Nora

Witches witches I really love witches! Specifically the cozy, cutesy witches! The Kiki type, the Akko type, young spirited witches learning to witch in cozy magical settings! Small witches in big pointy hats! Big witches in big pointy hats! Witches flying around on broomsticks, doing magic and generally being great! I want to be a witch! I want my own pointy hat and broomstick, with a cute little cat and an equally adorable home! I want to be mysterious and cool but also cute and cozy. I want to be able to help people by using magic, I want to be able to threaten people who annoy me with curses, I want to.....

Okay that should be enough to establish why this book is so up my alley! Book is about a young girl (Esk) being mentored by a crony witch so she can be ready for this all male magic university she has been accidentally gifted to go to AND IT IS SUCH A COZY ADVENTURE!!! The pace is so calm, so comforting. After how chaotic the first two Discworld books were, reading this felt like a warm hug while drinking matcha latte, the best drink that I can never afford to drink again because it costs like 100kr for one cup but the memory of the taste has lingered on my mind since I tried it and it tastes exactly like the experience of reading this book. The book absorbed me, I didn't want to put it down. I started reading it right before heading to bed just out of curiosity, to get a taste before sleeping. Suddenly multiple hours had passed and I was on page 160, I was so absorbed in the book that I completely forgot about real life. It's been forever since that has happened to me!!!

You know how some people get power fantasy from watching strong people fighting each other in action scenes? Well I get my power fantasies from watching Esk solve all her problems in this book through magic. It's such a low scale book, every problem is solved as quickly as they appear. This isn't a flaw, it is a feature which makes it the perfect for the cozy feel! It's so unbelievably cozy, I adored it! Esk is such a cute main character, perfectly fitting the innocent young witch archetype. Then you have granny, Esk's mentor, who goes for the cool crony old witch archetype and fits it so well she's one of the coolest characters I've ever seen in fiction! She's honestly the perfect witch, the witch all other witches should be judged by. Aaaaahhh I love her and apparently she is in future Discworld books as well eeeeheheeee!!!

Such an adorable book that made me so happy reading it! It would be contender for favorite book of all time, but final act felt a bit too much like author went like “oh I need a big epic climax to book” which kinda got in way for the cozy feeling book gave me for 80% of it, but ehh it is minor complaint when rest of book made me so happy!!!

I decided to continue my Discworld journey by reading The Light Fantastic, and within a day I had finished the book. And then some. Within a day I had read 400 pages of Discworld, getting halfway through the third book as well which I will write about later! That's the biggest praise I can give Discworld, these books go by so fast! They're addicting, it's hard to stop reading once you're into them!

As for Light Fantastic itself, iiiiiits really just more of what the first book delivered. All the things I liked about it are the same, but so are all the things I didn't like about it. It is just part 2 of the same book really. I will say I thought Light Fantastic was a bit messier, there's so many different episodes here that it's hard to recall what actually happened in the book, and I read it only yesterday. Where the first book only had like 4 main episodes, this one felt like it had twice the amount and they felt significantly less memorable to me. Seriously, I can't tell you what happened in half this book! While I enjoyed reading it (I wouldn't have finished it in one day if I didn't) it failed to leave any mark. It's one of those stories you read through, enjoy, then put it down again without having gotten anything from it. It's basically like a Marvel movie!

So yeah I wasn't as impressed with this one as the first book, it did have more of a plot this time around but it's still very much not the focus of the book. The focus of the book is being silly dumb fun and that's what it is! If Discworld continued down this path of being just silly dumb fun it probably wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. Thankfully I've already started the third book and can tell you it changes what Discworld is drastically, and that's for the better :)

I thought I would enjoy Discworld, and I did! I've always enjoyed absurdism, just look at my favorite video game franchises Yakuza and Final Fantasy for that. Discworld however takes the absurdism up to 11 and has every element of the world lean into it, which made it a really fun read as I never knew what would happen. It feels like Terry Pratchett just wrote down every idea that came into his head no matter how dumb it was, and found some way to make it work within the story!

People say this is the weakest Discworld book and I can imagine that may have to do with the lack of story in this book. The plot as it is can be summarized as simply as the wizard Rincewind trying to keep this tourist called Twoflowers out of trouble, with the book having several episodes of Rincewind failing to do just that. So the book jumps from episode to episode without much plot progression, it is just a series of silly vignettes. Not all of these vignettes are created equal, I found the beginning to be a lot more engaging than the second half of the book. But all sections had enough fun moments so I wasn't bored or anything! If later books in the series can keep this silliness while also having an actually engaging plot, I think I'm going to be a big fan of this series c:

The Color of Magic isn't much more than just silly, dumb fun, but as silly dumb fun it was indeed pretty fun! I definitely had an enjoyable time with it, and am excited to see how the series will evolve from here :D

I picked this up at a book event since I loved the author's latest work Spiro, and the concept sounded so interesting I just had to read it! A road trip story where a trans guy (Liam) and his friend (Tor) are going together to Oslo so that Liam can get professional help with his transition, with the goal of the book being to display just how terrible the Norwegian system for helping trans people actually is.

What I was not expecting from this pitch was just how awkward this road trip was going to be! Liam and Tor have a history together, they've had a romantic relationship which did not end too well and a big focus of the book is displaying just how awkward things are between them. Especially because the entire story is told from Tor's perspective in a first person view, and Tor has clearly not gotten over their breakup. Everything is told through Tor's thoughts, we never get to see what Liam is thinking, just Tor's interpretation of what Liam may be thinking. I wasn't the biggest fan of how the book was written at first, there's a lot of punctuation making it hard to read at times, and the book will just jump back and forth in time without warning or anything to signify the change has happened. Not only that, but dialogue is written without the symbols indicating dialogue so sometimes that leads to confusion as well.

But then it hit me that the book is written this way because we are in Tor's head! The reason the book jumps so much back and forth in time is because Tor is lost in his own thoughts thinking back to previous events in his life in the middle of doing other things like driving. The dialogue is without the “” marks because we are seeing the dialogue through Tor's thoughts. Realizing this made me really start enjoying the book, suddenly it added so much more depth to the characters. We get to see a lot of Tor, but we never really get to know Liam.

Tor and Liam wanted very different things out of the car trip, and I think that's what made it so awkward for both. Tor wanted for them to talk about their relationship, maybe revive it, to at least talk about themselves. We don't see Liam's thoughts in the same way, but I think what he really wanted was support. A friend who cares for him, who'd be there for him while he goes through the meeting at the hospital. Someone to tell him that things will be alright. Tor is unable to deliver what Liam needs, maybe that is why their relationship didn't work out in the first place.

I'm not too good at reading people, so I may be completely wrong about my reading of the situation but I got the impression that Tor too is struggling with identity, but isn't able to take the step to actually explore it? Maybe that's why he's so frustrated, and acts the way he does throughout the book. It's not a very fun book to read. Having to sit in Tor's head while he is unable to form a connection with his friend, it's just straight up uncomfortable. In a good way of course! It isn't a happy story, something made especially clear in the final section of the book where Liam finally does get to the hospital for his meeting which leads into one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever read. If this is what it's like to actually go through this process.... I dunno, it didn't soothe any of the fears I have around it :(
But I am glad I read this, I do have a better understanding now of why trans people aren't too happy about this system!

It's really sad that Tor couldn't be there for him when Liam needed it, after going through all this only to get rejected. It's honestly so devastating it affected my mood while reading :(
I don't know what Tor could have done to prevent what eventually happens at the end of the story, but he could have done something. I dunno, showing support in some way, hell maybe a hug that would be better than nothing! It was frustrating to see how quickly they just left each other after this. I can't entirely blame Tor either, maybe he thought the best course of action was to give Liam space to process things on his own? Or maybe he just didn't think of how Liam has it, being too focused on his own disappointment for how the trip turned out.

Like I said I'm not too good at reading people, and this is a book which gives you a lot to read into. These characters have so much depth I'm only beginning to unravel while writing this ‘review' if you can call it that. Mostly just noting down my thoughts on the book really! I have been both the Liam and the Tor of real life situations before so I can understand both their sides, and that makes it extra sad seeing how they are unable to communicate what they need from each other. Tor was too stuck in his own thoughts for what this trip should have been like to see what Liam needed this trip to be like, that's my interpretation of the characters. Anyways, it is really late so I will stop writing here. I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book!

(Molly hvis du leser dette så var jeg den veldig engstelige, ikke helt ut av skapet enda transjenta Nora som satt på sofaen like ved og som ikke turte å snakke til deg. Har veldig sterk sosial angst :(((
Så ehehe, beklager for at jeg var så klein, takk for signaturene!)

Okei så dette er en veldig vanskelig bok å rangere siden det ikke er fiksjon, det er en self help bok som jeg syntes var veldig kjedelig å komme gjennom til tider. Den var liksom veldig repetitiv så måtte tvinge meg selv til å komme gjennom. MEN jeg synes ideene boka tar opp om metakognitiv terapi til å virke veldig spennende og jeg tror det er noe som faktisk kan hjelpe meg, så jeg fikk noe ut av boka! Kanskje jeg fikk masse ut av boka, det får jeg finne ut av siden! Så boka var kjedelig men den skal få tre stjerner fordi den introduserte en ny måtte å liksom tenke på for meg, en måte jeg håper kan gjøre en endring i livet mitt!

omg omg so cute so cute omg aaaahhhh so cute!!!!
I was spending time in my school library and saw the cover of this comic on one of the shelves and just had to borrow it because it had witches on cover and I love witches and this is comic about witches hihihiiiiiii cccc:

Okay so the plot is extremely simple and the villain is cartoonishly evil and the main conflict is resolved so easily and every character is just nice, its a very easy read. The type of read I will probably forget all details about within a month.

BUUUUUUT It was so much fun and it was sooo cute aaaaaahhh I loved it! The art was cute the characters were cute the witch stuff was perfect WHY CAN'T REAL LIFE BE LIKE THIS???? I want real life to be like this :cccccc

Ehehehe read if you want cute quick read about witches! There's also queer romance in here for those who enjoy that c: Cuuuuuuuute!!!!!

Norwegian trans book!


Okay so yeah, this one got me from page one. The book starts with around 10 or so pages describing the main character's struggle with not understanding how anything works, not being able to fit in, being so dysfunctional that she can't even enter a cafe without feeling super anxious about how others will see you, of being out of place. All these struggles, from the very first page, felt so deeply relatable to me. And that felt affirming! The last trans story I experienced “I Saw The TV Glow” had the opposite effect, the plot was confusing and everything was told through metaphors that I just couldn't grasp so I was left feeling discouraged about my own thoughts. But not here!!! So I'm really happy I got to read this book c:

So Spiro is told through the head of a trans woman going through her transition. The decision has already been made before the start of the book, so instead the book focuses on the awkward phase of having no clue as to what to do now. Of feeling awkward, unsure, afraid. Of hating oneself. Of wanting to make changes but being too exhausted to actually take the steps to make them. All these thoughts feel so real to my own experience, it's almost scary! But also, it made me happy knowing that yeah, I'm actually not alone in all this. Someone else has had these thoughts and decided to write a book about it. Things I've hated about myself and thought of as just social anxiety or autism may have another answer, and this book helped me see those connections. Or maybe trans people just are socially anxious in general, I dunno. What matters is it connected with me!

The book is separated into three parts all with a 2 year gap, where the main character Frida is in different phases of her transition. The second part was especially sad as at that point she had already been out of the closet in two years yet still felt so out of place. So that part was a bit discouraging, but I think it is great that the book does set expectations in the right place. That it will take time for things to feel natural. I'm still too early to have been there myself, but it felt real enough reading, I could relate to the thoughts. I think this book is really good if anyone is curious about what it's like having such thoughts really!

The final section of the book has a different focus from the rest, focusing on a specific life event instead of Frida's thoughts in general. Here we do get to see Frida be more comfortable in her own skin, although it is quite overshadowed by what happens in the chapter. Which I guess is the right way to go about it. Life is just life after all, once the transition has happened life goes on, no fanfare or anything. The book even shows some characters still unable to accept the change, which yeah, that's going to happen. There's no happy ending here, we can just hope Frida's life will improve going forwards.

So yeah, that's Spiro! A book I really found myself relating to. Maybe I'll relate to it even more as my own personal journey continues, only time will tell! I really am happy I decided to pick this book up, and now I am curious to check out the authors other works!

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!!!

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.

Everyone has fantasized about being on the villain's side in some story, right? Anyone? No? Just me...? Well there has to be at least someone, because someone decided to write a book about it! Sadly, the villain in this book is more of the ‘misunderstood anti hero' type of character that is more morally right than the ‘good guys'. I say sadly, but it does probably suit the lighthearted and cute tone the book is going for better to have a likeable villain, or protagonist in this case.

The story does manage to hit the cute tone fairly well! This is largely due to the book's main lead Evie who is a delight to follow, a quirky and witty village girl who is the perfect match for the stoic, tough villain who serves as the book's second main lead. Seeing these two characters interact and form a closer bond throughout the book was definitely very cute, how the villain opens up more and more due to Evie's infectious personality. Not all of her quips landed for me, most of them didn't land actually, which made the dialogue a bit annoying at times, but Evie was likeable enough to it never truly getting in the way of my enjoyment of the book!

The entire cast here was really enjoyable actually, they were all so charming that it kinda makes the contrast of the villain's actions compared with his group's friendliness a bit strange at times. I mean, the book explains the villain torturing people, hanging their heads as decorations and all these gory things, while at the same time having most of his servants be quirky and fun. It didn't bother me too much, but I did find it a bit of a weird contrast. But hey, I could definitely see that contrast being part of the appeal of the book for some!

So the characters are great, and the plot is pretty fun as well! It feels slice of lifey almost, showing Evie's life working for this villain and how their relationship grows with time while also being wrapped up in this mystery element of there maybe being a traitor among the group. It works, it's fun! Not every section is as engaging, and I never truly fell in love with the story, but I had a good time reading it c:

If you find the premise to sound cute and want a lighthearted little breather book then I think you won't be disappointed, there's not really anything to dislike here besides maybe a few chapters that use a certain trope that can be really annoying. Thankfully that section was over fairly quickly and didn't drag out!

I hesitated a long while writing my thoughts on this book because it is a very intimidating book for me to talk about. It is very ambitious and explores societal ideas that are so beyond me. Even so, I did find myself really enjoying myself despite my struggles getting through it!

A big part of the appeal of this book is getting to see what society could potentially look like a few hundred years from now. There are no nations as we know them today, people instead choosing where they belong to by their ideals. Religion isn't a thing anymore, instead everyone has their own personal priest to talk to about life's mysteries. Being gender neutral has become the default, gender being something saved for more intimate situations. These are really fascinating ideas, and the book does a good job realizing them into a believable society. The problem is it makes the book soooooo dry to read at times!

Whenever you meet a new character or even meet the same character in a new scene, the book's narrator Mycroft will then spend about a page describing the outfit of that person in detail. This is because outfits have a lot to say about what ‘nation' you belong to and your gender identity, it's used for world building, but it is so boring to read AND IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME! Even when trying my best to comprehend what I was reading, it all just went straight through my head and I didn't pick up on any of the details. It was way too dense, and I ended up skimming through those sections whenever they appeared.

Being too dense is my biggest problem with the book. I know I'm not the smartest person, I barely understand politics at all and I don't know anything about economics, so when so much of the book is about this ‘list' that could cause a recession in the world's economy, it really was a problem for me to comprehend. Loooong meetings discussing this list and its consequences is what a lot of the plot of this book is about, and since I struggled to understand the details of these meetings it made the book so dry and slow to read at times. This is definitely a slow read, so be prepared for that in case you're interested.

That being said, despite me really struggling to read and understand the details of the conversations, the plot itself was actually not that hard to follow! It is sort of written like a whodunit mystery, and that side of the story makes the more dense meetings a lot more digestible because I had something to grasp onto. I especially loved Mycroft and his relation to this boy I totally forgot the name of because it's been months since I read the book... It is something that goes against everything else in the book, and the book is very much aware of this and that makes it so fascinating to see where it is going! If I were to continue with the series, it would be because of my curiosity about this plot element!

Will I continue the series? I'm not so sure. I did really enjoy my time with the book, but it was such a dense read to get through and that makes jumping into the next one not that appealing for me as of right now. But there is stuff here I genuinely love, and that makes me want to get to it some day when I am in the mood for something more dense. Mycroft is a really fascinating character, and I want to learn more about him!

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 adored the first book in this Library trilogy, a book I decided to read because it was part of this book club someone had arranged in my city! I was so excited going to the book club to talk about book, having lots of anxiety but also filled with passion for the story. But then it turned out only me and one other person showed up to book club, and after awkward discussion because I had no idea how to carry the conversation, the book club disbanded. Short lived book club :c

A year and half after this devastation I have overcome my sadness and it was time to finally read the follow up to one of my favorite books! And it waaaaaaas pretty great, I enjoyed this sequel quite a bit. The first book had a backdrop of this war between two ideologies on how the world should handle knowledge, and in book 2 that war of ideologies takes a much more important part so that was a pretty cool way to take the series!

Overall I do prefer the first book quite a lot more though, and I think it's because I just enjoyed the characters more in it? It had this romance plot line which I really adored! It is present here as well, but I dunno it probably is because it's been a year and half since I read the first book but it didn't really do much for me this time around. I assume it would have been more effective if I had read the books back to back, so go do that and don't be like me!

Letting all this time pass made my investment in the characters drop quite a bit, like there's all these side characters that play a bigger part here I genuinely don't remember anything about so for huge chunks of the book I was like “Wait, who are you again...?” and that affected my enjoyment. BUT STILL GOOD BOOK THAT I ENJOYED, am excited to read the final part of the trilogy!!!

What a silly little book! I don't often read books in my native language, but sometimes you just feel the need to experience some of your own country's literature. (Like when you are forced to do so for class, that's one such occasion!)

Book is about this guy called Doppler who is tired of modern society and life and therefore decides to set up a tent in the forest and live there instead. The very first page of the book describes him brutally murdering a deer in front of the deer's own child in a very silly way and sets the tone for what experience will be like. Doppler then proceeds to adopt the baby deer and talks for multiple pages about how murdering its mother was actually a good thing in the long run.
The book constantly goes on these wild tangents where author overexplains something for multiple pages, where the joke is in overexplaining it in itself. There's like 2+ pages of Doppler talking about his own massive dick out of nowhere and the absurdity of it had me giggling a ton while reading!

But the thing is, I kinda wish it went even more absurd than it ended up doing. First half had so many silly moments that made me think I would absolutely love this book, but then it doesn't really escalate from there. It makes the rest of the book feel kinda tame in comparison. Like, reading about Doppler trading deer meat for milk at the grocery store by explaining to the store owner why trade economy is good was really funny, but Doppler trying to trade deer meat yet again later in the book felt like a repeat of the joke, not an expansion and therefore not as funny. The funniest parts of this book is in its first 50 or so pages, it peaked too early and didn't try to top itself for the rest :c

And then, the book is just really short and didn't really feel like a complete experience. And it didn't give me enough to want me to continue with the rest of the series either. Thankfully the first 50 pages were really fun and silly so overall I had a good time with book, but I was left pretty unsatisfied by the lack of an ending :cc

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!

Psst, here is one of my embarrassing secrets don't tell anyone:
My kryptonite is fantasy stories where they throw a bunch of random made up nonsense words at you and expect you to somehow keep up. I, as a dummy, am unable to keep up and therefore do not like this! It is the fiction equivalent of reading through a heavy text book about some scientific subject I have no knowledge of, just hoping something will stick while the words pass through my head without sticking.

Unsouled has fantasy nonsense. mandra and remnants, Weird culture and weird history that's mentioned as if it is supposed to mean anything when in reality it is just the author who wants the world to sound cool and mysterious. WELL GUESS WHAT AUTHOR, I CAN SOUND COOL AND MYSTERIOUS AS WELL! “Master Ruck passed his jade trial during the last astral dawn, cycling his striker mandra attuned to the sword element.” LOOK IT ISN'T THAT HARD! The first half of this book has so much of this stuff! I was unhappy with book :c

Then this other weird fantasy nonsense spoiler thing starts happening and the second half of the book takes on a much more adventurous feel. The main character has a way of thinking outside the box to get through challenges that made it a super fun to read! That's the feeling I was left with, fun. fun is cool and great. In the end, I am happy with book c:

The Shining is Monster House for us cool grown ups (or edgy kids who wants to scare themselves (although kids don't read books so they are safe)). This story about a family stuck in a hotel is so prominent in pop culture that its almost like essential viewing/reading for horror fans. I watched the movie a long time ago and found it quite underwhelming, but have been curious to check out the source material since. Now that I've read it I'm glad to say I agree with Stephen King that the book is better!

While reading through the book I was constantly wondering how much of the events could be explained by the main characters mental states, and how much could be explained by the supernatural. Supernatural elements are established quite early on, the titular ‘shining' which Danny is gifted with. Even so, the horror of this horror story comes mainly from the domestic. From the book's central character Jack.

Jack is a very interesting character to follow. He has anger issues, a past alcoholic, yet the book does a good job juggling his negatives with his positives. We constantly see him working to improve himself, fighting his demons. It makes him a sympathetic character, but the demons are there. One moment he really does try his best for his family, the next he's having an aggressive fit. This juggling shapes every moment with him, as you're never sure what will cause him to snap. His relationship with his wife, his son, his past is explored extensively over the course of the book and is by far the best element of the story. His flaws are human, giving the horrors of the book a taste of realism as he feels like someone who could really exist. There are Jacks out there in the world, and that's what makes the horror of his mental downfall so impactful.

As the story approaches the end however, it becomes more and more clear that the hotel itself is its own character, the true villain of the story. I don't like this direction. I would have really preferred if this was a more grounded story where Jack's downfall is his own, as that would be a whole lot darker than the spooky hotel corrupting him. By letting the hotel be the monster, it lets Jack have a moment of redemption where he rescues his son, which IS one of my favorite moments of the book, but it comes at the cost of making the story less interesting to me. The climax of the book becomes more 'booo spooky mansion!' than psychological horror and that was disappointing to me. Hedge animals just aren't that interesting!

Overall, I did have a really great time staying at the Overlook Hotel! My problems with the ending doesn't come in the way of how great the book was on its way getting there, and I did find the climax exciting in its own way, just not as interesting as it could have been. Definitely not spooky. I'm pretty disappointed with the spooks of the book really. Spooks is a perk visual mediums have over written words. I mean, there was not a single jumpscare, not a one! But a good horror story doesn't really need spooks to be great, and this one was great c:

I'm not the biggest fan of the creepy crawlies this book revolves around. Therefore reading through the book, letting the creatures live inside my imagination for such a long time was quite a... unique experience. Thankfully the specific type of spider that plays the main role here is the jumping spider, which is kinda cute. For spider standards at least.

What is not as cute is us humans, who are kind of gross really. I've seen quite a lot of humans in my life and they're pretty weird. They start conflicts over minor things and sometimes let them escalate into violence. Now spider society isn't perfect either as you'll see in this book, I'm just saying I doubt spiders would develop nuclear weapons. At least as far as I know, I don't like researching spiders. BUT, I'm very happy to find out that the cute little spider dances the male spiders do in this book are real! Maybe spiders aren't so bad after all c:

So here you have a book about these creepy crawlies and gross monkeys, alternating between their perspectives with each chapter. Seeing spider society grow more and more complex with each chapter was quite fascinating, seeing how different their technology is from ours. The imagination required by the author to craft a completely different evolutionary line than ours is the web that holds the book together. I've come to realize books with a unique science fiction concept are some of my favorite type of books, and this one delivers what I like quite well! Despite you know, the elephant in the room that is the spiders.

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!