andat's Reviews (467)

Not gonna lie, I picked this one solely for the title and the cover art. There also seems to be a bit of a debate as to whether it’s YA or not. (My library did not but I can see the argument for it.) I almost gave up on this one. At about a third of the way in the story started to pick up and dig into the mystery of the missing child. Be prepared for a somewhat slow burn before it gets moving on the plot. 

It is set in a post-apocalyptic Scotland, but you only get hints at the big “catastrophe”. Huchu uses a lot of Scottish slang and a 14 year old protagonist that’s all fire and insolence. Ropa is crass but fiercely loyal to her family. As reluctant as she is to do favors for the dead for free, her sweet grandmother convinces her to do the right thing and search for little Ollie. 

I would classify this as a cozy paranormal mystery. The twists and reveals are par for the course in a cozy style narrative, as is the pacing. Overall, it’s a solid read, especially if you’re looking for something as a break between big/heavy topics (or reality). 

Taking place in South Carolina, the good old boy network is alive and kicking through four generations of fuckery, told through the downfall of Alex Murdaugh after killing his wife and son. It’s both fascinating and terrifying to see how much this man, his family, and his actions poisoned the community. Using his position as a lawyer, he was able to defraud millions of dollars from his clients who desperately needed the money paid to them for their injuries. He exploited his family’s ties to law enforcement to skirt consequences for himself and his sons, often giving up their friends as sacrifices for their own necks. 

Every twist and turn that’s revealed underlines that fiction has nothing on reality. The stranglehold the Murdaugh family held in Hampton County, South Carolina is evident. The lengths they would go to hold onto that power is staggering. 

It’s hard to say this book is a good one because with every page you are reminded this was real. These are people’s lives that hung in the balance. This book shone a light on a corrupt family dynasty that raged through South Carolina. How many more are lurking out there for us to find?

From the title, I was fully expecting some very angry dragons. You are dropped into an incredibly written world, rich with history, punishing social castes, and a struggle for survival against an attacking group of “savages” that are threatening to burn everything down to the ground. Lots and lots of rage, not so many dragons. 

Underpinning all this is Tau. Tau is fueled by one thing only and that is revenge. He has a plan and is willing to do whatever it takes to cross names off his list. Including sacrificing his humanity. Bucking up against being a Lesser and fighting social traditions, he’s determined to prove “Less” is more. 

There is a ton of world-building and character development in this 500+ book. It’s beautifully written and has such rich, immersive story, I find myself lost in it for hours. I usually struggle with what’s considered high fantasy, but Evan Winter made this such an incredible world to get into that I may have to change my mind!

I… did not like it. I wanted to, I really did. Maybe because I play RPGs, but I was bored. The technical rundowns were fine but they were endless. I stopped playing games because the builds needed to advance were nigh impossible and that’s what this started to feel like. The talking cat helped but not enough to keep me interested. It’s a DNF for me at 25%. 

Oooh, let me say this first. Darby Kane knows how to write a narcissistic mom. My skin crawled and I had to check myself more than a few times while reading this book. (It’s not from her experience as she notes on the dedication page, so she must have someone close to her that carries that particular trauma.) That right there is what sells this entire story and I am buying it wholesale. 

I love the flipping POV and even the time jumps are flawless as we find out just who (and how many) wants to kill Addison’s new husband, and how they were able to beat her to it. I tried guessing the twists and I couldn’t settle on one theory that would stick. I usually spoil myself (thanks ADHD brain) but this time…I got nothing. Now look, you’re gonna light on who probably did it early on. That’s not the mystery though. It’s all the little pieces falling in, the whole did what and set what part of the chain into action. Every single layer adds on to the big picture and it is delicious. And the last cherry on top, that is the twist that pulls it all into view. 

It’s fast, twisty, dark and oh so satisfying to read. Do yourself a favor and indulge in a little “eat the rich” murder mystery. You won’t be sorry you did!

I had been warned that this book will rip your heart out. I considered myself adequately warned. I dove in and planned to write a bit on the magic system. I loved the simplicity of the base magic that then built on almost a programming language with code, coordinates, and specific action limited around set parameters. I thought it was brilliant to layer in our modernity to something arcane and wild. And don’t get me wrong, it still is. 

But there’s a question posed around the mid point of the book. If two men die, one that intended good throughout his life only to have all his actions cause suffering and harm and one that went through life deliberately intending suffering and harm but those around him benefited from his actions, which man would be considered good? (I’ve butchered it but you get the gist.) That moral and philosophical dilemma is the crux of the entire system (magically and societally). And I’m just sitting here, gobsmacked because it’s so perfect and so complex that I can’t think of any other story that takes this question and weaves it so elegantly into a narrative. It’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, and it’s so, so brutal. 

“I’m not your glory, I’m your penance.”

Consider yourself warned, your heart will break. And you won’t want it any other way. 

I came into this book blind. I had heard it was good but nothing outside of it being dark academia with magic. But that doesn’t do it justice. It’s magic, it’s power, it’s how we use words and what they mean to the people we say them to. It’s the voices that say them and what they truly mean. 

Words can, and should change the world. 

I am also now convinced that R. F. Kuang can not write a bad book, even if she tried.

I picked this up because I had heard so many good things about this author and this book specifically. Reading the blurb it seemed like high-quality science fiction. And it is. What it does not tell you is that you are going to spend a large amount of time following the evolutionary advancements of a fucking tribe and planet of spiders. Spiders! (Shudder). I get it, it’s supposed to be about evolution after humans have destroyed their planet. But did it really have to be spiders!?!?

The sheer amount of research this must have taken on spiders and their socialization, breeding, reproduction, and colonies is staggering. Unfortunately the sections with the upgraded sentient spider population are exceptionally boring and dry. I found myself skimming to get back to the crew on Gilgamesh more often than not. 

It’s strictly middle of the road read for me. (Also still not happy about the spiders, evolutionary allegory or not.) I love the idea, but the execution gets a little too social commentary/ preachy for me to be fully immersed. I don’t think I’ll continue with the rest of the series.

Fucking spiders, man. 

“Everything here was perfect, except for me, and so they made me leave instead of changing enough to let me be perfect, too.”

I’d wondered if we’d ever get to see Kade’s world, and in this book we do. Beautiful and bittersweet, just like Kade. My heart breaks for him all over again. 

Vineta’s true colors came flying out in this one. Her flip from caring to cruel once Antsy was no longer useful to her was mind-boggling. (Tell me you lived with a narcissist parent without telling me you lived with a narcissistic parent. Right down to pitting the compliant and eager to please younger child against the one wise to the BS.) This one hit me just as hard as the last. Each story is more complex, more emotional than the last. Hurt people hurt people. But that’s not an excuse to keep hurting people. I love how Mislaid in Parts Half-Known ends, each of them a little older and a little wiser. 

McGuire’s Wayward Children series always has a tinge of sadness, a tribute to mourning the loss of childhood innocence. 

This one though. This one comes with a trigger warning. Grooming behavior and adult gaslighting, and bless the author for being up front and assuring the readers no harm comes to our main character. It’s clear she writes from experience (even if you skipped the dedication). I physically had to shake myself as the adult in Lost in the Moment and Found gaslights 6-year-old Antsy. The machinations of the stepfather to alienate and isolate her from her mother made my skin crawl. It was too vivid, too close to reality, too close to my own history. I had to remind myself that Antsy runs before anything happens and to keep reading. For that alone, this author wins my everlasting respect. Capturing that moment in a way that was so real and so validating. After all, what sane adult picks a fight with a 6-year-old?

Antsy finds herself through her own door and into the shop of lost things. Much of the story here can’t be revealed or discussed as it deals with not just Antsy but the mechanism around the Doors themselves. It’s beautiful, it’s mournful, and it’s truly about being lost in the moment and then found.