elena

oh my fucking god she really did THAT

4.5

was that a fever dream or i've actually read that?

Ines was the weirdest main character, there literally was no personality or drive but it also worked perfectly for this story? Confusing open ending, no thorough explanation of the weirdness, creepy ass atmosphere and culty shit - yesss?? fun, awesome, amazing??

But the biggest wtf of this book wasn't any of that. it's these.. um, brilliant, inspiring quotes:
“I didn't like the cookies. Every time I ate them, my stomach filled with unsettled dread.”
“By afternoon, the first flakes fell. They multiplied like a cancer on the glass.”
“I paced from one wall to the next. I took nervous shits.”
“I was sad like a vacuum was sad.”

Okay, he's done it again? It's really good!

The thing here is, many books get labeled as both: thriller and mystery as if they're fully interchangeable regardless of the book content. This is not a thriller in my mind but a dark, atmospheric murder mystery.

The characters feel very real, it's easy to warm up to them and relationships between them are written very nicely and I cared about them so much (cough especially between two specific characters cough)!
What I didn't like was the info dump in the end. I think his first book suffered from the same problem? I might be wrong here, it's been a while since I've read it. I feel like there are many little details that could've been sprinkled throughout the story itself instead of just throwing them into the final reveal as well. I think this way it'd have more of a gradual build up, that I felt was missing.

There are some things that usually make me doubt my desire to pick up a book (historical fiction that goes waaay back to the past & boat stuff), but! I had zero negative feelings about these while reading this book. And it actually does take you on an adventure!






(i HAVE to say, Arent is a weird ass name lol)

“Okay, I said. But remember, you can't fix
everything in the world for everybody.

“However,” said Ricky, “you can't do
anything at all unless you begin.”

Laura and Amy Dunn must be related

what i loved so much about this book is the insight it gives. as a cisgender girl, who's never struggled with problems related to my gender identity, reading from felix's perspective helped me a lot to learn & understand how crucial and meaningful a process of self-discovery in this regard can be.

I feel like the way things wrapped up was..a bit too convenient? but this books hits the feelz nevertheless

an episode of black mirror in a written form

i'm not crying, there's just something in my eye

3.5

4.5

“forever is composed of nows”

if the secret history was dry beyond belief

I just want to adopt nath

thud
thud
thud

3.5

these damn characters, all of them

4.5

“acceptance is a powerful drug, and I should know because I've done them all”

this was quite a journey. made me feel kinda sad that this band never actually existed and I can't go listen to their songs myself now. had to take a star off because, even though some characters were well rounded and interesting, like Camilla, Billy, Daisy, the other band members just became this one “music person” blob for me, with no features that'd make them feel like different people. the story itself did get me though: wanting something you can't have, and still doing the right thing was hard for everyone here and I can see how this can resonate with a lot of people.

mark is one of the funniest characters I've ever read. this was so much fun!
4.5

I don't think anything I can say will do this book and how it made me feel justice. this story, especially how casual this whole thing was for the characters, just killed me. and then the very end killed me once again.

this is so precious and wholesome!

okay, after finishing this book some days ago, i felt like i needed to rant a little bit about it. everyone praises it left and right, so even without wanting to, i had some expectations going into it. and it did not go too well for me. i want to preface this by saying that i haven't read YA in a while, mostly being interested in it when i was around the age of 15. my opinion, as all of the opinions are, is very subjective, as this book is loved by many other people.

things i liked:

- the plot. the heist itself was fun to read about. this was the reason i picked the book up in the first place, so i did enjoy the heist, but it's sweet time to get there.

- was not an info dump. i don't know if this was intentional or not, but we learn about the world as we go, without a long lesson about how everything in this universe works. it was pretty accessible for someone who didn't read any other grisha books.

things i didn't like:

- ages. ok, i get it. 16 is a normal age for your YA character, but neither of them acted their age at all. it's hard for meto imagine that a bunch of teens would end up being top tier criminals. okay, one or two ended up getting there somehow, but a whole bunch of them? i didn't find this too believable. it's understandable how anyone younger than these characters wouldn't find anything wrong with that though. to YA-reading little me, it made perfect sense that someone just a few years older could act so mature and be capable of so much more things than a kid my age. it's just that now it's hard for me to comprehend this when i look at a character so young acting so uncharacteristically. yet, i still think there was a way to write those characters better, with less of this “badass show off” behaviour and more true how an actual teenager would act, while still being a strong character.

- romance. this felt so unnecessary, as if one of the requirements of getting this book published was to put everyone in a romantic relationship. i didn't feel any tension between these couples. it seemed like we were supposed to believe this tension existed based on some occasional thoughts they had of one another and flashbacks. i felt like like the author was just trying to convince me that something is going on between them, rather than just create a tension and meaningful action between them in real time.

- flashbacks. my favorite part, the actual plot, was hidden behind a lot of flashbacks to the point of it being annoying and excessive. yes, learning about people's background is cool and is supposed to get you to care more about the character, but this is supposed to happen in a “side story format” and here the plot felt like one.

- kaz brekker. he's insufferable, fight me. i didn't get attached to any of the characters, yes, but neither of them annoyed me or felt as flat as he did, they just were there, doing their thing. kaz.. well, he's just a 2D, “bad boy” stereotype with no actual personality beyond that. which is disappointing because i'm a sucker for an immoral asshole kind of character. he was the worst offender of “not acting his own age” complaint i had, as well as.. he didn't live up to his reputation. what i mean by that is every character in this book is trying to convince us how immoral he is, that he is a monster, yet we never really witness him doing those terrible things he's apparently known for. again, this felt like the author thought it'd be easier to just repeatedly call him an asshole and hope we'll just believe her, rather than, i don't know, write him actually do said shitty things maybe.

but, overall, i didn't hate this book, hence the 3 star rating. some things did annoy me, but it was entertaining to some extent when we got to the actual plot. this book left me with a strong opinion that it's definitely not a bad choice for someone who normally enjoys YA novels, but it might not be the best one for a person who is sceptical about the genre.

4.5