chanda

I was excited for this book's story, but found all of the characters insufferable, and didn't like the writing. It was trying really hard to be lyrical, poignant and creepy, but just felt incredibly pretentious. I don't understand why Lin was even there??? And I couldn't stand the author talking repeatedly about how hot the characters were - I GET IT. Up until near the end they are described in different ways as so good looking it hurts. I ended up finishing this in a day because I really didn't want to have to pick it up again

3.5 - I enjoyed it more than I expected! Definitely a slow start but towards the end the matches described have me looking them up on YouTube to experience them properly. Who knew I could be interested in pro wrestling!

I didn't want it to end! I will miss Darius and the characters in his life so much.

i really wanted to like this after all the amazing stuff i've heard about gwynne, but i think that the hype was too much. i kept expecting amazing writing from this author, and this was my second from him (the first was shadow of the gods, which was described as a masterpiece, and i thought was ok).

i'm not really a fan of pushing in so many characters - i would rather the existing characters were fleshed out well. there were some characters who i really hated seeing the perspective of - kastell was my least favorite. i thought he was so boring and forgot who he was a lot of the time. and then he joins a band of warriors for a while and this is supposed to be a big deal for him but is barely even talked about.

rafe and jael were such annoyingly evil characters as well. they seemed so flat and didn't seem to have a reason for being so bad. i just wish that there was more to the characters who were given so much “screen time”. gwynne also loves to write battle scenes and i just find them really boring.

i preferred malice to shadow of the gods, but i'm really not sure if i'm going to continue on with this series or author. i am really curious about what happens next, even though it feels kind of obvious
Spoiler
(Corban is totally the actual hero isn't he, and Nathair is just being tricked). he seems like a really friendly dude but his books are chonkers, so they're quite the commitment.

sigh, think i'll take a break from gwynne. maybe i'll enjoy him after some time away.

holy moly this series is nuts. the worst part of it is knowing that it's inspired by real life events.

rin is such a badass character, but at the same time should we like her?! she committed genocide. but only after it was committed on her people first!? you know what they say about an eye for an eye; the whole world goes blind!

pretty bummed about the rest of the cike, and nezha. things haven't been pretty, and definitely won't be in the conclusion of this trilogy.

oh, fitz fitz fitz. things are so miserable for you always! from the beginning to the end. i can only hope that the final book in this trilogy will provide some much needed relief for you. 

hobb really has a way with words! i found myself really liking Nighteyes. there was a scene in the book that had me laughing pretty damn loud (“female? nice. vast approval.”) so unexpected and hilarious. please please please give our boy a break in the last book! 

absolutely loved this book. the characters were written so well, and the world was so damn interesting. i didn't mind at all that it had kind of that sitcom episode-of-the-week feel between the chapters, because it meant we got to know the characters better. this is series i borrowed from the library, but now i'll be happy to buy the books knowing how good they are. 

i was nervous getting into this because i had heard that it wasn't as good as RJB's previous trilogy, the Divine Cities trilogy (which i adored). while i agree with that, i still enjoyed my time in his new world. i do really wish that RJB would add maps to his books, or some kind of dramatis personae, so that we could more easily remember who belongs to which house, but oh well. i'll probably pick up the next one, but likely won't be in any sort of rush to.

this was a buddy read chosen by my partner, who remembered it being a favorite from college. i had quite a hard time feeling attached to any of the characters, especially our main character, okonkwo. the ending left me especially confused.

some scenes in this were VERY difficult to read, and wow i could not stand some of the characters sometimes, but i think that's pretty accurate to real life, and that was the point lol. super satisfying ending!

2.5, but closer to a 3 than a 2 i think.

i wanted to give this book a higher rating because i think we need more books based on vietnamese folks, but i couldn't get into it. it definitely seems like it was written towards YA folks but did not feel YA. i also found myself wishing that more vietnamese terms and customs were better explained. bao and linh had an instalove going on, and i didn't particularly like linh. when in linh's perspective, bao seemed like a completely different person from when you were actually in his head. their families were also pretty hard to distinguish from each other.

wow i really didn't like this. didn't like the writing style, the world, characters, tropes, anything. if i didn't have to finish this for a readathon, i would have dnf'd it. a lot of the horrible things in this world that happened seemed to have happened for shock value, and i was rolling my eyes a lot of the time. talk about angsty. don't get the hype at all.

This trilogy has been the first in my foray to the world of audiobooks and I could not ask for a finer introduction. Pacey has done an amazing job in giving everyone such distinct personalities! I genuinely believe I would not have enjoyed the books more than listening to him- he truly brings each and every individual character to life.

I was sad to see this trilogy come to an end, and I miss them all already! Clever, resilient Glokta, clueless, bumbling Jezal, fierce, fiery Ferro, and of course, thoughtful, brutal, cursed, Logen Ninefingers. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I'll have to say Glokta's POV, with his biting, wry inner monologue, was always the most entertaining.

i loved this story! tarisai was so easy to like, and so were the characters around her - jeet, kira, dayo, even katherine and woo in, and the lady. the world building was done really well - i found myself really curious about aritsar, and songland, and the people, as well as their history. it's a shame we couldn't spend more time with the other members of the council, but i can understand why when there are so many lol. i'm looking forward to the second book!!

this was such a heartbreaking, necessary read. each character in the family tree felt distinct, and although i may have lost track of remembering who descended from who, it was really helpful to flip back to the front of the book to quickly glance at the family tree. i would've really liked if there were dates provided for each chapter and character, but oh well. 

it was so cute!! and funny! i loved it. there were a couple things i didn't like - nathan seemed too perfect, maureen was weirdly flippant and casual when she was holding the aunties hostage, her entire plan to prevent jacqueline from marrying was pretty bonkers, and i'm not totally sure how i feel about the main characters completely getting away with literal murder........but it's clear that this is meant to be a light hearted read, and i loved meddy & her family's relationships with each other. it had me really sappy at points (the epilogue ♥!) can't wait to see the movie!

this was a cute, short read. there were bits that were harder to get into (like with the witches and the storm dudes (i forget their names lol)) but whenever it was Tristran interacting with other characters, it was pretty entertaining. he and Yvaine are very cute together.

i found it kinda disappointing that this was a “folktale meant for adults” because it felt like the bit that really made it “adult” was the sex scene in the beginning

i enjoyed mcguire's writing, same as last time, but it wasn't as easy to enjoy the world with such a limited, miserable cast. the Moors are not a happy place, and Jack and Jill are not very happy children, with supremely unlikable parents.

there was a kind of gross fascination with watching things go downhill for the twins, which you know they will from the start - because that's why they were even in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children's from the first book in the first place.

the world is so interesting, i can't help but wish that these books were more than novellas. i want to know more about the doorways, and the worlds behind them, and the characters in them!

i have to admit, i was confusing jack & jill for each other up until the point where they finally separate lol. i struggled with telling them apart in the first book as well. 

i struggled with whether or not to give it 2 or 3 stars but sadly i didn't really like it. it was my first john gwynne, i kept hearing that he is an amazing writer and this book being lauded as a masterpiece so went in with that expectation and kept waiting for it to get incredible....unfortunately it didn't hit those high notes for me. i didn't feel super attached to the characters (imo there was a lot of showing and telling what they were doing versus the characters reflecting and feeling anything other than anger and bloodlust of course), the chapters felt too short (i was constantly left feeling like i wanted to spend more time with a particular character before it switched off) and i kept mixing characters up between stories, which was frustrating. 

i would've really appreciated a glossary and a dramatis personae to be able to better tell characters apart and know what the heck was going on. i have been reading other books simultaneously that actually explain what foreign words/phrases were after using them, so it felt kind of obnoxious to me that that wasn't done here, especially when those words are used constantly.

i bought malice before i bought shadow of the gods so i hope i like TFATF better, but we'll see. i think my expectations are better tempered now.

i want to buy a copy for everyone i know. i want them all to read it

i can def see why the WoT comparisons have been made. it kind of felt like a more modern take on a similar type of adventure. although i liked what i felt was the quick pace, it did make it so that events seem to come and go really quickly, before we got a chance to really connect with a setting or character. the many characters with their fantasy names could be hard to keep track of, and even the main ones were a bit flat. 

as someone who has dealt with premature death in my life, i had kind of hoped that this story would be an example of how to heal from such a tragic event (given the book title), but this was not at all that. it was an interesting read, however the plot kind of felt like one of those manipulative “how can i make the readers feel p a i n ?” kind of setups, but at the same time i can recognize that real life can actually be that messed up.

it was interesting how the author wrote isaac's first person perspective to really show how he just looks the other way with a lot of the people in his life. 

the tenderness with which Evangeline & Isaac greeted Emma into the world was very heart-warming, and made me hope that i one day have the same feelings towards my own children when the time comes.  

this was my first time reading one of those journalist-interviews-style books and i have to say i quite enjoyed it! Sunny, her parents, Opal, Nev, Virgil, Bob - they all had personality oozing off the pages, and i really liked it. i wish Nev could've gotten his comeuppance, but c'est la vie - and how very true to life this was. it was artfully done how in the beginning of the book he was written to be this really sweet affable character, but then you see his true colors with the shocking scoop Sunny reluctantly receives.

well written, but woof did i hate the protag. i hated the middle, did not understand lucy's motivations, and the end. 

this was an interesting world with an intriguing magic (?) system. the twist was predictable but still fun, and i really liked mephi's relationship with jovis. they were probs my fav lol. i didn't quite care about the characters though (especially ranami, ugh), but i blame that on reading in ebook form lol. i ended up getting a physical copy of this book from the library and found that made it easier to read.