THE ILLUSTRATIONS

THE COLOURS

I AM JUST AMAZED

THIS WAS SO BEAUTIFUL AND GARLIC IS SUCH A RELATABLE CHARACTER AND I LOVED HER RELATIONSHIP WITH CARROT (though honestly he should have volunteered to go with her) AND OMG THE VAMPIRE IS ADORABLE I COULD SQUISH HIM

The only thing I had an issue with was when Witch Agnes said that because Garlic and the others are no longer mute they can go and follow their dreams instead of gardening...

Other than that, this book was so fun and cute. Perfect for all ages. 

okay y'all

so this book was incredible. the banter was gold. the relationship between Ivan and Jasmine was perfection. i died laughing so many times. it was cringey at points, but it's fine cause this is romance and I have lower expectations. there was just so many good tropes. jasmine getting skip and ivan having to take care of her was skdfjdskfj and i loved seeing them slowly grow to trust each other more.

i think my favourite parts were seeing Jasmine's relationship with her family. i did notice some ableism and fat-shaming which were uncomfortable to read however. but otherwise, i did love seeing how supportive her family is and how much time they all spend with each other. the confrontation with her dad was incredible and everything i could have wanted in a scene like that. jasmine didn't back down and said what she needed to say and she was right saying it.

the only reason this is getting a 4 stars is because of the second last chapter and the word anaconda. that's all i will say. it was bad. i died. sidrah skipped this scene and missed out on some key things that i think would have made her reaction stories even better but it was also traumatizing for the both of us to have to read this for the first time lol. there was also one thing that was a bit yikes and i do not know if it was something that should have been included.

besides that, the only other complaint I have is that some of the dialogue gets a bit repetitive. it's a lot of back and forth but the same thing being said and it made the scenes longer and the book longer overall to the point where it got a little annoying. 

anyway, I recommend this for the relationship (minus the second last chapter).

Ahh this book was perfect. I haven’t had so much fun reading a book in forever. And it all goes back to the banter between Artemisia and the revenant. I love a good dynamic between friends, and I especially loved how hilarious and sarcastic the revenant is. (For the handful of people who’ve read The Rigel Black Chronicles, the revenant’s relationship with Artemisia gave me major Harry and Dom vibes and I was actually screaming at some points cause it was so good aksfkflfkd). I also totally enjoyed screenshotting the revenant’s iconic lines and sending them to my friend to attack her sleeping and eating and drinking habits lol

Anyway, besides that, I loved the aroace rep we got. It was done perfectly and the lack of romance was exactly what I needed from a good ya fantasy. It was nice to see Artemisia grow as a character and learn to trust others and develop friendships. I really liked Marguerite and Jean and Charles. And Omg Engeurrand gave me Raoul vibes but like not in height but personality. He’s just such a Dad figure you know. And the revenant is like the mom friend of the group. I’m not sure if Artemisia is also autistic, but I did note some things that kind of made me think she might be.

Overall, the plot was great and kept me on my toes. The banter kept things fun, but I actually really enjoyed the world too and wish we got to see even more of it and how things work. My one complaint is that the backstory about the Raven King and the wars was a little confusing. I think the way it was told just didn’t make it completely clear what happened when, and I wish we got a timeline of events or something.

The ending, while in some aspects was a little predictable, I didn’t mind too much just because I really fell in love with the characters. The ending was good and satisfying, and I was happy enough with it to not lower my rating

4/5 stars! Highly recommend!

hmm this is a hard book to review.

I was really excited about this one after seeing Sidrah live-blogging her reactions. However, I think I went in expecting something else than what I got.

I talked about this with Sidrah and how some of the elements in this book are more typical for adult fantasy, and how because of that it made it hard for me to get into the story.

The book started off very slow for me. I didn't feel invested in the characters or the story, and while the plot sounded interesting, it didn't completely capture my attention until almost half-way. 

It really takes a while to fall in love with the side characters, and while for most of the book I felt a little annoyed cause I didn't like anyone so much, I think it was worth the wait to see their relationships develop and grow. It made for certain scenes to be more emotional too.

This book is very dark, gory, and disturbing. But I think it shows the reality of what colonizers have done to Indigenous peoples in our world. One specific scene gave me major Hunger Games vibes which I absolutely loved. 

However, the romance that ends up developing closer to the end of the book just didn't work for me. I knew it was building up to it, but I thought it would be less "in your face" as it was in the last few chapters. The plot-twist I partly saw coming, and the rest was interesting.

I will be honest, I skim-read the last half of the book just out of impatience. Most of the book felt too slow, and then it would finally pick up for a few chapters, and then go back to slow. At one point in one of the later chapters, a whole week is quickly summarized into a couple pages, which felt odd considering the amount of detail we got about the training and physical tests. 

The ending was pretty epic though and definitely had me rooting for Sloane for a second. Despite that, I don't know if I enjoyed the overall book or writing style enough to read the next book. It's possible if I had read this at a different time, I might have enjoyed it more.

This book deserves all the stars 😭

It is the most heartwarming, beautiful, and atmospheric book I've read in a while. So many aspects just gave me Studio Ghibli vibes mixed with slice-of-life manga/anime.

I did almost cry at the end there. Came so close.

This story is heartbreaking as much as it is heartwarming. To see a relationship between a man and his cat grow and develop into something so strong 🥺 I loved seeing how in synch Nana and Satoru are. Every part of their journey together brought them closer, and I loved the way Satoru's friends are introduced and developed in each of their chapters. 

Nana's POV is probably my favourite POV to ever exist. If cats could talk, this is exactly what they would think and say and I love them for it. Nana is sarcastic, to-the-point, and just unfazed by humans. He is hilarious, and his relationship with other cats and dogs was so fun to see. I love how much he loves Satoru and how he still sees him even after his death. 

The ending was just ahhhhhhh...perfect in every way, yet also so sad.

This book will stay with me forever. And all I want now is to be as close to a cat as Satoru was to Nana.

This was a dark, twisted, but entertaining read. I think it would have been perfect for October. 

(ngl I was a bit freaked out at times cause ghouls, but I also scare easily)

Olivia is non-verbal, which isn't something I've seen in a book before. And as someone who is not non-verbal, I can't speak for the rep. But I am glad there was someone who could talk to Olivia through sign, though I'm curious to know how Edgar learned how to sign in the first place.

Matthew reminded me of Caelum from RBC, cause of his grumpiness lol 

The one thing that bothered me in this book was the ending. While I did enjoy Olivia's character for most of the book, the things that happen at the very end didn't make any sense considering how Olivia has literally zero experience wielding a knife against someone. It was a bit unrealistic.

lets not forget about the "parsnips seasoned with salt" ...

Olivia finally finding a home and a family was a nice though, especially considering how she was treated by Merilance before.

Overall, a good read, but not something that completely wowed me or a book I would pick up again.

Love the art style and the story. It’s especially relatable as an immigrant: never feeling like you belong in either country, not knowing the customs, forgetting the language, etc. Would love to see this as a movie.

DNF. I wanted to give this book a shot, even though a friend of mine read it recently and really didn't enjoy it. But unfortunately there are so many things I already don't like and I'm only a few chapters in. The way the story is told reminds me of more middle-grade fiction (which would be fine if this was MG). The writing I know is intended to be flowery and prose-y, but after a while, especially when the main character's inner narration is also this way, it started to get annoying and took away from what was actually going on.

I already do not like the MC. She's too self-righteous and her thoughts are annoying to read. She's constantly thinking about how her life was so easy and now it's so hard, but she shouldn't complain, yet she should also stand up for herself because she deserves dignity and respect...it just made me roll my eyes at how whiny she is. There are also time jumps, which I'm not a fan of because it just allows the author to tell us what has happened and how much our main character has "grown", but we don't actually see it/experience it ourselves. 

The last few years I've tried to dnf books I'm not enjoying instead of pushing through because I just don't have that much time to read or do things, so I would rather spend my time reading books I enjoy. This isn't one of them unfortunately.

First book of 2022 😅

I wish this hadn’t taken me so long to read. Usually I can blame school/placement, and while that’s true, I honestly didn’t feel as compelled to pick up this book as much as I should have. I really loved the characters and their dynamic, and while the plot was good enough, I don’t think it was as engaging to keep me interested.

The characters though were great. I loved the ace rep especially. But I wish we got to learn more about their pasts, especially Newt. The ending did surprise me cause I don’t usually expect

a main pov character to die

, but I think it was realistic and fit well with the story. I also really loved Alys’ character!

Overall, 3.25/5 stars