Sarah
Surprisingly sweet book about grief and self blame as a high schooler who feels responsible and anxious and like she's grieving her older brother alone. And also about learning how to let go, a little, and be a high schooler.
The light, fluffy, sappy side of using a consumer dna test is heavily promoted in this, but it's a bad idea. Other than that, the characters are terrible at communicating.
Little Mermaid isn't my favorite tale but this was fun, with a believable relationship development. I'll read more from this author.
I realized I'm not super familiar with the original tale but this kept slowly veering between “so he's cursed because he's bordering on being an incel who can't handle being friends” and some brief moments showing there's more to him so he's a cultured incel. Frustrating.
I like slow burn stories, but this was a lot more of a ‘you're not giving reasons she should ever want to say yes.' This was just gross.
(A day later, this is still bugging me and I cut my rating in half - because it's even worse, he's steadily spying on her sisters' suitors as they are actually learning about the women's interests and legitimately earning their trust and respect and realizing that they'd be able to be content just being friends and respecting an answer of no, if that's what the sisters answer... and the IncelBeast recognizes that that's what they're doing and cheers them on, and yet he repeatedly chooses to just not try that. He cannot possibly accept just being her friend. Incelish-Beast.)
This was really interesting and more complex world-building than most YA I've read - mixing Arthurian legends (which I have never found interesting enough to read much) with Black history and magic and showing (not just saying) “it takes strength to survive and thrive” is a pretty interesting combo. The characters and relationships weren't always heavily developed due to the world-building priority, but that's an understandable choice. There were interesting twists that added a lot, and I enjoyed this enough to go right to the sequel.
A fitting end for a fun series with surprising twists.
I really prefer this approach to a trilogy about war, where figuring out how to handle grief and emotions matters as much as processing desire for revenge and justice, and the emotional impact of participating is acknowledged and people are allowed by their peers to not be 100% enthusiastic about violence.
But it's not just about war and loss, it's about people and how they survive life changes. I love that ordinary people in this world matter, in most countries, and that there's hints of more positive changes to come - the initial invasion should have impacts on everything, and it's satisfying that it does - and not just in Brynt.
I've liked the magic system the whole way through. I loved finding out more about Zalost and the “everyone's only heard about me, not heard what I'd say about myself” sneaky self-serving meeting with Zalost and Koesha's return to let him know the results of his plans, and her realizing he wasn't sincere about giving up.
I'm so glad this series exists.
Not a single likeable character in the book except for the friend, Freddy. I know people who give me the same “this person didn't have a good chance to be a good person, after growing up with bad examples” feeling as everyone in this story did - and I wasn't expecting that from this book, but it also didn't make me care or root for any of the characters. They'd be deeply toxic people if they existed, with no attempt to change. Boring.
Surprisingly cozy romantasy with some dark edges in the world. I appreciated that it doesn't drop the importance of friendship and other aspects of life, or the FMC's family, once the romance steps in. Getting romantically involved for a flimsy reason, without Tyghan ever mentioning he knows much more about her parents, is rather icky, but then most of the characters know more than Bristol did, unfortunately. Having just finished this, I just want her to get free and get her parents free; it'll be interesting to see if that changes with the sequel.
Moderately interesting twist ending I won't spoil, but so many of the details of Dawn's attempt to investigate were predictable and “revealed” in an obvious way. Even the twist isn't a surprise and is there for shock value that just isn't actually there - but perhaps it's not meant for mystery/thriller fans? (Or anyone past teen years, considering the ridiculous throw-in lines emphasizing “Isaac's car is so ancient, it takes a key to start it, not a button” but no mockery of it having a CD player.)
I did enjoy it, it's a decent first book, but it's oddly hollow. I might read more from this author but probably not anything else featuring teen characters.
A really charming, odd and beautiful story that focuses so well on the relationships and gentle academic frustrations, the setting immediately felt familiar and comfortable. I just wish I'd known in advance it ends so abruptly, but I'm looking forward to the followup.
Mixes together many romance tropes and does it well. Sweet, funny, hopeful story with believable characters.
Silly, affectionate parody, and sometimes that's all I want. Would be interested in more focusing on the main characters.
Fascinating, moving memoir, mostly in poetry. The title caught my attention in libby and I'm very glad I read this.
I don't understand how her diagnosis is “later in life” when she was 15ish and she's not far from that now. That was the main reason I was interested enough to read this - I've never seen her videos and would not recognize her in any context. If you claim you're writing about the difference a “later in life” diagnosis can make - or you provide a blurb claiming this is “later in life” - it should not turn out “still diagnosed before high school graduation was near.” “later in life” is misleading.
I really liked Rin's growth at the academy and the focus on morality and loyalty and struggles in war. I knew to expect the horror of chapter 21 and the details of the massacre so I could wait and read that when somewhat ready.
I was not prepared for Rin to seemingly be 90% motivated by sudden lurv and grief and revenge specifically for Altan when she decided she wanted to destroy the federation - Golyn Niis didn't matter, the rest of her people didn't matter, just Altan mattered - as if her characterization in the rest of the book was just “this is her, but she'll forget because of sudden desperate love for him I've not shown before, she's fine with accepting this terrifying power upgrade and shrugging off the consequences (and the understandably appalled reactions from the other people who know her) for a boy.”
I'll have to decide if I want to read the rest of the trilogy - and I'd definitely planned to go straight on, before the last two chapters twisted her into a sudden boy-inspired genocidal revenge fit.
Very tedious. Didn't expect more - I haven't liked anything written by Piers Anthony in years.
It's quite rare for me to write a review. It's even more rare that I wish I could give negative stars; this would get -2.
This was a tedious sample/intro, with shallow characters. Save your time for something else.
The main characters were flawed and believable, it was really interesting to get expat/visitor glimpses of Singapore. I liked this, I'd read more from this author.
This was a fun, cozy, fourth-wall-breaking salute to publishing and murder mystery fans. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Boring. Didn't care enough to finish after the first 20 pages. Waste of good paper, tbh. Very sad for the tree that was wasted for this effort, rather than something useful like paper towels.
And the author seems desperate and creepy and jealous of others' popularity, so that further killed any interest in figuring out how much I'd have to drink to not mind reading more from him.