zilver
second read TEARS LUV ——————————4.5!!OK OK OK SO THIS IS GOING TO BE A MESS BECAUSE I LITERALLY ~JUST~ FINISHED IT I LOVED IT ((except for that one Thing near the ending that honestly just sort of left me confused?? like did i miss something??? why did that Thing happen?? if someone has an explanation/theory do tell me)) BUT I LOVED IT. i was honestly so happy with the ending i'm so happy when series leave me with proper well thought-through endings. all the characters were amazing. i love how leigh can switch from laugh-out-loud funny to heart wrenching in .3 seconds. i love this world even though it's still weird to see them eat hutspot. GOD. OK. i'm going to try and Chill.
3-3.5 (rewrote this a little bc my english was trash the first time ‘round)
okay, so. this book wasn't boring, but it really wasn't very fast-paced either. the book is set to play out in 24 hours, so i knew going in that it was likely going to be lots of contemplation and Thoughts. i like getting into character's heads, and maybe this is where the whole i'm an eighteen-year-old girl and this is about a fifty-year-old guy comes into play again, because while i really didn't mind being in perowne's head all the time i was also wishing i could get a bit of distance from his old man thoughts after 20 pages.
in general, my thoughts about henry perowne ranged from dude really? to just don't care one single bit to sort of an okay guy throughout the book (not specifically in that order). he thought his kids were great and supported them and so did i so we bonded over that.
the way the last 60(?) pages were handled saved this book imo. it didn't get trope-y, which is what i was sort of afraid of. well done book.
all in all not my fav but also no Disgrace so that's always a plus.
TINY SPOILER but that moment??? when he suddenly becomes sherlock holmes and in literally a split second deduces that this guy that's about to punch him in the freaking face has huntington's disease? .... right.
second read i say those are MY crow kids and i???m proud ???????????????????????????-first read 4.5!!i loved this book and i loved loving this book and i'm getting crooked kingdom from my room as we speak because i need more!!!! the story was so good and the world building was So good and the characters were So Good im in love with all of them(it was weird to see the word hutspot thrown around every once in a while tho)
i might give it 3.5 and a surprisingly long review for a 3-3.5 star book.
it took me a long time to really get into this book. i didn't specifically like the main character, adelina (it's probably not a good sign that i just had to look up how to spell it oops). she was interesting in all her darkness and vengeance but somehow she didn't really.. do anything for me.
the other malfettos were awesome though, i want about 200% more of rafaelle and gemma and lucent.
the ending caught me somewhat off guard, i was pleasantly surprised by how it was handled and how the daggers dealt with.. all that. i was certainly v happy that a lot happened - i'd feared a little that it was going to be dragged out a lot and it wasn't so. good for you book.
that instalove tho......... like literally get it out of my line of sight and put it through a shredder. it felt so “we need that Romance??? that's the only deep connection we can give these people” but then it just.. happened. hardly any build up. they spent like a couple of hours??? in a room together sometimes and then. poof. tru love.
[little bit of spoilers but not really tbh no worries you're not missing out]
listen. i can find thought-provoking themes in this book. it's not badly written. there's a lot going on sub textually when it comes to culture and racism and misogyny. but i cannot get over the fact that this main character is one of the least sympathetic people ever. i'm not even trying to be dramatic but nothing he did or thought in this entire book made me like him even a teeny tiny bit. he was a creepy, 50-year-old rapist who got turned on by the fact that his student's hips were “narrow as those of a 12-year-old's” and literally said that he did not value women who did not try to look good for men. honestly go die in a fire. safe to say it did not make this a pleasant read. the most awful thing might be that this guy is a personification of probably a fuckload of real men walking around every day.
i'm sort of curious what our lectures will have to say about it. i'm more than ready to go fume about it with my english lit group. bring it on.
this book was gorgeous and horrific and astonishing and heart wrenching all at the same time. i think i might be a little bit in love with half of the characters in here.
my heart has caught on fire and the ashes are blowing everywhere. i feel like i have both found and lost part of my soul.
(on to some lighter reading – though tbh it's not going to be difficult finding something less heavy than this)
i'm just going to do it, i'm going to give it 4 stars. maybe because i was so glad to read its uncomplicated happiness right after a little life. but whatever.
let's say this book is 60% snappy dialogue, 30% fluffy smiley stuff, 7% guys being such goddamn Guys and maybe if you squint 3% angst. that's it. it's just happiness mostly. the character development is there but the logic is close to non-existent. the instalove is definitely there.
but man, did i care? nah. it was fun. it was so much fun in its wittiness and illogical and predictable plot development. it was Fun with a capital F.
(i deserved/needed some fun after a little life and this was it. thanks book)
4.5 stars.
i loved the short stories and i loved the people explaining what libraries meant to them. how important they had been while they were growing up. because the public library next to our house was one of the most important places in my life for the 10 years we lived there. i'd come there daily, sometimes. the people working knew my name and smiled at me when they saw me come in. i participated in all kinds of reader programs. i love that library. (i wrote loved at first but that isn't true. just because i haven't thought of my love for that place in a while doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.)
i don't think i've been back there for a long time. while i was in school the pressure of having to read books inside a three week time span somehow felt like too much.
it's been years since i have borrowed a book from an actual library. i have library friends now (you know who you are). but reading this book made me remember what an amazing place a regular library can be. how much it meant to me before. so i think i'll go visit soon when i get back home.
it was just so cute and fluffy and Soft. and i honestly thought about giving it 4 stars because maybe it wasn't mind-blowingly good but it just made me so happy?? like heart-beating-out-of-my-chest, having-a-hard-time-not-smiling happy.
10/10 would recommend, esp. for lovers of ari & dante and carry on
second read - october 2019
despite there being a number of things in this book that i don???t super enjoy parts of it also leave me reeling. adam???s first reading with persephone? the sequence at the barns? the last couple of chapters in general? those are the words that magic is made out of.
first read - march 2016
