booksonmars's Reviews (670)

a mesmerising and sultry summer read; i can definitely see the threads of a longer and deeper character study of a novel in this. 

i read this while watching a free adaptation of the play on youtube and it was so hilarious. if we can allow the british one thing it’s their comedy. 

an introspective outlook on language and translation. i used to want to be an interpreter so it was interesting to get into the head of one, to understand their role in not just translating words but a character. the setting, the season, and the side characters all added to this feeling of quiet that this novel held. a very interesting piece of work. 

oh i adore this series with all my heart. it really feeds the child in me that loved pixie hollow, flower fairy pop up books and spiderwick chronicles too. i really love emily wilde as a main character, how she's a scholar first, heroine second.

she still has those anxieties about being in faerie, not because of her knowledge but also because of her nature that she percieves as unfriendly. no emily you are so loved! the relationships she has with her human and faerie companions are so heartwarming, and it's really beautiful to watch her accept that they are in her life because they want to be. especially wendell, oh my god. that man is so adorably obsessed with emily, their dynamic is so sweet to read. you can really feel the depth of both their feelings for each other; emily is so determined to save wendell's lands and keep him safe, and wendell's enthusiasm to show emily his world not because he wants to but because he knows she'll enjoy it. they know each other so well now! 

i love how the plotline is so centered to the main character being a scholar; there are footnotes and conversations on drydalogy, as well using faerie tales as research points. i really don't want to leave this world, but i'm hopeful that there will be a novella or a spinoff series following ariadne. 

i love prose-like non fiction. this was a beautiful, intense, and raw rumination on the inexplicable ties between family and loss, between a person and their country, between grief and love. there were many moments where i cried, especially thinking of those with loved ones who are disappearing in and because of their palestinian heritage or support. i think the one thing that threw me was the abruptness of the ending, there wasn't really an ending sentiment or anything. i'd still wholly recommend, especially if you want to some information on the history of libya.

i'll start off with what i enjoyed about this book, which mainly the characters paedyn and kai. i admired paedyn's tenacity for survival, a strong purpose that carries throughout the trilogy, that you have to applaud the ending because she does just that. she survives a society that is so against who she is, and proves that you don't need power to be powerful. because of this, it's hard for her to allow herself to love, to choose love, because it's the antithesis of her survival. i really did enjoy watching her accept her feelings for kai and letting them bloom. as for kai, he nailed the yearning angst from start to finish. it wasn't really a love triangle but the messiness of their relationship truly had me hooked. mainly because nothing else really was, and that's where we pivot to what i didn't like about this book, and the series overall. 

firstly, there never seems to be a true big bad. no overarching evil, except i guess prejudice? but no tangible antagonist, and what annoyed me the most was that when a potential evil character appeared, it would be resolved immediately in the next chapter. this choice means that everything that happens in the book is secondary to the romantic tension, cheapening the plot and making the chapters drag. this book could've been so so much shorter, most of it was repetitive yearning (i love a yearn, but it got tedious). by the end of it i was wishing it would end. i still got cringed out with the writing, particularly the dialogue; it would be paedyn and kai having this witty repartee that were obviously written for tiktok snippets, and then they'd ask something normal like 'how are you feeling about this or the other?', which felt really jarring. also kitt's character was so unbelievably ruined, it felt very left field, like the author didn't know how to write him out of the romance. his final chapter makes no sense either. you know what else doesn't make sense? what happened to mak, particularly with the way he had powers similar to kai, and the role he plays in the novella. also felt like a rushed write out. 

would i recommend this series? probably not, especially with the red queen controversy. i've never read victoria aveyard's series but the similarities are astounding and quite frankly, embarassing. i truly only read this book because i wanted to see what happened at the end. 

a warm introduction to maya angelou's work, part memoir that made me very interested to read the rest of her autobiographies, and part motherly advice, which i loved particularly because i listened to it as an audiobook and it was narrated by her. you could tell that she's lived a very full life, and wants to leave some notes behind for future generations of women. i'll definitely revisit this book throughout my life.

i would’ve preferred more of it to be set on the train, if not all, and i do think there was less of daisy sleuthing about. still was a good book and the development of her relationship with alec was quite sweet.