I am one man with a laptop. When I give the world my characters, it's because I don't want to keep them for myself. You don't like what I made
I am one man with a laptop. When I give the world my characters, it's because I don't want to keep them for myself. You don't like what I made them do? Fucking tell me I'm wrong! Rewrite the story. Throw in a new plot twist. Make up your own ending.
I went into this thinking it was a cute cheesy contemporary, something like Geekerella, but gayer, which I can finish in a day and and swoon over it for rest of the week. I didn't expect it to be this much deep and this much relatable.
Brandon is a high school graduate and in summer before college he came out as gay to his catholic parents. They followed 'you're less of a man and failure of son' type course to bring Brandon 'back to right path'. They set Brandon and his best friend Bec, on a convention trip for Brandon's favourite tv show 'Castaway Planet'. They didn't know that Abel, Brandon's co-vlogger, who's also gay and who Brandon secretly loves, also going with them. Brandon and Abel are on the mission to prove that Sim and Cadmus, who are Castaway Planet's lead character, are not in a relationship, because, well, its going to fivert the whole plotline and also, they want these characters to be loved for who they are, instead of because they're DOING IT. But they're many external forces (read: rabid Cadsim shippers) who want to see their ship becoming true no matter what, playing to get Brandon and Abel out of the way from their dream.
This seems all cute and silly and adventurous but actually it's really deep and dark at it's core. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, J.C Lillis did a better job blending light and silly romance with certain serious themes then Mackenzie lee did. (On the side note, this isn't anything like Gentleman's guide to vice and virtue but I read that book recently and couldn't help make the comparison) Brandon's struggling to make peace between what he'd been fed by his parents, his priest all his life, and his sexuality. Brandon's experiance is so similar to what I went through few years back. Though I didn't come out to my parents, because I know it's going to be very ugly, but I had such a difficult time to make peave with my own sexuality and idea of queerness in general. Through Brandon, Lillis explored all the ugly internalized homophobia that alot of people have been fed all thier lives.
What if I do everything all wrong? What if I die of happiness and go right to hell?
Throughout the book, whenever Brandon's having a little fum, he'd hear Father Mike's words and go into this existential crisis for solid two minutes. I particularly like this specific quote about God
I wonder if other people think weird thoughts like that. It seems unavoidable. You’re a kid, and how can they explain something huge and unknowable like God to a kid, so they draw a simple picture: he’s like a father in the sky, watching over us. Then you see statues and paintings of God in books and museums, so old they seem like historical records and not flights of fancy from ancient dead guys. And you file those away and fill in the rest of the portrait with your own references, until your picture of God is something like mine was: Ben Kingsley in a long Michelangelo beard, enthroned in an icy castle like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and scribbling (with the angry point of his thunderbolt) a fancier version of Santa’s Naughty or Nice list. You get older, but the kid’s picture stays with you. And then all of a sudden you’re eighteen and you’ve learned how to question and doubt and you think you’re smart enough to draw your own grown-up picture of what God might be, but part of you is still cringing with one eye to the sky, waiting for the thunderbolt.
I did, Brandon. I think everybody does, most of us don't want to acknowledge it.
Okay now, let's get to the best part. The ROMANCE. This romance was the cutest thing I've read this month. Brandon and Abel are the silliest, cutest, most romantic people. Their banter and flirting was so sweet. I really want J.C lillis to write another novel about them being happy and in love and having children named after Cadmus and Sim.
I want to make a sweater out of this week and wrap myself in it until falls away.
I was also really suprised how much I liked comiccon and fanfiction themes in this book. Despite being a book geek, idea of fanfiction never really appealed me. But in this book I liked fandom and idea of online communities dedicated to one fandom.
Humour in this book was also so on point. It's full of somany hilarious one liners and I found myself actually laughing out loud more then once.
“Pretentious." "So? I love pretentious people!" "Why?" "They try so hard to be interesting, you don't have to do any work.”
There's only one thing that bothered me throughout the book and that was 'ABANDON FANDOM'. Listen, I don't have any problem with people shipping other people, be it fictional or real people, but I absolutely don't like the idea that the 'ABANDON' or 'CADSIM' fanfiction is some sort of 'masturbating fantasies for straight girls'. More then once, I cringed inward when 'CHURCH OF ABANDON' were discussing Brandon and Abel's love and then some girl would make a comment about 'yesss they are going to have hot sex, wowwww'. No, okay, gay people should never be sexual fantasies for straight people. And what bothered me more was that Abel and Brandon never really called it out. Once, Brandon even made fun of the fact that his relationship with Abel started just as sexual fantasies for straight girls.
But overall, it was really good. I think lots of people can relate to this deeply. Highly recommended....more
Life is beautiful and life is stupid. As long as you keep that in mind, and never give more weight to one than the other, the history of the
Life is beautiful and life is stupid. As long as you keep that in mind, and never give more weight to one than the other, the history of the galaxy, the history of a planet, the history of a person is a simple tune with lyrics flashed on-screen and a helpful, friendly bouncing disco ball of glittering, occasionally peaceful light to help you follow along. Cue the music. Cue the dancers. Cue tomorrow
I have alot of reasons to not to like this book. It took me over a month to finish it, it had so many commas and not enough periods, it doesn't really have that much of a good story-all of it is summed up in the blurb, some people might say that characters are cardboard cut out, but you know what, I fucking loved it. I loved it for its amazing writing, long sentences, over the top humor, extravagant settings and it's solemn analysis of homo sapiens sapiens sentinent. Space Opera is a tiresomely over the top, extremely bizzare, at places veryyy confusing, with very self-depricating and snarky humor, with loads of bizarre, powerful, intelligent aliens.
On a tuesday in April,Esca, a giant flamingo-fish alien, invaded the earth and told all 7 billion people that they are going to die-if they come last in Meta Galactic Prix, a singing competition where all sentient species participate to prove their worth. The specie that comes last is mournnfully annihilated and its planet is left for any other specie to take over the front place in evolution and be better then their previous counterparts. And the reason they give is
I'll put this in words you can understand: humans are hideous, pain-guzzling, pollution-spouting space monsters who might threaten our way of life. Now, how does that usually pan out in the movies, kitten? At least we let you try to convince us we're wrong. I doubt you asked the dodo birds what they thought about it before you blasted the last one in the face with a blunderbuss.
Which os totally fine, I suppose, given the fact that I havent't opened news for a week now because my country's media is so fucked up. So now, Decible Jones, a former Bowie-like rock star had been chosen to prove the humanity's worth to bunch of glitter punk aliens who also happen to love a good show with lots of assasinations.
I don't like humor in my books mostly. My reaction on comedy in novels vary from an eyerole to a raised eyebrow and a snort. This book, however, made me laugh out loud atleast seven times. There's alot of fun in this book; if it's not commentary on human's sentient then it's extremely nonsensicle aliens and their extremely nonsensicle behaviours. This book goes in depth discussing all the blunders made by humans; racism, homophobia, transphobia, misgony, climate change and everything else in between. And when aliens are not discussing humanity's fucked-up-ness, they are trying to soothe them and then fail disastrously
“Even knowing that I am a discarded Popsicle stick on the sidewalk of intellectual discourse and thus wholly incapable of higher-order thinking, I beg you to tolerate the shrill and childlike whine of my asking: How about rhinoceroses? Dodos? Giraffes? Those are herbivores, so they presented no danger to the continuation of your species, but you wiped them out all the same. To a one. And then there are the more immediately pertinent examples of the Lakota, the Cree, the Aboriginal Tasmanians. Now, please tell this execrable excuse for a sentient being who is not worthy to receive your diseased secondhand blankets, before you cut the throat of the last lion or rhinoceros or dodo or Mayan farmer, did you let them sing a song? Did you let them lay down a beat? Did you let them dance for their lives? Did you let them try to prove to you that there was more in them than just a longing to eat and breed and lie in the sun and die with a full belly?” Oort thought he was going to be sick. “N-no.” “Mmm,” said Nessuno Uuf. The moons of Litost shone in through the sky bar windows, illuminating the beautiful bone knives of her face. “Barbaric. Of course, what can someone like me know?”
^^^This convo took place between Decible and an alein who consider demeaning themselves as an art and get turned on when someone insults them.
The best part of this book is, perhaps, the amazing aliens. They vary from everything to anything. These aliens seems to come from a 5 year old child's mind whose imagination knows no bounds. From sentient gas to sentient algae to sentient murderers who look like a rhineceros and chain saw offspring to metallic spanish lookin armor to sentient virus, this book has everything. My favourite was this
Litost is the kind of world a child would design if that child had never been harmed by the world in even the smallest way and wanted to be a rainbow when it grew up and only ever read books about unicorns, wildflowers, and everything working out very nicely, not only in the end, but in the beginning and the middle, too. It has two small white suns, three pink moons, several lavender oceans with the same sugar content as Earth’s oceans have salt, a single huge continent full of rich green antidepressant grasses watered by refreshing diamond showers, healing rivers, and forests where no one can ever get too lost, on account of the night-light lichen. While this continent is home to a number of gentle variations on the basic bear-cow-fish-bird playset living in peaceful symbiotic harmony, Litost’s crowning evolutionary achievement is the Klavaret, a species of large, intellectually gifted patches of seafaring pastel flowers, something of a three-way hybrid of roses, tulips, and doilies. They have all the natural defenses of a pillow in a tiger enclosure. At least twice, the planet escaped being overrun by the aforementioned neighbors after the invaders grew exhausted with having to explain, slowly, patiently, and using large, friendly diagrams, charts, and illustrations, the concept of war to a field of flowers, giving up halfway through a run of supplementary comic books starring Sebastian, the Conflict Marshmallow.
I mean, come on, who cannot love some happy rosebush?
Between the history of galaxy and Matagalactic Grand Pix and all the aliens, the characters get very little time of thier own. But I loved the glimpse we got here and there. Decible Jones He's multiracial(!!!!), omnisexual gendersplat rockstar who's now evaluating and regretting each and everyone of his life choices and on whose shoulders fate on humanity rest. Oort St. Ultravoilet Former member of Alsolute Zeroes. He want nothing else other then be a normal englishblokeman so that when world goes wrongway, no one can lift a finger on him and no one can harass him or his daughters. But normal doesn't really happen in his life. Capo She's Oort's cat who had been granted speech by aliens so to prove that ability to talk doesn't make someone sentient. Even when she gains power to talk, Capo remained very much a cat. She spend her days sleeping and waiting for things to die so she can eat them.
This seems a lot like that aliens spend all of their time roasting humans. Though this is true, it's not all about it. It's about positives humans have done too. While it dicuss mankind's stupidy, it shed light on love and empathy that each human possess too. And in the end, it tells us that what matter most is to accept everyone just as they are.
Everything just gets so fucked up sometimes and the natural resting state of reality is not to make any goddamned sense if it can help it and you’ve just got to accept that because it’s not going to get any better from here on in.
Most of the 1 or 2 stars reviews says that this will appeal only to hardcore Catherynne Valente fan, and considering my love for this, I think I'm going to love all of her works now. I can't wait to be suprised by her work....more
I had no emotions whatsoever for 300 pages and then I reached the last page and just kept on hoping there would be more because even though I had zeroI had no emotions whatsoever for 300 pages and then I reached the last page and just kept on hoping there would be more because even though I had zero interest in Achilles or Patrocolus while reading this book, the ending effected me so much. Like i'm not crying but I also cannot stop thinking about them. I need to actually pick up Iliad now and stop taking help from wikipedia because Achilles and Patrocolus are so fucking beautiful. How the fuck am I going to sleep tonight? There is a hollow space inside my heart and it cannot seems to be fulfilled at all. Is this what undenaible grief feels like? These characters will haunt me for a long time now.
Also, this book gave me a great picture of how I act in university all the time
I don't have much to say about this book because it failed to produce any significant feelings for me except for tBuddy read with Nadhira!
2.5 stars
I don't have much to say about this book because it failed to produce any significant feelings for me except for the mild annoyance. Only last few pages were interesting when things were actually happening. There were many twists and turns and many tropes subversions and none of them had any effect on me. Probably because I feel as if I've read this book so many times before. You know, cruel king, outcast people, rebellion, and what not. There is nothing new here.
Okay, so first off the premises is absolutely amazing. In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency. The rulers, the Gerlings our protagonist loathes, tax the poor and live for centuries. People turn their blood into time and loose off years their own life to pay. Now this premise screams tragedy and tragedy and misery this book does deliver. We see people giving off their lives for betterment of their children's lives.
We see people who have long lives but waste them away while poors suffer. And then we see this concept of time incorperated with Kingdom and Court politics to make it more interesting. But I think these court politics of various nobles or servents and the Queen herself were not explored. I expected more..consperacies, more court secrets, but even though there were revelation of many secrets, none of them were court related.
All of these characters were really bland, therefore this book cannot get more then 2 stars. I was more interested how plot turns out rather then the characters. Jules, at first she annoyed me with constant description of Roan's beauty but then she grew out of it, eventually as te plot picks up. However, I liked the depiction of female friendship between Ina and Jules. What I didn't like was the presence of love triangle or Jules' romance with any of the characters. Since most of these characters were cliche and had over used ya tropes, these characters were a lost caise for me. I also felt that some very interesting characters disappeared completely midway through the story. Which is a shame, since I was more invested in them rather then Jules. Also, other then annoying description of Roan's eyes every two pages, other characters were not described well.
The story was slow uptil 60% mark and then after that, many secrets were released and there were many plot twists. Some of the twists were very predictable and to be honest, served as deux ex machina but some were very clever indeed. I liked the ending enough that I want to read the next book. But it's not like I am overly excited for it.
Overall it was okay and had some action packed scenes. I think the author has great potential and I hope the sequel is better then this one....more
No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kid
No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kidding themselves, but they’re also painfully unoriginal.
I am blessed with the devastating luxury of internally screeching uncontrollably because otherwise I might have died due to intensity of emotions caused by this book....more
This is easily the most relatable book I've ever read. My faith in humanity is restored. This is easily the most relatable book I've ever read. My faith in humanity is restored....more
Tell the story of Frost, Dunyashka. Tell us of the frost-demon, the winter-king Karachun.
Bear and the nightingale is a lush, beautiful and
Tell the story of Frost, Dunyashka. Tell us of the frost-demon, the winter-king Karachun.
Bear and the nightingale is a lush, beautiful and magical book that tells the story of Vasya, daughter of Pyotr Vladimirovich, who's lord of a village in northern Russia. Vasya has 'sight', which means she can see house spirits, and talk to horses. She's a wild, magical, carefree girl, who loves running into the forest and riding horses, and because of her carefree ways, she's deemed as a witch by village people. All of it worsen when stepmother and priest comes to village.
I loved loved loveeeddddddd this masterpeice! This was so amazing!!!! I bought this book and the Girl in the tower in May, and then I waited nine straight months to read this in the chilliest weather possible, to capture it's feeling and boy, my patience was so fruitful because this book was able to capture the wintry feeling so brilliantly. The wintry aesthetic felt so real that I always have to be snuggled under two blankets with a cup of coffee. Now, one of my biggest goal in life is to go into a distant forest for two days with my children and read this story to them beside the fire...god I really want this to happen!!!! Hope my children are as enthusiastic about fairy tales as I am.
This book is so haunting and I loved it for its creepiness. Sitting all alone in my blankets, reading about forests and its spirits, or about the evil one eyed bear, I had a chilling feeling of something running down my spine. I mean, just look at this paragraph...
It was she, and it was not. The bones were there, the shape and the form and the grave clothes. But thr nose drooped, the lips had fallen. The eyes were blazing holes, the mouth a blackened pit. Blood caked the linesvof chin and nose and cheeks. Even the villians and there story were so interesring. Anna and the priest were not the kind of villians I root for, but their struggles and thoughts made them all more sympathetic.
Vasya is a powerful character, without using her fists. I loved protagonists who are soft and strong at same time. Her sacrifices for her family, her guilt for not helping Dunya with house chores, and then runnig away from house chores...it's all so relatable.
“All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.”
There's lot of stress put on family dynamics and relations. Vasya's love for her siblings, especially for her sisters was so refreshing to read about. They didn't play any important role in the story, but Vasya always find peace in their company, but yet she fights with them and there is lot of rivaly between them too. All this made their dynamics all more relatable.
Religion play an important part in this book. Some may say that religion is potrayed badly here, but all I saw was people using religion to westrinize and dimish one's native culture. Religion is used to exploit people's fears and so, the olden ways and ancient ideas of spirits are dimished.
I have few complains with this too, for which it got 4.5 stars. First, why is everybody beating Vasya???? Every other page, there's a line like 'he struck her across her face'...'she beat her up'....'she struck her'....etc. I know it's historical novel, but this shot became annoying after few pages. Also, I found the ending to be a little too rushed for me. Everything happened too quickly, and the final revelation wasn't as exciting as it's build up was.
But, still, overall it was too good and the dissapointements were not that big in comparison to its overall beauty. This book is highly reccommended. And I should say, you guys should hurry up before winter go away, otherwise, you wont be able to capture its true feeling....more
Two thousand, one hundred twenty-two people are living in a multigenerational starship, headed for Tau Ceti, 11.9 light-years from Earth. The starshipTwo thousand, one hundred twenty-two people are living in a multigenerational starship, headed for Tau Ceti, 11.9 light-years from Earth. The starship’s voyage began in the common era year 2545. For most of that time the ship has been moving relative to the local background at approximately one-tenth the speed of light. The presence of printers capable of manufacturing most component parts of the ship, and feedstocks large enough to supply multiple copies of every critical component. The narrative of this book began 159 years after the start of voyage, as only 10 years are left for the starship to arrive at Aurora, a earth analog moon in Tau Ceti system, which may serve as humanity's new home.
KSR's Aurora is, in a way, analysis of humanity's fantasy of travelling in the stars. It explores what the journey to a nearby star would be like; blending hard physics, biology, sociology, politics and cognitive thinking in a closed system where everything in calculated. The author shows the social and ethnic questions regarding space travel and voyages to stars.
Most of the characters in Aurora were really bland. There was no spark in the character of Freya and I found myself glossing over chapters naratted by her. The humans introduced throughout the book were either with Freya or not with Freya and there was absolutely nothing more in them. However, starship, or just the Ship, was the most interesting character in the story. It's journey to understand conciousness, to start loving it's inhbitants, to understand what's it is like to be human, these were the thing that kept me reading this book. Most of the people had find it difficult to read long passages about human language, metaphors and analogy, but honestly these were the things most interesting to me.
I would have given this book a four star or even more, if it wasn't for the way author kept on shoving his opinion about the space voyage down my throat. I've read the reviews before reading the book, and I was really excited to see how would KSR show the negatives of intesteller travel. But he left no room for aurgument, he never let us, the readers, draw our own conclusions. The story twisted and turned according to author's wishes, and all subplots that can be explored were shed off. The idea of space travel was literally punched in the face and on an instant, space cadets were ridiculed. I agree that the life on Earth should be substained, and everything should be done to save our home but shaming and befouling those who are interested in space is simply ridiculous.
For this reason, this book become very irritating for me at places, but overall it was very interesting and page-turning top quality hard sci-fic....more
Oh wow. I read all 48 issues of this for whole day and needless to say, I'm a mess. I only got up two times for prayers and one time for food. I havenOh wow. I read all 48 issues of this for whole day and needless to say, I'm a mess. I only got up two times for prayers and one time for food. I haven't taken a shower and I think my bladder is cursing me right now. I think it all says a lot about how much I loved this....more
“Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. Some of the most wonderful things in the world are invisible. Trusting in invisi
“Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. Some of the most wonderful things in the world are invisible. Trusting in invisible things makes them more powerful and wondrous.”
People of Protectorate are led to believe by thier rulers that their is an evil With in the dangerous forest. Each year, they sacrifice a new born child to the witch in hope that she does not harm their towns. The rulers of Protectorate thinks that their is no Witch and child will die and through the sorrow of the parents of children that are abandoned, the rulers control the Protectorate and its people. In truth, the Witch in the forest is Good and she takes the abandoned Children and deliver them to their new families in Free Cities. She does not try to find out why the people of Protectorate abandon their children, for a thick cloud of sorrow hung over that acursed town.
One time, she fed the abandoned child moonlight instead to starlight, accidentally enmagicking it. Now she cannot let a enmagicked child to a normal family, since such child would be harmful to everyone around it. So she, the swamp Monster named Glerk and Perfectly Tiny Dragon named Fyrian decided to adopt her and raised her as their own family. What follows is exciting and adventurous tale of Luna, a girl brimming with moon magic, of her journey to discover secrets about herself and her loved ones.
The Girl who Drank the Moon combined all elements of very traditional fantasy, witches and wizards, monsters and Dragons, deadly forests and Castles, and captured them into this whimsical, beautiful tale. The writing is truely beautiful and brought out the setting of rich and magical setting amazingly.
“Once upon a time, something terrifying lived in the woods. Or perhaps the woods were terrifying. Or perhaps the whole world is poisoned with wickedness and lies, and it's best to learn that now. No, Fyrian, darling. I don't believe that last bit either.”
Perhaps the best part of the book is how author presented great lessons in such an easy way. I've read 1984 recently, and I can't help but notice similarities between these books. The author tells us the importance of ideas and knowledge, of power of common people. But ofcourse, this book is more cheerful then 1984 can ever be. There is strong importance placed on found families, on the power of motherly love, to find the good in everyone, even those who apperently does not have any redeeming qualities. But the greatest lesson the book give us is: Hope. It was hope that lifted the cloud of sorrow from Protectorate, it was hope that led Antain into the forest, it was hope that brought happiness to Protectorate.
“Hope and light and motion, her soul whispered. Hope and formation and fusion, Hope and heat and accretion. The miracle of gravity. The miracle of transformation. Each precious thing is destroyed and each precious thing is saved. Hope, hope, hope.”
I've been graciously told that if I didn't love this book, goodreaders will kick me out of this site. Well, you guys don't have to worry at all, I'll I've been graciously told that if I didn't love this book, goodreaders will kick me out of this site. Well, you guys don't have to worry at all, I'll show myself out, but I just want to express my thoughts on this splendid but also not so splendid piece of literature. I love this book for everything Mackenzi Lee put effort into, that is, effortlessly queer characters, women rights in 18th century,romance, character with chronic illness, basically all beautiful things that other historical fiction don't bother to represent. And I hate this book for one thing the Lee did not put any effort into, that is, the fucking plot. Honestly, the plot was so underwhelming and boring it dampened all the above mentioned great things for me. There was no consistency, no logic to this plot. This book's plot was so boring it almost put me in a slump.
Now first, we shall discuss the good things. The best thing about The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is the the amazing and oh-so-relatable character arc of Henry Montague aka Monty. He's arrogant, rude, very ignorant, but he's also so relatable and so hilarious. He induces my maternal feelings which make me want to slap him across his face and then give him his favourite dish, wash and iron all his clothes, clean his room all the while complaining what a bastard he is and then plant a loving kiss on his forehead to asure that I still love him. He literally walked out buck naked out of French Palace during a party. He's this much iconic. And honestly, chapter 30 made me so proud of him.
We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with laquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete and worthy and so very loved.
This one is my second-favourite Monty moment
“I swear, you would play the coquette with a well-upholstered sofa.”
"First, I would not. And second, how handsome is this sofa?
Next we have Percy Newton, who's M0nty's life long friend and also his love interest. He's dark skinned, epileptical, biracial person and his hardships and problems are so well represented!!!! He's so soft and he's literally the antidote for all Monty's stupidness.
Percy and Monty's romance is so fluffy and so cute!!!! It has my favourite sleeping in the same bed and waking up tangled with eachother trope and honestly this trope is never going to get old for me. Monty is asshole so many times, but both Percy and Monty manage to come together again despite their arrogance.
Best thing about this novel is, without doubt, Fecility. She's the saviour of this novel and all of us. At first, she's potrayed as grumpy kid who's annoyed by everything but she turns out to be baddest bad bitch in the history of bad bitches. She always had her head under control and in every panic inducing situation, she provide much needed voice of reason. This is my favourite Fecility moment
“Just thinking about all that blood." I nearly shudder. "Doesn't it make you a bit squeamish?"
"Ladies haven't the luxury of being squeamish about blood," she replies, and Percy and I go fantastically red in unison.
And Monty and Fecility relationship was so good. They were so indifferent to eachother in beginning, but they grew so close but still were generally assholes to eachother and taunting eachother all the time!!!!!!!!
Apart from the characters and their light and funny moments, author managed to discuss some very heavy issues very thoroughly. It discusses racism, homophobia, trauma, and chronic illness so effortlessly. Monty, being a white priviledged male is at times very problematic but he learn from his mistakes and become humble by the people who were brought down by this oppresive culture.
Now, for the bad stuff. My only complain for this book, the thing that led me to 3 star it, was the plot. The plot was all over the place. It was so random, so inconsistent, so illogical, and seriously this book could have been great if Mackenzi Lee didn't even bother to include the plot. I've come to a very important realization, that is, I hate pirates. I like the idea of pirates, but every book that I've read that include pirates are so boring that I'm left with nothing but bitter dissapointement in th end. There were privates, or privateers, inthis book and apart from the very important point rhe pirate captain raised regarding to racism, all of them were pretty boring and unnecessary to the plot. I also didn't like the themes of magic and alchemy. Maybe, if they were well explained, I would have liked it, but it wasn't, sadly and henceforth, the three stars. :(
After writing all of this, I'm considering raising my rating, hpgiven my love for the characters, but I'm going with my initial decision. Who knows, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy might be so good that it will save this year of books for me, and then I'll just rate it five stars because my love for Lady's guide will be so great, but for right now, I'm set at three stars....more
This book. I love this so much. This is my first Patrick Ness book and if all his books are like this, then I think I found my new favourOh. My. God.
This book. I love this so much. This is my first Patrick Ness book and if all his books are like this, then I think I found my new favourite author because this was the most beautiful thing I'vr ever read. I feel so connected to Connor, his conflicts, his anger everything, I can relate to everything on deep personal level. I've never felt like that ever before. I think this says a lot.
Even monsters need peace. Even monsters need a person who truly wants to listen—to hear—so that someday we migh
TRIGGER WARNING:RAPE AND CHILD ABUSE
Even monsters need peace. Even monsters need a person who truly wants to listen—to hear—so that someday we might find the words that are more than boxes. Then maybe we can stop men like me from happening.
Oh my god this book had made a mess of my mind and emotions. This is one of the most moving, haunting, intense, gut-wrenching and captivating books I've ever read. It made me feel so many emotions. The author, Rene Denfeld, had somehow managed to challange my notion of redemption and sympathy in the most wonderful way possible.
Narrated by a nameless death-row prisoner, the Enchanted tell us a story of an old yet still functioning prison. Our narrator tell us stories of his fellow inmates, those who had committed wost crime possible and of those who are stuck in prison for their petty crimes. He tell us about a female inveatigator(the lady) who works for death row inmates and a fallen priest who provide comfort to the prisoners. He tell us about golden horses that live underground, of little men with hammers in the wall and of night birds that dance in the prison yard at the night. The narrator weaves magic and enchantment and magic all over the dark prison which is inhabited by all those complex individuals.
The most wonderful enchanted things happen here—the most enchanted things you can imagine. I want to tell you while I still have time, before they close the black curtain and I take my final bow.
The Enchanted is a very powerful book. I had to literally lay down on my bed and think about this book for like two hours to process my emotions. Through our narrator, Rene Denfeld taught us that even the worst of all people have story to tell. There are people whose crime and cruelty knows no bound and there are people here whose mistakes are understandable but detestable nonetheless. And somehow Rene Denfeld made me feel compassion and kindness for all them. She made me want to hug priest and tell him everything would be okay and she made me want to give best last dinner to York. This book, with the sweet voice of it's narrator made me look past the crimes and cruelty committed by people into the person they truly are and what caused them to commit the crimes they did. All these people have their stories to tell and all of them are valid and important.
Life is a story. Everything that has happened and will happen to me is all part of the story of this enchanted place—all the dreams and visions and understandings that come to me in my dungeon cell. The books helped me see that truth is not in the touch of the stone but in what the stone tells you. And the stones tell me so much. But if I get some things wrong, then please forgive me. This place is too enchanted to let the story go untold.
Rene Denfeld, through her own experiance, give us an insight of the lives of the prisoners. We get to know about their food, their clothes, their activities and all other things I previously thought I'd never be interested in. She also boldly told us about the the prison governance, the corruption and injustice of the criminal gangs.
A raw and beautiful book, the Enchanted with it's beautiful prose and sympathetic narraror is bound to move your heart. A MUST READ....more
I am so disappointed right now that I don't think I'll be able to review this properly. I wanted to love this booEvil earth why do you do this to me?
I am so disappointed right now that I don't think I'll be able to review this properly. I wanted to love this book so much so that I've been reading it again and again to make myself like it a little bit more. I've been reading all 5 and 4 stars review for past 2 hours to convince myself that it is good but nothing is changing this simple yet powerful fact:The Obelisk Gate was just so fucking boring, at places ve ve ve very bland, filled with info-dumps and overall incomparable to the Glory that was The Fifth Season.
I was annoyed during Essun's pov, because although I still loved N.K Jemisin's writing in general, Essun's second person present tense narrative was so so rusting annoying and totally unnecessary. Essun never actually did anything other then sulking around and feeling sorry for herself. I know she had bad and unfaur life and nothing can be done to bring her justice, I UNDERSTAND but can we please move to important thing please now?? I was so excited to learn more about Alabaster, but that poor man only existed to provide info-dumps about this world. I know (and I'm hoping that I'm right) that we will see more of Alabaster in The Stone Sky but he just played as a filler character in this book to provide information to Essun.
However, since it's N.K Jemisin, there were still some gems in the storyvthat made this book stood out against many other fantasy books. For one, it's the most diverse fantasy book I've read. Almost 90% of the cast are POC. There are also a trans side character, an F/F romance and disabled characters. N.K Jemisin's writing is still glorious and easy going as ever. Nassun's and Schaffa's pov were interesting, although it wasn't that good that I was hooked to these characters (maybe it's me not you), but yeah they were just interesting. Even though the world building was progressed in form of info-dumps, I liked the new revelations about stone eaters, about orogene and about these deadcivs. Although I initially hated the use of magic, but after reading important part of the book for 2nd time, I am starting to appreciate how Jemisin wove its use into the story. This whole series in general is steering away from fantasy elements and becoming full on sci-fic and that's the beauty of this whole series.
Final verdict: This book suffered from middle book syndrome. It seems like a filler for the third book containg all necessary info for the last book. And I really really really hope that the third and the last book is epic, otherwise 47372646 pages of this boring fest would be for nothing.
Then why did I gave it 3 stars when it was bland as mud, because I was feeling it and probably because I love N.K Jemisin....more
Trade me is a very refreshing new adult book. For one, it is free from some very fucked up and over used NA tropes aka 'I'm not like other girls' her
Trade me is a very refreshing new adult book. For one, it is free from some very fucked up and over used NA tropes aka 'I'm not like other girls' heroine or playboy hero or usual girl on girl hating. It has well developed and ethnically diverse characters, great family dynamics and angsty romance that was believable and did not annoyed the hell outta me (well, most of the time).
Tina Chen is a Chinese American college student with witty humour who shoulders the responsibilities of her studies and supporting her family. Then we have nice and completely down-to-earth Blake Reylond who is the son of a bussiness tycoon and would very soon would own his father's bussiness. Tina and Blake were both smart and level headed people who have their own responsibilities and problems. There was no insta-love here and both of the characters were rather endearing and didn't made any stupid decisions in name of lurrrvve. Other then these two we got to see very interesting cast of side characters. The second book in this series, Hold Me, has been on my to read shelf for long time and now reading about Maria, Tina's best friend, in this book has made me more excited for the next one.
Despise of it's great and well layered characters, the romance seems bit bland and cliche at places and angst felt way to forced sometimes. Also, the whole 'I can't be with you' nonsense and actual premise of the whole story (switching lives? Like wtf?!) was really stupid. Even though Courtney Milan managed to stear clear of many toxic NA tropes but there still many other usual NA tropes used. For example, we have our usual unbelievably beautiful billionare hero and rather stupid plot which was used to bring hero and heroine together.
However, Courtney Milan's great writing, interesting and diverse characters and well-placed humour made this book a worthy read. I hope the next installement is much better then this on. I'm rooting for you, Maria.
UPDATE I'm still dead but my ghost is trapped on the earth and will not go to heaven until all of you give this book a try. So please do me a favoUPDATE I'm still dead but my ghost is trapped on the earth and will not go to heaven until all of you give this book a try. So please do me a favour and [image] ___________________
my mind is spiralling.im spiralling.you're spiralling.we all are spiralling.everybody is insane.this book is insane.im insane.you're insane.im just GAH idont know what the...fu...god whatshappening.im spiralling out of control.what whaaa...
The more I think about this book, more I feel I should give it less stars but no matter how many negatives come to my mind, I can't deny the 4.5 stars
The more I think about this book, more I feel I should give it less stars but no matter how many negatives come to my mind, I can't deny the simple fact that I enjoyed the hell out of myself reading this book. City of Saints and Thieves marked as Murder mystery set in modern say Congo amids the war and conflict. The mystery aspect was not very good, but the characters, writing, diversity, and research done was spot on.
I loved Tina. She was strong headed and cunning. Her narration was really good and I loved her character arc. All other characters; Boyboy, Micheal, Mr. Greyhill, even Bug Eye and Ketchup were really interesting to read about.
The best thing about this book is the research done regarding ongoing conflict in Congo was truly amazing. We got to know little bit about politics in African countries, refugee issue, street children, warlords, all the dirty business for the gold and among all these dark things, there was beauty of African countries and people who just want to live peacefully.
However, the mystery aspect of the book was dissapointing. It was undeveloped and to be honest nit much research was done by Tina to find her mother's murderer. In the end, the murderer simply revealed himself when Tina was nowwhere near tge conclusion herself. What a bummer.
In conclusion, it's a fast paced, emotional and action packed book. Not a good mystery but it's fun nonetheless....more
Update: I'm changing my rating to 2 stars because I realized I disldn't like it that much. I'm still going to read second book.
2.5 stars
And he
Update: I'm changing my rating to 2 stars because I realized I disldn't like it that much. I'm still going to read second book.
2.5 stars
And he would be gone. Whatever he was made of—stardust or ash or life or death—would be gone. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. In with gunfire and out with smoke. And August wasn’t ready to die. Even if surviving wasn’t simple, or easy, or fair. Even if he could never be human. He wanted the chance to matter. He wanted to live.
*sighs*These are not the first words I want to say but.....I'm really dissapointed. Victoria Schwab is one of the authors that has been on my radar for years and I was expecting something completely mind blowing from her but unfortunately this book failed to impress me. It wasn't that the book was bad, no it was very enjoyable but I had build impossibly great expectations around it and it just....not that great.
The idea is truly amazing. Paranormal novel with monsters. The one who eat souls of people by music. How cool is that?! Kudos to Schwab for such a unique idea but then then I wanted more. More of the world building please? This world was so under developed. It had so much potential but really nothing was explored and thats the thing that bugged me throughout the book and greatly effected my enjoyment.
But it wasn't all bad. Three stars is means it is actually a good book. For most of the part I liked the characters and was totally hooked to the story towards the end. I'm just going to write my review in points so it's not scattered all over.
What I didn't like
☆NO WORLD BUILDIING. You guys should know that I have never ever been this much salty over lack of world building ever because this idea was so epic and I wanted to know more. There was a page long info dump somewhere in the start of how city of Verity was made and there were mentions of something caalled 'Phenomenon' which resulted in creation of monsters but nothing else. We were thrown in this world with no explanations. Mostly I don't mind such books where there is no introduction to the world in the beginning because they always kinda intrigued me. For example Magic Bites or The Fifth Season because we always get to know more about the world as the story progressed but sadly, it wasn't the case here. Pages after pages of August being sad about his very existence and Kate trying way way wayyyy toohard to be a badass but no fucking world building ugh.
☆The first two parts of the story were so boring that it took me like 6 days to finish it. There was almost nothing happening. I was in a huge slump and I was honestly thinking of putting it off for few days. I had to start reading Six of Crows to put me out of my slump. If it wasn't for my dear friend Hiba I would have stopped reading it but tbh im kinda grateful that I didn't. I started liking it in the end.
☆ Kate dangling unlit cigarette from her mouth was giving off TFiOS vibes.
☆ I didn't like Kate and August in the start. Kate was supposedly badass but really was just a bitch. I mean what was the point of threatening every person who want to be your friend? That's just extremely rude and NOT BADASS. Sure yeah she burned the chapel that was cool but after that-she did nothing up until 60% mark. She would just tell us how awesome she is and then proceed to whine about her father.
☆ August was supposed to be the nice guy but in the start he just felt like another version of Kate who would whine about his existance. I just want to be human blah blah blah. There was almost no page in first two part of the book where August had not complained about how he doesn't want to be a monster. This was in the first two parts, I actually started to like both of them in the last two parts.
☆ Both August and Kate were too quick to trust each other. It would have been believable if the characters weren't supposed to be broken and distrustful toward everyone else. Especially Kate, whowas supposedly friendless but quickly become friends with August. If there was any romance between August and Kate, then I'd have surely dnfed it at 50%.
What I liked:
☆The idea was intriguing. Ten points to Victoria Schwab for monsters especially those who can suck your soul by music.
☆The writing was decent. I liked it for most parts. And to be honest if the writing was not decent I would have dnfed it somewhere in part two.
☆I loved the description of music particularly. They were kinda enchanting and intruiging. My favourite was this
Each chord hung in the air, shimmering like dust caught in beams of sun, and as the song ended a third time and the melody trailed off, he stood there savoring the perfect moment.
☆No romance between main characters. YASSS. It was very refreshing to read about how their relation developed without the element of romance even though it was insta-friends.
☆Both August and Kate developed as characters in the last parts pf the story. Kate actually become kinda badass instead of a whinny bitch and August put his powers to use. There was considerably more action, fighting and story in the second part but not enought to make this book a 4 star read.
☆Relation between Ilsa and August<3<3<3<3<3. It is always refreshing to read about developed relationships between brothers and sisters because I think it is missing from many YA books. I loved how August and Ilsa comforted each other and how they were able to understand eachother.
☆ THAT ENDING😱😱😱😱.
***
So overall it was fun book. I enjoyed it more towards the end and I'm excited to read the next book and see whether Schwab up her game or not. Now if you would excuse me Six of Crows have been sitting on my currently reading shelf for two days and it is kinda insulting it to left that amazing book unfinished so I have to go. Bye!...more
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