bennysbooks's Reviews (668)

The first section was a fun, apocalyptic sci-fi story, chilling and fascinating in turns. Part 2 turned out to be more of an alternate history/historical fiction about a group of female scientists battling sexism at work. I think the historical fiction crowd will have more success with this than I did. 

My low rating ultimately has more to do with writing than genre expectations, though. I thought the writing was basic at best, downright cringey at worst (if I hadn't already known the author was friends with Sanderson, I would've probably still guessed by the end of the book). 

☹️

Which doesn't mean the story isn't worth telling, it just means it's not going to be interesting to everyone. It follows a familiar formula, which can be comforting. But I wanted more of an exploration of the consequences of having to fight for recognition; more internal and interpersonal tension; more investigation into why even in dire circumstances, and against its own best interests, the patriarchy fights to uphold itself. Or, barring that, more political tension, more science thrills. Either direction would have sufficed.

Basically what this book does most successfully is present an alternate history that is believable for the time period it is set in. If that's what you're interested in, it just might work for you. 

Can't say too much, because I don't know how to talk about what I loved about this without spoilers. I enjoyed myself from the beginning, but once everything started to come together (in the 50-70% mark), I fell in love with what Henry was doing. A lot of that had to do with the character work. I'm a character-driven reader, and it took me a long time to connect with Harriet. As her story unraveled, I realized it wasn't an accidental flaw of the book, but a function of the things she was struggling with. I think the way Henry slowly drew this character out over the course of the book was fantastic. 

In typical Henry fashion, despite the title and beachy cover, this is more of an emotional read than a light-hearted one. It also relies heavily on miscommunication tropes, which I think are handled immaculately, but likely will still bother some people. All pluses for me, but definitely worth noting. 

Totally fine, nothing remarkable. I would have enjoyed it in elementary school, likely. I have no complaints about the writing; it was lush and easily consumable. But Durbin tells a familiar story in a predictable way, adding nothing new to the tropes or in the telling - which is why I find the Gaiman comparisons baffling. At the most basic level... perhaps? But what Gaiman does best is tilt familiar stories on their head, and this book didn't even attempt that. I would compare it to Pan's Labyrinth (but cozy), or Narnia (but less sweepingly mythical), before I would Gaiman. Regardless, it's not the sort of thing that speaks to me presently, though I can understand the appeal to those looking for an unchallenging, atmospheric, and cozy read. 

I've been trying so hard to convince myself to return to this after not picking it up for about two weeks, but I can't. My mom got my sister and I copies for Christmas, so we'd agreed to do a buddy read, but I'm a weakling and a quitter (sorry Mic!)

I know I didn't get very far, but I also know my reading tastes extremely well at this point, and there is no way this book could have justified being 800 pages long. The lack of depth in the characters was a massive problem for me - I couldn't give you a character summary beyond their name/station, basically. The pacing was off, and not remotely helped by the way Shannon consistently switched perspectives as soon as the one you were reading finally began to take off. And then the East vs. West dynamic felt super shallow. The West was such a basic reflection of knights of the round table/Lady of Shalott/English-style medieval culture (the names of places, titles of people, etc. were SO painfully on-the-nose. Virtues of Knighthood? Knights of the Body? Sanctuary of Virtues? Feast of Fellowship? Mother of Maids? 😑 Would have been okay if it felt at all tongue-in-cheek, but there wasn't anything in the text that made me think that was the intent). The East seemed like it could be more interesting, but we weren't getting enough exploration yet. And the conflict between the Kingdoms seemed to boil down to "dragons are bad" vs. "dragons are good", with no real exploration of the other differences between the two? 

The dragons were fucking cool, and I do want to know what is going on with them. But that alone wasn't enough to get me through the next 700-ish pages. What finally solidified the decision for me was watching Marines' review on YouTube (@mynameismarines). She listed all of the same problems that I was having, and didn't see any real resolution of those issues by the end of the book. She specifically said the book did not earn its pages in her opinion, so...  

It's a shame because this cover is gorgeous, and now the prequel has a gorgeous cover too, and I wanted to love this one so I could justify buying the prequel. 😅 

Gorgeous and devastating. Probably the best thing I have read all year. What Vo managed to accomplish in the space of a sparse novella is breathtaking.

I think this book had some pacing issues, occasionally becoming too bogged down in the political manoeuvring and sleuthing of the two main characters. It certainly didn't help that the dual perspective meant that Isabelle and Jean-Claude kept coming to similar conclusions, albeit in different ways and at separate times. This resulted in more repetition than necessary, slowing the book down and drawing it out. 

That being said, the worldbuilding was unique and fascinating. I do wish we had learned a bit more, but I still enjoyed what was present. And I think the characters were interesting, which is important to me. There was no Hobb level deep-diving, but they were distinct and memorable, including many of the side characters. 

I was closer to giving this a 3.75, possibly a generous 4, but I thought the ending wrapped up too neatly in some ways, and did not enjoy the

sudden insta-love from Julio

. 

I think I will look back on this book fondly, but I can't decide if I want to continue in the series. If I do, it will be because I just want to know more about the world.

Gorgeous illustrations and whimsical stories, infused with love and magic. Both of my kids (5 and 1.5) sat through the whole thing. 5 said he "loved it, but only a little" (whatever that means 😅). It was nearly a perfect read for me, but I thought the last story could have been tighter. This is going to stick with me, and I'm already looking forward to reading it with them again!