192 replies to this topic

[Katia11]

You should at least give a star rating for each book you read! Plus maybe a one word reaction. "Exciting", "sobering", "sad", "romantic!" etc.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

 

I think I can handle that

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

Lumberjanes, Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy, written by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis, illustrated by Brooke A. Allen, and colored by Maarta Laiho

 

4 stars

 

A trade bindup of the first four issues of the Lumberjanes comic about a group of teenage girls at a girl scout-esque summer camp trying to have an awesome summer while they encounter river monsters, bear women, and three eyed giant foxes that tell them to Beware the Kitten Holy, among other supernatural weirdness.

 

This was a really fun read. I've debated on and off about picking this up for months, but I happened to read the summary for it on Amazon not too long ago and noticed that this was compared to Gravity Falls. Pretty much cemented it right there. I had to read it now, because Gravity Falls. So I finally used the Overdrive account I've had for months to borrow it. And I'm so glad I did. It was cute. A bit rushed in pace, maybe, but fun to read and the art was nice too. I loved all the bright colors and expressive linework. The characters are all a great group, too. They work very well together and I really enjoy seeing their friendship. Definitely recommend this comic.

 

Overdrive doesn't have the second or third trade bindups, but they do have the single issues up through like, number 18 I think? So I can still read through a lot of this series that way.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

(The Raven Cycle book four)

 

4.5 stars

 

This was amazing!! Such a great book on its own, and definitely a very good ending to the series. I only really have one (very spoilery) complaint, which is this:

 

Spoiler

Am I the only one who's disappointed that Gansey didn't stay dead? Not that I wanted him to die...I really like his character and I'm glad he gets to live to adulthood. But we were promised since, like, the first chapter of The Raven Boys that Gansey would absolutely die before next St. Mark's Eve. And it almost feels like a copout to let him come back to life, even if Cabeswater did have to sacrifice itself to do it. I was hoping Maggie would stick to her guns and kill Gansey and keep him dead. This felt a little bit like giving in to the fans who didn't want to see him die, which is why I'm disappointed.

 

That's the only reason I had to knock off half a star in my rating. If it had been different, I would have been able to give this book a perfect five stars. But alas.

 

I also loved that a certain pairing

 

Spoiler

ADAM AND RONAN

 

that's been teased since book two finally became canon. I always liked the idea of it, but I didn't realize how much I needed it in my life until it happened. Those two are my lifeblood now. Not themselves as characters, because they're not my favorites, not by a longshot, but because their relationship is just so satisfying. They deserved to have something good in their lives and that finally happened. And that I will forever celebrate.

 

I loved the addition of Henry to the group, and I really liked how all the creepiness got turned up to eleven in this book, and how there was gore and blood and death all over the place. It really upped the stakes.

 

I wish I had more to add, but there's not much else to say about this book. All around, solid installment, solid end to the story.

 

 

 

 

 

This book really did take me far too long to read. But that's what happens when you have to apartment hunt, pack, work extra shifts, and move states all in the time you're trying to read a book you've anticipated for months. I'm looking forward to rereading this series back-to-back later in the year or perhaps next year and flying through them.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

A Call to Arms: book one of the Chronicles of Arden by Shiriluna Nott and Saja H.

 

I was given a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Well...this book certainly wasn't what I was expecting from the summary. And not in a good way.

 

The description made the book sound exactly like something I would enjoy--a teenage boy who is solely responsible for his younger siblings gets conscripted into the army and has to train at their academy, and along the way he makes friends and falls in love with his roommate. LGBT-friendly fantasy YA. I was all over that. But then I started reading. None of my expectations were met. I continued on, somewhat despairingly, as this book failed to live up to anything I wanted it to be.

 

First, let's talk about the world-building. It doesn't make much sense. This culture worships two creator Goddesses (whose story is given to us in the info-dumpy form of Gib reading a myth about them in a fairy tale book), has no male deities to speak of, and yet...it's patrilineal and patriarchal. Gib's friend Kezra is frowned upon by the more conservative members of society for being a girl in the soldier's training track at the Academy. Joel's brother openly scorns women in general, and women soldiers in particular, as not knowing their place. Why the hell would a culture that only worships female deities and has no male gods whatsoever, let alone male gods in a higher authority, be this sexist? It doesn't make any sense.

 

In addition to that, the plot line about Gib overhearing a plan to assassinate the king takes a backseat to pretty much everything else in this book. When it does pop up, it's not handled very well. People consistently tell Gib that the king is too well guarded for an assassination attempt to work, and then act surprised when someone tries to kill the king anyway. The romance scenes are full of purple prose. "Joel's lips tasted like sweet despair" is a real, actual sentence in this book. I'm not making that up. The author actually wrote that. Not to mention that there are countless incidents of clunky replacements for names--the mage trainee, the sentinel trainee, the older boy, etc. These types of things are okay when used sparingly, but really, once you know a character's name, you shouldn't be using these other terms. Just refer to them by their names or their appropriate pronouns. Going out of your way to avoid using names is a sign of amateur writing. And really, that's what this book is. It's an amateur novel. It's the book you write to learn how to write a book. You write it, you edit it, and then you leave it alone while you write better books and if, after you've written a handful more, you still think that first book is redeemable, you rewrite it again from the ground up. You don't write the book, edit it yourself, and then self-publish it. Because people will notice that it's not up to par.

 

This entire book was such a disappointment. The description was on point, interesting and engaging. But it failed to measure up the standard it gave itself in its summary.

 

I do have to say, though, that in general, I liked the characters. Even though there was very little if any development in their storylines and personalities, they were usually quite likeable. If they'd been developed further and contributed more to the story overall, I might have raised my rating to 2.5 stars. But alas, it was not to be.

 

I honestly can't recommend this book to anybody, and if I wasn't given a copy specifically to review, I wouldn't have finished it at all.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

Lumberjanes vol. 2: Friendship to the Max by Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke Allen, and Maarta Laiho

 

3.75 stars

 

Technically I read these as single issues, since that's what my library had available on Overdrive, but I didn't have enough to say about each one to write individual reviews.

 

Overall, I think this was a bit less solid than the first volume--more confusing in its plot, with more threads left untied, but it was just as enjoyable to read.

 

My thoughts specific to this set:

 

Lumberjanes #5

I love the random little developments we get in this one, like finding out that Bubbles isn't actually a hat, but a very well-behaved live raccoon. I also loved the mystery that shrouded Jo in this issue, seeming to indicate that she might take over as main protagonist in future installments. I wish the Bear Woman's appearance hadn't been so fleeting. Her story didn't really fit too much into that of this issue aside from making Jo look mysterious and it wasn't even so much as addressed once in the next three issues.

 

Lumberjanes #6

It would have been more interesting if the implications about Jo from the previous issue had been true, rather than what was eventually revealed to be true. We also should have been introduced to Diane earlier if she's going to be important, though in hindsight from the eighth issue it makes sense it was a late intro...but it still could have  been more impactful. The capture the flag game was hilariously over dramatic, and probably my favorite part of this issue.

 

Lumberjanes #7

The ending of this one was great, but overall this felt a bit rushed.

 

Lumberjanes #8

Diane's father is so weird. And I loved it. Glad she seems to be out of the narrative because honestly, I didn't like her much. I don't have any idea where the story is going to go from here, though. The arc that carried from the first issue through to here seems like it could have been spread out over more issues and made more sense that way, but it appears that this series will be a bit more episodic than that. I'm still looking forward to more, though it would have been nice to feel less harried in this story arc.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:



Angelfall by Susan Ee

(Penryn & The End of Days book one)

4/5 stars

Summary in a nutshell: The angels of the apocalypse have descended upon Earth, destroying human civilization and scattering the surviving humans into small family packs that forage by day and hide in terror in their homes at night. Our protagonist, Penryn, is trying to lead her schizophrenic mother and wheelchair-bound little sister away from their condo to a new location, since they have scavenged all the food they can in their area. Shortly after setting out, an angel swoops down and snatches Penryn's sister right out of her chair. Panicked, her mother flees all alone into the dark, and Penryn is left to try to figure out how to rescue her sister and find her mother. She witnesses an angel attacked by its own kind get its wings cut off, and she decided that teaming up with him to head to the aerie--angel headquarters--is her best option of finding her sister and getting to safety.

This book had the misfortune to be the one I put down in order to finish something else first, only to completely forget that I was in the middle of reading it. It languished on my shelf, untouched, for months.

And then, when I decided to pick it up again over the Memorial Day weekend, I finished it in just a few sittings. Because this book was good--very good, and once I actually sat down to read it, I flew through it. It has this compelling nature about it that kept me turning pages to find out what happened next. And since it's fairly short--only about 285 pages--I could make significant progress in what felt like no time. And I'm so glad that this was the case. I was afraid that since I'd put it down for so long, I wouldn't end up liking it once I started reading again. I was completely and utterly wrong.

Angelfall is engrossing, and sometimes it's just straight up gross, too. The main character eats catfood more than once just because it's got nutrients in it, and bloody dismemberment is described in detail every time it happens. I couldn't eat while reading this book, for fear of being sick to my stomach by some of the descriptions. But all the same, it was captivating. I am definitely going to be picking up the rest of the series, and I won't make the mistake of putting them aside for six months again.

[Katia11]

THIS SERIES WAS SO GOOD. THANK YOU MARY.  

[SweeneyxxTodd]

THIS SERIES WAS SO GOOD. THANK YOU MARY.

 

Which one? Penryn and the End of Days?

[Katia11]

Yes

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

 

1.75 stars.

 

This book had a fantastic premise, and the writing for the summary was snappy and enticing. I was so excited for this book. After finding out about it, I put on my Christmas list, and I was so happy when I received it. I expected to fall in love with this book.

 

And I...didn't. Not in the slightest. As I kept reading, I found more and more things to disappoint me. Meira, while not an unlikeable protagonist, was almost impossible to relate to. There just seemed to be this wall between what she thought and experienced throughout the book and my ability to care about it. For most of the book, I just could not make myself care. She whined about never being allowed to go on missions, and I just sat there thinking, "Well, yeah, you suck at close range fighting. No f*cking wonder they won't let you leave. You're a liability. Boo hoo. Keep practicing." She was betrothed to the Cordellan prince without her knowledge or consent, and yeah, that sucked and I felt bad for her, but also she wasn't really in a position to bargain much and it would get their nation a military ally, not to mention that Theron was actually a good guy and trying to make the most of the situation too. So...yeah. Boo hoo. I honestly couldn't find it in me to care about what happened to Meira or really any of the characters until the battle of Bithai. Everything that happened afterward, I cared a bit more about. Not significantly, because Meira was so hard to connect with and Theron was really the only character I found enjoyable and interesting, but I did sometimes care when something went wrong for Meira after Bithai.

 

My second complaint is the world-building. It's extremely shoddy and handled so poorly. There are info-dumps everywhere. f*cking. Everywhere. There's an example fairly early on in the plot, when Meira and Sir first meet a bunch of Cordellan soldiers. When the soldiers discover that they are Winterians, one of them swears, "Golden leaves!" And Meira is confused but concludes that it's some Cordellan idiom. Then they go to the Cordellan capital and see a fancy gate covered in golden leaves. This is fine. If we'd been left with that, we could figure out for ourselves the meaning/origin of the expression "golden leaves." But nope. Ms. Raasch instead decided to write an entire paragraph of Meira explaining how Noam, Cordell's king, is so good at farm magic that Cordell can practically make leaves out of gold, which explains the soldier's earlier swear--"golden leaves."

 

These types of info-dumps are abundant throughout the book and frankly, they're insulting. Readers are a lot smarter than that. We can figure this kind of shit out by ourselves. We don't need Meira to explain everything in several paragraphs every time something fantastical happens. This was the biggest issue I had with the book. I constantly felt like I was being talked down to, like the author thought I couldn't handle basic fantasy culture. This book was written for a young adult audience. The people reading this book know how to use context clues and critical thinking to understand the cultures you make up and the phrases you give them to make them feel more real.

 

My third complain is about the characters. Theron was really the only one that stood out to me. Meira could get quite whiny at times, but was otherwise an alright narrator, if a little bland. But the other Winterian refugees? They all felt so two-dimensional. They didn't get enough development to feel like they were actually even there. I only remember half of their names and I just put the book down two minutes ago.

 

Oh, and let us not forget the "big plot twist" we discover when Meira is in Angra's palace in Spring. Yeah. I figured that out probaby in chapter two. It wasn't that difficult, it wasn't remotely surprising, and it was handled terribly. Frankly, it would have been more interesting if Meira knew that all along and we had the suspense of whether she could keep her secret or not.

 

I just...could not find many redeeming qualities about this book, aside from the fact that the plot from the entrance into the Winterian work camp until the end was better than the rest of the book.

 

Unfortunately, when it came down to it, this book failed to meet any of my expectations for it. I will not be continuing the series, and I will look forward to the day when I can get rid of my copy and get something better suiting to my tastes on my bookshelf.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

Lumberjanes vol. 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis

 

Read as single issues, but reviewing this edition because it's easier and more streamlined.

 

Solid 4 stars. I really loved these four issues. The change in artist was unexpected, but I found myself really enjoying the new art style. It allowed for more expressive faces, which really helped show the characters' emotions better and made it easier to connect with them. I also liked the slower pace of these issues compared to the first eight. It was a lot easier to absorb what was happening, since the events got more focus, and also the slower pace left more room for character development. We learned a lot about the Janes in this set and it really helped me fall even deeper in love with this series.

 

Thoughts specific to each issue:

 

LJ #9:

Using guest artists to illustrate the different stories was a really interesting idea, but Ripley's story stood out too much, since the other artists generally drew in very similar styles to one another whereas her story was illustrated in Stylistic Suck. I also wish that the lettering on her story had been easier to read. I found myself squinting at it. Childish, poorly formed cursive in a small font size really wasn't a good lettering decision.

 

LJ #10:

Loving the new art style. Mal and Molly's picnic was adorable. I hope Jo, April, and Ripley make the best cake.

 

LJ #11:

I don't know why Molly thought following Bear Woman into the outhouse was a good idea, considering what happened the last time she opened that outhouse door. I really loved Mal and Molly getting to know each other better.

 

LJ #12:

I think Mal and Molly's relationship is one of my favorite aspects of this series. It's so natural, and I really feel like these two girls are trying to have a good romance despite their summer camp of supernatural doom. I look forward to seeing it continue to develop in further issues. And I'm kinda bummed that Jo and April failed at so many different badges.

 

All around, I think this really took the series in a great new direction and I'm excited to see where it goes!

[Mara=^.^=]

@Snow Like Ashes: ugh. I hate it when books fall crazy short of expectations. I'm surprised it got a 4.02 on goodreads considering how you described it. No accounting for taste, I suppose.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[SweeneyxxTodd]

Super popular books are like that sometimes. The majority of readers love the shit out of it, but then there are people who just do not click with that book. At all. I happened to be in that category this time. 

[Katia11]

I definitely didn't love the shit out of it either. However, I do admit to liking it more then you did.  

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

The Tale of Aang by Michael Teitelbaum

(The Earth Kingdom Chronicles #1)

 

3 stars

 

Finally read and own all of these.

 

My least favorite of the set, partially because Aang is my least favorite of the main characters and partially because it's clear that less effort was put into these earlier books to make them interesting. There was a lot more summarizing of action scenes in this than I remember happening in the later books. But maybe I just don't remember them that well and need to reread. Either way, I still liked it. It was a quick way to relive some of Avatar without getting sucked into the bottomless hole that a rewatch would do.

 

I am really confused as to why the gender of the baby born in the Serpent's Pass was changed, though.... In the show the baby was a girl, but for some reason in that scene here in the book , it was a boy. I guess they just didn't fact-check.

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clark

 

4 stars.

 

Quick summary: Ananna is the daughter of a pirate captain. When her parents try to marry her off to a spoiled, whiny loser from a rival pirate clan, she says "f*ck this," steals a camel, and runs away. Unfortunately, the rival clan sends an assassin after her for insulting their honor, and Ananna has to face him down in the desert one night, armed with some magic she was loaned by a woman she barely knows. In the confrontation, she accidentally activates a curse that had been placed on the assassin years prior, binding them together. They set off on a journey to discover the cure for his curse, dealing with mechanical beasts, river witches, floating islands, and other obstacles.

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. It's not very fast-paced, but rather takes a character-driven approach to telling the story. Ananna and Naji were great characters. I had lots of fun reading about their interactions and watching their relationship develop throughout the course of the story. In fact, I found their relationship to be particularly refreshing. A lot of Young Adult books feature romance pretty heavily, and a lot of them tend toward insta-love, but this book does neither. The development of their relationship felt natural, and not rushed at all. Perfectly paced. Ananna and Naji had to learn to trust each other, not just with their lives, which they were forced to do because of their curse, but with their thoughts and emotions, which somehow seemed much more intimate because of how hard it was.

 

I also really liked the world. I want to know more about the Empire, and about the magic system, but what we did learn in this book was enough to help us acclimate ourselves and follow the action. Magic is change, and it causes change around itself when it is used. Using too much magic at once is dangerous not only because it is physically draining, but because you run the risk of making harmful and unintentional changes to the world. This was shown consistently throughout the book. Whenever Naji exhausted himself on magic, Ananna had to be on the lookout for magic sickness--that huge change--and when they were on the island at the end, magic was more of a threat than a help, because there was just too much of it around to control.

 

Ananna's narration was very engaging and really, really funny. I lost count of how many times I laughed out loud at her sass and sarcasm, and the flippant way she had of explaining things she didn't understand or consider all that important.

 

I'm really looking forward to picking up the second book, and hope I can do so soon. I want to see how this ends!

[Mara=^.^=]

Ananna is the daughter of a pirate captain. When her parents try to marry her off to a spoiled, whiny loser from a rival pirate clan, she says "f*ck this," steals a camel, and runs away.

 

LOLOLOL

 

This sounds like my kinda book. I'll have to check it out once I get caught up on the THREE REVIEWS I still haven't written for the last set of books I read

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[SweeneyxxTodd]

That all happens in the first like, eight pages or something. She goes through the motions of meeting the guy, then when he insults her entire clan, she just nopes right on out of there.

 

It's not a super popular book, so it might be hard to find at a library. If you really want to read it and can't find it anywhere near you, I could mail you my copy to borrow.

[Katia11]

She goes through the motions of meeting the guy, then when he insults her entire clan, she just nopes right on out of there.

 

 

teehee that made me giggle.  

[SweeneyxxTodd]

REVIEW:

 

 

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

(Red Rising trilogy #1)

 

Summary: Darrow is a Red, a member of a class of people who mine beneath the surface of Mars to collect minerals needed to terraform the planet for the rest of humanity. But he discovers that humans reached the surface of Mars hundreds of years ago, and his people have been slaving away in ignorance all this time. He joins a group bent on rebelling againt the Gold overlords--superhumans whose brutal enforcement of an extremely complex hierarchy of power--but to do so, he must become one of them.

 

I wasn't sure at first how much I would like this book. The beginning was a bit hard to get into--it was hard to care about Eo and the other miners of Lambda at first--but once Darrow met the Sons of Ares and the plot took off, this book was engrossing. I thought I had a three star book in my hands, but it ended up a solid four and deserving every one.

 

Darrow was a fascinating narrator. He viewed things so differently than the Golds did, and it was through his reactions to and opinions of the Gold way of thinking that we saw what he really thought, since he didn't come right out and state it that often. I also loved the Institute. I never knew what was going to happen next and damn did Darrow have to earn his ending. I can't imagine the kinds of things the Institute students had to go through and I am glad for it. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy and seeing how things go down in the end.