2019 Reading Goals Review & Yearly Stats

As the year comes to a close, I like to check-in on my reading goals, look at some stats about the books I read, and reflect on my reading throughout the year.

Reading Challenges Review
This year my first challenge was to read 50 books, and I surpassed that by reading 97 books.

My second challenge was to tackle a long series, which I designated as Throne of Glass. I got halfway through that series and decided it wasn't for me. I also wanted to read five completed series from start to finish, and I did fulfill that. The full series I read were these:
1. The Shades of Magic Trilogy by V. E. Schwab
2. The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
3. The Steelheart Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
5. The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks

My third challenge was to complete my self-made Read-My-Own-Books Challenge to help me reduce my TBR, and I finished that as well. Here are the challenge prompts and the books I read to fulfill them:
1. Read a book that has been on my TBR the longest.
    I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
2. Read my most recently acquired book.
    Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
3. Read an advanced copy (ARC) of a book.
    Wilder Girls by Rory Power
4. Read a book that has a screen adaption.
    And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
5. Read a popular backlist book.
    Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
6. Read a book by an author I've never read before.
    The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
7. Read a book by an author that I love.
    Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson
8. Finish or catch up on all series I've started but haven't finished yet.
    Starsight (Skyward, Book 2) by Brandon Sanderson
    The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
9. Start and finish a new series.
    The Shades of Magic trilogy by V. E. Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of 
    Shadows, A Conjuring of Light
10. Let my husband pick out a book for me to read.
      The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

I also had a list of standalone books I wanted to read, and I had the goal to catch up on all of Brandon Sanderson's books. I won't list them all out here, but I read almost everything on that list, plus I read 16 of Sanderson's short stories or novellas and 8 of his books, leaving me with just the Stormlight Archive, the Wheel of Time, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, and The Rithmatist to have read all of his works. I knew I wouldn't get to TSA or WoT this year, but I did expect to have time for his others.

To see a list of all the books I read in 2019, check out my Goodreads page. 


Yearly Statistics
Number of books I read in 2019: 97
Number of those books that I listened to on audio: 36
Number of books I read from my TBR: 46
Number of books I read that were published this year: 27
Number of series I started: 12
Number of series I completed: 7
Number of books I DNFed: 3
Number of books I reread: 7
Number of books I acquired in 2019: 162
Number of books I unhauled in 2019: 69
Number of books on my TBR at the beginning of 2019: 297
Number of books on my TBR at the end of 2019: 350

Books I read that were . . .
Middle Grade: 12.4%
Young Adult: 25.7%
Adult: 61.9%
Graphic Novels: 11%
2019 Releases: 28%
On My TBR: 47%

Star Ratings:
1 star: 2 books
2 stars: 14 books
3 stars: 18 books
4 stars: 38 books
5 stars: 25 books


Reading Survey
Favorite book of the year: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Least favorite book of the year: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Most surprising book of the year: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Most disappointing book of the year: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Longest book of the year: The Burning White by Brent Weeks (992 pages)
Shortest book of the year: Dreamer by Brandon Sanderson (21 pages)
Book that was on my TBR the longest: I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (8 years)
Biggest accomplishment: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Most read genre: Fantasy (74%)


Reading Reflections
I discovered lots of new authors I want to follow (Brent Weeks, Taylor Jenkins Reid (didn't discover her this year but solidified her as one of my favorite authors), N. K. Jemisin, Victoria Schwab, Katie O'Neill, etc.), I read a lot of great fantasy and solidified that as my favorite genre and really honed in my reading tastes, I read a lot of books from my TBR and also got rid of a lot of TBR books that I'm no longer interested in reading. I managed to read almost all of my unread books by Brandon Sanderson, my favorite author, so hopefully next year I will be able to make more progress on that goal. Even though I read 46 books from my TBR and removed 69 books, I acquired 160 books this year, so my TBR is even bigger now at 348 books. That's the hazard of working at both a bookstore and a library, I suppose, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It has been a great year of reading and discovering new authors and immersing myself even more in fantasy novels. I can't wait to see what reading adventures next year holds for me.

My Top 5 Books of 2019

It's hard to make a list of top five books of the year because what criteria do I base that on? Top five books I enjoyed? Top five books I thought were the most well-written? Top five books that had my eyes glued to the page? Those would all be different lists for me. I've decided to make this list the top five books I loved that are going to stick with me.

1. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

This book quickly became my favorite book of the year when I was only halfway finished with it. It's a love story to stories, a book about books. When Zachary was a little boy, he finds a painted door on the wall behind his mother's shop, but he decides not to go through it, and the next day it is gone. Later when he's in college, he finds a book older than he is that contains a story about himself as a child discovering this door. Not sure how this can be possible, he follows the clues of the book and finds himself in an underground library. This book is whimsical and magical, and the writing is absolutely stunning. There are many other stories in this book, and they all weave together in beautiful and intricate ways. I've never read anything like this before and cannot express how much I love it. Full review here.


2. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

As this is a sequel, I can't say much about it, but I'll tell you about the first book, Skyward. Spensa's only dream is to be a spaceship pilot like her father, but her father abandoned his crew and was branded a coward before he died, and this caused Spensa to not be able to get into pilot school. Determined more than anything to follow her dreams, she sets out to do it anyway, and with the help of a mysterious ancient artifact she finds in a cave, she just may be able to accomplish her dreams. This second book was even better than the first, and I was truly surprised at how much I loved it. It takes off in a direction I did not see coming at all, but it was incredible nonetheless. This story has a lot of action and intense moments that had me flying through it. It's also the first science fiction story I've truly loved. Full review here.


3. The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

I read this book for a book club and didn't expect to love it, nonetheless have it become one of my favorite books of the year, but it was truly that amazing. This is a historical fiction set in the 1950s in Spain when they were under the Franco's dictatorship. Daniel is an American tourist who visits Spain and meets Ana who works at his hotel. They quickly form a bond but it's dangerous for them to be together because of the politics everything going on. Sepetys paints a vivid and realistic picture of Spain and crafts a story that is rich in culture, contains lots of secrets, and builds intimate relationships with each of the characters. It's the kind of book that reminded me why I fell in love with historical fiction in the first place. It's beautifully written and so much fun to read. Full review here.


4. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

In my search to read more fantasy series this year, I picked up this book and was not disappointed at all. I can say with certainty that this is one of the most unique books I've ever read. Although I read and loved the whole series, the first is definitely the best in my opinion. It's a darker science-based fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic setting where the world "ends" every few hundred years during what is called a Fifth Season. Jemisin writes a fresh take on earth magic in this series because the characters practice orogeny, where they can literally manipulate the tectonic plates in the earth to control the ground. It's very cool. We follow three narratives at three different points in time. It's a very character-based story as well, and uses second-person narration very well. Definitely worth checking out. Full review here.


5. The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks—It's hard to pick a favorite book as the first four books are tied at five stars, but I'd have to say that the ending of The Broken Eye was the most stand-out moment of the series for me, however I think I liked The Blinding Knife the best overall.

This epic fantasy series is about color magic: drafters are able to create physical substances from different colors of light, but the caveat is that the magic slowly kills you the more you use it. This series follows Gavin, the Prism of the Seven Satrapies, the only person able to draft all colors of light without it hurting him and also the person responsible for keeping all the colors balanced, as he finds out he has a bastard son. We also follow that boy, Kip, as he first learns about drafting and what that means. This series has some of the best character growth across multiple books that I've ever seen. It's funny, crude, action-packed, adventurous, and full of so many unexpected turns in every book. If you love long fantasy books, intricate worlds, exciting magic, and unforgettable characters, you should definitely at least pick up the first book, The Black Prism. Full review for the first book here.

Review: CHILDREN OF THE NAMELESS by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 2/5 stars

I’ve never played Magic: the Gathering but I wanted to read this story anyway in my quest to read all of Sanderson’s stories. You don’t need to know anything about Magic beforehand as I understood everything just fine, but I’m sure the story would mean more to you if you had that background knowledge.

The prologue hooked me so good. That was one of the most interesting prologues I’ve read in awhile; it completely had me wanting to know what happened next.

However, the story got a bit slower after that. I like Tacenda and Davriel—I especially love Davriel’s personality and humor—but I felt like the plot was going nowhere. Maybe it’s the time I read the novella, over the holidays when I was really busy and constantly tired, or maybe it was the story itself, but I just kept waiting for the story to pick up and something to happen.

Basically there’s been a village massacre and Davriel and Tacenda spend the entire story trying to figure out what happened, and of course there’s a classic Sanderson ending with a big twist that we didn’t see coming. It was a fine story, but I guess I was just hoping for something a bit more engaging and fast-paced. I wish the whole story could have been as good as the prologue was.

Review: STARSIGHT by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Starsight was even better than Skyward, which I did not expect. It went in directions I did not see coming and introduced us to all new characters and also let us revisit our beloved favorite characters from Skyward. *This entire review will be full of spoilers* because early in the book things happen that I cannot discuss without spoiling.

Okay. First of all, I was so shocked when all of a sudden Spensa is hyperjumping off to Starsight. She’s debating whether or not to go and Jorgen tells her to do it, so on a whim she leaves Detritus. I was so taken aback at that turn of events. I don’t know what I thought the plot of this book was going to be, but that sure wasn’t it. Starsight is really cool though. I love the idea of a centralized space station where all the different alien races can come and congregate.

I loved getting to know all the new characters and discovering the differences between the alien races. I think Sanderson did a great job of making them all different enough from each other with different genders, facial expressions, hand gestures, skin colors, etc. It was super cool, also, to see the Superiority cater to the needs of all the alien species with 17 different bathrooms, notes on the food about what is toxic to which species, and other details sprinkled throughout the narrative that make me feel like I could actually be on a space station. So so cool. I don’t read a lot of space-based science fiction so this is pretty much my introduction to novels about aliens, and I loved it way more than I expected to.

Morriumur was so precious and I loved their character arc throughout the story. I really enjoyed reading about the Dione race in general and all their mannerisms.
Cuna turned out to be way better than I expected them to be. I didn’t think they’d be on the good team but I’m pleasantly pleased they turned out to be not bad.
The kitsen race with the furry animal aliens was super cool and I loved how they all piloted one giant ship together. It’s sad that Hesho died in the end but I hope we get to see more of their race in future books with Kauri taking control or something.
And Vapor. I really like the idea of an invisible scent as an alien species. They’re called figments, and at one point it was mentioned that a lot of M-Bot’s technology was figment technology, so is there some connection there? I would really love to know where M-Bot came from and learn more about his origins. I’m also very curious why it was repeatedly mentioned that the delvers hate AI like M-Bot.

I was so sad at the end when M-Bot’s ship was destroyed and he had to save his AI coding on the drone. I hope Spensa can rebuild him into a ship or something! I loved seeing his arc throughout this story too. In Skyward he was constantly on about mushrooms, and in Starsight he was fixated on whether or not he was alive. And even though he’s a robot, he definitely is alive at this point. Able to change his coding, able to self-replicate, able to lie, and able to express feelings! M-Bot is hands-down my favorite character.

I’m so pleased the mushrooms actually were relevant to the story in Starsight and weren’t just some comic relief (although that was so good in the first book). Everything about Doomslug and the fungi—that totally blew my mind. Doomslug is a type of space slug called a taynix, and she’s a hyperdrive. The slugs are often found near fungi. That is why M-Bot is so interested in mushrooms, because he was programmed to look for more hyperdrive slugs. Truly amazing story going on there, and I did not see it coming at all.

I loved at the end Jorgen finding a room full of the slugs, all fluting together. That would be so amazing to see! As soon as that chapter started, I expected that’s what he would find, and I was right. So cool.

The book ended with Spensa on Starsight, Doomslug in one arm and the M-Bot drone in the other arm, jumping through the black portal into an unknown location in outer space to escape Winzik’s Superiority forces chasing her. That’s a HUGE cliffhanger, and this is exactly the reason why I don’t normally read a series until all the books are released; I don’t want to wait two years to find out what’s going to happen! We don’t know the fate of Spensa, where she went, where Cuna is or what they are doing, how much control Winzik has, or why M-Bot could suddenly start thinking and talking normally once Spensa opened the cytonic portal when M-Bot functions on a non-cytonic processor. Could M-Bot maybe actually be evil? So many questions!

This book blew me away with its revelations and with how much I enjoyed it. I love this series and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

“A hero does not choose her trials. She steps into the darkness. Then she faces what comes next.”



The following are purely my notes about the world that I’ve collected so I can reread them and remember details before the next book comes out because I always forget the details, especially when I have to wait for the next installment.

About the Krell:
—The Krell were a group of aliens tasked with keeping the people confined on the planet Detritus.
—Krell is an acronym in some Superiority language for a phrase about keeping humans contained, not their actual race’s name.
—The Krell report to a larger galactic government called the Superiority.
—The Krell employed remote drones to fight the humans, piloted by aliens far away, controlling the drones via FTL communication.

About Spensa:
—Spensa is a cytonic: she can see into the space where FTL communication takes place. She calls this place the Nowhere.
—When she enters the Nowhere, that is when she uses cytonic hyperdrive to teleport.
—When she uses her ability too much, something looks out of the Nowhere to see her. Thousands of white lights: the eyes. The eyes hate her. The eyes are eyes of delvers.
—She can hear the stars. What this really means is she can hear the sound of FTL communications being sent through the Nowhere.
—Her cytonic ability is genetic. Her ancestors used it to move ancient starfleets around the galaxy.

About Detritus:
—The planet is surrounded by defensive shells of debris. It is made up of living quarters, shipyards, and weapons.
—The people have reclaimed the shells closest to the planet but the outer ones are autonomous and can harm both people and Krell that get too close.
—It is possible there is an unknown portal to the Nowhere somewhere underground on Detritus.
—Somewhere in the underground caverns is a huge slug population.
—There are also carvings and drawings of symbols on the walls of underground caves, but we do not know yet what these mean. These same symbols were seen on Starsight.

Review: THE STARLESS SEA by Erin Morgenstern

Rating: 5/5 stars

“A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun. . . . [Zachary] wonders how, exactly, he is supposed to continue a story he didn’t know he was in.”

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is everything and I love him so much. One day when he was a little boy, he discovered a painted door on the wall behind his mother’s shop, but he didn’t open it. The next day it was gone. Zachary spent many years thinking about this experience until one day he finds a book in his college’s library that has a collection of stories, and one of these stories is about him as a little boy finding a door. Intrigued by this mysterious book that’s older than he is but contains a story about him, Zachary follows clues to find out where this book came from and who wrote it.

The Starless Sea is a love letter to stories and books and all kinds of magical writings. It is a story for story devourers, a book for book lovers. It has so many stories within stories and interweaving threads between those stories, and I cannot express how much I loved every second of it. I knew at less than halfway through this book that it was going to be my favorite book of the year.

One of the best parts about this book is that it takes place in a subterranean library—
Side Note: Erin Morgenstern said in an interview that she doesn’t “want to use the L word for the space that’s in this book” because “it doesn’t really have librarians. So it’s not really a library, because a room with a lot of books in it without librarians is just a room with a lot of books in it.” And I disagree! I think a library IS a room with a lot of books in it. I have a home library: a room with a lot of books in it. One could say that I myself am the librarian of my own personal library, and maybe that’s true, but I still consider it my personal library, not my personal room with books in it. I even just looked up the dictionary definition of library and I more or less got that it’s a “room containing collections of books” etc. but nowhere in any of the definitions I looked up does it say a library has to have a librarian. So I will continue to tell you this book takes place in an underground library. Plus, I also love the L word and I will use it whenever I can.

I don’t even know how to properly review this book because there was just so much going on, so many interconnecting stories and overlapping narratives that I started to lose track of it all. At the beginning, I was really following the story and trying to figure out the clues, but by the end I was just kind of letting the story wash over me and not trying to figure anything out. This is definitely a book I will need to reread to understand everything properly, and I kind of do want to turn around and read it again immediately, but I’m going to save it for next year. I will have forgotten enough by then that some parts will seem new, but I’ll remember enough to put the pieces together from the beginning without waiting for the whole picture to be revealed.

This book is very quotable. I can’t tell you how many sentences I wrote down because I didn’t want to forget them. The prose is truly stunning. Just like The Night Circus, The Starless Sea is also so beautifully written. This is a book I want to read again and again, and it’s the kind of book that will get better and better each time.

I loved both Zachary’s story and the many other stories within this book. I was very pleased that we got to actually read the many stories within the different books mentioned in The Starless Sea, so this was truly a book of many stories. I didn’t expect to love it this much but it was beautiful. The prose was ethereal and magical and breathtaking. I loved the motifs we see throughout the story of the obvious bee, key, and sword, and also of the heart, feather, and crown. I also loved the commentary on and references to video games interspersed throughout the novel. I just loved everything, okay?

“Reading a novel, he supposes, is like playing a game where all the choices have been made for you ahead of time by someone who is much better at this particular game.”

As soon as I finished this book, I immediately read The Night Circus because I needed more of Erin Morgenstern’s beautiful writing. While I loved that book also, I loved The Starless Sea even more. I’m running out of adjectives to use but this book was truly breathtakingly beautiful and atmospheric and perfect for me. If you like stories about stories, folklore, mythology, mysterious doors, key collectors, men with owl heads, masquerade balls, ice sculptures that speak, bees the size of dogs, lakes of honey, and rooms of books, you need to read this book. I know her flowing writing style isn’t going to work for everyone, but everything about it worked for me. This book has become one of my new favorite books ever.

Review: INFINITY BLADE: REDEMPTION by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 3/5 stars

So this story takes place after the second Infinity Blade game, and it starts at a place that doesn’t make sense if you haven’t played the games, which I haven’t. At the end of the first novella, Infinity Blade: Awakening, Siris is about to go on a journey. At the beginning of Infinity Blade: Redemption, Siris is imprisoned with the God King. How did he get there? There is no prologue to explain that, no information to get you caught up if you didn’t play the games, and that was a problem here. I had no idea what was going on in this story, whereas the first book was actually rather interesting and I was looking forward to seeing where it was going.

Despite being a little confused how we got to the events the beginning, and despite still not knowing what some things are in this world, I actually ended up really enjoying this story. It was actually a more engaging story than the first installment and it left me wanting to know more about this world.

We’re back to following the story of Siris and Raidriar, but we also have another story that takes place in our day of a man named Uriel. At first the stories don’t seem related at all, but in the end we find out how they are connected, and it’s a very Sanderson-style ending.

The story ends at a place that really is the beginning of another story, and I’m left wanting to know what happens next. I just may have to look up spoilers online because the games don’t exist anymore (as far as I know) and there are no more novellas in this world.

I ended up enjoying both Infinity Blade novellas way more than I expected to, especially knowing nothing about the game beforehand. I think if you played the games or you’re a Sanderson fan, you should definitely give these stories a read, although I think a wider audience would enjoy them as well, like if you like classic fantasy stories or want a fun, adventurous action novella.

Review: INFINITY BLADE: AWAKENING by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 3/5 stars

I’ve never played the Infinity Blade games and I don’t know anything about them, but I’ve been on a mission to read everything that Brandon Sanderson writes, which is why I picked this up.

I actually had a hard time finding access to these books. The ebooks were not available for purchase on iBooks or Kindle or for loan from my library. I eventually found one library on the other side of the state that had a copy of the audiobooks that I hurriedly requested because it was the only way I’d be able to read these novellas as far as I could tell. (I know this book used to be available in iBooks though because it used to be a bestseller when it was released 11 years ago, so I wonder what happened to cause them to no longer be available. Maybe when the game became unavailable to download, so did the books?)

So to the book. I felt like I had no idea what was going on, but also I kind of enjoyed the story?

Basically, Siris sets out to defeat the God King, and afterward he takes possession of the God King’s sword, which is the Infinity Blade, and then he goes on a journey looking for someone called the Worker of Secrets. This story had a classical medieval fantasy feel to it, and I haven’t read something like that in a while. It definitely had a Sanderson feel to it as well, which I appreciated.

I don’t feel like it’s necessary to play the games before reading these novellas, even though Infinity Blade: Awakening takes place between games 1 and 2, and Infinity Blade: Redemption takes place between games 2 and 3. I’m sure the stories would mean more to you if you did play the games first, although I obviously wouldn’t know. I don’t feel like my enjoyment was hindered in any way though by not having played the games.

Overall, I didn’t think I would enjoy this story but I did. It was fun and adventurous and humorous, and I’ll for sure be reading the next one.

Review: THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale, so I was very interested to read the sequel. I don’t particularly think the book needed a sequel, but with the release of the show and the way it progressed the story beyond the book, I think a continuation novel was inevitable.

While I did like this book, I didn’t feel like it aligned in tone with the previous book or with the show (which this book clearly takes influence from). I feel like the Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale and in the Hulu adaption was a lot more brutal and strict. Everyone is too nice in this book. Maybe it’s because we get inside perspectives in this book of an Aunt and of a daughter in a prestigious household instead of that of a handmaid that it just feels different, I don’t know, but the tone is completely different between the stories.

We follow three perspectives: Aunt Lydia; Offred’s first daughter, raised in Gilead; and Offred’s second daughter, Nicole, smuggled from Gilead and raised in free Canada. The story mostly follows Nicole in Canada, and Gilead’s efforts to try to return her to Gilead and the Resistance’s efforts to take down Gilead. First of all, the whole basis of The Testaments seems faulty to me. Nicole is not the first baby or person to leave Gilead, but there is a HUGE media presence in Canada about returning Baby Nicole to Gilead and that Canada stole her, etc. I legitimately do not understand why this is the case and why they don’t just let it go. They didn’t try to get anyone else back, so why Baby Nicole?

Anyway, I want to talk about Aunt Lydia now. Her characterization did not at all match the Aunt Lydia we knew from the first book and the show. I really can’t see her having the thoughts that she did in her parts of this book. I guess everyone had a normal life before Gilead, but to think that she was a judge and that she had an abortion then turns around and so hypocritically tells the handmaids it’s a sin, I just can’t imagine her ever being like that. And in the TV show, Aunt Lydia repeatedly told a girl who was raped that it was her fault. Now we have The Testaments, where Aunt Lydia told a girl who was presumably raped that the man would be punished in time. This is the complete opposite reaction.

I just don’t get how Aunt Lydia could be as ruthless as she was if she truly was against the regime in Gilead. She made a comment early in this book that she was going to get back at them, whatever it would take, yet she seemed to enjoy her role of power as an Aunt, inflicting pain on others and terrifying those whom she spoke to. I wish her characterization would have been more consistent.

Also, I completely don’t understand how or why she was deified in this book. They erected a freaking statue of her? Are you kidding me? In Gilead, that seems highly unlikely. Why not a statue of God since they claim to be so pious? Or of the founder of Gilead at least. But Aunt Lydia? I’m not buying that at all.

Fun fact though: the actress who plays Aunt Lydia on the TV show is the voice actor for Aunt Lydia in the audiobook and I loved that so much. As soon as chapter one started I knew it was her.

It’s interesting to learn how Aunts are chosen and raised. They’re allowed to read. If only they didn’t force young girls to marry old, sterile men and raise them the way they do, then maybe they would actually want to marry and have children, which I should remind everyone is the whole reason Gilead was set up—to grow the population.

There are so many hypocritical things in this society. In the first book, I was angry because of the injustices in Gilead, but I thought the book was a great critical look into society and what could become. Now with this book, I’m angry because of the hypocrisy and the inconsistencies between the books’ details. Before, it felt like a cult. Now it just feels unrealistic. I can’t clearly explain my thoughts but ultimately I don’t think this book was necessary. There is an allure to the ending of The Handmaid’s Tale, the ambiguous cliffhanger of what will happen next. That book was so real and controversial, whereas this book feels like a forced follow-up (because it is) with holes and consistency errors that do not align with the original story.

I like the way the TV series has expanded on the story, but TV has the right to take creative liberties. But the author coming back thirty-five years later with a sequel, that feels cheap. What I don’t like is that it feels like you need to watch the show to understand this book. Because that’s how I knew who the characters were. Baby Nicole was named in the show, but not in the first book; in the first book, Offred didn’t have a second baby. I haven’t seen all of the show’s episodes yet though, so I don’t know how they fully compare.

On its own, The Testaments is nearly a five-star book, but when I compare it to The Handmaid’s Tale in terms of quality and also as a follow-up to the story, where characters already existed with predetermined personalities, this is a four-star book. Maybe even three because of how many issues I had, but I love Atwood’s writing style so much that I’m giving it four stars.

The main question I had while reading The Handmaid’s Tale and while watching the show didn’t even get answered though! I wanted to know why Gilead is so intent on killing people who don’t follow their laws when the whole purpose of setting up Gilead and its laws in the first place was to force procreation to keep the population growing. It can’t grow if you kill off everyone. Margaret Atwood said that the idea for The Testaments came from all the questions she got from readers over the decades about her original story, and this sequel is supposed to be answers to those questions. I think the most important question though is why the government kills so many people when they’re trying to expand the population, and I really think that should have been addressed. I guess it’s just because their society has become so manic and power-hungry at this point that they’ve lost focus on the original reason of creating Gilead and are more focused on being in control.

I liked this book, don’t get me wrong. I liked all three perspectives, although Daisy’s was my favorite. But I can’t help but compare this book to the original story of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is where I find faults. It didn’t feel like a genuine sequel because the characterization of Aunt Lydia and the society of Gilead were not how they were portrayed to be in the first book. There were a lot of inconsistencies, which was my biggest issue. Atwood still has given us a well-written book though—I do enjoy her prose—and that’s what really worked for me in this book. Of course with a dystopian society like Gilead, we always want to know more, we want to know what happens after the end. But sometimes it’s better not to know, and sometimes the story is stronger with a vague ending. This story is one of those times.

There’s something about the open-endedness of The Handmaid’s Tale that leaves the reader questioning what happened to Offred and Gilead that has a certain mystifying quality. But to know what happened later, and what happened behind the scenes, it takes away some of that ethereal quality. The Testaments is still an excellent book, and while I’m grateful for it as I’m the kind of reader who wants a wrapped-up ending with all my questions answered, I don’t think it was quite necessary. Something about the allure of The Handmaid’s Tale is that it was written thirty-five years ago but is still relevant today in its egregiousness, whereas The Testaments was written in today’s age and there’s just a different feel to it.

I think if you’re highly interested in The Handmaid’s Tale and are dying to know more about the continuation of Gilead or you’re a huge Atwood fan, pick this up. But if you were satisfied with the ending of The Handmaid’s Tale and are on the fence about whether or not to read the sequel, I think it’s a safe pass. Enjoy the mystique that the first book left you and move on.

Review: I HATE DRAGONS by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 3/5 stars

This story was actually amazing, and I think this concept needs to be turned into a full-length novel for all the word lovers out there like me.

Skip’s knack, or special ability, is that he smells good to dragons. But he’s tired of being dragon bait for all the hunters. What he really wants to be is a lexicographer because his other knacks are the ability to hear spelling and the ability to hear punctuation when people talk. He wants to compile all the words in the world into a book so everyone knows how to spell them right. A dictionary! He wants to make a dictionary!

I love the idea of a fantasy world like this that has magic in it but also has a protagonist who’s focused on words and grammar. I love words myself and the making of dictionaries is a really fascinating concept to me. I need to see this story played out in a longer novel because I know it would be perfection.

I enjoyed this short little story, although of course I wish it were longer. It’s hard for me to rate short stories very high because of the lack of world building, characterization, plot, etc. present in the story, but what we were given with this one was good; although, I’m not a fan that the dragons talk here, but that’s a minor detail. I do hope someday Sanderson or someone else takes the idea behind this story and expands on it to create a rich fantasy world where the main character is creating that world’s first dictionary. I can’t tell you how much I love that idea. Plus, we need more of this story anyway because I need to know what happens after that cliffhanger!

“Did you know that fourteen thousand people died last year because of a misspelling? It was in a peace treaty. The scribe wrote the word ‘peace’ as ‘piece.’ ‘We will continue to dwell in freedom, and you will continue in piece.’ It started a war. They thought he meant ‘continue in pieces.’ Fourteen thousand died before they found the problem.”

Review: THE BURNING WHITE by Brent Weeks

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This was my most anticipated book of the year. It was good, very good even, but the ending left me wanting more and disappointed me for a few reasons I’ll talk about below. I would still 100% recommend this series, but know that this conclusion will not answer all the questions you’ve gathered up throughout the five books and will leave you wondering why certain details weren’t included in the narrative even though their answers felt necessary to the story. I am very conflicted about my feelings for this book because what we got was great, but there was also so much that we didn’t get that we needed, and that was the biggest detriment to this book, sadly.

The beginning of this book had me feeling like it was much bleaker and more political than the other books. I remember having so much fun with the first four books in this series when I read them earlier this year, but this book didn’t feel the same. There was less drafting and character relationships and more planning and “important conversations.”

This book has a lot of talking about drafting but not a lot of actual drafting in the beginning. We do learn a lot more about chi and paryl in this installment though, which is really nice because the other four books focus on the main colors in the spectrum and give us very little information about the outer-spectrum colors.

The first 300 pages or so were rather slow-moving, and I honestly can’t remember what happened in them. Maybe some content could have been cut from there to make room for all the questions we needed answers for but didn’t get.

There are *MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD* for the whole series.

First I want to talk about the characters. Surprisingly, I didn’t enjoy reading from Kip’s perspective in this book as much as I did in the other books. In the transition from book four to five, which occurred back to back with no time gap in the story, Kip seemed to have aged emotionally about ten years. He has become a military commander and lost a lot of his fun-loving personality that we saw in the earlier books. That personality change was too abrupt to feel natural and made me not like Kip’s POV as much as I used to, which is sad.

Another surprise for me was how much I grew to like Andross in this book. He’s such a divisive character, completely despicable but also respectable, and his character arc across this series is truly incredible. I loved seeing his flashback scenes because I loved seeing his relationship with Felia. He has so much respect for her. Plus you learn so many answers during these Nine Kings card scenes to questions we’ve had since book one. I was super happy to see one last game of Nine Kings in this book. I’m glad Kip was able to get one up on Andross, too. He deserved it, plus how he came about that victory was beautiful. But are we seriously supposed to believe Andross was a full-spectrum polychrome his whole life but never drafted any colors but red?? He’s way too prideful to hide the fact that he can draft more colors than others so I really don’t think he was hiding that piece of information for his whole life. Either he lied or Brent Weeks pulled that reveal out of his butt as a really out-of-character thing to attribute to Andross; I refuse to believe he spent over forty years hiding that secret.

One of the best POVs, in my opinion, was that of Teia. I absolutely loved watching her slowly take down the Order of the Broken Eye, and then slay the entire Order all at once at the end. Everything about the execution of that plan was amazing. I really thought she died there for awhile. She was one of my favorite characters, so I’m happy she survived, but also (and I’ll talk about this more later) I think her survival kind of felt like she cheated death since she drank the same poison that four hundred other people drank and she was the sole survivor. Like really? I don’t like unbelievable plot twists.

Another perspective that I really enjoyed here was Karris’s. I loved watching her trial of faith at the beginning of the book as the White. I’m happy she lived until the end. She was truly one of my favorite characters. I love her fierce but soft demeanor. She’s a great role model. I’m also really happy we got to see what was in all those documents that Orea left her.

It was shocking to learn from those papers that the Prisms had been killing innocent children every seven years to keep up the pretense of being the Prism throughout the years. I was very curious to learn about how Prisms operated before Gavin, so I’m glad we got at least some information about that. That still doesn’t explain how they didn’t halo though. Them not haloing was one detail I really wanted to know but still didn’t find out, unless it was buried somewhere in the details and I missed it.

Also, at the end, it was mentioned that Gavin/Dazen couldn’t exactly become the Prism again, but did Weeks ever say who would be the new Prism? I don’t remember that. He also does not ever clarify who the true Lightbringer is and that bothered me.

We learn that Sevastian is a Lightbringer. (And to find out that Andross made Gavin kill Sevastian? I was questioning if he actually died from a blue wight; turns out he didn’t.) I’m not that surprised he’s a Lightbringer because it has been told to us since the beginning that Kip is the Lightbringer so it seemed like there had to be some twist with that. How can there be more than one Lightbringer though? I don’t understand.

It’s clear that Andross became the public figure of the Lightbringer, but who was the prophecy actually referring to? I personally think it was supposed to be Sevastian, but once he died, the Lightbringer kind of became all the Guiles together, each fulfilling part of the prophecy. Andross directed the light, Kip summoned the light with his white luxin blast, and Dazen sent the light. Sevastian would have likely been “The Lightbringer” if he lived, but since he didn’t, it took Kip, Dazen, and Andross together to do what the Lightbringer would have done. Also to support this theory is the fact that in the Lightbringer prophecy it says he will “cleave father and father and father and son,” and Sevastian’s death did that between Andross and Dazen and between Dazen and Kip. But if Sevastian hadn’t died then I don’t think that falling out would have occurred, so maybe the prophecy accounted for him dying and knew it would take more than one other to fulfill it later on? I know Andross took up the title of “Lightbringer” but it’s not actually him, that much is clear.

This is one example of a detail that would have been so easy to just pop into the narrative, clearly identifying who the Lightbringer is, you know because it’s the series namesake after all, but it was left out. Maybe even intentionally left vague to make us guess. I will say though, Kip and Andross fighting over who should be the Lightbringer but trying to get the other one to accept it, that was hilarious. What a turnaround of their relationship from how they were at the beginning of the series.

I found it very interesting that in Gavin’s chapters, he kept switching between referring to himself as Gavin and as Dazen, depending on which side of his personality was dominant at that moment. It wasn’t until we read “The old Gavin finally, finally breathed his last, and died” that Dazen stops being referred to as Gavin. He is just himself from that point on. But we never see a public announcement of this. The whole world is just expected to know that Gavin was actually Dazen the whole time. Really? I know a select few people already knew, but we should at least have seen him telling a crowd at the Chromeria and seeing them come to terms with it or something. But no. I really think this scene should have been included.

I don’t understand how Gavin Dazen was able to do some of the stuff he did at the end, like raise the towers and turn the mirrors, but I guess he had the literal hand of God helping him. There was quite literally deus ex machina happening. I’ve never seen that before, the actual God in an actual machine. That was really funny.

I personally love the religious parallels in this book. There are SO many patterns, phrases, metaphors, etc. in this book that relate directly to Christian theology. I don’t know why but I love seeing religion play such a large and critical role in fantasy novels. This one obviously relies heavily on it, maybe even to its detriment because the deus ex machina does feel like cheating in a way (especially since Kip actually wishes for a magical solution on page 666), but I’ll forgive it because this wasn’t even the biggest problem I had with this story.

In my review of The Blood Mirror, I listed some predictions for things that would be revealed in The Burning White. Some of them were touched on but some of them weren’t.

What I still want to know is what was Gavin’s seventh goal? His goals were such a big deal in the earlier books but didn’t matter at all in this one.

Also, I wish we found out more about the Two Hundred and the old gods. I feel like we didn’t get any concrete answers regarding them. They were the ones actually in the luxin cells with Dazen down there, and real Gavin was never actually down there it seems. They can “inhabit” a human host body. They can sometimes be seen by people when necessary, like with Kip receiving help from Rea Siluz. But like what else do we know? Not much. What was their purpose? Why even include them in the book?

One of my biggest disappointments with The Burning White is that I kept expecting to hear something about the Everdark Gates but we got NOTHING. Honestly, that was the biggest mystery to me at the end of The Blood Mirror, that the final battle of the series would have something to do with the Everdark Gates. They kept referring to it in the first four books, even had a prophecy about it and the Two Hundred, but nothing came of it. In my opinion, it should never have been brought up at all if it wasn’t going to be important in the end. Seriously, what was the point of them at all then? I’m truly upset that this thread was forgotten about because it was so important early on.

There were a lot of details in this series that I expected to get explained fully in this final installment, but they didn’t. I’m disappointed in that. This was a great book and had some amazing character arcs and battle scenes, but as the final book in a long series that has had some crazy twists and turns and misdirections, I expected more clarity than we got regarding certain topics.

It felt like a lot of threads were opened up in this book and then never touched on again. I’m actually really disappointed at the amount of abstract loose ends left dangling because Weeks’s other Lightbringer books were so tightly woven in my opinion, and with how long it took for this book to release, I expected it to be edited better. As an editor for a book/series this big, you need to write down every question and plot point you have while reading and then cross off the ones that get answered later in the book. Anything left open at the end either needs to be addressed or cut, and it really shows here that is not how this editor worked.

Along with the Everdark Gates not being mentioned at all in this book, we also have that one conversation with Katalina’s father when he comes to visit Andross and says he needs to tell Andross something, and then we never find out what that was. That whole scene had no purpose because it was never brought up again. Also, there is the scene with the kopi seller at the end of the book. We never find out who that is either. Karris was freaking out like, “YOU! I know who you are!” And everyone else was like, “Who?” but we never learn anything else about him. Was he the same man who appeared to help Cruxer? I don’t know.

Also, who is Kip’s real father? I thought it was Andross? But then when they are talking together, Kip is like, “Felia was afraid I was your bastard wasn’t she?” And Andross responds, “Yes. Wrongly.” So is he just hiding it from Kip or is he not actually his father? Because we know from his card that he actually did seduce Katalina. But at the beginning of the series, Katalina tells Kip, “Kill your father. Kill Gavin Guile.” We know Katalina seduced Gavin to get the Blinding Knife, so maybe even she doesn’t know who Kip’s real father is. It’s either Andross or Gavin. My guess is that it’s Gavin because Andross compares Kip to Felia so many times that I think that was foreshadowing that she is related to him, and if Andross was his father then Felia wouldn’t be biologically related to Kip in any way. Plus Gavin being the father fits in with the Lightbringer prophecy better than if Andross was his father. So I think Gavin is Kip’s real father.

Although The Burning White did have some killer scenes and some great character growth and depth, there was still a lot missing from this story. I was worried going into the book, even with its length of almost 1,000 pages, it wouldn’t wrap everything up, and I was right.

We had some amazing moments in this book, particularly toward the end, like when we learned that Ironfist’s true allegiance wasn’t to the Order but to the Chromeria. For a while there I actually thought he died, not sure how I misread that, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him alive at the end, and on the side of good. His plan of killing Grinwoody was a good one; too bad he didn’t get to follow through with it.

But then Teia eliminates the whole Order in one night. That was one of my favorite scenes, hands down. And then the postlude where she kills Grinwoody, that was good too. I was also soooo satisfied with Quentin killing Zymun. That was amazing, and way to redeem himself. I was waiting the whole dang book for Zymun to meet his justice, and it was served hot. But the best part was the “true ending” on Weeks’s website where everyone dies. That was the best scene of all.

And then we obviously have Karris stabbing Koios and him falling off the tower, man that was a good moment too. I also think it’s hilarious that Koios’s name changes from White King to Wight King. So fitting.

But then to counteract these great moments, we have my least favorite trope ever: when the dead person comes back to life. That usually feels so fake and like the author is trying to give us something dramatic but also soften the blow. In this book, Kip comes back to life. I obviously didn’t want Kip to die, but how was he able to come back to life? I know the power of God can do anything, but still, WHY did it happen? Because it’s taboo to kill off the protagonist? I’m not mad Kip lives again, but it contributes to my feelings that this book pushes the limits on reality a little too much to be plausible within this world’s limits, so it was something I didn’t totally believe happening but that I had to just accept and move on regardless.

It also seems like cheating that Dazen was restored anew, his fingers returned, his tooth replaced, a new eye given to him, and the ability to draft all colors restored to him. That’s too happy of an ending (sorry) for how this series was going. I already feel like with the final battle of the series we didn’t get enough major deaths and then on top of that, Dazen is made whole once more. At least he’s alive, why did he have to become perfect again? It’s too cleanly wrapped up.

The story felt like there needed to be more people who died for it to be believable, and it needed some people to stay dead who were dead. I’m happy Brent Weeks didn’t kill off people unnecessarily, but it still didn’t feel like there was enough death for the final book in an epic fantasy series that has a two-hundred-page-long final battle scene. The only death I feel like we got was Cruxer’s. I knew there had to be some deaths in the Mighty or it wouldn’t feel realistic, but I didn’t expect it to be him. I did notice the fun banter between the Mighty kind of died out after Cruxer’s death though. Their quips and jokes to one another was some of the best dialogue of this whole series. But back to the deaths: yes, the whole Order died, and yes, the White King and his army died, and yes, Zymun died, but those are all bad guys. Good guys die too, but who died besides Cruxer? I can’t remember anyone else, and that’s not believable to me.

I would really have loved to see an epilogue or something about the future of the Chromeria, like how it changed after this major battle, how Karris as the White changed the nature of the politics on the Jaspers, how the Freeings became different after learning what was really going on with Prisms, how the Lightbringer and the Prism each affect the future of the society differently, how the training of new Blackguards will be different, if the Chromeria will begin to respect all color drafters and not only the main spectrum drafters. Basically, the story ended without telling us the repercussions on the society of the final battle. I want to know how the five books’ worth of information changed the future of this world and if the Chromeria will ever change its ways. There is truly SO MUCH left to tell us that we will never know.

Lightbringer is still one of my favorite fantasy series, and I plan to reread it someday; hopefully I’ll be able to catch on to more details I missed the first time around. I really hope Weeks releases more books in the world of the Lightbringer because I truly feel like this book could have massively benefitted from another hundred pages or so to answer some questions that were entirely skipped. We needed more answers than we got, but overall it was a good story and I’m so happy to have read this series.

As long as you can speak, you’re not helpless, and you’re not powerless until you’re too afraid to. If you’re trapped in the darkness all alone, how do you know you’re alone and not actually surrounded by an army of friends, also silent, also afraid in the dark, merely waiting for the sound of one voice to rouse them from fear, to fight for freedom?

Review: THE FOUNTAINS OF SILENCE by Ruta Sepetys

Rating: 5/5 stars

This is the kind of historical fiction novel that reminded me why I fell in love with historical fiction in the first place. The story is rich in culture and setting, and it features beautiful prose, intimate characters, and lots of secrets. It’s absolutely worth the read.

Ruta spent eight years crafting The Fountains of Silence, during which time she traveled to Spain, interviewed people that lived during Franco’s rule, read journals from people of this time, and did all kinds of research to create the most accurate novel possible. Knowing this fact before starting had me wondering at every little detail: “Was this really how it was? Did she read about this thing in someone’s journal?” I bet most of it was real and taken from the influences and sources she talks about in the book. And her thoroughness definitely shines through. She splices the narrative with oral history commentaries, interview excerpts, and quotations from real people in the 1950s who had a view of and opinion about Franco’s Spain to really paint the picture for the readers of what life what like for Spaniards during this time.

Despite having owned all of Ruta’s books for years, The Fountains of Silence is the first one that I’ve actually read. I love historical fiction but I really haven’t been in the mood for it much this year. Because of that, and the book slump that I’ve been in for a few weeks, I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this book as much as I potentially could. However, I’m pleased to say that it really impressed me, in scope, writing, characters, details, you name it. Plus I wasn’t bored with it at all, despite not really having the desire to read during the weeks in which I read it. It completely surprised me and pulled me right out of my slump.

I love so much that this book had such short chapters. I’m talking 1-5 pages in length. It made me feel like I was flying through the book and like I could always fit in one more chapter. Because of the short chapters and multiple POVs, it can get confusing at first who is who, so here is a quick reference guide of the main characters:
Daniel—American tourist and photographer in Madrid for the summer; son of an oil tycoon
Ana—Rafael’s and Julia’s sister; maid at a hotel; hiding a secret
Julia—Rafael’s and Ana’s sister; matriarch of their family; works at a tailor shop
Rafael (Rafa)—Ana’s and Julia’s brother; works at a slaughterhouse
Fuga—Rafa’s friend who is training to become a bullfighter
Purificación (Puri)—Rafa’s, Ana’s, and Julia’s cousin; works at an orphanage

I love how vivid the setting was and how fleshed out the characters were. I felt so connected to every aspect of this book. Every time Daniel took a picture I wished I could see it. He would explain the setting and the frame and the emotion he captured in each photo, and I so wish they were real. I can’t express how much I loved reading The Fountains of Silence. 

This book had one of the best love stories I’ve ever read in my life. It wasn’t hot and steamy, it wasn’t the type of story you typically read nowadays, but it was still so romantic and I was smiling from ear to ear nonetheless. It was beautiful and I loved it so much. I wish there was more book because I don’t want to be done with Ana and Daniel’s story yet.

Reading this book immediately moved Ruta up on my list of authors who I want to read all their works. I’ll absolutely be checking out her other novels, and I’m actually looking forward to getting back into historical fiction now. I really can’t recommend this book highly enough, and this review is so insufficient for how wonderful the story is.

He takes a breath, acknowledging the reality: a secret never stays secret for long.

Review: THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow

Rating: 4/5 stars

Let’s be real, the cover is the first reason I picked this book up. But the synopsis also sounded amazing too, so it’s okay.

We follow January Scaller as a young child when she finds a blue Door in a field and decides to open it. As she grows up, she begins to forget this encounter, until she discovers a book called The Ten Thousand Doors and the magic in her life is revitalized as she begins to read it. This story is a book within a book; we see both January’s story and the story of Adelaide, the girl from the book.

I love the story-within-a-story aspect. I really came to care about both girls and their adventures. And they were different enough that I didn’t get confused at all during the audiobook.

It took me a bit to really get on board with this book, but I fell in love with it the longer I read it. It planted itself in my heart and grew like a seed into a large tree. There wasn’t a single point when I was like, “okay, I’m loving this story now,” but looking back, I gradually enjoyed it more and more the further I got. Especially what January had to say to the reader at the very end of the story, I loved that. The whole thing is beautiful.

At first, I thought this was going to be more of a portal fantasy: January going through various Doors and discovering different lands that lie beyond, but it’s not really like that. It’s much more historical than I originally thought, taking place around the turn of the twentieth century. While I do like historical fiction novels, I honestly haven’t been in the mood to read one for about the last year, so I’m glad I actually ended up enjoying this book. The fantastical element is very soft. Yes, there are Doors that are portals to other worlds, but this is more of a magical realism story than a fantasy, and the Doors are not the forefront of the story even though they are still crucially important to the story.

The book is more about family and friendships and trust and identity and cultural respect and living life as a grand adventure than it specifically is about traveling through Doors to new lands.

This book does a good job of talking about acceptance and race, in my opinion. The characters represent many different races, and it’s talked about what is “normal” for them. This obviously has to do with the time period the book is set in, but I’m mentioning it because it really stood out to me. January, being mixed-race herself, is often looked at suspiciously or treated differently, and it’s interesting to see how she deals with that in a primarily white society, especially in the early 1900s.

Harrow’s writing is beautiful and very lyrical. This is the kind of book that you could hang quotations on your wall from. I loved the way she weaved words together to create beautiful imagery and settings. The writing was definitely my favorite part.

I recently read a book called Eleanor, which was another historical magical realism fantasy that had a similar premise, not involving doors but instead involving time travel/teleportation. I didn’t really care for that book and ended up not finishing it, but The Ten Thousand Doors of January is what I wanted that book to be. It’s the beautiful, engaging, and important story that I wanted.

Although, I have to admit, this book is still not quite what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a whimsical and magical adventurous romp through Doors to other worlds, explorations full of carefree fun. Instead, however, the reasons why January and the others were going through the Doors were a lot more solemn and darker than I expected, and those misplaced expectations were what caused me to give this book four instead of five stars. It’s still a beautiful and magical and adventurous book though, and one that I definitely recommend and look forward to rereading in the future.

How fitting, that the most terrifying time in my life should require me to do what I do best: escape into a book.

Review: THE STONE SKY by N. K. Jemisin

Rating: 4/5 stars

This series has been so good. It’s been too long since I read this book for me to write a decent or accurate review at this point, so here are the notes I took while reading. There are spoilers ahead.

The prologue starts right off telling us that Hoa opened the Obelisk Gate and flung away the Moon. This sets up immediately for an intriguing story because I wanted to know what happened and why.

I didn’t really care for the Syl Anagist chapters because I didn’t understand their importance or what was happening in them. I knew they had to be there for a reason, and I read a review that said they give us more information about the obelisks, but I just didn’t see that. They were hard to follow, in my opinion. These chapters were the only part of the whole series that when I got to them I had to push myself to keep on reading.

I was also not very interested in Nassun’s viewpoint in this book, unfortunately. I much preferred Essun’s chapters to everything else. I just found myself a bit bored with Nassun’s POV and not really connecting to her character, which is unfortunate because I loved her in book two. I wish we had more Schaffa chapters in this book like we did in The Obelisk Gate because those were more enjoyable and informative to me. I was curious about Nassun’s story overall but her chapters just dragged in my opinion.

This conversation speaks volumes for some of the important and relevant topics covered in this entire series:
Nassun asks, “What is genocide?”
Schaffa responds, “Orogenes are essential. And yet because you are essential, you cannot be permitted to have a choice in the matter. You must be tools—and tools cannot be people. Guardians keep the tool . . . and to the degree possible, while still retaining the tool’s usefulness, kill the person.”
Then: “What can orogeny do against something like that? Keep her breathing, maybe. But breathing doesn’t always mean living, and maybe . . . maybe genocide doesn’t always leave bodies.”

Here are my overall thoughts for the whole series:
I think The Fifth Season was the strongest book, mostly because we get so much world-building and character development and everything is new and fresh. Plus I loved all three POVs in that book and loved the way they connected together at the end. That story also had the most enjoyable plot in my opinion.
The Obelisk Gate was much slower but we did get a lot more information about the world that I was hungry for and happy to learn. I enjoyed the three POVs in that book as well, though not as much as the first book.
The Stone Sky was back to being an active and faster-paced plot, although the only POV I cared about was Essun’s. I liked the continuation of the world-building and the ending and how everything came together, and it was a good conclusion, but it doesn’t compare to The Fifth Season in my opinion.
Ultimately, this series was dark and unique and a completely new take on the idea of earth magic, and I’m so happy I read it. It tackles many real-world themes and problems and doesn’t shy away from being gruesome and emotional. It’s definitely one I’ll be rereading in the future, and I’d also love to check out more works from N. K. Jemisin now; I love her writing.

Review: THE OBELISK GATE by N. K. Jemisin

Rating: 4/5 stars

I love obelisks, and I love even more the idea of floating obelisks in the sky, so knowing this book was called The Obelisk Gate had me very excited to read it to learn more about these mysterious objects introduced in The Fifth Season.

These are the SPOILERY questions and thoughts I had while reading:
—I’m questioning who writes the interludes. It’s clear they’re to Essun, and I was thinking maybe it’s from Father Earth, but also it says “we” about life and that made me think maybe not. Maybe it’s Hoa, but that would mean Hoa betrayed Essun and is planning to kill her.
—The interlude on page 75 also states that orogenes have “lost the moon.” How would they have lost the moon? Alabaster and Essun are tracking obelisks, so possibly the obelisks caused the moon to disappear, but how, and why?
—Did orogenes create the obelisks?
—Alabaster started this Season, right? Are all Seasons started by orogenes, or are some naturally occurring? And couldn’t the orogenes stop a Season? This one is caused by the rift, but couldn’t Essun shift something so the rift reforms or whatever and there’s no more problem and the Season ends? It must be too massive for anyone to seal up because closing the volcano at that coastal town was almost too much for Essun, so maybe they need the help of an obelisk to be able to close the rift.
—We learned that Alabaster using orogeny is what made him turn to stone. Why? Is it something to do with his stone eater, like is Antimony making it happen?
—Page 94 states: “The stories . . . imply there might someday be a way to end the Seasons, involving the obelisks.” Is this foreshadowing for the end of book three?
—Page 103 states: The Moon’s “‘loss was part of what caused the Seasons.’ Father Earth did not always hate life, the lorists say. He hates because he cannot forgive the loss of his only child.” So is the Earth himself causing the Seasons?
—Page 106: I love love love how Jemisin incorporated the use of magic into her story.
—Page 165: Something happened with the power in the obelisks that caused the Moon to migrate away from the planet, and that caused the Shattering, which in turn caused the Seasons. Orogenes are the ones who use the obelisks so it’s their fault this happened. Father Earth is sad about his child, the Moon, being gone, so he created the Guardians to control the orogenes; orogenes are Father Earth’s enemy.
—Nassun’s chapters are narrated by an “I” character to a “you,” who is Essun, but Nassun herself is referred to in third person, so who is narrating her chapters? Schaffa and Jija are also mentioned in third person in her chapters, so it’s not them.
—I really enjoyed reading about Nassun’s relationship with Jija, her father, even though it isn’t a good relationship, because I can completely relate to her in that regard. I understand her thought process and where she’s coming from and why she’s doing what she’s doing, and it’s heartbreaking but also so satisfying the brutal way she ends things with him.
—Page 313 states: “[Nassun] doesn’t answer because there’s no point. She cannot say what he wants to hear. It isn’t fair that he calls orogenes liars and then demands that she lie.” This is so relatable it hurts. I resonate so much with Nassun.
—I am very curious to know how Essun ended up with Jija. He, who hates orogenes, knows she’s an orogene and will likely have orogenic children, yet he marries her anyway? I guess it’s possible he didn’t know she was an orogene, but I still really want to know the story behind their relationship.
—I am also curious why Essun’s chapters switch between second/first person and second/third person when we already know it’s Hoa narrating them. Sometimes he refers to himself as “I” and sometimes he refers to himself as “Hoa,” and I didn’t understand why the distinction was important.
—Alabaster dies and turns into an alabaster stone eater—this broke my heart but also gave me hope for him still being alive in the “third” book.
—And now Essun’s turning to stone like Alabaster was? What causes this process to begin?
—So the ending with the grey stone eater, nicknamed Steel: he told Nassun to bring the Moon back. But I thought that was the same stone eater that was working with the Rennanis comm and wanted Essun to fail to bring the Moon back. Am I missing something?

The Obelisk Gate did a lot of great things: it prepares us for The Stone Sky, provides us with lots of pertinent information about the world and magic, answers some questions we had in The Fifth Season, builds more of this unique world, and deeply develops characters we both knew and didn’t really know when the book began, even going as far as to give them harrowing trials that are hard to read at times.

But it also did some things that made this installment less enjoyable than the first book (but only by a little bit): it’s mostly a character-driven story, so there’s not a lot of actual plot or action that happens; the narrative took place almost entirely in the same location for each character, where they just kind of talked about different problems the Season brings and about the politics of the world; the big reveals did have an info-dumpy feel to them because there is so much information we are getting; it wasn’t as developed as the first book; and I found it to be written at a slower pace, probably because of the reasons listed above. Plus this book is just weird at times. There was some stuff happening that I didn’t really understand and some stuff that I didn’t know (and still don’t know) was in the bounds of the world and their abilities.

Ultimately, I liked The Obelisk Gate a lot, although I did like The Fifth Season better. This book is mostly setting up for the obvious task ahead for Essun, which will take place in The Stone Sky. I’m happy for so many reveals that I’ve been waiting for, but I also wish we had a little more going on.

Review: SERPENT & DOVE by Shelby Mahurin

Rating: 4/5 stars

Initially, I didn’t want to read this book. I got eight pages in and stopped. But it’s the book club pick at my job so I needed to finish it. I tried the first chapter again, this time with the audiobook. And it was more interesting, but it still didn’t have me hooked. So I read the first chapter a third time, and finally, after that, I decided I was excited to see what lay ahead.

We follow two perspectives: Lou and Reid, a witch and a witch hunter. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they are forced into marriage with each other. They hated each other and neither wanted to get married—I loved the foreshadowing preceding this where they each said they’d never marry and then they ended up in this situation. The problem is, Reid doesn’t know Lou is a witch, and the motto he lives by is “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Lou has to hide who she is to stay alive.

I love how fierce Lou is. Way too often I read a book with a BA female protagonist who is all talk and no action, but Lou actually draws blood and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. She’s vicious in the best way, and I love it. She’s the hardcore female protagonist I’ve been wanting in my stories! I’m so happy with her characterization.

One thing that bothered me was that Lou always referred to Reid as “my husband” for the first half of the book, never by name, which I thought was a bit unnatural.

The enemies-to-lovers trope here is one of the main reasons I was interested to keep reading. I became so engaged in the story, excited to see what new ways they would torment each other.

I do think the plot got lost to the character developments and the relationship between Reid and Lou. We were introduced to the plot in the beginning and it picked up again in the end, but the whole middle of the book was entirely character-focused. I didn’t mind though because it was an entertaining book from start to finish.

Although this is a young adult fantasy, the characters are older and it has a more mature feel, which I appreciated. I think with a few tweaks it could even pass for an adult fantasy, which might contribute to why I liked it so much because that’s primarily what I read these days.

Serpent and Dove has a heavy French influence. This was actually one of the reasons I was turned off from it at the beginning because I don’t know any French and there were a lot of French words thrown in that I didn’t understand and I felt confused. Eventually, though, this became a non-issue and I actually began to enjoy the French. And of course my naturally curious mind couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn something new, so I had to look up the definition of every foreign word I saw. Let’s just say this book gives a new meaning to the phrase “pardon my French”: I learned more French swear words than other words while reading.

For a book about witches, I do wish we saw more magic and got more information about the witches. We know there are at least Dames Blanche and Dames Rouge, two different kinds of witches, but we don’t really know much about either of them and that’s what I’d like to know most. What are the limitations of their magic and are there more than just those two kinds of witches in this world?

I’m really glad I pushed through the first chapter because the book only went uphill from there. I ended up really enjoying the story, and this has become a series I will keep on my radar to read future installments when they are released. I do sort of wish this had been a standalone novel because I think it could have been wrapped up in one book and now I’m worried the next book(s) will drag on about unnecessary events, but we will see.

Overall, Serpent and Dove was entertaining from start to finish and continued to capture my interest as I read. It never felt slow or dragging, despite its length, and I appreciated that. The book definitely had its problems—it’s not perfect by any means—but it was certainly fun to read and that’s what matters.

Review: ELEANOR by Jason Gurley

Rating: 1/5 stars

I first heard about this book in someone’s book review on YouTube, and I don’t remember what they said about it except that I thought it sounded good, so I added it to my list. Fast-forward two years and I finally start reading this book while having completely forgotten what its premise is. I’m fifty pages in and questioning why I was interested in it in the first place when I read the back of the book for the first time. And it doesn’t sound like anything I would enjoy, so I don’t know why I ever put this on my list. I can’t remember what that person on YouTube said about it that had me so interested, but I feel cheated. I expected more, something fantastical at least in a small degree, and instead I get a contemporary fiction story about grief and a broken family. I don’t like sad stories; I don’t care to read hard-hitting contemporaries. But having been already 20% into the book at this point, I felt like I had to continue.

By 30% into the book, I knew this story just wasn’t for me. I was pretty bored with it and I was dreading picking it up to continue, so I ultimately decided to put it down and mark it as DNF because I wasn’t having a good time.

Eleanor is a character-driven story about a girl named Eleanor who has to help her grief-stricken mother cope with a loss while also dealing with the loss herself. Ultimately this was a story about family relationships and grief and possibly hope, although I didn’t get far enough to get to the hope.

This is a magical realism story. I’ve always struggled with magical realism because it’s not fantastical enough to be a fantasy story but it’s also not normal enough to be a contemporary story. But I still read it like a contemporary, and then I had to suspend my disbelief too much and just ended up skeptical of the whole thing. And that’s what happened here. I erroneously expected this to be more fantastical than it was, and while it did have some magical realism elements, it wasn’t what I was expecting. This story ultimately was a portrait of grief, and that wasn’t something I was super keen on reading. And unfortunately, I just didn’t care about any of it either.

I want to make it clear that I didn’t hate this book, but also I didn’t enjoy it. It was not what I expected nor wanted to read, but I do think other people would enjoy this story because I do think it was well written. Just know beforehand what it’s about and don’t expect it to be fantastical because it’s not.

Review: THE FIFTH SEASON by N. K. Jemisin

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This book is a darker fantasy in a post-apocalyptic setting where the world “ends” every few hundred years during what is called a Fifth Season. In the prologue, we learn that “this is the way the world ends, for the last time.”

The Fifth Season starts off mid-story and throws you into the characters’ lives without giving a ton of context, so you really have to pay attention and figure out what’s going on by yourself because the characters don’t tell you about connections that would be obvious to them or how the magic works, etc. Part of me was begging for explanations of things that I still don’t fully know, but the other part of me loved how natural this technique was because it felt like I was dropped into their world. I liked having to figure things out for myself, and having the glossary at the back (that I didn’t discover until halfway through the book) was also much appreciated!

My favorite part of this book was the magic system. We have orogenes, people who can use orogeny, which is a seismic-based ability to manipulate the earth’s crust and cause or still earthquakes and move tectonic plates. This book takes earth magic to a whole new level that I’ve never seen done before and I can safely say will never be surpassed because the depth given to the abilities here is utterly stunning.

Orogenesis is a real thing, so it’s awesome to see the people called orogenes, because that word actually makes sense in real-world terminology. Orogenesis is when the earth’s crust is compressed to form a mountain range. Knowing about tectonic plate movements and verbiage before starting this book would actually help you because the magic is based on real-world earth science. There was a paragraph I came across where the characters were talking about what was happening to the earth, and I had to define four different words because I didn’t know if they were real or made up for the story. They were all real, all sciencey words I’ve never heard before. I love that I’m learning about real scientific concepts while I read a fantasy novel; that is just plain cool.

We have three main characters: Damaya, a child; Syenite, who’s in her twenties; and Essun, who’s in her forties. Essun’s chapters were told in second-person point-of-view, which I know some people don’t like, but I love second-person stories so I was happy to see it in this book. It’s a little jarring at first because it’s unusual and not like the other POVs here, plus you don’t know who the narrator is, but I loved it nonetheless; I didn’t think it felt unnatural or stilted at all, and by the end I didn’t even notice anymore.

This is a character-driven story. I normally prefer plot-driven stories but I still thoroughly enjoyed this one. Syenite was my favorite to read about, probably because of her relationship with Alabaster and just because her chapters weren’t as dark as the other chapters. Being a character-based story, we really get to see the theme of systematic oppression that is prevalent throughout the book. This is a real-world issue that we see demonstrated so well in a fantasy setting, and it’s another reason why this book was as good as it was.

The Fifth Season was an incredible and important post-apocalyptic science-fantasy story. I loved the dark setting of a literal broken earth with all the obelisks floating in the sky. I loved the tectonic and seismology–based magic system that I’ve never seen done before. I’ve always enjoyed learning about geology and rocks so this book fed that interest in a way I didn’t know I needed. I loved the characters, even if I didn’t always love what was happening to them. Basically I loved this whole book. The reason I didn’t give it a full five stars was the ending got a lot darker than I was anticipating, and some things happened that made me so sad. This is an emotional book, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to jump right into the rest of the series.

“Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the fifth, and master of all.”

Now for some SPOILERS: 

I predicated about a quarter of the way through that Damaya, Syenite, and Essun were all the same character at different points in her life. Each is female and an orogene, and them all being one would explain the time hops. I noticed clues for this throughout the story once the thought was in my head, and I was happy that my predictions came true. It didn’t ruin the twist at all for me guessing it beforehand.

What I didn’t guess though was that Tonkee was Binof. That seems obvious now but for some reason I just didn’t put it together earlier.

What I would like to know is how Essun and the other orogenes are able to sense how long a Season will last. On page 274, Essun says, “This season will last centuries,” but how does she know? And what factors determine how long a Season will last?

On page 150 we read, “they do not notice what’s missing” in the sky, and I had the constant question about what was missing (which I could have deduced but was apparently dumb enough not to notice). Then the last line of the book, from Alabaster: “Have you ever heard of something called a moon?” That’s it, that’s what was missing. And he’s right, there were no mentions of a moon in the story. I’m very curious how this will play into book two.