (whose entire purpose is to produce a healthy child) as she tries to survive her daily live in the oppressive new American regime. There isn't much plot, since the whole story serves as a cautionary tale. The characters in this book aren't much either, they really don't have much depth to them, however they don't need it. They mainly serve as set pieces, including the narrator, to illustrate the world around them and all the injustices now present. In fact the narrator, Offred, distinctly comes off as a passive set piece, not just because of her current oppressive circumstance but even in flashbacks, she basically reacts to others around her. While this doesn't always make her a likeable character, it works here because she really is trapped and has essentially no options, she has to go with the flow in order to survive. It's a very introspective novel and there is something about Atwood's writing that makes the story work, despite the lack of elements I usually enjoy in a story. The downside I would say about that is it's easier to forget specifics and just remember the feelings you had at certain moments throughout the story, and I struggle to write about something when I'm just going based off of feelings. It's why I don't have much say in this wrap up. I think it's one of those books where you have to read it for yourself to see what all the hype is and honestly if a book like this can last in the mainstream media for as long as it has then that that says something about both the book and the environment it's in. It's a testament to both Atwood's writing and the current socio-political environment that this book still appeals to a modern audience. My rating of The Handmaid's Tale managed to stay same, leaving it at a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Bookish Thing's I've Changed My Mind About

Since this topic was a little last minute, I'm surprised I was actually able to come up 5 things. Topic is pretty self explanatory, 5 bookish things I've changed my mind about, be it genre, stuff in books, TBR's, really anything associated with books. As you get older your tastes change, and this past year I've seen a lot of changes in what I prefer and want to do with books. I talked about them a bit in my 2018 Yearly Wrap Up, but here I'm going to highlight 5 specific ones that are the most relevant ones to me currently.  

2. YA Fantasy: Okay so I'm not ditching YA fantasy entirely, but I've definitely reached a point where I prefer adult fantasy. In my opinion the vast majority of this genre is just recycling the same story and characters over and over again and I've just gotten tired of it. That isn't to say that I hate the genre as a whole, there are still YA books I've read that I really loved and there are a few I'm interested in reading, mostly because my impression is that they break away from the mold.  

3. Grimdark Fantasy: This one is fairly minor, since I didn't get too much into grimdark as a genre, but the increasingly popular trend to write overly dreary stories in every media (books, TV, and movies) has caused me to reach the point where I just can't take in any more of it. The twists and deaths aren't shocking, and the depressing narrative feels basically fetishistic, and while it's not personally triggering it all builds up and leaves me in a poor state. So I'm not going to indulge in something that has such an unrealistically negative world view and it's honestly better for me personally to just stay away from that stuff, no matter how popular it is.  

4. Getting rid of books: Long story short, I have a small bookshelf and only so much space which I only want to give to the best books I own. While I would love to reach a point where I can keep all my books, regardless of my opinion of them, but right now I need that space and decluttering books and giving them away to other people who might actually enjoy them is kind of a reliving feeling.

5. Bookmarks: So for the longest time I didn't use book marks, I could just remember where I left off and open to that page (which I still can do). Being a reader though, people tend to associate you with bookmarks, so I ended collecting quite a few over the years. At one point I just decided to start using them to make it easier to immediately get to the point where I left off and to display the pretty bookmarks I own. Now I'm constantly using bookmarks in all the books that I read.  

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Rainy Day Reads

I struggled with this topic. Many of the books I selected could also apply to “books you could read in a day,” but there are also some that I think would take multiple days to read. What I was really looking for with these picks was that they had the right atmosphere, or evoked a certain feeling in me. Because it's such a subjective way of choosing what books I thought worked with this topic, I couldn't really explain why these books are on this list. At best I could come up with a couple of sentences.  

2. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: Gives you those warm feels on a cold spring day.

3. Robert Frost poems: It's been awhile since I've read one, but they've always stood out to me. Transports you to a serene natural landscape and all have a very sublime tone to them that resonates in you.  

4. Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski: Suspenseful survival story set on a dark, cold, and wet island.

5. The Devourers by Indra Das: This is one I really can't recommend to younger readers or people triggered by gore and sexual assault. That being said it's a very lush, atmospheric, mature read that deals with difficult topics.

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Historical Books

So once again I had to change the topic for this week because I'm in a bit of a Booktube slump. Unlike the the topics of the previous 2 weeks, I decided to completely change the topic and do an old one I haven't done yet. One of the genres I've been trying to get more into is historical fiction, and while I haven't read many of them, there's a decent mix of ones I like and ones I dislike. Looking at this list I want to make an effort to expand the historical fiction I do read in the future to different time periods (not just WW II and the Victorian Era) and different places (not just modern America and Europe). I'd like to quickly end this intro by stating that I tried to stick away from historical fantasy as much as I could. Also doesn't count as historical if it was written during the time period it's set in.

2. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak: This a book that everyone's heard about and the movie only added to it's popularity. Set during WWII about an orphaned German girl who begins stealing books from the Nazi regime. It's a very endearing and powerful story about resilience, but much like my next entry I was probably too young to fully appreciate the depth and tragedy of this book. So while it's well known for a reason, it isn't one I have a strong personal attachment to.      

3. Number the Stars by Lois Lowery: This is one I actually forgot about but it was one of my favorites when I was in elementary school. It was during this time I was fascinated with Judaism, and in this book the protagonists best friend is Jewish and her family must escape to Sweden because of the Holocaust. Since it's been so long since I've read it I can't remember the details, but that fact that it was one of my favorite books as a kid and lacks any fantastical elements speaks volumes as to how good I thought it was.  

4. The French Lieutenants Woman by John Fowles: This one almost flew under my radar (which is why it's toward the bottom) but is actually a really good book. Most of Fowles works, at least the ones I'm familiar with, are contemporaries and this one is a notable exception. I think it is set towards the end of the Victorian Era. What I like about this one is that it's a “slice of life” story with no big conflict, just people being people. Yet each person's history, status and personal belief's is what creates the tension and tells a compelling story. The Victorian moral's and setting is clear in every aspect of the book, which I appreciated and thought made the book stand out more.

5. The White Princess by Philippa Gregory: Now I recently DNFed this book, and the only reason that it is on this list is so that there's a little variety in the time line. The majority of historical fiction I come across is WW II and clearly the majority of historical books I've read are set during WW II, but I wanted something on here that isn't set during that time period. Honestly I'm fascinated by pre 1700s history, no matter where in the world, and since this was a historical fiction that supposed to focus on the women, this seemed geared to be something I could enjoy. Unfortunately the story and characters were very lack luster, and only good thing I can say about it is that it takes place at the end of the War of Roses, which is a significant historical event not in modern history.  

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Favorite Books That Made Me Laugh

The original topic is favorite jokesters, but since that was the exact same topic from this time last year and I have no new entries to contribute I decided to tweak the topic a bit while still keeping the humorous theme. I'm one of those readers where it honestly takes a lot for me to have an emotional reaction while reading a book. There are few books I've cried with and even fewer books that made me laugh, yet I still managed to find at least 4. While everyone's sense of humor is different, these are all books that I personally found funny or had a few laugh out loud moments with.  

2. All Systems Red by Martha Wells: When I first heard about this book, it was clear that it was a science fiction novella (since the protagonist is a type of robot) but what was unexpected and a lot of people kept talking about was how funny this story was. I recently read it because I needed a short, light hearted book. Most of the humor is derived from Murderbot's anti social behavior and love of entertainment (something I think many people can relate to). While it's not as humorous as I was led to believe, it still had some funny moments and had one of the best introductory paragraphs.  

3. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: While this book feels more geared toward a younger audience as an adult reading it, you can tell this book is dripping with satire from the first page and that is what makes it so entertaining. Everything in this book from the characters, to the relationships, to the advertising, to the overall plot, is a trope that is taken on it's head and spun around like a freaking top. I admit that sometimes the characters and writing can come off as juvenile which can be irritating (I did role my eyes at a few scenes) but when you look at the bigger picture, you have to be a little impressed at how big a middle finger this book is giving to multiple things, like beauty pageants, advertising, and stereotypes. While this book isn't without it's flaws, but it's a fun, female empowering narrative, and if you're a fan of satire, this book is stuffed full of it.  

4. Uprooted by Naomi Novik: This one's definitely an odd pick, because it's not a humorous book at all. But when discussing it with my sister, and trying to get her to read it to see what her opinion is on it, there was a scene in the first chapter where the Dragon is being a creeper to Kasia (which is never actually addressed in the novel) and for some reason reading it out loud to my sister caused us both to laugh at it. Now whenever that book is mentioned I can't help but laugh, just because of that one thing, and my sister does too. So it's not a comedic book, but it is one that made me personally laugh out loud for real.

Thank You Everyone 

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

Book Tag: Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt

Since it's Wednesday, that means there should be a Top 5 Wednesday. However, the topic is was favorite collectible items on my book shelf, and I don't have a wide variety of non book items on my shelves. I still wanted to talk about the contents of my shelf though, so instead I did the Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt Tag. 

Monthly Wrap Up: March

March, to put it mildly, wasn't a great month for me. I found myself in a personal slump which did have a significant impact on how this month went for me. It also meant that I found myself in a bit of a reading slump, so I wasn't able to read as much and wasn't loving the majority of what I was reading. I read a total of 10 books but 2 of those were novella's (which I though were good) and one was a DNF. I was still able to get through all the reading challenge's I was participating in, but I attribute that to making sure I'm reading a “challenge” book all the time. It wasn't all bad though. There were a few books that I really enjoyed, and I got my second 5 star book in the year, and I think I also had a pretty good variety of books.

The Singing by Alison Croggon: To anyone that isn't familiar with the Books of Pellinor series, this is a 4 book series and I read the first 2 books at the end of last month and read this one, the 4th one, at the beginning of this month. Meaning I skipped the 3rd book. Let my start by briefly explaining why I did this. I don't normally skip books in a series, but this is a reread that I wasn't enjoying and the 3rd book, The Crow, I knew was going to be my least favorite book in the series, so I already wasn't motivated to read it. Before calling it quits I wanted to see if there were any new characters or major plot points that I had forgotten that impacted the finale. There were no major new characters introduced and only 3 or 4 relevant plot points. So my desperation to get the series done with quickly mixed with the fact that I saw no real reason to force myself through a filler book, I made the decision to skip The Crow and jump right to The Singing. Onto my actual review of The Singing, my opinion of this book was about the same as the rest of the series. Through the entire series I don't think Maerad changed. She definitely became more powerful, but she still felt pretty flat and boring as a character. Despite Hem having a POV for about half this book, he didn't come across as having any distinct personality. In fact, none of the side character felt developed, except for Sylvia and her husband (whose name I'm forgetting). Granted this entire series is more plot driven than character driven, but that's not really an excuse for a lack character growth or identity, and there was almost never a sense of urgency or action. In each book there was 3,4 maybe 5 major plot points and the rest is basically filler. It's only 7 days after I finished The Singing and already I'm forgetting most of the details. The world itself is pretty generic, but it at least feels like there was effort in the development. The ending is also one of those endings where everything just turns out fine and there aren't any life altering consequences, despite this whole narrative being an epic battle of good versus evil. The only interesting and nuanced part was whenever the Elidhu or Treesong were brought up. What is the nature of good and evil? Are the Elidhu wholly one or the other? Even if they label themselves as good, are they good by human standards? What will happen to both Bards and the Elidhu if the Treesong is sung? I liked these parts, and it made the story feel like more than a basic, boring journey. Unfortunately none of it was fully developed, and to an extent I get why. Bards have distanced themselves from Elidhu and the Elementals, so they are fairly ignorant of everything surrounding them. Overall I just wanted more from this series. When I first read it I was obsessed with stories that involved long journeys (courtesy of my obsession with the Oregon Trail) but now if there's going to be lots of traveling, it has to have multiple instances of character or plot development (I do feel like it's easier to get away with this in TV or movies cause I can think of several examples of long journeys that I actually enjoy). I do recommend this for younger readers, or even people trying to ease themselves in epic fantasy since it's just 4 books that aren't even 500 pages, but as for myself I really was disappointed by this series and think it's just an average 3 star series. The Singing itself received 2.5 out of 5 stars.  

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente: Catherynne M. Valente is an author that has been on my radar for a little while. She seems to write fanciful, eclectic novels, like Radiance and Space Opera (which I'm still interested in reading), but this was the one I was most intrigued by. It's heavily influenced by Russian folklore and history, which admittedly I knew only a little about before reading this but I don't think that left me at any disadvantage. I was aware going into this that the romance was going to kind of twisted and it's a borderline villain story, but I figured I would be able to overlook. The relationship between Marya and Koschei is very twisted and they seem to want to please the other as much as they want to make them suffer, and I really prefer healthy relationships. The romance was definitely twisted and wasn't my cup of tea, but it wasn't the biggest issue I had with this book. Marya was one of those characters where we're told she's smart and observant, but as some as she's whisked away to Koeschi's region she does a lot of stupid things and is just downright pathetic at times. In fact I hated her time with Koeschi for several reasons, but the can all by summed up by saying it felt like I was reading 2 completely different stories. I really liked the beginning, with glimpse of magical realism and folk lore, but it's still very much set in a recently communist Russia. You do question what's real or not, but the story is never confusing and Marya does seem like a well read, sympathetic character. Then there was the whole courtship between Kosechi and Marya, as he willful makes her sick and says he's going to basically control, but then implies that this is love and Marya believes him. Then this devolved into a book with no plot. There's supposed to be this constant war between Life and Death, and that one could have been interesting, but it ended up being a minor sub plot. Then she somehow ends up back in her old home, and things get even more confusing from there, with the end making me wonder if all those magical things that happened to Maya were real or if they were all in her head. Ultimately I couldn't tell you what this book was about, it's just one of those stories where things happen. This could have been much more tolerable if I liked at least one character, but I didn't like any characters. Majority of the characters were treated as disposable and were given very little identity, while the more main ones I found to be all unlikable. While there was plenty that I disliked about this book, I just couldn't hate it. The writing was very interesting (and I have read a short story by Valente so I know I like her writing style), it was interesting seeing Old World Russia with it's folklore mesh with the blossoming Soviet Russia, and like I stated earlier I genuinely enjoyed the beginning. If you're looking to read more retellings (in this case of Koeschi the Deathless) or books with a Russian setting I could recommend this one, but be warned, it's weird, there's no sense of direction, and the characters are definitely unlikable and it's debatable if they're sympathetic or not. Deathless received 2.5 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a book inspired by myth, legend, folklore.”    

Starless by Jacqueline Carey: This was a book that I delayed in picking up because I was just losing interest in it and was worried to would be a romance disguised as fantasy. I'm pleased to say that this book exceeded my expectations for it. It's a coming of age, epic fantasy story about Khai, a young warrior monk as he trains and eventually takes up his position as the destined protector (called a Shadow in this world) of a princess. This book feels like it's broken into 3 sections that are tied into each other. The first starts with Khai as a young child, training in the desert. I think this part was a very good introduction to the world and some of the characters. There isn't too much going on in terms of plot or conflict, but it's clear that Carey is building up to this. The second part was probably my favorite bit because it contained more of what I like to see in stories as well as tying into the first and third parts of the book. Khai finally meets the princess Zhari, and the two immediately form a close bond. There's some political intrigue, looming threats of an apocalypse, and a shortage of seeds that makes the royals immortal. This shortage results in the fire deity promising more seeds if the princess is married to a foreigner (with a large dowry of said seeds). There's some time spent whittling down which suitor she will marry, and that's where things were really building up. I was eager to read the next chapter and I could see an epic conflict really up and ready to burst. When Zhari finally picks her fiance, Khai and Zhari depart with the lord to his homeland and that's where the final part of the book begins and where things start to go downhill. The plot became entirely driven by prophecy, and I was just losing investment in the story, even though the stakes were really high because now it's very obvious that the world will end if the heroes fail in their quest. I also started having issues with the characters. Through the whole book, there has been a revolving door of characters but they all felt fully fleshed out and there was chance that they could emerge again or become relevant to the rest of the story. The crew that Khai and Zhari become a part of are hastily introduced and never become fully realized characters. This is most evident when some of these characters are killed off and I just didn't care (and there's even one that turned out to be part of the prophecy and I may have rolled my eyes at that). Most of the fantasy stand alones that I read have trouble with pacing, but I don't think that was the case here. While I wasn't as invested in the plot in the final part, I do think it moved forward at a decent pace. The romance was cute, with 2 opposite personality characters and it slowly building up until the end with a love confession and the two adventuring and spending the rest of their lives together, but I didn't love it for similar reasons of why I wasn't invested in the plot in the third part. It was all fated. I think I've just found something else I really don't like in seeing in books. Had the narrative stayed on the path that it was going on in the middle of the book, I would have given this book 5 stars, but I was more than a little disappointed with how the just of the book went, the rating definitely dropped. Starless received 4 out 5 stars from me and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a book you meant to read in 2018.”  

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire: Going into this book I was worried that it wouldn't hold up to the rest of the series. I wasn't super intrigued by the premise and the character we are following is in an earlier book and I didn't find her compelling. But it is a Seanan McGuire book and it's in a series I think is really good, so when I saw they had a copy at a bookstore, I purchased it without hesitation. At the beginning I really wasn't feeling the book at all. I didn't think there was anything stand out or unique, the characters and world wasn't interesting, and there wasn't really anything happening in terms of the plot. So there was nothing motivating me to continue, but it's a short book and super easy to get through. I'm glad I did because the ending was what really made this book resonate with me. I'm about to state an unpopular opinion, but Down Among the Sticks and Bones was my least favorite book in the series (and after reading this book I think it still is) because while I did like the two protagonists and the world of the Moors was kind of interesting, I don't think it told a very good story, there was an awkward time gap in the center of the book, and the overall theme of this book was presented in a way that made it come off as a bit preachy. This book was a complete inverse of Down Among the Sticks and Bones. I still don't find Lundy to be that compelling of a character, though she is sympathetic and almost tragic at the end, and there was so little of the Goblin Market that I don't really have an opinion an it, but everything else was done right. The beginning starts out feeling a little disjointed, with a lot being outright explained or not very nuanced, but it pays off in the end when those things the beginning become relevant to Lundy. The whole concept of “fair value” was something that really struck a cord with me because it's very relevant to just to the story but to this world too. I also liked seeing the various relationships, like Lundy and Moon's friendship, Lundy and Diana's sisterhood (which did happen a bit abruptly but still felt genuine), and even Lundy and her fathers (which was, I think, a better done example of showing the consequences of bad parenting), and seeing how the Goblin Market and “fair value” affected each one. So while In An Absent Dream still had it's slumps in the beginning, I would say it's a good story and a great addition to the Wayward Children series. In An Absent Dream received 4 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book published in 2019.”      

The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera: Similar to In An Absent Dream, I was wary about this book. When I first purchased it I was hearing a lot of good things but just never got around to reading it, and the it just sat on my shelf for over a year, maybe 2. Unlike In An Absent Dream, the problem wasn't my lack of interest in the story, it was that I was worried it was being over hyped. I've been introduced to lots of wonderful new books through the book community, but I've also been severely disappointed by books that are just raved about and sound amazing. That's why I put this one off for so long. At first I was just not in the mood for it, but then I started avoiding it because I was being consistently let down by books that were over hyped. This month I had to start it because it was my book my partner selected for me in the monthly “Pick-It-For-Me” reading challenge (which is part of why I like this challenge, it forces me to read books I wouldn't initially choose for myself). Once I started reading it I was pretty quickly immersed to the story and attached to the characters. This is a book that I honestly loved every aspect of it, and only have a few minor complaints. The entire story was so beautifully written, mostly told in the format of love letters between the 2 protagonists, Shefali and Shizuka. I will say that the chapters are enormous (like 2 chapters together was about 250 pages) and while they are broken up those sections within the chapter are still fairly large. This definitely helps pull you into the story more, but it can be a turn off to some people (and was part of the reason I got into a reading slump). I loved the protagonists, I loved how they were wonderfully complex characters with their own issues to overcome and more than just warrior women archetypes. I loved their relationship, how it felt natural (despite being fated) and watching it evolve from their first meeting as children to their eventual reuniting after Shefali's banishment. Much like Shefali and Shizuka, while their relationship is beautiful and good, it's not without it's problems, and both characters are aware of that and try to work through it. I was surprised by how good the side characters were, even minor ones that only show up a few times. Each one plays a role in Shefali and Shuizka's lives, for better or worse, and while some are awful and some were good, I thought all were fleshed out. The world itself was astounding, influenced I think by Ancient China and the Mongol Empire, and I loved the level of detail that was put into not just the human aspect of the world with the politics and various cultures, but also with the supernatural part of the world, with the black bloods and demons. As for the overall narrative, it was a bit slow, especially if you think this is going to be an epic war between humans and demons, but I don't think the story suffered from, in fact I think it flourished because of it. Instead of focusing on the supernatural conflict, we only get glimpses of it through the few times it directly or indirectly affects the characters lives. Instead the book focuses on building up the characters and world and the conflicts created by people, like corruption in the nobility and racism, and book that builds up both compelling characters, and detailed world, and nuanced themes makes for a book I'm going to love. The Tiger's Daughter received 5 out 5 stars.      

Dune by Frank Herbert: Dune was I pick I read because my Dad kept suggesting that I read it. I didn't have high expectations going into this one, and it both surprised and disappointed me. Most of the plot revolves around two things, control of a spice only native to the planet of Arrakis, aka Dune, and bringing forth this fated chosen one. I didn't like the chosen one trope in this story, at all, because it only served to emphasize just how amazing and unstoppable the protagonist Paul is. I did not like Paul, and I blame that as much on the narrative as the character himself. If you asked me to describe Paul, I honestly couldn't, there was just no defining feature about him other than being “the chosen one.” He has “the Voice” like his mother, which I think is a method of controlling people, but I honestly don't know. He comes from a noble background, everyone admires him, he's always right and always succeeds in everything. Literally everything goes right in his life, except for when he and his mother have to go into hiding and his father is killed, but in the long run it makes his life that much better because he ends up having some control over this spice that everyone wants and also marries the Emperors daughter which puts in line for succession. I didn't like him, or even get attached to him, because I knew from the beginning that everything is going to be fine for him and mostly gets things just handed to him, never failing and never having to make any significant sacrifices. The only interesting that came out of the whole “chosen one” narrative was a background element regarding the school his mother, Lady Jessica, hails from. The Bene Gesserit is an organization consisting of just women, that practice meditation to hone their superhuman abilities, and are key figures in influencing the politics and arranging marriages to continue certain bloodlines. I liked seeing women have that much power in a classic science fiction story, because I was fully expecting the opposite. That actually ties into one of the other things I liked about Dune, which was the whole political intrigue (which is something I personally love seeing in books, at least when it's well done). This book can essentially be described as Game of Thrones in space, with all these different Houses and organizations vying for power, and in this book in particular, control of the spice. There's Houses trying to undermine or alley with each other, there's the inner workings of the Fremen and how the deal with foreigners, and the Bene Gesserit wielding a silent power, and the only thing preventing a rebellion is it not being revealed that the Emperor is more willing to eliminate Houses at will. While I do love seeing political intrigue in books, I just don;t think this one went far enough with it. A Song of Ice and Fire, for all it's faults, establishes in the first book a complicated political network surrounding the Iron Throne and the severe consequences that wrong actions can have. I just didn't get that sense of depth from Dune, which is a shame because there was a lot of potential with that series. Before I break down what I didn't like about this book, I will discuss the one other thing about this book that I liked, and that was the role that the environment had. Dune is a desert planet, so water is very scarce and a huge status symbol. The environment plays a role not just in the societal structure to the people who are native there but also to the rest of the empire, which again tied into the political intrigue aspect. I told my Dad that those bits of the book made it feel like it was set in the real world (especially when taking into consideration America's push for oil in the Middle East), which was something I both liked and disliked (I'll get to why I disliked it in a minute). As much as there were things I liked about Dune, there were also some things I really disliked. I didn't really like any of the characters, except for maybe Jessica. I've already ranted about why I disliked Paul, but my issues with the other characters was that I didn't feel attached to them in any way. They were all pretty flat and empty, acting more like props instead of people, except for the Baron, who I disliked almost as much as Paul. Yes, he's the villain, but he's not a compelling villain. He's a foopish, over the top, disgusting character that I honestly question why he got a POV for 2 reasons. One is again, that he's just a disgusting character and a waste of paper, but the other is that reading from his POV took away all the suspense of the entire first half of the book because he states exactly how he's going to reclaim power and then does exactly that, which leads into one of my other major issues with this book. The writing isn't good. There was no suspense because the author choose to have the characters very blatantly tell you what's going to happen and then has it happen exactly how they said it would. It's why I generally hate prophecy driven narratives. The dialogue was also very awkward and almost uncomfortable to read at times, and the pacing of this book was all over the place, I honestly have no idea how much time passed in this book. The one other thing I want to discuss is why I didn't like the real world feel of this book. It wasn't that the themes and conflicts and characters felt grounded in reality, it's that if the names were different this honestly could have been set in the real world. There was tech present, like spaceships obviously, and the worms were kind of cool feature, but they didn't feel very tied into the story or the world itself. They were just kind of there. I went into this book identifying it as a classic science fiction, and I guess I was hoping to see more advanced tech be more relevant to this world, or spend some time on an actual spaceship, but that wasn't there, so it was a little disappointing. That isn't actually a bad feature of the book, but it's one I just wish had been done differently. The last thing I'm going to talk about is the romance. It's a minor feature of this book, but I would still like to discuss it because there's a good, bad, and terrible example. If any of you are slightly familiar with Dune, you can probably guess that the terrible one is the Baron. Everything surrounding this guy is awful, but did really have to go the extent of him being the only person on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and having him be the villain, but also he's lusting after young boys, namely Paul and his own f**king nephew. I will repeat what I said earlier, the Baron was just a waste of paper. The romance that is actually a romance but I didn't think was done that well was Paul and Chani. They meet when he becomes a part of the Fremen, and while part of my disinterest may be due to my dislike of Paul, I honestly didn't feel any chemistry between the 2 and all of their romance seemed to happen off screen, despite Paul being the most central character. The well done romance is Paul's parents, Lady Jessica and Duke Leto. They aren't officially together, due to them mutually agreeing it would be better for potential allies if they didn't, but they way they act to and regard each other makes it clear they're married in all but name. During the entire book, Duke Leto never takes another wife, and Jessica (even though she also had her own ambitious reasons) gave the Duke a son when it was made clear to her that she needed to have a daughter, because she knows it will make him happy. They seem to regard each other as equals. I didn't love the miscommunication but after the Duke is killed Paul gives Jessica a message from him which basically states his undying love and trust in her, and Jessica seems genuinely mournful of his loss. It isn't a relationship we see much of (none are honestly, except maybe Paul and Jessica's) but the glimpses that are shown, I really liked. Considering this was a book written in the 1960s, I think it still works well (mostly) with a modern audience, which is what makes it a classic. Is it one of my favorite science fiction novels? No. Is it without it's faults? In my opinion, no. Is it still a worthwhile book that I would recommend giving it a try? Absolutely. I know there are several squeals, some written by Herbert some not, but I feel fine leaving Dune as it's own self contained story. Dune received a 3 out of 5 stars from me and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book set in space.”

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: Since I've been doing a lot of rereading, and haven't read this series since junior high, I wanted to get to this series sooner rather than later. When I first read this series I absolutely loved it. It wasn't Harry Potter, or the Warriors series, but I found it to be an engrossing series that spawned my love of dragons. After finishing it, and as time passed, I heard more and more critical things about the series and wanted to see where I stood on the whole thing. Now having completed the first book at least I give a brief breakdown on how this review is going to go: it has plenty of flaws in it and I would say it's mediocre at best but damn if I'm not going to defend it. The basic plot is a farm boy finds a dragon egg, the dragon hatches, and the two work together to overthrow an evil emperor.  It's a very generic plot, but I still found it entertaining to read. It does have a fast pacing, but because so much of this book was long journeying I think that worked in the book's favor because it didn't have a ton of filler. Most of the world building is given through long exposition, and while I didn't like that, it was something I just rolled my eyes at and moved on with. I didn't like Eragon as a protagonist, he reeks of wonder boy, chosen one, and he frequently came off as very immature and ignorant. The supporting cast, however makes up for it, especially the females because I think they all stood out as fell fleshed characters. The one specific criticism I want to tackle in this post, and the one I hear the most often, is that this is basically Lord of the Rings fanfiction. Are there similarities, yes, but many, many, many traditional epic fantasy series are inspired by Tolkeins work. Heck, I just finished a series where the first book seemed copy and pasted from the Fellowship of the Ring. The big differences is that the book is set in a world where the bad guy has already won and is maintaining power, and dragons are an important feature. The king has a dragon, and is the only one which makes him very dangerous and the reason Eragon is so important is because he's the only one with a dragon and could potentially challenge the king. The big thing about this book is Paolini was 15 when he wrote this book. 15! I have seen experienced writers produce material that is the same level as what Paolini produced as a kid. It's not an original story and I can see why people reading it for the first time as adults would definitely get frustrated with it but I think it's a good place to start for younger readers looking into epic fantasy (be warned the last 2 books get big). Eragon received 3 out 5 stars.  

All Systems Red by Martha Wells: So over the past year I started hearing more and more people rave about this first book in a series of novella's. I'm trying to read more science fiction, and I heard that this one was also humorous. That being combined with the fact that it's short made it seem like a good pick. This first book introduced us to the self named Murderbot, a rouge security droid who hacked it's own module and spends most of the time consuming entertainment. It's on a mission with an exploratory team when things get increasingly suspicious, and suddenly the neighboring exploratory team goes quiet. It's feels a bit like Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (one of my favorite books), if the story was told from the POV of a very anti social robot. I liked what the story built up to and I did find the character of Murderbot to be amusing and relateable at times, but I didn't love the story. Part of it may be due to the fact that it is both a novella and first book in a series, so the story itself comes off as very rushed and almost incomplete. The major theme of this book is Murderbot discovering what it really wants out of life, and how the humans that it interacts with and the entertainment it consumes affects this. You see it slowly go from this very passive, borderline apathetic character, to someone who actively takes charge of their own life but still retains their core characteristics, that being it's anti social nature and love of entertainment. It's a great idea, one that I think a lot of people can relate with and one that I think has the potential for a good character arc, but doesn't really get emphasized until the end. There's a couple moment's throughout the story that indicate this is what we're building up to, but it's not the what the story focuses on. The big story is why are all these malfunctions occurring and what happened to the other exploratory team. Overall I would say that it was still a decent story, but there were 2 major failures that I think ultimately cost the quality of the overall narrative. The first is that Murderbot is the only POV and she's very lazy and keeps human interaction to an absolute minimal. While this is part of what Murderbot a good character, it means that the readers don't get much of a sense of the world, or the people around them, or even what's going on. You're just left in a haze and being told to keep walking. The second, and bigger failure, comes at the climax. As far as I understand there's a secret third team that is killing off the other 2 exploratory teams, though the reasoning I'm not clear on. When the team we've been following, PreservationAux, and the third team make contact, it's very unclear what happened or even why it happened. The only clear thing was that Murderbot was shot, and PreservationAux worked not only to ensure it's survival but also permanently bought it's contract so that it could stay with them. This leads to the emotional climax, with Murderbot leaving, and was actually a touching moment. I did ultimately like this novella, and would like to read the rest, but going through probably a third of the story with blinders on left me a little frustrated, especially due to the hype. Speaking of which I also didn't think this book was as humorous as a lot of people made it seem, there were funny moments and one of the best intros I've read this year, but after the introduction it kind of went downhill. It's a good novella, I just wish that there had been more to work with. All Systems Red received 4 out 5 stars.      

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick:  After finishing Dune, I moved onto another book my Dad liked (he has every single book written by Philip K. Dick). He did warn me going into this one that the story itself isn't great, but the ideas behind the story are generally compelling. So going into this, I expected to be decent, but not great, and that was basically what this ended up being. It's a short book, that can easily be read in just a few days, and I definitely think this worked in the books favor. The plot is very simple, being set in a bleak future America, after nuclear war has ravaged the landscape, and Rick Deckard has been assigned to “retire,” aka kill, 6 advanced androids. He takes the job because he wants to buy a real animal, the ultimate status symbol in their society. What transpires is him retiring each of the androids but there's a growing moral conflict centered around empathy and what makes something human. The plot does get a bit convoluted at times, but the story is straightforward enough so that you can still get through those parts with relative ease. I was surprised to learn that there's a second POV that focuses on a minor character. While not really relevant to the plot, it does contribute a little to the overall moral conflict. To be honest this is a hard book review without giving spoilers, and also it's one I think I need more time to really analyze all aspects of it. I will say that if you are a fan of science fiction and looking for more recommendations, especially classics, I would give this one a try. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep received 3 out 5 stars and is my pick for the PopSugar prompt “book with a question in the title.”  

When She Woke by Hilary Jordan: This is a book that I was really looking forward to reading. It's supposed to be a retelling of The Scarlet Letter, which is one of my favorite classics, but set in a future society, where people are dyed different colors based on the crimes they commit. The protagonist, Hannah Pyrne, gets an abortion and is dyed, called Chroming, red to signify her as a murderer. I thought it was going to be a thought provoking retelling, but it wasn't. There were some very obvious nods to The Scarlet Letter, but the underlying tone and world makes When She Woke actually feel like a retelling of The Handmaids Tale, which is not the narrative I wanted to read about. AT ALL. At this point I really try and steer away from overly depressing narratives (it's why I'm delaying rereading The Handmaid's Tale and the Queen of the Tearling series for as long as possible). Since there was an abortion  in this book, I knew it was going to go to some dark places, but I still expected there to be bright, even hopeful moments. There wasn't any in the first half, it was all just sad and depressing with several instances of oppression and abuse. In fact not only is depressing, it's kind of generic too, and stuffed full of things I really dislike seeing in books like Insta Love, forbidden romance, and girl hate. I ended up reading a summary of the second half to see if I was going to miss out on anything, and there ultimately didn't seem to be. I really hoped that it would be one of those books with a utopian setting but focuses on the best and worst aspects of society. This was definitely not one of those books, and it's such a disappointment that it turned out the way it did. When She Woke received 1 out 5 stars, since any book I DNF I give a one star to, and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “retelling of a classic.”

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