Laura
Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for a free copy via goodreads giveaway! I enjoyed this book! There were a few little issues I had, but overall, it was a fun read. The cover... gorgeous. The pace... a little slow in the beginning but picks up about 100 pages in. I wasn't sure how I felt about the story until the pace picked up, then I really started to enjoy it, and I'm glad I kept reading. I had to google so many terms because I was unfamiliar with Persian folklore, but after a while I got the hang of it. Soraya got a little annoying at times, but she's a teenager right? All teenagers get a little annoying. Her wishy-washy-ness between being a helpless, forgotten princess and a strong, poisonous woman gave me a bit of whiplash. I do love that (SPOILER AHEAD) Soraya ended up with Parvaneh in the end
I think I'm in the minority when it comes to this book. Maybe it's because I'm an adult woman reading this instead of a teen girl, or because I listened to the audiobook, but this book just didn't do it for me.
1. It was predictable af.
2. Lara Jean's use of “mommy” and “daddy” creeped me out. She's 17 ffs, grow up.
3. The whole “fake date to get back at your ex/lost love” trope doesn't interest me at all. Jealousy and spite aren't cute.
I won't be continuing this series.
I really loved this book. I listened to the audiobook so my review is based on that experience. There was a lot more cursing than I was expecting from Eoin Colfer, but I didn't mind it, in fact, it made some of the lines especially funny. The narrator had a Louisiana accent, but it wasn't distracting, it added to the story.
I liked the concept and plot of this book, but I think I made a mistake listening to the audiobook. There were two narrators, a man and a woman. The woman's narration was awesome. The man's however... the way he talked it was like you could hear the punctuation at the end of every sentence. Like there was a weird emphasis on the last word, unless he was speaking in the French accent, then it wasn't noticeable. I did find myself zoning out while listening, so I know I missed a few details, but overall, not bad. Just... meh.
Holy shit. Just.... holy shit.
This book has been on my TBR since it came out, and I'm mad at myself for never reading it til now. I am very glad I listened to the audiobook version of this because it has an entire cast and it's beautifully recorded. The EMOTION you hear in their voices, JFC. I CRIED LIKE FIVE TIMES, Three of which were in the last 30 min. I just read this book is becoming a show on Amazon Prime and you can bet your ass, I'll be watching it.
3.5 stars. The first 150ish pages of this book were so incredibly slow, I almost gave up on it. But the friend who recommended it encouraged me to keep reading, and I'm glad I did. The middle 100ish pages were better, I could tell the story was finally progressing and the pace was picking up. Then the last 100ish pages were so fast paced, I sped through them, and I love how it ended. I had predictions from the very beginning, which were only slightly wrong, and I'm glad about that. Hoping the rest of the series keeps the same pace as the end of this book, cuz that will definitely make me want to keep reading.
I very thoroughly enjoyed this novella! 4.5 stars because I wish it was longer! I'm definitely going to read the entire series because they're so short. I'm an instant fan of Seanan McGuire's writing style and imagination. I can't wait to read more about the different worlds these wonderful characters have traveled to!
I feel like I spent so much of this book in a state of confusion, but I suppose that's to be expected out of the first book of a 40+ book series set in a universe where the characters live on a disc that sits on four elephants, which stand on the back of a giant turtle swimming through space.
Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. I may skip around in this series, as it is allowed.
2.5 stars
Thank all the gods I'm finally finished with this damn book. im actually really proud of myself for not DNFing this freaking thing. I'm usually not one to write long, detailed reviews but this book has made me eager to write this. First, this book is so overhyped. I picked it up solely because there was an author blurb on the back from VE Schwab and I usually trust her implicitly. I have to now take author recs with a grain of salt because my trust has been wounded.
Anyway. The first 50ish pages of this book are a damn mess. I was confused from the get. World building was almost non existent, and character development was really slow. The most annoying thing was trying to ignore all the obscure words the author used. For the first half of the book I was reading on Kindle, and thank god I was because I had to look up a word on every other page. This made reading very jarring and took me out of the story. I guess if you have an extensive vocabulary, this isn't an issue, but I guess I don't. She also threw in random F words where they were totally unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE the F word, but it wasn't used right like 80% of the time.
After about 150 pages, the story sort of started to make sense, and got interesting.
The next annoying thing was that every character, and there were approximately 5000 of them, went by at LEAST four names. Their whole name, just their first or last name, their house number, their title (necromancer/cavalier), or some other random name (warden, princess, heir, daughter, etc). I can't count how many times I had to look at the Dramatis Personae to figure out who the fuck they were talking about.
Throughout the book, I found myself having to reread paragraphs, sometimes multiple times, because they didn't make sense, or my mind would wander (usually to thoughts on how to write this review). The description said there were lesbian necromancers, but in fact, the lesbian, Gideon, was a cavalier. It's never explicitly said that Harrow was gay, and I assumed she wasn't until one line at the VERY END hinted that she was. Shit, it was only hinted at that Gideon was gay. She had some dirty magazines and she had a crush on a female character. But there was absolutely no sexual tension or anything physical to develop that part of her character. I was hoping that at least near the end, Harrow and Gideon would do the whole “enemies to lovers” trope... but nope. Speaking of the ending, it was kind of anticlimactic!?!
The last thing that bothered me was THEY NEVER EXPLAINED WHY HARROW CALLED GIDEON “GRIDDLE”. Why?! TELL ME WHY?!?!? And they never explained exactly what a Lyctor is?! Like that's the whole point of the book but WTF IS IT?!?!?
There were a few things I did like about the book. One was Gideon's snarky comments. I'm also very glad that they provided backstory on why Harrow and Gideon hated each other. Even though I was still confused about it for like two chapters after. I feel like this story, the concept itself, had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. And it just wasn't written right.
Sorry y'all. This one just didn't do it for me.
I. Loved. This. Book. Of course, I absolutely adore the movie, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the majority of the best lines from the movie were taken directly from the book. It also took me longer than I'd like to admit to find out that S. Morgenstern is in fact, not a real person, but a pen name for William Goldman. Once I realized this, I found it funny that he “edited out” so many parts, and it made me wonder if he was just lazy and didn't want to write certain parts (or didn't know what to write?). When I started the book, I almost started to skip all of his “notes” where he “edited” just to stay focused on the main story, but I'm glad I didn't because it did add some humor to the book. I recommend this book to anyone who loves the movie.
I freaking LOVED this book. I listened to it as an audiobook, and at times, I found myself spacing off, and I'd have to rewind to catch what I missed. But that's my own fault, not the story's. I devoured this book in 3 days, and for a 12 hour audiobook, that's fast for me. I'm looking forward to listening to Song of Achilles.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I wasn't expecting the twist near the end. However, I wish there was more magic in this story! The Swan sisters were killed for being witches... but they weren't actually witches. Other than the curse of them returning every year, there was no magic. Slightly disappointed, but overall, I liked the story.
I got this Uncorrected Proof from a coworker who had won it on Goodreads. I follow a bunch of Instagram illustrators, but not Beth Evans (but now I do), and flipping through it I could see her illustrations were included so I gave it a shot. Finished in two days (three reading sessions) and I enjoyed it a lot. As a person with moderate anxiety, I could relate to SO MANY of Beth's stories, including awkward social interactions, saying the wrong thing and internalizing it for days afterwards, being bullied and thinking it was my fault, etc. Its so refreshing to read that other people struggle with the same issues, especially when you don't have many friends with anxiety, or even the same kind of anxiety as you. I work in a high school library, and I am most definitely putting this book in our collection. I think the teens that read this will realize that even adults suffer from anxiety (even if we are better at hiding it) and its okay to feel that way. The ONLY thing that I didn't care for in this book was the formatting. Occasionally, an illustration (or up to three pages of illustrations) would be in between a sentence, so I would have to skip the pages of illustrations to finish the sentence, then flip back to read the illustrations. It wasn't awful, it just felt like I was being interrupted.
I freaking loved this book. It took me two tries to really get into it, but once I got about 100 pages in, I was hooked. The layout is so beautiful and strange, it kept me wanting to read more and more. This book made me literally laugh out loud, and it also broke my heart. I cannot wait to read Gemina.