Kali

I can't believe that this story is actually over now...I am so glad I decided to finally give this trilogy a chance though, because it is definitely now an all-time favorite of mine. I feel so invested in these characters now and I see this story sticking with me for a while now. This trilogy might end up being a comfort reread for me in future winters too. Now that I've finished this, I really need to pick up Katherine Arden's other books at some point, because I'm sure anything else she writes is going to be amazing as well.

Reading this really did feel like a fever dream, and while I didn't totally understand everything, I still really enjoyed this.

I don't typically get emotional while reading, but this book almost made me cry more than once while reading. I've never read anything in verse before and wasn't sure how well it'd work for me but wow, I should have never questioned it. This book hit hard from start to finish and the ending felt very satisfying after everything.

Wow, I am going to need a while to process my thoughts and feelings after finishing this book. It's definitely a new favorite of mine, and I'm really glad I finally decided to pick this up.

This was the first thriller I read instead of watched, so I'm not exactly well versed in the genre yet. I had no idea what to really expect going into this story, and it honestly kept me guessing the whole time. Maybe I'm just not skilled in picking out plot twists in thrillers, but the twists in this book consistently caught me off guard the whole time.

This story in general was so gripping, and I read the entire book in one day because I couldn't finish the day without finding out how things would end. I didn't necessarily love any of the characters in this book, but I still couldn't help but root for the wife throughout the story because I could at least understand where she was coming from.

I also wasn't sure how I'd feel about having investigators also at the forefront of the story, but their presence actually enhanced my reading experience. Their own involvement in the main cases of the book also took multiple turns that I hadn't been expecting, and it was interesting seeing how their thoughts on the situation changed as they uncovered more information.

It's hard to talk more in-depth about this without spoiling things, but overall I found this book to be incredibly fast-paced and engaging. The characters' personalities and all of their flaws all felt very real which made the story feel more genuine as well. I'm not sure if this will be a top favorite of mine, but I'm sure this story will stay in my head for a while with how memorable it is. I hope to see more from this author in this genre again in the future.

Where the first book took some time to truly get into, this book immediately sucked me in and kept me wanting more all through the end of the story.

I can't even begin to explain how much I loved this entry in the series. After getting introduced to Vasya's family in the first book, it was that much easier to get invested in their lives in this book. I cared significantly more than I expected to about everyone in Vasya's life, especially once things started rapidly going downhill again. The character dynamics in general were great, and they all felt very real to me. This also made every interpersonal issue within the story hurt that much more.

In addition to the characters in general, I ended up enjoying the overall plot of this book even more than the first. While I loved the high intensity of the end of the first book, it was much slower paced, meanwhile this sequel was full of action all throughout the story. There were some aspects that I found easier to predict due to subtle hints throughout the story, but then there were also many very abrupt moments that completely caught me off guard and made me need to stop reading briefly to process what had happened. I loved that I never really could tell if things were what I expected, or if something was going to go in a totally different direction.

I am beyond excited to pick up the third and final book in this trilogy, though I'm also incredibly sad to be so close to finishing it already. At the rate things are going, I can see this becoming an all-time favorite series of mine.

I cannot believe I've gone this long without reading anything by V. E. Schwab because this has immediately become one of my favorite books now that I finished it. This was such an overwhelmingly emotional experience, and I loved every minute of it. I'm honestly going to need time to recover from the way this book ruined me. I'm not the type to cry while reading typically, but this book managed to get me really close to that point. I probably felt every emotion possible throughout the book which I think is a huge accomplishment. This book definitely deserves the hype it got and now I just want to recommend it to everyone I know.

My original rating for this was 3/5 stars, but after this reread I'm going to bump it up to 4 stars. I still have some issues with aspects of this book, but this time I didn't let them overpower my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

I know that a big complaint about this book compared to the others is that it takes a while to get to the real plot. I still agree with this, but I actually didn't mind the pacing of this book as much. If anything I actually somewhat enjoyed the slow build to the last bit of the book where all of the drama happened. The fact that a lot of this book was from Simon's pov also felt refreshing for me in a way. I wasn't as invested in him as a character the first time reading the series, but I feel like I'm starting to appreciate him more this time around.

I'm really looking forward to finishing my series reread now, because the last two books, especially City of Heavenly Fire, were two of my favorites.

Real rating: 4.5 stars rounded up

I'm truthfully not even sure how to explain my thoughts on this book, but I will say that I'm so glad I picked it up despite mixed reviews.

I'm one of many people who had never known Nannerl even existed, so the fact that this was an entire book dedicated to her immediately caught my interest. I absolutely loved how this story combined historical fiction and fantasy. I have since looked a little more into the lives of these siblings and I'm really impressed at how historically accurate this was. It was also really cool to find out that the Kingdom of Back was actually something the two of them discussed, and not something created solely for this book.

There are so many other aspects that I could discuss, but it's hard for me to do that without getting into too many details that could be spoilery. This book greatly exceeded my expectations overall though. I never expected to feel such a wide range of emotions during this, and I never wanted to put it down because I always needed to know what would happen next.

I really feel like anyone that enjoys historical fiction should give this book a shot. I would recommend it even more for people with an interest in music due to how prominent that is as well. I know the magical realism aspect may not be for everyone, but I personally feel like everything in this book was handled well and incorporated in a way that felt fitting at the times they occurred.

Now that I've read this, I need to look into more books by this author because I loved the writing style here and need more of it.

I felt such a roller coaster of emotions reading this. Every time I thought I finally knew where this story was going, I was proven wrong.

Going into this, I was a little nervous because I had heard mixed things about the book, partially about the characters themselves. While I can understand why other people would feel the way they do, I loved all of the characters by the end of the book. This book did one other thing that I never expected to happen in a book: I felt emotional over the antagonistic trees. The end of the book really just hits you with a wave of emotions about the wood as a whole and wow I wasn't ready for that.

I really liked the way the story developed in this book too. The story kept changing in ways that kept me excitingly guessing what would happen next, and every time I thought I knew, something different happened instead (though maybe I'm just dumb lol). All of these developments kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book and all I wanted to do was keep reading. The ending was incredibly satisfying to me at least, and I was really pleased with how things turned out for all of the characters. It felt pretty happy after the earlier pain in the story, but in a way that I at least didn't find to be to cheesy. This could also be because I am a massive sap who is weak for any endings that are at least somewhat happy. Regardless, I personally couldn't have asked for a much better ending.

I would have to give this 4.5/5 stars, but I'm rounding up because I loved it. This was a really good intro into this author's writing for me, and I'm really exciting to check out more from her in the future!

I didn't expect to get so emotionally invested in this book but wow that sure happened.

This turned into an incohesive rambly mess, so don't expect parts of this to make any sense if you haven't read the book lol.

I went into this book semi-unsure of what to expect mostly because it was an old recommendation from a friend, but she hadn't really explained what it was about. I truthfully only went into this knowing it was historical fiction set in China.

—————-Minor spoilers under the cut, mostly because it's hard to discuss without them—————

When I first started reading, it was kind of a slow start so I had to take my time getting into it. The first part of the book mostly feels like a buildup to parts two and three, which feel like the main parts of the story in my opinion. There is a lot of focus on the play The Peony Pavilion in this book. The first part involved a decent amount of exposition on the play, mostly through Peony herself attending a performance of it soon before she is to be married off to a stranger she doesn't know. It's hard to go in-depth about this due to the parallels between this play and Peony's actual life. While not every aspect was identical, it was an interesting look at the experiences with love so many women in this part of history had. It also made me feel for the women due to how little control they really had over their own lives.

(Semi-spoilers after here though I feel like many people are already aware of some of this) The majority of the book takes place after Peony falls in love with a poet she secretly met for three nights during the production of the play, and then after she proceeds to starve herself to death leading up to her wedding due to her lovesickness. The most tragic part of this book is that Peony's arranged marriage was with the same poet she fell in love with, but by the time she was informed, her death was already inevitable. Essentially all of the plot of this book could have been avoided if only she knew who she was set to marry.

I'm not usually a huge fan of tragic stories that revolve around death, but I actually really enjoyed how it was handled throughout this book. I loved how everything was depicted through Peony's eyes while she is a ghost stuck wandering the earth after her death. There was a slightly fantastical element to the story at this point in that it explored various Chinese spiritual customs and the way the afterlife is structured. Due to yet another misunderstanding, Peony is left stuck in one place and isn't able to fully move on to the next phase after her death.

I personally appreciated Peony's development through her journey wandering and also watching over her loved ones over the numerous years she was stuck. It may have been frustrating seeing her and other women accepting so much of the negative treatment of women from men, and even from other women, but it also made sense considering the time period. The book also made me feel for her family, despite having more negative thoughts on them during the first part of the book when Peony was still alive. This especially applies to her mother who experienced her own fair share of tragedy.

I'm not really sure I could get too into my specific thoughts on her journey without literally summarizing the whole story, but I do feel like Peony came a long way by the end and she felt very human to me. She made some pretty bad decisions at some points, but also made other much better decisions to make up for her past actions and to help others. The way her relationship with the poet's two other wives felt really well handled to me as well despite not always being healthy. Peony definitely seemed to be at her worst when dealing with the poet's second wife, and it was hard to stomach some of what she did to her. Despite this, it still felt very real considering the circumstances. She grew so much as a person by the time the poet remarried again, and I kind of instinctively started cheering on Peony and Yi as they tried to accomplish their goals together toward the end of the book. It felt especially good to see them successfully get their writing published since that project was prevalent in every part of this book. The ending of the book also felt very cathartic to me. I was happy to see Peony finally have the chance to be at peace after everything she went through up to that point.

The fact that this book was actually based on real-life events intrigues me, and I want to look into the actual people and works that helped inspire this book. Since I'm not familiar with the actual history behind this, I can't technically say if this is a good fictional portrayal of the events that actually transpired, but I still really enjoyed it for what it was. I'm here for any women that are out there doing everything in their power to make their voices heard. Their beliefs may be outdated now, but I appreciated how progressive they seemed for their time.

At this point, I'm just rambling and not really reviewing (which I now realize I am terrible at after this lol), mostly because I'm still not sure how to talk about this book without going into specifics.

Overall, I gave it 4/5 stars because while at some points it felt slow and I had to take my time with it, I still found it engaging and was very emotionally invested in it by the time I finished reading. I can see why this would not be for everyone, but as someone who likes historical fiction and is okay with seeing women with beliefs I don't necessarily agree with, I really enjoyed it.

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this book after finishing it, but I can say that it was an easy read.

I got this book partially as a joke because of a friend of mine that likes Shakespeare. The title and short summary caught my attention, and the book seemed like it would be both interesting and pretty humorous. I wasn't totally wrong in my assumptions, but it wasn't quite what I expected. I feel as though this author took some things more seriously than he should have. It's one thing to theorize how Shakespeare may have impacted various things throughout history, but instead it was treated as though this were all fact instead of speculation. By doing this, the book felt somewhat ridiculous in some parts.

Despite this, I still overall had fun reading this book. Some parts dragged on longer than I'd have liked, but it still managed to keep my attention. I honestly really enjoyed the exploration of different parts of history even if some of the connections felt a little forced.

I'm giving this 3 stars mostly because of the entertainment factor at points and because I enjoy reading about history, but there was still enough about it that I wasn't a fan of that lowered my overall enjoyment of the book. I'd hesitate to recommend this to other people, but if you happen to be a huge Shakespeare fan, you may end up enjoying at least some aspects of this book.

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a little while again, but I finally found the motivation to pick it up today. That was definitely a good choice on my part. Almost immediately, I was intrigued by the characters in this story, and sort of trying to figure out what was going to go down. I'm really bad at guessing things regarding the plot of novels, so I wasn't very successful with this one either. I definitely enjoyed how the story unfolded though. It kept me curious and I didn't want to put the book down until I finished.

I thought that it was really interesting to have a book from the perspective of a seven year old. Right off the bat, I expected him to be an unreliable narrator, which was somewhat true by the end of the book. As it was stated at the end of the book, not everyone remembers things the same way.

I liked all of the other characters as well. I wasn't sure if everyone was trustworthy at first (though I obviously knew a certain somebody was bad immediately). I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding the Hempstocks. I was questioning what they were exactly for the entirety of the book, and though it's never technically explained, I think I'm okay with that. I saw one theory in the back of the copy of my book that seemed interesting to me, and I might look more into that later. Regardless, they were really likable AND useful characters, which was nice to see. Honestly, I just love reading about characters with different powers/abilities, so they were really interesting to me.

The book's main antagonist had me on edge a lot of the time. I was never entirely sure what she was going to do next. Though I was quick to hate her thanks to our narrator, I almost felt bad for her near the end of the book. Her vulnerability got to me a bit, though my feelings changed when her previous attitude came back. She definitely played her role as an antagonist well.

Overall, I think that this was a good choice for my first read after Lady Midnight. I wanted something short yet interesting, and I certainly got that from this book. It was also nice that the book was a bit creepy at times. I haven't read much horror lately, so it was a nice change of pace for me. I definitely plan on reading more of Neil's books in the future if they're all as good as this one was (and I know some are supposed to be).

I am so glad that I managed to get out of my reading slump in order to read this book! I had honestly been pretty nervous about the fact that the sequel followed a different cast of characters. With all of the action in City of Heavenly Fire, it had been difficult for me to really get to know them. Now that I've read this book, I love all of the new characters so much more than I expected.

I really just love the dynamics between everybody. I haven't gotten around to finishing The Infernal Devices yet, so I can definitely say that this book shows the best example of the parabatai bond that I've seen so far. Granted, there's a whole other dynamic going on between Emma and Julian, but still. Even the familial relationships and simple friendships were nice to read. Emma and Cristina have a great friendship, and the Blackthorn family is just so complex that they never get boring to read about.

This book threw so many twists and turns at the reader, that I found it hard to actually be able to trust anyone, regardless of whether or not I actually liked them. I spent a good portion of the book questioning everyone's motivations, and I still ended up being wrong about a lot. Some characters that seemed shady at times were actually good, and the opposite was true as well. The big reveal on who the antagonist of this book was a huge shock for me too. It ended up being one of the last characters I expected it to be. I'd go more into that, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers.

I definitely think that Cassandra Clare's writing has improved a lot since her first books. I'd actually put this book on par with City of Heavenly Fire. Her writing had me hooked, and I just wanted to keep reading to try to figure out what was going on. I liked getting different character perspectives throughout the story, rather than focusing on just Emma and Julian. It made me that much more invested in the other side characters that I never knew I'd grow to care a lot about.

The cliffhanger both at the end of the book and in the epilogue killed me though. I have no idea how I'm going to be able to wait for the sequel to know what's going to happen. There's so much potential for what can happen next, and I'm really excited to see how the story continues after this.

There's really so much more I could say about this book, but I'm still in a daze from how how much happened in the book and also the fact that I read most of it over the course of only two days. I also don't know how to say more without spoiling anything. Overall though, it was an amazing read which I'm glad I read right away!

Update: 12/19/20 - As much as I enjoyed these short stories in the past, and even the main books in the Shadowhunter Chronicles earlier this year, I found myself more disappointed by these stories this time around. Maybe it's because I've gotten involved in more modern young adult and adult books/series, but I was so much more aware of how trope-ridden these stories were. Magnus kind of felt like your average cliche male young adult protag, and he didn't feel like the same man I remember loving all those years ago.

I still have a lot of nostalgia for this series and can appreciate it for what it is, but it seems like Clare's writing is no longer a good fit for me and that I should officially move on to other things. I'm sure lots of other people can still find enjoyment in these stories and the other books, but I'm clearly no longer one of them. Though I don't have high hopes now, I may at least still give her most recent series a chance to see if this was just a fluke.

—————————————

I'm honestly really glad that I finally got around to finishing this book. I remember loving Magnus as a character when I initially read The Mortal Instruments series, and I was so excited to see that there was a collection of short stories centered around him. His life is too interesting to be left a total mystery.

Some of the stories were definitely better than others. Regardless, I still enjoyed reading all of them. I enjoyed seeing him as his own individual character, rather than just playing the role I was used to in the main series. Honestly, I was just happy to see more of his past after how mysterious he was in the series. It's one thing to know that he's lived a long and exciting life, but it's another thing to read it (and have it in his POV).

I also actually really enjoyed seeing all of his past relationships he's had throughout his life, and how each and every person was important to him in some way. Even his non-romantic relationships were fun and interesting. I especially love his friendships with both Ragnor and Catarina, and how they were with him throughout everything. It's nice to see how this wide variety of characters has shaped him over the years.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable read, and I think it succeeded in pulling me out of my reading slump (which is quite the task). I would definitely recommend it to people who liked Magnus as a character, or even if you're simply curious about his backstory. I definitely wasn't disappointed.

dnf @ 50%

I feel horrible doing this, especially with this being one of the main books I was anticipating this month. I love the overall concept for this book so much, but the characters and writing itself just weren't clicking for me here. There were so many made-up words and grammar in this that could have been charming in their own way, but they also pulled me out of the story and made it harder for me to connect to it. It was fun at first but got old really quick.

I'm not sure if this is the result of me not getting far enough into the book, but I also couldn't get myself to enjoy Delly's character. Maybe it was the language again with her since she would frequently use vulgar language, which could get overwhelming at times. I am more than okay with swearing, but I feel like it could have been toned down a bit with her. Even disregarding her speech patterns, I just didn't really see her as likable? I understand that her upbringing contributed to her being the way she is, but she still seemed unnecessarily rude at times, and I wasn't always crazy about how she would talk to and think about her own love interest. Since I didn't finish, I am just going to choose to believe that she got better because other people seemed to have liked her more than I did.

I sound pretty harsh here, but I don't actually think that this is a bad book, which is why I wanted to give it at least 2 stars. The parts that I didn't like unfortunately just overpowered the good, and I really couldn't get myself to continue any further. I would still be willing to try out more by this author in the future at least since I like the concepts for her books.

I never thought that I'd make a shelf for books to not read but this seems worthy of being in one. I saw the controversy over this months ago but I forgot the book was actually happening until I saw it in Barnes and Noble today. I'm only rating this at all to help keep the rating low.

I'm deleting my old cringe-worthy review of this book because it's really embarrassing. I'm just going to replace it with the fact that this was a good book overall. It wasn't outstanding to me, but I still found it interesting enough to read it in only a few hours. I might give it another try outside of the high school summer reading context now that it's been almost 4 years since I read it.