Idk what to say other than that it's somehow better the second time around? Slay. Have my reading log that I wrote incredibly sporadically while listening this year lmao:
They all want Quincey so bad and honestly same
If I have to listen to another speech by Van Helsing... That old man loooooves to talk, to orate even.
Babe... I'm caught up! I mean, it's the 28th of October but still, last year I finished like two weeks after it ended so this is definitely a step in the right direction even if there's only a week and a half left
The Re: Dracula team did such a good job with this production as well! The voice acting is phenomenal and the effects make it all so engaging. I loved that the transcript was included as well, it really helped me plow through when I had to catch up and stay focused on the text.
I'm sobbing?? It's November 6th btw.
The song is fucking ruining me dude.
Followed along with an ebook at the end and randomly four pages were missing from the audiobook so I might have accidentally listened to an abridged version. In my defense there was nothing to indicate that the audiobook was abridged at all so maybe it was just the beginning of the conclusion that was missing?
Other than the potentially missed pages I thought it was fun! It's a short spooky novella and it's a good fall read I'd say.
Po... yeah that's our boyfriend now. Truly the prince of the universe, has any fictional man been as thoroughly good to his core before? I doubt it.
On a more serious level though, it's incredibly refreshing to listen to a book I used to enjoy as a child and have the relationship not be the absolute dumpster fire so many of my old favorites have turned out to be now that I'm (kind of) capable of critical thought. There is real and honest communication from both sides, and they handle their emotions openly and deal with them with the complexity and the nuance that comes from truly knowing and trusting each other and I have to say that's the hottest thing a YA couple has ever done. There not being a miscommunication trope is so near and dear to my heart, my fucking soul is singing. The side characters are written in a way that you can't help but feel for them even if they're not mentioned that often and the description of the world is wonderful.
I love when I get to keep a childhood favorite for good reasons and not just because my nostalgia driven brain still loves it even though I know it's objectively bad. This is just good. Through and through. Made me fall a little bit in love with fantasy all over again.
I'm always surprised when I genuienly enjoy reading nonfiction. Which is every time I pick one up. I should really just accept that I can enjoy things that are not purely based in escapism at this point.
This is a wonderful essay turned book that explores the concepts of nationalism and what it means to write a country's history, of which Jill Lepore (author of These Truths, a 900 page history of the US) is certainly qualified to address.
All in all, I think you just have to like a nonfiction book that makes you want to physically fight historical figures WWE style.
“It made her beautiful, as fire was beautiful even as it destroyed.”
Okay, so, it took me a shamefully long time to finish this because of how much I was liking it when I started it in May. I would say overall it had a pretty slow pace which is why I had some trouble picking the book back up. I also feel like I still don't have a super strong grasp on the world but other than that the world-building is really original and I am as always a sucker for a map at the start of a book. I don't know if I'll continue but if I do I'll probably just listen to it on audio.
I feel like there was a good offset between Maniye knowing virtually nothing and the other characters being more fleshed out with deeper backstories. I think it would have been really slow without the multiple POV's. The final battle scene was so good too.
My favorites were probably Broken Axe (I need him bad... why would they do my man like that come on dawg) and Loud Thunder (in a your dad's weird hermit friend you're strangely enamoured with as a kid type of way) and his dogs (rip Matt, sadly only one of the dogs live in this one😢).
Overall it was fine. There were some iffy moments but then again I wasn't really looking for quality. I listened to it on audio and the guy doing Damon's voice sounded like a fantasy narrator at times which made the spicy scenes super funny to me for no reason Imao. I would say I got what I was looking for, which was a fun break from my heavier books and just something relatively light that I could listen to while doing stuff around the house.
I got ambitious about my course literature and thought I was going to read this the whole way through for clout lmao. Might come back to it, I really liked the chapters I read and the writing style was pretty fun for a history book actually. Would recommend to anyone intrigued by the subject, this is definitely up there when it comes to the course literature I've read.
I tried to listen to this on audio and I honestly think I'd have to read the physical copy to even begin to try to grasp what's happening. Might give it another try if I find a copy.