Katherine

Honestly, I think I want to wait to truly review this until I’ve read all three books. This is clearly a series that NEEDS the entire trilogy to get a better grasp on everything. Overall though, for THIS book? Wow. The prose is gorgeous. There is clearly going to be SO much to this story that has yet to come. The Summer Tree was a setup book. And it has done that job beautifully.

As an overview: The set up is very typical 80s fantasy to me. It has many of the old tropes with a chosen one, and seems to have some things that fit directly in LOTR (elves, pretty much. Also, Not-Gandalf and a dangerous dark land, all-powerful dark entity versus the light etc). However, it’s certainly not a clone of LOTR. There are MANY mythologies that are woven together into this, from Arthurian legend to Norse to Celtic. It’s a portal fantasy which is a bit weirder to me- I haven’t read that many portal fantasies, as many tend to be set in their own world entirely.

The first third of this book is SLOW. And for most of that third, things just happen to the main characters and they go along with it. That did bother me some. The characterization later, though? It’s so rare to see men in fantasy novels get to be emotional and empathetic. There’s still some characterization sorely lacking, but given how slowly all of this has played out, I’m hesitant to say more until I read the whole trilogy.

Another aspect that I wanted to mention is that the lack of male gaze has been astounding to me. This is a book published in the 80s. So many of those are *incredibly* misogynistic. Now, Fionavar is still a largely patriarchal society. And I don’t love how often the men are “sent” women. There’s one character in particular that is absolutely a womanizer… but in general, the women aren’t described boobs and butt first. In fact, many of the characters are hardly described at all, appearance wise. Mostly you get that they have dark/fair hair or dark/lighter eyes. The women mentioned are mostly mothers and random courtesans, but there are some very powerful female characters as well. The main female characters seem to have extremely important roles to play, though I’m hesitant on where one of them is going so I’ll have to see how the series continues.

A few goblins accidentally get behind the enemy (human and elf) lines. Elf James Herriot lives in the forest. They meet and magic insanity ensues.

It’s cute and funny, not much else to it. Great for a palate cleanser or to break a reading slump!

I seem to have a penchant for picking up some WEIRD books lately. The Library at Mount Char. definitely fits that. It requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. The plot? Insane. The characters? Definitely more insane. But if you go along with all of the insanity it’s a book about what happens when someone gains too much power and knowledge, but not enough wisdom. A person so hell bent on their goals that they don’t consider the others they will destroy in their wake. Do the ends actually justify the means?

I can’t say this is an incredible book. I think it’s good, but there are some things that happen that I find too hard to believe even in a book this crazy. It’s certainly captivating, but I’m not sure all of it works well together. It’s also FULL of extremely graphic violence, SA, torture, cannibalism, suicide, animal death and abuse… was all of that necessary to get the book’s message across? I really don’t think so.

The plot is complex and intriguing, though hard to follow at times and you have to accept you will NOT understand until later on. And even then you might not know why. The characters other than Carolyn are mostly shallow and exist to fulfill their role, sometimes to their detriment. Would that character *really* go along with all of this?

Overall, weird but good book. Not sure why it had to be so violent and parts of it are way too unbelievable for my tastes.

Overall, I thought this book was outstanding. It’s a weird one! It’s confusing at times, hard to grasp, but it’s one of those stories where you can sit with what is going on and really think about how everything is connected within the book and how the book is establishing connections between itself and society. It delivers a powerful message while weaving a web of intrigue that pulls you into this world. I very much want to dive into the rest of the series.

Don’t trust the synopsis for this book. It undermines itself by describing it in such a plain way and going in with that expectation will leave you extremely confused. While those events do happen, the synopsis sets it up as a more typical urban fantasy/horror novel, and it is ANYTHING but a typical novel. Structurally, the series is meant to be read as a trilogy. Nothing in it will be standalone. So, adjust your expectations for that going in. The author has a post explaining more that I’d recommend reading first: https://cadwellturnbull.com/2021/09/30/a-sort-of-guide-to-reading-no-gods-no-monsters/

This book focuses on a LOT of different characters in this intricate web of connections. I found myself taking notes and looking forward to seeing how everyone fits together within the story. The overall narrative isn’t concerned so much with the individual- rather, it is about the community as a whole. Each character introduced has a different personality and background- none of them blended together for me despite how many there are. I LOVED how each storyline came together, but it is hard to follow because of the structure. It’s a very unique storytelling style.

The seeds of plot are sparse throughout the whole book. Small actions by certain characters will pay off much later. Information that seems tangential will come up again and be vital. The plot itself is mostly in the beginning and end of the book. The middle has a “lull” of a lot of setup (absolutely enthralling to me), but I can easily see someone getting bored during it. I enjoyed the vibes of the book so much that I found each chapter engaging.

This book also doesn’t hold back on delivering some brutal, real lines that will have you thinking. There are multiple passages that, even if you haven’t experienced something similar to the character, the insight given is so raw and powerful you will find yourself looking inward at yourself and outward at your society. I highlighted many passages that I found very insightful and loved how they were delivered. Because of this, it is a very timely read in 2026.

My overall impression is “meh”. I liked the start of this series, though I do think The Shadow of the Gods has a major issue with NEEDING to have a battle scene every chapter and being a bit repetitive. I thought the setup to this whole trilogy was quite interesting. I loved the idea of a sort of post-Ragnarok world with people who have the blood of the gods. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go anywhere that you can’t predict, it doesn’t do enough with these god-blooded characters (why do all of them seem to have basically the same powers? You could’ve gotten SO creative with it) and it’s very hard to care about the characters when they are SO one dimensional. The IDEA of each character and their motivation is at least decent, but every chapter with them feels the same. Orka wants revenge. Varg wants revenge. Elvar wants fame. This character is a coward. This other character is a hypocrite. There isn’t that much character growth, and even if some occurs, it doesn’t feel earned.

The repetition is to the point that I barely remember what happened in book 2 despite having read it twice now. And book 3 continues that trend. Sure, there are new things happening, but so much of it feels bloated and repetitive. Overall, the series is meh. It doesn’t stick with me and it’s going to be the end of my Gwynne journey. This much action with this little character development just isn’t my thing. Also… I’d be kinda glad to not have to read a description of a shield wall battle for a while.

Honestly… where to begin. The concept is cool, and I do think the way the story is told is fairly unique. I haven’t seen this exact style before, and I do think it would work for this… if other things were better. I do have the issue of this being VERY choppy- I understand the premise is a series of interviews, and you have to put the pieces together yourself. However, at times this… didn’t work as well as I would’ve liked. It really needed a bit more to tie interviews together, or at least introduce people and their role in everything better. Sometimes that was fine, sometimes I barely understood who was talking. This especially comes to fruition at the end of the book, where it’s wrapping up a lot of these “interviews”- I didn’t remember who half of them were and kept having to search for their name. It’s at least competently written- the prose isn’t bad, and each perspective does seem fairly unique even if I don’t understand what someone’s role was and why they’re being interviewed at times.

Now, I realize this was published in 2006, which was a very different time. Some of the political takes (I’m not going to go into detail) are incredibly naive, stereotyped, or unrealistic. Or all of the above. It’s a zombie apocalypse book, I can have suspension of disbelief, but only to a point. You mean to tell me the US military would be THAT stupid? That modern war weapons wouldn’t work because you had to get a head shot? The logistics were set up SO badly that the tanks ran out of AMMO? And air support? What’s that?? That was truly the dumbest portrayal of a modern military I’ve ever read.

Some chapters were actually good and portrayed a fairly realistic idea of how humanity would react, but unfortunately that only happened in a handful of the US chapters and the international chapters were… sure something. The stereotyping was BAD. And while some takes on human psychology were good, some were SO INCREDIBLY BONKERS I have no idea why Brooks thought it was a good idea. Between the good chapters and the “what the fuck” chapters, it was mostly kinda boring. It goes into some aspects that you might not think of, but it doesn’t always do the best job explaining itself… either Brooks tried TOO hard and it comes across as technical jargon mumbo jumbo, or he didn’t try much at all so the reader is confused on why that chapter is there at all.

Honestly, for book quality I’d probably give it 2.5-3 stars, but the amount of stupid so outweighed the good to me that I’m mad it wasn’t better. This could’ve been SO GOOD! AND IT WASN’T.

Short story (well, and in Brandon’s case, novella and “novellas” (Moment Zero is over 50k words BRANDON)) collections are always a little hit and miss, unfortunately. Here’s how I viewed each work: Snapshot: Very good. The idea is fascinating, and the story doesn’t quite go where you might expect.

Brain Dump: Intriguing idea! Loved the ending, personally.

I Hate Dragons: This one is so goofy and dumb, I wouldn’t say it’s good or bad but you can tell it was a writing exercise.

Dreamer: I liked what Brandon was going for in his explanation in the Postscript, but unfortunately I didn’t love how it was executed. It fell very flat.

Perfect State: Interesting concept yet again- Brandon is good at coming up with interesting ideas. The story itself was neat, but didn’t land for me.

Probability Approaching Zero: Honestly I’m just confused.

Defending Elysium: Not my favorite story, but it works well. It has cool ideas that eventually became the Skyward series, but similar to that series it doesn’t quite work for me for some reason.

Firstborn: Liked this one quite a bit! Nature versus nurture is always intriguing to me, and I thought the story was really well done.

Mitosis: Like the rest of the Reckoners series, it’s fine? The main character is still very cringy. Definitely jarring to read with no context from Steelheart. I’ve read Steelheart before, but it was so long ago I don’t remember it well.

Moment Zero: The BIG release in this collection, and it is well deserved to be the main title. The story is fantastic, the pacing is great, and there’s quite a bit of characterization stuffed into this small novel.

This is a beautifully written story. It’s simple, but is so clear that this is a fairy tale, and that things will play out the way you’d expect. But, maybe not quite? Was it truly a happily ever after? That’s the question I’m left wondering after reading this.

Fun, quick read, with plenty of moments that will turn your stomach or make you shiver. I love Kingfisher’s humor combined with the descriptions of horror. I think this is my favorite entry in the Sworn Soldier series so far- I liked What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night, but the first is a retelling, so more predictable (to some extent), and the second I felt had too much build-up and not enough payoff. This one keeps up a good, steady amount of creep factor until the explosive climax. Definitely looking forward to further installments!

This is a book that I NEED to discuss with others. I feel there’s so much I’m missing from not knowing the culture and historical background well enough. It’s a good book!! I want to research this more and discuss with the others I read with this with before making any final conclusions on it.

It’s hard to review a book this late in a series without spoilers. However, I really, really enjoyed this one. It took a step back from the nonstop action of the rest of the series, which it really needed. Dresden books are fun because of the action, but what keeps me coming back are the characters. They’ve changed and grown so much over the course of this (frankly ridiculously long) series. This book gave them the room to show how great these characters are while dealing with heavy themes of grief, loss, depression, and even PTSD from previous books. Some may say this book is boring or too slow, but it was *needed* to transition into the next chapter (ha). I genuinely teared up several times reading this. Can’t wait for the next book- I’m sure it’ll be right back to the action, but I kinda hope some of the slower moments that this book had remain.

I think the storylines are pretty well balanced pacing-wise, so switching between them was still interesting, at least to me. The beginning was a bit slow, imo, as it introduced each storyline. There’s a lot of explanation and exposition, which IS needed, but it still takes a while. I do think it was handled fairly well. There were some things that I didn’t really like, or I thought were mistakes. I do think this book could’ve used one more continuity edit pass, as I caught quite a few little “oopsies” of contradicting information. The prose is a unique style and isn’t bad per se, but it could get a little repetitive. I still love the characters and the character work, and I like where Vis’s character goes throughout the book. One of the weak points in The Will of the Many is Vis being a bit too capable, and The Strength of the Few does address this (he’s still very capable, though).

Yet again, James has left all of us with a bombshell ending and many questions. Some answers, but many, many questions. This world is INSANE. There’s so much going on at all times, and it really keeps you on your toes. Overall I don’t think this book was a strong (ha) as the first, but I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the series. And I’m absolutely going to reread this when the next book comes out.

Saltcrop is a really enjoyable sci-fi. Kitasei does some great character work in this book- each of the sisters are SO distinct in their own perspective. You understand where each of them are coming from, why they view others the way they do, and how their relationship with their sisters and family influences their decisions. Honestly, I would LOVE to have a book that follows each perspective in every section- when I’m in Skipper’s POV, I see Carmen one way, but when you’re in Carmen’s POV, you see it completely differently. It’s SO well done. And yes, I would love to have a sequel or even prequels. The future Earth that is portrayed in this book is really interesting, and I loved following the sisters’ journey- I’d be really interested in seeing others. Especially their grandmother, she seems like she’d be a fascinating character to follow.

I do have some small issues with it. I really do love the characters, and I enjoyed their journey. It wraps up VERY quickly; however, it does conclude well. I also wish there was a bit more explanation in a few areas- the deliberate vagueness about where they were was a bit irritating at times (I swear they have to be in Norway or other parts of Scandinavia… but seriously it’s set on Earth why be THAT vague). Overall, I’d really recommend this book. The characters are so well written, and the plot is exciting even if it does have some questionable moments.

Anthologies are always so hard to rate, because I’ll love some of the stories but be very meh on others. I’m thinking a 3.5/5 overall. I liked “The Black Strings”, “Ghost Light”, “The Screamers”, and “The Brides of Devil’s Bayou” the most. I found it interesting that many of the stories dealt with body snatching or generational trauma. The latter makes sense to me, but I’m fascinated by the former being a prevalent theme. I’d be curious to know why that is; I’ll have to do some research on Black horror themes. Overall I’d recommend the anthology, it’s an interesting read and not extremely scary.

Well, the movie is a classic for a reason. It’s so silly and ridiculous you can’t help but enjoy it. The book is very much the same, though it makes even more snide remarks in the asides (however, some things didn’t age too well- what’s with all the fatphobia Goldman??). Goldman is a master of committing to the bit- the version I read had two introductions plus the introduction to the book, and he very much dedicated himself to The Bit of Morgenstern being a real guy. Very amusing way to start the book. Overall, it’s a fun read. It’ll make you laugh and brighten your day. Sometimes, we all need a little absurd comedy, and that’s exactly what The Princess Bride provides.

4.5/5 TW: Chapter 43 is vital to the plot, but contains tragic animal death. If you’re like me and have a past with this, you may want to skim some of the descriptions, or have someone summarize that chapter or tell you when you can pick it up again. That being said:

Honestly, I liked this much more than its predecessor. Ninth House struggled more with its flashback-style narrative, more confusing mystery plot, and introducing the characters in a satisfying way. Hell Bent benefits from what Ninth House set up in a brilliant way. With less setup and more time to focus on the main plotline and mystery, it feels like a tighter book with better reveals. While in Ninth House, some of the reveals were seemingly out of nowhere, Hell Bent does a much better job at hinting to the reader what’s actually going on. The characters get more time to shine, especially side characters that weren’t as focused on in the previous book. This book got CRAZY and I wasn’t expecting that at all. I’m looking forward to the next entry in the series!

This one was interesting. I quite liked the premise of the book- there are lots of plot points and world choices that make the story intriguing, especially in the middle to latter half of the book. But, unfortunately, the book is majorly hindered by some very clunky writing at times. Especially at the beginning of the book, there is a lot of repetition between the 3 POVs to establish worldbuilding or to get certain characters up to speed with what’s going on. It also told me lots of things that I likely could’ve figured out with subtext, or I would’ve liked to figure out the connection between these plot threads myself, instead of being informed in two back to back chapters.

Sometimes the characters come to a conclusion that is completely correct in the story, but I have NO idea how they got there. The assumption seems to come out of nowhere. Lastly, sometimes it’s a little hard to follow if something happened to a character. There’s a particularly egregious example at the end of the book, where a character is injured, then seems to not be injured without an explanation. I do not know if these issues are present in the original text or are an artifact of the translation- the prose in English is simple and not varied in word choice or sentence structure which adds to my suspicion that part of the issue may be translation.

The majority of these problems occur at the beginning of the book. It struggles to set up its world without a lot of repetition, as each character has to “learn”. Once it gets past the rough start, I quite liked the story. It has more complexity to it than I expected from the beginning of the book, which was genuinely surprising to read. It’s still a *relatively* straightforward plot, but there are details that made it so much more interesting. The world is pretty generic at first, but there are again some aspects that are very different from things I’ve seen before. The characters are all written very differently, to the point that I could likely tell what POV it is with names removed. However, the characters are also a bit flat, without a TON of development, and at times felt like the luckiest people in the world (one of them especially). There are some FASCINATING scenes involving the magic in the world and that really hooked me once the plot got moving.

I was tempted to give this 4 stars because of the marked improvement once the worldbuilding and getting everyone up to speed was out of the way. Unfortunately, that last really egregious (to me) error in continuity at the very end knocked it back down. If I have to go back and reread because I’m really confused about something, ESPECIALLY if I have to do so multiple times and still can’t find an answer, that’s extremely frustrating.

Overall, I liked it. It starts off generic, but it moves into its own thing fairly quickly, has interesting plot beats once it gets into the actual story, and an interesting world.

I’ll start with stating very bluntly that this IS a horror book, and there are MANY scenes that are extremely creepy, gross, or both at the same time. There are many threats of SA, and mention of it happening, so be warned. The book is brutal with its descriptions- I am not a person that normally reacts that much to horror in books, but this one was very effective. I would be remiss to not mention that this IS a book based on the Biblical book of Revelations- Christian religion is the basis of the plot and subplots of the story.

Now that you’ve been forewarned, I need to talk about how good this book is. I never in a million years thought a book advertised as “medieval horror” would end up with me staying up late and sobbing for the last few chapters, but it did. It’s so much more than “just” a horror book. The journey our protagonists go on is long, awful, and difficult both spiritually and physically. By the end, they really couldn’t have gone through much more. The bonds they share with one another keep them going and are so, so well done. You’re invested in their journey, going through ups and downs with them, with the darkest moments often bookended by lighter, more humorous events. These breaks between the horrors let you get to really know the knight, the priest, and the girl- and it really makes the book special.

I can’t believe this book was only self-published until it’s recently been picked up by Tor Nightfire. It deserves so much more recognition than it gets. If you can stomach the horrors these characters endure, I highly recommend reading this. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a WHILE- truly a hidden gem.

This book is such a ride. Is it perfect? No. Personally I think the ending is a bit rushed, and I could've used a few more hints towards it. But I enjoyed it so much it absolutely gets 5 stars. I went into this with no expectations. I've never seen the movie- all I knew was there was a guy named Howl and a girl named Sophie in a flying castle. I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but definitely not this! The book is hilarious while simultaneously having quite a bit of self-reflective moments. The plot is really fun and has many twists that I didn't see coming! Normally I might say they were out of nowhere, but it really works here because it's so whimsical. Extremely fun, short read, highly recommend.

This book was a unique fantasy novel with a fascinating world, intriguing magic system, and full of many tantalizing questions. It's a very strong debut novel, and I'm looking forward to seeing more from Buchanan in the future, as there are many threads left hanging for this story to continue. Sheana, our main character, is absolutely a spoiled, insufferable brat. However, I personally related to her quite a bit. As someone who grew up as a “gifted” kid, I can absolutely relate to this urge to always win, always be right. I threw a few ridiculous tantrums myself born out of anxiety and perfectionism. I wasn't on the level of how Sheana acts, of course, but I can relate to some of it. I enjoyed her journey, and I'm very interested in seeing where this story goes.

I liked this addition to the Sworn Soldier series. It has quite a bit of humor as well as horror, which was funny and I enjoyed it. The horror element being based on folk tales is always something I'm interested in; however, for this one, it was a bit of a miss. The mystery and horror in What Moves the Dead occupied much more of the book's focus, while What Feasts At Night was more limited. I would have liked to see more of the horror play out than we got. I wish more of the mystery and tension had been built up in the book, as those parts were particularly engaging. I felt the ending was a bit too simple of a solution, and while it is realistic for the folk lore aspect, it still felt that it wrapped up very quickly, like the book had barely begun before it ended. I will definitely continue the series, as I like the world and characters, but unfortunately this one did not have the same effect on me as What Moves the Dead.  

I really enjoyed this book. While I am definitely not the target audience for this book and I felt it was a little too YA at times for my personal taste, I would have been ecstatic reading this as a young teenager. Even as an adult, this story is refreshing! I'm not extremely familiar with the Latinx community, but from what I could tell this was a fantastic book in terms of representation. 
The positives:  All of the kids in the book feel real. Even the side characters have enough depth there that you can see them as more than two dimensional characters. I loved the representation of Latinx culture, traditions, and how the magic worked in the book. I also loved the LGBTQ+ representation. I am personally not a member of that community, but I love seeing more and more books being published representing the community- and this one was excellent in my opinion. The story was executed really well! I was smiling or chuckling throughout the book, and some of the passages even got me a bit teary eyed. 
The (very minor) negatives:  The relationship did develop very quickly, which I don't personally love, but it works really well despite that. I also called what would happen in the plot about 30% of the way into the book, so for an adult reader (and likely some teen readers), the plot is very simple. 
Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book. It's a fun, quick read with surprising depth and a general sense of joy throughout. Good job Aiden Thomas, I will definitely read your other books. 

Mild spoilers ahead, but nothing directly about the plot.

This book was a really interesting read. I loved the mystery aspect to it all, and it certainly kept me guessing along the way! I couldn't put the book down after a certain point, which to me is a great sign of an engaging plot. Being a bird nerd myself, Asuka's ornithology knowledge was so great. 

The characters were well written, though I wish there had been a bit more time to flesh out some of the side characters. I found all of these brilliant people so fascinating; I really wish I'd gotten more time with them! The setting and technology presented was used very well in the story. Overall, this was a fun, engaging read, though I did have some minor nitpicks with a few of the false leads and explanations. 

Some mild spoilers ahead for representation and worldbuilding:
I really loved all of the nonbinary rep, as well as he/hims who could give birth! That was a really interesting aspect of this mission- all of the people selected could have a child. This was to populate the new Planet X, and they had a wide variety of sperm donors for artificial insemination. This was not a take I had ever seen before when it comes to “humanity makes a last ditch effort to colonize the stars” sci fi. I also appreciated that one of the major characters had a physical disability that did not stop her from reaching the stars, despite the rigorous requirements of the program.The DAR was really cool, I loved this aspect of living almost entirely in augmented reality. I won't get into more detail than that, but it was utilized extremely well.

Okay, so I don't read a lot of romance! I pretty much picked it up because of the title and because I love birding. But this was cute. My exposure to romance is really only through some romantasy novels, which I have mixed feelings about. Some of them I liked, but didn't love, but others rely heavily on my least favorite trope and way to cause conflict- miscommunication. 

This book had none of that. It was a good, healthy, mature relationship with two middle-aged characters. Both of them have some baggage they need to work through, and that causes the main conflict of the story. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the LGBTQ+ rep in a heterosexual romance book! It was definitely “spicier” than I was expecting, with quite a bit of explicit sex, but I liked the portrayal of realistic relations and communication. 

My main quibble comes from the two main characters being... very much always thinking about sex. I know that it's not uncommon, but sometimes I was a bit exasperated at the two of them being unable to think about anything else while participating in the plot set-up, which is a birding completion, especially early on when they barely know each other. There was also a conflict with the main character's daughter that, while I see why it happened, didn't quite feel like the daughter would make that choice given how she was characterized. 

Also, for the bird nerds out there, I loved that all of the birds were accurate to the area (Tucson, Arizona) and 35 different species are mentioned! 

TL;DR: Very cute book with a very healthy relationship dynamic and realistic characters. It does feature quite a bit of explicit sex, so keep that in mind if you want to pick it up.

I've read most of Bardugo's books, and this one is definitely the strongest. I have some minor nitpicks with the plotting, but I loved (and hated, when I was supposed to) the characters. Even minor characters stand out as their own and have development. The setting was very well done, and I liked how the main character's abilities were used. The ending worked really well, and it had me guessing at what was going to happen towards the end. That being said, the plot is a bit predictable- I called most of what happened- but the story works really well overall. Would definitely recommend this!