competencefantasy's Reviews (912)

Belle of Batoche is a middle-grade historical fiction that I probably would have been into if I had read it when I was younger. It's rich in historical detail and character personality, building from a fictional embroidery contest to a historical 
battle. My main criticism is that the ending framed a maior tragic event as primarily about a specific interpersonal friendship. This is probably where the middle grade ago level catches up with me. It felt like the ending went nowhere However, the writing was solid and I thought the whole was worth reading.

This is a dark novel about a boy growing from childhood to adulthood in a family of werewolves. I really like it. The worldbuilding, which was revealed throughout in bits and pieces, was intriguing. I wanted to know how all the pieces of werewolf lore fit together. I found the characters, especially the adults very fascinating. I found that the themes of generational trauma and wanted to be truly belonging to a group even though that group is both the object and subject of horror really resonated. I also liked the themes of class and liminality, that showed up in recurring motifs and in how the family's wandering fit into the pacing.

One thing to be aware of... this has bad things happening to animals. A lot of them.

This book is very much my thing. It has chosen (step)mother issues, characters making bad decisions because they're afraid they might be incapable of loving people they clearly love, ambiance, references/retellings of story beats that were formative to me, a sapphic subplot, and (at a few points) Tudor monarchy drama vibes. In fact, I was so worked up after this that I couldn't wind down and go to sleep. I give this a very high rating. Just be aware that some of that could be because I'm unreasonably fond of many parts of it's premise. Not all of it though, the execution had to be a winner too to work for me this well.

I like this cute little setup. The speculative elements are definitely there. For example there's a plot involving basement monsters. I'm not entirely sure it replicates the experience of a high school drama club. All the drama groups I've been in had a lot more reference going on, backstage and otherwise. The actor backstage divide wasn't as stark either. However the tone that it does set is very entertaining and I'd like to read more.

This is my kind of horror. I tried to listen to the audio book about a year ago, and I got confused enough between perspectives to think it was a non supernatural serial killer book, which would not be my jam. This is. One of my favorite things about this is how the girls are each flawed and not necessarily aspirational. They're traumatized, acting out, inconsistent and erratic. Yet they still have things the deeply care about, exercise agency, and save adults and each other. I thought the villain was good personification of creepy men and I enjoyed the generational trauma depiction very much. I also feel like the feminist aspects of the novel were well managed, definitely there without getting too on the nose or flat out telling one all its metaphors. The only thing I could have enjoyed better way the monster's origin story, which I thought was a little thematically eh. Overall, this was a good time and I wish I'd read it sooner.

This was such a wonderful surprise! I had gotten the impression from covers and reviews of this author's other works that I could expect the work to be more military and sci-fi leaning. Just as well for me I like high fantasy. I love the painting pigments with automatons system of "magic". It brings in all kinds of interesting themes, such as art, robotics/consciousness, empire etc and brings them together in a way I hadn't seen before. I also like the characters who feel complete even minor cameos. The entire thing was a pleasant, fascinating, vivid experience. I think I'll start considering more by this author now. I also want to buy myself a copy since I got this one from the library.

This book is excellent at setting and atmosphere as well as capturing that sense of stuckness that accompanies being trapped, not officially but practically, in a situation. I'm less enthused about the murder mystery. I had trouble keeping my attention on it. The generational trauma and the interconnections of it all started to make sense right towards the end, but in the middle it seemed like it should have been a series of interconnected short stories. I put it down for a while in the middle because I was struggling. I wish the experience in the middle had been more like the experience at the beginning and the end.

This book excels at capturing feelings. The sensation of summer, the anxiety of early adulthood, and the feeling of a small business on the verge of closing. It does very well at capturing the material, and the characters are sympathetic yet flawed. I also enjoyed the wealth of setting and detail references. My issue is that at the ending (very vague spoiler)

the main character reaches a particular emotional revelation about how things are going to play out, and this revelation just sticks. The buildup is messy but the book ends suddenly with a flash forward in time to when all of the events have played out

So the emotional impact left me a little frustrated, like I was expecting something played out in more detail.

I don't care what anyone, including the author, thinks. I love Moiraine.

This is great in ways I never anticipated for the first book. The initial installment in the series was very tied in to the terrain, and the race to the border through a beautiful and hostile environment. Now, the story is transplanted into a city, with all that entails. The real strength of the story is its use of plot machinations and twists to complicate the character motivations we've already gotten to know. Minor arcs come back with big impact, making it clear that even the less important characters are complete people. Antagonists, even when dramatically evil, follow their own internal logic. The presence of mind magic calls into existence questions about the nature of self. I found even characters with very clear alignments to be complex people.

To go along with the praise, I have two criticisms. First, in a very tightly woven cast, the answer to the mystery involves a character arc that the audience hasn't yet encountered, breaking from the pattern of not needing to rely on exposition because the first book covered everything one needs to know. Second, I love Cara's character, but given how far the author was willing to push the rest of the characters, her arc seemed a little underdone. I'm waiting for themes to attach themselves to her story, the way they've done for other major and minor players in this tale.