DB

Hello, new best book ever. Definitely a favourite of this year. Amongst many. I think I'll have to sort them by age range and category. This for sure would fall under the YA Horror category. And book by an author I've read before. I very much recommend it. And all of Marshall's other books (even though I've only read two books now).

Ever since I read Rules for Vanishing some time back (maybe 2019?) I knew that this author would be a firm favourite of mine. She once again proved it with These Fleeting Shadows and will further prove it when I get to her other books.

The blurb for this is The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out. I still haven't watched Knives Out but Hill House is one of my favourite TV series so I had high hopes it would deliver on that – it absolutely did and much more. It actually made me want to rewatch Hill House straight away (which I've done now

The writing was absolutely phenomenal. It drew me in, it kept me captivated throughout the entire book. I never felt bored, I never felt like the writing was boring me. I always thank the book thoroughly when the writing doesn't bore me – you will too when you go from a boring book to an exciting one.

Helen is the main character of the story and I love her so much. There was a moment at the start of the book where I thought I wouldn't really like her but that quickly turned around and I did love her immensely. She's a strong character, stronger than she thinks she is. She's curious (but also how curious do you want to be in a horror story?) and that helps her to be a stronger character. She's a bit apprehensive when it comes to relationships (who could blame her, though) although she improves at that as the book carries on.

The house is also the other main character in this. Which might not make sense but if you're familiar with a lot of haunted house stories (or have watched The Haunting of Hill House), you know what I mean. The house has a rich history (albeit bad), there's a lot of stories that have happened in the house, countless of people who have lived and died in that house. That all makes it as much of a main character as Helen. It has its own agendas, its own story to tell. It has secrets that it reveals to us and to Helen.

The family and the family dynamics that we get in this book was written so well. You get to know the family and (eventually) the secrets, but there's still so much you don't know, or could know about the family. All that just adds to the mysteriousness of everything – the book, the house, the plot – so well. Also I would not like to be in this family. Married in, biologically, legally adopted, basically part of the family (like you have your preferred mug and you do chores).

As I did with Rules for Vanishing, I read most of These Fleeting Shadows late at night – as in after midnight. I recommend and I also do not recommend doing that. It's scary and the writing and the plot just make it so much scarier so maybe don't read it late at night? But also to me it just elevated the reading experience that much more. I also listened to the Hill House soundtrack while I was reading the book, to further push the vibes of Hill House. That I do recommend – it was quite fun.

Bryony was an absolute delight to meet and get to know. I'm always for the quirky characters, the ones that other people always think of as weird – probably because that that's me. She knew who she was and she wasn't afraid to just be herself, plus she encouraged Helen to be more of herself too.

The book is more than just a family and a house and secrets. It's about knowing yourself. Who you are on the outside versus you on the inside and how you portray yourself to be. It's about not letting other people decide who you are. It's about acknowledging who you are.

Look, I really wanted to finish and like this book. But I kept reading a few pages of it and then putting it down to read something else. It was when I used the text-to-speech function on my kindle and realized nearly a chapter had gone by with me not paying a lick of attention – I had to dnf this, otherwise I was very likely to get into another reading slump. It stayed on my Currently Reading shelf for about a YEAR because I kept trying to get myself into this book.

So yes, I dnfed this at 25%. The cause? I guess not being interested enough? The characters were interesting and I liked the whole plot – rebellions are always fun to read about. It's not that it was high sci-fi – I liked that bit. I think it was largely due to the characters – though they were interesting from time to time – it wasn't enough to keep my reading.

Maybe I'll pick it up in audio some time.

I was entranced through most of my reading this. Joan He really knows how to pull the reader in and keep them there. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi so I did go in expecting not to understand stuff. I actually did understand so that's good! I loved the writing so much. It flowed between the sisters' chapters so well and that's all due to the author.

The plot is not easily explainable or understandable but surprisingly that didn't confuse me! A reason why I don't often read sci-fi books is because the plots tend to be harder for me to understand than other books. It's also a testament to He's writing; because it could've easily been too confusing and I would've dnfed.

Kasey and Cee were both very interesting characters. I think I liked Cee more at the start and then Kasey later on. I liked their sibling relationship, even if they weren't right by each other. I think I do prefer it when siblings aren't together physically as it tests their relationship.

I thought the ecological theme was very interesting and well handled. It's a constant topic in reality and something that should be looked at more. I think He brought it down to a YA level but didn't look down on it so much.

I had read another book by Adam Sass so I did really want to read this. This was another one where I pushed myself to carry on reading. This was in First Person pov and I didn't like it. The main character was very annoying – since it's in first person, it's more difficult to ignore. It was also quite predictable and I could see what was going to happen before well before the half-way mark.

dnf at 41%

I started out liking it, which is good, but started to see issues early on. I tried to just push through and stopped when I found myself just tapping to the next page. I know when I do that then it's time to stop reading. I did really want to like it but there were glaring issues and I couldn't close my eyes to them.

Most of the time I love it when a book reads like fanfiction, all right? It's great, it reads easy for me, I want to keep reading and I'd love for there to be fanfiction of that book. This book, however, reads like fanfiction in the bad way. There's no real characterisation or development because the author assumes we already know the characters from the media (whatever the format) and therefore chooses not to change their personalities. Although in here they just didn't really have any personalities. So rather stop reading than try to carry on.

It's a dual-pov with slight appearances by the youngest sister, Brianne, who's under the sleeping curse (slight here meaning like 3? chapters at the most). So not a true multi-pov which makes sense as to why everyone's saying dual-pov. I liked both main characters but I probably would say I preferred Sabine's chapters more. Not to say that I didn't like Elodie – I did. I just didn't agree with her thoughts and actions all the time. Also (and obviously this is the whole royal vs. commoner differences) she was a bit naive now and then? She's hasty in her decisions – which isn't really her fault. The book is very fast-paced. Mom dies a few days before the book starts and then the youngest sister is crowned and then boom she goes to sleep. So it's hard to fault her for making rash decisions when there are deadlines on various matters. Even though I was keeping that in mind it didn't help me in forgiving her carelessness all that much.

This further showed in how she treated Sabine and acted around her (more of the royal vs. commoner differences). I won't say anything really about the end of the book, obviously, but it will be interesting to see how the sequel changes in these terms. I related more so to Sabine than Elodie. Interestingly enough, even though both had siblings, I felt Elodie's relationships with hers is more believable. Nothing entirely wrong with Sabine's relationships with her brother and sister, it just didn't feel as real as Elodie's did.

I really liked how Tooley took the church and made us look at the darker side of it. Like it or not, whatever feelings you have on the church; unfortunately there is a darker side. The Chaplain in here definitely represents that. I sussed him out the first time we meet him on page and I wanted to go inside the book and just punch his annoying face. He knows exactly what to say to get what he wants and he has no problem in manipulating everyone to get his way. I wanted to drag his greasy hands away from Brianne and throw them into the ocean or something. And then, you know, might as well carry on with throwing the rest of his body in the ocean.

It's a fast-paced book and the action is well mixed up with the silent moments. Tooley did a good job in writing and balancing them. I think a lot of writers are usually focused on the action scenes and creating a believable romance, adding witty banter (if they choose). I think they forget that you can have silent moments and it can be good. There's sadness in both girls – sadness that actually is the same when you look at the heart of it all. I hope Tooley carries that into the sequel. If her other books also have it that definitely makes me want to read it more.

Let's focus on the narrators first. This book is narrated by two people – cousins. One's Mark, and the other Talia (whose name I forgot for a few seconds. I only remembered Mark's because his is on a Note on my Kindle as my Notes are currently pulled up). And I felt both narrators were pretty boring. I liked Talia a tiny bit more, but that was it.

I mean, Mark, to me, felt so self-centered and boring and privileged and just, sorry, but boring again. Like instead of helping around the house he decides to have fun. He should've paid more attention to Paige, seriously. He tries to act funny but it just fails. Talia, while the (slight) better of the two narrator, tries to act like she's awkward and cool at the same time and it only makes her look more awkward and not in that cool type of way. While she is very proud of her identity, and she can most certainly be, it just felt like she was pushing all her ideas and opinions onto other people and trying to make them think like her. And people don't feel the same way and that's okay!

I love this cover so much. The font's super cool, the rainbow road and the car, all so great. But... that's about it. The third star is solely for the cover. Paige is mostly the reason why I didn't star it lower – she was at least funny, adorable, and she reads Magnus Chase so ☝

I was excited to read this because it sounded so good and it's set at a boarding school and I love boarding school settings but unfortunately that's just how it goes! I don't have any concrete reasons for not liking this, except I just... didn't like it at all. I was bored through most of it – I told myself “okay let's listen to 30 mins real time and then make a decision (to push through or just dnf). I think I didn't even make it 10 minutes and I was zoning out and didn't even want to make myself listen to the book.

We were promised a lot in the book and I don't think I saw any of that. I found everything so boring and I try to immediately stop reading when I find the book boring. Yes, I saw the book was dark and while I do like I couldn't bring myself to actually care about it. Apparently there's humour in the book – I did not crack a single smile through the bit that I read. I didn't like the narrators so I think that added to my dislike of the book.

This was such a fun and quick read. I know Doescher wrote William Shakespeare's Star Wars as well so I might pick that up whenever soon. I've watched Mean Girls about a hundred million times so I knew nearly about the entire movie.

It's been a while since I've read a Shakespeare play so it took me a while to get used to the writing; but not so long that it made me like the play less.

This was interesting to read! I really like Hamlet (the play) and I'm up for most of Shakespeare retellings. There's a lot of talk and discussion to be had around the play in terms of madness and what that all entails. Hamlet being an android here made for an interesting change because madness is (mostly) a human emotion. But an android could be mad if their code were faulty. We've seen a lot of movies where androids perform human emotions due to their coding – it's one of my favourite things in science-fiction. So I really liked how the author approached it here.

I liked the characters in here. Hamlet and Horatio were fantastic. I think in like any retelling (of this I might read) and the original play – I feel for Ophelia. I've always felt for her. She's probably my favourite, I think. I like how in here she's given more of a voice and treated like a well-rounded character.

The prose was outstanding. I highlighted a lot of it and I reread most of them to let it sink in. I want to see if their other books also has this level of writing/prose – if so, I definitely want to read it. Plus, there was a Lion King reference? Which is doubly funny if you know that The Lion King is loosely influenced by Hamlet. So then to have it – or at least a loose reference to the Disney movie in here – it was just really funny to me.

I finally decided to stop reading at 60%. I really should've stopped at like 15 or 20%. I wasn't taking in anything and when I stopped reading I basically forgot about everything that was in the book – names, whatever the plot was. What I do remember is a very, very confusing plot – that even after looking at spoilery reviews – I don't understand.

The cover and the synopsis made me see it as a simple YA mystery/thriller book. I got something very more confusing and because I wasn't interested in any of it I didn't want to take the time to properly try to understand the book. I don't remember any of the characters? None were memorable at all – I only remember some names because I looked at the synopsis when I started this review.

Further on than not just remembering anything, I didn't want to know more about them or read their dialogue with each other. That also made me decide to stop reading it because you shouldn't really try to force yourself to care about characters, you know?

You know those books where you don't have the highest of expectations but you want your reading experience to go a certain way so you come out at least liking the book? That was me with House of Hunger. I knew going in I wasn't expecting it to be my new favourite of the year or anything, but I still had some expectations for it. Luckily this hasn't stopped me from wanting to read Henderson's other book, The Year of the Reaper (whenever I get to that). Either I like/love it or I know not to read Henderson's future books.

I should've marked this a Did-Not-Finish rather than slogging through the book and disliking it all the way through. I originally rated it 3 stars but then after thinking about and it's now a 1 star for me. Which also proves to me I should've stopped reading early on or when I first started realising it wasn't going my way – which there were so many parts where I had the urge to stop reading it. But I didn't and that was a bit of a mistake – whoops.

Both covers were just absolutely stunning. I had the review copy with the UK cover but the US cover is also amazing. The cover (both of them) were definitely why I wanted to read it. Unfortunately the cover did not make up for everything else. Which is sad because they're both so gorgeous!

I sort of liked Marion as a character. I started off interested in her journey and then she met Lisavet and everything immediately went down for me (whoopsie!). I would've rated higher if the plot just matched the characters? I don't know if this makes sense but to me Marion was written (a bit) better than the plot. And I only mention her because I disliked all the other characters so much that even though I didn't like much of anything, Marion was basically my favourite by default because she was the best... of sort of the worst.

I don't like books that only start picking up – pace or plot – right at the end. For House of Hunger, to me at least, the “real” action I think was only after the 80% percent. Which is not what I want in a book at all – especially when it's a book that I'm disliking all the way through.

I can't even bring myself to say like one nice thing about Lisavet and the representation surrounding her because I disliked her so so much. Obviously that's how the character is meant to be written but I was reading reviews and others were raving about how much they loved the characters and the represention was good. Because you had me sitting and thinking “good representation? WHERE”. Did these readers purchase a special edition of this book where Lisavet was interesting? I didn't find her compelling or interesting or likeable in the slightest.

I know that because this is a Gothic novel certain traits of the genre are expected from it. Specifically a slower pace – which means I should have expected this. But this isn't always the case with other Gothic novels so maybe it was me, maybe it was just this book – like I say a lot – you can't always win with every book.

I mange to get to about 11% and (once again) realised I wasn't connecting at all to the characters. I'm definitely more of a character reader. Don't get me wrong, I really really love my plots, but badly written characters spoil the vibe for me and is the main cause of me dnfing a book.

Plus, there was a lot of information being shoved at the reader in the tiny part that I read and that's another reason to not carry on reading. I like having information but not that much in such a little timespan.

This book. Just wrecked me and I was very happy to let it wreck me. Much like I know the third book will probably make me cry. As in actual tears. I will stand and recommend this series all the damn day because I need everyone to feel what I felt and go pick this series up!!

I just wanted Esmae to sleep and rest throughout the book. Like I literally have a note saying NO YOU NEED TO SLEEP. My girl has gone through so so much and she'll be going through even more in the next book. Even I felt like sleeping for her during this novel. But she still remained one of my favourite characters. She remained strong and powerful and just amazing.

Titania had a POV and that's everything I wanted. Once again, she is my favourite. And she cares so much about Esmae it's so good. She wants the best for her and she knows secrets and things yet she can't talk about them. There's also a Dramatis Personae, created by Titania, in the beginning of the book and now I want more of that in every book.

I didn't actually mention this in the previous review – of the first book – but I loved Sybilla the first instance we saw her and my love for her doubled in this book. I definitely hope she has an even bigger role in the third book because I really enjoyed her character. They also mention Sybilla's monthly bleeding and that's what I want – casual talk of periods!!

Max was definitely a character that crept into my heart during the first book and that was the same in this book. He's just so good? Same with Bear – I liked his character.

I'm not going to talk about something specific that happens in a book – but there's something that happens on a Moon and it completely destroyed me. It was the right amount of perfect and also the right amount of heartache.

https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/mini-dnf-review/

Listen, I didn't finish this one, okay? I stopped around, I think, 15%. Therefore I don't have as an articulate summary as my other reviews (or well, two, excluding this one, as I recently started doing this).

I did want to like this book, as it seemed like a good book – a lot of people on Goodreads liked it. Everyone said it had a good plot, but I sometimes have trouble with the going back and forth of time. But unfortunately, it just wasn't for me – which is perfectly fine, as not everyone likes the same book.

I think what I didn't like were the characters – Scott and Winny. I didn't click with them and if I don't click with the characters within the first 10 or so percent of a book, I'll probably not finish it.

Do I recommend this: Since I didn't finish it, I can't actually say if it's good or not. If you read the actual summary (the way more concise one on Goodreads. and you think it's interesting, definitely go have a read!).

Link to my blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/oh-arc-my-arc/

Spoilers ahead: I have listed all the warnings and whatnot I could find in the book. They do spoil some of the plot, but it's better than to go blindly into the book

Warnings: Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Medication overdose (supporting character overdoses on his insulin). Supporting has depression and nothing is done about it. Intense dislike towards a diabetic person and their disorder. Racist language. Racist character. Non-consensual harassment (rubbing body parts up against another unwilling person). Slut-shaming. Lastly, the view of Christianity is a harsh one, and not necessarily true (from someone who has experienced a positive view of Christianity).

Received from Netgalley

So the cover caught my attention and the description made it seem as if it was a good book...and it just wasn't. I'm going to do my duty and tell you why I didn't like it and the few reasons why I did. Prepare for a long review and quotes. Get your snacks and towels, kittens.

I started not feeling the love for the main character within the first 50 pages of the book. He's so flighty and indecisive and while those are two traits associated with teenagers, the way Adam portrays it and how he comes across in the book makes him out to be childish. And he's not. He's in his final year of school, but the way he's been written, it feels like he's 14/15.

Those of you who are wondering if Christianity is like this – well, it depends on how harsh your church/pastor is. My old one was pretty harsh – part of the reason why I left – and this book's just bringing up all the old feelings I had when attending the church and believing. I didn't mark the book down because it brought up old feelings – I speak about the way faith is portrayed in the book in the next paragraph.

So I marked the book down half because of the characters/plot/dialogue (all usual reasons) but I also marked the book down because of how Christianity is portrayed, and more accurately, how the author portrays Christianity. Please note the following: I do not know the author, and therefore I am not aware of his religion, or lack of one; which is to say that I am discussing how the author writes the religion that is shown in the book, and not the author's religion. So there are a few quotes in the book that...irked me, but I'll mark all those quotes in the ‘quote' section of the review – there's a quote section because I couldn't stop myself from commenting on the quotes.

But anyway – so the author writes from the main male character's point of view, and he goes to Christian camp to try to turn straight – because you can pray the gay away, didya know? And obviously at the camp, there's a lot of talk about faith and God and most of it is negative towards anything that some readers might deem not sinful (masturbation, premarital sex, etc.). Like I know the author is trying to get into the whole religious thing to show the readers how heavy the camp is, but the way he's writing the story is just...not cool. It's too much. I'm not sure if it's just me and the feelings I have towards Christianity but I'm not liking the way everyone talks about faith in the book. I feel that the author is writing the Bible Camp view of faith (if you're understanding me) with too much vigour – like he's enjoying it.

And speaking of the parents – look, I grew up with Christian parents and family. My friendship circle and my parents' friendship circle is basically made up of Christians (well, not mine so much anymore). I know what's expected (from parents) and what God expects. But the parents in this novel are terrible...It's like the author was tired the one night of trying to flesh out the parents and decided: ‘all right! I'll make them crappy and just make them send Adam away so they won't have to deal with him!'

Ok, so, warning – I'm going to talk about one of the characters and depression. So one of Adam's roommates is depressed. They don't really talk about why he's depressed and they do absolutely nothing to help the poor guy. Adam and mostly everyone at the camp calls themselves Christians and yet they do nothing to help him? cough cough very unchristianlike.

The only reason why I sort of liked this book is because of three characters – Martin, Mike, and Rhonda. That's it.

I think the author thinks we can read Adam's mind. He makes Adam think/say sentences and he's like ‘ah, yes, I was thinking about this.' like where? Please show me. Do you know what that's called? Inconsistency.

Another problem I had with the book was the fact that Adam met one of the male characters – his love interest – basically immediately had a crush on him cough cough instalove and then when the love interest and Adam have a disagreement, Adam stops having a crush on the love interest.

Quotes:

“It's about a preacher who uses an app to brainwash his followers into believing God is speaking to them on their phones.”

- I will literally pay you to be able to read this instead of the book.


“Two boys shopping for clothes,” Greta says. “How interesting.”

- So if boys can't shop for clothes then they can't wear them, right? And also let's just bring up the fact that if they were two girls shopping together no weird thoughts would be there (but then again we could argue that if the one girl is a confirmed lesbian, the other would surely follow – if we were to play by the rules shown in the book.


“Camp Revelation.”

- A camp named after the book in the Bible that's about the end of the world? Yeah, ok. That's what the book's about, right? Hopefully the Bible hasn't changed the last time I read it. Which was in high school.


Turns out khakis and polo tops were the only things we're allowed to wear at the camp.”

- Because jeans and a tank top will turn you to sin.


“Screens get between you and God.”

- Except the Bible tells us that God is everywhere and the only reason why screens get between us and God is because we allow it to.


“The way a man finds another a man's wife attractive. And you know the commandment against acting on that.”

- ok A: If you're happy in your marriage, you shouldn't be looking at other women.

B: I'm like half sure that even thinking about finding another's man's wife is lust or covetousness (because women are property of their husbands – right?).


“I don't know if I would compare being gay to being addicted to drugs.”

“Both end in death and destruction.”

- Hang on – how does being gay make you more likely to die? Romeo and Juliet were straight and they died. Gatsby was straight(ish) and he died. Jack Dawson was straight and he died (ok let's stop with all the Di Caprio references).


“Rhonda gave everyone a scare yesterday. And she may have hurt the reputation of the camp.”

- The...reputation...of a camp that converts (or tries to convert gays or stop sinners or whatever)...is good? Oh right, people think they can pray the gay away.

Sarah is sitting next to Paul. I watch her as she takes his hand in hers. She looks into his eyes while she sings out of key at the top of her legs.

- whispers is that not a sin? Because seriously my youth had a whole talk on how to hug the opposite sex. Spoiler alert: Approach from the side, hug must not last more than 5ish seconds.

This was an okay read. It wasn't anything really special and didn't stay in my heart. Partly because of the characters. Partly because of the writing. I enjoyed the plot, don't get me wrong, but it fell flat a lot of the times.

So, Hallie was the 15 year old who got stuck in Susan's body, and Susan was the 82 year old who got stuck in Hallie's body – which seems pretty easy enough, since you think their two voices would be vastly different – and not just because of their ages, but because their personalities – but so many times I had to flick towards the start of the chapter or read on until I can find out whose chapter it is.

If I had to pick a favourite character (of the mains), I'd probably choose Hallie? She had the more interesting personality and I maybe even wanted to be friends with her. Susan, I felt, fell into the stereotypical old person viewpoint – which isn't exactly the wrong thing here, because as you get older, you do have a different viewpoint on issues and whatnot – but Susan was definitely on that stereotypical line and it was annoying to read.

The plot, though a good one, did have some flaws. A big thing was that I thought it felt too preachy, too life-lessony. Now the author is an older person (which isn't the issue here because older writers can and do write YA), it's just that there was a definite feeling of the writer pushing a life lesson onto the readers – there's even a Dear Reader letter that speaks about what inspired the book – again, sounding preachy.

Do I recommend this: It was a good read, so you can be sure of that, and the characters were fun.

Ashley is having a Goodreads Giveaway! Read more here: Goodreads Giveaway! or read on to read my review!

Link to my blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/the-author-less-read/?frame-nonce=995302e5b8

Amount of Stars: Fiv
Ok, so first I've read this book at least five times (I mean, it could be ten, but I'm crap at Maths). Half of those times were editing it and the other half beta reading it. I'm not giving it five stars because I've read it five times or whatever (because if I have to go that route, all the Harry Potters would be over ten).

Nocturna deserves five stars because it's amazing. Like just read it. Give it a go. And give an indie author feels to feel. Because the author is a friend of mine and she's just wonderful and she will most probably just love you if you read her book (tbh she'll probably love you if you support Slytherins and hate Dumbledore and whatnot – as is seen by our very lengthy and heated discussions about Harry Potter and all the characters we want to adopt and hug and pair them up with each other).

All right so this is a YA Fantasy (and Fantasy is the genre that started me on reading – thank you, Pappa for reading LotR to me) and it's LGBT+ (which adds like 2 stars already). I mean everything's just wonderful in it. The characters are amazing and I just want to hug like all of them. Give or take a million times.

Read the book and you'll know why. I connected to some of the characters in the way I might act the way they did in certain circumstances, or how I would hope I would act (but I would definitely be a Merry and would most certainly be the one to accidentally kick armour off a well and wake up an entire army. I wonder if the goblin army in Moria reverted to cannibalism in order to survive. No, stop, DB. Stop finding ways to refer to cannibalism).

Onward with the characters. They're brilliant. They're funny. They care. They make you want to insert yourself into the story (which I suspect Narnia and Inkheart took that advice very close to their hearts. Not that I'm complaining).

So now that the characters have drawn you in, allow the plot to draw you in. Ashley (the author) has spent a lot of time building the world. And you can see that she's spent a lot of time on the world – which is very important, especially when you're writing a fantasy novel. Also add to the fact that Nocturna is her very first novel, and she self-published it. Can we get a hell yeah for her (hell yeah!)? Can we get a whoop whoop (whoop whoop!)? Can we get her redemption for Tom Riddle (well duh!)?

I mean I could literally go on for days about this book and how wonderful it is and how you should all read it, but then go ahead and then read it! Post a review on Goodreads and Amazon and rave to your friends about it!

Perfect for readers who love fantasy worlds, royalty and love. And sarcastic characters (Valon, you beaut).

I managed to get to 18% before deciding to dnf and I was so bored throughout it all. From the apparent perfection of Cherry/Cerise and although her hometown views her as a bad girl for various reasons – she ran off with a man, left him, had a baby with another man, made sure her kids were fed and dressed (but that was with a job that left them clutching their pearls) but she's still seen as the ‘darling' of the town. Two men want to be with her, or maybe only one really did, but I saw absolutely no chemistry with Cerise (in fact it felt like she had no chemistry with anyone, including her kids) with either of them. The whole spiel of all the townspeople disliking her because of her choices but then also constantly showing up to help her annoyed me so much. Either have them dislike her outright or have them help her out.

The language trying to be flowery but it just fell flat for me and somehow added to trying to make Cerise out to be an amazing mom because she's great with the kids even when they're ‘difficult'. It's just all of that just tried to make Cerise a strong character and I didn't feel it at all.

So the older kid, Jonah, is disabled. It's said he has a genetic disorder and although it's not mentioned anywhere, he's autistic and largely non-verbal too. The author said in the acknowledgements that she wrote Jonah based on/for her disabled kid – and then she names his diagnoses – so we basically know what Jonah's diagnoses are. I don't know when the book is set because the year is never mentioned. Phones, their cords and cradles are mentioned but seeing as the book is set in a small town it makes sense for them to still have corded phones – let's say still into the 2000's. Jonah wears headphones, but they're actually not a new thing (dating back somewhere to the 1800s, surprisingly). All of that is to say – the r-slur is used a few times in the book – when is this book set? Their usage of it felt so casual). Either way, I don't like the slur – whenever the book is set.

I didn't like how Cerise spoke about Jonah. Specifically there was this line where he wakes up and his eyes are like dulled by the reality of life. And then it says he's ‘only fully himself when asleep' which annoyed me a lot because he stims a lot. So what? He's not himself when he stims? Stimming even helps the person feel more like themself. I stim (ADHD, not autistic) and stimming is something I like to do – it calms me down, it shows when I'm happy etc. Stimming isn't only for happy or angry. sometimes we just like to make noise for fun! Also it felt like he was only there to prop Cerise up, to show how good of a mom she was because she's taking care of him.

I'll be down for reading more gothic books if they're like this. I liked Temperance, thankfully, almost from the get-go. When you have a small cast (or rather the focus is mostly on a group of people) and the story is in a first person POV; it's important (at least for me) to connect easily and early on with the main character/s. Family is a big part of Temperance's life, her personality. Why she does what she does.

There's also Temperance's job, which is taking over as the town's Lamplighter after her father passed away. The job has to be done as there are dangers in the fog. For the first bit I did want the dangers to be revealed or at least for us to understand what's really in there. But as we carried on I preferred that we were in the dark much like the town and Temperance through most of the book. That way we learned through her and shared her experiences. It's also characteristic of a gothic novel, I believe. Even though I'm not so clued up on the genre, I know some things. Like when there's monsters, you won't typically see them, if at all, for most of the story. It's about how the creatures makes the characters feel, what roles they play in the story, even what themes and morals the characters possess because of the antagonists.

Temperance isn't necessarily a quiet character but she's in a time and community where women are meant to be seen, not heard, perfect wives or planning to be perfect wives. She was out there with a job and giving opinions, trying to have her say – which of course, no one wanted to listen to her. Which means she had to go it alone and discover what was happening herself. I liked the subplot of her sister potentially marrying someone in the town but he's not a good person though Temperance is the only one to see that. It added some more mystery to the book and also added to her personality as you can see she cares a lot for her sister.

I really liked the creatures and everything surrounding them. I could've done with a lot more focus on them than anything else. Of course I understand why they were pushed into the background but a bigger focus on them would've been great.

Normally I'm not a fan of constant pov changes – and when they're in the same chapter – but I didn't find that so annoying here? Plus they're all first person pov and didn't annoy me – which was another win as I often find them annoying. Big kudos to the two authors for managing to pull that off!

Of course when you have an ensemble group it could become difficult to differentiate between their voices and personalities but that didn't seem to be the issues here. All the povs were in first person yet I never really got confused as to whose pov I was reading.

I already knew The Ghost Gang from the previous book but I liked how they took the events from it and made sure it affected them in this book. That they wouldn't forget them (hard to, considering what they'd been through) and it's a good reminder that trauma shows itself in many ways and it's a difficult thing to navigate.

The characters improved in this book and I liked seeing that. Looking back at my review for the first book I said Chrissy was my favourite and Chase, my least. I liked Chase much better this turn around! I said in Horror Hotel that he felt like cared more about the fame and the group. And that I hoped that he would change that in the future. That definitely was the case here! He not only improved as a character (in my eyes); he cared more about the group than their fame (current and any they could get in the future). I liked him more for that. I think for this book Emma and Kiki also improved as characters for me. Actually for this book none of them stood out as a clear favourite? As I liked all of them really well.

I didn't really like Billie, Kiki's mom. Honestly, I didn't really understand why she was on the ship with them. I warmed up to her late into the book but I could've done without her.

I didn't like the whole subplot of the mummy. I thought it was just pushed in there when maybe the editors thought there wasn't enough tension and another subplot needed to be added. We could've had another book with the cursed mummy plot instead of just shoving it into here and not giving it enough space to fully spread its wings.

I liked the other bits of the plots. A ghost haunting of the ship and “oh there's a lady in white wandering the ship” – I loved that. I love haunting stories and they don't get old to me – that is basically what Horror Hotel was too. The Ghost Gang made sure to be respectful to the story, which was good, and solving it was important not only for their Youtube channel.

Even though I didn't like the Paranormal Patrol (also the name is stupid), I did like what they brought to the table. The difference between the two groups, what they both wanted from solving the mystery. How they treated the mystery – respect versus fame. Also how the internet/Hollywood wanted to see them. Like the Ghost Gang are teenagers, why would you push them to sex it up? They're not on Riverdale or Euphoria (most certainly as those teens are played by near 30 year olds).

DNF at 7%

I suppose I'm half to blame as I know I don't like sci-fi books (prefer the movies) and easily dnf books if it's just too confusing or doesn't keep my attention. I thought I was safe because it's set in a Post-Apocalyptic world and I like those. I could feel myself drifting off and reaching for the dnf button very early on. I knew then I wouldn't like much of anything – It was an interesting concept, sure, but I think maybe if I had read this in audio I would've kept at it. I did want to like and read this as I don't really read much sci-fi.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped to. It had a really cool concept but didn't manage to meet my expectations. I liked the graphics, which made for a quick read. The facial expressions were well-drawn, which made me like it more and it easier to read the book faster.

I liked the characters. I liked the approach that they went in with the book. You have your seemingly standard magic boarding school and then it turns out to have that trope be flipped. That part of the story I did enjoy. Something I always really like seeing is when the panels in graphic novels seem like they're moving. I've had instances where the characters looked wooden. Their expressions were still and the panels don't flow into each other nicely. Luckily this wasn't the case with The Black Mage. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan, at least I liked reading it.

I love it when the next books in the series are even better than the previous ones! I really liked Silver in the Bone, I thought it was a great start to a duology, tons of lore and world-building done really well, and The Mirror of Beasts is even somehow better? I gotta get to Bracken's other books if they'll be like this! I loved everything in here and I could definitely see myself rereading the duology (especially to see if I pick up on any hints or easter eggs).

I loved the characters so so much. They improved from the first book – I had to reread because I remembered like literally... nothing – which was a great idea as it really helped me to get into the characters' heads and understand their motivations. This book only carries that forward and definitely delves deeper into what makes them tick.

I said in my review for the first book that Tamsin and Emrys were my two favourite characters and that didn't change in here! They both went though such a change it was amazing to see them go on that journey and how Bracken never faltered on their development for their journey. I think I said I half or mostly liked Neve in the first book and I ended up liking her more here. I remember I didn't immediately like the sorcerers in the first book but they grew on me and then I really liked them!

As mentioned before, Bracken is amazing with the world building and plot. I was captivated throughout, I didn't want to stop reading, she really made me feel like I was in the book and fighting alongside the characters. That's always something I love to experience while reading a book – also a big compliment from a reader, in my eyes.

I love anything mythology and definitely anything Arthurian related. I need to get more books inspired by this mythology – I know there's a bunch. It's swords, it's fighting, it's magic – literally all right up my alley.

Read it here: http://db-bookblogger.blogspot.co.za/?m=1

I don't really read middle grade novels, mostly because I'm not middle grade (and even when I was I didn't read middle grade novels), but also because most of my reading nowadays are fanfiction.

But I chose this book because it had an intriguing summary. While I read the book I kept looking at the back and reading the blurb - mostly to just remind myself of the story.

This was a really good read. The characters were really well written and were amazingly brave throughout everything they had to face and worked well with the others (as they're all kids in an orphanage-type-of-place).

The plot was fantastic as it drew me in and kept me at the edge of my seat. It was a rather slow plot, and most of the action happens in the last 100 or so pages. Though that isn't much of a turn off as it allowed the reader to think about what is happening, which is pretty cool, because it gives you the chance to be a detective (something I love after watching a gazillion cop shows).

So yes, read it. Not just because it's set in an orphanage or because the child characters are cool and take charge. Read it because it's a mysterious work of art. Oh and because the author manages to add in synthesia (the one where you see colours or something) to the main character – which is really cool.