booktribe's Reviews (603)

DNF at 25%. I wanted to love this so badly but the writing style was too info dump-y for me. And although I love the premise and I think I would like the characters, writing style is everything to me and I couldn’t get past it. Maybe I’ll try again another day.

The Boy with Fire is an Indian-inspired epic fantasy with magic, royalty, and morally grey characters. Yassen, a boy on the run. Elena, a Princess who can’t wield fire. And Leo, the King struggling to stop things he can’t control.

     The characters were my favorite part of the book. Leo, Samson, and Ferma were my favorites. I always love morally grey characters and this book definitely gave me that! I also really liked that, although there were lots of different fantasy terms, I hardly ever got confused by them. And some of the book’s fight scenes were highly entertaining.

     However, speaking of the fight scenes, we’ll start getting into the things I didn’t like about the book. 

     There were too many unnecessary scenes that didn’t move the story along at all. I enjoyed one or two of the fight training scenes, but there shouldn’t have been so many if they weren’t integral to the story. I feel like the author had lots of scenes that didn’t add anything to the plot, but when things were important and needed to be explored, they were only mentioned once and never brought up again.

     Leo’s point of view was my favorite. One of the reasons for that is because he’s my absolute favorite character, but mainly because every Leo chapter moved the story further along, Elena and Yassen’s chapters kept the story stagnant. I found myself tuning out a lot during their chapters because there were so many unneeded things discussed. All Elena’s chapters did were show her try to learn to yield fire to no avail. And all Yassen’s chapters did were nothing… I can’t remember a thing I gained from reading one of his chapters till almost 70% into the story. And don’t even get me started on the last eight chapters of the book. Those eight chapters could’ve been reduced to only two. That ending was so drawn out and boring, I had to skim through till I was done just to get it over with.

     And my last complaint is that there was no main storyline. Each individual point of view had its own storyline, but they never came together to make one central storyline or one central goal or obstacle between those three characters. Every one just had their own plot that barely coincided with the others.

     Overall, even though I had lots of complaints, I enjoyed this. I liked Leo, Samson, and Ferma so much that they made up for all the other things I didn’t like about the book. After reading those last chapters of the book, I just knew I wasn’t going to continue the series. But after reading the epilogue, I just might. The epilogue intrigued me back into the story, so I’ll at least give the second book a chance!

Thank you to Netgalley and New Degree Press for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: death/murder, burning, and suicide

An abandoned Heian-era mansion in Japan is the perfect venue for this wedding party, but it’s also the home of a ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. 

     This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year, but honestly, I have nothing positive to say about this novella. I would say that I loved the Japanese folklore aspect of this book, but nothing was explained at all. I know it’s not the author’s job to educate me on Japanese mythology, however, there was no description at all of what these creatures were. If I were writing a book, I wouldn’t feature an Impundulu without explaining to the reader what it is and what it looks like. This aspect could’ve been a positive to me if it was handled differently.

     For the first few chapters of the book, I wasn’t necessarily hooked, but I noticed that the story was building and I was excited to see where it went. However, the story never built to anything. I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, and when something finally happened, I found myself asking “That’s it?”.

     There were things that were alluded to in the book that were never explored. There was a scene in one of the first chapters that seemed like it would give us backstory on why two of the characters hated each other so much. But it never explained why. It teased an explanation, but that explanation never came. Another thing that wasn’t explored was that towards the beginning of the book, for two chapters, the author had me thinking that a character was possessed. But, then they just never acted possessed again and it was never mentioned.

     The characters in this book were awful. And not awful in the way that you care what happens to them and are rooting for their downfall, they’re awful as in you care nothing about them or what happens to them. There was no real character development.

     This book was just not for me. I didn’t enjoy anything about it and I’m really upset about that since I’ve been looking forward to this book for months. The premise was amazing and there were so many opportunities for it to be scary, but the author didn’t utilize any of those opportunities. I wouldn’t have finished this if it was a full novel instead of a novella. This book just really frustrated me. I’m very disappointed.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire/Macmillan and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

TW: suicide attempt; murder; gore

Scott Atwood, a writer taken over by writer’s block, knows his career is over, so he decides his life must be too. He must have the perfect ending to his life, jumping in front of a train, but then the perfect idea comes for his next novel — a writer who must ruin the lives of others to come up with an idea for his new book. However, Scott takes his story way too far…

     I went into this novel not expecting much, but I was so pleasantly surprised! It was fast paced and interesting from the very beginning. The main plot kept me intrigued, as well as the subplots. The narration from the main character was incredibly engrossing. And the ending was immensely satisfying! And although I did figure out the ending, it was by no means predictable. 

     The only complaint I have is that I wish I liked the side characters more. Although I hated what Scott, the main character, was doing to their lives, it wasn’t because I cared about the people he was doing it to, it was just because what he was doing was wrong. It would’ve added an extra layer of caring if I loved the side characters.

     This book really shocked me by how great it was! I can definitely see reading from this author in the future and I will recommend this book to anyone I know who loves thrillers!

Thank you Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and NetGally for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: Suicide; sexual assault (not graphic); drug use; child abuse; alcoholism