Nico
This is a short, creepy, translated graphic novel. I enjoyed the creepy artwork and appreciated the weirdness of the story, but overall I was not impacted by it and I think it is underdeveloped.
This was a fine, quick book (I zipped through it). Definitely had opportunity for stronger character development and relationship building, but there was some complexity to the “bad guys” though I would have preferred more. I also didn't love how the first hundred pages constantly went back and forth between timelines. I'm planning to read the rest of the series.
It took me less than 20 days to read Malice and Valor (and with a short graphic novel in between). I'm not a fast physical reader, so I say that to show how much I'm engrossed by this series. All I thought about when I wasn't able to read Valor was crawling into my comfy chair or bed to read Valor. This sequel was much stronger than the first book IMO. I loved everything about it. And all the “tropiness” didn't bother me one bit, I actually dig it. I think it's safe to say I'm now a Faithful and the Fallen fangirl.
This is an absolutely perfect and magical book, and it's especially stunning as an audiobook. I highly recommend for anyone looking for a good tale about personal growth, struggle, relationships and familial love - with some good ole' folklore and magic thrown in. It did take me a few chapters to get into it, but it was well worth it.
Guess I forgot to review this one. From my memory, this was a struggle and I DNFed it initially. It had the slowest build of the four in the series, but at the end of the day I enjoyed the weaving of the story and was very satisfied, it just all happened too late.
This began as very promising for me. I was excited by the premise of a female, human doctor to the supernatural in modern London. At first I had no problem with the dialogue and following along in the mind of Greta, the MC, and I was interested in the “mystery.” The mystery wasn't a mystery by the halfway mark, which is normally fine, and Greta had become very bland for me. By the end, I thought everything, from characters to plot to relationships, was flat. There were 3-4 male characters and I couldn't differentiate them at all throughout the book and all the supernatural beings felt very human. I never felt the tension of the climax and convenience of the ending was an additional mark against it. I hate to say it, but the execution of all aspects of this was bland.
I highly recommend this book for the preteen age group. The world and mythology is super fun and from the start I thought this was going to be 5 stars for me. My personal enjoyment though was meh as I found the dialogue (and there was a lot of it) and plot to be very preteen - and sometimes even younger - and I wasn't interested as someone who reads teen/YA and adult.
What a beautiful tale, full of (mostly) complex and interesting characters who make you want more. I listened to the audiobook for this “read” and I wonder if that impacted my rating, because the narrator is SUPERB and truly made the stories come to life.
I wholeheartedly recommend this series for folks looking for a unique sci-fi-fantasy mash-up with great world building. This turned into the epic conclusion I would expect after Ninth Rain. I had some dissatisfaction with the sequel The Bitter Twins, but had none of it with this final book.
DNFed, kept waiting and waiting for a plot and fantastical elements, but I guess this is just very, very low fantasy.
I started this because I really wanted the absurdist humor I found prevalent in the the Witches books of the same series. I also heard Death wanted to explore his humanity and thought that with what I'm discovering with Terry Pratchett I'd love this. Overall it was just fine.
I picked this up randomly when I saw the title (I was intrigued) and the author (I recognized Yang's name). The graphic novel managed to have many character arcs that were interesting and it touched on themes that I think are important for teens to see/explore. And of course you get the Superman related fun you'd expect from a comic. At the end there are 10 pages of non-fiction outlining the history of Superman and the KKK - I just didn't know. I'd recommend this book for anyone teen to adult.
This has turned into one of the most interesting sci-fis I've read in a while. Interesting and compelling world building for a short amount of pages.
It's the second book in the trilogy that follows The Faithful and the Fallen quartet. It was okay. It's much darker than the FatF and I was surprised that there was still a bit of set up happening for the plot and characters. But at this point I'm definitely a John Gwynne fan so I'm excited to keep going to the conclusion, which I hear is excellent.
My opinion is probably an unpopular one...this book was just fine. It's solid read that I enjoyed and I have no regrets picking it up, but I really did think based on the hype and you know, the Hugo, I was going to love this. It's mostly plot-driven (which didn't truly wow me by the end by-the-by), it's missing quite a bit of character depth IMO, it had some interesting dialogue (it's kind of one of the components that struck me the most) but again mostly just fine, the writing is fine, the deep themes I look for were there but I thought they were very surface level, the sci-fi elements were compelling at first but again, ended up being just fine...all that to say my socks are still on. It's a book that is clearly touching many people (I mean I'm seeing many reviews where folks think all the elements I think are weak are actually strong) so if it seems interesting definitely check it out. I'm going to read the sequel because what grabbed me the most plot-wise will continue on...well I hope at least.
Now having completed the second book of the series, I feel like I can listen to Kathleen Gati read Katherine Arden's tales of Vasilisa to me for the rest of my life.
Until the halfway-ish mark, I was like, “this is fine,” but after that man-o-man my heart was won. This novella was exactly the fun comfort read I was looking fun.
What an excellent read. It took me about 30 pages to get into it and then I was hooked. This has made it into my top fantasy reads of all time. Highly recommend!
A young boy who is raised in isolation and poverty by his father in a dilapidated mansion finds out his mother was a djinn. And then A LOT happens.
I loved this, every POV had my attention, there was nothing I never could predict the trajectory of the story and I had a couple chuckles. Djinn is one of my buzzwords, especially after reading The Ghurka and the Lord of Thursday by the same author, so I nominated this for my IRL book club. The ending was...a surprise and a bit of a bummer, but not a deal breaker. Book club reception was a mix.
Recommend if you want to explore Eastern mythology, like the idea of lots of egotistical djinn, don't mind the idea of fantasy with a sci-fi twist, and want fleshed out characters but don't need a lot of depth in the character relationships.