storm
At first I found it to be a slow book compared to Six of Crows, but in the end it turned out spectacular.
Every moment I found awkward or slow or anything else than good was perished in the ending chapters.
It definitely made the entire book worth it and made me definitive on giving this book a 5 star review as well.
I loved the characters as usual, their personalities and their motives. Their strengths and their weaknesses.
I did find Matthias death to be unnecessary.
He was alive and strong in one sentence and then dead in the next and it didn't give me a sad feeling like with most character deaths. It just happened and there was no reason for it at all. It didn't bring Matthias story to an end. Nor did it give Nina anything except loss and the feeling of ‘I have to return to Fjerda now' and it didn't bring their story together to an end/ closure as well. At least thats how I felt about it, but Matthias was never my favourite character.
I overall loved the book, the worldbuilding and all the plots and turnarounds. You never know what to expect when you turn the page and all in all, I loved it.
4/5 to Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Honestly, I loved this book. In every way.
It was interesting. It was fantasy. It had magic. It had battles and wars. It even had love, but not love that came in the way of the plot but furthered the plot, even helped it.
Some things I did not (and still don't) understand are:
- chakras. I think I missed the explanation for this kind of weapon
- the magic the kingdom uses is in or comes from a mountain??
- hannah can talk through magic but isnt she.. dead?
But I read the last 100-200 pages rather quickly - too quick perhaps so maybe i've rushed past the connection.
The writing style in the book is pleasant and simple (not sure if it's really the words) and reads nicely.
Meira is also a character I love though most characters in this book were absolutely loveable.
For the romance,
my vote is absolutely on Theron and I hope it will stay that way actually.
Also if you're a tad smarter than me the twist can be guessed from early on in the book (especially after a certain point) but I personally think there's nothing wrong with that
Let's see how winter does in ice like fire :)
This book is absolutely amazing.
It completely lived up to its hype
Leigh's writing is just amazing and the story and characters are simply just written so well.
None of the characters in this book are ‘good' in the alignment way since they're all thieves and broken in a way, but I as a reader could root for them nonetheless since they all have goals and almost ideals to strive towards.
The book having multiple POV's didn't bother me at all. In fact it made the book better since the element of suprise was easier to keep!
The only thing I didn't like in this book was the ending.
The ending was kind of weak to me, but I'm still excited and curious of crooked kingdom.
5/5 to Six of Crows!
This book is so painful and makes me ache and makes me weep and love and there's so many things going on I don't know what to focus on
I spend a lot of time reading the books of His Dark Materials and now that I'm done i'm just empty and that's when you know a series was good. The way that you feel empty, almost numb, and not knowing what the hell you were supposed to do now.
I loved the series, all that happened and the ending too, even though it made me ache.
The book is very different from what I read normally but the concept and worldbuilding are very good to me. The language and writing style can be a tad difficult (at least to me, whose second language is english) and it can be a quite confusing sometimes to me. Some parts I've had to read double/again to really let it stick. That makes me question how this is apparently supposed to be a children's book? Anyway, I love Lyra a lot and her character is enjoyable. I like the other characters too and i'm curious to read the next book in this series
This last book was just amazing.
Bardugo wrote more explanation to her titles ans names in this book and it was a relief. I finally understood all the names and titles and it made it all better.
The first part of the book is frustrating. The apparat is holding Alina back and all I wanted was for him to d*e tbh!
Throughout the rest of the book the story is fast paced, excited and interestin. Nikolai's character is deep and charismatic. He's both funny, smart, curious and relatable. He really does want Alina to love him, even though it's a lost cause and due he says its politics: I'd doubt it.
The plot twist surrounding Mal made him a much better and interesting character. His talent for tracking suddenly made sense and my dislike for him dropped tremendously.
I loved seeing the snippets of the darkling, of his throne, of his life, of his emitions. And in the last battle between him and Alina I love it how she comments on how he reacts, on his humanity that felt so lost.
The darkling was an exceptional smart and cunning man and he could have been a great man, besides the fact that he wasn't.
I was really glad some of Alina's crew survived and some did not. I would have been mad if all had died or all had lived and the ‘after' chapter makes me so happy. It is clear how all of them keep in contact, keep laughing and sharing.
I'm going to miss them and I hope we will see them yet again in six of crows
3,5 out of 5 stars.
My thoughts:
the titles for the grisha are extremely confusing and after finishing the entire book i'm still not entirely sure what is what and who is who and what rank it portrays
Alina is DUMB, but I love Genya and the darkling so much
When Baghra completely random pulls alina apart and tells a few things alina throws the whole thing around and it ANNOYS ME. I honestly still don't understand how Baghra is still alive if the darkling is so old? And if she's an amplifier as well, does that mean she was the darkling before him? But no one ever asks or explains and it just leaves me confused as to how that works. Nonetheless, I thought it was a bit weird of a twist.
Reading the rest of the story I wished alina had stayed at the castle and had found out about darklings plan only when he already foun: the stag or when they'd be in the shadow fold and he'd go and threaten everyone. I honestly also didnt enjoy mal & alina's trip to find the stag. Alina finding sudden strength in the stag also goes against what she's been told by both Baghra and the Darkling and that makes it a bit of a weird twist for me to make her suddenly able to overcome the Darkling's commands.
The ending is not too good, but I enjoyed the extra chapter about Genya a lot. It gave me more insight to her as character and to her background and the same goes for the Darkling who appeared in this character.
Besides the point above I just don't enjoy Mal too much. It's probably influenced by the fact I wanted Alina to stay at the castle and find out later and the fact I didn't enjoy their ‘camping trip' but he's not very interesting to me.
I LOVED the writing though and besides the fact the titles are confusing the lore and worldbuilding is amazing and interesting. I'd only wish we had gotten to know more about this land, but I have two books to go and I'm both very curious and excited about reading them.
Snow lands on top.
This book is during some parts almost ‘boring'
There's no glamour or grand entrance. There is just a city broken by a war and whose hunger games are really not that big yet.
Snow, just eighteen here, and his classmates are assigned to be mentors to the tributes and from the start its clear these are not the hunger games like we know them.
Tributes are dead before they even get to the arena. Tributes are locked away in a zoo and no one to care about them. No one is actually watching the games and classmates talk about how the bad the games are actually, a lot.
But while Snow agrees, it's clear he actually thinks the games are fine. He likes control, wants it, most importantly: needs it and the hunger games give control to the capitol. Make it so, chaos will never ensue. And when chaos does break out: snow doesn't like it one bit. He doesn't like the mockingjays (who are mocking nature by his own words) and basically he doesn't like things he can't understand and in the end: he leaves them.
He takes control, make it so he is the one in control. Killed his friend. Left his lover (who left him? betrayed him? where did she go? where is she now?)
This book is philosophical and rhetorical about the means of war, violence and control. It's a lot about control. The creator of the hunger games confesses he hated the idea and had wanted to rip it, but by means out of his control his idea was put to action.
A lot of the action is near the end of the book and the first 300 pages can be a bit boring or less interesting if you're more into action packed books but if you enjoy character studies and lore it's a very interesting books and gives you another view onto the hunger games.
