Chrystal

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in The Ruinous Love Trilogy. The book is a short read and while dealing with dark themes such as serial killers and torture, it remains light-hearted and funny. The story was not deep, but it was entertaining and engaging and the characters were relatable. I would recommend this book to someone looking for something light between heavier reads, or someone who doesn't mind a bit of fluff. I am not planning to listen to this book again, but I am mildly interested to read the second book in the series.

The Atlas Six is the first book in the Atlas Series, written in a world of dark academia where The Alexandrian Society are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. The characters have depth and the world is rich, but the pacing and plot progression of the story is not constant. I would recommend this book to someone who doesn't mind a start-and-stop story progression and likes a world that feels highbrow. I am not likely to listen to this book again, but I am interested in the next book in the series.

Tenfold is the fourth book in The King's Watch series. The characters and world-building throughout the series are fun and engaging, if not overly memorable and Tenfold carries on that tradition. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys contemporary sword and sorcery and characters who can poke fun at themselves. I am not actively planning to listen to this book again, but I wouldn't completely discount it either.

Rating: 5 stars
Format: Audible Audiobook
Length: 15 hours, 27 minutes
Series & Book#: The Broken Earth, book #1
Days to Read: 2

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jesimin is stories within stories. In the story we start with, the world is ending for Essun, primarily on a deeply personal level as she comes home to find her son, Uche, dead and her husband and daughter missing. We find out that Essun is an old hand at navigating world-ending circumstances because she has been here before.

The land Essun lives in, The Stillness, suffers from what are called Fifth Seasons where the land turns on itself and the people who live there, creating unhospitable living conditions. This has caused the people of The Stillness to live in constant fear of the next Fifth Season where they are continuously prepping for what could happen next. Not every iteration of a Fifth Season is the same, there has been a Choking Season where volcanic eruptions blanketed the world in ash, an Acid Season where the volcanic eruptions were so strong that the waters became acidic, and a Fungus Season where the eruptions happened during monsoon season and caused fungal spreading that wiped out food supplies.

Just as Essun is discovering her broken family, something is happening. Something that could lead to another Fifth Season. In her gut, Essun knows this season will be incredibly devastating and last much longer than previous seasons. Now, she has to set off looking for her daughter amidst the terror and struggles of a world-ending apocalypse.


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Incredible world-building and character presentation. Absolutely reading the next book!

Jemisin has given us a beautifully heart-breaking world and the people who inhabit it. This is a world where people can't grow too much because of the constant threat of the next Fifth Season. They are stuck in a continuous cycle of preparation, living through a Fifth Season, and recovery, and Jemisin outlines what that does to a world on the level of the people collectively and individually.   She also shows us the oppression of the Orogenes and what that has led to.

I can't imagine having to live in a world like this, but Jemisin brings it to life beautifully. This was a book that could not be put down and I will be adding it to my list of books I love to reread.


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How my rating system works:To start with, the rating system I use isn't strictly /my/ system. I use the CAWPILE system created by Gintare Zuromskaite over at Book Roast. I took the system she has and tweaked it just a smidge so that the questions work for my brain a bit better. You can watch G talk about the CAWPILE system here: https://youtu.be/iZhinxtTMFQ?si=hKgxQkjB3HEQO-1Y


What is CAWPILE?
CAWPILE is a system where each letter in the acronym is a section that covers different aspects of your reading. The sections (for a fiction reading) are C(haracters), A(tmosphere), W(riting), P(lot), I(ntrigue), L(ogic), and E(njoyment). Each section has 3 questions for you to think about while you're reading/reviewing. Based on how you answer the questions, you assign each section a rating from 0-10 then find the average of the sections. This gives you a 0-10 rating for the whole reading which is then converted into a 0-5 star rating.

Manacled is a Harry Potter fanfic. The story was very dark and emotional and was hard to put down. The story was well written and I would recommend it to someone who was inclined to read fanfic and enjoyed dark stories.