It says "Fairy Tale" and it says Victoria Schwab, so of course I'm going to devour this
I received this eARC from Orca Book Publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
DNF at 22%
I just couldn't do it. This book is beyond mediocre, it's downright offensively bad. It's boring, the pacing is dismal, none of the characters are interesting or act remotely normal, the dialogue is wooden and childish, the writing is simple and awkward, the worldbuilding is awful, and it felt like a sequel, not a spin-off. I haven't read the other book that supposedly introduced Jon, the horny and passive MC, but this isn't a sequel, so I shouldn't have to read any outside material to understand this character, the world he lives in, or get any grasp on what is going on. I thought this was going to be a similar book to The Chosen One, a novel about a girl who lives in a polygamist compound and falls in love, but is assigned to marry her uncle, and has to make a perilous decision to abandon everything she's ever known for a world she knows nothing of or live a life where she can never be happy. Instead, I got backstory told through long exposition paragraphs, horny teenage boys ogling boobs, emotionless passages about characters that were never introduced, and soap opera drama ("She's in the hospital!" "She's getting married on Sunday!" "To your father!") Like, please. Are you kidding me? I don't have time for garbage.
DNF at 22%
I just couldn't do it. This book is beyond mediocre, it's downright offensively bad. It's boring, the pacing is dismal, none of the characters are interesting or act remotely normal, the dialogue is wooden and childish, the writing is simple and awkward, the worldbuilding is awful, and it felt like a sequel, not a spin-off. I haven't read the other book that supposedly introduced Jon, the horny and passive MC, but this isn't a sequel, so I shouldn't have to read any outside material to understand this character, the world he lives in, or get any grasp on what is going on. I thought this was going to be a similar book to The Chosen One, a novel about a girl who lives in a polygamist compound and falls in love, but is assigned to marry her uncle, and has to make a perilous decision to abandon everything she's ever known for a world she knows nothing of or live a life where she can never be happy. Instead, I got backstory told through long exposition paragraphs, horny teenage boys ogling boobs, emotionless passages about characters that were never introduced, and soap opera drama ("She's in the hospital!" "She's getting married on Sunday!" "To your father!") Like, please. Are you kidding me? I don't have time for garbage.
The atmosphere was really the strongest part of this book, especially in the first half. It was so believable and that extended to some of the characters, namely: Lizzie, Zach, Nev, Spike, and Saj. However, it just about stopped there. The plot, the pacing, the rest of the cast, and the sloppy proofreading really distracted from that atmosphere and made what should have been a quick and engaging read boring and difficult, so much so that I put the book down and didn't pick it back up for almost two years. Despite that, I appreciate the story enough that I will continue this series, as I have high hopes.
consider me surprised
to find
i enjoyed this book
despite not liking the first
opinions change and people grow
both as readers and as writers
never judge an author
by their first book
judge them by their second
This pretty much addressed all of my criticisms of the first book. It wasn't just about sex (though there was definitely a lot of that); it was about family and love and what it means to be an immigrant. It actually made me cry on several occasions, and while I marked only 3 poems in the first book, I marked 25 in this. It was worlds away from the messy nonsense of Milk and Honey. It felt more real and genuine. It felt less like a 13-year-old's tumblr poetry and more like an adult. The narrative poems were some of my favorites and the shorter ones had messages that weren't reiterated repeatedly. I really liked it. I'm glad the years between this publication and the previous showed some growth and honed skill.
to find
i enjoyed this book
despite not liking the first
opinions change and people grow
both as readers and as writers
never judge an author
by their first book
judge them by their second
This pretty much addressed all of my criticisms of the first book. It wasn't just about sex (though there was definitely a lot of that); it was about family and love and what it means to be an immigrant. It actually made me cry on several occasions, and while I marked only 3 poems in the first book, I marked 25 in this. It was worlds away from the messy nonsense of Milk and Honey. It felt more real and genuine. It felt less like a 13-year-old's tumblr poetry and more like an adult. The narrative poems were some of my favorites and the shorter ones had messages that weren't reiterated repeatedly. I really liked it. I'm glad the years between this publication and the previous showed some growth and honed skill.
I received this ARC from Orca Book Publishers via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
I have never cried reading a book so much; it has all the feels. I absolutely love it.
The Writing and Worldbuilding
The writing had some of the pacing issues the first one had where it tended to run a little slow in the beginning, but, like Dominion, once it picked up, it was steady and intriguing throughout all the way to the end.
Shane is great at writing believable, wonderful character arcs and themes. He doesn't shove them into your face, he just gently prods you with them. I absolutely loved the themes in this: blame, shame, fear, anger, weariness, and above all, responsibility were major themes. Those are some of my favorite themes in any book, so it was truly great to read them in this. Besides that, it has themes of revolution, of equal rights and social liberty. This book is so relevant to today's society.
The world expanded a lot and I really enjoyed learning more about and understanding the unique magic system and alternate history timeline Arbuthnott created. It was masterfully show more crafted and the visuals were fantastic.
The Characters
Molly: Molly struggles with her conscience, her desire to do what's right, and her fear that her efforts are only hurting people and spirits. She learns a lesson that was very personal to me, a lesson I've been struggling with all my life: that it is okay to take a break, that it is not quitting; that you are not responsible for the decisions of others, only your own actions are yours to judge, and that being a little selfish is not a bad thing, but being self-centered is. She is melancholy and depressed for a lot of the book, understandably so, but she learns to use her emotions to drive her to do what she knows she needs to do, instead of trying to fight them, trying to ignore her own sadness. Molly is most definitely one of my favorite characters of all time.
Da (man, I don't think he even has a name): Molly's father grows so much in this book. In Dominion, he was a bit of a stereotype, though still really interesting; but the book didn't really focus on him and so he didn't really have much room to show who he really was and to grow into a better person. Terra Nova gave him all the room, and he definitely used it. He became one of my favorite characters, a deeply complex man trying to protect his children but knowing that they might not need him anymore. Ultimately, he was selfless and strong.
Arkwright: As usual, Arkwright was super creepy, but he wasn't an Obvious Villain™. Rather, he was also deeply complex and flawed and frankly, frightening in his intensity and drive. His ideology was so interesting and I found him to be a very compelling villain.
Rory: As usual, Rory was a riot and I absolutely adore him. He was so funny and great, but he also grew a lot and I found a lot of depth in him. His sibling bond with Molly was palpable and even had understandable reasons. I love him.
Kiernan: He wasn't as fleshed out as the rest of the family, but he was still very consistent and well written. I cared about his character a lot.
Theresa: She was a new addition, but she was fantastic, and I really liked her. She is smart, and motherly even, acting as a great mother figure and friend to Molly when she needed it most.
Ariel: She played less of an important role in this, but she did provide a lot of comfort and sage advice to Molly.
Brighid: She was expanded a lot more in this, and if there is another book (which I suspect there won't be, because everything was wrapped up rather nicely), I would like to have her character explored more.
Conclusion
I love Shane Arbuthnott's writing. I cried so much reading this, and I felt the story so deeply in my soul. This series has quickly become one of my all-time favorites, and I sincerely want him to write many more books, either in this world, or otherwise. I will read anything this man writes.
I have never cried reading a book so much; it has all the feels. I absolutely love it.
It's always worse before you start. So start.
The Writing and Worldbuilding
The writing had some of the pacing issues the first one had where it tended to run a little slow in the beginning, but, like Dominion, once it picked up, it was steady and intriguing throughout all the way to the end.
Shane is great at writing believable, wonderful character arcs and themes. He doesn't shove them into your face, he just gently prods you with them. I absolutely loved the themes in this: blame, shame, fear, anger, weariness, and above all, responsibility were major themes. Those are some of my favorite themes in any book, so it was truly great to read them in this. Besides that, it has themes of revolution, of equal rights and social liberty. This book is so relevant to today's society.
"Identifying who began something like this is like picking out the stone that began an avalanche. It began somewhere, true enough [...] but once it well and truly begins, we are all just stones moving together. One stone rolling down a mountain changes nothing unless others move with it."
The world expanded a lot and I really enjoyed learning more about and understanding the unique magic system and alternate history timeline Arbuthnott created. It was masterfully show more crafted and the visuals were fantastic.
The Characters
"You forget this from time to time, Molly, but you are not alone. I am here. Your family is here. [...] Not every responsibility is yours."
Molly: Molly struggles with her conscience, her desire to do what's right, and her fear that her efforts are only hurting people and spirits. She learns a lesson that was very personal to me, a lesson I've been struggling with all my life: that it is okay to take a break, that it is not quitting; that you are not responsible for the decisions of others, only your own actions are yours to judge, and that being a little selfish is not a bad thing, but being self-centered is. She is melancholy and depressed for a lot of the book, understandably so, but she learns to use her emotions to drive her to do what she knows she needs to do, instead of trying to fight them, trying to ignore her own sadness. Molly is most definitely one of my favorite characters of all time.
"So the good things you've accomplished, those you had help with. But the danger. The blame. Those belong to you alone?"
Da (man, I don't think he even has a name): Molly's father grows so much in this book. In Dominion, he was a bit of a stereotype, though still really interesting; but the book didn't really focus on him and so he didn't really have much room to show who he really was and to grow into a better person. Terra Nova gave him all the room, and he definitely used it. He became one of my favorite characters, a deeply complex man trying to protect his children but knowing that they might not need him anymore. Ultimately, he was selfless and strong.
"I did not survive this long by being fragile, and I have found other ways to get what I need."
Arkwright: As usual, Arkwright was super creepy, but he wasn't an Obvious Villain™. Rather, he was also deeply complex and flawed and frankly, frightening in his intensity and drive. His ideology was so interesting and I found him to be a very compelling villain.
Rory: As usual, Rory was a riot and I absolutely adore him. He was so funny and great, but he also grew a lot and I found a lot of depth in him. His sibling bond with Molly was palpable and even had understandable reasons. I love him.
Kiernan: He wasn't as fleshed out as the rest of the family, but he was still very consistent and well written. I cared about his character a lot.
"It is selfish, true, but there is nothing wrong with selfish thoughts. Sometimes they provide good counsel. But those thoughts must be tempered with more generous ones, lest we [...] forget that the world is filled with beings of equal significance to ourselves."
Theresa: She was a new addition, but she was fantastic, and I really liked her. She is smart, and motherly even, acting as a great mother figure and friend to Molly when she needed it most.
Ariel: She played less of an important role in this, but she did provide a lot of comfort and sage advice to Molly.
Brighid: She was expanded a lot more in this, and if there is another book (which I suspect there won't be, because everything was wrapped up rather nicely), I would like to have her character explored more.
Conclusion
I love Shane Arbuthnott's writing. I cried so much reading this, and I felt the story so deeply in my soul. This series has quickly become one of my all-time favorites, and I sincerely want him to write many more books, either in this world, or otherwise. I will read anything this man writes.
She looked down at the city. It was changing, and she didn't know what it would look like when it was done. Maybe it would never be done.show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I received this eARC from North Star Editions on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
Dnf'd at 31%
I would first like to say that the religious aspects of this book were not in anyway a flaw and anyone who believes otherwise needs to seriously reexamine themselves because they're hypocrites. A lot of the religious stuff was a little preachy sometimes but that was obviously intentional on the author's part.
This book was not, however, particularly good by any means. Honestly, everything after the two leads finally get rescued from the gym was extremely boring and I lost interest quickly. The book did what it was trying to do well enough but it's just not the kind of story (namely, a contemporary romance) that I enjoy by any means.
Dnf'd at 31%
I would first like to say that the religious aspects of this book were not in anyway a flaw and anyone who believes otherwise needs to seriously reexamine themselves because they're hypocrites. A lot of the religious stuff was a little preachy sometimes but that was obviously intentional on the author's part.
This book was not, however, particularly good by any means. Honestly, everything after the two leads finally get rescued from the gym was extremely boring and I lost interest quickly. The book did what it was trying to do well enough but it's just not the kind of story (namely, a contemporary romance) that I enjoy by any means.
So here's the deal with this book: I was 11, it was the week before my family left on our summer vacation, and my sister checked this out from the library for our trip. She read it first, and then passed it on to my other sister, who in turn passed it on to me. We all agreed that it was terrible, and yet we all read it. I have no explanation for this.
So here's the deal with the plot: Patience is a girl who lives in the British countryside and in the first chapter of the book dresses up as a man to intercept her best friend and stop him from dueling with this guy, who supposedly deflowered his sister or something. So, she runs into the duel like a complete idiot and gets shot. Turns out the guy doing the deflowering is her newly betrothed. Because crappy romance book. And on goes the strangest book I've ever read.
~She thinks that she is ugly but is described by both the book and literally everyone else as being an unearthly beauty
~She constantly faints in order to get out of difficult social situations or just when she's bored I guess
~Her best friend completely disappears from the plot
~At one point, she thinks a "mistress" is a very good thing (which her cousins say is not the case but don't tell her why) and goes to her jerky ex-boyfriend and asks him if she'd make a good mistress, and he's like, "Oh boy, yes please" show more and starts kissing her, and in comes her betrothed who beats the crap out of him. I'm pretty sure she faints at one point
~She doesn't know what sex is but tells everyone she does but on her wedding night, she thought they were just going to cuddle
~They have sex anyway but she faints to get out of it
~Her betrothed has an evil twin half-brother who is sullying his good name
~They have graphic sex like twice (and I was 11--why did my sisters not warn me??)
~She gets kidnapped by the evil twin half-brother and faints her way out of it
I love this book for some reason even though it's probably just about the worst thing I've ever read. It holds a special place in my heart. show less
So here's the deal with the plot: Patience is a girl who lives in the British countryside and in the first chapter of the book dresses up as a man to intercept her best friend and stop him from dueling with this guy, who supposedly deflowered his sister or something. So, she runs into the duel like a complete idiot and gets shot. Turns out the guy doing the deflowering is her newly betrothed. Because crappy romance book. And on goes the strangest book I've ever read.
~A list of what happens (I haven't been able to find a copy in years, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist anymore, so spoilers don't really matter anymore)~
~She thinks that she is ugly but is described by both the book and literally everyone else as being an unearthly beauty
~She constantly faints in order to get out of difficult social situations or just when she's bored I guess
~Her best friend completely disappears from the plot
~At one point, she thinks a "mistress" is a very good thing (which her cousins say is not the case but don't tell her why) and goes to her jerky ex-boyfriend and asks him if she'd make a good mistress, and he's like, "Oh boy, yes please" show more and starts kissing her, and in comes her betrothed who beats the crap out of him. I'm pretty sure she faints at one point
~She doesn't know what sex is but tells everyone she does but on her wedding night, she thought they were just going to cuddle
~They have sex anyway but she faints to get out of it
~Her betrothed has an evil twin half-brother who is sullying his good name
~They have graphic sex like twice (and I was 11--why did my sisters not warn me??)
~She gets kidnapped by the evil twin half-brother and faints her way out of it
I love this book for some reason even though it's probably just about the worst thing I've ever read. It holds a special place in my heart. show less
I received this eARC from Delacorte Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change.
I will not be officially rating this eARC on Goodreads because of the promised revisions, but if I had to, I’d definitely say 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. This is a review for the original ARC, long before the controversy that made Zhao pull her book, revise it, and release new ARCs. More on that controversy later.
Obligatory Summary
Ana’s deadly Affinity to blood makes her, at least in her own eyes, a monster. And when she’s framed for the mysterious death of her father, it might as well be true. But to clear her name, she needs the help of Ramson Quicktongue, an infamous crime lord and the only person who can find her father’s killer. But he has secrets of his own and plans to get his revenge, and Ana might be just what he needs to regain his position.
Who, in the end, is the monster?
My Thoughts on the Book
This wasn’t the most original book I’ve ever read. It has the hallmark features of a YA high fantasy retelling about royalty:
- A princess with a dark secret (usually dangerous magical powers and knowledge regarding a dead parent)
- Said princess pretends to be a peasant / doesn’t reveal her true identity to those around them, usually the love interest
- The love interest is a Bad Boy™ show more with a shady past but he’s sarcastic enough to be charming
- A friend dies
- The MacGuffin leads to yet another MacGuffin
- ~ BeTrAYaL ~
- One or more masked ballroom sequences
Cliche? Yes. But bad? I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was. The main characters had a great rapport, the setting was clear, and the plot kept you moving forward. If you like Bloodleaf, Shadow and Bone, and Six of Crows, then you’ll probably love this.
Specifically, Ana felt like a merge between Alina from Shadow and Bone and Aurelia from Bloodleaf. Ramson felt like a merge between Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows and Nikolai from the Grishaverse as a whole. Ramson’s side of things had a very Ketterdam vibe to it, while Ana’s had a Ravkan, Grisha aesthetic. Even the Affinities and their classifications bore a great deal of similarities to the Grisha. Cliche, however, doesn’t always mean bad, if the cliches are still entertaining. I didn’t mind any of these similarities. I still enjoyed the story.
I did, though, flip-flop quite a bit, I have to admit. I was generally quite engaged (it even took me out of a 3 month slump!!) but a single issue pervaded almost every aspect and really made me want to unofficially rate this 3 stars instead of 4.
It felt undeveloped. Not all the time—and there was definitely a lot of well established foreshadowing and character building—but some sequences that could have expanded on the characters and their dynamics, or breathed more life into the world or setting, or even just explained some of the plot, were just…sloppy or barely there or not there at all.
This had heart (a lot of it) and clearly a great deal of hardwork—and it shows! It really does! But it also has some missed opportunities and skipped time. Five whole days of travel with our two leads (who aren’t very well acquainted by this time in the story) occurs without any page time. So much could have happened in those five days, even if it’s just relationship building or backstory sprinkling rather than dumping. It made some parts of their relationship feel unearned or unrealistic. Besides that, Ana herself is kind of an idiot but I don’t think it’s her fault. What she does or does not know, based on her own experiences, is vague at best. We know she was isolated from the world at a young age, essentially tortured by her tutor, and taught to fear and hate herself. But somehow, she sees or perceives the world as an entirely different place than what she has known it to be, and not necessarily in an optimistic, trying-to-see-the-good-in-life kind of way. She believes or knows some things that she reasonably wouldn’t have known, or holds strong opinions about topics she would likely never have been introduced to. And when she has been introduced to topics, even going so far as explaining how she knows about it earlier in the book, when confronted with that same thing again, she seems to be completely blindsided. It really makes no sense at all.
But I liked it. And I’m mad about a certain thing that my Winter Wars girls know all about. They know my fury, and that it stems from love.
The Controversy
The TL;DR of the thing is this: Zhao wrote a book about indentured servitude and how it’s evil, sent out ARCs to the harsh, cruel world, and the harsh, cruel world of Book Twitter claimed it was inaccurate and insensitive representation of African slavery. Perhaps I’m being biased, however, because I think those people who claimed that were entirely wrong. Because I read the book, and very few of them did.
A better, less biased TL;DR is this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/books/amelie-wen-zhao-blood-heir.html
Amélie Wen Zhao wrote a letter to the readers of her original ARC, and I’m certain that if most of the people flinging accusations at her had read it, they wouldn’t have said half the things they said. It goes a little something like this:
Don’t believe me? She shared it on Goodreads a whole year before the hate hit its climax. And what was that hate but another representation of Zhao’s Otherness and the world trying to take her voice away? What does it mean for a foreign woman of color to feel like a monster because of the irrational opinions of others, only to have the very work that helped her overcome that self-doubt be criticized for the same purported problems? And what, then, does it mean for her to come back stronger and fight for her book’s publication?
But you know what I find most interesting? That in the new ARC, which I haven’t read, she changed the letter.
A stark difference. Gone are the personal ties. This is an explanation, not an apology. And I couldn’t be more proud. She isn’t backing down, she isn’t cowed into submission by the haters. She’s standing taller, if not more distant, and pushing for her own story.
Amélie is her own monster, just as Ana is a monster in her world. They’re both pushed down, made to fear the world and its reaction to them. It takes a lot of courage to openly discuss those kinds of fears, especially in a time as turbulent as this, where politics split the Western world so starkly and fears run rampant. But isn’t this kind of open honesty what we need right now? We need personal stories of struggle and oppression, even if they’re told through metaphor, to give people a space to reflect and analyze. That’s what fantasy does best. It allows you to explore the world at a deeper level but at a distance; it’s a parable of our world, a microcosm used to explain ideas and concepts without the complications of a direct comparison. It’s infinitely useful, and as Zhao put it, a way for those deemed Other to see themselves in fiction.
Conclusion
The book isn’t bad. It does what it intends to do, and it does it without claiming to be anything but what it is: an own-voices story about a girl oppressed by a corrupt world fighting for the chance to be free: free of hate, free of fear, free of oppression.
I’m going to read the published book. I want to know what Zhao changed, and if it was necessary to change it. See you in part 2. show less
I will not be officially rating this eARC on Goodreads because of the promised revisions, but if I had to, I’d definitely say 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. This is a review for the original ARC, long before the controversy that made Zhao pull her book, revise it, and release new ARCs. More on that controversy later.
Obligatory Summary
Ana’s deadly Affinity to blood makes her, at least in her own eyes, a monster. And when she’s framed for the mysterious death of her father, it might as well be true. But to clear her name, she needs the help of Ramson Quicktongue, an infamous crime lord and the only person who can find her father’s killer. But he has secrets of his own and plans to get his revenge, and Ana might be just what he needs to regain his position.
Who, in the end, is the monster?
My Thoughts on the Book
"In the face of fear, one could choose to run, or to rise.
This wasn’t the most original book I’ve ever read. It has the hallmark features of a YA high fantasy retelling about royalty:
- A princess with a dark secret (usually dangerous magical powers and knowledge regarding a dead parent)
- Said princess pretends to be a peasant / doesn’t reveal her true identity to those around them, usually the love interest
- The love interest is a Bad Boy™ show more with a shady past but he’s sarcastic enough to be charming
- A friend dies
- The MacGuffin leads to yet another MacGuffin
- ~ BeTrAYaL ~
- One or more masked ballroom sequences
Cliche? Yes. But bad? I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was. The main characters had a great rapport, the setting was clear, and the plot kept you moving forward. If you like Bloodleaf, Shadow and Bone, and Six of Crows, then you’ll probably love this.
Specifically, Ana felt like a merge between Alina from Shadow and Bone and Aurelia from Bloodleaf. Ramson felt like a merge between Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows and Nikolai from the Grishaverse as a whole. Ramson’s side of things had a very Ketterdam vibe to it, while Ana’s had a Ravkan, Grisha aesthetic. Even the Affinities and their classifications bore a great deal of similarities to the Grisha. Cliche, however, doesn’t always mean bad, if the cliches are still entertaining. I didn’t mind any of these similarities. I still enjoyed the story.
“Your heart is your compass, and even the strongest wind can’t change its direction.”
I did, though, flip-flop quite a bit, I have to admit. I was generally quite engaged (it even took me out of a 3 month slump!!) but a single issue pervaded almost every aspect and really made me want to unofficially rate this 3 stars instead of 4.
It felt undeveloped. Not all the time—and there was definitely a lot of well established foreshadowing and character building—but some sequences that could have expanded on the characters and their dynamics, or breathed more life into the world or setting, or even just explained some of the plot, were just…sloppy or barely there or not there at all.
This had heart (a lot of it) and clearly a great deal of hardwork—and it shows! It really does! But it also has some missed opportunities and skipped time. Five whole days of travel with our two leads (who aren’t very well acquainted by this time in the story) occurs without any page time. So much could have happened in those five days, even if it’s just relationship building or backstory sprinkling rather than dumping. It made some parts of their relationship feel unearned or unrealistic. Besides that, Ana herself is kind of an idiot but I don’t think it’s her fault. What she does or does not know, based on her own experiences, is vague at best. We know she was isolated from the world at a young age, essentially tortured by her tutor, and taught to fear and hate herself. But somehow, she sees or perceives the world as an entirely different place than what she has known it to be, and not necessarily in an optimistic, trying-to-see-the-good-in-life kind of way. She believes or knows some things that she reasonably wouldn’t have known, or holds strong opinions about topics she would likely never have been introduced to. And when she has been introduced to topics, even going so far as explaining how she knows about it earlier in the book, when confronted with that same thing again, she seems to be completely blindsided. It really makes no sense at all.
But I liked it. And I’m mad about a certain thing that my Winter Wars girls know all about. They know my fury, and that it stems from love.
The Controversy
The TL;DR of the thing is this: Zhao wrote a book about indentured servitude and how it’s evil, sent out ARCs to the harsh, cruel world, and the harsh, cruel world of Book Twitter claimed it was inaccurate and insensitive representation of African slavery. Perhaps I’m being biased, however, because I think those people who claimed that were entirely wrong. Because I read the book, and very few of them did.
A better, less biased TL;DR is this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/books/amelie-wen-zhao-blood-heir.html
Amélie Wen Zhao wrote a letter to the readers of her original ARC, and I’m certain that if most of the people flinging accusations at her had read it, they wouldn’t have said half the things they said. It goes a little something like this:
Dear Reader,
Four years ago, I began writing a story about a corrupt empire steeped in winter, filled with morally gray con men, deadly assassins, twisted villains, and above all, a girl named Anastacya, who has the power to manipulate blood and who believes she is a monster.
It took me two years to realize that the monster in the story is me.
I am an immigrant. I am a woman of color. And I am an “Other.” In my time in the United States, I have never experienced the sense of crushing fear about my identity that I have recently. “Get out of my country, communist!” is only one of the slurs I’ve had screamed at me from across the street. What I’ve experienced personally and seen across social media outlets and national television broadcasts has all amounted to a hyperawareness of my foreignness, my Otherness, and the possibility that because I am different, I am not worthy of belonging.
Blood Heir explores the demonization of the Other and this experience of not belonging. Ana’s journey examines how one can internalize hatred and fear, how that can warp one’s core and turn it into something cruel and twisted. But ultimately, her story is one of self-acceptance, and of the realization that we cannot change who we are nor what we are born with, but we can choose what we do with what we are given. And like me, Ana chooses to fight for a better tomorrow.
So I gave magic to my girls who were told they were monsters. I gave my children of color the ability to fight oppression. Because in a world where there is so little I can control, I want to put hope and power in their hands for once—and in a world where those deemed “different” are often cast out and made to be monsters, I want them to win.
Thank you for reading.
Amélie Wen Zhao
Don’t believe me? She shared it on Goodreads a whole year before the hate hit its climax. And what was that hate but another representation of Zhao’s Otherness and the world trying to take her voice away? What does it mean for a foreign woman of color to feel like a monster because of the irrational opinions of others, only to have the very work that helped her overcome that self-doubt be criticized for the same purported problems? And what, then, does it mean for her to come back stronger and fight for her book’s publication?
But you know what I find most interesting? That in the new ARC, which I haven’t read, she changed the letter.
Dear Reader,
Growing up, I learned to make sense of the world around me through stories. And yet, I struggled to find ones that fully represented me, with all my identities and histories and the various cultures I grew up with. So I decided to write my own.
Blood Heir is an amalgamation of characters from different kingdoms and cultures representative of the international community in which I was raised. I set this story in a cinematic world brimming with my love for fantasy, yet also rife with corruption and plagued with human rights violations in a broken system of law. The theme of oppression in Blood Heir draws upon the practice of indentured servitude that directly affected my own family history, as well as the global epidemic of human trafficking that continues to exist today in many forms. In a vast and powerful system set up against the powerless, I wanted to give each and every one of my characters the chance to fight back.
I’m so thrilled to be sharing a piece of my heart and mind with you. I hope my book can introduce a new perspective to readers to recognize the hidden tragedies of our humanity, and to confront this beautiful, broken world of ours with hope and bravery.
Sincerely,
Amélie Wen Zhao
A stark difference. Gone are the personal ties. This is an explanation, not an apology. And I couldn’t be more proud. She isn’t backing down, she isn’t cowed into submission by the haters. She’s standing taller, if not more distant, and pushing for her own story.
Amélie is her own monster, just as Ana is a monster in her world. They’re both pushed down, made to fear the world and its reaction to them. It takes a lot of courage to openly discuss those kinds of fears, especially in a time as turbulent as this, where politics split the Western world so starkly and fears run rampant. But isn’t this kind of open honesty what we need right now? We need personal stories of struggle and oppression, even if they’re told through metaphor, to give people a space to reflect and analyze. That’s what fantasy does best. It allows you to explore the world at a deeper level but at a distance; it’s a parable of our world, a microcosm used to explain ideas and concepts without the complications of a direct comparison. It’s infinitely useful, and as Zhao put it, a way for those deemed Other to see themselves in fiction.
Conclusion
The book isn’t bad. It does what it intends to do, and it does it without claiming to be anything but what it is: an own-voices story about a girl oppressed by a corrupt world fighting for the chance to be free: free of hate, free of fear, free of oppression.
“We are all heroes in our own eyes, and monsters in the eyes of those who are different.”
I’m going to read the published book. I want to know what Zhao changed, and if it was necessary to change it. See you in part 2. show less
I received this eARC from Inkshares via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
DNF at 19%
I know I said I'd try to read a few more chapters (or even finish the chapter I was on tbh), but this book literally puts me to sleep, and I just can't lie to myself or to NetGalley any longer. I will not be finishing this.
This book feels like a mish-mash of everything that was popular in 2008-2011. It's got the demons from another realm from [b:Angelfall|15863832|Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1)|Susan Ee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1464206558l/15863832._SY75_.jpg|16435765] and [b:City of Bones|256683|City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)|Cassandra Clare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432730315l/256683._SY75_.jpg|2267189]. It's got the postapocalypse from [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447303603l/2767052._SX50_.jpg|2792775] and Angelfall again. It's got the girl searching for her sibling from Angelfall again. It's got the angsty love interest with a tortured past from every single Beauty and the Beast retelling ever, of which YA is currently saturated.
In other words, it was generic af and offered me nothing I hadn't seen before, done infinitely better or at least marginally entertaining. I couldn't stand the show more repetitive and passive writing. The action sequences were dull and the sentence structure lacked pretty much any variety until I felt like a literal robot wrote this book.
The inciting incident, if you can call it that, was so hokey that I was actually baffled that it was in the book at all. Basically, MC Seycia and her brother are at the ritual sacrifice thing and almost get robbed but, while the entire community is chanting the ritual thing around her, this girl beats the crap out of the would-be thief, and then is like "wow, I wOnDeR iF AnYOnE NoTIcEd?"
And I also couldn't stand literally any of the characters, except maybe the Missing Sibling™ Miko, and only really because I got his perspective right before I decided to drop the book and he didn't have a chance to bore me to death yet.
The villain is laughably black and white, with only a little bit of depth that's quickly overshadowed by his cartoonishly evil actions and appearance.
But what bothers me the most is that the average rating is so high, and that the parts I found to be the worst are many people's favorites. It really makes me wonder if we read the same book. show less
DNF at 19%
I know I said I'd try to read a few more chapters (or even finish the chapter I was on tbh), but this book literally puts me to sleep, and I just can't lie to myself or to NetGalley any longer. I will not be finishing this.
This book feels like a mish-mash of everything that was popular in 2008-2011. It's got the demons from another realm from [b:Angelfall|15863832|Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1)|Susan Ee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1464206558l/15863832._SY75_.jpg|16435765] and [b:City of Bones|256683|City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)|Cassandra Clare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432730315l/256683._SY75_.jpg|2267189]. It's got the postapocalypse from [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447303603l/2767052._SX50_.jpg|2792775] and Angelfall again. It's got the girl searching for her sibling from Angelfall again. It's got the angsty love interest with a tortured past from every single Beauty and the Beast retelling ever, of which YA is currently saturated.
In other words, it was generic af and offered me nothing I hadn't seen before, done infinitely better or at least marginally entertaining. I couldn't stand the show more repetitive and passive writing. The action sequences were dull and the sentence structure lacked pretty much any variety until I felt like a literal robot wrote this book.
The inciting incident, if you can call it that, was so hokey that I was actually baffled that it was in the book at all. Basically, MC Seycia and her brother are at the ritual sacrifice thing and almost get robbed but, while the entire community is chanting the ritual thing around her, this girl beats the crap out of the would-be thief, and then is like "wow, I wOnDeR iF AnYOnE NoTIcEd?"
And I also couldn't stand literally any of the characters, except maybe the Missing Sibling™ Miko, and only really because I got his perspective right before I decided to drop the book and he didn't have a chance to bore me to death yet.
The villain is laughably black and white, with only a little bit of depth that's quickly overshadowed by his cartoonishly evil actions and appearance.
But what bothers me the most is that the average rating is so high, and that the parts I found to be the worst are many people's favorites. It really makes me wonder if we read the same book. show less
i read this in one
sitting
and. i have to say.
i was not
impressed.
—repeating the exact same sentiment for 200 pages doesn't make it more profound.
I know my way around free verse poetry. My mom is a free verse poet that has been recognized internationally. She usually has me read her work before she posts it and we read the work of other poets together all the time. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that judging poetry is a tricky business, but honestly, this just wasn't anything special. It felt less like I was reading poetry and more like I was reading the notes app on her phone. I've heard the sentiment that was repeated over and over again a million times before this, so honestly, this had nothing to say to me that I didn't already know. If this is the first work of poetry someone has read, I can understand it being their favorite, and I do appreciate Kaur for pouring her heart and soul into this, but for me, it just did absolutely nothing.
The majority of the book is one sentence long and is just a paraphrase of all the previous poems. They almost exclusively have to do with sex, which is fine, but when a book is presented to me as a collection about love and family and independence, I don't know, I expect more platonic or familial love than the 2, maybe 3 poems I got, especially when the vast majority are about how sexy some guy is. The first section was promising, but then it sort of devolved from there.
And the "loving" section greatly confused and show more concerned me, especially that last poem. Am I supposed to see the whole "making up" thing as romantic? Because it made me want to call the police. Maybe it's a precursor for "breaking", but then why wasn't it in that section instead, when it so obviously belonged there? I don't know about you guys, but having sex isn't a good way to end a fight in which you both scream so loudly, the neighbors bang on your door because they're pretty sure one of you is being murdered. show less
sitting
and. i have to say.
i was not
impressed.
—repeating the exact same sentiment for 200 pages doesn't make it more profound.
I know my way around free verse poetry. My mom is a free verse poet that has been recognized internationally. She usually has me read her work before she posts it and we read the work of other poets together all the time. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that judging poetry is a tricky business, but honestly, this just wasn't anything special. It felt less like I was reading poetry and more like I was reading the notes app on her phone. I've heard the sentiment that was repeated over and over again a million times before this, so honestly, this had nothing to say to me that I didn't already know. If this is the first work of poetry someone has read, I can understand it being their favorite, and I do appreciate Kaur for pouring her heart and soul into this, but for me, it just did absolutely nothing.
The majority of the book is one sentence long and is just a paraphrase of all the previous poems. They almost exclusively have to do with sex, which is fine, but when a book is presented to me as a collection about love and family and independence, I don't know, I expect more platonic or familial love than the 2, maybe 3 poems I got, especially when the vast majority are about how sexy some guy is. The first section was promising, but then it sort of devolved from there.
And the "loving" section greatly confused and show more concerned me, especially that last poem. Am I supposed to see the whole "making up" thing as romantic? Because it made me want to call the police. Maybe it's a precursor for "breaking", but then why wasn't it in that section instead, when it so obviously belonged there? I don't know about you guys, but having sex isn't a good way to end a fight in which you both scream so loudly, the neighbors bang on your door because they're pretty sure one of you is being murdered. show less
I don't think I really need to explain why every 7th grader living in America from the years 2008 to 2014 all hate this book with a passion.
I received this eARC from Orca Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Obligatory Summary
Jolene is struggling with the sudden absence of her brother while trying to go to school, eat, walk her dog, hang out with friends, and deal with her absent parents. The only thing that gets her through is her music. But when does a coping mechanism become a crutch, and when does the problem become too much to ignore? How will long until she can't stay in her hometown? How long until she joins Matt?
This is a story about sadness and loss and avoidance through action and inaction. It's a mystery and a coming-of-age and a drama. It's about the grieving process, and how it takes time to be okay, and how you'll never be the same again, but you can learn to love what you have and what you've lost too.
The Writing and Characters
I really enjoyed the writing in this book. It read it in mostly one sitting. It really just flowed well and drew me in deep rather quickly. I loved the plot and the pacing. The whole thing gave me some strong Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock feels with a dash of Sadie thrown in for good measure.
A unique aspect was the music and concerts Jo goes to. I love show more music and I honestly related to that part of the story so much (minus the drugs and alcohol)
All the characters felt so real. I know people like them. I love them. I hate them. I am them.
Jolene: She was so relatable it scares me a little. She's an overthinker to the extreme (hello, that's me), she avoids conflict (thanks for calling me out, Nora Decter), and she dresses like a hobo with some money stashed away (help me). She's self-deprecating and sarcastic, and I just want her to have good things (I want to have good things too).
Her relationship with Matt, her brother, was definitely one of the most interesting parts of the book. It just so happens that one of my WIPs is basically the same plot (but I a sci-fi setting) so to see it so wonderfully executed was both exhilarating and frightening.
Maggie: She's such a great character. She's awful, but also awfully human. She's not bad but not good and you have to love what she gives you
The Squad: Graham, Drew, and manicpixiedreamgirl were fun characters, and really liked them, but they were definitely the least interesting part of the book, though they did help move the plot along.
Ms Groves: She's honestly the Herr Silverman of this book and I loved her. She's sassy and unconventional and freaking loves tea.
Conclusion
I really appreciate this book. It's short and intense and will make you cry. Also, it's got a psuedo-psychic dog named Howl for goodness sake! Read it! show less
Around here anything can happen, and it very often does.
Obligatory Summary
Jolene is struggling with the sudden absence of her brother while trying to go to school, eat, walk her dog, hang out with friends, and deal with her absent parents. The only thing that gets her through is her music. But when does a coping mechanism become a crutch, and when does the problem become too much to ignore? How will long until she can't stay in her hometown? How long until she joins Matt?
This is a story about sadness and loss and avoidance through action and inaction. It's a mystery and a coming-of-age and a drama. It's about the grieving process, and how it takes time to be okay, and how you'll never be the same again, but you can learn to love what you have and what you've lost too.
I don’t know if I believe in time. I mean, I don’t believe it works for me the same way it works for other people. Other people can count on today turning into tomorrow and tomorrow turning into the day after that. But I can’t count on it at all.
The Writing and Characters
I really enjoyed the writing in this book. It read it in mostly one sitting. It really just flowed well and drew me in deep rather quickly. I loved the plot and the pacing. The whole thing gave me some strong Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock feels with a dash of Sadie thrown in for good measure.
A unique aspect was the music and concerts Jo goes to. I love show more music and I honestly related to that part of the story so much (minus the drugs and alcohol)
All the characters felt so real. I know people like them. I love them. I hate them. I am them.
Jolene: She was so relatable it scares me a little. She's an overthinker to the extreme (hello, that's me), she avoids conflict (thanks for calling me out, Nora Decter), and she dresses like a hobo with some money stashed away (help me). She's self-deprecating and sarcastic, and I just want her to have good things (I want to have good things too).
Her relationship with Matt, her brother, was definitely one of the most interesting parts of the book. It just so happens that one of my WIPs is basically the same plot (but I a sci-fi setting) so to see it so wonderfully executed was both exhilarating and frightening.
Maggie: She's such a great character. She's awful, but also awfully human. She's not bad but not good and you have to love what she gives you
The Squad: Graham, Drew, and manicpixiedreamgirl were fun characters, and really liked them, but they were definitely the least interesting part of the book, though they did help move the plot along.
Ms Groves: She's honestly the Herr Silverman of this book and I loved her. She's sassy and unconventional and freaking loves tea.
I can’t tell him how I’ve slowly stopped going to school, at first because everybody looked at me and now because they don’t look at me at all and it turns out maybe it’s worse that way. It’s what I wanted, but it’s worse. I can’t tell him that sometimes when I come over and we hang out, it’s been a day or two since I’ve said much out loud, and my voice sounds strange to my ears. I can’t tell him how much I want to leave or how I’m afraid I might someday, like tomorrow or the day after that. And how I’m afraid leaving might be like other things I thought I wanted and then, after I got them, it turned out I didn’t. I don’t tell him how afraid I am. Of everything. How I see danger everywhere. How sometimes when I try to sleep at night I see a roof collapsing on him at work, or the floor caving in, or I see him falling. How I see Maggie plowing the car into a tree or the river or something else that seems harmless until it’s not. I don’t tell him how sometimes I think I’m right when I’m wrong. Really right when I’m really, really wrong. And so it’s not just that I don’t trust other people. I don’t trust myself.
I don’t tell him these things so that he won’t say they’re amazing. Because Jim thinks everything is amazing. And everything is not.
Conclusion
I really appreciate this book. It's short and intense and will make you cry. Also, it's got a psuedo-psychic dog named Howl for goodness sake! Read it! show less
How far can you go into the woods?
This book had a great deal of potential, and I think that it did what it intended well enough, but I found it lacking towards the end and did not feel that many of the events toward the end were entirely necessary. Much of the plot felt convoluted and unbelievable, which took me out of the mystery and made me question the entire premise of the story. The writing was interesting because sometimes, especially in the beginning, I thought it was actually quite excellent, but as the story went on, it dragged and I often had to re-read entire paragraphs just to understand what was even happening. Generally, the philosophical waxing was done well but the actions were done terribly. One thing this book did very well was suspense. I was very intrigued by the mystery and really wanted to know how everything fit together.
The world is a cruel place made crueler still by man.
The story followed a nonlinear plot which often made the order of events very confusing, especially since the perspective and actions of the narrator when he was 4-6 or so did not read like a young child but rather like an older child or even an adult. Some elements felt very To Kill a Mockingbird, which I'm sure was intentional, but other times, it just didn't sync. The book had an excellent atmosphere, though, and the unsettling implications of the story were reminiscent of Sadie by Courtney Summers. The themes of the book were also very well done (for the most part) and the show more subtext was well crafted throughout.
Sometimes forgetting is the gift that we give ourselves.show less
Nov 16, 2019 update: So, I've been thinking about it and I'm gonna lower this from 4 stars to 3. It, especially in the dark, abysmal shadow of Obsidio, was really not that great. update over
I have to admit that I wasn't nearly as into this one than I was with Illuminae. It just didn't click as much, and I found much of the conflict to be convoluted and too conveniently resolved, which makes for crappy tension. I didn't even feel any kind of connection to the main characters until around halfway through, and this book is long. Most of the issue was the sheer obnoxious similarities between Kady Grant and Hanna Donnelly (that are even referenced in-universe, they are so prevalent)--and unfortunately, it took a great deal of murder and sadness to make me like Kady, and nothing on that scale happens to Hanna ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the emotions I felt were more for the shock-value of the situations, not necessarily because I had grown attached to specific characters. After a while, the plot armor was obvious. The only character I found myself genuinely liking was Niklas Malikov, and that's mostly just because he's a riot.
Another issue I have with this that in retrospect is also a problem with show more Illuminae is the narrative style. It is wonderful, beautiful and lyrical, but it isn't diverse, and given the nature of the format, that is a problem. I doubt every single person is nearly as good of a writer as they are portrayed to be. It makes the presence of the authors stand out, which in makes me remember I'm reading a book; in other words, it takes me out of the story.
But! AIDAN came to the rescue and saved this book for me! As usual, his computer charm and slightly poetic ramblings warmed my soul! I would read AIDAN narrate someone going to the store and I would love it.
Overall, this was fun and thrilling but ultimately does not compare to the first book. Perhaps in another universe,Illuminae is less astounding and this book is better in comparison. But alas, this is the universe we live in.
Patience and Silence had one beautiful daughter. And her name was Vengeance.
I have to admit that I wasn't nearly as into this one than I was with Illuminae. It just didn't click as much, and I found much of the conflict to be convoluted and too conveniently resolved, which makes for crappy tension. I didn't even feel any kind of connection to the main characters until around halfway through, and this book is long. Most of the issue was the sheer obnoxious similarities between Kady Grant and Hanna Donnelly (that are even referenced in-universe, they are so prevalent)--and unfortunately, it took a great deal of murder and sadness to make me like Kady, and nothing on that scale happens to Hanna ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the emotions I felt were more for the shock-value of the situations, not necessarily because I had grown attached to specific characters. After a while, the plot armor was obvious. The only character I found myself genuinely liking was Niklas Malikov, and that's mostly just because he's a riot.
there's this moment
this tiny moment
in between the time you decide to pull a trigger and the time the death arrives
there's just you and it and everything you're about to take away
it's too big. it goes on forever
Another issue I have with this that in retrospect is also a problem with show more Illuminae is the narrative style. It is wonderful, beautiful and lyrical, but it isn't diverse, and given the nature of the format, that is a problem. I doubt every single person is nearly as good of a writer as they are portrayed to be. It makes the presence of the authors stand out, which in makes me remember I'm reading a book; in other words, it takes me out of the story.
But! AIDAN came to the rescue and saved this book for me! As usual, his computer charm and slightly poetic ramblings warmed my soul! I would read AIDAN narrate someone going to the store and I would love it.
Overall, this was fun and thrilling but ultimately does not compare to the first book. Perhaps in another universe,Illuminae is less astounding and this book is better in comparison. But alas, this is the universe we live in.
OF ALL OUR INFINITE POSSIBILITIES, THESE ARE BUT TWO.show less
I received this eARC from Orca Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Obligatory Summary
This is a difficult book to summarize because, honestly, I don't really know what happened.
Basically, take that one movie about a girl who loves surfing but gets bitten by a shark and losses an arm but learns to surf again, and merge it with a fever dream version of Aqua Marine, and you'll still not have what happened. This book makes no sense. I'll give you what I did understand, though.
So, Ash saves Clayton from dying in the prologue and in the first chapter they're suddenly casually declaring their love. Ash is a hardcore swimmer who breaks a world record and gets swept up in her mother's dream of stardom. Then she suffers a devastating accident that changes her life forever. Clayton...draws, I guess? He has a sassy chain-smoking Finnish grandma and that's about all I can really say.
The Writing (and Worldbuilding?)
So, is this an urban fantasy or a magical realism fever dream? I honestly don't know.
The book felt like two distinct coherent stories chopped up and smashed together: 1) Ash, the swimmer, and her power hungry, emotionally deprived mother, facing the aftermath of a terrible accident; 2) Clayton and his grandma chill and she regales him with stories about his grandfather who was a soldier in Korea. And then suddenly, there's mystical drawings (because you can ~accidentally~ draw things) and water-lover mermaids and Cuba. All in less than 200 pages. It was a show more mess, honestly. The grandma was the only interesting character, and her love story told entirely in anecdotes was more real, passionate, and believable than the forced mess between two wooden planks I was supposed to be invested in for no discernable reason.
The Characters
Ash: Between the two of them, she definitely had more personality, but honestly, she was so unrelatable. She was always talking about her ~training~ and her mystical ~connection~ to the water, and as someone who has literally never swam in my life (I'm a wimp and not standing on solid surfaces freaks me out, okay?) I couldn't relate whatsoever.
Clayton: You'd think I related to him because he draws and so do I but, but he was so boring. He spends the whole book in Ash's shadow being vaguely confused. And honestly, same. (I guess we do relate lol)
Blythe: Excuse me while I look for character arcs for any of these characters. Oh wait, there aren't any. Blythe is just as mean and stubborn and unreasonably villainous as she is at the beginning by the end.
Coach Dwyer: How do you pronounce that? D-why-er? D-w-ear? Who knows?
Tuula: Heck yeah, give more sassy chain-smoking Finnish grandma!
Conclusion
I kinda hated this book. It sucks. Don't read it when it comes out. Except maybe if you want Tuula in your life, which is a good reason. Read it for her. She's totally worth it. show less
Obligatory Summary
This is a difficult book to summarize because, honestly, I don't really know what happened.
Basically, take that one movie about a girl who loves surfing but gets bitten by a shark and losses an arm but learns to surf again, and merge it with a fever dream version of Aqua Marine, and you'll still not have what happened. This book makes no sense. I'll give you what I did understand, though.
So, Ash saves Clayton from dying in the prologue and in the first chapter they're suddenly casually declaring their love. Ash is a hardcore swimmer who breaks a world record and gets swept up in her mother's dream of stardom. Then she suffers a devastating accident that changes her life forever. Clayton...draws, I guess? He has a sassy chain-smoking Finnish grandma and that's about all I can really say.
The Writing (and Worldbuilding?)
So, is this an urban fantasy or a magical realism fever dream? I honestly don't know.
The book felt like two distinct coherent stories chopped up and smashed together: 1) Ash, the swimmer, and her power hungry, emotionally deprived mother, facing the aftermath of a terrible accident; 2) Clayton and his grandma chill and she regales him with stories about his grandfather who was a soldier in Korea. And then suddenly, there's mystical drawings (because you can ~accidentally~ draw things) and water-lover mermaids and Cuba. All in less than 200 pages. It was a show more mess, honestly. The grandma was the only interesting character, and her love story told entirely in anecdotes was more real, passionate, and believable than the forced mess between two wooden planks I was supposed to be invested in for no discernable reason.
The Characters
Ash: Between the two of them, she definitely had more personality, but honestly, she was so unrelatable. She was always talking about her ~training~ and her mystical ~connection~ to the water, and as someone who has literally never swam in my life (I'm a wimp and not standing on solid surfaces freaks me out, okay?) I couldn't relate whatsoever.
Clayton: You'd think I related to him because he draws and so do I but, but he was so boring. He spends the whole book in Ash's shadow being vaguely confused. And honestly, same. (I guess we do relate lol)
Blythe: Excuse me while I look for character arcs for any of these characters. Oh wait, there aren't any. Blythe is just as mean and stubborn and unreasonably villainous as she is at the beginning by the end.
Coach Dwyer: How do you pronounce that? D-why-er? D-w-ear? Who knows?
Tuula: Heck yeah, give more sassy chain-smoking Finnish grandma!
Conclusion
I kinda hated this book. It sucks. Don't read it when it comes out. Except maybe if you want Tuula in your life, which is a good reason. Read it for her. She's totally worth it. show less
Buddy read with Devanshi!
Ok. Anyone who knows me knows that I love two things: Peter Pan and vampires (not necessarily together, but can you imagine!!??) So it comes as no surprise that I love The Vampire Diaries television show. I’ve been a big fan since I was about 12 or so and recently decided to rewatch the show in its entirety. This brought on the nostalgia of when I was reading the books, also at the tender age of 12. I didn’t remember a lot about them (I was a particularly skimmy reader back then) so I figured, why not reread the books as I rewatch the show?
First of all, I was surprised by how good the writing is. Idk what I expected exactly, but well-done prose wasn’t it. It really feels like a spooky movie from the 90s and I really appreciated it.
Unfortunately, the rest of this wasn’t as good. The plot suffered significantly from iffy pacing. Instalove was a plague throughout. And worst of all, I absolutely hate the characters.
Scratch that. I show more absolutely hate Elena and Stefan, though really only when they’re together. Or when they’re pining after the other. Or when they breathe in each other’s general direction.
Confession time: while I love TVD, I don’t love Elena Gilbert. I think she’s really annoying, actually, and kind of a Mary Sue idiot. But book Elena makes her a saint. A paragon of excellency. The best written protagonist of all time.
Primarily, this is because book Elena and show Elena aren’t the same person. They’re entirely different in every conceivable way. Different hair, different eyes, different skin tone, different personality and priorities, different past traumas, different siblings, different friends, different aunt. Book Elena is a mean girl who literally vows to make Stefan her boyfriend solely because he snubs her and she’s used to every male on the planet being obsessed with her. It’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. She acts like it’s some big thing when she just needs a reality check. But then Stefan reveals that he loved her the whole time even though they don’t know each other and have never actually held a conversation for longer than 2 seconds. And from there, it’s true love.
Every other character is different from their show counterpart too: Stefan is like 600 years old and still hung up on Katherine, Bonnie is a meek redhead, Caroline is a frenemy rival, and some girl named Meredith who isn’t Meredith Fell is the sarcastic best friend. The only character who’s actually the exact same is Matt.
This isn’t a problem. I don’t mind that the show changed the source material so much. They actually made better, more well rounded characters than the original, and improved the plot too. But it’s strange that the showrunners felt the need to change everything so much but keep names and the title of the series the same.
I’m definitely going to continue my reread and hopefully make it passed where I dropped the series back in the day. If not for the nostalgia, for my undying desire to know what happens differently.
Ok. Anyone who knows me knows that I love two things: Peter Pan and vampires (not necessarily together, but can you imagine!!??) So it comes as no surprise that I love The Vampire Diaries television show. I’ve been a big fan since I was about 12 or so and recently decided to rewatch the show in its entirety. This brought on the nostalgia of when I was reading the books, also at the tender age of 12. I didn’t remember a lot about them (I was a particularly skimmy reader back then) so I figured, why not reread the books as I rewatch the show?
The moon had not yet risen, and she could just make out the old graveyard and Wickery Bridge beyond it. The old graveyard dated from Civil War days, and many of the headstones bore the names of soldiers. It had a wild look to it; brambles and tall weeds grew on the graves, and ivy vines swarmed over crumbling granite. Elena had never liked it. “It looks different, doesn’t it? In the dark, I mean,” she said unsteadily. She didn’t know how to say what she really meant, that it was not a place for the living.
First of all, I was surprised by how good the writing is. Idk what I expected exactly, but well-done prose wasn’t it. It really feels like a spooky movie from the 90s and I really appreciated it.
Unfortunately, the rest of this wasn’t as good. The plot suffered significantly from iffy pacing. Instalove was a plague throughout. And worst of all, I absolutely hate the characters.
Scratch that. I show more absolutely hate Elena and Stefan, though really only when they’re together. Or when they’re pining after the other. Or when they breathe in each other’s general direction.
Confession time: while I love TVD, I don’t love Elena Gilbert. I think she’s really annoying, actually, and kind of a Mary Sue idiot. But book Elena makes her a saint. A paragon of excellency. The best written protagonist of all time.
Primarily, this is because book Elena and show Elena aren’t the same person. They’re entirely different in every conceivable way. Different hair, different eyes, different skin tone, different personality and priorities, different past traumas, different siblings, different friends, different aunt. Book Elena is a mean girl who literally vows to make Stefan her boyfriend solely because he snubs her and she’s used to every male on the planet being obsessed with her. It’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. She acts like it’s some big thing when she just needs a reality check. But then Stefan reveals that he loved her the whole time even though they don’t know each other and have never actually held a conversation for longer than 2 seconds. And from there, it’s true love.
Every other character is different from their show counterpart too: Stefan is like 600 years old and still hung up on Katherine, Bonnie is a meek redhead, Caroline is a frenemy rival, and some girl named Meredith who isn’t Meredith Fell is the sarcastic best friend. The only character who’s actually the exact same is Matt.
This isn’t a problem. I don’t mind that the show changed the source material so much. They actually made better, more well rounded characters than the original, and improved the plot too. But it’s strange that the showrunners felt the need to change everything so much but keep names and the title of the series the same.
I’m definitely going to continue my reread and hopefully make it passed where I dropped the series back in the day. If not for the nostalgia, for my undying desire to know what happens differently.
Evil will never find peace. It may triumph, but it will never find peace.show less
I received this digital review copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
Buddy read with Nana but she DNF'd it lol ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, as the musical is one of my favorites (and I'm annoyingly picky about musicals, so that's saying something) and the movie is definitely what made me the spooky aesthetic trash goblin I am today (and don't give me hate for liking the movie lol)
But I really don't know how to feel about this book. It really wasn't what I expected, and until the last half, I was really enjoying it. But the last half didn't ruin things, nor was it horrible, so I really don't know what's going on. I'm just gonna dump my feelings here and leave it be.
Christine really surprised me. I kinda expected her to be a piece of soggy cardboard, like Esmeralda from Hunchback, but no, she's actually pretty legit. She behaves like a human being (at least as much as the rest of the cast behaves like human beings) and I found myself really liking her and wanting her to succeed. She definitely has her flaws, but she's less of an idiot than her musical and film counterparts and I really appreciated that.
Raoul is just as annoying, if not infinitely more so. This dude reacts like a spoiled brat every time Christine dares do anything whatsoever without his prior approval. And he's constantly--and I mean CONSTANTLY--judging her and assuming she's a slut. show more Honestly, in the last half, he was giving me some serious Esmeralda vibes because of how whiny he was. And the insta love was only partly acceptable because there was established history behind it, but insta love is still insta love, especially when the two lacked any chemistry whatsoever. It was horrible decision versus even worse decision for poor Christine, honestly.
The Phantom, kind of like Frollo from Hunchback, was a crying mess. He's not very spooky, not very threatening, and not really very, idk, interesting? All the mystery goes out the window, which for what is largely a mystery novel, I didn't appreciate. He was, strangely, kind of a Gary Stu, which I really didn't expect whatsoever. The only thing I did like about him was that he's legitimately ugly af instead of hot on one side of his face and marginally gross on the other.
The plot was generally ok. Like I said earlier, I liked the first half a lot (and since I'm planning on writing a Phantom of the Opera retelling sometime in the future, it gave me a lot of good ideas) but the last half felt strangely rushed and like it dragged at the same time. The humorous interludes with the managers were really funny but they killed the pacing and tension, and I had a hard time imagining some of the set-pieces, especially the torture chamber. Add to that my dislike for most of the main characters, and you've got yourself an iffy book at best. Perhaps if it had been a bit more gothic (not necessarily gothic romance, though that would have been nice, but gothic horror) then I'd have liked it more. It promised me spooks, but it gave me a bunch of losers and a comic book villain instead.
And wtf is up with the rat-catcher??? Can anyone explain this to me??? I'm like??? So confused?????? show less
Buddy read with Nana but she DNF'd it lol ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, as the musical is one of my favorites (and I'm annoyingly picky about musicals, so that's saying something) and the movie is definitely what made me the spooky aesthetic trash goblin I am today (and don't give me hate for liking the movie lol)
But I really don't know how to feel about this book. It really wasn't what I expected, and until the last half, I was really enjoying it. But the last half didn't ruin things, nor was it horrible, so I really don't know what's going on. I'm just gonna dump my feelings here and leave it be.
Christine really surprised me. I kinda expected her to be a piece of soggy cardboard, like Esmeralda from Hunchback, but no, she's actually pretty legit. She behaves like a human being (at least as much as the rest of the cast behaves like human beings) and I found myself really liking her and wanting her to succeed. She definitely has her flaws, but she's less of an idiot than her musical and film counterparts and I really appreciated that.
Raoul is just as annoying, if not infinitely more so. This dude reacts like a spoiled brat every time Christine dares do anything whatsoever without his prior approval. And he's constantly--and I mean CONSTANTLY--judging her and assuming she's a slut. show more Honestly, in the last half, he was giving me some serious Esmeralda vibes because of how whiny he was. And the insta love was only partly acceptable because there was established history behind it, but insta love is still insta love, especially when the two lacked any chemistry whatsoever. It was horrible decision versus even worse decision for poor Christine, honestly.
The Phantom, kind of like Frollo from Hunchback, was a crying mess. He's not very spooky, not very threatening, and not really very, idk, interesting? All the mystery goes out the window, which for what is largely a mystery novel, I didn't appreciate. He was, strangely, kind of a Gary Stu, which I really didn't expect whatsoever. The only thing I did like about him was that he's legitimately ugly af instead of hot on one side of his face and marginally gross on the other.
The plot was generally ok. Like I said earlier, I liked the first half a lot (and since I'm planning on writing a Phantom of the Opera retelling sometime in the future, it gave me a lot of good ideas) but the last half felt strangely rushed and like it dragged at the same time. The humorous interludes with the managers were really funny but they killed the pacing and tension, and I had a hard time imagining some of the set-pieces, especially the torture chamber. Add to that my dislike for most of the main characters, and you've got yourself an iffy book at best. Perhaps if it had been a bit more gothic (not necessarily gothic romance, though that would have been nice, but gothic horror) then I'd have liked it more. It promised me spooks, but it gave me a bunch of losers and a comic book villain instead.
And wtf is up with the rat-catcher??? Can anyone explain this to me??? I'm like??? So confused?????? show less
I received this ARC from Viking via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change.
November 8th update: I finally figured out how to translate the mystery Pashto chapter thanks to Google Lens, but it didn't really answer my question. I'm gonna get someone to doublecheck it for me to make sure the translation was legit or not, but I'm slightly disappointed. But hey, at least I know what it kinda says! Better than nothing! update over
June 4th update: I've decided to up my rating from 2 to 3 stars, the reason being that I've just been thinking about this book a lot, and (while I still don't know what that one chapter said), this book really stuck with me, especially after I read the Hobbit, and realized what that weird dream about food was all about. update over
This book was a bit of a trip. I feel like I spent 99 nights just trying to read it.
Obligatory Summary
Marwand is a 12 year old traveling from America to Afghanistan, his homeland, right in the middle of relative peace during the Afghan-American war in the early 2000s following 9/11. There he meets show more his extended family—his aunts and uncles and cousins, his grandmother and grandfather—hearing their tales of love, war, and innocence lost. He also meets the family dog, Budabash, who bites off the tip of his finger and, several days later, runs away.
Marwand and his buddies go on the hunt, against their older relatives orders, and find themselves trapped in a strange battle with incurable land-induced seasickness, unending hunger, and abandoned mazes that end in darkness.
The Writing (and Worldbuilding?) and Characters
It kind of pains me to rate this so low. It really wasn't that bad, to be completely honest with you, and I've rated worse books higher, but its particular sins made this reading experience unnecessarily difficult, and so that greatly influence my ultimate review.
This book seemed to take this quote to heart. The narrator was so unreliable, the divide between magical realism and straight up fantasy so blurry, I had such a hard time making sense of anything.
A strength of the book was the immersion and the characters. While I got confused a lot about the terminology, being a white girl from the USA, and that terminology was explained once, if at all, I did get the hang of things and actually appreciated the conversational feel the immersion gave the novel. I loved all the characters and felt that they added some realism to the story (for the most part). I really liked Marwand's family and their dynamic, especially his buddies, Zia, Gulbuddin, and Dawood. They all brought something unique to the story. Jawed the Thief was iconic. He gave it such a storybook, fairytale quality and seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on. I sure didn't.
The plot was paced oddly but in a way that felt like natural tangents and asides, like Marwand was with me regaling me with his strange tale. It reminded me a lot of The Life of Pi in that way.
Another book it reminded me of was The God of Small Things, which isn't a compliment. That book was so confusing and strange, which such a weird and actually quite disgusting ending, that I had no idea what any of it meant. And so was the case with this book, but significantly less disgusting (though the blatant animal abuse didn't help). I was trying to piece together the meaning but was at such a loss. I'm entirely unsure what any of it was supposed to mean, and if some events even happened or not.
Now here comes the biggest sin, and I'm not sure if it'll be this way in the fully released version, but I'm rating what I was given.
That 3 page reveal of a secret that had been hinted at for the entire book, that I was so extremely anticipating. It wasn't in English. No translation was given. The next chapter doesn't reference it or explain anything. It's all in Pashto and I CANNOT READ PASHTO. I have a friend who reads Urdu, but she obviously cannot help me. If anyone here reads Pashto (my friend is pretty sure it's Pashto), please help me. I wanna know what freaking happened to the uncle. (I'd translate it all myself that would take a million years.)
Conclusion
This is being referred to as a middle grade novel and I have to wonder if the people calling it that have ever read middle grade novels before. Or ever been 12. Just because the protagonist is 12 all throughout, and just because the back of the book says it's a "coming-of-age" doesn't mean this is middle grade by any means. This is literary fiction in all its messy glory.
Honestly this was a 4 star book bogged down by 1 star issues until what was good was only annoying in its decency when what was bad took center stage. I think Jamil Jan Kochai is very promising and I'm intrigued by what else he has to offer (as long as it's all in a language I can actually read).
Read this review and more on my blog here! show less
November 8th update: I finally figured out how to translate the mystery Pashto chapter thanks to Google Lens, but it didn't really answer my question. I'm gonna get someone to doublecheck it for me to make sure the translation was legit or not, but I'm slightly disappointed. But hey, at least I know what it kinda says! Better than nothing! update over
June 4th update: I've decided to up my rating from 2 to 3 stars, the reason being that I've just been thinking about this book a lot, and (while I still don't know what that one chapter said), this book really stuck with me, especially after I read the Hobbit, and realized what that weird dream about food was all about. update over
This book was a bit of a trip. I feel like I spent 99 nights just trying to read it.
"During the whole length of the battle, I was scared of hiding and becoming caught. Of running and being hit. Of shooting and becoming a killer. And all my fears warred inside of me, until they massacred one another, so that it wasn't courage that let me fight, but the death of my fear."
Obligatory Summary
Marwand is a 12 year old traveling from America to Afghanistan, his homeland, right in the middle of relative peace during the Afghan-American war in the early 2000s following 9/11. There he meets show more his extended family—his aunts and uncles and cousins, his grandmother and grandfather—hearing their tales of love, war, and innocence lost. He also meets the family dog, Budabash, who bites off the tip of his finger and, several days later, runs away.
Marwand and his buddies go on the hunt, against their older relatives orders, and find themselves trapped in a strange battle with incurable land-induced seasickness, unending hunger, and abandoned mazes that end in darkness.
The Writing (and Worldbuilding?) and Characters
It kind of pains me to rate this so low. It really wasn't that bad, to be completely honest with you, and I've rated worse books higher, but its particular sins made this reading experience unnecessarily difficult, and so that greatly influence my ultimate review.
"It's okay to change a story a little if you make it better. And heroes and love, they always make things better. Otherwise, you know, what's the point?"
This book seemed to take this quote to heart. The narrator was so unreliable, the divide between magical realism and straight up fantasy so blurry, I had such a hard time making sense of anything.
A strength of the book was the immersion and the characters. While I got confused a lot about the terminology, being a white girl from the USA, and that terminology was explained once, if at all, I did get the hang of things and actually appreciated the conversational feel the immersion gave the novel. I loved all the characters and felt that they added some realism to the story (for the most part). I really liked Marwand's family and their dynamic, especially his buddies, Zia, Gulbuddin, and Dawood. They all brought something unique to the story. Jawed the Thief was iconic. He gave it such a storybook, fairytale quality and seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on. I sure didn't.
"Even ghosts need company," Jawed said.
The plot was paced oddly but in a way that felt like natural tangents and asides, like Marwand was with me regaling me with his strange tale. It reminded me a lot of The Life of Pi in that way.
Another book it reminded me of was The God of Small Things, which isn't a compliment. That book was so confusing and strange, which such a weird and actually quite disgusting ending, that I had no idea what any of it meant. And so was the case with this book, but significantly less disgusting (though the blatant animal abuse didn't help). I was trying to piece together the meaning but was at such a loss. I'm entirely unsure what any of it was supposed to mean, and if some events even happened or not.
"Ever since that night on the road beneath the mulberry tree, all day and night all I can think about is how God will punish me. Or. How He won't. That scares me too. That scares me more. But Marwand, the cows weren't scared. They were dying, and they knew they were dying, but they were at peace. There was no hate in them. No doubt. They just breathed until they couldn't. The waters rose until it stopped. I was the only one floating."
Now here comes the biggest sin, and I'm not sure if it'll be this way in the fully released version, but I'm rating what I was given.
That 3 page reveal of a secret that had been hinted at for the entire book, that I was so extremely anticipating. It wasn't in English. No translation was given. The next chapter doesn't reference it or explain anything. It's all in Pashto and I CANNOT READ PASHTO. I have a friend who reads Urdu, but she obviously cannot help me. If anyone here reads Pashto (my friend is pretty sure it's Pashto), please help me. I wanna know what freaking happened to the uncle. (I'd translate it all myself that would take a million years.)
Conclusion
This is being referred to as a middle grade novel and I have to wonder if the people calling it that have ever read middle grade novels before. Or ever been 12. Just because the protagonist is 12 all throughout, and just because the back of the book says it's a "coming-of-age" doesn't mean this is middle grade by any means. This is literary fiction in all its messy glory.
Honestly this was a 4 star book bogged down by 1 star issues until what was good was only annoying in its decency when what was bad took center stage. I think Jamil Jan Kochai is very promising and I'm intrigued by what else he has to offer (as long as it's all in a language I can actually read).
"It's a terrible, terrible thing, my little bird. It's like waking up one morning without a limb or an organ. Without your lungs. Your liver. Your skin."
Read this review and more on my blog here! show less
I received this ARC from Orca Book via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change.
Content Warning
Suicide, depression, death of a friend, war, rape, animal abuse, human trafficking, genocide (only one of these was mentioned in the book’s content warning. I bet you can’t guess which one it was)
Obligatory Summary
Valentine’s boyfriend is dead and she’s having a difficult time moving on. She’s been in bed for months, avoiding friends and family, lost in her own grief. When she overdoses on sleeping pills, her mother decides to take her on a soul-searching journey to Thailand. But things don’t go according to plan, and when her trek group stumbles upon something horrible, she’s forced to take refuge in the unforgiving jungle with Lin, a mysterious guide, and a baby elephant who needs her help.
My Thoughts
I have to admit: I’m disappointed. This could have been great—and almost was!—but it had so many issues that I can’t say I recommend it.
I’m a little baffled that so many reviews mention the writing as a particularly wonderful feature. I’m the kind of person who has a hard time reading at all if the writing isn’t great (or conversely, truly awful because I enjoy hilariously terrible media), and I had an extremely difficult show more time trying to read this. It perpetuated my slump (which is why I’m reviewing it now and not like 3 weeks ago when it came out oops). I really had to force myself to finish this.
It wasn’t that the writing was really bad; it was actually mostly fine, but the sheer lack of descriptions really ruined it for me. Talk about white room syndrome! The author attempted to be descriptive, she really did: she had a lot of set up for scenes, including the landscape and all that. But then it’s almost as if she forgot about them because they’re never mentioned again throughout the scene. And characters don’t move. As far as I’m told, they’re standing plank still, barking at each other in robotic, inflectionless speeches. Dialogue isn’t just about what characters say: it’s about what they do. And they never did anything unless it was a wildly important motion. So I had such a hard time imagining or picturing anything at all.
And then there’s the pacing. Oh dear. I’ll go into it more later, but basically, this doesn’t seem to know that you can introduce information earlier if you want a more emotionally resonant experience. Explaining almost everything after the fact prevents any kind of tension, which, for what is largely a thriller, is kinda the whole point. What was (I guess) supposed to be the climax lacked build up, so when it happened and the book was quickly coming to an end, it felt unresolved. I expected something to actually happen at any moment because surely, that couldn’t have been the whole story?
Because of the disconnect between what’s actually written and what I’m supposed to be perceiving, almost every single emotional beat just went right over me. The only thing that sort of got me was at the very beginning when Valentine’s describing her depression because, girl, same. I get that, deeply. But when Lin is discussing his obviously more traumatic experiences, I felt nothing. The writing didn’t express the emotions necessary. It didn’t drive home the horror of his reality. For a book so obsessed with poetry, it really lacked poetic resonance.
Now, let’s get to the more… controversial topics. This book is set, obviously, in Thailand, and focuses heavily on the conflict between the Burmese army and the Karen and Rohingya refugees. And also on child soldiers. And on the abuse of elephants and the tourist market. And on rape and murder. And on depression and suicide and loss and self harm. And on mother and daughter relationships, and occasionally alcoholic fathers. And on romantic relationships (and age gaps).
And, oh, it’s only like 270 pages.
It tries to tackle too much. A lot of these topics do connect—quite well on occasion—but because of the shorter length, it doesn’t give certain things enough time to feel well developed, or even developed at all in some cases.
Lin is the most confusing character in this book, because so much time is spent on him, but in retrospect, no time was spent at all. I don’t understand him at all. In fact, he weirds me out, and not because of his ~mysterious past~ It’s because he’s freaking old and that’s freaking creepy, but only discussed for like 2 seconds. This book managed to take my absolute favorite oddly specific trope (two people who aren’t in a relationship forced to sleep next to each other on a forest floor) and made me question it and dislike it and feel overall gross and confused.
Besides that, the comparison between Valentine’s own grief—however legitimate—and the actual genocide, torture, and enslavement of Burmese, Karen, and Rohingya people (among others) makes me kinda ill tbh. If it had been done better, with perhaps a better protagonist (maybe Lin? idk), it wouldn’t feel so icky. Honestly, this kinda reminded me a little of the controversy over A Place for Wolves by Kosoko Jackson, only significantly less awful. The fact that the main lesson here is ~other people’s lives suck more than yours so suck it up~ and/or, based on interpretation, ~your first world life sucks just as much as a child soldier in Myanmar~ is kinda dreadful. That’s some “kids are starving in Africa so eat your vegetables” logic. That wasn’t entirely the point of the story, but it was the message that came across the most to me. I just feel that if there had been much more exploration and time spent on actual issues instead of highlighting them and moving on, this would have been a very evocative story about suffering, loss, and what you do in order to survive, what the human and animal spirit is capable of. But it wasn’t about that, not really. It was about Valentine learning to move passed her boyfriend’s death.
And what was up with Lish and her mom? And why does Lish have the audacity to question Valentine’s name when she goes by “Lish”? Like wtf?
To conclude this rather rambly review, I feel that this book was largely okay, however much of a disappointment it was. Perhaps if I hadn’t read We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch about the Rwandan genocide of the mid-90s, I might have liked it infinitely better. If I hadn’t learned the visceral, horrifying causes and effects of genocide and countries under turmoil. If I could ignore reality long enough to appreciate fiction. Then maybe it would have effected me. But it didn’t. I wish this author the best and support her in her effort to touch on difficult topics, but she maybe should have waited a bit and honed her craft better before releasing this into the world. show less
Content Warning
Suicide, depression, death of a friend, war, rape, animal abuse, human trafficking, genocide (only one of these was mentioned in the book’s content warning. I bet you can’t guess which one it was)
“Maybe that’s how mothers love their monsters: they remember them when they were innocent.”
Obligatory Summary
Valentine’s boyfriend is dead and she’s having a difficult time moving on. She’s been in bed for months, avoiding friends and family, lost in her own grief. When she overdoses on sleeping pills, her mother decides to take her on a soul-searching journey to Thailand. But things don’t go according to plan, and when her trek group stumbles upon something horrible, she’s forced to take refuge in the unforgiving jungle with Lin, a mysterious guide, and a baby elephant who needs her help.
My Thoughts
I have to admit: I’m disappointed. This could have been great—and almost was!—but it had so many issues that I can’t say I recommend it.
I’m a little baffled that so many reviews mention the writing as a particularly wonderful feature. I’m the kind of person who has a hard time reading at all if the writing isn’t great (or conversely, truly awful because I enjoy hilariously terrible media), and I had an extremely difficult show more time trying to read this. It perpetuated my slump (which is why I’m reviewing it now and not like 3 weeks ago when it came out oops). I really had to force myself to finish this.
It wasn’t that the writing was really bad; it was actually mostly fine, but the sheer lack of descriptions really ruined it for me. Talk about white room syndrome! The author attempted to be descriptive, she really did: she had a lot of set up for scenes, including the landscape and all that. But then it’s almost as if she forgot about them because they’re never mentioned again throughout the scene. And characters don’t move. As far as I’m told, they’re standing plank still, barking at each other in robotic, inflectionless speeches. Dialogue isn’t just about what characters say: it’s about what they do. And they never did anything unless it was a wildly important motion. So I had such a hard time imagining or picturing anything at all.
And then there’s the pacing. Oh dear. I’ll go into it more later, but basically, this doesn’t seem to know that you can introduce information earlier if you want a more emotionally resonant experience. Explaining almost everything after the fact prevents any kind of tension, which, for what is largely a thriller, is kinda the whole point. What was (I guess) supposed to be the climax lacked build up, so when it happened and the book was quickly coming to an end, it felt unresolved. I expected something to actually happen at any moment because surely, that couldn’t have been the whole story?
Because of the disconnect between what’s actually written and what I’m supposed to be perceiving, almost every single emotional beat just went right over me. The only thing that sort of got me was at the very beginning when Valentine’s describing her depression because, girl, same. I get that, deeply. But when Lin is discussing his obviously more traumatic experiences, I felt nothing. The writing didn’t express the emotions necessary. It didn’t drive home the horror of his reality. For a book so obsessed with poetry, it really lacked poetic resonance.
Now, let’s get to the more… controversial topics. This book is set, obviously, in Thailand, and focuses heavily on the conflict between the Burmese army and the Karen and Rohingya refugees. And also on child soldiers. And on the abuse of elephants and the tourist market. And on rape and murder. And on depression and suicide and loss and self harm. And on mother and daughter relationships, and occasionally alcoholic fathers. And on romantic relationships (and age gaps).
And, oh, it’s only like 270 pages.
It tries to tackle too much. A lot of these topics do connect—quite well on occasion—but because of the shorter length, it doesn’t give certain things enough time to feel well developed, or even developed at all in some cases.
Lin is the most confusing character in this book, because so much time is spent on him, but in retrospect, no time was spent at all. I don’t understand him at all. In fact, he weirds me out, and not because of his ~mysterious past~ It’s because he’s freaking old and that’s freaking creepy, but only discussed for like 2 seconds. This book managed to take my absolute favorite oddly specific trope (two people who aren’t in a relationship forced to sleep next to each other on a forest floor) and made me question it and dislike it and feel overall gross and confused.
Besides that, the comparison between Valentine’s own grief—however legitimate—and the actual genocide, torture, and enslavement of Burmese, Karen, and Rohingya people (among others) makes me kinda ill tbh. If it had been done better, with perhaps a better protagonist (maybe Lin? idk), it wouldn’t feel so icky. Honestly, this kinda reminded me a little of the controversy over A Place for Wolves by Kosoko Jackson, only significantly less awful. The fact that the main lesson here is ~other people’s lives suck more than yours so suck it up~ and/or, based on interpretation, ~your first world life sucks just as much as a child soldier in Myanmar~ is kinda dreadful. That’s some “kids are starving in Africa so eat your vegetables” logic. That wasn’t entirely the point of the story, but it was the message that came across the most to me. I just feel that if there had been much more exploration and time spent on actual issues instead of highlighting them and moving on, this would have been a very evocative story about suffering, loss, and what you do in order to survive, what the human and animal spirit is capable of. But it wasn’t about that, not really. It was about Valentine learning to move passed her boyfriend’s death.
And what was up with Lish and her mom? And why does Lish have the audacity to question Valentine’s name when she goes by “Lish”? Like wtf?
To conclude this rather rambly review, I feel that this book was largely okay, however much of a disappointment it was. Perhaps if I hadn’t read We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch about the Rwandan genocide of the mid-90s, I might have liked it infinitely better. If I hadn’t learned the visceral, horrifying causes and effects of genocide and countries under turmoil. If I could ignore reality long enough to appreciate fiction. Then maybe it would have effected me. But it didn’t. I wish this author the best and support her in her effort to touch on difficult topics, but she maybe should have waited a bit and honed her craft better before releasing this into the world. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Wow. That was crazy cool.
I don't even really know what to say. It feels like the pilot episode to a really cool new TV show, and I just can't wait to see more. I love the story telling, and the suspense was intense. The art wasn't really my favorite, but I did like it. I'm extremely intrigued.
I don't even really know what to say. It feels like the pilot episode to a really cool new TV show, and I just can't wait to see more. I love the story telling, and the suspense was intense. The art wasn't really my favorite, but I did like it. I'm extremely intrigued.
I would like to thank Orca Book Publishers for providing me with this book via LibraryThing.
I don't usually do half star ratings, but...
4.5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
I really loved this book. Like, a lot.
The Writing
Shane Arbuthnott is a very good writer, I daresay. The atmosphere and the setting felt consistently tangible and real. The dialogue was distinct for each character, which really brought them all to life. I really loved the visual descriptions and sensory details, as they allowed me to really immerse myself into the story. I wish, though, that there had been more clothing descriptions, because it was difficult to imagine what kind of attire everyday people wore.
The plot was really very slow, though, for the first half, and while I found the world and characters interesting enough, I wasn't keen to pick this up all that often. Once the plot picked up, though, it didn't slow down for long, and I was ultimately extremely pleased with the progression of plot and character arc.
I found some elements in this story to be a bit darker/more mature than I would have been comfortable reading when I was 10, which is the starting age suggested on the back of the book.Namely, the frequent use of the D word by many of the characters, the 14 year old MC included, and alcohol abuse and domestic abuse on the part of Molly's father. Since I am a young adult, I was not bothered by these show more things, but I can imagine a younger reader being shocked or even frightened.
The Worldbuilding
This world was so unique! I've never read anything quite like it! Basically it's a science fiction fantasy alternate history. How cool is that?! The American continent is uninhabited save for the technologically advanced city of Terra Nova, while all of the Eastern hemisphere seems to be as it is today, with countries like France and England. In this world, machines are primarily powered by spirits that are caught by people like Molly, our brave MC, from portals in the sky called fonts. These spirits, which have elemental abilities, were reminiscent of traditional Asian spirits, and I got a strong Spirited Away vibe.
The Characters
Molly Stout: Molly is the perfect protagonist. I do not mean, of course, that she is perfect, or that she thinks she is, but that she is exactly what a good MC ought to be. She is selfless and kind, brave and persistent, and she sticks to her principles and uses her many skills to do what's right. I really related to her. She was a treat to read, and I especially liked that there was no love interest for her, as that would have been unrelated to the plot and would have brought down the whole book.
Ariel: This spirit is the one who changes everything for Molly. She (though spirits are non-gendered—Ariel is alright with being referred to as female) is just as stubborn as Molly is, and watching them clash and team up was great.
Cog: My sweet baby Cog! Get you a Cog, guys. We all need a Cog. He's seriously the Dobby of this book, but cuter and sweeter. I love him with all my heart ❤❤❤
Arkwright: Dang this dude's creepy.
Mr Blaise: His name's a bit on the nose, but he was a formidable enemy and I was spooked, I gotta admit.
Da (idr his real name lol): Molly's father is a very complex and interesting man.
Rory Stout: I loved Rory! He was a riot! His extroversion and wit were not only needed comic relief in this rather melancholy book, but also useful, and made him into a great character I really enjoyed reading.
Kiernan Stout: Kiernan, despite being Rory's twin, was the quintessential overburdened older brother, carrying the family name on his back. He is loyal and honest, and as someone who doesn't have an older brother, even I felt brotherly love from him.
Conclusion
This book was excellent! If it weren't for the slow beginning, I would have definitely given it 5 stars! I haven't read a book so unique, or an ending so satisfying and epic, in a very long time, and it was so appreciated. This is definitely an underrated gem. show less
I don't usually do half star ratings, but...
4.5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
"I am Molly Stout," she said, each word bringing more of her body alive around her. "I am human."
I really loved this book. Like, a lot.
The Writing
Shane Arbuthnott is a very good writer, I daresay. The atmosphere and the setting felt consistently tangible and real. The dialogue was distinct for each character, which really brought them all to life. I really loved the visual descriptions and sensory details, as they allowed me to really immerse myself into the story. I wish, though, that there had been more clothing descriptions, because it was difficult to imagine what kind of attire everyday people wore.
The plot was really very slow, though, for the first half, and while I found the world and characters interesting enough, I wasn't keen to pick this up all that often. Once the plot picked up, though, it didn't slow down for long, and I was ultimately extremely pleased with the progression of plot and character arc.
I found some elements in this story to be a bit darker/more mature than I would have been comfortable reading when I was 10, which is the starting age suggested on the back of the book.
"If it's a monster, we made it that way."
The Worldbuilding
This world was so unique! I've never read anything quite like it! Basically it's a science fiction fantasy alternate history. How cool is that?! The American continent is uninhabited save for the technologically advanced city of Terra Nova, while all of the Eastern hemisphere seems to be as it is today, with countries like France and England. In this world, machines are primarily powered by spirits that are caught by people like Molly, our brave MC, from portals in the sky called fonts. These spirits, which have elemental abilities, were reminiscent of traditional Asian spirits, and I got a strong Spirited Away vibe.
"I do not need your guilt, nor do I care for it. This is not about you. If you feel guilty, then use that to change things for the better. Otherwise, your feelings mean nothing."
The Characters
Molly Stout: Molly is the perfect protagonist. I do not mean, of course, that she is perfect, or that she thinks she is, but that she is exactly what a good MC ought to be. She is selfless and kind, brave and persistent, and she sticks to her principles and uses her many skills to do what's right. I really related to her. She was a treat to read, and I especially liked that there was no love interest for her, as that would have been unrelated to the plot and would have brought down the whole book.
Ariel: This spirit is the one who changes everything for Molly. She (though spirits are non-gendered—Ariel is alright with being referred to as female) is just as stubborn as Molly is, and watching them clash and team up was great.
Cog: My sweet baby Cog! Get you a Cog, guys. We all need a Cog. He's seriously the Dobby of this book, but cuter and sweeter. I love him with all my heart ❤❤❤
Arkwright: Dang this dude's creepy.
Mr Blaise: His name's a bit on the nose, but he was a formidable enemy and I was spooked, I gotta admit.
Da (idr his real name lol): Molly's father is a very complex and interesting man.
Rory Stout: I loved Rory! He was a riot! His extroversion and wit were not only needed comic relief in this rather melancholy book, but also useful, and made him into a great character I really enjoyed reading.
Kiernan Stout: Kiernan, despite being Rory's twin, was the quintessential overburdened older brother, carrying the family name on his back. He is loyal and honest, and as someone who doesn't have an older brother, even I felt brotherly love from him.
Conclusion
This book was excellent! If it weren't for the slow beginning, I would have definitely given it 5 stars! I haven't read a book so unique, or an ending so satisfying and epic, in a very long time, and it was so appreciated. This is definitely an underrated gem. show less
Is it bad I kinda like the Disney adaptation more?
I buddy read this with Nana, though it was a reread for her.
The Writing
I really don’t understand why I’m perpetually surprised when classics read like regular books. Maybe it’s simply because they’ve been lauded and put up on this pedestal, so they have to be so different. But no, they follow the same schemes of style as every other book, just with slightly more archaic language and unabashed use of the word “ejactulated” when describing someone speaking abruptly. Regardless, this was all-in-all a solid novel. It took you through many different characters and their lives in true Hugo fashion, touching on almost every aspect of society. It also, in true Hugo fashion, ends with a lot of deaths, but what was I really expecting?
Honestly, the only thing that really bothered me was those overly long interludes solely about irrelevant historical facts. They didn’t add anything to the story, and when they did (if ever) become relevant, they were simply reiterated. I understand that this novel helped encourage historical architectural preservation (and basically saved Notre Dame itself; oof Hugo must be rolling in his grave after the fire
I buddy read this with Nana, though it was a reread for her.
The Writing
I really don’t understand why I’m perpetually surprised when classics read like regular books. Maybe it’s simply because they’ve been lauded and put up on this pedestal, so they have to be so different. But no, they follow the same schemes of style as every other book, just with slightly more archaic language and unabashed use of the word “ejactulated” when describing someone speaking abruptly. Regardless, this was all-in-all a solid novel. It took you through many different characters and their lives in true Hugo fashion, touching on almost every aspect of society. It also, in true Hugo fashion, ends with a lot of deaths, but what was I really expecting?
Honestly, the only thing that really bothered me was those overly long interludes solely about irrelevant historical facts. They didn’t add anything to the story, and when they did (if ever) become relevant, they were simply reiterated. I understand that this novel helped encourage historical architectural preservation (and basically saved Notre Dame itself; oof Hugo must be rolling in his grave after the fire
This was one of the most mind-numbingly boring piece of "literature" I've ever read. Everything that was good about this series was stripped away, leaving only the obnoxious, ridiculous, and downright formulaic parts.
Meet Rhys, the bad boy with a criminal past and tattoos, and hot white ex-boyfriend of the hot white girl. Said hot white girl is named Asha Grant, and she's a headstrong teenager (?) who somehow holds a leadership position despite having no qualifications. Don't worry about personality. They're sassy! That just about covers it, doesn't it?
Sound familiar?
That's because this is the third incarnation of Kady and Ezra, following Hana and Nik. In case you didn't already have it drilled into your thick skulls: HOT WHITE TEEN = GOOD, MOUSTACHE TWIRLING VILLAIN = BAD, AIDAN = THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS SERIES
Now, perhaps for the sake of originality, our author duo decided to drop the insidious psychological thriller part of the Illuminae plot Mad Libs and replaced it with...wait for it...more conspiracy intrigue! Yay! Everyone's favorite part!
I know for sure that it was my favorite part. Definitely loved the cheesy, melodramatic scenes in which Kady figuratively and literally stands on a table, points a finger at Leanne Frobisher and shouts, "SHE'S THE BAD GUY!" Those were so well-written and so engaging. They were amazing parts that really made the world feel real, and made our ragtag band of hot white teenagers a force to be reckoned with.
(In case it wasn't show more clear, I was being facetious. This book really wanted to make sure the sarcasm was spelled out. I don't want to confuse anyone. I-WAS-BEING-SARCASTIC. Did that help?)
And, yeah, sorry Beitech, but it turns out your psycho-virus only works in space. No symptoms whatsoever on landmasses like Kerenza. That would make too much sense. And don't worry about aliens! Those only exist in space too. It's not like psychological alien horror on a frozen landscape works or anything. There's absolutely no evidence of that!
No, our authors remember how our favorite parts were the Aelin Galathynius style "plot twists". So we got not one, but two different locations rife with civil war! Don't worry about our interchangeable hot white teens, though! They're hot and white, so no duh, they all make it to the end without so much as a scratch.
🙃🙃🙃
So yeah. Not even AIDAN and his repetitive philosophical ramblings could save this book. It had the beginnings of themes, the barest hint of believability, but it chose needless make out scenes and sanctimonious platitudes instead. It forgot that stakes required deaths not just for shock value, that too many of the exact same situation happening in the same book (and series, for that matter) ruins the potential for intrigue, and that no one thinks misogynistic locker room conversations about sexscapades make characters likeable. "The Duke" was dumb and spoke in the third person without question. Why did they think that was endearing and not straight up silly?
This was a waste of paper. And a waste of my time. Faith out. show less
Meet Rhys, the bad boy with a criminal past and tattoos, and hot white ex-boyfriend of the hot white girl. Said hot white girl is named Asha Grant, and she's a headstrong teenager (?) who somehow holds a leadership position despite having no qualifications. Don't worry about personality. They're sassy! That just about covers it, doesn't it?
Sound familiar?
That's because this is the third incarnation of Kady and Ezra, following Hana and Nik. In case you didn't already have it drilled into your thick skulls: HOT WHITE TEEN = GOOD, MOUSTACHE TWIRLING VILLAIN = BAD, AIDAN = THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS SERIES
Now, perhaps for the sake of originality, our author duo decided to drop the insidious psychological thriller part of the Illuminae plot Mad Libs and replaced it with...wait for it...more conspiracy intrigue! Yay! Everyone's favorite part!
I know for sure that it was my favorite part. Definitely loved the cheesy, melodramatic scenes in which Kady figuratively and literally stands on a table, points a finger at Leanne Frobisher and shouts, "SHE'S THE BAD GUY!" Those were so well-written and so engaging. They were amazing parts that really made the world feel real, and made our ragtag band of hot white teenagers a force to be reckoned with.
(In case it wasn't show more clear, I was being facetious. This book really wanted to make sure the sarcasm was spelled out. I don't want to confuse anyone. I-WAS-BEING-SARCASTIC. Did that help?)
And, yeah, sorry Beitech, but it turns out your psycho-virus only works in space. No symptoms whatsoever on landmasses like Kerenza. That would make too much sense. And don't worry about aliens! Those only exist in space too. It's not like psychological alien horror on a frozen landscape works or anything. There's absolutely no evidence of that!
No, our authors remember how our favorite parts were the Aelin Galathynius style "plot twists". So we got not one, but two different locations rife with civil war! Don't worry about our interchangeable hot white teens, though! They're hot and white, so no duh, they all make it to the end without so much as a scratch.
🙃🙃🙃
So yeah. Not even AIDAN and his repetitive philosophical ramblings could save this book. It had the beginnings of themes, the barest hint of believability, but it chose needless make out scenes and sanctimonious platitudes instead. It forgot that stakes required deaths not just for shock value, that too many of the exact same situation happening in the same book (and series, for that matter) ruins the potential for intrigue, and that no one thinks misogynistic locker room conversations about sexscapades make characters likeable. "The Duke" was dumb and spoke in the third person without question. Why did they think that was endearing and not straight up silly?
This was a waste of paper. And a waste of my time. Faith out. show less
I read this for a group reading project in the 4th grade, and it was not the book I voted for, so maybe I was set up to hate it. The only thing I remember about it was that I absolutely hated it with a rage never before seen in a 10 year old.
Being alone is a terrible, terrible thing. There’s no one to run to, no one to confide in, no one who cares what happens to you.
It wasn’t that this finale sucked. I generally enjoyed it. I had a decently good time, a few chuckles here and there, and I was, at times, unsure of how it would end. But ultimately, it felt like a lot of nothing happened. It left very few lasting impressions. I’m glad it ended the way it did, but I just wish the ride along the way had been a bit more exciting, or a bit less jumbled. There were some random and kind of pointless additions in this, and some characters were pretty much entirely forgotten for the vast majority of the book, if not the whole thing. I’d give it 4 stars, but I just don’t care enough about it.
Here’s a question for you guys: is Bloodlines worth it?
I was forced to read this in the 6th grade and I couldn't stand Charlotte Doyle and the sheer unbelievability that this loser 12 year old participated in a mutiny and became the captain of a ship.
Buddy read with Nana the Novelty!
So, it took me a really long time to read this, for no reason other than that I’ve been in a slump these past few months. But I finally did it, and got through the comic at the same time. Thank goodness for audiobooks!
"You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it."
So, it took me a really long time to read this, for no reason other than that I’ve been in a slump these past few months. But I finally did it, and got through the comic at the same time. Thank goodness for audiobooks!
I received this eARC from Macmillan-Tor/Forge on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
I dnf'd this book very early on, unfortunately. It was very promising, but ultimately read like a high concept sci-fi soap opera. When I expected science fiction mystery, I got small town drama. I really couldn't care less about any character or their stupid first world problems. Ultimately, this book was boring, but if you're more into contemporary and want to try something new, this might be your thing.
I dnf'd this book very early on, unfortunately. It was very promising, but ultimately read like a high concept sci-fi soap opera. When I expected science fiction mystery, I got small town drama. I really couldn't care less about any character or their stupid first world problems. Ultimately, this book was boring, but if you're more into contemporary and want to try something new, this might be your thing.
I received this eARC from Image Comics via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.
The Art
THE COLORS!!!!
This was beautiful!!!! The color palate was so so so lovely, and even thematically significant, which I haven’t really seen a comic do before (despite the obviousness of it all; it’s a visual medium, the images ought to mean something). It goes from deep, dark blues to creamy pinks and I absolutely adored it. The character designs were excellent as well, lending itself to an Adventure Time meets Steven Universe style that was both cute and awe-inspiring.
The Story
It is my understanding that this was originally published as a webcomic. I guess that means I need to read more webcomics, because this was great!
It had a wonderful message and a lot of very cool lore. The worldbuilding definitely could have been done a little better, but I was able to figure out some stuff on my own and it didn’t bother me too much.
As far as characters go, I really liked them! Our MC was great, as was Sagitta, but honestly, Pyx was my absolute favorite. He was so cute and helpful and just such a cinnamon roll!
The plot progressed well, the visual medium and it’s shifting colors aiding that progression nicely. I really liked the villain and the symbolism behind it. It was very biblical while also relevant to modern issues.
TL;DR & show more Conclusion
I really enjoyed this and I’m so happy I got the chance to read it! It’s a very emotionally moving tale excellent for any age. And it’s just plain pretty to look at! show less
“It’s pretty simple. A world built on genocide and slavery isn’t a world worth existing!”
The Art
THE COLORS!!!!
This was beautiful!!!! The color palate was so so so lovely, and even thematically significant, which I haven’t really seen a comic do before (despite the obviousness of it all; it’s a visual medium, the images ought to mean something). It goes from deep, dark blues to creamy pinks and I absolutely adored it. The character designs were excellent as well, lending itself to an Adventure Time meets Steven Universe style that was both cute and awe-inspiring.
The Story
It is my understanding that this was originally published as a webcomic. I guess that means I need to read more webcomics, because this was great!
It had a wonderful message and a lot of very cool lore. The worldbuilding definitely could have been done a little better, but I was able to figure out some stuff on my own and it didn’t bother me too much.
As far as characters go, I really liked them! Our MC was great, as was Sagitta, but honestly, Pyx was my absolute favorite. He was so cute and helpful and just such a cinnamon roll!
The plot progressed well, the visual medium and it’s shifting colors aiding that progression nicely. I really liked the villain and the symbolism behind it. It was very biblical while also relevant to modern issues.
TL;DR & show more Conclusion
I really enjoyed this and I’m so happy I got the chance to read it! It’s a very emotionally moving tale excellent for any age. And it’s just plain pretty to look at! show less
Oh wow this was intense! And very informative!
What is it about sociopathic murderers that's so fascinating? Why are we as a society so prone to exalt such people to celebrity status?
What is it about sociopathic murderers that's so fascinating? Why are we as a society so prone to exalt such people to celebrity status?