Maryn
“Heroes are not born but made through their choices. One could be given the greatest gifts of the world and choose to do nothing with them. Or someone with nothing could forge their way to the pinnacle of power. Whether mortal or immortal, our destiny is in our hands.”
plot
“The snow may fall, but the sun also rises.”
“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it's contained.”
"I am bored most of the time. Bored of politics and adventure and feasting and quarrelling. Of vengeange and loyalty. I have learned there is one thing a person never tires of, no matter how long they live. And that is being in love. All else is ash and ember."
What do you mean, this is the final book?? This series needs at least two more. Please, Heather, reconsider for our sakes.
Emily and Wendell's third adventure into faerie is exactly as expected. New faeries, old friends, and a great journey. Unlike the first two books, Emily spends more time in faerie than the mortal realm, as she has to learn how to be Queen of what is considered the most savage realm - and how to make sure Wendell doesn't repeat the same mistakes that drove his ancestors mad.
I am giving it four out of five stars mostly because it's very slow. I don't mind it overall, but if you're like me and you have the attention span of a fruit fly, you'll find that this book is anything but a page-turner. It took me a month finish, where I read the first two books in about 3-4 days. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that the human characters really carried the story in the first two books (all the Ljoslanders in book 1 and Ariadne and Farris in book 2). This story is mostly just Emily and Wendell and a lot of unnamed or uninteresting characters (Taran excluded).
I still really enjoyed it! And I really hope this isn't the end and that we get more Emily Wilde in the future.
A fairytale for young and old, with much to love and much that's completely up to taste. There isn't much depth to many of these characters, and everything that could be action-filled is written so matter-of-factly that there isn't much suspense to it. It's a specific tone that you either appreciate or not. I quite enjoyed it, but it still took my a long time to get through because it wasn't exactly thrilling.
Also, justice for all the ponies harmed in the making of this book :(
8/10 - A great journey there and back again.
“We were girls. That's what they called us in their articles and their speeches and their files: bad girls, neurotic girls, needy girls, weyward girls, selfish girls, girls with Electra complexes, girls trying to fill a void, girls who needed attention, girls with pasts, girls from broken homes, girls who needed discipline, girls desperate to fit it, girls in trouble, girls who couldn't say no. But for girls like us, down at the Home, the devil turned out to be our only friend.”
Wow. Just wow.
Just with the real newspaper excerpts included in the beginning of the book, I knew the ride I was in for. It's raw, gruesome, and will make you angry by how unfairly and dishonestly these girls are treated.
The main character is Neva, who in the Home is not allowed to have her own name, background or hobbies, and simply becomes Fern - the fifteen-year-old girl who believed her boyfriend would stay with her forever, but who ended up all alone in an isolated home together with other anonymous girls like her.
Throughout her stay, Fern learns that the adults in this Home do not have their best interest in mind, and see them as nothing more than Jane Does that have to pop out a baby, surrender it, and go back to their regular life. But as she learns of a few girls who cannot go back to their old life, or do not want to give up their baby, Fern and her companions turn to magic to help them out. But is magic really all that great? Well, all actions have consequences...
This book reads like you're watching a slow-burn thriller film that builds up plenty of high stakes. The characters all have interesting motivations and I love that nothing about them is spelled out for you, but you can infer exactly what kind of person they are from their actions. Fern, also, isn't just a simple main character that always does the right thing. You can be frustrated with her, but at all times have empathy for her because of the things she had gone through.
This isn't a light read. It's evocative, honest, and well-researched. I can only recommend it.
“Peace isn't peace if it's only given to some.”
Vivien Featherswallow is living in Post-WW1 Britannia - but in this reality, dragons are abundant. Being a Second-Class citizen, she has done everything to not drop down to Third Class, even things she cannot ever forgive herself for. After the perfect life she has worked so hard for falls apart, she is given a chance to redeem herself and save her family - by becoming a Codebreaker that can decipher the imperceptible language of dragons.
A Language of Dragons is a story about classism, equality, and about the power of language. It's about learning to forgive yourself, repentance, and responsibility. Set in a Britannia with dragons, the worldbuiliding is decently interesting. I did feel like we didn't learn much about the dragons - they were mostly just kind of there. Nothing a sequel cannot fix, and with that ending... The book definitely needs one!
"If you don't wipe the grease spot off your own camera lens, the whole world will be smudged forever."
A cute little book about learning to live life in your own meaningful way. It's mostly written for those living in collectivistic cultures that have to deal with a lot more societal and familial pressures. It still offers nuggets of wisdom for those who don't have to experience that, and offers an insight in a different culture and the not-so-great aspects of it.
6/10 - comforting, cute art, not too useful if you already live in an individualistic society.
This review includes minor descriptions of some of the events that happen, but no (major) spoilers. Please consider not reading it if you want to go into this book fully blind.
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We're back on The Continent in this third installment of the Empyrean series, and, well... It's clear this is a trilogy being stretched out to lasting five books instead. Let me explain myself.
After the events of Iron Flame, we are left with an edgelord Xaden and ‘I-can-fix-him' Violet. There is no time to mourn the loss of her mother and she has to go straight back to business - finding irids to power the wards. This turns out to be a fetch quest that allows for some more world-building and exploration. Which is a good thing, and some of the best moments of the book happen during this part of the story, but it still suffers from poor pacing. The writing as a whole could do with being more snappy. And because we hop from place to place to find help and irids, it's clear this won't happen on the first attempt, making this portion of the book feel very filler-y.
My biggest gripes with this book is just how non-committal it can be at times, looking for easy ways out. Throughout their quest, it is often repeated that there will be serious repercussions for them. And what happens? Nothing.
Violet has to unlock some books that are earlier on established to have pretty difficult locks. What happens? She unlocks them ‘off-screen'. Easy peasy.
Things like this are just really frustrating to me, because it feels like the start of something consequential to only be resolved in pretty much a single sentence.
Also... This is really petty but, this is meant to be a translated work anyway, so why call the dolphins dolphinum? If this is a fantasy world, no way they have a world so close to our own for this. So either think of a nice fantasy name or just call them dolphins! Panthers don't get renamed, so I think it's the lack of consistency that I find jarring. And mentioning them adds nothing to the plot anyway, so it could have also been left out completely.
What I am also noticing is that, as soon as there is any action that involves actually fighting with the dragons, it is just so chaotic. I have no idea what's going on - who is where, who is fighting what, which dragon belongs to which rider. These are supposed to be the most important moments, but they are such a mess. I can't visualise these scenes at all.
It doesn't help that, during the action, suddenly the POV gets switched around to a bunch of minor characters. That's not really necessary or beneficial at all, when you are wrapping up a book in what is supposed to be the most suspenseful part of the story! Seriously, those chapters could have just been cut out altogether. There's no point to them.
Okay, let's add some positives. Ridoc is amazing. If these books are one day rewritten from his perspective, I'd so buy all of them. The book also adds a bit more intrigue into Violet's character and her parents' plan for her, which was very welcome. The development of her powers was done pretty well too, with plenty of foreshadowing.
I'll continue reading this series just because I really want to see how it ends, but I hope the next one feels a bit more significant to the plot, and with better pacing. And I also cannot wait to see how giving one of your riders the most powerful ability of all is going to impact the rest of the story. It's a daring choice, that's for sure!
An incredible and modern rendition of Sherlock Holmes!
The story is set in a futuristic yet bleak version of London, which is overrun with poverty, crime, and corruption.
The tone feels exactly like traditional Holmes tales, but it offers a new and fresh interpretation and a mystery with a satisfying conclusion, yet leaving plenty of questions unanswered about who this Sherlock Holmes really is, which makes me eager to continue this series to find out more.
9/10 Highly recommended to fans of Sherlock Holmes or whodunits in general.
Cross Bones is the third book in the Accidental Medium series, and it managed to be even better than the first two!
Tanz is once again balancing her life as an actress with her newly acquired medium powers, that seem to be developing at a, to her, startling rate.
As always, this book is just a cosy and funny read. Lovely characters and a mystery to solve that spans multiple generations, while also delving into local history. if that sounds interesting to you, I'd highly recommend giving this series a try.
In Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, Emily and Wendell are back to chronicling the mysterious and dangerous faeries that inhabit the world. I always have my fingers crossed with sequels because they can be very hit or miss, but this one really delivered! It felt like a natural and interesting way to continue the story and develop the world and characters more – introducing new faeries, allies, enemies, and higher stakes.
“One of the guiding principles of dryadology,” I said, “is this: do not cross the sort of Folk who make collections of human body parts.”
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“Like me, he appeared relieved by the interruption—both of us, it seemed, would rather confront a supernatural intruder than fumble our way out of an emotional exchange.”
This book. was. EVERYTHING
I wasn't a big fan of Shadow and Bone. I thought it was just decent - a bit trope-y, with stereotypical characters, and a main girliepop that is just another frail tiny smol thing that suddenly has amazing powers and two love interests. Nothing I haven't read before.
This sequel made me fall in love with this story.
Siege and Storm is a lesson in how to do the second book in a trilogy WELL. Great character development, more worldbuilding, more intrigue. It changes the world from a small palace to a living, breathing place, with multiple parties all with different intentions involving themselves in Alina's life. Sturmhond, the Apparat... all amazing characters with their own motives and worldview.
Alina is finally likable. She's struggling with who she is, what her place in this world is - what she wants. She has power and is no longer afraid to wield it.
9/10 - an amazing improvement to the first book, and a great set-up for what is hopefully a grand finale.
Gin Palace is the sequel to The Accidental Medium, and continues Tanz' journey into understanding her abilities to speak to the dead, and how to use them to help those who passed to move on peacefully.
This sequel is just as enjoyable as the first book, and adds to it by introducing some new friends, powers, and mysteries. Overall, the plot in this series isn't anything intense or page-turning, but for a cosy read (especially as an audiobook) it's decent enough. I don't know if I would enjoy it as much as a paperback, because the narration of the audiobook is exceptionally good!