Misha

What's five stars minus one Sun? Four stars, yep!

I'll give you the sun was an amazing, funny, entertaining book that really has no right to be as good as it is! There are so many things here that would make me truly dislike almost any other book but somehow I can ignore them no problem.

The sole problem I have with I'll Give You the Sun, and the reason for that one missing star, is how focused it is on Jude and the ending to the LGBT romance of Noah and Brian. At first it seems as a 50/50 type deal with one half being told from Jude's perspective 3 years ahead of Noah who would be given the other half of the book. Except that's not the case. The book is all about Jude and sidelines Noah a lot, like to a point that Noah felt as a side character rather than a valid POV.

I did like the two POVs being 3 years apart, that was interesting at worst and awesome at best. Why that meant we're not allowed to have typical, industry standard chapters is beyond me. It made me stop reading after “chapter” one and pick it up later to finish within two days as there's maybe 5 “chapters” in total with some over 100 pages long. Not enough to substract a star but it annoyed me as I like to end at a chapterbreak rather than in the middle.

I saw the negative reviews, I knew what reviewers said about Infinity Son, and I refused to believe them.

This book alone should bump all of the books I have reviewed up by a single star because of how much of a mess it was. I hated it. I hated every second of reading this.

The worldbuilding is a mess. Setting a fantasy novel in the present day is a tough cookie to crack which is why a lot of stories (like Silvera's beloved Harry Potter) resort to hidden worlds/communities. Silvera did not and it crumbled on page freaking three.

The characters are boring, uninteresting, and lame with the exception of Ness and Emil but them being somewhat interesting is offset by how much of a douchebag Brighton (yes, there is a character whose name is Brighton in a book about phoenixes...I sighed every time his name came up).

Then we have the worst part of the book, the dumbest, the most awful part of any fantasy book and it's so perfectly summed up in the following quote:

“Maybe this war can be removed from the streets and won online.”

Why is this [expletive] in a fantasy book ? Why is Buzzfeed, YouTube, and Instagram mentioned in a fantasy book? Why a main character, in this fantasy book, obsesses over social media?

Nope.

I finish all book series that I start reading (eventually) but the chances of me picking up Infinity Reaper are pretty much zero.

It's always the ones you least expect, huh?

I picked it up because the title sounded interesting and I heard it's LGBT...

If I'll read a better book this year, well, then it will be a damn good year because to me reading Ari & Dante was like cuddling up to the person you love under the softest blanket with a cup of hot tea.

It was also quite personal. Dante is in so many ways the boy I once used to be with parents who are eerily similar. He cries a lot and so do I...

I cried a lot, not going to lie.

I'm sorry, I just can't put it to words...

Arc of Scythe as a whole has, for me, evolved from an above average start with [b:Scythe 28954189 Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456172676l/28954189.SY75.jpg 49179216] to pretty damn good with [b:Thunderhead 33555224 Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505658534l/33555224.SY75.jpg 54332060] but even with it I had some reservations.Now I don't rate books 5/5 that often. There are only handful of them deserving of the rating, in my opinion, but The Toll is one of them not just for being a great book but an amazing conclusion to the Arc of Scythe trilogy.While usually I note the things I disliked in my reviews, I can't think of anything worth mentioning. It was a fast read (about 5h in total) and I enjoyed it immensely. The ending left me satisfied and I teared up a bit.

I am writing this review after finish [b:The Toll 43822024 The Toll (Arc of a Scythe, #3) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558117336l/43822024.SY75.jpg 59222476] as I have pretty much read them as one book though I will limit this review only to my thoughts regarding Thunderhead and ignore the conclusion of the final book.To me Thunderhead was better that Scythe. There were a few underutilized elements, mainly Rowan as Scythe Lucifer who even in the first book was in Citra's shadow, here he's relegated to even lesser importance which saddened me. Also he gets captured way too easily.Citra is great and her method of gleaning is unique and very appropriate for her. I enjoyed her chapters, but not as much as those of...Grayson Tolliver who was fun and I loved him so much. He easily became my favorite character!The one “character” I have trouble summarizing my thoughts on is the titular Thunderhead. I just didn't care much for its musings.Then there was the ending which, to my surprise, many found unexpected. I found it quite predictable and immensely contrived. For the sake of not spoiling the book I am refraining from mentioning the details but it was... silly.The other part of the ending though was great!

You know, I was ready to come here give The Gravity of Us 2 stars while complaining about how the premise is a bit wonky, how no politician would ever defund NASA shortly before a launch, etc... etc... and one more effing etc... Then I realized I'm being pedantic while focusing on the wrong things! I didn't buy the book to read a realistic political drama with NASA as the core.

It's a great book! I had fun and even though the whole social media thing is totally lost on me (seriously what is ‘Condé Nast'?!) I came to like Cal's obsession with it. Leon was amazing and sweet and deserves all the kisses he can get.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say about it. It's fun and gay which makes it just infinitely better:D

This is the definition of ‘fine' or ‘average' for me. I'm serious! If there is a book that is the most deserving of 2.5 stars it is Shadow and Bone.

Why? Because it's exactly that - fine, ok, average, alright, and all the other beautiful synonyms. It's not a grand adventure written by a master of prose and an excellent storyteller, the characters aren't nuanced and multi-layered, the worldbuilding isn't captivating to a point I'd want to live there.

But you know what? That's OK! I had fun reading it. Alina Starkov was a fun character even if with maybe too little character at times. The antagonist, who I shall not name as it is supposedly a spoiler (it's more blinding than Alina's light magic, come on now), is also fun. Mal is fun even though I desperately wanted to see more of him.

A lot of the plot came from absolute nowhere. Suddenly X is revealed as a thing and it is just plain random. Do I mind? Yes. Does it ruin the enjoyment of the book? NOPE.

- incoming: sticker rant -

What I disliked the most, by far, is the fake sticker informing me Netflix is about to ruin ehm... adapt the book into a show. Seriously, publishers stop abusing beautiful covers like this. At least make it a normal, real sticker I can peel off.

- sticker rant over -

Anyway, Shadow and Bone is fine and I liked it. I've already bought Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, and the Six of Crows Duology. I also already own King of Scars, which I bought last year thinking it to be standalone.

I liked it! After starting 2021 with books that I've not enjoyed that much, Scythe was a welcome surprise.It's imperative to not however that the premise with the first quarter of the book is exceptionally good. (And yes, I know the worldbuilding isn't exactly logical but neither is the world we live in so let's not be pedantic.) Sadly after that it does devolve into a very typical YA story which is still a lot of fun!The characters range from meh to good. Though, I never took liking to Citra who just seemed like the chosen “best one”. Scythe Faraday was OK but I stand behind thinking him an utter idiot for what he did. Then there's the bad guy Scythe Goddard who is a true layered complex villain! I'm kidding... the layers are all pitch black. He's a typical Evil McEvilton of Death with no nuance to his convictions at all. Still a lot of fun though.I liked the ending too even though it was a bit... (read: very) obvious what'll happen. No matter, it was fun to read.If I had to pick the one thing I vehemently didn't like it'd be the r o m a n c e. Does every book need the girl and the boy to fall in love? Rowan and Citra had the worst chemistry imaginable! It's not necessary at all. They could just be friends (yes, that's a thing between men and women too).Going to start [b:Thunderhead 33555224 Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2) Neal Shusterman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505658534l/33555224.SY75.jpg 54332060] pretty much right away!

This book was a mess. I finished Gideon the Ninth and went straight into Harrow excited to read more. Then I saw it's in second person and got very worried because I very much dislike second person writing; it's boring, in my modest opinion. Funnily enough I didn't mind it at all.What I did mind (read: hate) was everything else. Erasing Gideon for the most predictable reason is by far the worst decision ever. The confusing, boring, aimless plot is on par.The ending came out of nowhere and included a literal “teleports behind ‘Nothing personnel kid' “ meme. I hated this book. The extra star is for the one twist that I didn't predict which amounted to a “hm, that's cool” reaction from me. Can't wait for [b:Alecto the Ninth 39325106 Alecto the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3) Tamsyn Muir https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png 60943284] to be written in future tense and for 3/4 of it pretend like nothing from the first two existed.

This one is so hard for me to rate. Not only I went into this expecting [b:They Both Die at the End 33385229 They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494333138l/33385229.SY75.jpg 49456196] levels of quality (which it does not reach), I also had my own ideas of where the story should go as I read on.Up until pretty much the ending this was a 4/5 deal. Not reaching the heights of The Both Die at the End but still fantastic. Then some twists happen and all the emotions that I had from the start are drained away.It's still a great read but it lacks a good ending. I just didn't like it and I am being be very honest in saying that it is the case just because of immensely subjective reasons. For you it might be a 5/5 ending, it is in no ways objective bad.

I haven't come so close to not finishing a book before. It's staggering just how worse it is compared to the Final Empire which was pretty damn great. Honestly I wanted to give it 2 stars but nope.

First, to get it out of the way, the sexism is disgusting but not surprising given the author has problematic views about LGBT people. I hated it. (Three female characters. Mary Sue, servant, stupid princess that likes shopping and pretty things... the end.)

Vin, the main POV of the book, turned from a bad-ass to an eighteen year-old with the mental stability of a teen going through puberty. The subplot with her love for Elend was awful and poorly written.

Another part that was poorly written, plotted, and conceived was the political intrigue. It's like a teenager read Game of Thrones and wanted to do something similar with none of the charm. The political machinations make no sense and could be easily removed altogether.

There is one side-plot involving the kandra and a new mistborn character that I very much enjoyed.

And the main plot was interesting. Shame that it is given as much focus in the early chapters as Vin's trouble deciding if she'll wear dresses or not. For a book called the WELL OF ASCENSION the WELL OF ASCENSION is surprisingly pointless and unlike the first book, this one had a stupid ending. It didn't end on a huge plot twist. The final chapters pretty much hammered home a huge spoiler for the next book (I presume so but I doubt I'm mistaken).

Anyway, I hated reading this. This could have been 300 pages shorter with the whole political side-plot rewritten and it'd be much better. This is honestly a consequence of killing the most likable character in book one and having Vin the Mary Sue (I hate using that but here it is so true) and Elend (the beige wall of a character) lead instead. Spook should have been the POV.

If anything, Gideon the Ninth was fun! I genuinely had a lot of fun reading this book and given it's all dark and filled with death and so many skeletons I'm a bit perplexed to admit it true.

There are a few gripes I had with Gideon though. First and foremost: Charles Stross' quote on the cover of my reading “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” is damn misleading. Neither Gideon nor Harrow are confirmed lesbian but their relationship can be seen as entirely platonic. I definitely wouldn't count this as an LGBT book by any means.

My second gripe is the sheer number of characters. There's seventeen characters. They're just not introduced well. For most of them their introduction is quite... swift and then they're mentioned only somewhat rarely. Their names aren't exactly easy to remember too. Then, in some instances, the narration refers to them only as “the Eight” or “the Fourth” or their first/last name and it's a hot mess.

And the third, final gripe of mine is just how much downtime there was. So many pages were empty of dialogue and relegated to bear nothing but tired descriptions that went on for far too long. Even the fight scene at the end was maybe a page or two too long. It never got to the Lord of the Rings levels of almost pointless descriptions but it did make some chapters feel a bit... boring.

The characters, those that stick, were fantastic! Gideon was great but my favorite was Harrow for whatever reason. (I tend to be the caster and Gideon's anything but that.)

Anyway, four stars! Definitely enjoyed reading it. Took my ±9 days to finish and never felt like a chore.

Alright... this one is definitely somewhere around 1.5 stars. Still, I am reserving the worst rating for, well, worse books.

Glow is strange. On one hand it's got a very interesting premise while on the other the execution is lacking. Being written in 3rd person omniscient hurts the story, the characters, and pretty much everything.

The synopsis is also a big fat liar. This is pretty far away from a typical YA romance. Waverly and Kieran barely spend any time together and their “love” is a thing of necessity rather than actual mature feelings.

Then there is this huge thing with religion. I'm not a person of faith and vehemently oppose certain beliefs in specific aspects. Even to me this was just a tad too much. Pretty much every religious character is portrayed as an oddity. The antagonist and villain is a pastor for Pete's sake!

Why the author chose to be so one sided in her portrayal of faith, why she chose christianity as opposed to some sort of an invented belief system which would not feel out of place in a sci-fi setting, I do not know.

The ending was really good; I liked it a lot more than the rest of the book. I'll read Spark and Flame (books 2 and 3) this year too probably.

This review could be a very long drawn-out sigh. Why? Because I don't really know what to say. In Aurora Rising I've counted at least five instances of wanting to groan, roll my eyes, throw the book against a wall, and never touch it again.

But I didn't. In its second half I came to quite enjoy it.

Ironically the worst and the best thing about Aurora Rising are the characters. The squad, consisting of 6 members + “the mystery girl” Aurora, is all you're going to get in terms of, well, actual characters. The rest, including the villain/antagonist, have the depth of a puddle.

The leader, also known as Alpha (a title which makes my skin crawl) is pretty much a Gary Stu (that the name?). Tyler has blond hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders, he doesn't drink or curse, and he is very white and very straight. Yippie.

Tyler's got his squad. First is Scarlett, his sister. Scar's roommate Cat is there too. Genuinely, I had trouble telling these two apart at times! The book jumps from POV to POV every chapter and it's beyond unnecessary and annoying. There's 7 characters each with a few chapters of their own but written in such a way it's hard to tell whose perspective you're reading.

Then there's Legolas... I mean Kal. An elf... sorry, a Syldrathi (Sindarin called. It's not upset; it's laughing at how stupid this is.) Kal imprints on Aurora because he's a true alien of a warrior race blah blah. It's creepy.

Can't forget Zila! She is that character in stories that is a walking computer. She's got a gajillion IQ points in her big brain and can make Einstein-level calculation on the fly. Also she gets the shortest “chapters” (literally like 40 words... yeah, I've got no clue).

Then there's Aurora/Auri. She's great and fun. Got nothing snarky or bad to say about her.

And, drumroll please, the best for last is Finian. He carries the whole book being the character with depth but also a unique personality (compared to the rest of them). I love him and his snarky attitude. Also, there are some hints that he could be bisexual which, as a bi guy myself, I'd appreciate if it were given just a bit more than “haha, this guy hot:3 anyway...”.

There really needed to be only 3+1 characters. Scarlett and Cat blend into one so make them one character and add Zila because she gets so little character development... well I'd call it character stagnation. Kal is needed because of the plot. Tyler is as boring as a typical videogame white cishet lead, and so on.

So characters are a huge mixed bag but the plot was quite interesting. Not something I couldn't let go but it was fine, cool, fun and all.

Worldbuilding was a thing, I guess. There are pages after each chapter from a what's meant to be a encyclopedia articles but it's boring when read out of context. Besides that the worldbuilding has a lot of sci-fi babble that could be omitted (and the time given to character development).

And the final insult to injury is that in this group of SEVEN PEOPLE there are not one, not two, but THREE completely heterosexual pairings. Not only Aurora salivates at Tyler from the start, she also likes big muscle Kal. Finian, who could be a nice bi rep, likes Scarlett. Cat and Tyler are a thing too.

I don't like to be one of the “this MUST have XYZ rep” but with such a huge cast of characters it's glaringly obvious the authors chose not to include LGBT rep just because.

There's a second book. It's coming in January. I'll read it but I don't have much hope.

PS.: Authors, please stop referencing Lord of the Rings. Auri calls Kal Legolas and it's just... ugh.

This is a definite 5/5 yet I just didn't have fun in many parts of this one. It's hard to say why too! Ugh... The start drags on a bit. Once it gets to the romance part and then the spectacular ending it gets ten times better.

Felt sad afterwards but didn't cry. Mainly because I know the Illiad so the ending wasn't really a surprise.

Also Patroclus is precious and it's worth reading just for him.

I don't think that I have much to say. I liked A Surplus of Light perhaps for more than the story and the writing. Sometimes stories just touch on something a bit too personal that skews my opinion so immensely I cannot review it. This is one of them.

It's good. I loved most and disliked little of it. That's all I can say.

(I am jealous and I hope that eventually I'll find my Ian.)

I picked up Captive Prince knowing it has some questionable themes. I knew going into it that there's rape, pedophilia, torture and much more. Truth be told it made me excited! I've not tackled a book with such themes before and I wanted to see how it'll be handled.

Well, the two stars probably tell you enough of my opinion. It was handled poorly. While the narrator thinks of the horrific acts as disgusting, which is a word far too weak for the depravity on display, the focus is more on that rather than on the barely-existent plot.

My expectation was that this is a fantasy story with horrific elements. Instead this is a gallery of torture with a sprinkle of fantasy hidden in some dark corner.

The plot barely moved anywhere. Some court intrigue took place, and it wasn't all bad, but when it's constantly interrupted by yet more talk of rape, pets (a strange choice of words for sex slaves) then I have hard time being invested.

I will read the next two books but this was not good, not at all.

I finished in about an afternoon. Wasn't an easy read, I must say. Mainly due to all the tears filling my eyes!

I tend to go at least somewhat into detail in my reviews, for the benefit of “future me” and GoodReads users, but this one... I can't. It's got flaws but here they so don't matter.

Please, read it. Your future you will thank you.

Brandon Sanderson's status as seemingly the most often recommended fantasy author cannot be understated. There is a reason for it. Mistborn, I feel, is the perfect showcase of that. It's simple. It's easy to read.

I try to rate books based on my enjoyment with a sprinkle of attempted objectivity. My enjoyment of The Final Empire was reaching 5 stars. I genuinely had a lot of fun with the book. I liked the characters, story and plot. There was only two things that I very much did not enjoy.

First is Allomancy, the magic system of the book. Not once I felt I was reading a magic system, or even anything close to magic. I'm pretty sure Allomancy has more rules explained than most gizmos from Star Trek, Star Wars, and most other sci-fi. Why? Burning metals to gain special abilities was fun but I just did not understand why I, as a reader, needed to know all these rules explained over several chapters. Pulling, pushing, iron, pewter, atium, alloys of that, alloy of this... please stop! Very Minor Spoiler: The second magic system, Feruchemy, is even worse. It barely makes any sense and makes me feel I'm reading a chemistry book.

Another point that upset me were the fight scenes. They went on for far too long. The descriptions were grounding my imagination so badly! This is actually why I dislike Allomancy so much. It is the reason as instead of reading a fun fight, I'm reading about character burning alloy of this, while the other, expecting this, is flaring a different metal to counteract. It felt like something from a particularly mediocre anime series or videogame.

Besides that there were other things that I disliked. The book goes on and on about the skaa being oppressed almost as if to remind the reader that the slaves don't have it easy. While I liked the characters, I must wonder why there is only one female character, the protagonist, Vin. The plot, while enjoyable, seems very contrived. I won't spoil it but I expected something more from the final few chapters.

Not to be all negative, I loved pretty much every single character safe for Shan Elariel who I didn't really care much for and her presence amounted to very little all things considered. Vin and Elend were great. Elend especially was my favorite (mainly for I also have a tendency to read when not exactly appropriate). Spook, my other favorite, needs to show up a lot more. He was so precious. I could go on. Though, I do want to say, Kelsier wasn't exactly my favorite as I was expecting at the start.

Finally, I need to admit, I avoided Sanderson for a long time. Mainly because I just don't like reading books by authors who are homophobic. Thankfully, I am so very glad to say, I found none of Sanderson's bigotry shown in the book itself (with the strange omission of more female characters). I'll definitely be finishing Mistborn and moving onto his other series next year.

Whoa. Another quick read! Took me about 4 days to get through and oh boy did it go fast! I absolutely loved this book all the way from the start. From the characters to the somewhat simple, yet interesting main plot, I had fun.

Unlikes in the book I read prior to The Fasctinators, I loved the ending. Not only it was just outright adorable, it had the guts not to give an exactly happy ending to every character. I wish to leave this as ambiguous as possible, but it stunned me that a YA book did that.

Sadly that one star missing to make it a 5/5 is not there because of how quick the ending is. There is a minor time-skip (it is so minor I can barely justify calling it that), which felt like could have been left out. The chapters of the finale were also quite short and could have been a bit expanded upon. Some might feel this way about the final chapter/the ending. I don't. There is one thing that isn't explained, but I understood the character's reasoning fine. The final scene is fantastic, but I understand that some may feel it should be longer.

Truly other than that The Fascinators was a great read. The LGBT theme was adorable (the memory of my teenage-self fell in love with Sam so quickly). I also liked how it dealt with religion, but I'd rather not expand on that point for spoiler reasons and for “this is really not a debate I wish to start” reasons.

Overall The Fasctinators succeeded in fascinating me from cover to cover. I wholeheartedly recommended it!

I finished this book in about 24 hours in two reading sessions. It flew incredibly well with only the most minor of hiccups. Yet I would still rate Bonds of Brass only a 2/5. Why is that and why my review is actually 3/5 I will try to explain in as few a words as possible.

I do my best to buy books knowing as little as possible. More often than most I truly do judge a book by its cover. Though generally I read the first few lines of the summary here on Goodreads before making a purchase. Bonds of Brass I bough based on very little. All I knew was that there is an LGBT relationship between two men in a sci-fi setting. The reason why I am saying this is for it to be understood why I picked Bonds of Brass up in the first place.

Thankfully the relationship is great and my favorite part of the book. Gal and Ettian, our two main characters, are adorable lovable dorks. A lot of their decisions, especially those of Ettian who is our POV into the story, are influenced by their love to a point of being outright insane. There is a lot of tropes ranging from there being just one bed in a motel room to fake dating and a lot of pining. I LOVED IT. It was funny, it was great. I adore those two.

The characters as a whole, including a third main character Wen, are alright. I feel that the side-characters never got their time to shine, but given how the story goes I prefer the focus on Ettian and Gal. What I do not prefer are the chapters all about Wen that just weren't fun. As a character Wen is... I'm sure there is a word for it. I didn't like her about three chapters after she was introduced, when she became just uneeded in the story save for the ending.

I can stomach somewhat meh characters if the story is interesting. Sadly, for the life of me, I cannot do the opposite. The story in Bonds of Brass is contrived. It feels over-plotted, where the author forced things to happen to get the characters where she wanted them to be. This is all perfectly encapsulated in the ending that I absolutely and utterly dislike.

There is a reveal, a big plot twist, in the final chapter. It's so predictable that I outright dismissed it when I thought about it somewhere around...reading the summary on the jacket. The paragraphs leading up to it I begged the book not to do it, but it refused to listen. Ending is paramout and this was bad. Not ok, not meh, but bad.

Now to reveal why 3 stars and not the 2 that I initially wanted to give the book. There's a sequel coming. Bonds of Brass is the first book of a trilogy! I genuinely believe that the ending, which is the source of the sour taste the book left in my mouth, can be remedied in the second book. If it doesn't, I'll edit this review and change it to 2 stars.

Not to end the review on such an overly negative note, I want to say that I enjoyed Bonds of Brass. Truly, I did! I can't wait for the sequel; I just hope it's better.

When I first picked up Dune, I never thought I'd enjoy it as much as I did. I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said hundred times in the thousands of previous reviews. Dune is truly magnificent. To me it sits as one of my favorite stories right beside [b:The Lord of the Rings 33 The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3) J.R.R. Tolkien https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566425108l/33.SX50.jpg 3462456]. A masterpiece in more ways than one.

I am torn as to how to rate Prince of Thorns. While I enjoyed the characters, I had trouble with certain moment that can be classed as ‘edgy'. The main character is needlessly violent in situations where it made no sense. It also repeat A Song of Ice and Fire's tradition of putting children into very mature situations. Jorg is fourteen years old and yet acts, speaks and thinks as an adult.

Many noted the extreme brutality and rape being present in the first chapter. While I am opposed to using sexual assault as a way to show the gritty reality of the world, I was able to move past it here as it wasn't described in much detail. I did skimp through those parts though.

In the end Prince of Thorns is a flawed book. It left little impression on me. Even though I enjoyed the characters, Makin especially, I haven't been itching to read the two sequels and see what comes next. This may just be the genre of grimdark not being my cup of tea.

As a small disclaimer, I must say that the author himself called me a sociopath on Twitter. While I would like to say that my feelings are not at all changed, I cannot. Much of my reluctance to read King of Thorns and Emperor of Thorns may very well be due to being personally insulted by Mr. Lawrence.

This book's rating is greatly skewed by Mr. Hickson's YouTube fanbase. The 4 stars do not, at all, represent a fair, unbiased rating.

I made an utterly terrible, outright awful, mistake. I believed that a book written by a YouTuber with no works of fiction to his name could provide something of value. It cannot.

The book, and the author, lie to you in the title and then again in the book's description. It is not about writing, but it is also not about worldbuilding. This book is a way for an internet personality with a large following to garner views. Most likely you came here, because you watched Mr. Hickson's YouTube videos and came here to defend him. If so, please disregard this review.

There are sixteen chapters in the book. Right from the start I felt that to be a little too many, especially given how low the page count is! I was right to fear. Not one of Hickson's chapters go beyond surface level. This is advice fitting for high school. Let me stress this a bit further. If you want to write a novel of your own, this book will NOT help you.

Majority of the chapters include a cartoon by the name of Avatar: The Last Airbender as a primary source. Why? It's the author's favorite cartoon. He even calls those who dared not to watch it plebeians. What a joke! The cartoon is fine, of course it is, but let us not pretend a Nickelodeon cartoon is a prime example of storytelling, because it is not.

After finishing the book, I took a look at his videos. Many of the chapters are identical to his videos. There is little new. You could watch his videos, which do include some slightly offensive jokes, and many more references to the Avatar cartoon, but in general you would learn the same - nothing, or very little.

The final insult is the final chapter of the book - “How I Plan a Novel”. Mind you Mr. Hickson has published exactly ZERO books in his entire career. In his debut book he tells you how to write. I was unable to find any works credited to Mr. Hickson either, as such I conclude he is not a writer. What Mr. Hickson is I can't really tell.

I didn't like it mostly due to the valley of difference between what I had expected to be and what the book actually turned out to be. It's not like I hated it but I've expected a horror! I've expected something more profound.
The message this was trying to tell, the author's “secret” were all so painfully obvious that I just had no fun with it.
Cool but just meh.