Jessica
3 stars.
Good:
The writing style, which evoked fairy tales.
The creative use of The Woods as the home for all the world's evils.
The court politics - usually I'm bored by them, but here they worked.
The bad:
The main character is a cypher, in spite of being a first person POV.
The romance (too abrupt, and the hero's character is also a cypher.)
The ending, which felt rushed.
One of the hallmarks of great fantasy is the incredible sense of place. The best authors can create an unfamiliar world, and make it seem as real as ours. I never exactly got that from Uprooted, which was disappointing. The writing is lovely, though the pace is slow. It never grabbed me the way that similar books (such as Seraphina) have. I'd still recommend it for fans of fantasy, particularly if you like female MCs.
Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite YA novelists. I barely read contemporary novels in the genre, because usually they are thinly disguised romances, but dessen's novel transcend stereotypes. There is a love story, but it's not the focus of the book. Instead, the focus is on Sydney's troubled relationship with her mother, and with her jailed older brother. I might have cried... No comment. Beautiful, and highly recommended.
I didn't think I was going to read this book. I dislike unreliable narrators, and I had seen the book compared to Lord of the Flies, which I don't revere as much as some readers. (Thankfully, it really is nothing like that novel.) I certainly wasn't expecting to enjoy it, but to my surprise I did.
Something happened two summers ago, but Cady isn't quite sure what. She knows that she ended up with a brain injury, but no one wants to tell her how that happened. She comes from an extremely wealthy family (they own an island.) I've seen reviews that feel it was hard to relate to such wealthy characters, but I felt differently. In fact, I think that Lockhart goes out of her way to show us that all the money in the world can't fix their problems.
The writing style is beautiful, and Cady comes across as a real person. I knew going in that there was a twist Spoiler but I'm not sure I didn't see it coming. I didn't see the ultimate cause at all though (the house fire.)
Part of the fun of a book like this is going back and looking for clues. In this case, I'm not totally sure it all hung together, but because Cady is so unreliable it's hard to tell. Did her aunt really walk the island at night? How much of what went on with the other Liars really happened? And how on earth did her mother think that hiding this from her would help?
I really enjoyed this book, and it serves as a good reminder to get out of my comfort zone sometimes.
When I opened this book, and saw that it was dedicated to [a:Mary Stewart 15590 Mary Stewart https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1210367214p2/15590.jpg], I knew that it was the book for me. If you haven't read Mary Stewart, and you are at all a fan of gothic mysteries, please pause this review to go read [b:Touch Not the Cat 27690 Touch Not the Cat Mary Stewart https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386920871s/27690.jpg 1122551] immediately.The heroine of this novel is a psychic, one of the few in England. After a fellow psychic is murdered, she has to find out who did the deed, whether she wants to or not.Post WW I is one of my favorite settings, and the author makes good use of the era in her plot. In addition, I felt that her characters seemed true to the time period, and not at all anachronistic. I took off one star for the conclusion, which felt a little rushed, but otherwise this was a great read - I'm looking forward to checking out the author's previous novels.
This novel has a fantastic premise. She can kill with a touch? Fantastic! But... Spoiler it turns out she's been lied to and manipulated. At the point of that revelation, the book becomes a bland love triangle. The queen was a villain who was such of a stock character that I expected her to turn up with an evil mustache. Both love interests were boring and bland. The best parts were the descriptions of her mother's sin eating, which was an interesting idea. I was so disappointed in how this all turned out - 1.5 stars.
I read this book because I quite enjoyed the author's “big little liars.” The premise seemed interesting enough, but unfortunately this book was not enjoyable for me. To begin with, Alice is a frustrating character. She came across as much younger than the 29 year old she believed herself to me. All of the cutesy flashbacks to her early relationship with Nick made me roll my eyes.
Unlike some reviewers, I didn't mind the stories of the sister and grandmother. But the epilogue pushed it over the edge for me. At first I thought Alice was going to stay divorced from Nick, which felt realistic. But no, we get the overly cutesy ending instead. And poor Dominick! Alice was not very nice to him.
I truly did not know what to expect out of Big Little Lies. I worried that it might be too fluffy for me (I'm not a fan of chick lit) and that the characters might be hard for me to relate to. Although I think I might have gotten more chuckles if I were a parent, this was a fantastic book. It's funny and dark at the same time, and in spite of the absurdity it never feels over the top. Definitely not chick lit, but I think it would appeal to fans of that genre. Recommended!
I think Mom would have asked more questions if Aunt Jewel hadn't leaned over and taken my hand, inspecting it over her glasses. “Did you put peroxide on it?”The Aunts would pour peroxide over a severed leg; it was their cure-all.
This book surprised me - It has a funny, sympathetic main character, an unpredictable plot, and despite being set in a high school, no plot lines involving the main character being hated on by all the other girls.
It's also distinctly southern, very funny and charming. Highly recommended.
It honestly breaks my heart to write this review. Seraphina is one of my favorite books. I have been so excited for the conclusion to the story that I bought it immediately upon release. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment.
I shall begin with what I loved about Seraphina. I loved the excellent world building, which never felt clunky, even when introducing new words and terms for common items. I loved the concept of a world where dragons could assume human form, but were troubled by emotion. I loved Seraphina herself, a character who was impulsive, shy, loyal, and intelligent. Her relationship with Kiggs was very well done - you could feel their frustration at their situation, and the longing to do what the heart wished. I especially loved the way Seraphina's musical world was built. As a musician myself, it is rare to find such a faithful (and technically accurate) depiction of the musician's inner feelings.
Now the sequel. It started off well, with Seraphina in the palace, and dragons and humans on the verge of war. Seraphina is sent off to find other half dragons, so that they can join their minds to form a barrier to dragon attack. This is where it lost me. Half the book involves Seraphina wandering around collecting half dragons. Every chapter is much the same, and I couldn't care about these new characters. I will spoiler the next bit Spoiler the war just sort of ends, with no real climactic battle. Her uncle's mind is wiped, so she loses him, with only faint hope of it returning. And the romance? I feel like the author stopped just short of stating that the three were in a poly relationship, though I think she meant that more than Seraphina being Kriggs' mistress. That's fine, I guess, but it felt unsatisfying.
I honestly recommend not reading this sequel. Disappointing.
I was a huge fan of Frank L. Baum's Oz books when I was growing up, so I approached this with trepidation. Would the author respect the source material? Would the books even be referenced, or would it be all about the film adaptation?
I needn't have worried. The book is full of references to characters in the books, such as the Patchwork Girl. I really liked the protagonist, Amy. She had a lousy life, but still managed to be resourceful (without being too perfect.) Amy finds herself ripped (literally) from her life in Kansas, where she lives in a trailer with her addict Mom.
Oz is not what it once was, as apparently Dorothy has gone a bit power mad upon her return to the land. Amy finds herself recruited to help take down the despot.
The only real issue I had with this book was with the portrayal of the original Oz characters. I'm just not sure I believe that the Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow could have ended up so different. Dorothy was a little much as well. Having said that, I could overlook it. There are hints that all may not be as it seems, with regards to their changed behavior. There was a love interest, but while it didn't work for me, it was minimal.
I actually had to check that this book was labeled YA, because this was one violent YA book. Seriously, if you can't handle descriptions of violence, look away now.
Other than those few issues, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Maplecroft should not be good. I went into it thinking the premise silly (it is.) I thought the cover promised something light (it's not.) What it is, though, is properly terrifying. After reading late at night, I had to get up and turn on the lights. I heard licking sounds, and sure it might be the cat, but it might also be something terrifying from the sea. (Spoiler alert: it was the cat.)
Recommended for classic horror fans.
3.5 stars.
Pros: I think this novel, the first of French's Dublin Murder Squad series makes for a good start. The use of language is beautiful, and never too over the top. I loved the character of Cassie, the partner of the narrator. The central mystery (that of a murdered 12 year old girl) kept me guessing until the end.
Cons: The narrator himself was a complete jerk. I get that he's been through some stuff, but he's frustrating to follow. Spoiler I did not like the way he treated Cassie, who was then herself paired off with Sam at the end of the book. Also, don't go into this looking for all the ends to be tied up with a bow Spoiler How do we not find out what happened to the narrator's friends?
I'm going to go ahead and read the next in the series - French has a way with language, and I'm curious to see where she goes next.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because of Simon Snow. This is the first book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read, and I had high expectations. Were they met? In some ways, but I found the book slow going.
Cath, our main character, is having a hard time starting college. She doesn't want to meet people, and has a crippling sort of social anxiety. She doesn't go to the cafeteria for a month because she doesn't know where it is, and she isn't asking. She's also a popular writer of fanfiction in the Simon Snow fandom (an obvious Harry Potter knock-off, though strangely enough Harry Potter does exist within the book's universe.) She has a twin sister who she's growing apart from. And she finds the social scene of college to be impossible to navigate, as she's not interested in frat parties or drinking.
Let me say that I related to Cath very much. In fact, she's the reason I kept reading. I myself was once a shy, socially awkward college freshman attending a large state University. I also stayed in my dorm room with the door shut (because I was not interested in the things the other girls were) and read large amounts of fanfiction (on the X-files, to date myself a bit.) I feel that Rowell caught her Cath's personality perfectly. She was sometimes frustrating, as she refused to move outside her comfort zone, but it was consistent with her character.
I thought this was going to be a 5 star read for me. The thing that held it back for me was the lack of forward motion in the plot. I understand that this is a coming of age story, but I sometimes felt the plot meandered around, with no central conflict. I also thought that Cath's love interest was much too perfect, and not believable to me. I wasn't super invested in Wren's plotline either Spoiler I didn't really like the way that her character reverts to her high school self at the end. I understand she was going through some things, but it felt to me a bit off.
Recommended, just know that it's not in a hurry to get anywhere.
