Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J. K. Rowling

Rating: 5/5 stars

I had so much fun rereading this book via the audio version. Jim Dale is a fantastic narrator and his voice acting really enhanced the story.

I can tell this is an early book because I noticed a bit of telling instead of showing, specifically during the scenes where time passes. I didn't remember the first few books being like this, probably because the story is so amazing that any negatives are immediately forgotten, but I was actually surprised to see this amateur technique being used in Harry Potter. Rowling's writing does improve over the course of the series, and I can really see that.

I've always liked Chamber of Secrets, but I know it's a lot of people's least favourite Harry Potter book. I'm not sure why this is the case though, as it is darker and the stakes are higher than the first book (although, this is the case with every subsequent book). I love how there are so many details that are weaved throughout the story that come to light at the end. That's something I love about all the Harry Potter books and what makes an excellent story in my opinion: details that are seemingly important in the beginning turn out to be of drastic consequence in the end.

Like with Sorcerer's Stone, I'm surprised by how much Rowling fit into this short book while maintaining the integrity of the story and characters. There is such an involved plot with many details and descriptions that the story feels longer than it is (but not in a bad way). I guess it's just Rowling's gift to write in this way.

I wish I could write a more coherent and descriptive review of this book, but what is there really to say? Harry Potter is an amazing series of books, and that's that.

Review: WHITE SAND, VOL. 2 by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 3/5

The whole planet of Taldain and its sand magic is a great addition to the Cosmere, and I hope Sanderson eventually makes it back to this story and revises and officially releases the White Sand novel into the world.

While I enjoyed the concept behind the graphic novel, I much preferred the first installment as I felt that this volume was just missing something. The story was anticlimactic at times, and I struggled to fully grasp some details of the narrative. There were scenes when I could tell something important was happening or some crucial information was just revealed, but I couldn’t quite tell what. I hate to say anything negative about any of Sanderson’s works, but I think the graphic novel format here hinders the story. I am really looking forward to reading the prose version of White Sand because I think I will enjoy it much more due to the extra layer of details.

Something that bothered me, that I did notice in the first volume but didn’t include in my review, was that the people who live on Dayside, under the perpetual sun, are light-skinned. And the people who live on Darkside, where it’s perpetual night, are dark-skinned. This is totally backward of how it would actually be, so it confused me at first.

One nice thing about this version, though, is that Sanderson’s humor has managed to transfer to the graphic novel format. I really appreciate this because his humor is something not to be missed in any of his works.

Another thing I liked was that when the characters speak in different languages, the speech bubbles change color slightly so you know when the language changes. This was really neat to me, and I’ve never seen this technique used before (I didn’t notice it in volume one, but that’s not to say it wasn’t there too).

Something I want to note is that the art in the last chapter drastically changed design from the rest of the story. It changed from a gruff style to a neatly polished style, and I have no idea why. At first, I thought it might be because the characters were in a dream sequence or an alternate reality, but then the chapter—and the book—ended and I realized it must be that the story got a new artist (I later confirmed this by looking at the title page that I had skimmed over earlier). I would be curious to find out why this happened and if the new artist will be drawing for the third book because I actually prefer the cleaner art style (even though I think the original style suits the story better).

I have no idea when the third and final White Sand volume is being released but I think I should read the novelization of the story first so I don’t spoil myself for the ending. I do hope the last volume will be a bit more interesting plot-wise than this one that was a bit slower-paced, but we shall see.

Review: THE LAKE HOUSE by Kate Morton

Rating: 5/5 stars

Kate Morton has done it again! This book was amazingly breathtaking, beautiful in every way. I could not put it down, which was so refreshing after my last read that I struggled to pick up.

You know when a book is so delicious that you physically can’t read the pages fast enough? When you ignore chores, showering, sleeping, and even food just to fit in one more chapter? That was this book for me. (I would have finished it even faster if it I didn’t have to work.)

The Lake House follows the lives of three different people: Eleanor in 1911; her daughter Alice in 1933; and detective Sadie in 2003, who is trying to uncover the seventy-year-old mystery of what happened to Eleanor’s son, Theo, when he randomly disappeared one night. I have read in other reviews that some people found it hard to keep the timelines straight and what was happening to who, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all. It was actually very easy for me to mentally construct a timeline for this story, and when the chapter began and stated it was 1933, I would go right to that spot in my mind. I think if you actually pay attention while you read, it won’t be confusing in the least bit. The characters each have distinct voices, as well.

The narrative did start out rather slow, establishing the lives of each of the characters, and I found myself eagerly waiting for the mystery to start. That was probably just my own anticipation of getting lost in another Kate Morton book, but keep in mind that the story does pick up its pace throughout.

Kate Morton is just so dang clever! She literally spells out for you everything you need to know, yet the ending still hits you like a wall, when you look back and finally realize all the hints and pieces of the story were there all along. I don’t know how she does it, but she is good!

I actually did guess one of the big reveals at the end during the first few chapters of the book. There were no clues or anything; I just pulled an absurd idea out of my head and went on believing it the whole story. I had almost given up hope when in the last few pages it came to light that I was right all along! Always trust your instincts. And this in no way dampened the ending of the story or the joy from the journey. I was actually very happy that I had guessed right because it was such a sweet moment for the characters.

One thing I especially loved about The Lake House is that one of the characters, Alice, is a mystery writer. At one point, she explains to someone about things that mystery writers should do to concoct a good story. I loved this part because it was like a foreshadowing of Kate’s own novel. Alice mentioned some things and I was like, oh I bet that’s how she did it in this book too! It was great. The way Morton weaves her story together is truly superb.

What I love about her writing is that she gives the reader clues in every chapter, hints all along the way, so when you get to the end it’s like all the details are coming together and you finally understand why each piece of information was given. I don’t like books that keep everything a secret and then drop it all on you in the last few pages, and this book is definitely not like that. She truly weaves the mystery into the story, into the lives of each character, and it’s beautiful how all the details intertwine. Her words painted a vivid picture in my mind with every detail.

I must mention that I do like the first book of Kate’s that I read, The Forgotten Garden, better than this book because of its air of magical whim, while The Lake House is a darker novel with a more grim setting, but it is still excellent and completely deserving of five stars. One significant difference between the two books is that in The Forgotten Garden, the reader doesn’t know any clues that the characters don’t know. The past and present characters reveal secrets at the same time as each other. But in The Lake House, the past and present characters know completely different information that only slightly overlaps at times, so the reader ends up knowing clues that one narrator does not know, adding a bit of dramatic irony to the novel. It’s a different writing technique, and I liked being able to experience each style.

I cannot wait to read every single one of Kate Morton’s books in the future because she is definitely one of my favourite authors. If you enjoy dynamic historical fiction characters that are somehow connected to a character in the present who is trying to solve a decades-old mystery that is deeply intertwined in both her life and the lives of those in past generations, set mostly in the English countryside, then you will love Kate Morton’s books. I can’t recommend her enough!

Review: RED SISTER by Mark Lawrence

Rating: 2/5 stars

This book sounded awesome: it’s all about assassin nuns. I’d heard so many people raving about how amazing it was, and if you look at other reviews you will notice that almost everyone loves this book. Naturally, I had no doubt I would enjoy it too.

I was so very wrong.

I really, really wanted to like this book, and I honestly thought I would, but I just could not become interested in the story. I probably should have given the book one star for how bored and disappointed I was the entire time, but I didn’t because I do still like the idea behind the story, and I think this is an in-depth world that Lawrence probably spent a lot of time crafting. I didn’t hate the book, but it just did not deliver for me.

Everyone mentions in their reviews how the opening sentence/scene hooks you with epic action and the journey is only uphill from there, and even though the beginning was action-packed, I wasn’t pulled into the story yet. I kept reading. We follow Nona as a little girl when she was about to be hanged for a crime, and a nun comes to save her and take her to the Convent of Sweet Mercy. The first eighty or so pages were just Nona telling us her backstory—her entire life story in excruciating detail—and I was honestly so bored. The time jumps back and forth really disrupted the flow of the narrative. I could not keep all the characters straight, and Nona’s point of view felt very distant; I couldn’t connect with her, and in fact, I think she’s a very unrelatable character. Plus I didn’t care about her childhood drama at all.

Finally, Nona arrives at the convent, so I thought the plot would pick up and start to be interesting because I would be learning about this magical world and the different classes of Sisters and what they do. But the story still dragged for me. I couldn’t keep straight the Red Sister vs. the Holy Sister vs. the Holy Witch, etc. or what they all do, or which bloodlines produce which traits, and it just made me confused and uncaring. I do not think this aspect is explained well. Luckily for me, there was a glossary in the beginning will all this information because I had to keep referencing it.

Nona meets different girls at the Convent, some who tell her about the classes of Sisters in an unfortunately info-dumpy way that was difficult to keep straight, and she begins training. Much of this training is Nona sitting in a classroom learning different lessons. Long, slow lessons about the Path or something related to the Ancestor. Or she’s sparring with another sister in an uninteresting way. I just wanted something to happen! And we never learned what the whole point of the training was—what do these girls do after the convent? Who are they being trained to fight against? So much of this world felt left open and undeveloped, and I think Lawrence failed at telling what had the potential to be a great story.

Instead of Red Sister being about magical assassin nuns like I thought it would be, it was instead about little girls who are told by nuns about “magic” (I use this term lightly) but never actually get to use it, and they hardly ever assassinate anybody. We are told that Nona killed someone in her past, but there was none of that during the actual story until the very end. Where was all this killing I was promised?

The nuns are taught the Path, and they are supposed to one day touch the Path and walk the Path, but I honestly can’t even tell you what the Path is. Is it an intangible idea, the way of the Ancestor (who is only an idea but never fleshed out as an actual person; was the Ancestor even a real person?), or is it an obstacle course in the Convent? I actually have no clue what the Path is. And what does it mean to walk the Path? Why is this important? And what exactly is their religion? The whole concept of the story was cool, but it was entirely lost on me because nothing was explained well. For a story that takes place in a convent, there was very little explanation about the religion, which I found to be disappointing. I should not be asking these basic questions after reading 475 pages in this world.

The writing style is also very distant. I don’t know what specifically makes it that way, but I could not connect with any of the characters. They all blended together and I couldn’t tell one Sister from another, nor one girl from another. Everyone had basically the same personality. I also didn’t particularly like the prose because it was very dry. After reading this book, I don’t want to read any more books by Mark Lawrence if this is how he normally writes.

I honestly felt like my eyes were glazing over while I read. I could not even be made to care about any part of this book. At one point I reread an entire chapter and didn’t even realize it until the last page.

Even during action scenes, it felt like there was no action and no suspense. I don’t even know what was happening because all of the sudden the scene would be over and I just felt let down.

The whole story was so slow. I would sit down to read for an hour and realize I had read only ten pages. In an hour. I kept waiting and waiting for some excitement to occur, anything engaging to happen. But no matter how long I kept reading, this book never enraptured me like I had hoped so badly it would. I thought I would mark it as unfinished after fifty pages, but then I gave it until 100 pages, and then I gave it until 200 pages, and then eventually I struggled to the last page. I kept wanting to put it down but I also wanted so badly for it to get better, so I kept reading. But unfortunately, the story never did get any better.

Here are a few things I liked, at least: there was very little swearing in the book, which I appreciated; there’s also no romance in the book, which was nice for a change; there’s a strong focus on female friendships and what it really means to be someone’s friend; and Nona is not a chosen one, thank goodness, or I might have enjoyed the book even less.

I think my expectations were way too high because I ended up being extremely disappointed with Red Sister. I think it has the chance to be a good book for the right person, seeing as it has so many rave reviews, but I couldn’t tell you who the “right person” is because it was not for me. I never wanted to give up on the story so I kept pushing through, hoping it would get better, but it took me ages to finish. I kind of want to know what happens next, and I had planned on reading the whole trilogy, but I think I’m going to stop after this book because I don’t want to endure that much boredom for two more tomes. But if there’s ever a movie, I will definitely watch it because it would be loads more interesting and developed than the book is.

“Be warned, young Nona: a book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one.”