Sara
LOVE the worldbuilding in this, discovering the shapeshifting winged race that the main character Moon is part of was a joy, and the matriarchal society and their way of life in this world and how it interacts with humans is just so interesting. Having Moon be an orphan that knows nothing about any of this suddenly being dropped into this strange world he should belong in was fascinating.
The only vampire romance book that has stuck with me, even to adulthood. Definitely better than Twilight
A political fantasy about a feral girl and her wolf companion being thrust into a battle over inheriting the throne when the elderly king dies. Pretty good if you like really in-depth royal lineage maneuverings and a sprinkle of magic.
I wanted to like this book real bad.
I enjoyed the first half, the setting and mechs were really cool, and the commentary Zetian had on the trappings of patriarchy were the high points of the book for me. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. I could tell this was a debut novel. The writing was not very good but I could get through it, the dialogue was very teen, the plot points were pretty obvious or done in a contrived fashion so it could create conflict later (eg, mild spoiler, Zetian not telling the two guys about the nudes IMMEDIATELY, it would have made more character sense, and the reveal that Yizhi already knew about it and didn't care would've been cooler ).
I could take all of that, but my real issue is more of the message it had about feminism and change by the end of the book. Yes, the current system for the women in this world was bad, but the way to change it is...only by violence. There's no other option that our main character Zetian can think of taking. There were no other women that could fix this world, or made it better in any way. Zetian killed most of the women that feature heavily in the book herself. I mean, she killed many more nameless men as well, but still. Hard to start the feminist cultural revolution without breaking a few hundred eggs :/ Fellas, is it feminist to kill indiscriminately?
This book just made me downcast and frustrated. It could get better as set up for the future book, but I'm not going to read it so...yeah.
Gosh, I really enjoyed this. The relationship between the riders and their dragons being very equal and arguing with each other was awesome, and I really enjoyed the dynamics between Holt and Ash and also between Talia and Pyra. The focus on the main pair with Ash being blind and going into essentially dragon eugenics is such an interesting topic, and the Scourge is a really cool antagonist. And the writing is pretty good!
The only problem I had with this was the magic system being straight out of DnD or a video game. The idea of ‘leveling up' and using percentages of a magic pool, and having a cooldown of a few seconds after every named spell (by the way, who knows what a second is in medieval times?), and having buffs if one eats specific foods just really took me out of the battle scenes hard, and I really did not like it :/
save yourself some time and read the fig tree passage from sylvia plath's the bell jar. that's the whole book pared down to one paragraph. you're welcome
Dudes, this book is so good. A private school girl has to take up the mantle of the Abhorsen - a reverse necromancer that puts the dead back to rest with seven strange bells - to find her missing father. There's also a cat sidekick and a naked dude. What more can a girl ask for?
Um, I love this trilogy. A sentient school that wants to eat the magical students trapped in it, and a main character foretold to become a dark sorceress and doing everything in her power not to become that, picking up friends and a love interest along the way. Darkly funny, and I love that it goes into the themes of institutional power and the consequences of doing bad things to outsiders to benefit the insiders. A+
The chunky political fantasy I was hoping to get out of Game of Thrones - queer rep and no grimdark rapey stuff in sight.
Retelling of Rumpelstiltskin where a king of the ice fey hears rumors of a woman who can turn silver into gold, and that woman is a Jewish moneylender.
Way more love triangle fantasy romance than I thought it would be, but I loved the ending. I really enjoy reading post apocalyptic fantasy steeped in another cultures history!
The OG Femshep. Don't @ me Mass Effect fans. This book has its flaws, but I really enjoyed reading it!
Short but so, so good! The writing flows so well and I could never anticipate where the plot was going to end up, which is such an amazing find in the world of fantasy novels! An original and unexpected gem of a series so far!
Wow, this lady had a ROUGH childhood. Rural Idaho is known for its extremist far-right religious bent, and the trauma and familial abuse she went through and seeing how one could grow up in an environment like that and come out so different was very interesting to read about.
This scarred me a little bit. The main character dealing with the disillusionment of being a mundane and never being a part of the magical world, leading to a strained relationship with her sister and a drinking problem hit pretty good. The setup was really nice, and I liked the ambiguous and bittersweet ending, but the investigation fell apart (heh) in the middle to ending area, got a bit confused as to what was going on. I also did not like the chosen one trope being real and having such a big part in this story, felt a bit off. Overall, it left quite an impression so I still recommend it.
Alternative title should be How Deus Ex Machina Saved My Ass. It was a quick enjoyable read and good if you didn't think about the plot too hard! Also don't think about the science or any of the medical stuff or that pesky thing called chain of custody too hard either... You just have to get through the beginning where the first case is solved and there's no evidence (that anyone in this story or the reader is aware of) that will give the required inconsistency to continue the plot
A take on Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth where the unknown and the strange are not automatically monsters - very heartfelt exploration of being an outsider and outcast, and America's history of concentration camps
The writing and worldbuilding were good but I saw the plot twist a mile away and the romance just missed the mark for me. Lark could have been an awesome character taking back her agency but the whole ‘resist until she gives in because deep down she actually wants it' just squicks me out, especially when Tiras says it's her duty and desire basically doesn't matter. Ugh
This book haunts me. I loved the POV being from Death himself narrating the events of the Holocaust, and the prose is amazing and quite novel - this was the first book I read with non-traditional writing - asides, breaks to give definitions or other information or the color Death was feeling at the moment, it was really fun to read despite the subject matter.
Goblin politics in a steampunkish fantasy world, where the protagonist is too good for this world, too pure. I just want him to have FRIENDS ;A;