This is a book I kind of hated and kind of loved, and when I first started writing this rev
You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go.
This is a book I kind of hated and kind of loved, and when I first started writing this review, I did not know how to evaluate it. So I went through the reviews, and I realized what I wanted to say: it honestly amazes me that anyone is able to read this as a romance.
It's quite clear that this is not meant to be a romance. even ignoring that it's quite literally about a twelve year old and a thirty-seven year old, it is made SO clear that he knows he's taking advantage of her situation and simply doesn't care?
And it is for this reason I enjoyed Lolita. I think the reason I enjoyed - or maybe appreciated - this so much was I never thought the narrative was romanticizing what was going on; it was more like an acknowledgement, a book of horror meant to draw its eye.
It’s a masterful use of unreliable narrator, and here - unlike in a lot of other books that recieve praise for unreliable narrator - Nabokov makes his use of this device textual. Lola’s behavior is, at its peak, the behavior of a rebellious twelve-year-old, not the behavior of the seductive, uncaring Lolita Humbert wants us to believe her to be.
He has this strange pride in himself and this strange analysis of his idea, and of his pathologic ability to justify his illness; he’s replaying this episode of his childhood, in which he had consexual sex with a girl his age, as if it justifies his later preying upon Lola. He claims that she seduced him when she has not, when her behavior, though inappropriate, is essentially the behavior of an unaware twelve-year-old wanting someone in the world. And in places, his deeper mind peaks through: in the quote at the top of this page, elsewhere, when he criticizes Caroline for her hatred for her daughter, her jealousy of her daughter, her resentment. When he acknowledges Lola is only going along with his actions, to prove how grown-up she is, to prove that she wasn't lying about her sexual experience.
Perhaps the only thing I sort of didn't was the ending, which I found kind of... ridiculous. I would love to read a retelling of this in which in the end, Lola kills Humbert.
“When a decision is made by the government it emboldens those who are already prejudiced to speak their deepest thoughts of hate. They assume
“When a decision is made by the government it emboldens those who are already prejudiced to speak their deepest thoughts of hate. They assume they are simply brave enough to say what everyone really thinks.”
This book did not come to play. (Also I'm boosting this back up to a five because I don't give a shit)
➽E M M A A N D J U L I A N
I will actually admit that, sadly, I did not like Emma and Julian’s dynamic… quite as much in this book. I think the tension between them read,, just a little dragged out in the wrong ways? I think this tension actually would have felt more interesting had Emma come close to confessing her feelings in book one, but not actually done so. Here, I just felt like the arc of their dynamic from book one was simply being repeated.
I’m really into three-act structure, so here’s my recommendation: some kind of release of tension for them at the end of the first act (in the actual book, this would be when they’re in faerie); they actually get together for the first time at the end of the second act (this does occur in the actual book, but their motivations up until then feel, idk, muddied?) And the entire decision Julian and Emma make about the Clave just seems… I don’t know. (view spoiler)[SPOILER: I don’t think the authorial decision for them to actually confess particularly works. (hide spoiler)]
But ah well. I mean, it's fine. I like them both too much as characters to have any reaction but ://////// sadness :///////
➽K I E R A N, M A R K, C H R I S T I N A
This is still my favorite dynamic of this series and I’m actually incredibly happy it got so much pagetime and uhhhhh buildup we'll go with that. I cried again because I'm me and this makes me so so fucking sad. The Reveals And The Explanations As To A Certain Character's Motivations Had Such Energy And Power I Am Shook. The only (well) love triangle I’ve ever supported or stanned and I would really really like my wishes & hopes & dreams to be validated when they all get together in book three !!!!!!!!
➽A L L T H E O T H E R C H A R A C T E R S
FUCK DUDE I LOVE KIT AND TY TOO MUCH they're so pure and good and honestly the only thing in this book that didn't make me sad. We love two disasters!!!!!!!!!
OH 💝FUCK 💗 💓 💖💕💞 💞 OH 💘💖💝 FUCK💖 💕💖 💘 Sorry guys 💘💖 💕 💝 I’m dropping my love💗for Diana Wrayburn 💕💖 💝💗💞💘 💘💖 all over the 💘💞 💕💖 💕💞💖💘 💘place 💖 💘💗 💞💝 💝💕
uhhhhhhhhhhh yeah I think that's my point made i mean. i only full-on cried inconsolable tears once while reading this book and it was at a thing she said.
oh and I really just wanted to input my absolute favorite post because I think it's important now: [image] thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Kit is my favorite character and I would die for him
➽K E Y S M A S H I N G
**this is not spoiler free, you have now exited the spoiler free section, i swear to god you do not want to read this if you don't want spoilers
→can i just say, i am a full member of the Clave hate team? yes? thanks →Christina thinking that it’s Diego’s fault for cheating, not Zara’s fault for existing, like the true feminist icon she is →Zara Dearborn being the most accurate Trump allegory I’ve ever read →“cool” -Kit, with a combination of sarcasm and lack of giving a shit →Ty telling Kit he needs him specifically to start a detective agency in possibly the funniest & sweetest scene I’ve ever read →“I’m not going to be anyone’s Watson” -Kit, five minutes before becoming Ty’s Watson →“you want to pencil it into your day planner under never going to happen?” -Emma being way too iconic →the drawing-letters-on-back thing that Julian and Emma have is too intimate I hate it →“we’ll forget-” “will we?” →“Kieran of your heart” →“if he could’ve saved Kieran he would have. but he would not risk his brother.” -Julian being too soft →GWYN HITTING ON DIANA WAS SO GOOD IM CRYING →Julian beefing with Zara was honestly so good every single time someone dragged her I had 40 years added to my life “like her opinions are facts” →“stupid hot people won’t let me go home and get my stuff” →“maybe you'll meet a hot fairy guy” “maybe i will” -Emma and Christina, approximately ten minutes before Christina develops a crush on her other crush’s ex. foreshadowing at its finest →“they don’t seem to understand what autism is” -Kit spilling the TRUE TEA of this series →“please i need” →“so is this a chest bump situation or an oh my god what are we going to do situation” →“you could not have chosen a better face to wear” -Kieran, thinking that he’s about to die, and Mark is a literal angel taking him away,,, →all of Kieran’s dialogue in this book was too sad i absolutely hate everything →“i killed my own father. you think i won’t kill your son?” -Julian being an absolutely terrifying morally grey asshole who I would probably hide from →“why did the universe hate him?” -Julian when his crush looks pretty. the duality of man →“no stealing covers” “i would never” →“most of them had been scribbled in by some idiot named Will H” →the fact that Zara pulled out the phrase “silent majority” because she’s a bitch like that →“i’m sure many people find you hilarious” “they DO” →“binding is not love. he should love me freely.” →that thing Emma said where she was like “I thought I’d be okay… because you’d be okay, and if I was sad forever it’d be all right” I have never been more sad in my life →Magnus walking in on everyone: the motif is my favorite in-joke of this series and I would like it never to die →okay gonna be real with you guys I did not cry during this book much. but there was a scene in here that got me SO BAD and you know what it was? THAT SCENE WHERE DIANA WAS TALKING ABOUT CHOOSING HER OWN NAME I WAS... CRYING MY FUCKING ASS OFF. I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW YALL READ THAT AND DIDN’T CRY →“I never realized how much you can take from someone by not allowing them the words they need to describe themselves. How can you know that there are other people like you when you’ve never had a name to call yourself?” →on that note, no more discourse allowed, Gwyn and Diana are the true unproblematic pairing of this series, and I would give my actual life for them →“I knew that you were the bravest woman to set foot on this earth. I regret only that such a fearless soul as you was ever hurt by the ignorance and fear of others.” →can I just reiterate, Clave hate team →“she is easy to love” -Kieran. please stop. please stop being like this. why are you all like this →“even in his choice of lovers my son gravitates to the enemies of his people. what does that say about him?” “that he knows better than you who his people are?” -i know this verbal wrecking thing is cliche but i don’t give one single shit about it this was. iconic →that moment where Kieran remembers everything is,,,,,,,,, THE worst I want to die I want to die I want to die. the second time I teared up in this book →and…… I would miss you -Kit, yet another chaotic bisexual Herondale trying his hardest →you would? -Ty, a young gay also trying his hardest →why is he blushing? -Kit’s internal monologue. help him →“he really did have a thing for dark hair” -Mark. Mark seriously. shut up. why are you all like this part two →“hot fairy threesome” -a thing Emma actually says, and a thing Christina does a really terrible job shooting down. why are you all like this, part three →……….HE THOUGHT HE WAS SAVING HIS LIFE HAJSJKSKSKSKJSHDJDJSKSKKEKDKDJDJJEUH AGAIN, WHY’D THIS BOOK HAVE TO DO ME LIKE THIS →“I thought you had come to save me because you love me” “I do love you. but it is a complicated love.” -we LOVE calling out durress and odd dynamics in relationships →That Bit Where Julian Finally Finds Out His Siblings Appreciate And Adore Him And Just Didn’t Think He Ever Doubted How Much He Was Loved. Wow Do I Enjoy Crying →i know i’ve said this Julian is such a terrifying morally grey manipulative little shit I love him →Julian understanding Anabelle through art made me emotional →WHEN HELEN AND ALINE SHOW UP WITH DIANA….. the THIRD time i teared up also the three of them walking in together? invented queer girl solidarity. you can’t change my mind because I’m right →on a side note I actually did get unnaturally happy every time the terminology “her wife” was used within this book. my sapphic ass was blessed →and then there’s this next chapter, which i basically just had me like this for twenty minutes straight [image]
→“you’ve got talent, real talent” “you think so?” “god no. go sit with Zara” →that awful awful awful thing Zara said to Alec and Alec’s response being so fantastically fucking terrifying I WAS →“this is what i want and what i have chosen. how dare you tell me it’s a tragedy. magnus never pretended. he never tried to fool me into thinking it would be easy. choosing magnus is one of the easiest things i’ve ever done. i expect you meant to be rude and cruel, but i doubt you wanted to sound stupid as well.” “what makes you so sure?” “because he’s 300 times the human being you’ll ever be.” →*turn down for what playing in the background* →and then i thought it was over and then THIS SHIT →“you have to force it on the rest of us.” “really? you all have to sleep with Magnus Bane? how exciting for you” -this was literally the FUNNIEST LINE i went back and played it like eight times i was laughing so hard →…………...I got spoiled for the ending but also i REALLY don’t want to talk about it
humanities: book 2 This is a piece of satire that was entertaining enough, but by the end, I was really skimming and I don’t think I actually got mhumanities: book 2 This is a piece of satire that was entertaining enough, but by the end, I was really skimming and I don’t think I actually got much out of this.
So Candide was written in an era where philosophical thought was that the world was full of meaning. Voltaire disagreed. And so he wrote an entire book making fun of it, as you do.
And that is…. all this book is. All of the characters are horribly dislikable, the plot is completely ridiculous, etc etc etc - this is just satire and that is fine.
I guess I honestly just didn’t find this very funny. There were isolated lines I found hysterical, but…. I was kind of eh on the whole? This is probably just not the type of comedy I enjoy.
So yeah, this was definitely an interesting view into the world of philosophical disputes occurring in the European Enlightenment. Unfortunately, it was definitely not anything I enjoy reading. The proof is in me having literally nothing to say about it.
I did not dislike this book because I did not understand this book. I disliked this book because I have fundamental ideological disagreements with thiI did not dislike this book because I did not understand this book. I disliked this book because I have fundamental ideological disagreements with this book.
I'm sure we all know this quote:
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying, organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.
...I think this is just a really dumb way of looking at the world. The complaints about consumerism are one thing, even though they all sound like this SNL skit. But here’s the thing: this book is woefully and irredeemably nihilistic and I am emphatically not a nihilist.
I’m aware this sounds like an obvious statement, but the narrator of this book needs to get a fucking hobby. No, really. Fight Club is that one weird nihilistic asshole who thinks the apocalypse is coming because consumerism, or political correctness, or something, he’s not quite sure what, and also he makes fun of everyone for having joy in their life.
Here's why this bothers me: I’m sure you’re all aware that’s a terrible way of looking at life, but I think we do, genuinely, as a society, romanticize an idea of giving up and no longer caring. I don’t hold with that. Yes, we all have dumb corporate jobs and no meaning in our lives. If you don’t have meaning in your life, go out and fucking find some. Love, or family, or a damn puppy, as the narrator so sarcastically intones:
My tiny life. My little shit job. My Swedish furniture. I never, no, never told anyone this, but before I met Tyler, I was planning to buy a dog and name it “Entourage.” This is how bad your life can get.
Like… he’s getting a dog and naming it a dumb name, like you do with a dog because it’s a goddamn dog and it makes you happy. Why is that so stupid?
I think the reason this bothers me is I know why buying a dog to be happy is stupid, and I choose to ignore it. Looking at the world through a nihilistic eye will never make the world better.
There’s another dynamic at play here - the new commonality of this language. nihilist language is the only rhetoric we hear about millenials right now? I mean, I’m sure this was a revolutionary idea twenty years ago, that none of us are special and consumerism is killing America so therefore, posessions are bad, and our current generation is awful for blah blah blah reasons. That is currently the belief of about 80% of older Americans about our generation. This book made widespread the use of term “special snowflakes” as a derogatory term (look it up - it’s true.) The idea that it is weak to care about things, weak to care about other people, or even weak to love your dog - it’s widespread. It’s not a weird deviation from social norms. Constant nihilism is a social norm; this book is thus not particularly transgressive.
The 1990s finds us again at a crossroads where literature is concerned, with the rise of Oprah's book club and the whole genre of "chick lit" on the one hand (in many cases just "silly novels by lady novelists" revivified), and a sort of phallic-anxiety heavy-on-the-masculine literature on the other. This second group, I like to call "guy crap."
The thesis being “life is meaningless” does not make this any deeper or any less cliche and done-before.
(Oh, and since I’ve brought up the whole snowflake thing - weirdly enough, this book has absolutely nothing to do with political correctness, but it does talk about how the generation before my own was raised to believe they’d be everything. It’s so funny to me that this led to the entire criticism of “millenial snowflake” culture. People who were adults in ‘96? Isn’t that ten years off?)
And listen, to the inevitable person who is going to say I just didn't get it: I really love unreliable and biased narrators. I am also not convinced this narrator, though certainly unreliable, is meant to be disagreed with. I mean, seriously, after all of that people-are-trash, our-generation-is-terrible bs for 200 pages, this is the payoff we get:
“We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens.”
...this is still nihilistic? Actually, on that topic, here is a compilation of fake-deep, not-that-funny, ideologically-shitty quotes from this book:
“Our culture has made us all the same. No one is truly white or black or rich, anymore. We all want the same. Individually, we are nothing.” “Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.”
Yeah, whatever.
I mean, I think the best things I got out of this book was a greater appreciation for the possibility of movie superiority over books and for how fucking annoying 2000s nihilism was. And from the movie, I got 1) new pop culture references that I actually understand now, 2) an interesting critique of toxic masculinity, rather than whatever this was, and 3) good acting performances. I'll just end with this quote:
I have been told that I do not "get" you. That I do not understand the basics of a male love story, a male writer who understands the male psyche and who can convey what it really feels like to be, a male. Perhaps this is the core of my issue, being a hapless female who fails at trends. Either way, I have friends that adore you and for that reason only I will not completely denounce you on the internets. Keep appealing to your trendy fan base and keep raking in the dough. Maybe someday I will swallow my pride and appeal to the masses just like you. And James Patterson.-Source
I was in close quarters with some representative specimens of the most dangerous creature in the history of the world, the white man in a suit
I was in close quarters with some representative specimens of the most dangerous creature in the history of the world, the white man in a suit.
Sympathizer is one of the many books I’ve read for class this year and it’s taken me months to review it because it's just. so. good.
This book’s unnamed narrator is a spy for North Vietnam in the South who ends up going to America on the last plane out. So yes, Sympathizer is a spy story, but not anywhere close to a tone you’ve read before: this is a slow-paced story of black humor mixed with deep-running generational sadness, all wrapping into a story about identity. Trauma of memory, collective memory, erasure of memory, appropriation of memory, and a strange undercurrent of dark humor, featuring an anonymous and possibly-unreliable narrator who is just so compelling.
This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year and I am honestly so happy I got to read it. Here we go.
In his time in California, he is viewed as a half-breed of the “Oriental and Occidental”; in his time in the-newly communist Vietnam, parts of his confession are edited out with a blue pencil, not good enough for his new commandant. Parts of any story, be it Vietnamese or American, are edited out. He must remove the human parts, the flaws, stick to a narrative that appeals to one group — the happy but quiet immigrant or the repenter for all his American ways. So how can he find an identity that does not push him out?
He is a man caught between two identities and two competing ideologies that both seem increasingly flawed: everyone wants to find a side to blame for this war. The identity of war is what dictates its representation. Vietnam, the bad war, is a tragedy for America, but only for America; in Vietnam, the Term ‘American War’ invites Vietnamese to think of themselves “as victims of foreign aggression,” rather than an oftentime perpetrator and invador of Cambodia and Laos. As a reaction, Nguyen wishes to work towards a more inclusive memory of war; this is a part of the struggle for a collective memory, where our competing views can be brought towards the ‘reassuring style of American pluralism.’ He wishes to remember the forgotten of war, the marginalized, the minor, the women, the environment. And just as essential to this is art: art endures, and art requests that we remember.
“After the official memos and speeches are forgotten, the history books ignored, and the powerful are dust, art remains.” -Just Memory
We create resignation to the horrors of the world via our art, resignation to the fact that our side is, indeed, right. Instead of a thing we come to terms with via art, memory becomes an industry “ready to capitalize on history by selling memory to consumers hooked on nostalgia.” Just memory and just representation is only possible when the demonized and marginalized can “seize industries of memory.”
Without that representation of our identities, without a just memory of a war, how can we find our identities?
Nguyen sums it up perfectly: “our ambivalence about war’s identity simply expresses ambivalence about our own identities.” The ethics of memory are such that without just memory, without a just view on war and a just representation of war, our own identities — especially the identities of the marginalized — will be forfeit. And it is this dynamic of identity that Nguyen criticizes throughout The Sympathizer. And this is the ultimate power of his work — to put a cynical lens onto a land of war, an industry of memories meant for no one but white men, and come out with some grain of hope, that in the face of nothing, we can find something.
So overall, The Sympathizer is a question about representation. When dominant cultures so often corrupt representation to fit their preferred narrative, when the Sympathizer finds himself viewed through lenses rather than for himself, how can he find an identity of his own?
My SECOND pick for fivestarathon was a resounding success, simultaneously keeping me away from homework in my postcolonial lit class for another three weeks and forcing me to build a mental shrine to Viet Thanh Nguyen. I loved it: sorry for writing such a long review, because I wrote a ten-page paper on this. I’d really recommend this.
55 pages later and I’m still convinced that Robert Louis Stevenson named his characters this way exclusively so he could fit in the line “if he shall 55 pages later and I’m still convinced that Robert Louis Stevenson named his characters this way exclusively so he could fit in the line “if he shall be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek!” and honestly? that’s iconic.
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
There’s a reason this novella has stood the test of time - it is creepy and interesting as hell. I think there’s something very terrifying to me about the idea of losing humanity and sanity, at first due to your own choices but later because of forces you cannot control. Robert Louis Stevenson allegedly wrote this while on drugs, and you can definitely feel that experience in the book.
This is such a short book and I don’t know quite what else to say, but guys... I love Victorian horror. it's so fucking weird and wild and all about Transgressing Social Norms and Being Subversive and this is the kind of shit I am HERE for!! sometime I’ll write my term paper about how Victorian horror was a way for queer people, women, and mentally ill people to express their frustrations at Victorian society in a way that appealed to mass audiences, because I find that dynamic fascinating.
I find Victorian horror so interesting as a microcosm of reaction to social norms of the time, to the buttoned-down and repressed social climate of thI find Victorian horror so interesting as a microcosm of reaction to social norms of the time, to the buttoned-down and repressed social climate of the time, to the “new moral standards” of the church and the new questions brought up and hidden away by scientific thought. But under the fabric of late Victorian society lay wide ranges of change; the increased marriage rate and idea of the domestic sphere for women giving way to the New Woman, the upper class vs. lower class divide giving way to a new middle class. With the growth of the economy came new ideas of English excellence; with the growth of scientific thought, scientific racism.
Literature, as is usual, struggles to react. With a growing counterculture in literature came the reaction to such; at the trial of author Oscar Wilde, passages from his only novel were read to prove that he liked men. Soon after, Bram Stoker, formerly his acquaintance, began writing Dracula.
The result is a book drenched in fear of the unknown: In xenophobia of the time, in homophobia, and in the anxieties that come when that who embodies both appears. That is what sticks with me, to this day, about Dracula.
how in god’s name do you rate a book you read for a class in two days when you haven’t read a whole book in two weeks
I think what I found interesting how in god’s name do you rate a book you read for a class in two days when you haven’t read a whole book in two weeks
I think what I found interesting about this is the parallelism between today and later; ideals and mistakes and the desire for perfection. Through his set of Renaissance-era conversations in Book of the Courtier, Castiglione suggests an ideal - the one way to be a man, the one way to be a woman, imitation of man after man after man. It is perhaps important to view Courtier as a work of its time; while Castiglione may likely share ideals with the participants, this is not only about the qualities of a perfect court, but about the priorities of men & women in the world they live within.
One of the Courtiers sums up the level of expectation for an ideal perfectly with this list:
“Therefore, let the man we are seeking be exceedingly fierce, harsh, and always among the first, wherever the enemy is; and in every other place, humane, modest, reserved, avoiding ostentation above all things…” (25)
A perfect Duke must exhibit perfect duality of strength and humanity, and demonstrate it perfectly in both situations, in other words, the balance of sprezzatura. This expresses the Renaissance ideal of perfect duality: it is not good to be talented at one thing, and rather, we must all be talented in many areas.
This stands as a contrast to Western culture today. While some level, we in Western culture are expected to exhibit perfection in many areas at once - for example, people are generally expected to be fairly beautiful and charismatic to be well-liked - many among our culture recieve popularity and success via only one talent. In the Renaissance, it was considered important to be all things, and flaws were not forgiven; in the US, we regularly elect politicians who are widely known to be somewhat rude.
Another, perhaps more relevant, aspect of the Courtier’s discussion on Renaissance values is demonstrated here:
“And just as among women the name of purity, once stained, is never restored, so the reputation of a gentleman whose profession is arms, if ever in the least way he sullies himself through cowardice or other disgrace, always remains defiled before the world and covered with ignominy.” (22)
In this world, mistakes are not an accepted part of life; they are life-destroyers, leaving your name defiled forever. This, in contrast to the first point, does parallel Western culture.
Recent political discourse in our culture especially has often focused on the growth of “callout culture;” the idea of calling out “problematic” - racist, sexist, homophobic, or just plain awful - things that celebrities do. This culture definitely has good results: when used correctly, it can take away from the normalization of homophobic and racist comments in our culture. But it can lead to a culture, especially on social media, of publicly shaming people for minor actions; expressing political viewpoints that may be liberal, but are not liberal enough. This can lead to people, especially minors, being afraid of behaving “badly” not because they care about the feelings of other people, but because they are afraid of public shaming - definite parallel.
Another similarity comes in the idea that women may be stained more easily than men; the idea of calling out celebrities often seems to apply to women far more than it does to men, and callouts often follow them for longer. But that's another topic.
So while Renaissance society is not always the same as ours, it is often similar. And while I found this book itself rather boring, I find it interesting that the past is so like the present.
I’ve always been in love with Luke. For as far back as I can remember.
3 1/2 stars. This is a very sad book in verse about a girl dragged i
I’ve always been in love with Luke. For as far back as I can remember.
3 1/2 stars. This is a very sad book in verse about a girl dragged into a relationship with a much, much older man.
Main strength: I found myself unable to look away. Lily’s story is so horrifying and feels strangely real, starting as if it could be an innocent unrequited crush by a 14-year-old and becoming more and more serious as Logan makes his interest clear. It perfectly mirrors the quick progression of events, and though Lily is very naive, her character consistency makes the entire book so much more horrifying.
Main con: I felt the ending was a little unsatisfying. We don’t see much of her journey to deciding to tell; I think that sometimes realizations and impulsess can come quickly, so this could have been totally fine, but the book ends… immediately upon Lily’s decision.
I don't know if this was the best thing I've ever read, but it was certainly an incredibly tense experience and an enrapturing way to spend my night. I think this will be marketed towards a younger audience - an audience just discovering the dangers in the world - and I'm down for it.
TW: pedophilia, rape via coercion, dissociation, forced alcohol consumption.
It doesn’t feel like I could ever be that off the rails again, even though I’m sure that’s how I felt before everything started going to shit
It doesn’t feel like I could ever be that off the rails again, even though I’m sure that’s how I felt before everything started going to shit the first time around.
Some of you might know that I am really, really into books about 1) depression, and 2) toxic parental relationships, and 3) toxic romantic relationships. This… hit me hard in all three categories. I have not emotionally connected to a book this much in… so long, and I kind of can't decide if I hate this and love this.
So before I get into why I loved this so much, I’ll just mention objective quality and all that? Imagine Us Happy is told out of chronological level, a choice that worked quite well for the story being told; we know from the beginning that this will not end well, but we see the good parts along with the bad. It also works fantastically for conveying Stella as a character; she is so difficult not to connect with and relate to.
I will readily admit that a good portion of my enjoyment of this book was that I connected to Stella, as a character, a lot. Stella is dealing with depression and a lack of support system via her parents, which has led her to seek valiation in someone who is dealing with issues but in a very, very unhealthy way. She, meanwhile, is not in a place where she realizes what is going on with her or her partner.
Okay, bear with me, as this is really rather personal and something I haven’t talked about, but I don’t know how to review this book without talking about this.
I was recently in a relationship with someone whom I absolutely believe cared about me, and who had very, very good intentions in pursuing a relationship. The relationship was also, though I didn’t realize it at the time, not good for either of us. And I did not realize it at all because I had not come to terms with my own fear of rejection or perhaps more accurately, as I’ve recently realized, my deep-set fear that I would become a manipulative or needy partner.
So the relationship stopped being a good place for me to be, and I said nothing about it because I was desperately afraid of hurting them. I became increasingly convinced that any problems with the relationship were not compatibility issues, or their ongoing mental health issues, or anything that impacts a relationship, but my fault. There were times where they contributed to this, but I doubt it would have impacted me at all if not for my own deep-held feeling that I was destined to be a selfish and manipulative person and partner. I tried to push down my own feelings. I isolated myself from both my therapist and my friends because I was unwilling to “talk behind their back,” which began to mean no one in my life - and I do mean no one - knew what was happening in any way. My friends would have told you I seemed perfectly happy, and I got very good at pretending I was, but inside I was not at all.
So I think reading this book, in which someone goes through the same thing and they're not villainized for it, meant a lot to me. I really liked that Stella eventually got through the period of the relationship via her best friends, as the support of one of my friends, and later several more, was essentially what got me through that, too.
Oh, and I loved her friends - Katie of the dead frog kink and Lin the John Steinbeck fangirl were so fun. Really though, I love that these two characters feel so un-stereotyped; Katie especially immediately read as the hot partier friend, and I completely assumed I knew how she would be characterized. I did not. Katie does not abandon her friends for greener pastures, not even when Stella pushes her away completely. And Lin, despite being the more academic-oriented of the two, does not read like the nerd archetype — she reads as more of the offbeat-english-major type, which does not show up a lot, and she’s not the unpopular member of their friend group. I liked this a lot - especially as she’s Asian, this is a great way of defying that particular stereotype.
Yeah, it reeks of weed, and the song “Don’t Stop Believin” has been played four times by 10:30 p.m., but chilling in her kitchen getting buzzed off beer while talking with Lin is not actually that far from my ideal Saturday night.
In general, I felt that this book got high school on a level that not a lot of books do? The details of Katie and Lin’s characterization certainly add to this, but it’s the little things, too. Like, there’s a line mentioning the party transitioning to “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls, and I laughed so hard because wow, been there.
Also, this quote so easily could have been cringey, but I laughed my ass off because t r u e:
“I think it would be great if everyone understood feminism. But let’s be realistic for a minute here. How many dudes were in your class?” “Four,” I say. “Out of?” “Twenty-five,” I admit. “And how many of them were gay?” he asks. I pause. “I plead the fifth.”
It’s funny - I sat on this review for so long, and now I think I should probably mention that while writing this part of my review - which took me a month of sitting on, by the way - I was thinking about how much better I am feeling, three months later, and how much that relationship taught me about my own insecurities and my flaws. And I also thought about the other person in that relationship and why we broke up, and I think... we’re both doing better now.
And I don’t know if I really wish that for the love interest in this book, but I do wish that for them. And I think I felt better now, about myself, writing this review, than I have in seventeen years.
It’s a work in progress. But a good one. And this book understood it on a level I don’t think I’ve ever seen.
✨Arc received from the publisher via my local bookstore for an honest review. [releases: October 2018.]
Even before I recognized him, I smiled politely. Well trained, I would have smiled so at my executioner.
[image] These books are so so so
Even before I recognized him, I smiled politely. Well trained, I would have smiled so at my executioner.
[image] These books are so so so much fun. [Source ]
I always struggle to review books that I knew I would love and then did love, but I think I liked this even more than I expected. In a lot of ways, Thick as Thieves is far more of a typical journey novel; it’s simply a successful one because of the characters.
➽Costis – disaster attempting to carry off a mission with a really annoying guy he just kidnapped. also holy fuck I am crying about this post ➽Kamet – disaster trying to lowkey deceive a royal family to save his own life. selfish and he knows it. actually very compelling.
Really though, Kamet’ character development is amazing. As this is a journey novel, his arc takes up a good portion of the buildup in the novel — I loved seeing him realize that his treatment was fucked up, that his enslavement was not right, and also allow himself to have feelings. I love how realistically fucked up his worldview is - his expectation that Costis will be murdered is complete bullshit but fits his character - and I really loved seeing how conscious Megan Whalen Turner was of his flawed point of view.
Speaking of allowing himself to have feelings - the other main arc of this story is the relationship between Costis & Kamet, which is honestly the best. Kamet essentially stalls on escaping until he’s too attached to leave, and it is lovely, and their dynamic is so great. I will also state that it really does read in the same tenor as several romances in this series, and though it’s not exactly canonical, it’s… well, it’s very undisputed by canon. And so, along with the entire very large tumblr fandom for this series, I will acknowledge it as such. Costis and Kamet were in love. [Honestly, I think my bookstagram story said it all. Or maybe this far more articulate post.]
I’ve read fivebooksofthisnow, and I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I’ve loved this series’ progression so much. I’ve landed on this quote by Megan Whalen Turner:
I am such a softy. I write these incredibly violent books, and I just, I do not like to know that there’s a train wreck coming. I hate watching train wrecks. I much prefer that we just have our horrible thing, and the whole rest of the book is recovery. And although it starts in a very dark place, the whole rest of the book, things get better and better and better. That’s the kind of story arc I like. -Megan Whalen Turner
I really love the sense of hope in this series, the sense I have that Turner really wants recovery, rather than torture porn.
There was so much I adored about this book: the standalone-ish nature, the entire Immakuk and Ennikar thing, the constant allusions to book two, Eugenides showing up to be an asshole, the subtext getting lowkey confirmed, everything Attolia has ever done… everything, basically. This series really is so fun and I can’t wait for the next book.
I’ve read fivebooksofthisnow, so here’s a quick roundoff of my points: ✔Megan Whalen Turner is so good at planting and payoff it makes me want to cI’ve read fivebooksofthisnow, so here’s a quick roundoff of my points: ✔Megan Whalen Turner is so good at planting and payoff it makes me want to cry ✔I have never seen an author follow through in such interesting ways ✔anyway a romantic pairing that got set up in book ONE just got payed off ✔all the scenes work individually but ALSO as callbacks to earlier plot points ✔she keeps pulling the rug out from under us with some huge reveal that makes you want to scream ✔so many different players ✔so much character development ✔so much dimensionality ✔but usually in a very good way? I’m always delighted by her plot twists ✔upsetting things happen but then the books as a whole are Happy And Good
That's my full review. But also, here is a roundup of things that stood out in this book:
✔Everyone showed up. ✔No, really. Every single lead.
Yes, I’ve gotten through three and a half reviews without doing a character roundup, so I just had to mention the current leads of this job:
➽Sophos the literal epitome of haha I want to die. I actually loved his character arc so much but he’s so much of a disaster.
➽Eddis a queen and icon, but in such a dimensional way. she is not a ruthless power player like my favorite female character, but she still wields so much power in her own narrative.
➽Irene still my favorite character, but she’s not showing up as much. and it is absolutely tragic and I think she deserves to be the lead character of the final book.
➽Gen final side note: Gen and Irene: interact with Sophos for a second me: personally, I love Sophos’ parents Absolutely the most hilarious protagonist I have ever come across.
Basically, I love this complete disaster of a found family of ridiculous, extra characters, and this ridiculous series of political intrigue and plot twists. I cannot wait for book six to hurry up and release.
YA contemporary publisher, staring down his glasses at a sea of editors: so what’s big and new in this genre? what haven’t we done before?
YA contemporYA contemporary publisher, staring down his glasses at a sea of editors: so what’s big and new in this genre? what haven’t we done before?
YA contemporary editor, tentatively raising his hand: maybe a book about... a girl with a chronic illness that will make her die, but only under certain circumstances. her life is still really full, but there’s NO LOVE in it, and since love is more important than your actual life, she meets a really hot boy and then she dies because Love is the most important thing? we can make side conflicts out of her high school archnemesis, who someone calls a “whore” in literally the speech they make to her as she’s dying, and maybe her dad’s perfectly reasonable but ultimately paranoid worries for her safety!
YA contemporary publisher: Ricky you goddamn genius. here are my keys. go into my house and fuck my wife
[i mean it’s certainly easy to read but y’all... for real]...more
like, I'm glad I enjoyed this, but wow fuck you guys this broke my heart and the only thing I got out of it was my new favorite tumblr blog
So, uh, it like, I'm glad I enjoyed this, but wow fuck you guys this broke my heart and the only thing I got out of it was my new favorite tumblr blog
So, uh, it turns out I like Cassandra Clare books now, and I think she's just improved significantly at creating lovable characters and narratives I personally find compelling, and I am so glad I have learned to love this.
The villain of this book is hate and oppression. The amount of clave-dragging in here…… I’ve been waiting for literal years. And though I think this becomes much more clear in book two, it’s clear from the beginning that hate is about to be the villain.
“This is why fairies are despised, this senseless cruelty.” “Careful, boy,” said Gwynn. “You have your laws and we have ours. The difference is that we do not pretend ours are not cruel.”
Lady Midnight follows various characters and plotlines, most notably including our Forbidden Romantic Plotline, our The Cold Peace Is Terrible plotline, and our Julian Gets Repeatedly Fucked Over By The Clave plotline, but every plotline has a common villain: systematic prejudice.
Also, can I just say: I can’t believe the main villain of this series is a Donald Trump allegory.
➽E M M A A N D J U L I A N
✔Emma Carstairs - a literal ICON, invented big dick energy ✔Julian Blackthorn - definitely would kill a man for his own selfish motivations but listen… he's in love with Emma, that's too relatable and therefore i can't hate him
I literally love that the main couple of this is a reversed bad boy / good girl who’s maybe turning evil dynamic. It’s this strange dynamic because this author feeds into this trope, and seeing such a conscious subversion of that ideal in her work was incredible. There’s this one line where the female lead is like “oh this is his first kiss meanwhile I’ve slept with like 20 people but that’s okay it’s us” and I was SCREAMING I can’t believe this book killed slutshaming. Anyway, I love this so much I’m obsessed with it.
Also, their relationship is so tense. Like, the mutual pining is too good. Also, please let me just share this meme I’ve been laughing at for three years: [image]
I will actually admit that I did not like Emma and Julian’s dynamic… quite as much in the next book, which I talked about in my review? BUT OH WELL.
➽K I E R A N, M A R K, C H R I S T I N A
✔Christina Rosales - an ICON, a blessing to my life………. I love that she’s close platonic friends with Emma and they never feud, I love how much she asks for herself and how unapologetic she is about her life, I just relate to her a lot and I hope she’s happy forever ✔Mark Blackthorn - my boy, my man, the bi icon we deserved. I actually loved his entire reintegration arc so so so much and I adore that he’s trapped between two worlds but still doing his best to get back within his home. too good we did not deserve him ✔Kieran of the Hunt - did anyone try the chicken? I thought the chicken was lovely. book two Kieran is the superior Kieran and that’s my discourse for the day.
I’m sorry, but if we’re going to talk about Cassandra Clare redoing constructs from her own work in a different way: the three-sided love triangle of Kieran and Christina and Mark. I will not be elaborating on which dynamic this echoes at this time.
In other news, I cried twice during this book, and both times it was about - you guessed it - Mark and Kieran’s backstory!! They didn’t have to do me like this. (view spoiler)[Kieran didn’t have to do anyone like this. INCLUDING ME that line where he was like “I cannot bear it” Kieran can’t lie he’s not lying he literally means that. in other news I fucking hate this (hide spoiler)]
➽T H E B L A C K T H O R N S
✔Diana Wrayburn - genuinely one of my favorite characters from this series and i have NO IDEA why she’s so slept on. i mean, it’s not like anyone hates her, but i would like you all to be screaming about Diana for 40 hours per week as i do? this is a full-time Diana love zone. i love my canonically trans wife ✔Taavy Blackthorn - he’s ten and i’m pretty sure ten year olds don’t have personalities. pure. ✔Dru Blackthorn - I would fucking die for Dru she’s too legendary. also, she’s plus-sized and the narrative is so good about it. ✔Livvy Blackthorn - a small bean doing her best and it’s just not very good. ✔Ty Blackthorn - deliciousfinallysomegoodfuckingfood.gif it is really, really depressing how few books have canonically autistic characters who are not essentially used as jokes, but here we are. ✔Kit (view spoiler)[Herondale (hide spoiler)] - chaotic bisexual. i have a tumblr post to share about this involving the phrase “token straight family member” but unfortunately, spoilers. (view spoiler)[what is up with this whole plot twist about someone being a Herondale motif. (hide spoiler)]
In case you haven’t noticed, I love the Blackthorn family. The dynamic of the siblings with Julian is absolutely the best, and their mutual love and support for each other means so much to me.
“You pointed a knife at me.” “It wasn’t personal.”
Soooooo, Ty and Kit had two separate meet cutes in this and both of them were the best thing I’ve ever read. They definitely get more development in book two, but Kit’s joining-the-Blackthorns arc, even here, was absolutely the best. Basically, I really wish I could continue to be emotional about the Blackthorns forever.
➽O T H E R C H A R A C T E R S
✔Diego Rosales - not nearly as perfect as the marketing would indicate but I actually him? ✔Annabelle Blackthorn - a very very interesting character of book two. ✔Zara Dearborn - a very very awful character of book two. fuck off, Zara.
I think we all know Cassandra Clare is really into the overlaps between worlds, and I’m honestly… here for it. Jace and Clary’s cameo is the most I’ve liked them in the entire canon of the universe. Jem and Tessa showed up for three pages and it was my favorite thing I’ve ever read. There was some line about the Carstairs “owing the Herondales” and I feel like that’s the exact opposite of TID canon but okay?
also, I know I’m a bitch, but Tessa and Jem were not in book two, and I think that makes it a bad book, personally
➽S H U T U P, E L L E
ANYWAY, the point is, I really enjoyed this book, and so far I'm really enjoying this series. I hope I will continue to not die of sadness!!
“Why do you wear that if you don’t pray?” “So men don’t fuck with me.”
And I kind of knew I would love this from the moment Nadia said this
“Why do you wear that if you don’t pray?” “So men don’t fuck with me.”
And I kind of knew I would love this from the moment Nadia said this and then donned a motorcycle helmet and rode off like a bad bitch, but oh my god, this was a really good book.
So this book is a love story, but not the love story you expect. One of the narratives I’ve heard about this book is that its intermingling of the world and of the romance feels muddled, and I understand that; however, for me, this intertwining made the book feel more real. I liked the contrast between this really personal story and a broad story. Life takes many forms. Because Exit West is a love story between two people, but also a love story with the world. It’s a book filled with the idea of love taking many forms, and Nadia finding a girl as her happy ending, people finding people of different races and genders: it subverts our expectations for what’s coming.
I see this criticized a lot for its strange optimism through despair. I will grant that I tend to adore this kind of hopeful story, but I’m also going to say I think this optimism is the point. And through the strangely optimistic dystopia of Exit West, there’s something incredibly transgressive being said about the world:
“Part of the great political crisis we face in the world today is a failure to imagine plausible desirable futures. We are surrounded by nostalgic visions, violently nostalgic visions. Fiction can imagine differently.... We certainly need it now. Because if we can’t imagine desirable futures for ourselves that stand a chance of actually coming to pass, our collective depression could well condemn humanity to a period of terrible savagery.” -Mohsin Hamid, The New Yorker
It’s a very personal, down-to-earth story about a major, wide-world subject. In the first chapter, an adorable story of a student attempting to ask out a cute girl as the city falls apart. In the second chapter, a strongly humanized immigrant accidentally creeping into the home of a strongly humanized australian family, not to disturb, but to move on. He presents a global narrative, but doesn’t present the story as a political one. He uses magical realism to criticize the nationalistic, broad-strokes manner with which we see the world, to engage with topics that in a “real” world, we would not accept. It’s a book in which the beauty of nature is intermixed with the beauty of humanity, in Marin and the London Belt.
We don’t think of a love story as growing apart, but for Nadia and Saeed, this is not a love story with each other - this is a love story with the world, with our cosmopolitan earth. Cosmopolitanism, in this novel, is a mindset, something which Saeed must find in those of other faiths, which Nadia must find in a kitchen and a tall cook. And Saeed and Nadia, despite their moving on, do not hate each other. They take long walks on the beach and they think of each other fondly, because that is how the world works.
We see love in so many forms - in Saeed and Nadia’s relationships with each other and with other people, in the two elderly men who share art and find their humanity together, and in the love story with the world. We see migration in so many forms - yes, there’s the the migration story of Nadia and Saeed, but interludes such as the maid’s interlude, towards the end, presents an idea of the optionality of leaving.
I want to end this with a question to think about: 1) I hold with Hamid’s views on immigration, and 2) I think his method of demonstrating his views is such a fantastic example of what makes this book so powerful:
“I personally tend to believe that there is a right to migration in the same way that there's a right to love whom you like, to believe what you believe, and to say what you want to say.” -Mohsin Hamid, NPR Morning Edition
65 million refugees is such an easy number to trot out, to put in place of faces and names and humanity. But all 65 million of those people have a family. All 65 million have friends. All 65 million have a past, a home they came from, even a temporary home. All 65 million have hobbies and love and romance. And I think Hamid’s main point is to humanize that, to humanize every refugee and every journey.
in conclusion: Mohsin Hamid's version of the world, and of human beings, is so real and flawed and yet so hopeful, and the endings aren't perfect happy endings, far from it, but there is something beautiful and real in the imperfection. I adored this.
I feel like once you’ve reviewed one Agatha Christie novel, you’ve kind of reviewed them all. And I’ve reviewedtwo.
I feel like Agatha Christie is juI feel like once you’ve reviewed one Agatha Christie novel, you’ve kind of reviewed them all. And I’ve reviewedtwo.
I feel like Agatha Christie is just very consistently good, but that might also be that I’m exclusively reading her books that have been recommended to me? Christie is excellent at taking a similar structure - crime committed and investigation ensues - but making each case distinct and clever enough that the story is compelling. We know the beats of this story; we know that at the end, we’ll have a nice detective reveal, and it’s always fun to see more.
I will say that this kind of made me want to punch Poirot in the face sometimes and I feel bad because I liked him so much in Murder on the Orient Express. But whatever. I liked him again by the end.
This has been marketed to me a lot over having a really clever reveal, and I absolutely agree. What I think is clever about this reveal is that once you figure it out, it’s a nice moment of going back over the book and realizing… wait. All the pieces were there. I love Christie’s penchant for solutions that are somehow incredibly surprising, but also have been set up for an entire book.
here’s a song called I’m ready to die *strums guitar*
In my reviews of Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince, I talked a lot about of the things I lovedhere’s a song called I’m ready to die *strums guitar*
In my reviews of Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince, I talked a lot about of the things I loved so much within this series. But you know what? I cannot wait to do it all again. This series took an annoyingly large emotional tole on me and my fragile emotions, and it was kind of trashy, but also it made me cry, like, a lot, and I qualify that as a quality piece of media.
I’m registering my honest opinion that fun trash is fantastic if you can just get me invested in the characters and feeling the aesthetic. I am really, really, really invested in the ridiculously-compelling-even-when-they’re-annoying characters. I am really feeling the creepy aesthetic and I am really enjoying the creep factor.
“I have come to understand something about novels. They’re not true.”
Oh my god, I’m so sorry if this is like… an unpopular opinion or something, but I love Tessa so much. She’s such a quintessential female character that got ignored because Hot Guys and she deserves better, and if I see any Tessa Gray hate on my timeline I will throw several hands. I fucking love Tessa and she has never done a single thing wrong in her life. She is simultaneously a gentle soul and one of the most savage people in the world and I absolutely adore her.
I still love and would die for Jem; he’s a very pure and good soul. He made a lot of really dumb decisions in this book, and I am mostly not annoyed by them because they’re in character for his stubborn personality.
Also, Will is an annoying person, but he’s my annoying person. Actually, guys, I really love Will, which “me after book one” would not have classed as something in my future. His development in this book especially is so good, and I trust him, and I love him.
LET’S TALK SIDE CHARACTERS. ✔Honestly, don’t kill me for this, but Cecily is… I have mixed feelings? ✔Like, she’s cool, just vaguely thrown in the fucking final book of a series, and reads kind of like the girl version of Will, but we’ve still only known her for one book, and I love that finding-my-place conflict but she’s just taken over by a romance plot that is cute but also out of nowhere, and I don’t find her compelling enough to want 20% of the book to be her chapters. I... still like her and it’s fine ✔I… actually really like Gabriel. I love that am-I-my-family conflict, I’d die for it, so jot that down. although I’ll admit me liking him was hashtag shocking ✔I really like Gideon too. less shocking ✔I’m going to start a Sophie stan club and none of you can stop me, I love my wife who can’t figure out her worth but is really really trying!! ✔I’m actually still kind of sad Jessamine didn’t get More ✔Who else would willingly die for Charlotte Branwell, the mom friend who is a total disaster at it because she’s like, ten years older than all of the people she’s caring for ✔Henry is a good man and a disaster and I love him but how is he still alive ✔everyone got fucking paired off in this book and I want to be mad about it but god damn all of it was cute, all these straight people are so cute tf ✔although I do wish to register my honest opinion that this series has a deeply bi vibe and as such, no character within is truly straight So, all joking aside, here’s my general thought: all of the side characters in this series are really endearing and intriguing and I find them all so shockingly likable, which never happens.
Sooooooooo let’s finally talk about the subtextual polyamory. Aka I had to use that line somewhere, aka the reason I like this series so damn much, aka the ot3 of my damn dreams. But I really think all of the characters just… complement each other really well. Jem is more of a sunshine being, and he pulls that out in Tessa, and Will is more forty pounds of sarcasm in a trenchcoat, and Tessa is so much more savage around him, and I find that so endearing and adorable, and god I just want them all to be together.
I am not joking when I say I don’t ship any of the three arms of this triangle individually like, nearly enough to love this series all on its own. [I actually like both of the Jem ships more than Will & Tessa, which is ironic because that’s the ship that’s being pushed?] Nope. They’re just… all in love, and it’s beautiful.
Also, Jem leans against chairs when Will is sitting in them and it’s so adorable and also, Will threw his hands into the fire for like, one thing for Jem, and wow but people keep burning their hands for people they love.
and now for some SPOILERY THOUGHTS: um, so everyone has been telling me I was going to cry reading this, and, uh, I did. Here are the moments I cried at! (view spoiler)[✔Where Will feels Jem die, because I have more emotions about Jem and Will than anything else in this fucking book. Also, ✔where Will & Jem talked again during the battle? I was such a wreck. ✔Jem & Will’s final conversation. I finally started balancing my crying a little bit more with several tears shed over ✔Jem & Tessa’s final conversation. And then I sobbed my eyes out at ✔Will dying while Jem played a fucking violin, Cassandra you little bitch I know what you did, and then I cried really hard at ✔Jem coming back at the end. (hide spoiler)] Also, I think I might have gotten myself into tears of laughter over several funny moments. I was howling.
“I believe that might be qualified as resistance,” Will said, “you know, eating one’s son in law.”
Oh, and just before we go, let me mention that this is… a strangely hilarious book considering how fucking sad it made me. That scene where Gideon and Gabriel write a letter about Charlotte in chapter six? That was literally the funniest thing I have ever read in my entire life. It was the source of all my non-awful tears in this godforsaken book.
Anyway. I yelled a lot in this review, but bottom line: yes, this was really good, yes, I loved it, yes, I cried, no, I'm not going to give you my answer on the team Jem vs. team Will thing. highly recommended. obviously.
Update as of February 2023: While I stand by my point that both TOG and TSS are a bit more plodding than book one, I must say that Nassun is kind of eUpdate as of February 2023: While I stand by my point that both TOG and TSS are a bit more plodding than book one, I must say that Nassun is kind of everything to me. And I’m not convinced I really understood this as well at 17 as I do now.
“I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”
You can always check out my reviews of The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, but I’ll give a brief summary of my thoughts: This series won three Hugo awards in a row for a reason. The characters make me feel everything I possibly can. The worldbuilding is incredibly complex but not so convoluted as to be boring. The first book, which is still the best one, is a twisty mess and I adored it. There are reveals everywhere, about the world and the characters and the plot and so much more. The buildup and payoff dynamics are excellent. The thematic core around oppression is fucking awesome and done with an all-black and majority-queer cast.
There are two things I will say about this book. First of all, (view spoiler)[the loss of Alabaster (hide spoiler)] is a loss; I missed him throughout the novel both in investment and in missing the dynamism he brought. Secondly, when I first read this series at seventeen, I read The Stone Sky entirely on audiobook and barely understand the backstory chapters. Though I absolutely adore Robin Miles and want you all to see what a fantastic job she does narrating these books, I don’t think this particular book is the best choice for an audiobook. You will be confused.
The Stone Sky once again receives POVs from three characters; Essun, Nassun, and a new narrator who has narrated all along - Hoa.
➽Essun is so mentally strong, so drily sarcastic, and so gorgeously developed. Even in her unlikability - which only amplifies in this book - it is impossible not to root for her.
➽Nassun continues to become more and more of an antihero over time, and this book emphasizes the aspect which has always existed in her - her desperate need to be loved. When She’s also still such a fucking… teenager, and I find it really endearing and deeply sympathetic. She means so much to me.
➽Hoa, meanwhile, allows us to reveal the past of the Stillness. Via the biggest angel of an immortal stone creature I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about.
This series has just been… a really good experience for me. In general. And I love these characters, so much, and I don’t think I could ever really hate a book containing them. So, we have a new narrator who we’ve all been desperately awaiting for a book now, and the characters - especially Nassun - have changed a lot since book two. Which is so awesome. You can really feel the development in them and the conflict within them.
But you know what really made this book for me? The conflict around motherhood.
I mean, since the beginning, this series has been adamant about how loving someone is not enough for them to know you love them, and drilled into our heads that Essun has not always been the best mother. But I wasn’t expecting… payoff. I was not expecting the degree to which a mother can mistreat her daughter, despite loving her, despite thinking she is doing the right thing, to become the focus.
I love that it has become the focus.
I can’t believe what a good job this story has done at balancing Nassun and Essun in this conflict, at seeing both their motivations and realizing that neither one is completely wrong or completely right, not really. It is not about which is right, but about whether or not they will be able to break a cycle of generational trauma created by the Earth itself.
Now they’ll all know. Every season is the Season for us. The apocalypse that never ends.
And then… the ending. It’s just stunning. I love the writing of it - we finally see a powerplay we’ve been building up to for three books. I love the character bit of it - it is utterly gutwrenching. And I love the hope in it, and the sense that even though the world is fucked up, there is always, always hope. If you look hard enough.
this was the most incredibly disappointing thing I have read in my life, I feel like I need to climb into a hole and cry and hide from my followers
Okathis was the most incredibly disappointing thing I have read in my life, I feel like I need to climb into a hole and cry and hide from my followers
Okay. You really want to hear it? Because I have thoughts.
First of all, I was not invested in the plot like, at all, and it is due to a fundamental structural flaw. In a series that is structured with each book playing into the next, as this one is, a good second book should be about the fallout of book one. But here, while the repurcussions of book one are part of the plot – Verity and August are both now a mess, how do we deal with that – a random new monster is the cause of 80% of the book’s plot points. It is not the result of any occurence in book one. In fact, it really isn’t a result of anything in particular. It just fucking shows up and somehow manages to cause Kate to go back to Verity [i.e. the setup for the whole book] and then, as if that weren’t enough, directly causes around 80% of the plot.
So basically, because none of the plot is a result of character action, all the plot points feel kind of… random. Like they’re happening to the characters rather than the characters happening to the plot.
This random plot point thing is actually a general problem - as this book begins, we’re thrown into a lot of really cool new plot points, including a larger world context, a hunting team for Kate, an attack team for August, a character shift for Ilsa, a major character shift for August, a character shift for Kate, a new reign in Verity, a new big bad Malchai, a brand new automatic supersonic hypnotic funky fresh new Sunai, and a brand new automatic supersonic hypnotic funky fresh monster. And we have gotten no context for any of these things from book one.
Most of these new details don’t even get an explanation here!! The outside-of-Verity stuff is actually badass, but it has no depth - the monsters aren’t well-explained, and Kate’s random squad of friends barely get introductions [besides Riley. I love Riley.] Kate’s entire outside-of-Verity life gets dropped in like, two pages, and Schwab tries to get us to care, and I only care a tiny tiny bit and at least 50% of it is because I'm pretty sure Kate left Verity and immediately fell in with a band of gays and it's excellent evidence for bi Kate theory. Perhaps more annoyingly, my favorite part of the worldbuilding in book one was the backstories for the monsters; the fact that Ilsa & Leo & August were all similar to the events that caused them was just fucking brilliant, my favorite thing ever, etc. What caused Soro? And perhaps more plot relevant, what caused the Chaos Eater? Because that’s a really big worldbuilding point that I don’t have an answer for. I’m waaaaaiting.
I also think in doing this fast change, Schwab really lost the thread on August. Seriously, what the fuck happened to August. August’s character here doesn’t make sense – not because he feels out of character, because he doesn’t, but because he goes through extreme regression off-page rather than on-page. When we see August in This Savage Song, he is an anxiety-ridden kid who wants to do his best, and through his arc he gains more confidence in himself and loses some of his self-hatred. When we see him here, he has totally and seemingly randomly lost his sense of humanity. And that’s a really interesting character arc, don’t get me wrong, but when it happens off page it feels so abrupt and random and just… lazy. He also… kind of barely feels like the same human being? August reads very clearly as mentally ill in book one, and that just goes missing here.
[Full disclosure, I think this trend where books start with “two months later” is bullshit and I want a refund.]
But even if August’s character shift had made sense or felt authentic, the fact remains that Kate and August, as characters, feel more like vehicles for the story than influences on the story. Victoria Schwab has never in her life been good at character motivation driving the plot, but come on, we don’t even get as much motivation as in book one. I don’t feel why August is doing what he’s doing or why Kate is doing what she’s doing. This book has no drive. It feels like a desperate attempt to finish things off. And it underutilizes its two leads.
All the characters in this book are underutilized, honestly. Soro is so underutilized. Ilsa is so, so, so underutilized. All three of the villains are kind of underutilized, because, ya know, there are three of them. So much underutilization.
Oh, and beyond that, I’m going to try and make this quick, because it’s a little bit spoilery, but I love these two characters so much, and I think these characters were way more compelling for me in book one. Kate’s arc here is all about fighting her demons, in literal form, which is an arc I happen to love. But the tension to her meetup with Alice isn’t really built well enough for this arc to feel meaningful. [She also does a significantly smaller amount of ass-kicking. I’m gay and I would read an entire book about her kicking ass.] Oh, and August’s new arc wraps up in about one singular page, which doesn’t quite feel finished, but the main problem is that I just wasn’t invested in him in this book. Which is actually really sad, because book one August is my son and the light of my life and I would die for him. I also kind of feel that the entire red / white soul blend thing is a really lazy way of getting Soro and August to admit that things aren’t black and white.
Oh, by the way, the whole kiss scene thing is very much exaggerated, and I just want to point to this Victoria Schwab tweet.
This has been a rant, but I think the general problem for me is this is just not the type of character-focused story I like. This Savage Song worked as a very personal and character-focused story within the context of a greater world. Our Dark Duet is trying to be this big, expansive story, and besides not expanding the world very well or focusing on anything at all, it loses the focus on what made it so great - the characters.
Oh, and spoilers ahead: I don’t like major character death ever but I think the fact that I knew it was going to happen really just made me go “okay” and close the book, mad and disappointed that the Kate & August platonic wedding will never happen.
petition for Schwab to stop writing conclusions she’s not as good at it as she is at anything else ever lmao. Please don’t unfollow me.
actual footage of me thinking about the fact that I Cried Reading This Stupid Book: [image]
I really could just leave my prereview here as a review, so actual footage of me thinking about the fact that I Cried Reading This Stupid Book: [image]
I really could just leave my prereview here as a review, so like, here's the review: *sips from an open bottle of vodka* any ending that doesn't involve all three of them dating is not valid. it's just not
Okay, just to get the honesty out of the way: these get moments of being Too Trashy. You can only fit in around 50 literary allusions before it starts being kind of annoying. [WE GET THE TALE OF TWO CITIES THING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD]. Also, it totally has that overdramatic fanfiction quality, but it kind of… works.
Yeah, I’m aware that I liked this book more than it might have deserved, and I’m aware that people make fun of this series for The Love TriangleTM. Cool. So I just came here to say: all of them are in love and it should end in all of them dating. I am not giving up this opinion. Jem and Will are both in love with Tessa, canonically, and Tessa is in love with both of them, canonically, and let’s just be really fucking honest with ourselves and say that Jem and Will are completely in love. It's 2018 and it's time to admit that, as a society. I am aware that this is not what occurs in this series and it is my firm belief that under different circumstances, they would all be dating, and I do not care who fights me on this.
I guess we stopped pretending this was a review, so here’s the part of the review where I scream about the characters [aka the reason why I would die for these occasionally trashy books]. It will still be spoiler-free.
“Yes, she doesn't really look like either of us, does she? Perhaps she's a girl who's fallen madly in love with me and persists in following me wherever I go.” “My talent is shape-shifting, Will, not acting,” said Tessa.
[she really said this, out loud, she really said this and I would kill for her] Okay, seriously, I love Tessa. Like, I’m actually pissed off by how much she gets slept on, because she’s such a good protagonist?? She’s a total Gentle Soul who loves her friends but also has the ability to drag everyone within an inch of their lives and uses it. Every time Tessa burns someone I have ten years added to my life, she's an icon and I love her
Oh, Jem?? I love Jem. Jem has never done a thing wrong in his entire life. The only man I trust. He projects being So Confident and So On Top Of It and he’s struggling so much. Help him.
Oh, and I guess we’re talking about Will now, too? Will and Tess are my least favorite couple within The Love TriangleTM, but I still… kind of love Will as a character? So, this book had one of the best backstory reveals in any book I’ve read recently, and I think this particular backstory is quite brilliant in how it explains his personality and some parts of his character in book one that kind of didn’t make sense. I think it probably should have been revealed at the end of book one [these books are drawn out] but it really is That Backstory Reveal that changed me as a person and gave me a whole new attitude towards Brooding Bad Boy Backstory RevealsTM.
Let’s talk about Jem and Will and Tessa as a dynamic. First of all, I love them. Second of all, I would die for them. Third of all, help them. The plot of these books is just “two of them worry about the third person” repeated over and over for six million pages and don’t get me wrong, I think that’s beautiful, but also, help them. And before you ask, yes, I actually genuinely mantain that the three of them should end this series dating, and I’m 85% sure that is exactly how I am supposed to feel. I am also around 72.4% sure that had this not been published in fucking 2011 [a hell time] that is actually how it might have ended.
Anyway.
This book had such a delightful cast of side characters. I love and would die for Henry and Charlotte. That one cute scene between them was... really fucking cute. Like, cliche, but also I was crying? Sophie is such a good character and always has been. I wanted a little bit more out of Jessamine, but I think she’s given a decent amount of nuance [and hey, she got me to sympathize with her and root for her redemption arc even though she’s kind of awful].
Oh, you know that thing I talked about in my review of book one where I was like “they’re finally going to address how the downworlders are treated?” I lied, they didn’t talk about it even though the lead character Literally Is A Downworlder, and no one is more emo about it than I am. talkaboutsocietalinequalityinmytrashliterature.jpg
“Ah,” said a voice from the doorway, “having your annual ‘everyone thinks Will is a lunatic’ meeting, are you? “It’s biannual,” said Jem. “And no, this is not that meeting.”
Oh, also, I thought this book was fucking hilarious. Every single line is the most iconic thing I’ve ever read and I love it.
s/o to this asshole and my ex girlfriend for screaming about this with me, y'all really ruined my life hope it was fun. and also, if one more of you tells me that I'm going to die when I read Clockwork Princess, I will genuinely threaten to never read it
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