Since I continue to read an absurd amount, I decided to split up my recent reads to make the length a little more reasonable. (It also helps that I still have not caught up with writing reviews and this meant that I could finish writing the reviews for prepping the post to go live.
I’m enjoying this series more than I expected but nowhere near as much as the Strange the Dreamer duology. It took me a little longer to get into this book because even though I reread the first book fairly recently, that book ends with basically the entire world turned topsy turvy. After about twenty percent, I was finally able to wrap my head around where all the players stood on the narrative chessboard. From that point it becomes a
quite different book than the first which reads much more like urban fantasy. This second installment, even though it takes place in the human world, focuses almost entirely on the fantastical creates – the chimera and the angels. (Karou’s best friend and her boyfriend, humans, do play a small part.) Since this is further on in the series, I will not discuss the plot. I’m engaged in the series but it’s not a new favorite.
What even was this book?
It had an engaging premise but the author, in my opinion, did not have the skill to pull off the premise. In this book, the main character is betrothed to the prince but no longer wants to marry him after supposedly discovering that he’s cold and cruel. She ends up discovering that her reflection is sentient, that a whole other world exists through the mirror. She also makes a deal with her
reflection and enters that world, instantly falling in love with the mirror version of the prince. I have so many issues with this story, the least of which is the insta-love with the mirror prince and later with the real prince. I struggled to understand the mirror world (how it was created and how it became connected to the real world.) The main character was also a bit of a wet blanket that’s also somehow supposed to be a chosen one of sorts. I kept reading to see how the author would ultimately resolve the story, not because I enjoyed it. When I put it through CAWPILE (the rating system created by G at BookRoast on YouTube), it earned a three but I need to rework how I calculate my ratings because this book did not deserve a three star. I have downgraded it to a 2.5 stars.
This book read extremely young. I knew that this was supposedly an adult novel but it read so much more like a young adult novel. This narrative alternated between three perspectives – Nell, a free black woman involved in the abolitionist movement, Charlotte, an escaped former slave who lives with and works for her father who passes as a white man, and Evie, a slave from the plantation Charlotte and her father escaped
from, now in Philadelphia, the same city as the other two girls, serving her mistress as she attempts to find a new husband. This could have been an interesting setting for the novel, antebellum Philadelphia with the milieu of active abolitionists, abolitionists in word only, and southern businessmen cycling their slaves between their Philadelphia homes and slave state homes so that their slaves would never become free. Overall though, the whole novel felt just surface level, no depth to the character relationships, characterization, and plot which leaves this a 3 star book for me.
Wow. I loved this completely mind-bending book, especially the relationship between Roger and Dodger. This narrative dives into the alchemical arts, something not specifically defined in this book. People who work in this highly secretive field dive into the creation of humans with certain traits, chasing the embodiment of The Doctrine, something also never definitively defined. This is definitely not a straight forward
narrative, nor would it work as one. It’s hard to describe just about anything about this book expect to say that I could not look away and look forward to reading the next books in the series, the third of which comes out next year.
I loved this very classical feeling fantasy, the type of story with dwarves and elves a la Tolkein. Knowing how much I love Tolkein, this should come as no surprise. This book, a traditional publication bind up of two previously published books, star Royce and Hadrian who work as thieves for hire but find themselves increasingly drawn into an ever-expanding plot putting the kingdoms and empire in peril. To make it the perfect book
for me, Michael J. Sullivan infuses the narrative with snarky humor that works incredibly well for me. I had considered reading just book one but I loved it so much that I just kept reading. I cannot wait to continue in this world.
If I had read the synopsis prior to receiving the book in my Fairyloot subscription (a while ago), I probably would have skipped this. After hearing Elliot Brooks, of the eponymous YouTube channel, talk positively about the book and its sequel, I decided to give the book a chance. I’m so glad I did. In this world, people fear falling asleep without certain medications because if you do, when you wake, you will become the embodiment
of your nightmare. The main character lives in near constant fear after her sister forgot to take her medication and woke up as a giant man-eating spider *shudder* who devours their father and a few other men before being hunted down and killed. In desperation to keep her one safe place she manipulates her way onto a mail run, encounters a new “friend,” and escapes an assassination attempt. From there, the plot goes completely bananas and I loved it. I’m so glad that I already own the sequel.
The next three books I picked up specifically to add to my classroom graphic novel collection, specifically choosing superhero ones since some of the most popular for my students are Miles Morales and Batman.
I knew the least about Static. This one is set after an incident that vies a whole lot of people superpowers, includ-ing the main charac-ter. While some of these graphic novels can be read without knowing much of any of the DC uni-verse storylines, this one would make so much more sense if read in context. It also did not have an overarching plot and instead revolved around the antics and trouble that this group of teenage superheroes get into overnight when they go out to party. While it’s not a story that I particularly enjoy, I think that many of my students might appreciate and resonate with the representation.
I enjoyed a lot more of this one but not because I knew any more of the back-ground of the main character, Jessica Cruz, a future Green Lantern. This story focused far more on Jessica as a person, not as a superhero. In fact, the ring is shown only a hand-ful of times making a subtle reference to her future. This narrative focuses on her life as a high school senior nearly drowning in academ-ics to prove herself while feeling like she lives on a knife’s edge because of her family’s undocu-mented status and the election of a hard right politician intent on mass deporta-tions. It should come as no surprise why this storyline resonates so much.
This one also had a cohesive storyline, which makes sense since it was adapted from a novel. (Side note: this graphic novel adaptation is my highest rated Sarah J. Maas book.) I also know far more about the Batman story in a few of its different iterations. Although I do not know which one of those iterations this one is set in specifically, I still enjoyed the story and the development of this version of Selina Kyle.
I chose this one for my Caffeine and Legends read for this month. Since I received it so long ago, I remembered nothing about the synopsis nor did I read the synopsis prior to reading the book. When writing this review only six days subsequent to reading, I struggle to remember many of the details, unfortunately. The narrative is divided into two perspectives (of course I do not remember character names), one a storm
singer whose mother urged her to keep the ability secret but unfortunately finds herself enslaved on a pirate ship and the other a pirate hunter who also has some sort of magical ability and a good for nothing twin who also has a magical ability. The plot twists and turns becoming so pretzel shaped that it’s hard to make heads or tails of who’s coming and who’s going. I really never engaged with the plot or characters so I will be unhauling this book.
One reads this book for the cozy atmosphere, not for the plot or characters. I had a lot of fun with this short, entertaining read. The main point of view character interviews for and lands a position at a department store selling dreams. You learn, a little ways in, that she lives on the fantastical side not on the customer side. The customers inhabit our world. Each chapter focuses on a different
dream or type of dream making the story episodic and easy to consume. I really enjoyed it.
Of the books on the Goodreads Choice Awards Historical Fiction list that I did not get to by the time they announced winners, I maintained the hold only on this one since only this particular synopsis intrigued me of those that I had left to read. On the surface, I would not expect to jive with the split perspective between the characters who seem to have no connection with each other. The book uses a particular drop of water to
not only connect these characters to each other but also to an ancient king of Nineveh, opening the novel in that perspective for the introduction only. The main perspectives start with Arthur, born on the banks of the filthy river Thames in 1840 to a mentally ill mother and alcoholic, abusive father but with an eidetic memory which leads him to become obsessed with the book Nineveh and Its Remains. The next perspective is that of Narin, a 10 year old Yazidi girl diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that will soon claim her hearing and also faced with the looming prospect of the Islamic State and their utter distaste for the so-called devil worshippers. The final perspective is that of Zaleekah, a brilliant hydrologist studying the oft-maligned idea of water memory who has recently separated from her husband and suffers from depression, especially after the collapse of her marriage. A plot weaving between such disparate narratives seems like it would not work yet it does. All three perspectives eventually connect in some fashion towards the last ten percent or so of the narrative. Shafak handles all of these stories with such care, dealing with all the complexities of human nature with skill and compassion. I appreciated the arc of the plot, even the more sweeping course of Arthur’s chapters which start with his birth and ends with his death, something that I usually do not enjoy in a narrative. This book is thought-provoking and provides quite a lot to chew on.
If you’re counting, that’s 12 books in 7 days. Yes, three of them were short graphic novels and one of them was a short, near novella length book. That’s a lot of books though. I don’t know if I will keep up this rate in the new year but we shall see.