Nora

Such a fun little adventure! As someone with social anxiety, I related so much to this silly little robot not-robot guy who just wants to be alone and watch tv shows but has to deal with people on a regular basis while being extremely nervous about it. I also found it really relatable how the people around him tried their best to make him comfortable, trying not to hurt his feelings by being very careful with what they say around him and the uncomfortable mix of appreciation and annoyance that comes with having people walk on eggshells around you. So yeah, I see myself a lot in Murderbot! Although our similarities end with Murderbot actually being very competent at the tasks he is given :c

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I just can't. I had a terrible time getting through it because of how it was written, to the point of wanting to DNF it. I ended up getting to the end so that I could add it on my have read list, but sadly my opinion did not change in the latter half of the book either. This book just has nothing I enjoy in storytelling :c

So my problems with the book... I'll start with the plot, or what there is of it. This book really doesn't have a focus on its story at all. There is of course a plot, or you wouldn't really have a book, but I felt like most of what is written in this book doesn't serve the story at all. There's so much filler, random scenes that don't really seem to have a purpose, not anything I could find at least. I know this is a controversial take, I am very alone in my dislike for this book, but I personally need something more engaging than whatever this book offered to be engaged.

So the little plot that is there is my first issue with the book. To summarize it simply, it's about these two characters who bond by sending letters to each other. So if you were to not enjoy these characters, then most of the enjoyment to get from the book is gone. And I... really did not care about them at all. I wanted to, I really did, but I didn't find a single thing to latch onto to make me enjoy reading their letters. The letters became this incomprehensible pile of sentences that gave me nothing, they weren't fun to read and they didn't succeed in making me care for the characters. I would read through a letter and then stop to think about what I had just read and come to the realization that I didn't get anything out of it. It was just random words...

Just words is the way I'd describe my experience with this book, because my poor reading comprehension made most of this book incomprehensible. I'm sorry but I just couldn't understand most of this book. I know people keep saying you're not supposed to understand the world building here, it's supposed to be vague, but I'm not talking about that. I literally couldn't understand the sentences I was reading! It was a very frustrating experience, reading sentence after sentence I couldn't make sense of in my head. The prose(?) was just too confusing for me. It made me feel dumb, and that's not a fun feeling to carry for an entire book.

I felt dumb constantly, like I was missing something obvious that would make me enjoy the book more, but then I reached the end without ever finding it. The thing is this ending could probably be quite powerful if I had enjoyed these characters and their relationship. But I didn't, and therefore the ending also ended up giving me nothing :c

This is the most negative you've ever seen me be, this book just frustrated me so much. I feel so bad about myself for not being able to find anything to grasp onto for enjoyment. I know I'm very alone in this, and that makes that feeling even worse. I'd love to know what people see in this book, because all I was left with was self depreciation for not finding it.

FUCKING ASS TOM BOBADIL WASTING MY TIME BEING IN HIS STUPID FOREST DOING NOTHING OF VALUE OH NOW I HAVE TO READ A SONG FOR THE FIFTEENTH FUCKING TIME I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE I JUST WANT TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE WITH MY HOBBITS WHY DO THEY HAVE TO WASTE MY TIME THESE STUPID ASS HOBBITS GETTING SO EXCITED FOR FIREWORKS FOR WHAT FEELS LIKE TEN PAGES WHY DOES IT TAKE FOREVER FOR ANYTHING TO HAPPEN IN THIS DAMN BOOK AAAAARGHH FUCKING TOM BOBADIL I SWEAR THE WORST CHARACTER EVER WRITTEN IN FICTION AND HE HAS A LOT OF COMPETITION I TELL YOU BUT LIKE AT LEAST THE COMPETITION ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING WHERE AS TOM BOBADIL JUST WASTES YOUR VALUABLE TIME AAAAA I LOST LIKE 10 HOURS OF MY LIFE THANKS TO THIS BOOK TEN HOURS I WILL NEVER GET BACK NOW I EVEN HAVE TO WASTE TIME WRITING THIS REVIEW BECAUSE TOM BOBADIL MADE ME DISLIKE A BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE AND IT TAKES A LOT FOR ME TO DISLIKE SOMETHING BECAUSE I LIKE BASICALLY EVERY GENRE BUT NOT THIS FUCKING TOM BOBADIL AND HIS STUPID ASS FOREST I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED IN IT IT HAS BEEN A YEAR AND I HAVE ALREADY FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING ABOUT TOM BOBADIL BESIDES MY UNDYING HATRED OF HIS GUTS FUCK TOM BOBADIL!

Okay so it's been nearly two months since I read the book at this point so I realized I need to stop procrastinating writing the review of it. Since we're behind spoiler bars now it means we all know the story, right? Girl is unhappy with her life and future, girl tries escaping fate and ends up making a deal with the devil, you know the deal. So when I first read the book my first thought was that the curse didn't actually seem so bad! Like, I mean, it definitely isn't good but think of all the time you have on reading and stuff, and not having to worry about what others think of you! But ehehe book makes it pretty clear how much of a hell Addie's life is. Especially that winter section was rough, poor Addie...

But I think that speaks to the strength of Addie's character. Because it is all Addie's choice to continue suffering. She could give up at any time, give in and let Luc end it. But she doesn't, she's resilient. Part of it is out of stubbornness to prove Luc wrong, sure, to prove a point that she's going to live with her choice. But you don't go 300 years of pain without believing in yourself, and that's why I think Addie is such a cool character. Because she is willing to go through all this, it is her choice! She chose this life and she's gonna make the best of it for what it's worth.

There are some light points to her life as well, as far between and few they are. Despite how bittersweet they feel. I did get a little shot of satisfaction every time Addie managed to leave a trace of herself behind on the world, even if just in subtle ways. It felt like small victories, but victories nonetheless. It is something Addie needs to make this life bearable. It shows she is real despite living as a ghost. It relieves some of the heaviness for an otherwise very heavy book.

That brings me to my absolute favorite part of the book which is when Addie meets Henry. The entire book built up to that moment for me. All the heaviness, all the bleakness of Addie's life, all lead up to that one moment where someone remembered her. It got me squealing with excitement reading, Addie's surprise was infectious! These are my favorite parts in any story when the characters have gone through so much pain and then finally after everything find hope. You'll see that with a lot of my favorite stories of all time actually! Addie delivers one such moment and it made me happy. I love when stories succeeds in making me happy c:

Of course it couldn't last, this is a bittersweet story. I still have no idea what I think of Addie and Luc's whole relationship thingy, I get that they are both immortal beings and see companionship in each other because of that, but I don't really understand if they actually do love each other or not? It is complicated okay!!! But I did love how the book ended, with Addie getting her story told through Henry's book. Her book. The book opening with “I remember you” was so beautiful it got me a little teary eyed, the closest a book has gotten me to cry! Still haven't found a book that has succeeded in that yet :/

Okay that was review. Read book if you haven't already, it is great!!!

So this book was part of this ‘buddy read' thingy we do on a Discord server I am a part of. I decided to listen in on the voice chat conversation the participants of the buddy read had about the book, and it was so much fun that I got really interested in reading it for myself!

Sadly it turns out the enjoyment came from my friends being fun, not the actual book itself :c

Now I've been using the internet all my life, so the concept of this book really wasn't that shocking to me. Minotaur milking is far from the most extreme stuff I've seen, so I wasn't weirded out by the idea of reading it. This was my very first time reading smut though, so I was actually pretty excited about trying one!

Because this was my first time however I really can't tell if smut just isn't for me or if it is the book that isn't for me, because this book gave me absolutely nothing. There was barely anything in here that I found engaging. After the first introduction to the milking farm each chapter taking place there felt very repetitive. A large chunk of the book is dedicated to the romance between the main character and this special minotaur who is special because his man thingy is thicker than the rest, I guess? I'm still in the process of figuring out if I'm aromantic or not, and the veeery quick way these two characters got interested in each other really didn't help.

Now I know what you're thinking: “Nora, I don't think the minotaur milking book is the best way to figure this stuff out with!” and yes, I do agree. So instead, I am going to blame it on it just being uninteresting writing. The only thing I found fun in this book was the main character interacting with this vampire girl. Vampire girl is cool!

Anyways, ehhh
Read the book if this is your specific kink! If not, there really is no point. Not even for the memes. Maybe for a buddy read though!