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Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
Angelfall has been getting tons of good reviews as Goodreads users discovered in the last few months, and for good reason.
It's a post-apocalyptic, survival of the fittest, angels are killing everyone paranormal story, something darker than most paranormal romances flooding the market these days. Penryn is a great heroine, with skills that are actually explained as she does her best to fight her way to finding her little sister, Paige, who was taken by angels for nefarious purposes. Along the way, she rescues Raffe, an angel whose wings are cut off in a battle, and she saves him from near death because he's her only chance of getting Paige back.
This seriously has everything going for it, and while we dive straight into the action from the start, Penryn's narrative is the emotional core of the book. She's smart, she does what she needs to, but at the same time, she's still a young girl in a world where the freaking apocalypse happened.
And then they get to San Francisco and the last third of the novel turns into something bizarre. Delightful, intriguing, interesting, unique, horrifying...but bizarre all the same. I can't say more at the risk of spoiling the entire end of it, but take my word for it. This is not your typical paranormal romance/urban fantasy novel, and it's a breath of fresh air (well, for the most part, I'm not sure post-apocalyptic air is good for you...) in a crowded genre.
Angelfall has been getting tons of good reviews as Goodreads users discovered in the last few months, and for good reason.
It's a post-apocalyptic, survival of the fittest, angels are killing everyone paranormal story, something darker than most paranormal romances flooding the market these days. Penryn is a great heroine, with skills that are actually explained as she does her best to fight her way to finding her little sister, Paige, who was taken by angels for nefarious purposes. Along the way, she rescues Raffe, an angel whose wings are cut off in a battle, and she saves him from near death because he's her only chance of getting Paige back.
This seriously has everything going for it, and while we dive straight into the action from the start, Penryn's narrative is the emotional core of the book. She's smart, she does what she needs to, but at the same time, she's still a young girl in a world where the freaking apocalypse happened.
And then they get to San Francisco and the last third of the novel turns into something bizarre. Delightful, intriguing, interesting, unique, horrifying...but bizarre all the same. I can't say more at the risk of spoiling the entire end of it, but take my word for it. This is not your typical paranormal romance/urban fantasy novel, and it's a breath of fresh air (well, for the most part, I'm not sure post-apocalyptic air is good for you...) in a crowded genre.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
The premise of this is right up my alley: dystopian YA fiction set in a post-apocalyptic zombie future, in a small, religious village with secrets, surrounded by a forest where the zombies live. In a manner of speaking. The ingredients are all there for a great novel, but they just don't come together. The problem is our protagonist, Mary. We start off with Mary already an orphan and her brother turning her back on her as she joins the Sisterhood, the village's religious organization. All Mary does is think about how she wants to leave the village, whine about not loving the boy she's betrothed to, but his brother, and wonder what's beyond the forest when all evidence of an outsider is erased by the Sisterhood. Once I hit a hundred pages I realized nothing had happened. All I had read about was Mary doing dumb things and whining about her life, and not even the promise of answers for all the mysteries of the Sisterhood was enough to keep me going. I really wanted to like this book, too.
The premise of this is right up my alley: dystopian YA fiction set in a post-apocalyptic zombie future, in a small, religious village with secrets, surrounded by a forest where the zombies live. In a manner of speaking. The ingredients are all there for a great novel, but they just don't come together. The problem is our protagonist, Mary. We start off with Mary already an orphan and her brother turning her back on her as she joins the Sisterhood, the village's religious organization. All Mary does is think about how she wants to leave the village, whine about not loving the boy she's betrothed to, but his brother, and wonder what's beyond the forest when all evidence of an outsider is erased by the Sisterhood. Once I hit a hundred pages I realized nothing had happened. All I had read about was Mary doing dumb things and whining about her life, and not even the promise of answers for all the mysteries of the Sisterhood was enough to keep me going. I really wanted to like this book, too.
Ohhhh boy. When the first 50 pages I read turn out to be all angst and inexplicable epic romance, I know a book's not for me. Setting this aside and moving on to other things I have to read.
I so badly wanted to like this too, because shapeshifting dragons.
I so badly wanted to like this too, because shapeshifting dragons.
This book annoyed the shit out of me, and I ended up not even getting a hundred pages in.
There were many things that bothered me, but what ended up killing my interest was the random POV jumping. Some chapters last three pages and focus on the POV of some random person in the court, sometimes POVs change in a single paragraph, or the narrative lets us in on the private thoughts of at least two-three characters in a single section. It made everything feel disconnected for me, and I couldn't keep going.
There were many things that bothered me, but what ended up killing my interest was the random POV jumping. Some chapters last three pages and focus on the POV of some random person in the court, sometimes POVs change in a single paragraph, or the narrative lets us in on the private thoughts of at least two-three characters in a single section. It made everything feel disconnected for me, and I couldn't keep going.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I figured I could use some light, fun reading among all the ghost/dystopian books I've been reading, but I reeeeally picked wrong this time. I don't take my popcorn books as seriously as the others I read, so I give them a lot of leeway. But I got about halfway through How to Host a Killer Party and realized I didn't care about what was going on. It was cute, sure, and Presley Parker is a fun protagonist, but this is a case of the book just not being for me.
I figured I could use some light, fun reading among all the ghost/dystopian books I've been reading, but I reeeeally picked wrong this time. I don't take my popcorn books as seriously as the others I read, so I give them a lot of leeway. But I got about halfway through How to Host a Killer Party and realized I didn't care about what was going on. It was cute, sure, and Presley Parker is a fun protagonist, but this is a case of the book just not being for me.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I have a low tolerance for angst without reason, and The Vast Fields of Ordinary hit that button repeatedly. Dade's crappy job, his parents divorcing, his borderline emotionally and physically abusive, secretive gay relationship and his apathy about life did not speak to me. There were so many things Dade could have done -- don't sit with the homophobic jocks when they accuse you of being gay, don't be an asshole and continue to talk to your sort-of boyfriend, tell the girl who has a crush on you that you don't like her that way instead of just running away like she's got cooties -- that it makes his angst about his life feel manufactured. I couldn't relate to him at all.
I have a low tolerance for angst without reason, and The Vast Fields of Ordinary hit that button repeatedly. Dade's crappy job, his parents divorcing, his borderline emotionally and physically abusive, secretive gay relationship and his apathy about life did not speak to me. There were so many things Dade could have done -- don't sit with the homophobic jocks when they accuse you of being gay, don't be an asshole and continue to talk to your sort-of boyfriend, tell the girl who has a crush on you that you don't like her that way instead of just running away like she's got cooties -- that it makes his angst about his life feel manufactured. I couldn't relate to him at all.
Giving this up for now. It's interesting, but there isn't a good balance between introducing the reader to the world and starting the plot right up, which makes things feel off-kilter from the first few pages. I kept thinking I'd picked up the second book in the series by accident and was missing so much that would have been explained before.
And all the cigar smoking felt so contrived. "Oooh, my female character is so awesome and breaks the mold she loves cigars, do you see what I did there?" I did. And it's lame.
And all the cigar smoking felt so contrived. "Oooh, my female character is so awesome and breaks the mold she loves cigars, do you see what I did there?" I did. And it's lame.
Gave it a hundred pages, but it didn't pick up or hook me. I'm not sure how a book about mermaid siren and her romance with a flying dude can be boring, but Between the Sea and Sky managed it.
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
DID NOT FINISH
Sadly, not even Grant Morrison talking about comics can change the fact that I really just can't get into non-fiction.