BulbasaurusThe7th
4,5 stars
While I am generally not too into YA, I think I am developing a thing for middle-grade and this book was a great example of what I am looking for.
We're following an orphan (as many, many times before) named Christopher, who works as a kind, but a bit kooky apothecary, Benedict Blackthorn's apprentice. At first things seem fine, with a warm, adorable humour, but maybe they can't be all that safe when mysterious assassins are after the apothecaries of London. Things are about to turn quite dark...
While the story itself is historical fiction (1600's), it wasn't hard to follow at all, but it had some kind of old times type magic that didn't even need any of “real” magic. The mysterious ways of apothecaries in that age were absolutely brilliant for giving it that quality. Good choice there, Mr. Sands. That was probably my favourite about the whole thing; first expecting some sort of fairy powder or wizards, then realizing that while it wasn't going to have any, I didn't even miss it any longer. The balance between the historical aspects and the not too nice things in the life of the time and this magic.
I loved the characters. Some of them were sinister, some downright deceptive assholes, but none of them were grating to me. As a middle-grade book, it's safe to say you aren't going to get deep psychological studies on the human mind, but I didn't miss it at all. Other than his master, Christopher has a best friend named Tom, an eternally loyal gentle giant of a friend, who felt a bit like a balance for all the dark things happening to the boy.
As we get ahead, the story gets darker and darker. I for one appreciate that Mr. Sands dared to pull to that, to not sugarcoat things simply because he intended his book to be read mostly by kids. I'm pretty sure my younger self would have liked that. In this respect The Blackthorn Key reminded me of the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud, which is a great thing in my book. Still, keep in mind when giving this book to children; there are some pretty depressing things happening and it is about a series of murders. Just so nobody gets sleepless nights.
All in all, I LOVED it and I am hoping for a sequel. Kevin Sands, I am keeping an eye on your from now on. Things look promising.
2,5/5
This book was basically that person we all know, who calls you on the phone and while you seriously care about them, they just don't know when to shut up and end their endless stories.
As a lot of people point it out, the prose was so flowery it just felt like the author was sometimes completely losing herself in the details and forgetting about the fact that she was actually telling a story. Every little thing needed to have a million details, with at least six examples. No, you didn't just have food in your fridge, like milk and eggs, but milk, eggs, butter, pickles, juice, jam, and the list just goes on and on. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being eloquent, but this is not eloquence, this is being way too verbose.
At the beginning, through about the first third I actually kind of liked the different style. Then the boredom started. I honestly believe the author's style would have worked beautifully in a shorter piece of maybe a couple of hundred pages, that is mostly based on the atmosphere. With a book this long? It gets frustrating.
The magic, the different clans of magical people were great. They just felt kind of... wasted when the author seemingly forgot about what she could have done with them if most of the book wasn't spent on talking about trash (thanks lady, I know what thrash is) or feelings. At this point we simply weren't allowed close enough to any of the supporting characters to actually feel too much of a bond, which is a waste, even for a first book in the series.
The main was nice, I actually liked him. His only issue was... again, with the writing. Matthew, the protagonist keeps switching to referring to himself as ‘we', which took some time for me to get used to. It gets an explanation later on, but it can get frustrating sometimes and at the beginning it confused me quite a few times.
All in all, I enjoyed the story, not so much the execution, which is a shame. I'm definitely going to give the second book a try and see what happens next.
It's always difficult to write a review of the later books in a series, so this will just be some observations about this one.
This is my second time reading through the series, which means I went in already knowing I liked it a lot. Now, if you are just first picking it all up, it probably takes some time to get to know the characters and start seriously caring about them, but by book 3 you are supposedly all in. By now we know most of the character's back stories, usually through shorter little flashbacks and conversations.
Here, though, Silo's past is used as the backdrop of a considerable chunk of the story and is more integrated into the whole thing.
Another interesting choice with the characters is adding one more member to the crew. That was kind of risky, especially when the ones we already have are so freaking likeable; that is one of the big strengths of the series, the group dynamic and the characters themselves. Now I am not saying I dislike Ashua, but there is no way I am liking her as much as for example Malvery. Nah, mate.
The exciting scenes (like one specific one with a fighter jet race) are extremely cinematic and cool. Part of me wants to see this as a series. Then again, looking at the track record big studios have with book adaptations, I do not want to see this ruined by turning Jez into a manhating turbo lesbian or changing Silo's back story, because black people can't be slavers.
But you could just see it, the huge fights and flying and freaking daemonism.
All in all, this is still one of my favourite series ever.
Some people on here seem to give their 5 stars exclusively to books that supposedly change their lives and amounts awesome when mentioned in a serious conversation. There is nothing wrong with that, but I can't help just handing them out to books that were a fuckton of pure FUN in my opinion. This book is like that. Yes, you can say it's not the most original thing ever written by anyone, but I like to think of it as just... comfortably familiar, not boring and lamely cliché. What it does, it does well.
I have to point out that I've not seen Serenity (not really a sci-fi show fan, sorry), so Retribution Falls reminded me of anime instead, mostly Cowboy Bebop, Baccano!, with a tiny bit of FMA. The violence was stylized in a way that it really wasn't shocking or hard to read, and the same goes for all the angsty backstories of the characters. If you want something with plenty of action, without it being too too dark, this is a pretty safe bet in my opinion.
The characters are morally ambiguous enough to be kind of fun and honestly, I find them pretty much impossible to not like. My personal favourites were Crake (rich boy turned pirate because of a professional mistake) and Harkins (war veteran with a ton of issues).
Honestly, even though I have approximately 0 experience with steampunk, if it's like this, I think we will be good friends. Will definitely continue with the series, will recommend to my friends (aka throw it at their faces, sorry).
10/10, pure AWESOME
This is my second time reading Sabriel and honestly, I had to do it because I remember loving it and not much else. The beginning I had, the way Sabriel and Touchstone meet and that's about it. So one day at work I decided to listen to the audiobook and that was that.
Sabriel is a girl sent to a boarding school for girls. And she doesn't hate it! Hear me out, she is actually having a pretty good time living there and it's not about her being horribly mistreated. So why is she there? Because her dad is in an other country, one that is medieval and magical as opposed to the “real” world that already has black and white movies and tanks and such. Said dad is also the person tasked with making the creatures coming back from Death go back and leave the living alone.
Then one day his tools (a sword and a set of magical bells) get delivered to Sabriel, who needs to go to that other country to find her dad and to save the world, as it is inevitable. She is joined by a chaotic magical creature in the shape of a talking cat and a young man who was turned into a statue 200 years ago.
Generally I'm not too much into books about teenage girls. I was one at one point and I much prefer both my child and adult life, so that already is kind of difficult. Sabriel is cool though. She is fairly serious, not very emotional, she is special without being an invincible perfect little angel and very very important to me, she doesn't need to put others down to be cool. Often times I feel YA authors fall into the same mistake teenage girls do as well; having to compare the girl to everyone else to make her seem awesome, instead of doing well because it's in her and that's what she does for herself. It's either other girls or the men and boys around her, but someone needs to be the enemy who is the root of all her problems, because god help us, she is just naturally perfect otherwise. Sabriel is an integral part of her word, though instead of being above everyone.
She is also not defined by being a girl mistreated by men. Another issue I often have. We can have many interesting things going on with a female character other than going the cliche, cheap way of “men hate her, therefore she is suffering”. Okay? Show something new. Another point for this book, Sabriel does many things and she is regarded as a person and not Princess Oppressed.
The way it's written makes me feel like this book is much older and stands apart from its own genre in the best way possible. The ideas are great, the magic is fascinating. There is plenty of action and even a twist here or there, but the book itself stays actually very well-written. The prose is the kind I like, not too emotional and really fits the mood of the whole story.
The only thing I don't like that much is the end. After facing off the Big Bad of the book we get no explanations and no way to know how the characters are going to be after it. It was just sudden, which is especially sad because the protagonist of the second book is NOT Sabriel, but a whole new girl. This is not enough to make me rate the book any worse than I already did, but that's something you need to know. It's about the journey and the destination is just... functional. You don't get big emotional moments at the end, you just hope shit went as well as you want it to be for these people. (They get mentioned in book 2, so we get that, but t the same time you have to fill in between those points.)
I do recommend.
I challenge Leigh Bardugo to write an adult book. One without stupid teen girl tropes with all dudes loving one girl, gossipy clique shit, sass throwing, etc. She has the creativity, the world building here was great, some moments truly had a lot of weight. Basically it's time for the big battle, finding the last amplifier, winning over The Darkling and deciding the future of Ravka. A lot of work. I will have to repeat my previous reviews of this series; the world building shines. I wouldn't say there was too much added to the already existing things here, but the conclusion was pleasant and it felt like it was worth the wait, it satisfied. Though I will have to add that there wasn't too much of a surprise when it comes to Alina's future, we all knew she was going to end up the way she did. I wouldn't say any of it was too surprising, except for one plot twist, which was really just played for the drama. Otherwise... a lot of characters felt slightly wasted. Anyone Alina doesn't LOVE super much WILL die. A lot of focus is about how she feels, her internal workings and closest relationships while we have a bunch of interesting concepts. There is only one prominent Fabricator character in the time of the story who does ANYTHING, but we know how Alina feels about every single thing, in long form. Really, this series would have benefited from third person narrative. The first and last chapter in every book was in that form and it just felt so much better. It had so much possibility for an opened up world from different perspectives. Preferably ones that aren't bitter and whiny. Nikolai, for example is a much more interesting character whose issues are pushed to the background in a way. The foundation for something brilliant is there. It's in the author, I know she could do it. If she dared to stray from the extremely lucrative YA trope land. Which... she just did even more with Six of Crows, which I hated with passion. I don't really think she will ever leave behind the formula that worked so much for her when it came to fame and most probably money. Still, I would be extremely happy about it, because I believe she is worth more. Among the the rest of the genre, this one is a solid offering, though. I would say it is way above many of the others and for people who like YA or just simply don't dislike it as much as I do it would be a great choice. Russian settings are not that common, I think, the only other I could think of was [b:The Bear and the Nightingale 25489134 The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) Katherine Arden https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470731420s/25489134.jpg 45268929], which I absolutely hated for having the most typical special gurl with no discipline or manners because she can be a jerk, she is magical. Alina is a bit better; she is bitter and grouchy, but she can care about people close to her. There is a lot more possibility in the world as well, so in a way I'm happy the author is trying to work with that, though as I said, Six of Crows was a gigantic miss for me. The Nikolai books are about to come out so I really hope we'll get more of this side of the universe. My gut feeling is that it will be some sort of a romance, though, which is tired and boring and I am over it. I'll give it a go, though, for sure as he deserves more than what he got here. I would say this series was disappointing. I still like it, I love some elements, but it's very far from a perfect score. Have a good night and rise above all the shit!
So I'm reading through this series for the second time and honestly, I think I was totally right about my first time rating.
Alina and Mal ran away in book 1, but everyone knew the Darkling wasn't so easy to lose. He had plans with Alina, just like the Apparat with his new cult, prince Nikolai and really, everyone now.
The selling point of this series is the super creative world building. The whole Russian aesthetic is great, the things make sense. The danger feels real, there are so many pieces of lore, of different little parts that are interesting. This is exactly why I am so disappointed in the focus being Alina, the least intriguing character in the whole thing. They literally have the equivalent of the tough foreign PE teacher who would probably have a badass story of his own to tell. We are stuck with this bitter, whiny, boring, judge-y piece of a Mary Sue.
By this point she has 3 serious suitors. THREE. (Every single one too good for such a person.) I will be honest, the male characters are waster on this bullshit of chasing Alina. Mal is the most fleshed out, though he is the simplest of the three. It's weird that Bardugo could create interesting people like Nikolai, ideas like the Grisha school and army, but we get stuck with love overload. (Let me also declare that I found Six of Crows aaaaaaabsolutely shitty. No creativity, just bullshit 17-year-old super gang leaders and conveniently pairing up EVERY character into a forced romance, while ignoring any interesting world building.)
The first person perspective was a bad choice as well. It just hides so much about the setting and the other characters because Alina is clueless and boring. The first and last chapters in every book are third person, which would have opened up the story so much more. Not sure how much of it was an active choice or just a bit of a beginner way of not really knowing how to do it. But really, everything that obscures the culture and country here just bothers me, because really, it shines there.
Now I will be controversial, because why not. I do not love YA at all. Often times it's kind of diet stuff, the lesser kind of whatever genre it is and people just seem to let it slide because it's easy to read and it's for young people, so it doesn't matter as long as they read. Which is bullshit. Surprise, surprise, kids do deserve top notch shit as well and good habits can be formed without compromises of quality.
This would have been the PERFECT thing if not for the stupid tropes of all-dudes-loving-one-girl and such. I would still say it's way above the likes of Throne of Glass by Maas or City of Bones by Clare, so in that sense it's definitely recommended by me.
All in all, I'm conflicted, especially knowing Bardugo didn't improve on the weak parts but completely left out the good parts in her newer series. Sad. Especially because I'm re-reading this mostly to prepare for the new Nikolai duology. I want to see interesting things. Adventures. A protagonist who is grey in some ways and has his issues and such, but I fear the most wasted character of this whole series is going to become the centrepiece of another stupid romance and superficial shit. From the outside he looked interesting, I wonder how he will be if we get to know him better.
At this point the three books follow the route of the characters going after Morozova's three animal amplifiers, which is not a bad basic plot. For the most bare bones approach it's already enough, though I find the Apparat story line is very interesting, even if he is not a very fascinating character, while Nikolai's character is great (you really can't guess if he is a total charming sociopath or if he is really suffering under the weight of what he is doing) his story here is... mostly just “we have to pretend to be awesome so people will buy it”. Again, conflicting as hell.
I'm going to read the last book of course, even though I know what's happening. The vibrant details make it worth my time, especially because they are extremely readable, very fast and easy. Worth a try, I think.
Good night and see the light at the end of the tunnel!
This was... an interesting one. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, but I couldn't give it less than three stars. I mean the action was good, I enjoyed it, the setting was something different (I know absolutely nothing about Russia, so don't kill me if the whole thing was off, I don't know better), but it still had the YA marks that will probably never make it my favourite genre.
The atmosphere was really what I like. It had just enough darkness in it without trying to emotionally bully you into feeling sorry for the characters more than necessary. It wasn't trying to be too poetic, just enough to make me enjoy reading and the beginning felt amazing.
I personally am not a fan of books written in first person, mostly because it has the huge risk of failing, simply because I can't stand the main character. In this case this didn't ruin the whole thing completely, but I would have preferred it from a third person view, because honestly, Alina was probably ma least favourite from the characters. She was too much of an emotional roller coaster without me feeling such a huge development in her as a person. One moment she's sickly and boring, the next super strong and tough, one moment she is oh so independent, the next she cries all the time. To me that doesn't make her likeable, just a moody child. (Also, the whole thing with the lame-ish girl who is chased around by a bunch of hilariously charming men is the biggest cliché in the world.)
The worst thing that actually made it lose a star from my original idea of four was the writing of the romance scenes. Somehow those parts made me shudder. It was probably partly the fact that it was written in first person, but they felt cheesy.
Then we have her on again, off again lads... They made it so obvious that you're supposed to root for Mal that I can't help assuming that there will be a twist to redeem the Darkling. He was definitely my favourite, even with his ridiculously suspicious behaviour before him turning out to be evil, but I honestly hope his redemption won't come through his honest love for Alina, but through himself and nothing else. I just want him to be more than really evil, but suddenly sympathetic, because of true love.
I probably sound a bit hard on the book, but all in all, it was pleasant, I'm already reading the second in the series, so it still managed to keep me interested. For some reason I really came to care about the smaller characters, like Baghra, Ivan, Zoya, etc.
All in all, the Darkling and the action scenes carry this whole thing. It's worth a read, especially if you're into YA and you're not bothered by some romance. 6/10
Darren Shan is fun. He is just so much fun and while possibly by 2019 could be some super sensitive PC crap like many other authors (I don't know), at the point when he wrote this he was just unashamed awesome.
Grubbs Grady is a normal kid who likes making trouble, pranking his older sister. You know. Up until something is just starting to be weird with his family. Everyone is tense and he realises they made up a story to remove him from home for a night for whatever reason. When he goes to find out what's wrong he finds all of them dead, brutally chopped up by demons in their home. He goes insane from the trauma and is relatively “content” in his madness until his uncle Dervish shows up, telling him he believes demons really exist. So Grubbs goes to live with him and find out everything.
The thing about Darren Shan that I appreciate is that the child characters are not sanitised little genius saints who are basically mouthpieces for the author's agenda. They are not mouthpieces to tell kids what the author believes is wrong with the real world now, like so many YA books are right now. These are children who can be rude and are boisterous, they can be annoying and selfish, but they are all relatable. Not out there to flatter the kids and tell them what to think.
The adults are the same. They are not there just to be stupid to make it seem like teenagers are the only competent people who can see the issue and solve it too. Not there to hold the kids back and act all sorts of abusive because adults are bad.
Now you have to know that this series is fucked up. There is so much blood, so much suffering and death. It's not for easily freaked out people. Which is one of the reasons why I like it; it fills a niche that was definitely needed to be filled when it was written. I would say even today it's an interesting example of things. Now YA specifically is becoming incredibly political and melodramatic, with book after book of increasingly more ridiculous speculative shit about the laws the politicians that we NEED to hate today will totally absolutely pass (no, they won't). Among those this universal horror is really refreshing in a way. It's really outside the realm of those things, the Current Year drama about this or that. It's something that will definitely freak you out without any of that.
I have read these books way back, maybe 8 years ago. I'm going to say it, Dervish is still my favourite so far, freaking awesome with his slightly quirky ways. It's great to see a father figure who is not portrayed as either evil and sadistic or a total whiny useless Care Bear.
Have a nice day and it's your loss if you've not read this yet!