RiffMonkey

This was a great story, I wasn't as rapt as I was with the other one in this collection that I have read but it was still very good. Very fast and tense like the whole thing could have had chasing music in the background and it would have fit perfectly. I guess now we know what the dead know. Revenge, baby

I had some trouble getting through this book because it was more the revealing of facts than it really was a story. Up until the very end I was pretty uninterested as to who had killed Mr. Ackroyd. And I do not want to be one of those people who are very proud that they guessed the correct murderer. Except I am, regrettably, and I did.

The identity of the murderer is really the only thing that made the novel interesting, which is unfortunate since it is at the very end. So the whole thing was quite boring until the last couple of pages. I am glad I have read it but it wasn't what I had hoped it would be. 

The writing style of these books is still not my favourite. The characters and events are not given the weight they deserve. When Grover was given his title, instead of making this a very important moment, the culmination of his life's work, and having that make it impactful, he just passes out for a laugh. It is such a waste of the potential of that moment. And the series is full of those moments where the tone of the book is just wrong. You can do a serious yet lighthearted book, but not this way.

The story ended how I thought it would. And I did want to know what happened to the characters but I definitely do not have the urge to know any more. I am glad I am finished with this. 

I have tried to read this book before and disliked it due to all the weird refrences to gender roles, subtle sexism by the good guys and blatant sexism by the bad ones. And it still very much annoyed the shit out of me. The way Krystal is said to be “very capable” she is literally in danger twice already in this book. I am really not in the mood for the main female character to be constantly kidnapped. It's a dumb trope that I hate so I hope this is the last of that shit. 

I was honestly hoping for much more accounting stuff about supernatural contracts and all that shit. Fred is so incapable of doing literally anything else. I do think I will be reading the next book but if it's just more of this I will not be finishing the series. 

I was really excited for this book. Pulley's books are almost always much more about the character than about the plot until the very end when all is explained. But this time it was in a bad way. It was so very confusing and I didn't understand about 70% of this book. It was so very slow if I wasn't trying to reach a reading goal this month I would perhaps not have finished it at all. 

I loved the characters so much especially Kite was amazing and his relationship with Joe was great to read about but the plot was just not it. To many politics that I didn't understand and I feel were not really explained. Perhaps because it is so based on history that no in-depth explanation seems needed. If you read a fantasy and everything is made up the politics are explained in full and I far prefer that. Mostly because I know nothing about any history ever. 

This is an epic fantasy if I ever read one. It is immensely long and sometimes hard to get through because it starts off very slowly, but the ending and its many reveals and twists are worth quite the wait. I do wish Shallan and Jasnah could have been slightly more involved but I suspect we will see much more of them in the second book. 

The length of all the books in this series is definitely holding me back however. Luckily I read a lot of books in a year but finishing this still feels like a whole ass achievement. I am sure I will be reading the next one, but I will definitely need a fucking break in between, damn. 

I am a bit unsure about this. I liked the main story but could see where it was going to go from the very beginning. Not that that is a bad thing per se but it didn't help me keep reading this already very short novel. The side stories were all quite nice, especially the one with the mermaids was amazing and some were also a bit disappointing. Like any short story collection really.

The bits where Anima is telling a story bothered me slightly. The bit where ?? tells Vessel about ??r life was nice but the composition on paper didn't really add anything significant and then later the poem about the sunrise just felt very unnecessary. The contents as well as the composition on the page. And in both parts, the punctuation was all over the place. Now if this was at all relevant to the text itself it might be nice like in House of Leaves, but it really wasn't so I didn't quite get the point. Was still very much worth the read though. 

I loved the way this was written, the story and the scientific explanations of the dragons. The research really was a big focus and that was really great. Isabella was a great character and I liked how it described what role she has in society. I usually dislike books where they really focus on the fact that women are not valued as much but here I didn't mind it so much. I will definitely be reading the next one. 

I am so glad that this was recommended to me. I have no idea where I got it from but I listened to it on my bike ride to a friend's house and it was a half-hour of emotions. My god this story did some much in 30 pages it is ridiculous. Excellent story, and excellent characters. Just amazing

The constant sexualisation of the characters, both in the narration and the roles in the story bothered me a lot. I do not like reading constantly about nipples and puckering lips and all that shit. I also disliked all the characters, they all had descriptions that did not match up with the way they were written. We are constantly reminded that Marlinchen is dumb and Rose and Undine are so fucking smart. I have not seen them do a single smart thing until the last 30 pages. 

I didn't like the ending either. It felt like nothing happened until the last couple of pages. It was no plot but also not really good character arcs or anything. It felt a little like an empty shell. It really threw me into a reading slump. 

It showed the story of how Christopher got to the Home in a nice short and sweet way. I loved that the skeletons were once human but forgot after too many generations. Although I do feel the short stories often lack some of the flourishes that the novellas have. As if written by a different all-knowing narrator than the main series. 

I in no way understand why my mother recommended this. I also do not get why the rating of this book is so high by so many people. In the first chapter, there was already much unnecessary grossness and violence towards women. But in the second it was even worse, and it did not get better as the book went on. Call me crazy but I would rather not read a whole chapter about some racist, misogynistic, child-raping paedophile having a tirade about how much better he is than everyone else and trying to justify his slave-owning ass. 

I do not want to read about exploitation or rape. I do not give a shit about torture and the most dark psychological hellscape you can come up with. But just 500 pages of a garbage human ruining the lives of this magical family made me feel sick to my stomach. It's a fucking miracle I even finished this book although I am quite sure I was dissociated for the last 2 chapters at least. 

I was very annoyed by this book. The thing I love about little red riding hood is the mystery element. Finding out the grandma is the wolf, but also speaking to the wolf. I love the adaptations that make the wolf something other than the bad guy the most. 

This didn't really even have a wolf element. It was more just every bad guy was an animal or something. It was very mild. The main character was also really unlikeable. She was ‘so much smarter' than everyone else. The whole of the people apparently could not think of all the things she could. Honestly, it was so annoying. 

The whole he/she-ing of the kids was also super dumb. Have you ever heard of the word ‘they' perhaps. For fucks sake. We didn't even get to see the fucking grandma. The ending was anti-climactic and the way the story was told with all the flashbacks also made all the main plot points be right next to each other, even though they were really weeks apart. I didn't like that either. 

I really dislike the whole AI turns evil trope, it might have been pretty new when this book came out but I really didn't like it, and never have. Especially because the story doesn't end when AIDAN is inactivated. The other characters were really nice though. I especially like Kady and Byron especially. Though the ending made me feel weird. They made BeiTech be part of some sort of weird family dispute. It kind of confused me. 

The way the story is told is cool though, I like the fact that it told my many different voice actors in the audiobook. And the physical is full of art and labels for all the official documents. I am very glad that I did not read it physically though. Even going through it a little almost gave me a headache. 

I forgot how much I loved the first book, and reading this second one has really redoubled my love for Cabal and the writing style in these books. I laughed out loud multiple times. Cabal as a character is great, even better now with the addition of a soul and conscience. And of course the whole murder mystery of it all was great as well. 

The only thing about this I slightly disliked was that the last story was so fully disconnected from the main novel that it was hard to pivot. I had to wait some days and read it later, and although I did like it I would have rather seen in separately in a short story collection of sorts. 

This book moves so fast. Zinnia immediately accepts that she is in a magical world. She doesn't question what happened or why she can even fucking interdimensional text her friend. She is totally obsessed with fairly tales but never comments on the fact that Charm is very clearly meant to be Prince Charming. It underestimates the reader's intelligence (or ability to pick up on hints) constantly. 

It is also trying to be too many things at once. It is trying to be serious and all sad about her disease, but then the book calls said disease Roseville ‘Malady' with no hint of irony and makes a ‘Harold, they're lesbians' reference, not even as a character but ingrained in the name of an actual character. You cannot be so silly and also be serious, have the character be aware of the references and also not at the same time. You can't explain some interdimensional travel but also have them straight up just text each other. You have to pick a vibe and this was trying to be way too much. 

I also disliked the characters, they seemed very flat and one-dimensional with only really one certain issue of characteristic. Solidly not for me. 

Ren as a character was great to read from. She was Arenza, Renata and Ren and all three perspectives were great in their own way. I do always love the use of language and names in these sorts of book to reflect which way the character is leaning and how other see her. I hope to see more from that in the next book now that we know who the Rook is. 

I did want to know better how the magic system worked. It might be because I have read much of Sanderson and am more used to mathematically detailed description of exactly how things work but I missed that a little here. Especially the numinat stuff. I did really love the tarot like divination that was going on and hope to see more of that as well. 

I don't know how many times I have layed the book on my chest after reading a chapter and just said to myself “what the fuck, what the actual fuck just happened”. This whole book is like one big fever dream and it was excellent. I imagine someone could go on and on analysing every tiny little detail of this and tell you why it was brilliant. I just know that it was. 

This is definitely not a book you want to read when you are having any sort of hallucination-ish symptoms of any kind. I learned that the hard way and put it away immediately. It definitely makes you think you are going insane. But I fucking love that. 

And finally thebstory ends. I liked many of the characters and much of the story. It surely doesn't shy away from killing of major characters neither which I always think is a good thing in trilogies. 

I do wish there would be more stories tied up. This started out as a story about 3 different Londons. Expect in the end it was really only about red London. The stories in the other colours where almost abandoned is briefly mentioned. I had hoped to see more of their future as well. 

Just like The House in the Cerulean Sea, it was cosy it was beautiful. It made me weep. It was a great read and I love the ending. It's a very heartwarming story again as with the other book where a man finds himself becoming kinder and better. 

What I liked more about The House in the Cerulean Sea that I missed a bit here, is that they didn't have all the control. Most of the tension there came from Linus deciding what to do, and less about some outside force punching them, like the manager did here. Less kind or less about the person than it was. 

I haven't struggled this much to finish a book in a very long time. It started off interesting however I dislike the worldbuilding, both because there is no real foundation and many plot holes. It just feels like it makes no sense. Near the middle, it all started going off the rails. 

Not only did the romance make no sense, there was far too much sex or kissing at moments when it made no sense. Honestly, I just disliked the whole thing. Many parts especially at the end were contradicting earlier parts in the book, and it all took too long. It was on my list for so long and it was very disappointing. I am also not a fan of constant veiled rape threats, no thanks. 

For the short interim between the larger books that this is it was pretty good. The same writing that I always love and more information about how Jack and Alexis fell in love was great. Although it did slightly lack a story, I felt. Especially considering Seanan can often make such a beautiful self-contained story with so few pages I expected a little more story and a little less fluff. It was still very enjoyable though. 

What a fucking excellent horror novel. I both enjoyed the story as well as the writing style and dialogue. I was looking for a good horror book since being disappointed by several other ‘horrors' in the past couple of months and fuck did I find it. 

The characters were excellent and the story was great. It really unnerved me, which is exactly what I wanted. Miss Potter was definitely my favourite. I am definitely going to read more by Kingfisher, might be one of my new favourite authors if this keeps up. 

I love this series and I love bottle episodes so I knew this one was gonna be amazing. And it was, oh god it was. I lose track of who is what species and what all of them can do, but luckily so do the characters and it feels natural the way they repeat certain things about their anatomy and culture in the text to help you keep up. 

Honestly the last 100 pages of this I was just crying and smiling the whole way. This made me want to reread the first book because it gave me that same feeling. A group of people of different species learning about each other, helping each other and sharing their lives and cultures. Magnificant. 

By all means, this is a brilliant book. It also was a challenging read to be sure. I usually don't love reading about history precisely because of how horrible it was and reminds you of how much it sucks today. But this book did it so well that I just had to read it. For some reason, because it was so clearly about colonisation and everything around it was what made me want to read it. 

I loved the characterisation of everyone, especially the difference between Letty and Professor Craft, in the end, was what made an impression on me. They don't make it seem like someone like Letty can only ever make the choice she did. And Robin's realisation about Canton also stuck with me long after reading that chapter. It was all just so good. 

One thing that bothered me was the ending. Not the last chapters necessarily, I had realised soon that this was the only way it could really end and which way Robin and Victoire would go in that moment. But the fact that we don't get an extended epilogue. Not knowing the future of this alternative history is so frustrating after everything they went through. I want to know what happened with the war, with Abel and the other workers, if they succeeded, if it had any impact at all. All we got saw a very poetic “we'll see”