i am one to police others’ writings, but this book truly felt like a violation against mary shelley’s life. if it had not been a3-4 star rating (???)
i am one to police others’ writings, but this book truly felt like a violation against mary shelley’s life. if it had not been about her — if it had not claimed to be about her — this would fall far easier under a four star rating. but it does, unfortunately, try to be a reimagining of two moments in shelley’s life, and it made me deeply uncomfortable.
to imagine up a scenario where a 14/15 year old shelley is in love with a girl, where she imagines them having sex (even when i was 15 i did not want to read about 15 year olds having sex, and as an adult i am only more disgusted by it), where she imagines herself being vaguely sexually assaulted in a way that is unclear if it actually happened or not (a scene which is never again brought up despite her and her friend jerking off a very prominent character to the plot), all of it feels violating. im not a mary shelley expert, nor am i a historian, but whether or not anything that happened in this book is actually true (i sincerely believe the narrative following her as a 14 year old is pure fiction), i still find it incredibly off-putting to write about it. does that make sense? shelley is not a fictional character. she is a real woman whose childhood is being written about in an extremely odd way.
speaking of, shelley might as well have been a fictional character! this isn’t shelley at all! mary was, for a lack of better words, a freak. she was unapologetically fucking weird, and that’s fine! that’s a genuinely interesting personality type for a character! the mary in this book is sad and pensive and depressive and a copy paste of every single literary fiction female protagonist in the last 10 years. i am so fucking sick of reading books about sad women who hate their lives and who are surrounded by awful men. i do not want to read another novel where the author projects all of her fears and emotions onto a historical woman. shelley is a weird little freak who should be written about as a weird little freak. i am not at all interested in her being a sad tumblr girl.
anyway, i am very confused on this book. i genuinely enjoyed this despite the fact that i absolutely hate the sad girl trope it portrays. it was morbidly interesting and i couldn’t put it down at all. it’s a good book! it was also frustrating and uncomfortable and sometimes that’s just how it is. i don’t know how to rate this, which is why i’ve given it a vague 3 stars. ...more
Sciona Freynan is not a good person. She is motivated by power, by the thought that others might someday read her name inEDIT: 4.5 to 4 stars
4.5 stars
Sciona Freynan is not a good person. She is motivated by power, by the thought that others might someday read her name in the pages of their history books next to a list of her accomplishments. She claims that gaining this power will build a bridge for other women to do the same, but even she can't believe herself when she says that. She's just as arrogant as her peers, and perhaps even more self-persevering and aloof. She believes that her way of doing things is the superior way, yet she still clings onto the teachings that she has heard all of her life. She cries far too much. She lies to herself just as much as she lies to the reader. And she is, all things considered, a very well written protagonist.
MLW really knows how to write them. It's funny, because even though this reads like something she would write (there is something distinct about her voice, though I do not know what), it also doesn't feel like an author talking to a reader. She presents these characters and this world as they are from the perspectives of the leads. She doesn't bother too much with dramatizing certain aspects to make the reader feel a certain way. Sciona is all of the things I mentioned above, but she also isn't sometimes, or she doesn't have to be, or she doesn't want to be. All of these ideas coexist at once, and it is up to the reader to choose what to believe.
I hate to say too much. I find that books seem less appealing if I know the plot. I don't agree with the idea that this book can be summed up by the "dark academia" genre, or that it's just a fantasy story. There was nothing fantastical about the core of this book. It was, in fact, very real. This book is about the things we give and take from this world. It's about ignorance and the lies we tell ourselves to uphold our consciousnesses. It's about the abuse of authority, but it's just as much about how the average person contributes to that abuse. Pain and suffering is far less about one man's actions, but about the collective cooperation of an entire society. The Sword of Kaigen was my favorite book of the year when I read it, so it's nice to see the author write something...on par.
Thanks to M.L. Wang for an advanced copy of the book....more
- insane amount of characters that absolutely nobody is keeping track of. half of the time i have no idea who the fuck im reading about EDIT: 3 stars
- insane amount of characters that absolutely nobody is keeping track of. half of the time i have no idea who the fuck im reading about - and im being so serious like this book has THOUSANDS of named characters and all of them show up multiple times and i literally have no idea who is who - and he even gives them their own points of view like STOP - mat suffers from sassy boy syndrome - nyaneve and lan my problematic couple - i am a very complex human being who can acknowledge that 1. robert jordan does not know how to write women, so his portrayal of them can come off as quite whiny and annoying, but that’s because of his poor writing and not because of the women themselves, and 2. the women in this book are so annoying and i can’t stand them - elayne is actually my mortal nemesis - speaking of women - why is everyone in love with rand - this man has a sex scene with a different woman each book - whatever - rand emo boy - “THE LIGHT ILLUMINATE RAND AL’THOR, KING OF ILLIAN.” - “ALL HAIL RAND AL’THOR, THE KING OF THE WORLD.” - “THE STORM IS COMING.” - rand i have grown quite fond of you and have decided to support you through your rights and many wrongs - every other character needs to get their bread up...more
This was really cute. A lot of the fantasy I read tends to be adult and more on the serious side, so this was a little out of my comfort ***3.5 stars
This was really cute. A lot of the fantasy I read tends to be adult and more on the serious side, so this was a little out of my comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, there were some serious issues covered here, but the overall tone was much more playful and lighthearted. I’m not a young adult reader, which is what brings this book down a bit. I’m wavering on rounding the 3.5 stars up or down just cause I know it’s not my genre. The ending certainly felt rushed and confused me a bit, but I think that it’s entertaining enough for most of the page count that if you like cozy fantasy it’ll be for you.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced reader’s copy....more
Wavering 4 stars. It was alright? It was alright! If you loved the first book, you’ll love the second book. If you liked the first book, you’ll like tWavering 4 stars. It was alright? It was alright! If you loved the first book, you’ll love the second book. If you liked the first book, you’ll like the second book. It’s consistent. I never particularly cared about the characters in SWBTS, so this was okay for me.
Honest opinion in exchange for an advanced reader’s copy....more
(NO RATING / DNF) im so sorry KSV it’s my fault for dropping the book for a whole 3 months and then diving back in without bothering to re read anythin(NO RATING / DNF) im so sorry KSV it’s my fault for dropping the book for a whole 3 months and then diving back in without bothering to re read anything but oh my god i literally couldn’t remember a single thing and i forgot this was like HIGH high fantasy.
if you’re really into super fleshed out fantasy worlds with their own races, countries, languages, and deep lore then read these! me personally, i enjoy those books too but usually i don’t … really pay attention to most of the lore… but here i felt like i needed to in order to best understand the story and … i am dumb! so if you’re smart this is gonna be for you
again i am SORRY and im still gonna try to read the wolf of oren yao...more
I'm actually not sure about this rating at all? I tend to rate books on a scale of enjoyment. A book could be masterf3.5 stars rounded (?) *may change
I'm actually not sure about this rating at all? I tend to rate books on a scale of enjoyment. A book could be masterfully written with great prose and storytelling, but if I don't care then I don't care. I'll still rate it low. That being said, this book was so not enjoyable to read.
All of the characters are annoying to an unreadable degree, which, YES, I understand is the point, but it doesn't make them any less annoying. Just because the characters are meant to be unlikable doesn't suddenly give them a pass for frustrating the life out of me.
I think it's all of the morality in this book—or lack thereof, or confusion of morality?—that annoyed me so much. Some characters would have tight moral systems that interfered with the greater storyline (which was so damn annoying) but would otherwise do horrible things anyway? Or other characters would be cruel until suddenly developing sympathy out of nowhere. Like, okay, I'm not saying I want to read a book where characters are all horribly dark and vicious people, but if a character is going to be a bad person they should be a bad person. I can't stand when they suddenly get a change of heart from human emotions, especially since none of the protagonists are humans? Like, why is a shinigami or a reaper experiencing this much pity? Dude, you literally collect human souls.
Speaking of, I feel like my soul was shrinking into itself trying to get through the second third of this book. So annoying.
It's a bit of a fast-paced story, honestly, which I rather like if the characters weren't so irritating. All of the fight scenes were interesting enough and held some sort of stake.
The rating is absolutely up for change between a 3 and a 4. I just don't know. On one hand, yeah, the author exceeded at doing what they sought out to do with this book. On the other hand, no, reading about it was not fun. I guess this is a book for people who don't mind reading about unlikeable people so long as they're meant to be that way.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced reader's copy....more
the devil smiles at me as my body begins to decay and i feel myself getting closer and closer to the sweet release oEDIT: 4.25 4 stars ??? *may change
the devil smiles at me as my body begins to decay and i feel myself getting closer and closer to the sweet release of death that will free me from the torture of this book...more
EDIT 2023: 4 stars. maybe 3.5??? It’s been a few years since I read this, and I cannot say that I remember much of what happened. It wasn’t very memorEDIT 2023: 4 stars. maybe 3.5??? It’s been a few years since I read this, and I cannot say that I remember much of what happened. It wasn’t very memorable.
4.5 rounded up *may change Arc read. Oh, boy, it's been a while since I read this. I don't really have many organized thoughts on this book other than I need people to read this because I read it in one sitting and it's so good. Also, Wang Baoxiang is legitimately on my kin list now because he's just so... (hands waving) Y'know? This doesn't make any sense. Read the damn book....more
a million edits: every time i remember this book i see it in a bad light and comparing it to other books that incorporated feminism ideas in a sci fi a million edits: every time i remember this book i see it in a bad light and comparing it to other books that incorporated feminism ideas in a sci fi setting wayyyy better just makes this seem worse LOL sorry if you saw my praising review and read it for yourself ...more
need to read the second book to form a better opinion, i like two of the pov’s a lot but i thought one of them was quite slow in the midd***3.5 stars
need to read the second book to form a better opinion, i like two of the pov’s a lot but i thought one of them was quite slow in the middle of the book. very interesting ending. ...more
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