Hannah

Did not enjoy the paedophile perspective. At all. Why? I'm sure something comes of it later but ew. The writing style was fine enough to read but the story itself just felt too mundane and I couldn't get interested. None of the characters were interesting to me, or loveable. Even when the vampire attacks somebody there was no excitement there, I didn't feel gripped, no suspense. I was just bored. Decided not to waste my time further. It may well pick up but many books to read, little time!

A nice quick read and a classic for a reason, Carrie tells the legendary story of Carietta White, the daughter of a crazed fundamentalist Christian woman who is fiercely bullied at her high school and the repercussions this life has. 

Only lost points because the random mid-sentence thought brackets were very off-putting, occasionally would switch scenes with absolutely no indication towards doing so, and the numerous references to racist caricatures (while yes, a result of the time period) were unnecessary and gross. I'm aware these kinds of things come up in King's early books but they very much do affect my ratings. 

Otherwise, enjoyed the reading experience immensely.

Woohoo! Another book down. I do have some issues with this book, but I loved it! 

Many, many errors. So many that I lost count. A couple POVs that I feel could have led to more interesting reveals if we didn't follow their perspectives in this book, though I loved Rylan, Lorelei, and Rhiannon was interesting. Rylan was my favourite, of course. He's the most interesting character here. I do wish the ending had a little more time in the oven, perhaps? There were moments that I felt weren't given quite the gravitas they could have and others that were a little rushed, but it did a great job of pushing the action and delivering on some really cool scenes. 

Obviously, my favourite things here were the dragons and how each colour differs from the next, the whole thing surrounding bonding and the tethers. This was really well thought out and executed across the board. And the Holt, in general. The absolutely gargantuan Citadel trees and the cities built within their boughs, the Kin that call it home and what that means for them with the Empire on their doorstep, and the magic system. It spoke to my inner Druid so much. 

I can't wait for the continuation of this series! I want to spend more time with some of these characters and see how they grow and change and interact, who else we get to meet, explore the book's threat further and unlock more lost lore. I am an absolute sucker for ancient lost lore being recovered in this way. Chef's kiss. 

If you're looking for a fun high fantasy book, this was a joy. Definitely going to go back and pick up Beaulieu's other works now! I do have the airship one on my Kindle but I'll try and get hold of Twelve Kings and the novella for Book of the Holt, for sure.

Kagen the Damned is a great example of a novel that I heard next to nothing about. I first came across the book back in 2022 when I was doing my huge upcoming speculative fiction releases posts and it caught my eye then. Since then, I'm sure I've only seen one other person even mention the book. Yet it has stuck in my mind. Sometimes I catch a vibe from a book and I just know I need to give it a try. Very often I end up loving these books. Call it intuition or call it good taste, whatever you like. ???? And yes, it has happened again with Kagen. 

So to be frank, I had completely forgotten the premise of Kagen the Damned over the months and ended up going into the read blind. I can recommend against doing this for most readers. You see, this is grimdark, with a smattering of horror. Cosmic horror. 

In the first 200 pages we see so much sexual assault and brutal violence that poor old Kagen becomes traumatised and falls into the loving embrace of a wine-enduced stupor. While personally I feel all of this serves the story, showcasing how devastatingly nasty the Hakkian forces are, and how dark the world becomes in the time since the fall of the Silver Empire, and how utterly destroyed Kagen is over what he has been through, it could prove too much for you and that's okay. Know your lines, check the content warnings. Seriously. 

That said, watching Kagen's rise from rock bottom feels SO good. He has so much fuel for what's to come and we do really root for him. 

Kagen isn't the only character we get to know, however. He's not even in my top 3, truth be told! 

We also follow Ryssa, a 15-year old nun-to-be from the destroyed and outlawed faith of the Garden, as she is led from the ruins of Argentium on the fateful night of the Empire's fall and across the lands to mysterious ends by Miri, a nun who pretty quickly leaves her faith behind her. I didn't care too much for these characters but their story plays a vital part and it is fascinating to watch the mystery unfold. 

Then we have the new emperor, the Witch-king of Hakkia, an evil sorcerous leader wiped out around 1500 years ago by the Silver Empire, and his chamberlain, Lord Nespar, and the necromancer Lady Kestral. You see, magic was outlawed by the Silver Empire, once a force that came from evil gods and serving no good. Or so they said, at least. And now we begin to see magic returning to the world. Particularly through Lady Kestral and the Witch-king, although their use of magic is certainly for evil,  particularly as they prepare for the coronation that will make the Witch-king's reign as emperor legal. And oh it's so fun to read about. I love Lady Kestral so much. 

By far my three favourite characters, however, have to be Filia alden-Bok, a friend and sometimes lover of Kagen's who is just an utter badass woman. She isn't especially “attractive”, and yet.. she still gets laid and gets to kick some arse. What a concept! Then Tuke of Theria, a large dark-skinned man who Kagen becomes familiar with. I don't want to go too much into his character as he's a little way into the book but he's such a fun character to have around, and also a badass. And last but not least, Mother Frey. An old lady and nun, revered for her work, and head of an order within the faith of the Garden that seeks out magic in the world. She is a very interesting woman. 

The only thing I perhaps didn't care for was the fact that I pretty much worked out all of the twists ahead of time. I'm not sure if that's because they were really obvious or if I'm just getting better at working these things out, but I do love an “oh my god, I didn't see that coming!” moment, and I just didn't have that here. Still though, it's a damn good story and a world that I just want to devour. It's dark and gritty, it's got that mythic quality to it I always long for in my epic fantasy, with lost civilisations thousands of years in the past and strange forces the people have forgotten about, and of course, a hearty lick of cosmic horror. Incredible. 

 Hmm... I really like the way this was written. Presented as an autobiographical audiobook of a man who was in a movie in the early 90s that was never released due to something tragic happening on set, but clips of the movie and the script have since been released online and drummed up a lot of interest, and so the movie is being made in the modern day. We get chapters from the distant past, recent past, present, and the script itself, and it flips between these things to create a comprehensive story. It's fascinating and I loved reading it. 

I just didn't personally feel like this one is “horror”. Not to say that it isn't! Just didn't work for me. And it got... pretty dang weird and it's taken me a few days to work out if that's good weird or bad weird and I.. think, it's not good weird but not quite bad weird, if that makes any sense. 

So 2 stars because the journey is great, but the ending really let it down for me. 

I do recommend this one to people who find the concept of movie making, particularly indie movie making, interesting. I think you'd probably get some joy out of this one.