blewballoon's Reviews (763)

This was cute and funny. I know it came out first, but I read it because I absolutely loved Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell and wanted to see how similar the two books were, since they are both sapphic and involve tentacle monsters. This is a much lighter read with an emphasis on humor, and in a contemporary setting. Both books were a good time for me, but if you want the monster girl romance without any violence, this is the one to pick. Alternatively, if you read this one and want a deeper read with more horror elements, I would highly recommend Someone You Can Build a Nest In. My small critiques with this book are that both characters are horny on site, which is odd since there's no actual spice in the book, and at times the writing was a little clunky.

 Oh dear. I really wanted to like this. I have a nostalgic fondness for the 1982 animated film and I was hoping the book would have the same mesmerizing quality. From my recollection, the film actually follows the story and dialogue pretty accurately, if abbreviated. I wonder if it's this abbreviation that worked for me? The art style of the movie is so striking, and tonally works with the sometimes unnatural, meandering, and riddle-like way the characters often speak. In the text though, it feels like a bit too much. It almost feels like the characters are just reciting segments of nonsense poems like the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll to each other sometimes, they barely feel like people. The whole book is sort of like reading an epic poem that spends a lot of time describing things rather than on anything happening. Sometimes these descriptions are clever and well-placed, and sometimes they are just slowing an already slow story down. I wish this type of writing worked for me, and I wish I had enjoyed listening to this audiobook, but I know I didn't by how much I actively avoided listening to it. I found myself folding my laundry in silence rather than putting this on. I'm sorry, Peter S. Beagle, for not being able to properly appreciate the whimsy and imagery you cultivated here, and I'm sorry Patrick Rothfuss because your intro to the book was lovely and I wish I felt the same way about it as you do. 

I went into this one with low expectations because the last YA fantasy book I read from Book of the Month was "What the River Knows" and I thought that book was terrible. This book is so much better! I loved the setting/atmosphere with the tropical plants, mysterious ocean, and living tattoos. I loved the main characters, and the various supporting characters felt 3-dimensional as well. The plot was suspenseful and compelling. I do have some unanswered questions and concerns about how some plot points were left at the end, but those are small. Overall I really enjoyed this, a great summer fantasy read. 

I really enjoyed this. I checked at one point if it was YA or not, in some ways it reads young because not only is the main character Biddy only about 16 years old, she grew up in an unconventional way and is an interesting mix of intelligent and naive. The adult characters are seen through her perspective, but as an adult reader I had the experience of understanding them more quickly than Biddy did. I thought the writing was fantastic, both in terms of the prose and in terms of the plotting. I would be wishing for something to go a certain way, and then when it didn't I would realize that what had happened was inevitable based on the prior setup in the story. It was narratively satisfying. The audiobook was very pleasant to listen to and really suited the tone of the story, with subtle distinctions and accents to make it clear who was speaking. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in a coming-of-age historical fantasy.

I typically rate books by how much I personally enjoyed them, but in this case I'm unsure. I enjoyed the concept and the discussions of gender seemed really positive. I would recommend that section of the book to middle grade or young adult readers to help them understand what transgender means if it's something they're not already familiar with. Unfortunately, I thought the writing otherwise was clunky and awkward in many places. This definitely needed an experienced editor to polish up the phrasing and fix some blatant typos. I also felt like the back half of the story with the confrontation and aftermath was cartoonishly unrealistic. 

As a positive, I like that this isn't a love story. I appreciate reading stories that focus on other types of relationships. That being said, I don't like either of the main characters, but especially the older sister. I can't sympathize with someone who manipulates and lies to her family. Not a fan of the animal death either. I can see where this is going and I don't care about these characters enough to read it. I'm not sure if the book will have the overall message that you should put in your own work and not rely on fairy bargains for everything, but that's definitely what I wish I could tell the characters at this point in the story. I'm frustrated and not having a good time, so it's time to move on. 

I had been sitting on this book for a long time and finally decided to read it. I ended up doing the audiobook, and I think the narrator did very well. 

This book is quite exposition heavy, but the exposition is in the main character's voice so you get a bit of flavor of their personality along with the info dumps. Sometimes it felt like the story would come to a halt for some fairly irrelevant exposition, while other times the story would plunge along and I felt like I didn't have context to fully understand what was happening.  It's a bit of an exhausting story because the  Scholomance is such an exhausting place to live. There are monsters, school rules, and complex social hierarchies that make every action and every conversation loaded with potential repercussions, and all of those things constantly need explaining.  

All that being said, I did enjoy this book. The main character was a lot more likable than I expected from the blurb, and there were some interesting supporting characters as well. As a character driven reader, these characters worked for me and carried me through the book. I am not sure if I will pick up the rest of the series or not, though.

A short, sweet, cozy, witchy romance. I did sometimes feel like I was missing some context, I think due to the more lyrical and vague aspects of the writing. It was pretty to read, good for readers who pick books for the vibes.