Maha
I felt like a lot of people about this book going into it: I did not want to read Snow's hard childhood sob story, designed to have the reader sympathize with the poor misunderstood villain.
Coriolanus Snow, son of a once rich and influential family that was left penniless by the war, is not an awful evil person, but he is also not a nice person turned bad by his circumstances. He is a self-absorbed, selfish boy too focused on his own problems to consider the feelings and lives of the people around him. He has small inklings of guilt but is ultimately too comfortable to do anything about it. This makes him a very realistic and gripping character and I enjoyed witnessing his personality subtly change over the course of the story a lot.
The book is not for everyone though. The actual games (usually my favorite part) were underwhelming to me, watching them from the outside through Snow is just not as gripping.
The book is also paced very oddly, and I had a hard time actually investing myself in the story, the plot mostly just sort of chugs along with very little tension.
I didn't hate it; I think Snow is characterized very well and getting to know more about the origins of the hunger games was cool but didn't enjoy it very much either.
I started to read a romance about a mafia gang boss abducting a woman before DNFing it and reading this and I should've just read the romance.
The plot twists oddly reminded me of the way Riverdale is just doing weird unbelievable shit, the last half was just confusing. I mean, I didn't guess the ending, so thats a plus I guess.
This book probably just wasn't for me.
Most of it felt like a murder mystery, but a murder mystery with very lackluster investigation.
The twist was decent and did take me somewhat by surprise, but it didn't make up for the slog the rest of the book was.
The diary entries were plain weird to me, most people don't write about their day like a fleshed-out novel, with lines of dialogue and long descriptions and I think simply writing Alicia's POV would've been more immersive.
It's listed on goodreads as a mystery or a thriller but to me it was neither thrilling nor particulary mysterious, I mostly felt nothing while reading it.
O.W.L. Readathon - Transfiguration
read a book that includes shapeshifting
I am so disappointed in just about every aspect of this book, I genuinely am at a loss for words.
This is two stars because of Bryce Quinlan, the best part of this book, and Bryce Quinlan only. (And because Crescent City itself was an anazing setting)
O.W.L. Readathon - Defence Against Dark Arts
read a book set at or in the sea
This is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses and I don't know what to tell you, I loved the Barbie movie and loved this book. It was gothic and creepy and amazing and yes, the main character had the personality of a shoe but to be honest, just like in Warcross I had too much fun to care.
Still would love to actually have an interesting main character sometime soon.
O.W.L. Readathon - Charm
read a book with a white cover
Warcross was thrilling and engaging and fast-paced and most importantly really really fun. I had a great time reading it, loved the setting and especially the fight scenes.
My only complaint is the boring af romance and the main character, that had no personality other than “stubborn but still really nice and selfless girl, thats supposed to be morally grey and a criminal but never actually does anything morally grey and when she does its for a greater cause” which I feel like I've read about in a thousand other books now.
But I still hat a lot of fun reading this, so who cares!
“Once, very long ago, Time fell in love with Fate.”
This book was simultaniously really really weird and also really really good and I still don't really know what to think of it, so I just sort of weighed its parts against one another.
The little short stories that intertwine with the plot? 10/10, 5 stars, loved it.
Most of the main plot, up until about page 200? Really boring, 2 stars, really slow and basically no plot.
Dorian? Love of my life. Zachary Ezra Rawlins? Really boring (not ideal for a main character).
This book might be 3.5 stars for me in the greater scheme of things, but it still takes a special place in my heart because the last part and the short stories were so beautiful that I can't help but love it despite it flaws and Erin Morgenstern still remains one of my favourite authors when it comes to writing style and world crafting (please don't wait 9 years to write the next book I'm begging)