DB
I saw that In Nightfall had vampires in it and I was like “right yes, instant add and read right here.” I've got those specific tropes and creatures that I'll read about in any format (film, tv, books) and vampires is certainly high on that list. Yes, mostly due to my Twilight phase but actually I think it's largely due to watching the Underworld Saga with Kate Beckinsale at a young age
This is the type of sci-fi I like the most – casual sci-fi with a lot of “Earth inspiration”. I don't even really care if it didn't make sense that there was a Jacuzzi in a hotel room on another planet; or if they spoke exactly like people on Earth do – like give me all of that! I think that's why I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. If someone told me this was like a “casual” sci-fi rather than a hard (to understand) sci-fi I would've read it earlier.
I enjoyed the amount of action that the author wrote in the book. It wasn't too much and it was easy to follow. Easy to follow for here means as much as I do love science fiction (in any format), I often sit there and go “huh?” when I'm reading a sci-fi book. You know those Tiktok videos where it goes something like “And then we traveled to dhdhgjgj and we spoke to wjergjefe” – because it's making fun of fantasy books with weird/difficult names? That's me but with sc-fi. I have no issue reading Fantasy and their names, it's most of what's in sci-fi that just has me scratching my brain
I love it when book characters do enemies-to-lovers well. I want to not only see but believe that they dislike each other. How they're annoyed with each other and how that turns to tolerating each other... And then love. Hart and Mercy do it so well – how could I not love it? One thing I love is pet names in books. I like them even more with enemies-to-lovers as you can be SURE the irritating nicknames will turn into being said lovingly. In here Mercy uses Hart-ache, and Hart says Merciless and my heart practically soared.
Bannen did a great job with Hart and Mercy's personalities. Even though I know I don't like communication like this, I still wanted them to work it out, to not be mad at each when it would eventually crash and break apart. I liked how they poured their hearts out to each other in the letters (not knowing it was the other, of course) and then disliking each other when meeting physically. I kept yelling at them “DON'T YOU KNOW (but of course they don't).
I'll admit the world-building is quite confusing and I certainly didn't understand everything, nor do I intend to understand everything. I've learnt there's an art in letting yourself not understand books fully and it can be great! Honestly I could in fact write a whole post about that
Originally posted at dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com.
This had enemies to lovers and I grinned at that because I love the trope! Even though it's much different in contemporary romances since there isn't the possibility of them actually killing each other (like in fantasies). Well done to Sullivan for the banter as it was well-written and funny to read. Grace and Noah threw around quips like they were made for it. I'm liking the sunshine/grumpy trope more and more! It's one that works well and works well with other tropes easily.
Grace brought with her Morty and he was a funny side character. He's like Carl from Up! I liked Grace because she was funny and I like to laugh with the characters. Most of the trilogy I was laughing with and sometimes at the characters.
Noah was a bit annoying most of the times. He's arrogant and thinks that with enough money he can get his way. I think the only brother who doesn't act like that is Chris. Grace deserves a medal for not slapping him (because I would have).
Their romance was cute – just had to focus on that and not his (annoying) personality. I liked the rivalry they had at the beginning and how it slowly turned to romance – as it does so often. I hope that they manage to keep the competitiveness going in their relationship – obviously in healthy ways because it was cute and I think it works well with them.
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.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! It's fun, an easy read where you sit down to read a chapter or two and whoops 5 or 10 chapters have just flown by. And I love it when I do that with books! Where I don't even realise I've read 8 or even like 12 chapters because I'm so focused on reading the book. I've just started Feener's other book now and I think it'll be an easy read too as I think her books and writing are that easy and quick to read.
Abandoned Things tells a very interesting story about Frankie, a famous writer of a very popular web novel, who doesn't realise the fictional world and the characters he's so famous for (even though he writes under a pen name) is actually real. Not until some of the characters come into his world, our world as well.
It's a thrilling ride of action and adventure, love and passion (regarding writing and romance). The characters drew me in and the story kept me wanting to read until the very end. It's definitely something I also enjoyed and now makes me want to read more of the author's other books.
As much as I enjoyed reading about Frankie, Rook definitely took the prize of the favourite character – he's a bad boy, come on! Of course I'm going to root for him. He was sarcastic, romantic (which are two things that I do love a lot
When I say I want a gothic novel this is what I want. This dark, atmospheric story that absolutely captivates every one who dares enter its pages. You can't stop yourself from reading it. I'm quite certain in saying that you will cancel your plans to continue reading this book because I probably would've.
I read the audiobook and it was a fantastic experience. It definitely added to how much I enjoyed reading this as I'm not so sure I would have had the same level of enjoyment had I read it as a book. The two narrators were very well chosen and they enhanced my reading so much that I don't think they could've chosen better narrators if they tried. They also added to the experience of the audio and how much I enjoyed it. Even if you don't listen to a lot of audiobooks I think this one would be an amazing start.
But also I would love a physical copy to be able to annotate as I went along. There were so many amazing quotes that I heard and wanted to highlight, I wanted to see them written down on a page. Yes, I suppose that's why people buy physical copies as well
I felt for Everly quite a lot throughout the book and definitely related to her. I knew exactly what she was feeling because I've definitely had those thoughts and more before. I also liked that she was an adult and she felt like she didn't have everything together. We were able to see her coming more out of her shell as the book carried on and even her helping others with their anxiety! That's a big thing being able to help others because you know how they feel and are able to give advice.
Everly and Chris worked really well together. They were quickly able to understand each other and Chris wasn't dismissive of Everly's anxiety – something I appreciated seeing. Their becoming friends and then obviously ending up at the end were all felt very natural – something to commend Sullivan as authors aren't always able to write natural relationships.
I liked that we were able to experience the dates with her – the bad and the good. And that all of them sort of led back to Chris. Their romance was so cute! I smiled so many times throughout reading because I really enjoyed how kind and sweet Chris was. He wanted Everly to have fun, cared about her a lot – if she would enjoy the dates, how she felt on them etc. I think him caring meant a lot for her and probably made it easier to fall in love with him.
Seeing as it's a trilogy, and each book follows a different brother, we got a chance to see Noah and Wes (book 2 and 3 respectively). I liked that they were close with each other and encouraged each other. They had an easy banter and a good balance between sibling insults and “I'm pushing you because I love you”.
Going Dark is certainly more than what it appears to be on the surface. At first it speaks of a simple relationship between two people who seem to lead simple lives – and dating each other in what also seems to be a simple act. What you get from their relationship looks easy and happy, or so it seems. And I really enjoyed that – seeing how it changes from looking like an easy relationship to something much more.
I'll be honest, I was not that interested in Amelia from the beginning. I didn't like how she was written or how she acted. But then as the story progressed more and more things started to come out about her and she became more likeable. But only a bit because I still found her actions and the path she took not the best one for her, Did I understand why? Yes. Did I like any of it? Not so much. Of course I'm not going to sit here and say “here's what I'd do differently” because I haven't lived her life, I haven't gone through what she's gone through. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though.
I think that's why I rated it 4 and not 5 stars – because I wasn't a fan of her actions and the reasons behind them. Other than that, I really enjoyed the book. I don't know if my rating would change if either her actions were different or if I could understand them more.
The characters were interesting to get to know and I liked everything we learnt about them. I am most certainly not interested in influencers – even if they push the narrative that they're down-to-earth and don't put on a farce for the camera. For me when you start to gain a large following you're inevitably going to make the decision to pull back a bit – show less of your life, keep some activities private because they mean a lot to you. You might even take a few classes or courses surrounding anything social media marketing. So all of Amelia's pushing to show that's super down-to-earth and doesn't really care about her following – I didn't buy it at all, any of her personality. Maybe de la Cruz purposefully wrote her that way, maybe it was just my personal feelings.
Josh was an interesting case as I originally did like him. That also changed as the book carried on. I actually thought I as I liked him less I would like Amelia more – but that didn't happen, which was interesting to me. I can't say much without spoiling the book but I liked seeing how he dealt with Amelia going missing and everything that came from that.
We get some flashbacks of another girl who went missing two years ago who never received the attention that Amelia Ashley received. Of course a good reason (for that) is because Amelia is very famous and has other famous connections. I found it interesting the connection the one character (Harper Delgado – whom I really liked and wanted to know more of) made between the two. Both pretty girls, both this and that, but the previous girl had nothing done for her the way Amelia had. It really shows the truth about any missing case, really. That some missing people aren't deemed as important as others for various reasons – popularity, money, mental state, even race as a reason as to why they are missing – even though the ‘reason' is lack of evidence.
I definitely want to revisit the book now having read everything so I can see if there are any puzzle pieces to be found before the big reveal. Probably will wait to see if it'll get an audiobook and reread it that way. I have read a mixed media book as an audiobook before (These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall) so I know that I'll like another one.
I love mixed media in a book and while I liked what we got I also would have been very happy with even more. Amelia Ashley is an influencer and I felt like there should've have been more focus on her posts and her journey as an influencer. Especially as we got more into the story, I would've loved to have seen more time dedicated to that.
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 think this year either I really like the first book of the series (this book, The Stardust Thief, The Girl from the Well) or I dislike it/dnf it (Lightlark, The School for Good and Evil). Luckily, this definitely wasn't the case with this book. I went in expecting an interesting plot and characters. What I got was something much more. A fascinating, intriguing plot, rich world-building, and compelling characters.
I liked that it had a bit of a retelling and I really liked that the book was inspired by Korean mythology. I liked that I had to look up what different terms meant (or that I sometimes didn't have to because context clues were enough). Though I had an audio copy so I looked at others' reviews for the spelling first. Next time I'll definitely read a physical/ebook version so I know how to say and spell the words (because I'm not familiar with them).
Lina, being the main character, was well-written and lively, and fun to follow. She loves her sister, Eunbi, so much that she's literally willing to try to kill a Dokkaebi Emperor – a powerful spirit in Korean mythology. When she speaks of her sister, it's of love and affection and you can understand her reason for doing all this. You want her to complete the task because it means she'll see her sister again. There's a bit of chronic pain representation in the book because Lina's left leg is damaged from a (knife) injury, and I'm guessing nerve damage too, by the sound of it. The pain she felt when she landed wrong or fell and hurt her leg – I felt that all throughout – in fact I think my legs were also reading the book and wanted to join in.
At first I thought it was another immortal falls for the 17-20 girl (Lina's 18 or 19) book – but turns out that Dokkaebi age much slower than humans – so he's technically twenty, and also centuries old
I actually was not going to read this book because I didn't know where to get an e-arc of it. THEN I went onto Book Sirens (a site to receive e-arcs) for another book, but that wasn't available. I just decided to scroll on the site a bit. And then I happened to see this and I clicked SO FAST because this has definitely been an anticipated release and I was so happy to have read it ahead of its release.
As I said earlier, I started this after I finished Lightlark – as much as it gave me extreme amounts of annoyance (so so much) – it was definitely the right choice to go from Lightlark to Reforged. The reason I say this is because Lightlark... is a really bad book (of course that's just my opinion). Reforged made me remember why I like fantasies and adult fantasies so much. I read YA Fantasy most of the time but this just makes me want to go back to Adult Fantasies (or just find my favourites and reread them constantly
It's very interesting, looking at the synopsis before and after reading the book; which just shows the power of a good synopsis and how it can fool you. Which was the case with this book. I was actually interested in reading it due to the synopsis and then all the drama happened but I decided to just forge ahead and go for it. Really, I should've stopped at the sample where I could tell this book would be a very difficult one. Will I be reading the sequel and hating every minute? Absolutely.
Like I said, it looked promising from the outside and then it kept falling apart and unraveling until nothing made sense anymore (all this well before the 50% mark, mind you). The synopsis promised adventure, curses, love, intrigue, even a game that sounded so good. What we get is a smidge, about like 4.3% (if I'm being honest, probably lower, I'm not good with stats) of all of that. I haven't read Aster's other (middle grade) series so I don't know if it's her voice. Maybe her writing and editing (Lightlark) so quickly in order to keep interest made nothing really work.
I could definitely see that Aster's previous series was Middle Grade. I'm not saying that you have to write heavy and confusing sentences for teenagers to decipher (they get enough of that in their language classes) – this just read too juvenile for most YA books. Maybe Aster could be good – if she just spent more time on this. Apparently she's been working on this for over 10 years. Someone said the names read like placeholder names – and it DOES. It does read like she never changed the names even though she kept meaning to.
What I noticed was her overuse of popular tropes – and how they weren't even well executed. I will admit, I could tell that she does love the tropes she used, but it needed a LOT of work. I don't mind them being used at all, I'm just asking for them to be written well. Don't just try to mush all the tropes to say you're using them – especially if you aren't able to execute them well. Also to me it looked like Aster wanted the tropes of the book so badly that she thought she could just go ahead, the actual writing would come after (it doesn't). Also like everything about the book is very YA but Aster goes on about spicy scenes on her social media? Make it make sense.
Isla Crown is the main character. Isla means island and she lives on an island and she goes to another island. As for Crown being her last name when she's the ruler of her realm – that's like because I wear glasses, my surname is Glass (Which it isn't).
The other names and their characters were just as bad. Oh, wow, here's this guy named Grimshaw. His voice is as dark and striking as midnight. He's super tall, his eyes are black as coals, and his hair is like ink. I wonder what realm he belongs to. Maybe the “bad” realm (Nightshade)? And of COURSE he is! Azul, ruler of Skyling – Azul... azure AKA SKY. Oro is Spanish for Gold and he's the Sunling realm's leader. What colour is the Sun? GOLD. Listen, I'm not saying that you have to sit and think up a name for like months, but also... maybe sit and think of names a bit more?
The Realms are Sunling, Wildling, Starling, Moonling, Skyling, and Nightshade. I'll give you 3 guesses as to which is written as the bad realm (even though I just said it in the previous paragraph). Once again, she really could've spent more time choosing names for them all.
Another thing I didn't like was the constant mentions of the realms and what they could do. When they barely even did any of that. We constantly heard that the Nightshade Realm is the worst one, that they're so evil. But then nothing they actually do can really be classified as evil in my opinion? Like the Wildling realm, who actually eat hearts, could technically be considered the evil realm more than Nightshade. The entire book is one whole string of tell, don't show (and even the telling was bad).
We get told that Isla is the most perfect, most beautiful, most amazing person ever to exist! She's just absolutely beautiful and gorgeous. She doesn't care what she wears but will also choose to wear beautiful, skintight clothing because that's what she's been taught to do. She can sing most wonderfully (and she was never taught to do this, it sounded like she could just sing perfectly from birth?? I don't know if other Wildlings have the same power) – looks like Aster can ALSO sing so like... I just found that a tad bit funny.
I laughed so many times because we're constantly told that Isla is beautiful and has been practicing for every single battle that can ever be fought as soon as she was able to walk BUT she's also clumsy! She's the BEST strategist to EVER strategise but none of her plans actually ever work. She's so amazing at seducing people but also hates to do it. Also I just don't understand how she was taught to wield LITERALLY every single weapon ever, PLUS able to seduce people, PLUS being able to dance, PLUS knowing how to strategise ALL WHILE knowing how to speak to other people in certain ways? And she knows how to read and write – there is absolutely no way she went through all of that at her young (18-20, I think) age. Even if she was isolated in her room, I really don't believe it.
I very much dislike the fact that we're promised diversity in the book and we get absolute crumbs. Cleo has a throwaway line about how her sexuality, and the line also reinforces the stereotype that bisexuals sleep around. Azul is black and gay (so two minorities for the price of one, I guess!) but I didn't realise he's not white until I was reading reviews and it was mentioned. We get about two lines of his (late) husband.
Isla is not white. All we get told is that her skin is a few shades darker than another ruler. The author is Indigenous Latinx and she said she wrote Lightlark, and specifically Isla, because she wanted to read that type of book and character on the shelves when she was a teen. Which is great for Aster. But that doesn't... necessarily always mean the character of colour will be written well (and that's me reading other Latinx readers' reviews to see what they had to say).
Something I don't like about the Wildlings' realm is that it's constantly seen and referred to as the wild ones, the savages ones. They're able to seduce everyone, which... is not the greatest thing when that realm is basically classed as the Latinx community and the community is often stereotyped as people who sleep around.
Some extra, tiny thoughts (because this is a long review): Lightlark was a shiny, cliffy thing. The sun was a yolky thing. Aster wrote Lightlark before breakfast, I can see. There were so many plot twists – like NINE happened in 1-2 chapters (overrated perhaps but oh well). I don't really think it could have been written well and you'd have to be a good writer (so, not Aster).
The world-building in this is both hilariously simple and it also makes absolutely no sense. I was telling my friend all about this and my friend was like “the world-building is lacking” and I'm like YOU WOULD THINK. We get told every other page of the curse (but only get told much later more about the curse), There's a prophecy but we only actually get TOLD the prophecy around the 50% mark. We get told about the different realms, their powers and their curses about every 5 pages – so really I should've have known everything by page 100. YET, there I was, sending a THIRTY MINUTE voice note to my friend, trying to explain the plot while also going every few seconds “I'm sorry if this is confusing, because I'M Confused.
My review copy was SO bad I had to loan it out of a library I thankfully had access to through my sister. I'll show you some pictures (which I luckily had because I sent them to a friend as I removed the arc from my Kindle). It was so bad. I would've actually preferred a pdf I had to read through ADE or something than have to go through this pain.
My name is Sorceline... is supposed to be IN THE WHITE BOX. Every single panel's dialogue all had the text underneath. Same with the other page. I tried to read it and I just couldn't do any of it.
I was so looking forward to read this and then was let down. They focused more on the plot than characters and that resulted in an imbalance that made me not interested in the characters. It also felt like there were multiple plots in this one SMALL book. It's not even 150 pages and multiple plots (subplots included of course) are not worth it. I would mix up the names with the faces and didn't care. Which should tell you a lot. There were lines that were said and then they wouldn't be followed up on even though the line... should've been followed up. The main character, Sorceline, was written out to be this super cool and important character (didn't feel like it to me) and it was hard to be interested in her (or anything, really).
It wasn't the art -the art was great and I loved all the panels. I could definitely feel the emotions on the characters faces and I could see that the illustrator enjoyed drawing it. So for that (the art) it gets 2 stars (and everything else, literally nothing lol). I loved looking at all the fantasy creatures as they were beautifully illustrated. I liked that the colours weren't bright and the graphic novel felt like a cute animated movie. I know I would've loved this graphic novel – had it just been written differently. I love the idea of a cryptozoologist and we're in the classes, learning about the creatures – that I enjoyed. Maybe even more emphasis on the classes instead of the characters.
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.
I think what I really needed was a long and in-depth book to just push me and really get me in the mood to read long fantasy books again and this really did! Even though this is under 500 pages so it's not actually that long, but it felt like it was. That is quite impressive, though – to seem like a long book even though it's not a long book (I think long books are usually over 500 pages?).
It is such an immersive book, it really just drags you into the story, making you forget where you actually are because it truly felt like I was traveling with the characters, living the story with them – which is honestly my biggest wish when I'm reading (especially fantasy) books. Abdullah can definitely pat herself on the back because it is really impressive and I can't wait to read everything else she has (and I very much hope she'll be writing more after this trilogy is complete).
The characters are really what drew me in first. They're rich, well-written, complicated without being too complicated. They're exactly the type of characters you'd want to have and follow in a fantasy series. Loulie al-Nazari is just the type of female main character I want to see in a book – smart, capable, one who knows herself. I always love any type of magical items in books, so of course her finding and selling ancient relics made me like her more. I also like her strong personality and the fact that she's a strong character who speaks her mind. Qadir is definitely my favourite character and he just needs so many naps because he's so busy being the Dad™️ of the group. I NEED his POV in the sequel, you don't understand how much. He's funny and I love him. I loved reading his relationship with Loulie and how he cares for her.
Mazen and Aisha are two characters that I didn't think I'd like but I grew to really like them. Mazen, originally unsure about basically everything, really started to come more into his personality and shared what he loved – telling stories. I loved hearing the stories and the big emphasis that they had in the book – which just goes to show you how important oral storytelling is in various cultures. I didn't like Aisha at the start but she grew on me with her fierce personality and how she just forges on, not caring what people care about her.
The oral storytelling plays a big role in the book and I love how Abdullah ties the storytelling to culture, mythology, and history. The writing and world-building are both stunning and vibrant. Rich with description – especially the food – it made hungry several times
I moved from wanting to give this book 4 stars or 3 stars a couple of times. I finally decided on 3 and a half stars. It's not to say that I didn't like this, I really did! It just also confused me a lot.
What I mean when I say ‘it confused me' I meant that the comps are The Sun is Also a Star meets Jumanji. Now I've never read The Sun is Also a Star, and neither have I watched it (it's been adapted into a movie this year? Last year?). But I love Jumanji. I've watched the original multiple times and the new sequels a couple of times. I love all of them. But I think I focused too much on the Jumanji side of the comp when I should've focused on the other side – even if I've never read the other comp.
Yes, this does have the fantasy element in it but also I wanted more? I did really enjoy the utter absurdity of snow falling in the airport and plants growing everywhere. Their phones being permanently on 100% and anytime they tried to post about what was happening – they just couldn't. Like was it the airport somehow stopping them? Who knows and I quite liked that! I like the writing and that the author wrote an omniscient third person point of view. That was definitely different than other books I've read (I don't even know of any other). There was often a feeling of show, don't tell (meaning it felt like the author just described everything rather than letting the reader read about it), and I'm not a big fan of that.
The plot was interesting (even though I wanted more
Another really quick read and another one that I really loved! I hope I can carry on with these quick reads that I really love. This one was a heartfelt, sweet read about two friends falling in love.
As I've said before, I'm just not really a fan of the friends-to-lovers but I think it's due to how it's normally written. Luckily it wasn't the case in Nate Plus One. I very much enjoyed the trope and definitely would've liked the book to have been longer. Even if it would just have been more South African things to fill the pages.
Speaking of South African things, I loved seeing all the nods and little things – even if they didn't come down to Cape Town (I live near Cape Town and I don't remember Durban very well).
I laughed when they heard ‘robots' and were very confused because, yes, we do call traffic lights robots. (don't ask why, I don't know why). I loved they included a braai (like a barbeque, but just better) but I would have loved the braai to be longer – both as in more written and chronologically longer. It's a running joke that braais take forever. You could go to a friend's house at 2pm and only eat the cookd food around 11pm. I'm quite serious
