A dizzying tale of madness and loneliness. Hill House was very different from what I was expecting before4 stars
Journeys end in lovers meeting indeed.
A dizzying tale of madness and loneliness. Hill House was very different from what I was expecting before I started it. Jackson has a very peculiar writing style. It isn't exactly lyrical but at the same time, it is very very personal while seemingly like it doesn't try very hard. There is this ongoing feeling of acceptance; finally having a place to call home that we see almost immediately with Eleanor and the house. It also reminded me of Alix E. Harrow's Starling House which was about how these magical creepy houses always attract people with wild imaginations. The people who live on the margins of life, always drifting and never feeling home anywhere.
Eleanor was a very interesting character though I know many readers might find her annoying. But I feel like Hill House is a very personal horror story. In the sense that it might affect some people more than others. Jackson makes us feel the horror purely through Eleanor's eyes. Who herself is not a very reliable narrator and is scared by some things more than others. In that way, if you end up relating to Eleanor's fear of being left behind, and not being considered important the horror is very much there. It is a very cool style of storytelling, particularly horror storytelling, in that the horror itself is not explicit. It is all in how Jackson writes it. Sometimes you will be dropped in the middle of a conversation, mirroring how Eleanor has a fear of missing out which is mapped onto the reader.
The foreshadowing is pretty strong in this one. Probably one of my minor complaints. It feels a bit too strong though it might feel like you only end up putting the pieces together a tad bit too late. Just like the characters, you see the inevitability of their actions when it's too late.
I liked the theme of how Hill House seemed to be a way station or a refuge for the lonely and the castaway, the queers rejected from society. A meeting place for lovers (whether Hill House itself was the lover or if it was Theo is a separate debate). Also the paralleling between the "female companion" of one of the sisters and now Eleanor. It was a nice bit of foreshadowing as well.
There are almost too many "sentient house" horror stories these days, and at times they can feel a bit too formulaic if you read more than one back to back. I like how Jackson was able to use that well-worn horror genre to create something creative and new, which still feels fresh and timeless even so many years later....more
What else was she, really, but another animal body afraid of being alone in the cold?
Maybe the real horror was your failing marriage all 4.5 stars
What else was she, really, but another animal body afraid of being alone in the cold?
Maybe the real horror was your failing marriage all along.
My first time reading anything by Lee Mandelo, and believe me I have not missed the hype around his work. I went in with very high expectations and ended up being pleasantly surprised. Did not expect so much nuance and depth to this short novella about a crazy experiment where a scientist links her brain to a wolf to experience life through the eyes of said wolf. I really enjoyed the ethical discussions on the science being carried out, especially when it is funded by some big corpa, but at the same time acknowledging the lack of funds for research in academia. The themes on preservation, climate change and sustainable science were all very very interesting and Mandelo gives it the time and respect topics such as these deserve, which is no small feat.
The main character is extremely insufferable but her exceedingly worse and worse choices make for a fun read. Her issues with her wife and her sense of isolation "no one gets me except for the wolf I kidnapped and put fancy tech in", is also a major part of the book. I do believe she was let off too easy by the end and the book publishing seems to be another chance for her to stroke her own ego. Her pride is the main reason for her downfall, the research she so claims will "better our understanding of how wolves think" is just her selfishness and desire for fame in her field.
This was a pandemic book and you can feel the sense of doom looming just in the periphery of the book, as well as Sean's isolation from other humans. I really liked this part of the Author's Note:
Feed Them Silence grew from that fertile, toxic soil. Ultimately, the novella wrestles with the fears and worries of a singular moment in time—but the emotions and critiques at its core remain, I hope, prescient. I’m sure plenty of other artists will be scribbling their way through closing notes like these over the next decade or more.
There is some gore in the book but most of the horror is psychological and weird. Still something really enjoyable. I will be reading more of Lee Mandelo's works in the future....more
I loved this so much! Alice Oseman is the best at writing about platonic love. I love how much emotion and love they pack into their books. Loveless wI loved this so much! Alice Oseman is the best at writing about platonic love. I love how much emotion and love they pack into their books. Loveless was about 18-year-old Georgia and her journey in figuring out and coming to terms with her sexuality. The way Georgia's journey was written was soo relatable. I feel like any queer person would be able to understand how difficult it can be to realize their sexuality especially when it's something not normalised. People on the aromantic and asexual spectrum will find it even more relatable. Oseman does their best to cover all the different facets of the spectrum, but everyone is unique and experiences sexual and romantic attraction differences. So while this might not be the ultimate treatise on the subject, it's a book that handles the topic with care and nuance. Part of that might be Oseman's own sexuality and coming-of-age story shining through, but it's a wonderfully written book nonetheless.
I've read two of Alice Oseman's novels previously: Radio Silence and I Was Born for This. And I have also read their Heartstopper: Volume One comics and watched the tv show adaptions. In terms of their novels, I still believe Radio Silence is Oseman's magnum opus, though Loveless is a very very close second. I didn't really like I was Born For This and it remains my least liked of their novels, though I haven't read the Heartstopper prequel and sequel novels, and not really interested in them.
I loved the friend group but I especially loved the friendship between Pip and Georgia, and Rooney and Georgia. It's everything you want in a female friendship and there is so much love and tenderness packed in. Loveless had me crying, laughing and deconstructing my own guilt and internalized homophobia, as well as my attitude towards my sexuality. I'm so so glad I have an amazing friend to bother during my emotional breakdowns at 3 am, and crying over my gay meltdowns. I don't know when or if I'll ever find true love, but I am immensely grateful for the beautiful female friendships I am lucky enough to have. Thank you Alice Oseman for forcing me to rethink a lot of my misconceptions about gender and sexuality.
Screaming, crying, throwing up, absolutely numb because I feel like I had an emotionThe horror genre at its finest!
"Together, one way or another."
Screaming, crying, throwing up, absolutely numb because I feel like I had an emotionally harrowing experience and I won't be the same again. There is Before Magnus Urwa and After Magnus Urwa. Both are equally depressed but at least After Magnus Urwa got to experience this beautiful wonderful story, and now feels at peace (not really).
Full disclosure, I started crying even before the final episode started. Just listening to Alex say goodbye and thank you to the show was enough trauma for me. With that said, Season 5 was an absolute masterpiece. I believe <->The Magnus Archives is Rusty Quill's Magnum Opus, and they redefined the horror genre, and the way we conceive and consume horror. It made me rethink many horror tropes, and the nature of humanity. How fear is such an integral part of our existence, and how fear shapes and reshapes the course of our world and our actions. The themes, the character arcs, every single stand-alone statement, and the overall plot of the show, it was all handled wonderfully and I am still in awe of how they were able to build up the strings of the mystery from Episode 1 and were able to conclude it in such a satisfying manner. The ending was perfect considering the characters' motivations and personalities, the nature of the story and the foreshadowing from the start. I have to admit I was in a state of numb acceptance by the end because I knew where the characters were heading emotionally so it wasn't as much of a shock. In terms of the plot, the climax was the perfect 40-60 ish blend of stuff I predicted and stuff that surprised me. The perfect formula for executing a horror mystery, where the reader/listener is given enough red string to be able to predict most of the big stuff, but there are still tiny surprises that make you go "oh my god what!".
Honestly, it took me about a month to finish Season 5 while I often listened to the previous seasons for around a week. The main reason was how emotionally heavy this season was. After the events of the season 4 finale, all bets were off, but apart from the uncertainty of where the plot was heading the horror was a more front stage. I've said it before, seasons 2-4 pale in comparison to the creep factor in Season 1. Season 5 might be the only season able to match Season 1, and sometimes exceed that. Season 5 is very very dark. It might just be due to the events of 2020 affecting Jonny's writing, because it got a lot more political, and there was a lot of real-world trauma infused into the statements. The mental hospital statements, the war statements, and the dark and lonely statements were genuinely hard to listen to. I had to take frequent breaks between Acts because at times the horror started to get too real. I also don't think I can do the "top episodes of the season" this time because all of them were genuinely so good?? I don't know how Jonny managed to keep the show so fresh after 200 episodes of horror, but still, every statement hit hard. Season 1, Season 3, and Season 5 are my favourite seasons, but if I had to choose a single one I still think it would be season 5.
Spoilers! (view spoiler)[I fucking knew the Web would turn out to be the biggest player in the story. Way more than the Eye. I've had that theory since season 3, and it was sooo satisfying to see how everyone, and I mean everyone (I'm looking at you Elias) was played by the Web. I didn't predict that the tapes would be an agent of the Web, but it was such a cool twist, and I loved that spider web built of all the archive tapes. Such haunting imagery (might need to dust off my shitty digital art skills for some swag fanart). I did expect there to be more Jonah/Elias this season, and I was a bit bummed that we only got to have the final showdown that lasted like 2 mins. Though that statement about stoner!Elias was absolutely chilling (So tell me Elias, what are you afraid of?).
In terms of character arcs, I had made my peace with Daisy's death at the end of Season 3, and as I never really liked her, post-coffin-Daisy held a special place in my heart, and that scene where Basira had to put down wolf wife was so painful to listen to. I loved Helen this season, the episode where Jon smites her made me so sad, I really liked her a lot even if she was the embodiment of lies. Gertrude and Helen remain my favourite characters on the show, with no competition. The Tim/Sasha tapes at the start of the season were so difficult, I was crying so much, we really needed more of real!Sasha :(
Martin's arc in seasons 4 and 5 has been amazing to see. I liked Martin, the way you like a soft bunny, but I agreed with Alex, he needed to grow up in order to develop as something more than the Archivist's foil. The Lonely episodes were hella emo, and I felt oddly and disturbingly seen by them, but it was nice to see him have some agency in the story. Jon's arc has been a lot. Of course, I felt bad for him, the guilt and trauma he had to shoulder were awful. But I couldn't help but be impressed by how wonderfully Jonny plotted his development from season 1 to the final scene of season 5.
And now the ending. yes, it was painful, yes it made me scream, and yes I am an emotional wreck. But I don't see how else it could have ended. The Romeo and Juliet esque ending to JonMartin's story was fitting. This was and always has been a tragedy, and any hopes I had about them being fine at the end were just my denial. That said, I do believe that they were whisked away to our world, and live here happily ever after. I do think the FearApocalypse is a rather macabre chain mail, but I also believe yeeting it to other universes resets the Fears, because how else would the Web take the W? And since Basira found a running tape in the epilogue, and people are hunting Avatars in MagnusVerse, the fears are still a pretty big part since they form the basis of humanity. (hide spoiler)]
IDK what I'm going to do with my life now, I guess relisten to all 5 seasons before Magnus Protocol comes out ...more
2.5 stars Another case of brilliant ideas but shitty execution. The Mimicking of Known Successes, a mouthful title, sounded like everything I would lik2.5 stars Another case of brilliant ideas but shitty execution. The Mimicking of Known Successes, a mouthful title, sounded like everything I would like. It's supposed to be a "cosy, Holmsian murder mystery with two ex-lovers working together". I mean why wouldn't you pick that up? Plus it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have settled on platforms built in the atmosphere of Jupiter after they destroyed Earth.
I wanted to learn more about how the whole human settlement thing worked on such an inhospitable planet as Jupiter. Populating one of its moons seems like the more logical choice, so I was curious about why Jupiter itself was chosen as a setting. But all we get are descriptions of orange fog, and storms and very less about the world itself.
Apart from the flimsy worldbuilding, the characters were also extremely boring and I didn't care at all about them. They spoke in convoluted obtuse sentences that had me blanking out in the midst of reading. I didn't much care for the mystery because it was so deeply entwined with the mechanics of the world, but because the reader is told so little about that, most of the mystery just went above my head.
I did enjoy the soft pining from the mc, I feel like that was the only thing i did like about the book. Pleiti's yearning for her ex-lover, who is distant and cold didn't make much sense but was written in a relatable way so there's that.
2 stars Someone needs to slap me every time I add another contempt romance novel, because how many times do I need to be taught the same lesson?! It's 2 stars Someone needs to slap me every time I add another contempt romance novel, because how many times do I need to be taught the same lesson?! It's almost like I want to torture myself and write scathing reviews because I rarely end up like this genre. My main issue is concerning how formulaic they all are. The meet-cute/ insta love, then the lusting after someone you met 2 days ago, then the third act breakup, and then the happily ever after. I do not think I have ever read a contemporary romance novel where I have been surprised or gasped out loud at some reveal. It's all so damn predictable!
I mainly picked this one up because of the cover, and the hype surrounding this book (also need to stop going for hyped books, but my FOMO can't help it!). My biggest complaint for The Fiancee Farce was the insta-love. I kid you not, the main characters meet for the first time at a wedding, and 5 mins later are already lusting and pawing each other. I don't think they even knew each other's full names at that point! After that the whole "falling in love montage" goes way too fast. They immediately start dreaming and thinking of each other, and it was simply too unbelievable. It felt cringe and stupid, and I didn't care for any of them. One thing this book did do right was canceling the miscommunication trope. It was nice to see the characters actually sit down and talk about other feelings in a mature way, and that is the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1. The miscommunication trope has been over used so much in the genre (I'm looking at you Emily Henry ...more
Like Miri, I was not prepared to let this book go, but all things end and the ending just about broke my heart. Beautifully written, melancholic, and Like Miri, I was not prepared to let this book go, but all things end and the ending just about broke my heart. Beautifully written, melancholic, and packed to the brim with emotion. A wonderful book to end my Challenge on. I love tragedies and this is a tragedy done in the best way possible. You have an overwhelming feeling of doom and grief throughout the book. The feeling that you have lost something even when you've barely started the book. It's writing at its best and I will definitely be reading whatever Julia Armfield writes next. A beautiful book on love and loving and learning to let go even though you don't want to. Had me crying throughout the last few chapters. The horror aspect is also very interesting. It does horror in a very different way. It borders on fantasy/scifi but never really gives the reader many answers so keeping the mystery which in turn makes the horror more plausible due to the fear of the unknown.
One of the best books I read in 2023. Everytime I think back on it it fills me with an overwhelming sense of melancholic catharsis, a sign of a great book always....more
I laughed I cried I gasped, but most of all I felt at peace in the end. It has been a Journey and I am so gla4.5 stars
Go ahead. Revile me.
I laughed I cried I gasped, but most of all I felt at peace in the end. It has been a Journey and I am so glad I decided to take it. For a book about the drowning and subsuming nature of grief and anger, it delighted me that the main feeling I took away from it at the end was of love and acceptance. THIS is how you land an ending that is both fulfilling and satisfying after so much buildup. Endings and characters truly make and break a story, Shelley Parker-Chan managed to nail both in a two-part voyage of fate, destiny and autonomy.
He Who Drowned the World is immediately a lot darker, angrier and more gruesome than its predecessor. Given the way the last book ended, that's not a big surprise. The sequel focuses more on the themes of grief, identity, gender and desire. While in the first book, there are ways where you can excuse the characters' actions or understand why they are going to such extreme lengths, in HWBTS the characters' begin on a path of no return. They are willing to do anything and everything to get what they want no matter who or what the cost. That makes for a rather grimdark book, with some gruesome scenes. Though most scenes aren't as graphic in nature there is a sexual assault scene at the end of Chapter 8 that I would warn readers about, since it was a bit more graphic for me.
I have a hard time marshalling my thoughts about HWDTW since I don't think all those emotions I felt reading it can be bottled up and labelled nicely. There were moments where I was absolutely horrified at the cruelty and disregard for human life, there were scenes where I couldn't help but feel a dark well of anger over a world that reviles anyone who deviates from the norm. The grief of losing someone who you love but who never saw you as an equal or deigned to tolerate your presence was gut-wrenching. Parker-Chan can write. I don't think there is any doubt about that. They proved that with Zhu's journey in the first book but in HWDTW Parker-Chan delves even deeper into Zhu's relationship with her body and gender. It's absolutely wonderful to see her journey to accepting her body for who she is, and her determination to make the world accept her.
Zhu's character foils beautifully with the other dramatis personae. Madam Zhang and how she never thinks to strive for anything more than what a woman can strive for in a patriarchal world. Her utter lack of imagination that she can only be worth something in relation to a man, is sadly a very real cause of internal misogyny. Ouyang, and his self-hate and refusal to accept himself as who he is instead of destroying himself to take revenge thinking that will be his only path to peace. Wang Baoxiang (my favourite in this book easily. I need to write essays on this disaster of a man) and how he accepts himself as a social deviant but is bent on making the world hate him for it because he feels he is incapable of love.
The way the author mirrors and contrasts these characters, their journeys and their motivations is so so good. Anyone who follows me on Goodreads knows how much I love a doubling narrative trope, and the doomed by the narrative trope. Except, Parker-Chan paints the doomed by the narrative trope in different shades depending on all 4 of the main characters. It is utterly brilliant and writing and characterisation at its best. This is an English teacher's and a book critic's dream of a novel. There are so many motifs and themes to dissect, I would love to reread this duology with a friend someday and discuss all the tiny bits of hints and foreshadowing scattered about. I can see this becoming a polarizing book however, I feel like there are bits that people will be "controversial" about and try to ban in libraries and schools. Sadly that is the world we live in, but thank you Shelley Parker Chan for giving us a series so inherently and unapologetically queer. This duology will go up in my hall of fame of queer books. I look forward to whatever they write next.
HWDTW is also a lot more plot-rich than SWBTS. There is almost no slow part, so much happens and continues to happen so readers will not be bored at all reading this. It also has a lot more court politics and drama which I absolutely loved. I enjoyed that a lot more than the battle scenes which was surprising. The court intrigue is very reminiscent of seaguk KDramas, the exaggerated acting of the courtesans etc. would be so very historical KDrama-ish that I would be giggling and gasping over the reveals and backstabbings. Truly a joy to read. If I had to make a complaint about this, it would be the lack of Ma Xiuying in this sequel. I wanted more of her and more of her influence on Zhu but she was only really in it at the end and while I loved her contribution to the plot and how it all led to a series of events, I still missed her dearly.
A tour-de-force, He Who Drowned the World has the characters look back on their actions in book 1 and say "I can do worse". Full of queer injustice and anger, HWDTW is about the queer and marginalised people who learn to make their place in a world that tries its hardest to erase and crush their identities. But at the same time, it's about making a place for others like you by accepting and loving them regardless of their identities.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Before Reading #OuyangDeservesBetter
Manifesting a blue-green cover to go along with the rest of the trifecta sequels ...more
I have a rule of thumb, that if a book does not draw me in in the first quarter, I am no longer wasting my time on it. The First Bright ThingDNF @ 21%
I have a rule of thumb, that if a book does not draw me in in the first quarter, I am no longer wasting my time on it. The First Bright Thing had all the buzzwords that usually appeal to me, but for some reason, the writing was so stilted and slow I could not get into it. It's told in a dual timeline, and the writing style for the 1917 chapters is soo much better than the 1926 chapters. It almost feels like a separate writer. The third-person distant style of narration does not seem to work for the 1926 chapters, meanwhile, the third-person personal style is something I enjoy reading in the 1917 chapters. Long story short: I wasn't much intrigued by the characters, but it was mainly the quagmire-esque writing that made me drop this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
before reading: time travelling sapphic circus acrobats?? today was a good day on netgalley <3...more
I really tried with this book. The premise was very unique. A tattooed, chain smoking, queer ex-punk rock nun solves a mystery at her CatholicDNF@ 54%
I really tried with this book. The premise was very unique. A tattooed, chain smoking, queer ex-punk rock nun solves a mystery at her Catholic school. Her dark past is shown in flashbacks and she's clearly not your typical definition of a nun. Sister Holiday's character was something I wanted to read more about and we are told about her tragic backstory in bits and pieces, and what ultimately led her to become a nun teaching music at a school in New Orleans. Sadly, the writing made me lose interest in the weak plot and nonsensical police investigation. The arson investigator Rivaeux who was clearly meant to be Holiday's romantic interest also came across as bland. The plot and writing are very stilted and janky, the sentence structure is simplistic and events move in the A to B way which doesn't really make you invested in the story.
Apparently, this is the start of a sleuthing series, so hopefully, the sequels are better written than this one. Though I do seem to be in the minority in my opinion.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own....more
Buckle up everyone, because this is going to be a loong review. This book fueled my feminist rage and I was in a constantly ranty mode while re4 stars
Buckle up everyone, because this is going to be a loong review. This book fueled my feminist rage and I was in a constantly ranty mode while reading this. A phenomenal debut; I cannot wait to read the sequel after that cliffhanger of an ending!
The Daughters of Izdihar was everything I wanted by a novel marketed as "two women's quest to fight for women's rights in an Egypt-inspired world with elemental magic". I have read a couple of fantasy books that tackle sexism on a large scale, centring on a group of women fighting for their basic human rights, and while I usually enjoy most of them, The Daughters of Izdihar hits home more than those other books. Part of the reason might be because the world feels so real and close to me. I grew up in a conservative South Asian Muslim country where religious dogma and extremism meant that women were treated as sub-human creatures. A lot of the struggles depicted in Elsbai's book are still rampant/normalized in countries such as my own. Not to mention the feminist revolution taking place in Iran is eerily similar to how the Daughters are treated in this book. Elsbai shows us the ugly truth of the patriarchal society we live in, a place where women are denied the right to vote, go out on their own, sign legal documents, and not be allowed to pursue education. This is the reality faced by women and young girls in Afghanistan and Saudia Arabia. Women who dare to speak out are jailed and beaten and abused.
Both of Elsbai's leading characters are unique perspectives on how sexism affects women differently depending on their social class. Nehal, a wealthy sheltered woman, who doesn't really care about the consequences of her actions because she has her wealth and privilege to fall back on is a study of how most rich women might not care about misogyny in society because they are so sheltered. Meanwhile, Giorgina coming from a poor household, and having no security in life has a more muted or hesitant perspective in fighting for her rights. Not to mention the numerous other members of the Daughters who each have their own circumstances and choose to fight their battles accordingly. I feel like depictions like this, show that there is no such thing as a bad feminist.
I loved the character development of both characters, how Nehal eventually opens her eyes to injustice, and how Giorgina finally gains the courage to live her own life, by stepping out of the shadow cast by her controlling father. Another thing I found interesting was how Nico, Giorgina's love interest was shown to be a very passive person when it came to matters that did not affect him that deeply. It showed the lack of initiative by many men who claim to be "allies".
This book is also unapologetically queer which given the community it's set in, hits painfully home for me. The writing is nothing extraordinary but for a debut book, I would say it's still pretty good given other recent debuts. The worldbuilding is lush and you can see the author's love for her culture in the way she describes the foods and architecture. The magic system is very Avatar-style elemental magic, and I'm excited to learn more about Nehal and Giorgina's growing powers in book two.
The Daughters of Izdihar takes the patriarchy and rips it to shreds. We desperately need more WOC writing books about feminism because they shed light on how underprivileged women in underdeveloped countries are still suffering. Unfortunately, the racist bias in the publishing industry is obvious, given the lack of marketing this book had. Seems like people only care about domestic violence when Collen Hoover rights about it...
Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own ...more
5 bloody stars "It's a hellish world." Tamsyn Muir's niche genre is writing fucked up zombie lesbians and she excels at it. This was very dark and had a5 bloody stars "It's a hellish world." Tamsyn Muir's niche genre is writing fucked up zombie lesbians and she excels at it. This was very dark and had a lot of gore and bloodshed (can it be a Tamsyn Muir book without bones and gore?), and makes the other stories in this collection feel pretty tame. I found The Six Deaths of the Saint pretty dark, but Undercover is multiple leagues ahead.
I love how Muir's books are always a huge puzzle waiting to be solved. This one has its fair share of twists but being a veteran reader of her Locked Tomb books I was able to figure it out pretty early on. despite that, it was fun to spot the clues and gaslight myself ...more
Mona Awad can write. Her books seem to often feature an unreliable narrator and lots of Weird stuff going on, but despite 4.75 stars
Kill your Darlings
Mona Awad can write. Her books seem to often feature an unreliable narrator and lots of Weird stuff going on, but despite the fogginess of the narrative her characters all have distinct voices. The second thing she does really really well is write raw relationships. The human-ness of ordinary relationships seen through a horror lens is something I never knew I needed but Awad provides with great delight. The way she writes about female friendships, the obsessiveness and the utter brutality with which we love/hate others is just amazing. I think I might have to put Awad on my top fav writers because holy shit the writing is witty, disturbing, tragic and feels so so raw.
Bunny might have made me feel like I was living through a fever dream, but the way the sentences flow off the pages! Despite being very dark, there are some elements of humour sprinkled in that really hit the spot when the story goes its absurdist paths. I am not a big fan of gore, but I seem to love Awad's style of gore, where the gore is more there for texture and less for pure shock value.
The themes of sexuality and friendship and where they blur, the way Awad depicts the artistic process, and her commentaries on classism and racism in prestigious art colleges. The way the book is half satire half horror half plain naked truth is absolutely wonderful. This was the modern Heathers I so desperately needed (Awad even cheekily hints at the movie by mentioning Christian Slater and his bomb in a trenchcoat).
This was the second book I read by Mona Awad; the first being Rouge which was also really good but the pure joy and horror of Bunny remains unmatched. Give me more of Awad's writing, please....more
2 stars DNF @ 70% They let me, a clout-less fool, read the sapphic space pirates book!! And it turned out to be basic af. I'd heard a lot about this on 2 stars DNF @ 70% They let me, a clout-less fool, read the sapphic space pirates book!! And it turned out to be basic af. I'd heard a lot about this on twitter, so I was very excited when Netgalley approved my request for an ARC. My main issue with this book is that it lacks substance. The characters and the plot is flimsy and plain, there wasn't a single character that I liked, they all seemed tropey and flat. I was interested in the world building but there was barely any information provided, the villains were just cartoonishly evil. There was no subtle foreshadowing, everything was rather obvious in terms of how the plot would go. The one reason why I wanted to read this book was because of the sapphic pirates, and I was immediately let down by how insta-love the romance was. I'm sorry but I can never connect with the characters or the romance when they want to bang each other from the moment they meet. Might just be me, but it feels rather superficial. Thank you to Gollancz and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own....more
Everyone knows how hard second books in trilogies can be. To impress, to live up to the original, and e3.75 stars
HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO THE FAITHLESS!
Everyone knows how hard second books in trilogies can be. To impress, to live up to the original, and especially to top the original. The Faithless is one of those second books that I actually liked more than the first. The pacing isn't much faster than in The Unbroken, it seems like this is simply the style Clark prefers in her books. This is fine, as what made this book better was that Touraine wasn't as much of a naive dumbass as she was in book 1, and Luca was so much more likeable. I couldn't stand Luca in the first book. I felt like throwing something every time her chapters came around, but Clark's characters definitely grew from the first book and that is always nice to see. I absolutely despise static characters, even more so when it comes to series. Another thing I liked was that all three of the leading characters have a very distinct voice for a book with multiple POVs in 3rd person. Oftentimes, my complaint with multi-POV books is that the character voices blend together, that isn't the case in The Faithless and is another reason why it is a strong contender after The Unbroken.
Plot-wise, there is a lot happening, but at the same time, nothing happens. This was definitely more of a character-based book, and for once I didn't mind it because I found the characters so lacking in book 1, and it was good to actually understand them, and sympathise with them somewhat. The romance was also a lot better, and it just goes to show that slow-burn romances are the way to go. I might not have shipped Luca and Touraine in book 1 (mainly because of my distaste for Luca), but I admit to getting butterflies during the more intimate scenes here.
Similar to my complaint with the deus ex machina ending for The Unbroken, I am not a fan of how there is always so much conflict going on, but ends up being solved abruptly and so easily once the 80% mark comes around. It doesn't feel as satisfying and makes the aforementioned high stakes seem not so high because we know they will be somehow solved by the end of the book. Clark does not shy away from killing off her characters though, which was demonstrated in how she killed off 3-4 major supporting characters in one chapter.
I will read the finale of the trilogy because I am pretty invested in this series by now. I hope it's better in terms of plot progression, conflict resolution and pacing as compared to the first two books. Clark's improvement in writing is pretty noticeable in The Faithless, so I trust we are in good hands for the ending. So far the sapphic trifecta has not disappointed me, and I am excited for the resolution for all three of the book later this year or hopefully next year.
Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group UK, and Orbit UK for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The Faithless comes out March 7th 2023.
Before Reading THE BIG DYKE ENERGY THIS COVER HAS!! (I'm sorry for hating on you Luca, you can have all the sapphics at your knees queen)
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