Storeys of Stories: 2021

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Review: WHISPER ME A LOVE SONG, VOL. 1 by Eku Takeshima

Rating: 5/5 stars

This manga is adorable and I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Himari, a new first-year, sees a band performing during the opening ceremony and immediately becomes smitten with the singer, Yori, thinking she's the coolest person she's ever seen. The next day, Himari giddily tells Yori, "I fell in love with you at first sight!" and walks away before Yori can respond.

Yori, a third-year, is faced with the dilemma of having to write a love song for the band, but she's never been in love before. So when Himari confesses her feelings to her, Yori thinks this is the perfect opportunity to find inspiration for her new song. She tells Himari, "I also fell in love at first sight," but what she didn't realize was that Himari's feelings were that of a devout fan and not intended to be romantic.

Whisper Me a Love Song has my favorite manga art style that I think I've ever seen; I absolutely loved the drawings so much, and it makes me want to check out other works from Eku Takeshima. The characters are so cute. This manga is upbeat and funny and charming and I would totally recommend it.

Review: I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid

Rating: 3/5 stars

When I first heard the title of this book, I wasn’t sure if it was referring to ending a life or ending a relationship. I’ll leave you to discover the true meaning for yourself.

The story isn’t that complicated: A girl is driving with her boyfriend to meet his parents for the first time at their house. They have some interesting discussions and make some stops along the way. And when they arrive, something just doesn’t feel right. And that’s pretty much the story.

“You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”

This book is eerie but you don’t know why as you’re reading. You will feel very unsettled throughout the novel, but you won’t know what’s causing it. It’s best to go in with as little information as possible so as not to spoil the ending.

People seem to either love this book or hate it, but I feel like I fall right in the middle. I enjoyed the beginning of the book. I liked the atmosphere the author was setting up and how emotionally evocative the narrative was. I was invested in our characters and I wanted to know what would happen. There were some scenes that seemed to go on for longer than necessary and some stylistic decisions I wasn’t sure about, but I was rolling with it, enjoying my time listening to the audiobook (which I would recommend, by the way).

But then the book ended and I was confused. I thought to myself, I think the ending is trying to tell me this and it means this (no spoilers here), but I wasn’t totally sure if I had it right. So I went looking for spoiler reviews and discussions, and it turns out I had interpreted the ending correctly. The problem was, it didn’t blow my mind and make me go, “Wow, what an ending! Totally didn’t see that coming.” Nor did it make me go, “That’s it? Seriously? What a letdown,” which seem to be the two responses I’ve seen the most. I mostly just felt meh, like, “Oh that’s the twist? Hm. Alright then.” And I moved on. It didn’t negate my enjoyment of the novel in the beginning, but neither did it make me want to immediately reread the novel to gain a whole new perspective on the story now knowing how it ends, which is what I’ve seen some people recommend. I enjoyed my time listening, but I’m moving on now.

I will say that I do really want to watch the adaptation at some point though. That looks good, at least.

Do I recommend this book? I don’t really know. It’s not very long so it’s probably worth a read, but I also don’t think you’re missing out on the greatest piece of literature ever written if you skip it. If you like eerie atmospheres (not scary or creepy but just eerie) combined with stories that make you feel unsettled then you will probably enjoy this.

Review: HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

I’ve always been fascinated by apocalyptic climate fiction and I will read anything that falls into that genre. How High We Go in the Dark follows a plethora of people dealing with life after the Arctic plague sweeps the globe and kills millions.

What kind of place has our world become after the Arctic plague? A world with so much death that funerary tokens are a more common currency than bitcoin, funeral start-ups are the new business, and “cryogenic suspension companies proliferated, death hotels, services that preserved and posed your loved ones in fun positions, travel companies that promised a ‘natural’ getaway with your recently departed.” (I know this quotation doesn’t grammatically make sense but I read an ARC so ignore it.)

This book starts in 2030 and takes us far into the future. Each chapter follows a different person in a different situation and a different time, but they each connect to one another.

We start the book with a grieving father traveling to the Arctic where his daughter died, and it’s at the onset of the plague when it first gets discovered before it became a worldwide problem. The next chapter is set a year later and follows a man who works at a euthanasia theme park, where sick kids go to die while having fun.

There’s also the story of an employee at a hotel for the dead, a scientist whose lab pig begins to speak, a man who repairs robo-dogs, a scientist who bonds with a terminal plague victim over a shared love of music, a man with a black hole in his brain, two people bonding in a VR suicide forum, a group of people leaving earth on the first mission to find another habitable planet, plus some other stories. And they’re all inexplicably related.

My favorite of all the stories was the chapter called “A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium” because I like the hopepunk sci-fi feel of that tale. I also really enjoyed the chapter called “Before You Melt into the Sea” because it was written in second-person POV, which I love, and involved a new way to care for the bodies of the dead that I found to be fascinating.

This is a novel comprised of short stories, but it reads more like a novel and less like a short story collection, thankfully. The chapters are chronological, so even though you could read and comprehend any chapter on its own, each chapter builds on previous chapters and references previous characters. I like this idea, how all the mini-stories come together as a whole to make up this beautiful novel.

What really impresses me is that most of these stories were published individually in various publications as far back as 2009. I wonder at what point Sequoia Nagamatsu knew he wanted to combine them into a novel and started writing in connections between the characters. It’s very ambitious and imaginative and I loved it.

How High We Go in the Dark is sad, but not in a depressing way that makes you want to stop reading; it’s sad in a solemn but hopeful way that makes you want to keep turning the pages to witness the resilience of humanity. Watching people accept and cope with a terrifying new reality but still come out stronger is a beautiful thing.

I’d recommend this story to readers who love light apocalyptic science fiction but also those who enjoy literary fiction that evokes a deep emotional response; it works in both genres. This novel has a lot of death and grief in it, which aren’t topics I normally gravitate toward, but I really liked this story and how it handled those topics in a fresh and uplifting way. How High We Go in the Dark is ultimately about survival and hope and the will to not only keep living but also enjoy life as much as possible in the face of grief and pain.

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Review: FOR THE WOLF by Hannah Whitten

Rating: 2.25/5 stars

This book frustrated me.

In the beginning, I thought this was going to be everything I wanted Uprooted to be but wasn’t. That book disappointed me so deeply, so I was hopeful that For the Wolf would make up for it. Both novels are about a girl who is chosen to go into the forest to be given to the monster who rules the forest, and in both books the monster turns out to be just a man and a romance eventually blossoms as the girl learns about her innate magical ability. I’ve also seen this book compared to The Bear and the Nightingale, another book about a girl who goes into the forest to meet the monster-turned-man who lives inside, which also sadly disappointed me.

I don’t know if I just have bad luck with fantasy books about magical girls romancing the brooding not-villain in the forest, but For the Wolf, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype for me, and it made me very sad. I genuinely wanted to love this book.

For the Wolf is kind of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast while also paying homage to Red Riding Hood, but it also has its own spin as well. The spooky dark forest vibes were spot on, and it’s one thing I really enjoyed about the story. This book is very atmospheric and I loved that too. Whitten’s writing is lyrical and descriptive and captivating.

I wasn’t really sold on the romance though. It’s a slow-burn clean romance with a brooding love interest. The Wolf, AKA Eammon, is dark and mysterious and quietly protective of Red. He’s like a grumpy cinnamon roll. He’s a good guy and I liked him. Obviously, Red and the Wolf are forced to live together in his keep, but I never really felt the connection between them. They acted more like amicable roommates than romantic partners, and I guess for the majority of the book they weren’t romantic partners, but I still didn’t ever feel like they were in love, nor did I understand why they did end up loving each other for any reason other than forced proximity.

The Wilderwood is a mysterious and dark forest haunted by shadow-creatures, and with trees whose tendrils creep into the keep and come after Red. Only blood from those who have been Marked can keep it at bay. It’s unclear if it’s the Wilderwood that’s bad, or if it’s the Shadowlands somehow contained inside the Wilderwood that’s bad. I wish we got more information in the narrative about the Wilderwood. It wasn’t always dark and dangerous, but I never really understood what caused it to become that way and when it happened. There are shadow-creatures in the forest along with sentinels and wardens, but none of it was ever explained enough for me to fully grasp all the concepts beyond “dark and scary forest full of dangerous creatures.”

At first, I enjoyed the blood magic aspect in this book, until I realized it makes no sense. Multiple characters with the Mark routinely cut themselves throughout the novel and collect their blood in vials as offerings to the forest. Blood has some kind of power in the woods because Eammon told Red to never bleed where the forest could see. However, I never fully understood what their magical gifts were or what their blood could do or how it was all connected. The magic feels very surface-level and kind of falls apart if you look at it too deeply.

I also wish we got more information about the Five Kings. The book’s whole story is based around giving the second daughter as a sacrifice to the Wolf in hopes that the Five Kings will be returned to the town of Valleyda. They are godly figures, but we never learn their history telling us how they got to be that way or what they did or will do once they return or anything else relevant. We just know that the town wants them back and sending Red to the Wolf is supposed to make that happen. But why are they important?

There are interludes throughout the book from Neve’s POV back in Valleyda, and there are lots of court politics going on there with a bunch of different priestesses and other characters, and I honestly just couldn’t care about these interludes whatsoever. I didn’t really care for Neve’s whiny narration, and every other character in her perspective was one-dimensional because of lack of development to the point that I couldn’t tell any members of court apart from one another. Not a single one. And all the people were talking about trade negotiations and land borders and religious rites that all meant nothing to me because there was no information leading up to that point to make me care about any of that. Reading the interludes felt like opening up to the middle of the third book in a high fantasy series and reading a chapter from it and then closing the book. None of it stuck with me and none of it was relevant because I had no context beforehand. So I ended up not liking or caring about Neve at all and was only interested in Red’s story.

I had a weird experience with this book where multiple times throughout the story I would look at the chunk of pages left to read and think, “What is even going to happen in all those pages?” And then I would look at the chunk of pages I’d already read and think, “What did I even read about in all those pages?” This happened to me throughout the whole book and now that I’m done, I still can’t really tell you what happened in all those pages. I feel like this whole book is just Eammon teaching Red magic in his keep, and then he goes into the forest and tells her not to follow him, but she follows him anyway, and then they fight shadow-creatures and rot in the forest on their way to get supplies. This series of events happened liked like three or four times in the story and I got very tired very quickly of reading about it because what was the point.

My feelings are complicated. I enjoyed the atmospheric writing and the story of For the Wolf in the beginning, but around the halfway mark I realized I wasn’t as invested as I had been at the start and I didn’t care as much about the characters as I wanted to. Then around the 70% mark, I was starting to get weary and just wishing for the book to end because it was becoming a struggle to get through. It could have been a strong fantasy novel, but it needed more detail all around—more character development, more worldbuilding, more information about the Wilderwood, more history of the Kings, more clarification on the blood magic, and more concrete plot points. The whole book is ethereal and vague, which adds to the ambiance but doesn’t add to the book’s strengths. I am not planning on reading the sequel, For the Throne, because I don’t want to read any more about Neve and I frankly just don’t care about this story enough to continue on. I do hope, though, that it will be a stronger installment in this series and provide some of the missing answers that this story deserves for those who are continuing on.

It’s hard for me to rate this book because I was convinced when I started that it was going to be 5 stars, and then it dropped to 4 stars, and then for a long stretch I settled on 3 stars, but by the time I got to the last quarter, it had dropped to barely 2 stars. My interest and attention waned the further into the story I read, and that makes me really sad.

Read For the Wolf for the atmosphere and the romance because those are this book’s focal points. Do not read this book if you’re looking for an epic fantasy, expansive worldbuiling, a plot that makes sense, or an in-depth magic system because you won’t find that here. Even though I was ultimately left disappointed with this book and do not plan on reading the sequel, I would still recommend this book to the right audience, so know what kind of story you want before you start it. For the Wolf is marketed as adult fantasy, but I really think it would be better suited to readers who prefer reading young adult stories; it’s a good crossover book. I intend to read Hannah Whitten future series she has planned because I did enjoy her writing style, so hopefully she has honed her craft a bit more by the time they release.

Review: THE GIRL WHO COULD MOVE SH*T WITH HER MIND by Jackson Ford

Rating: 4/5 stars

This book was chosen for our monthly book club and I'm glad it was because I don't know if I would have picked it up otherwise.

This urban sci-fi story follows Teagan, a girl with psychokinesis. She works with this underground group to use her abilities to help and/or harm people. When one of her missions goes awry, a man ends up dead in a way only someone with her abilities could have done, but she didn't kill him. She and her team have twenty hours to prove her innocence, but Teagan is more interested in finding the other psychokinetic she now knows is out there.

We also have a second POV from a mysterious side character named Jake. Jake has psychokinesis. Just like Teagan, he also thinks he's the only person with psychokinesis. He's been given a list of three people to kill in the next twenty-four hours and if he doesn't then he'll end up dead himself.

This book was fast-paced and super funny. It was also quite vulgar, but I think it really worked in this type of story. Teagan is chill and sarcastic and full of personality. She cracks jokes left and right and I was actually laughing out loud at times. I also enjoyed the air of mystery surrounding the reasoning behind how people became psychokinetic and who was behind the missions and why.

I liked the dual perspectives that give the reader an edge in knowing more than the characters do. Especially when the ending came. There were some events I totally did not see coming and was very surprised by, but in a good way. I would recommend this IF it sounds like something you'd enjoy; I know this kind of story isn't for everyone.

This book could be read as a standalone because the missions and mysteries herein are wrapped up by the end, but the characters talk about future plans and there is an open-ended-ness to what Teagan would be doing now that the book is done. I wouldn't mind reading more books in this world, but I'm also not going out of my way to read them as soon as I can.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Review: SOURDOUGH by Robin Sloan

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

This book has solidified Robin Sloan as an auto-buy author for me.

I loved Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore so much, so I wanted to check out more works from the author. Sourdough is Sloan's only other novel (although he does have a couple of short stories), so I decided to pick it up even though I do not bake and know nothing about baking bread.

This book was fabulous. I never knew a book about a woman baking bread could be so enjoyable. Sloan's writing is exquisite and honestly why I think I love his books so much. This novel was also super funny, and I laughed out loud multiple times while reading it.

Sourdough is about a woman named Lois who is gifted a sourdough starter by a pair of mysterious brothers before they move across the world, and their plea to Lois is to keep the starter alive no matter what. Feed it, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

These brothers belong to an ancient (fictitious) culture called the Mazg, and I loved seeing that culture woven throughout the novel. They give Lois a CD of Mazg music for her to play to the sourdough starter, and in the audiobook, you can actually hear a little bit of that music. I absolutely love multimedia aspects in books or audiobooks. And what's cooler is that there are exclusive audio-only chapters in Sourdough's audiobook! So of course I had to listen to the whole novel, and it was a wonderful experience.

Robin Sloan himself has a background in technology and it shows in his novels, which I think is only an asset to his writing. He wrote this really fascinating article on the production of the machine-created sounds present throughout the audiobook, which make up the Mazg music. It's not too long and totally worth a read if you enjoyed the book:
https://www.mcdbooks.com/features/sourdough

Sourdough is definitely more fiction than fantasy, but I would say it leans into magical realism a little bit. Lois's sourdough starter isn't exactly magical, but it also kind of is. It's a weird book but in the most pleasant way possible. I absolutely love Sloan's writing style and I will read anything he writes. I definitely encourage you to check out this novel and his debut novel as well; both are amazing.

Review: THE CROWN OF GILDED BONES by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rating: 1/5 stars

I was struggling to read this book during the first chapter, which is never a good sign. I wish I had picked it up as soon as I finished A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire because I was excited to read it then, but that was six months ago. And in the past six months, I have forgotten everything I knew about this series. What happened in the first book? How did the second book end? Who are all these people? Why do I even care?

I couldn’t answer any of those questions.

So I was immediately struggling when I started this book because I found it very hard to jump back into the story.

I have realized I do not like dark romance, and that’s what this series is. Casteel is not a good guy, and he’s not a sexy love interest, so I just hated reading about him. I hate how much he manipulated Poppy and called it love. You can read my rants about him in my reviews of the first two books if you’re interested in my full thoughts.

I also didn’t care for Poppy either. I liked her in the first book, but she slowly got more and more irritating and overpowered and less fierce. And she basically becomes a deity in this book which is just too much, no thank you.

The Crown of Gilded Bones is way too long. Like the second book, this installment needed some trimming and concision editing, which is unfortunately lacking seeing as this is a self-published novel.

I found myself just completely uninterested during the book to the point that I started skimming. In chapter two. It’s not that I hated the book, it’s that I didn’t care one bit about anything that was happening. I think nonchalance is a worse reaction to a book than hatred because at least you made me feel something if I hated it. But I didn’t care about this book enough to hate it. I skimmed a couple of chapters, reading mostly dialogue, until I decided I didn’t want to spend any more time with this story or these characters, so then I read the last two pages and decided to be done.

I know I will never reread these books, and I have no intention of finishing the series because I could barely read the little of this book that I did before DNFing. It was supposed to be a trilogy but it got extended to six books, which is what authors do when they want more money, I guess.

When I was originally reading the first book I found it to be very engaging and I was really into it. The second book I liked less but it was still good. Now that I’ve had some time away from the series, coming back to it has made me realize that upon reflection, this series is unmemorable and actually not that great. I think Jennifer Armentrout is good at writing compelling stories, and I liked the political intrigue present in the first two books, but I did not like the romance here at all. At this time I don’t plan on reading any other books by her, but that could always change in the future, who knows.

Here is my updated glossary for this series based on what I read of this book. It contains minor spoilers:

~GLOSSARY~

Ascended: Another name for a vampry. They were originally created by the Atlantians by accident by draining a mortal of blood and replacing their blood with Atlantian blood; consuming large quantities of Atlantian blood can turn one into an Ascended during a process called the Ascension. They are basically immortal and live for a long time but can ultimately still be killed.

Atlantian: Beings of an ancient race created by the gods. Basically they’re sophisticated vampires. They have fangs and are pretty much immortal but can still be killed. They age very slowly and their blood has healing properties.

Changeling: A certain Atlantian bloodline that can shift between two forms. Believed to be offspring of a deity and a wolven.

Craven: Dangerous beings that are a mix of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. If bitten by one, humans will turn into one. When a Vampry drains a mortal of blood, it turns into a Craven. The Ascended tell the people that the Dark One controls the Craven but this is not true as they are not even created by him. Instead, the Ascended use the Craven to control the people through fear.

Culling: The process when an Atlantian reaches a state of maturity and goes through physical changes when abilities sometimes begin to manifest, such as growing fangs.

Dark One: Prince Casteel / Hawke. He is the heir to the Atlantian throne, although he has a brother named Prince Malik, who is the true heir to the throne.

Descenters: The group that follows the Dark One. They believe the Solis gods are false and the Dark One, AKA Prince Casteel, is the true Prince. They are followers but are not directly led by him and sometimes act on their own.

Eather: What some would call magic. The essence of the gods; what gives them their abilities.

Joining: When an elemental Atlantian bonded to a wolven takes on a partner, there is an exchange of blood between the three individuals (or four, if the partner is also bonded to a wolven), causing the bond to be extended to the other person. This ceremony is sometimes done by way of sexual intercourse. The partner will then live as long as the wolven, even if they are half-mortal (it won’t work on full mortals though).

Rise: Mountainous walls constructed from limestone and iron mined from the Elysium Peaks. A Rise surrounds each city.

Soul Eater: A derogatory name for the Empath bloodline of Atlantians, named such because they can sense and manipulate people’s emotions and actions. Poppy is currently believed by some to belong to this bloodline.

Vampry: Basically vampires. Another name for the Ascended. They feed on mortals.

Wolven: Basically werewolves. Some Wolven can bond with certain Atlantians.

Friday, December 3, 2021

Review: A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly

Rating: 4/5 stars

A Northern Light pleasantly surprised me. I am always on the search for historical fiction that actually engages me. I tend to dislike traditional historical fiction novels, ones about war-torn Europe or generic medieval stories, so I’m always iffy when I start reading any sort of historical novel. But this one was actually good. It’s a historical coming-of-age story combined with a murder mystery based on a true story.

I knew on page three that I was going to like this book. The writing style just really spoke to me and I had a good feeling about it.

“What had I seen? Too much. What did I know? Only that knowledge carries a damned high price.”

I’ve owned this book for ten years. I remember buying it on sale at Half-Price Books for two dollars back in high school, and it took me all these years to finally read it (I own way too many books; send help).

One thing I loved about this book was that Mattie learns a new word every day and then tries to use that word during that day. I learned a few new words myself during my time reading this story, which I loved. It lends an unexpected intellectual quality to the novel. This is a smart book, and we need more smart books in young adult literature.

A huge portion of the story, probably like 85%, does not revolve around the plot laid out in the synopsis. The book’s description only tells of Mattie trying to solve the murder mystery, but that is such a minor part of the story. We follow Mattie’s day-to-day life during her last year of schooling and we learn about her relationship with her father and sisters, her friendship with other kids in her town, and her desires post-graduation. We see Mattie working on her family’s farm, going to school, talking with her siblings and friends, learning new words, courting a boy, arguing with her father, etc.

I honestly felt like this book was trying to do too much. Just telling Mattie’s story would have been enough, or just telling the murder mystery would have been enough, but trying to combine both those stories while also adding in narratives surrounding gender struggles, racial struggles, poverty struggles, and so much more made the book feel a little overwhelming at times. But I also appreciated what Jennifer Donnelly was trying to do here.

Normally I don’t prefer to read stories that deal with social issues because I like escapism reads, but this novel handled it all in such a way that I didn’t mind, and I actually felt for our characters, specifically Mattie. She struggles with the expectations of womanhood in the early 1900s. She wants to write and have a career while also having a family, but she knows the two are mutually exclusive because of her gender. So will she give up her passion for her family, or give in to loneliness for her passion? It was almost heartbreaking because I know so much gender inequality existed at that time and still exists today and affects so many women who could have done much more extraordinary things with their lives but because of the restraints of society were weighed down with unwanted expectations.

“I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn’t have written even one poem if she’d had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn’t marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn’t want to be lonely my whole life. I didn’t want to give up my words. I didn’t want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn’t have to. Charles Dickens didn’t. And John Milton didn’t, either.”

I did enjoy the entire book, but I also wish more of the narrative had been focused on the plotline involving Mattie trying to uncover the mystery behind Grace’s disappearance and murder after Grace gave Mattie a stack of her correspondences. That part seemed really intriguing to me, and that’s the part based on a true story.

A Northern Light is told in a nonlinear timeline, with Grace Brown being found dead at the Glenmore in the beginning, and then going back in time to tell about Mattie’s life before she started working at the Glenmore, and it jumps back and forth between these two timelines until they meet up at the end of the book. I understand why Donnelly wrote in this way, so that we can see Grace Brown’s letters interspersed throughout the story instead of all together at the end, but I think for clarity’s sake it would have been better to write all the events in chronological order as I was a little confused at the beginning.

I absolutely loved the writing style in this story. Donnelly writes with evocative imagery and elegant descriptions. There were so many sentences when I had to stop and marvel at the beauty of her writing. The book is also hilarious. Mattie is SO relatable that her observations about life and womanhood are humorous and actually made me laugh out loud at times because of how realistic she is.

I really enjoyed A Northern Light and I would definitely recommend it. It’s an older book now, but it’s still so worth the read. If you’re skeptical of historical fiction like I am, read this for the heartbreaking mystery, or the ill-fated romance, or the relatable protagonist who made me feel so seen that I almost cried. Or just read it for the gorgeous prose. But make sure you add it to your list because this isn’t a book to be missed.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Review: MASTER OF IRON by Tricia Levenseller

Rating: 2/5 stars

Even though I read Blade of Secrets only five months ago, I'd already forgotten how it ended when I went to start Master of Iron. Luckily, the first chapter gives a good recap of where our characters are at in their journey, as this book begins right where the first one ended.

Bladesmith Ziva, mercenary Kellyn, and scholar Petrik are on their way to a magical healer to save Ziva's sister Temra, who is gravely injured. Also along for the ride is their captive, the villainous warlord Kymora. Some things happen and then most of the book is spent with Ziva and Kellyn alone together.

Ziva is so dense. It actually frustrated me how often something is so obvious and Ziva is acting like an idiot about it. For example, it is beyond clear that Kellyn likes her, and he even says so, and then when someone hits on him and he says he's spoken for, Ziva asks herself why he said that, who he's with, when did he have a chance to meet this person, what is she doing there if he likes someone else, etc. This type of conversation happens multiple times throughout the story. It just read as really immature to me because obviously, Kellyn likes Ziva and she's as dense as a brick about it. And then a girl will look at Kellyn and Ziva will ask herself why she's suddenly feeling jealous. Because you like him, you idiot! Duh! People don't ask themselves those questions about potential romantic partners in adult novels because they're usually written with more common sense, and as an adult, I was continually frustrated by it.

Unfortunately, the romance in this book didn't really work for me. It was so immature. I cannot count the number of times Ziva refers to Kellyn as stupid, dumb, idiotic, or a big oaf. She doesn't ever have anything nice to say about him. I know this was all supposed to be said in love or in good humor, but I never saw it that way. Ziva is constantly insulting him every time she talks to him or thinks about him. And maybe that's her way of not accepting her own feelings toward him, but I just wished she would be nice to him. She's irritated when he risks his life for her, she's mad she has to risk her life to save him, she often complains about him in her inner monologues, and all of it just frustrated me. Yes, they do kiss a lot, and yes, there's a happy ending, but I didn't like their chemistry in between those moments. Kellyn's cool but Ziva really got on my nerves.

Like I said in my review of Blade of Secrets, this duology reads young to me. I think it's just Tricia Levenseller's writing style, but I feel like this is a book for tweens, even though the protagonist is an adult. The drama, the romance, Ziva's internal monologues--it's all written in a way that is not relatable to me as an adult, and many scenes and conversations are very eye-roll-inducing. I do think younger teens will enjoy this story a lot more than I did. Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of the book wanting it to be over. It wasn't a bad story, but I know I'm not the intended audience here, and I wanted to be reading something with more depth and more mature characters than what we get in Master of Iron. Plus the writing is very modern for a story that's a medieval fantasy. One time Ziva and Temra are actually talking about going to the store for groceries. Um . . . no. There were many other examples of overly modern writing that felt very out of place in this narrative, and it bothered me.

Ziva has social anxiety, and I remember loving this aspect about the first novel as I, too, have social anxiety, and it was nice to relate to a character on that front. But somehow, in this book, I found myself dissatisfied with how her anxiety was portrayed. At times it felt overly exaggerated, and at other times it felt unrealistically underrepresented. For example, Ziva always has the right comeback at the right time and she verbally stands up for both herself and her friends. This is not something that someone with social anxiety should feel comfortable doing or even be able to do on a regular basis.

Speaking from personal experience, whenever I am faced with confrontation or aggression from someone who is not in my immediate family or one of my closest friends, I clam up. I have so many things I'd like to say but my heart is racing and I can't say any of them so I just sit there, terrified of opening my mouth, unable to defend myself no matter how much I want to. It's humiliating, frustrating, and embarrassing. So I find it unbelievable that Ziva does not often have this problem of being unable to speak up for herself during times of conflict, despite exhibiting other traits of social anxiety that would make me believe otherwise.

Thinking back on Blade of Secrets, I believe Ziva was like this in that book too as I remember her always having the right thing to say and being kind of bad-A. So that makes me sad, that only her inner monologue is relatable and representative of what it's like to have anxiety, while her outer actions seem to be like any other strong, female protagonist that is so common in literature these days.

This book is very fast-paced, sometimes moving so quickly that I didn't have time to care about the story's events before something else started happening. But on the other hand, the overall story felt too slow-paced for me, the characters being in one place for far too long and spending too much time on side tasks before getting back to the main storyline. I had this problem with the first book too; I struggled to gauge the passage of time in the narrative.

Overall, I struggled to read Master of Iron. I liked Blade of Secrets better, but its sequel had too many pieces that didn't work for me and made me not enjoy the story as much as I had hoped to, although I will say that I did enjoy the ending. I think the idea of a female bladesmith who is able to imbue her blades with magic and who has social anxiety is an awesome idea for a story, and while there were some good parts that I enjoyed, I ultimately just think that this duology reads too young and immature for my tastes and that Tricia Levenseller's writing style doesn't work for me. I do, however, encourage you to check this series out if it sounds like something you'd enjoy.

Monday, November 29, 2021

Review: A LESSON IN VENGEANCE by Victoria Lee

Rating: 3.25/5 stars

Like everyone else, I have been into dark academia books lately, so when I heard this pitched as a sapphic dark academia mystery, combined with that gorgeous cover, I was totally interested.

This story takes place at Dalloway School, where Felicity returns to school after a year away following the death of her best friend and girlfriend, Alex. She ends up rooming with bestselling novelist, 17-year-old Ellis Haley, who everyone is obsessed with but who Felicity isn't so sure about. Ellis is working on her next novel, and she wants to use Dalloway's haunted history for inspiration, and she ends up dragging Felicity into her research.

As the rumor goes, a long time ago at the school, these five girls nicknamed the Dalloway Five got involved with occult magic, and then they each died one after another in mysterious ways. No one is supposed to talk about it, but Ellis is fascinated by their story and wants to recreate the Dalloway Five—all for research for her new novel, of course.

The first half of this book is more like a passive mystery. You follow Felicity as she returns to school a pariah, and she is recounting Alex's death to Ellis piece by piece. So it's kind of a mystery of what happened to Alex, but since it's all in the past and the reader has no emotional attachment to Alex, it's not super compelling to read about since we already know the outcome. But then around the halfway mark of the book is when the story takes a turn and Felicity teams up with Ellis to do research for her book, and it gets a lot more interesting then. There was an air of something is off, something bad is going to happen but I don't know what, and I really like it when books are able to evoke that feeling in me.

A Lesson in Vengeance features occult practices like using ouija boards to communicate with dead spirits, predicting the future with tarot cards, performing seances, and having midnight rituals in the woods. I love how all of that added to the atmosphere of the book. It really fits into the centuries-old, ivy-covered boarding school setting.

Victoria's writing in this book is extraordinary. Her prose is very atmospheric so it fits right in with the vibe of the book, plus she writes in a way that sounds intellectual without being pretentious, which I absolutely loved. I cannot wait to see what she writes next because I already want to read it.

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Review: THE NATURE OF WITCHES by Rachel Griffin

Rating: 3.75/5 stars

This contemporary standalone YA fantasy is perfect for nature lovers and those who appreciate beautifully written atmospheric stories.

In this book, witches get their powers from the sun. There are witches for every season: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, depending on when they were born. But there is also a fifth kind of witch that has power during all the seasons: an Everwitch. Clara is a rare Everwitch, the first in a century, and as such, her magic and her personality change with each season. Because she has so much power, she is expected to fix the climate problems and accomplish what no other witch is able to. But Clara doesn’t want the responsibility that comes with being an Everwitch, or any witch for that matter, and instead wishes she were a normal person without any magic.

The Nature of Witches follows a little more than a year in Clara’s life as she studies magic and strengthens her abilities as a witch, trying to decide what path her future will take, and facing climate problems along the way. The atmosphere is becoming unstable as the climate issues worsen, and Clara is hesitant to exert her powers to help calm the abnormalities ever since her powers caused a fatal accident a few years prior. This accident is also the reason she doesn’t get close to anyone anymore—she doesn’t want to hurt anyone else she cares about. But the bond she forms with her new mentor is more than she expected.

“Realizing you love someone is like noticing you have a sunburn—you don’t know exactly when it happened, just that you were too exposed for too long.”

I thought this book was beautifully written. There were many passages I reread a few times then proceeded to write down because I didn’t want to forget them. This book is beautiful all around because just look at that cover, and then know it has an even more stunning naked hardcover under the dust jacket.

I was a little worried in the beginning because Clara makes some dumb decisions that were only included to further the plot (I’m specifically referencing how she meets Sang, the love interest). There was also some inconsistent characterization as Clara spends a lot of time refusing to use her powers to their limit during training exercises, but then she goes out of her way to do just that when necessity strikes, and I didn’t understand what caused her change in mindset. I attributed a lot of the book’s flaws to the fact that The Nature of Witches is YA and as such is full of many common YA tropes. Eventually, I put that aside and started to enjoy the story for what it was: a soft and hopeful nature-based fantasy about a witch learning to love herself for who she is.

This book has a heavy focus on protecting our environment and on stopping climate change. All of the witches here are nature witches, being able to affect the earth and the sky. They can make plants grow, manipulate the clouds, form lightning, etc., and I really enjoyed that aspect. I feel like a lot of witchy books I read are about a darker type of witch, but the witches here are all ones who get power from the sun and are in tune with the earth, which I think I prefer.

There are epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that I really loved. They each are a lesson of sorts, a piece of wisdom that Clara learns in that chapter, and I thought that was clever. She has a strong character arc throughout the story so it was nice to see her slowly growing and developing and learning to accept her powers over time.

“Maybe that’s all anyone really wants: to be seen by another person, to be validated even when we work so hard to hide certain parts of ourselves. Maybe especially then.”

The Nature of Witches is a quick read. It’s not perfect by any means but I still had a good time reading it. Some of the plot progression happened a little too conveniently and felt too forced for my taste, and the ending focused only on Clara’s growth and didn’t mention anything about the future of the atmospheric abnormalities, which I would have liked to know more about. I also think the story could have used some more concrete character building and magical descriptions as a lot of information about character motivations and abilities had to be inferred. But overall the book was well-written and fun and I would recommend it.

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Review: HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON by Naomi Novik

Rating: 2/5 stars

Well, after reading five of her books and giving them all two stars, I can safely conclude that Naomi Novik’s books are just not for me.

I am rather upset about this fact as all of Novik’s books have amazing synopses and all sound like books I would enjoy, yet every one I’ve read has fallen short for me. I think it’s just her writing style, although I have had separate problems with each book. I really can’t say for certain why but they’re all disappointing.

His Majesty’s Dragon will likely be the penultimate Naomi Novik book that I ever read. I intend to finish the Scholomance trilogy, but that is it. I will not be continuing with the Temeraire series as it isn’t my preferred style of story and I don’t care to know what happens in the other books.

This book is pitched as the Napoleonic wars with dragons, which is pretty accurate. While I love dragons, I don’t care for books with a heavy focus on war strategy, or a heavy focus on history, or that take place on boats. And unfortunately, this series has all of those aspects, and the dragons aren’t enough to make me love everything else.

The story in His Majesty’s Dragon starts with the ship that Laurence is on capturing another ship, and when the crew searches the cargo hold, they find a dragon egg. The crew members draw sticks for who will be the one to bond with the dragon when it hatches, and because Laurence is our protagonist, we know he will be the one who bonds with the dragon, who he names Temeraire.

I did like Temeraire as a character and his relationship with Laurence, but I didn’t care about any other characters. I didn’t care about naval war strategy or what Napoleon was up to or about Laurence’s home life or really any aspect of the book other than our dragon friend. Plus there were long stretches of exposition without any dialogue, and that got tiring to read.

This book reads like classical fantasy to me, and it feels very historical. More like historical fiction with a fantastical aspect rather than a fantasy with a historical aspect. While I didn’t love that, it does make the story feel more authentic, in my opinion. Novik used words in here that were so antiquated that I’ve only ever seen them in the Bible before, and if that’s not authenticity then I don’t know what is. I think this book is well-written, but like I said earlier, it has a lot of components that aren’t my preference, which resulted in me not wanting to read any more books in the world. I didn’t dislike this book, per se, but I found myself struggling to pick it up and not caring about anything in the story when I did.

If His Majesty’s Dragon sounds like a book you’d enjoy then I encourage you to check it out because it really does have a cool concept. I really wish I liked it more than I did.

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Review: VEINS OF GOLD by Charlie N. Holmberg

Rating: 2.25/5 stars

This was a very weird book. Even though it’s a historical fantasy romance—which is Charlie Holmberg’s style—this was unlike any of her books I’ve read so far. Granted, she does have 15 books out and this was only my seventh book from her, but it still was vastly different from her other works.

Veins of Gold takes place in Utah during the time of the gold rush. I do not like westerns, and this book is a western and definitely feels like it, so the setting was a little off-putting for me. On top of that, this book has a more historical feel than her other books that I’ve read. I don’t really prefer historical fiction, but somehow Charlie’s books are so light in that element that I don’t mind them at all. But this one had a stronger historical feel than her others, in my opinion.

This story follows Gentry and her siblings that she cares for after their father left them to go out to the gold rush in California. Gentry struggles to provide for her siblings when one day she stumbles upon a magic fueled by gold. The magic leads her to Winn, a man who can control the magic and almost seems to be made of it himself. Winn lives in a house made out of seagulls and can travel faster than a train and is full of whimsy and kindness.

Charlie describes this book as if Studio Ghibli wrote a western, and I can definitely see that. Winn reminds me so strongly of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle. Gentry has the ability to see pure magic in the form of tiny little creatures, and those remind me of the tiny Totoros from My Neighbor Totoro. The cute and whimsical Ghibli elements are there, but somehow it wasn’t enough to make me love this book that was too western for my taste.

Another aspect I very much disliked was that Gentry’s father’s friend, who is the age of her father, is a potential love interest for Gentry. Nooo thank you. That was really off-putting to me. He’s not really a love interest as Gentry doesn’t care for him in that way, but he still makes his affections for her known and she does consider marrying him for financial stability. I almost quit the book at that part because I was thoroughly disgusted.

However, I love Charlie Holmberg so I finished it because it was written by her, and I’m glad I did. The book had a nice ending. There were parts of this story that I genuinely loved, but there were also parts that I did not like whatsoever, and that’s what brought down the whole book for me. It was mostly (but not entirely) the western setting though, so if you can get past that then please check this out. But the whole time I couldn’t stop picturing a deserted wasteland covered in dry, crumbling dirt with tumbleweeds rolling past, and it was all so thoroughly unappealing to me that I couldn’t handle it. (Listen, I used to live in Utah and it’s a beautiful place now, but I need more trees and less dirt in my life, hence why I no longer live there.)

I love Charlie’s books and I will continue to read everything she writes, but Veins of Gold is my least favorite of her works so far.

Review: VESPERTINE by Margaret Rogerson

Rating: 3.25/5 stars

For some reason, I find the idea of fantasy books featuring nuns to be really appealing. Yet, somehow, I haven’t read one yet that really jives with me.

Vespertine follows Artemisia at the convent in Loraille where she is training to become a grey sister, which is a nun that handles the souls of dead bodies. If not properly cared for, their spirits will come back and wreak havoc on the living. One day a group of possessed soldiers attacks the convent, and Artemisia must venture into the crypts to find an ancient artifact, and she accidentally awakens the spirit bound to it. The spirit is a revenant, and it tries to possess her, but Artemisia makes a deal with it instead. And thus we have an adventure story with a nun and an ancient dead spirit who may be eviler than he lets on.

I thought the concept of this book was really interesting, and the plot was executed well, in my opinion. I liked Artemisia as our protagonist, and I liked the revenant as her weird sort of sidekick. However, something about it just wasn’t working for me. I felt weirdly detached from all the characters, but I still enjoyed the overall story.

I had an issue with Margaret Rogerson’s other book, Sorcery of Thorns, too. I thought that one would be a five-star read, like I thought with Vespertine, but it let me down, and I cannot pinpoint why.

I listened to the audiobook of Vespertine, and I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the story as much if I had read it with my eyes. There was just something about it that suited better to the audio experience for me.

I plan to read the sequel to Vespertine when it releases because the way this book ended makes it clear there will be a sequel. The problem is I likely won’t remember anything about this book. I’m writing this review four days after I finished the novel and already it’s a blur to me and I’m struggling to remember the plot. It’s not a good sign when a book is forgettable so soon after finishing it.

Overall I feel very conflicted about Vespertine. I think it was well done, and the story of a nun bonding with an evil spirit is a cool concept, but something about it, maybe her writing style, prevented me from enjoying it as much as I wanted to.

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Review: THE BONE SHARD EMPEROR by Andrea Stewart

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

I really did not remember a lot of the first book when I started this one, but luckily after rereading my review and notes and talking to my husband who has also read the book, I fell back into the story pretty easily.

Lin is now emperor after killing her father, Jovis is now the captain of the guard to Lin on Imperial Isle. Lin is looking for new political alliances, and she and Jovis spend a good portion of the novel traveling to different islands around the empire to speak to the local governors.

“Rebellion didn’t come with instructions.”

We all know I don’t like books set on boats, and even though a good portion of this book was Lin and Jovis sailing to various islands in the Empire, the story never really took place on the boat. Most of the story happens on the different islands. So I was pleased with that.

The Alanga people are returning, and with them, an ancient magic. This book focuses more on the magic of the Alanga than it does bone shard magic, mostly because Lin is making a conscious effort to stop the bone shard tithing in the empire and to dismantle all the constructs across the empire as an act of benevolence to her people. I always think it’s cool when stories have more than one form of magic in them, so it was nice to see something new being discussed here.

Meanwhile, Nisong, who we knew as Sand in the first book, is organizing a revolution. I will not be speaking anymore on this matter.

The Bone Shard Emperor held my interest throughout the entire story. Like the first book, every chapter ended in a way that made me keep reading to find out what happened next with that character, but then the POV would switch each chapter, so of course it was one continuous cycle of wanting to know what happened next until I finished the book.

It wasn’t hard to keep the five POVs separate. In this book, however, there’s a heavy focus on Lin’s and Jovis’s perspectives, with Ranami’s, Phalue’s, and Nisong’s perspectives taking a backseat unless absolutely necessary. Since their characters have already been established in The Bone Shard Daughter, less time is spent on them here so more time can be dedicated to the primary storyline surrounding Lin.

This book, again like the first, is clean. There’s very little vulgar language, no sex (hardly any romance at all for that matter), violence but not graphic descriptions of it, and I really appreciate that. It is so hard to find clean fantasy books these days, so that alone makes this series stand out to me.

But not only that, this series is just something new altogether. I guess it’s epic fantasy, but it doesn’t really feel like epic fantasy, even though it takes place in its own fictional world. People say it’s Asian-inspired, and maybe it is, but I don’t overtly get that vibe from it. The magic is a completely new and unique type of magic that I’ve never seen done before and I love it. Animal companions are nothing new, but the ones in this book are unlike any I’ve read about before. The characters and plot are fabulous as well. This series features lots of political scheming, smugglers, daughters inheriting the throne after removing their parents from power, secret thieving organizations, guards who are double-agents, an ancient magical race, and cliffhangers to end them all, all of which we’ve seen done in fantasy novels before, but somehow it all feels fresh and new here. I loved it.

The biggest compliment I can give a book is one I give here to the Drowning Empire series: it’s like nothing I’ve read before, in a good way.

I’ve really been enjoying this series and can’t wait to read The Bone Shard War probably next year to see how it all concludes. The Bone Shard Emperor didn’t feel like a filler book at all. I wasn’t able to guess where the story was going, and the ending left me laughing, upset, sad, scared, and excited all at the same time.

I don’t have any real criticisms of this book. I think Andrea Stewart took everything good about the first book and made it better in the sequel. It had me invested on every page. It has great, flawed but relatable characters. It has a gripping plot with lots of intrigue. It has a fascinating magic system with bone shards, and not only that but also a second elemental-type magic system that gets introduced in this book. I really like this series and I highly recommend it.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Review: CHESHIRE CROSSING by Andy Weir & Sarah Andersen

Rating: 2/5 stars

I had never heard of this book until a month ago, despite it being authored and illustrated by two famous creators. I was on a Sarah's Scribbles kick and wanted to read everything by Sarah Andersen when I discovered this book at the library.

Andy Weir combines the characters of Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Wendy from Peter Pan in this crossover graphic novel. All the girls are teenagers now and are affected by their experiences traveling to other worlds as children. Everyone thinks they're crazy, so all three end up at the same institution together called Cheshire Crossing, except this place is actually a research facility and the people in charge really do believe that they have been to other worlds and aren't just making it up.

The girls have a nanny at Cheshire Crossing who has some abilities herself, including flying with an umbrella. Everyone calls her "nanny," but I wonder if she is supposed to represent Mary Poppins? (Another movie I haven't seen. . . .) I really don't know who she is supposed to be, if anyone, but I felt like she was more important than the story led me to believe.

I thought this was a cool idea done well. The girls bond and discuss their different magical abilities while traveling between Neverland, Wonderland, and Oz. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch of the West teams up with Captain Hook to try to stop the girls once and for all.

My main problem here is that I have neither read nor watched any of these tales and only know the stories thirdhand. That sounds horrible, I know, but it was just never a part of my childhood. So at times during the novel, I had to stop and think for a second, "Okay they're in this place now, which is connected to this girl. Got it." I think anyone who is more familiar with the original stories will enjoy this book a lot more than I did. It's a cute graphic novel, primarily aimed at young adults, and spins a unique tale of these classic stories.

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Review: THE BRIDGE KINGDOM by Danielle L. Jensen

Rating: 5/5 stars

The Bridge Kingdom is a fast-paced story with lots of action, an enemies-to-lovers romance combined with the forced marriage trope, a unique no-magic fantastical setting, and is full of intrigue and betrayal. I loved every minute of it!

Lara is the one among her twelve sisters selected to travel to enemy kingdom Ithicana and marry their prince-turned-king in a political alliance to secure peace and better trade negotiations for her homeland of Maridrina. She is ready to play the part of docile wife while secretly infiltrating their highly secure bridge and learning all the secrets she can so she can pass them back to her father so their people can invade and take over Ithicana and the bridge for themselves. But once Lara arrives and gets to know her now-husband and learns about all the innocent people living there, she begins to wonder if everything she’s been taught about Ithicana is a lie.

I absolutely loved the setting here. Ithicana is a nation made up of a bunch of small, dangerous, jungle-covered islands connected by a massive bridge that runs between the northern and southern continents. Consequently, they control all trade between the two continents, providing safe passage across the Tempest Seas in exchange for bridge tolls and taxes.

The bridge setting was very unique and something I have never seen before in a novel. The bridge is Ithicana’s industry, the only thing they provide to other nations, since they have no goods or materials to export. I love bridges in general and always take pictures of the cool ones that I see when out and about, so that really appealed to me here. The naked hardcover has a beautiful artistic map of the bridge that I probably spent more time looking at than actually reading the book, so definitely recommend checking that out.

I really enjoyed Lara as our protagonist. I always love a fierce woman who also has a soft side, and that’s who she is. She trained for twenty years to be a fighter, a healer, a spy, a temptress, and you get to see her many sides in the novel. The opening chapter really blew me away because I haven’t seen a character be that ruthless in a long time.

Aren was a wonderful counterpart and love interest as well. I loved seeing Lara’s opinion of him slowly change throughout the story as she got to know him, and I loved seeing her fight herself on whether she thought he was a friend or enemy. I really like reading about love interests that are genuinely good guys, so I’m glad to see Aren falls into that category. He really respects Lara and shows her as much. I liked their dynamic and chemistry and can’t wait to read more about them in book two.

There are lots of plot twists in the latter half of the book and during the ending that make me glad I have The Traitor Queen on hand because I immediately want to start the sequel. There were a few chapters in there full of so much tension and dramatic irony that had me STRESSED OUT! And rightfully so because of that ending. . . . I appreciated the subtle but well-placed plot twists throughout the novel because they all coalesced into a very exciting story that I couldn’t put down.

If you like fast-paced adult fantasy that has an easy-to-follow storyline with engaging characters in a hate-to-love romance set in a unique location, then you should check out The Bridge Kingdom. I really loved this one.

Monday, October 18, 2021

Review: THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES by Grady Hendrix

Rating: 2/5 stars

This book wasn’t for me, but it wasn’t a bad book.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is a horror book set in the 1990s South and follows a group of housewives who are stronger than they look.

I think Grady Hendrix accomplished what he set out to do with this novel. I enjoyed his writing style, and I thought he did a great job of writing the story from a female’s perspective.

I enjoyed Patricia as a protagonist. She was strong and courageous and respectable. I didn’t care much for any of the book club friends though, and I hated all the degrading and misogynistic husbands. And James Harris was the most deplorable villain I’ve read in a long time and I absolutely despised him, although I think maybe that was the point. Feeling lukewarm about or even liking the villain is never a good sign.

I like vampires, but I prefer a more fantastical setting when reading about them, and this was 100% a realistic setting featuring a person who was “not a vampire” but exhibited vampiric qualities. So on top of being set in the South (not for me) in the early 1990s (not for me), it also was a very realistic setting (also not for me).

Hendrix also did a good job of writing about racism and sexism present in the South at this time. The setting felt genuine and reaffirmed that I never want to live in the South, no thank you. I was feeling visceral anger at some of the comments the husbands made to and about their wives, and I seriously wanted to murder them all. But I think that’s just how the average man acted during this time (inexcusable).

This book wasn’t really scary—I don’t know if I would really classify it as horror, although I’ve never read a horror book before so maybe this is normal. I don’t like scary stories though so I was perfectly fine with that. The creepiest part was when Patricia was in the attic and the cockroaches and centipedes were crawling all over her while she was silently laying on the cold, hard, filthy floor. I absolutely would not have remained chill in that scenario so big props to her for doing that.

Even though I liked Grady Hendrix’s writing style and I liked Patricia as our main character, I still didn’t really like this book. It just wasn’t for me. I like vampires, but it was the setting and time period that really caused a problem for me. I think this book perfectly accomplished everything that Hendrix wanted it to accomplish, but my enjoyment level was not there. I thought multiple times about DNFing because I was not having a good time, but ultimately I decided to continue because I read this for book club and I was listening to the audiobook so I didn’t have to put forth any effort to finish it. I’m glad I ultimately decided to finish it though.

I plan on reading more books from Grady Hendrix in the future, specifically Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, because I did like his writing style. If this book sounds interesting to you then I encourage you to check it out because my low rating is entirely based on my personal preferences and not on any fault of the book.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Review: COMFORT ME WITH APPLES by Catherynne M. Valente

Rating: 3.25/5 stars

Sophia is the perfect wife to the perfect husband in the perfect neighborhood where all the neighbors are perfect and everyone is happy.

Right off the bat, I was reminded of the episode called “Community” on the show Fear Itself. It has been a long time since I’ve seen that show but I always remember that episode. The idyllic community isn’t always what it seems. There is an air of discomfort and unease, that something wasn’t right, and you get that sense as soon as the book starts. Read just the first chapter to understand what I mean.

Catherynne M. Valente is a beautiful writer—this was clear early on as she wove intricate and imaginative sentences that I enjoyed reading. I like how each chapter is named after a different variety of apples.

Karis Campbell did a hauntingly good job narrating the audiobook. Her voice was very soft and melodic and almost made me feel like I was in a trance, which goes perfectly with the story being told here. This is the first time in probably ten years that I listened to a story on 1x speed. Normally I listen on 1.25x to 2x speed, depending on the book, but when I started this book sped up, it just didn’t feel right, so I returned to 1x, and the narrator’s voice has a much bigger effect that way. If you, too, like to speed up your audiobooks, I recommend you try listening to this book on 1x speed because it makes for a better experience with this specific story, in my opinion. Plus the book is only two hours long anyway.

The reason later revealed why everything was so perfect is genius. I enjoyed the story and the message Valente was trying to communicate and how it was all done. The ending really made me go “Ahhh!” with understanding as the realizations dawned on me.

This is my first book from Catherynne M. Valente, but it won’t be my last. I really liked the writing style and how she uses language, and I also enjoyed the storytelling. I believe she writes in a wide range of genres, so I am excited to see what else she has to offer as Comfort Me with Apples was a treat. It was weird as heck but I loved the ending.

Friday, October 8, 2021

Review: ODDBALL by Sarah Andersen

Rating: 5/5 stars

I love Sarah's Scribbles. I've seen her comics here and there online but I've never read a full book by her until now.

Her comics are so hilarious and relatable. Like truly, I was laughing out loud on almost every page, and I think I nudged my husband probably 30 or more times while I was reading to show him the comics I thought were the best and the funniest.

I don't know if each of her books has a theme, but Oddball seemed to focus on cats, millennials vs. gen x people, being introverted, and it also had some spooky scenes. I loved it all.

As soon as I finished Oddball, I immediately checked out Sarah's four other books from my library because I need to read everything by her. This comic collection was great and I definitely recommend it if you want a good laugh.

Review: SUNREACH by Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I loved this audiobook novella way more than I expected to, although I’m not sure why I didn’t expect to love it in the first place. I have given 5 stars to Skyward, Starsight, and Cytonic, and Brandon Sanderson is my favorite author.

Sunreach, co-written with Janci Patterson, is told from the point-of-view of FM, one of the members of Spensa’s flight crew. While Spensa is off on her own adventure in Cytonic, her friends have important missions to accomplish back on Detritus. Brandon recommends reading this novella before Cytonic, but I read it after and I don’t think it makes a difference. But absolutely don’t read it before Starsight because the entire plot (and the synopsis) majorly spoils the end of Starsight.

FM was really fun. She is strong but also soft, and I enjoyed getting to know her better as a character and learn the origin of her callsign.

There is a nice little romance going on between FM and another member of the flight crew, and this is the biggest area where I noticed Janci’s hand in the story. The romance had a bigger focus here than in Brandon’s other books and the lead-up to it felt more obvious than how Brandon writes his romance. These scenes also just didn’t feel like his writing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as I loved every aspect of the story, but I thought it was worth pointing out.

In every other aspect of the novella, I couldn’t tell which scenes were written by who, and I liked it that way. The story felt genuine and I think it fits in perfectly into the Skyward series. My favorite scenes were the scientific investigations and training surrounding the taynix. That was all so cute and so much fun to read.

Even though reading Sunreach isn’t necessary to understanding the full-length novels telling Spensa’s story, I absolutely recommend it as it helps to create a richer world and give character depth, plus it’s just plain fun.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Review: MANDRAKE AND A MURDER by Ruby Loren

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Hazel is a witch with no powers in a strange town full of witches, fortunetellers, psychics, and the like. She runs a failing apothecary and subsequently publishes a magazine about the weird happenings in Wormwood, when one day two magical aunts she didn’t know existed show up on her doorstep on the day directly after a murder in town.

This book seemed like a cute cozy mystery, a perfect fall read. The cover is cute, Hazel has a familiar in the form of a talking cat, there’s fake dating, and it has spooky vibes. Unfortunately, the book was supremely disappointing and I didn’t care about any aspect of the story whatsoever.

On the very first page, our protagonist remarks how weird her town is, that Wormwood is the weirdest town in the country, full of witches, fortunetellers, druids, psychics, etc. and that weird stuff happens every day. But then throughout the novel, we don’t see any of that. I would have loved a more fleshed-out setting. Especially with how weird the town apparently is, Ruby Loren could have added in so many great scenes full of weirdness going on that would be perfect for that town, but we learn nothing at all about Wormwood. Hazel never ventures into town to see people or witness strange happenings or anything and it was very disappointing. This is not my only complaint about the setting though—the characters’ opinions about their town are horribly inconsistent. For the weirdest town in England you would expect the people living in that town to embrace it or at least accept it, but the characters act like their town full of witches is a normal town like any other, that all the psychics and witches and fortunetellers are fake and annoying, that the town sucks, etc. And then the next chapter they’re standing up for the witches and supporting the town. At one point there’s mention of all the tourists the town gets, and then we read about how the town is always forgotten on maps and no one goes there. It all made no sense to me and was just highly inconsistent.

I didn’t mind Hazel as a protagonist, but there is no character development in this entire book. Mandrake and a Murder features the most one-dimensional characters I’ve ever read. The two aunts speak and act exactly the same, I have no idea what Hazel or the fake boyfriend or anybody else looks like, the talking cat Hemlock and his shadow Hedge seem to just be thrown in there for comedic relief without actually being funny, and every citizen of Wormwood that we meet is just a cardboard cutout with a flat personality. The banter and jokes between characters fell flat and weren’t working for me either.

I was especially disappointed in the fake dating aspect. The “boyfriend” only shows up in the beginning when he tells Hazel they’re fake dating, and then never shows up again. There was absolutely no point to include that subplot in the book when it didn’t pan out or pertain to the story whatsoever.

On top of minimal character development, the plot development was also lacking. In some scenes, events were happening that should have been explained more because they didn’t make sense, or they moved too fast, or the reasoning behind someone’s actions wasn’t explained at all. Characters were drawing conclusions that I didn’t think they had sufficient evidence for. I was also disappointed in the descriptions of magic that were surface-level at best. I wanted to see more witchy magic but that is very much lacking here.

The murder investigation itself was also a huge letdown. The victim was an unknown character that no one knows, the reveal of the murderer was not surprising in the least, and the murderer’s intentions were confusing at best. I felt like the ending was very unsatisfying as well, and there were no “twists” like the synopsis promises.

The writing style in this book feels very amateurish and is annoyingly repetitive. There are sentences like, “Her cupcake was left uneaten on the table where she’d left it,” as well as multiple sentences in a row saying the same thing.

Mandrake and a Murder is fast-paced if only because it leaves out many necessary details. I actually struggled to get through it, and the novel is only 189 pages. This book is full of inconsistencies and a frustrating lack of anything exciting.

I didn’t care about any of the characters, I didn’t care about the murder or who did it, I didn’t care what happened with the plot. That’s honestly how I felt during the entire book: I just didn’t care. I won’t be continuing with the series and I would not recommend.

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Friday, December 3, 2021

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Monday, November 29, 2021

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Monday, October 18, 2021

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Friday, October 8, 2021

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

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