crafty_goblin's reviews
81 reviews

I dnf at 40%. 

Not that the story isn't interesting or that it is badly written because it's not. But the first 20/30% are slow and thick infodump about sea navigation, fishing boat and wale fishing (I applaud the amount of research done here, it definitely shows,  but I had to search for the meaning of too much technical terms to keep my attention on the plot. Too detailed on the navigation, boat and fishing technics and not enough focus on the character development and the plot for my tastes) before things are starting to move slowly toward the folk tale elements and the plot, around 30/35% and it was still too little. 

I still recommend people to try it as it seems a beautiful and dark story and there has been something tickling my curiosity from the begining, but for me, not enought to keep me going. And I didn't manage to root for the character so I struggled to keep going. But as I said, definitely a question of taste. It definitely can work with other readers. 

This cover is awesome also 🥰

At this point, I stop everything I have in progress everytime I receive a new T.Kingfisher and just dive into her story without any doubt that I'll like it. I don't even like het romance, that should tell you everything about how good her books are. 

As usual I binge read swordheart in only a few hours and made a face when I saw the word "epilogue". I didn't want it to end. Fortunately, this one will come out as a trilogy so we'll be lucky to have two more books at some point. 

The story is fun, original and full of wit and great bonds between characters perfectly developed and inclusive. That's something I always love in T.K's books. 

It's basically the story of a 30+ curvy widow with too much questions and not a pound of bad intention. But also the story of a warrior stuck in a magical sword, forced to defend and protect the sword-bearer. A non binary priest, a with creature ox-driver and the ox, slow but loyal and with other talents ... 

The world building is so deep but the way the story is written so chill, smooth and kind, than it's like reading high fantasy in the form of a cozy fantasy read. 

Based on the author's end note, the second book will be about the story of one of the female warrior in Serkis's troup (Serkis is the protector in the sword) whom has been bond to another sword at the same time Serkis did. I cannot wait to read this different perspective and story. 

From cartoonist Meredith McClaren, Meat Eaters is an awesome graphic novel about the monsters lurking beyond and withing is all. 

It was my first graphic novel in years so I struggled a bit to follow the plot. But the second read helped.
 
The graphism is top notch and the whole book is a gem. This cover catched my eyes initially and I didn't regret it. 

I like the "behind the scene" bonuses at the end of the comic, it gives more information about Meredith's creative process and how Meat Eaters is born. 

My favorite part is definitely the unexpected bond between the three mains characters, despite their differences,  the acceptance and need for bonds and support you can feel between them. I really like the messages that Meredith tried to convey.  And she manag d it well on a pretty fast pace settlement. 

I really rooted for Ashley and I loved some of the "internal monologue" she has with herself when she tried to understand what happened to her and what she became. 

I'll definitely keep an eye to Meredith work for more content. 

I think I found a new author I'll put on auto order with this book ! I definitely put Brian's other books on my TBR. 

I have so much fun with this witty, gory, dark and funny slasher story! 

First of all, let's be honest, I initially requested this Arc on Netgalley for the cover. I barely read the summary but give me slasher vibes and a hot 80's style horror book cover and I'm all in. 

I grew up with movies like black Christmas, Scream, I know what you did last summer or Psycho. This kind of horror is definitely my cup of tea and Brian McAuley's Breathe in, Bleed out lives up to it. 

The character development is good, the female characters too (something I always find tricky to root for when written as a main character by a man). 

And you definitely has this slasher "campus" vibes. The meetup between old school friends who grew up mostly out of the friendship over the years and do this retreat more for old time sake  even if they kind of hate each other (did they really liked each other at some point or as all school friends dynamics, just stick with the first people coming around to fit in the crowd and don't be seen as outsider ?) is part of the horror trip for me 😅. 

I like how the cultural appropriation is approached here and I thought at first that was it, I got the killer and the main plot line and then it bounced from one possibility to another but still keep everything wrapped up together thighly. I loved that ! 

It's really solid. Great plot, great development, excellent dynamics between the characters, it's well written, witty and unapologetically gross sometimes. 

Anyway, I'm always rooting for unhinge female character in horror, witty and sarcastic, who tries to keep her own head out and ends up doing all the work. I loved Hannah really much and the trio of "final girls" vibes is a good bonus. 

I received this book on Netgalley in exchange for a honnest review. 

First of all it's more thriller than horror per se. The pace is really really fast, the story happening only over a few days. 

It's not a bad story, and it is clearly visible that researches have been made. But that's maybe the issue for me, kind of. Too much dumpinfo, the first 30 pages or so are just that and I struggle to go past this. Long description of thing that don't really give depth to the story and then light description and faster pace on parts that should have been more developed for the sake of the "plot".

I also have some problem to stick with the story and the protagonists because the stylistic is a bit poor and the writing kind of uneven. It's not badly written - I don't like that expression in review 😅 - but it's a bit too low in term of stylistic for my own tastes. I had difficulty to keep my intention on the narrative instead of the grammar and stylistics.

Not my cup of tea. But tastes and colors ....

This book has been provided to me by the publisher for an honest review. 

I have kind of mix feelings about this book. I like the way it's written, the form is top notch. The subject is a difficult one : gender trauma and I thought it would be approached more inclusively coming from a non binary author. Unfortunately, it wasn't. 

Some parts are interesting to read, the ones about the experiences of the author and their gender trauma and how they deal with them. Those parts were interesting and emotionally charged. 

But, and this is what bothered me throughout the whole book and from the very beginning, the approach chosen to victimized men and asking to trans, women and non binary people to "cuddle" their bullies was a big no for me. 

I was born a woman but I never give two thoughts about gender (I'm pansexual if you really need labels) as the first characteristic in a person when I meet or communicate with people, I'm always more interested by what they do, who they are and what they want to share, their passions, their history. It's something really typical,  it seems, for white American (and christian in most cases) to give so much importance to gender identites and sexual labels that they forget to be a decent human being and don't look to go further to know someone if those two points are against their beliefs. We're pretty loose on that in Europe (it's not perfect, definitely not, but clearly not on the same scale as USA especially lately. Again ). So I really think I wasn't the intended target of this book (I'm surprised the publisher asked me to read it now that I actually read it). 

I totally agree with the fact that people tend to be too radical in their approach. And also that human being flawed, whatever groups or social environment they are part of, this is not black and white. And being a feminist or a queer activist doesn't make you a good person just by being part of those movements. Also, Everybody deal with trauma the best way for them. It's something personal, something not universal and templated. But if you choose to throw your own trauma to others by becoming a bully that's your decision. 

I cannot conceive the idea to cuddle men because their are victims of their own bad behavior and decisions at some point. 

Tons of men are good men, decent human being and inclusive individual with trauma too. They chose to deal with their trauma in a less toxic way and without trowing their insecurities to others people (toward women and queer mostly). If you choose to be a rapist, a mysoginistic person, a racist, a violent person, a bigot, a transphobe and so on, because your society bit your heads off younger about how you need to be to be seen as a Male then that's your decision, as individual to decide to not educate yourself, to make the same "mistakes", to follow the same toxic and harmful models. Not everybody starts on the same grounds or background, with the same arms or privileges, but at the end everybody has to deal with their own brand of trauma. There is no such thing as people without trauma at all, not in our society. And some of those people still managed to became good people, inclusive and respectful person. 

Based on that, no, you shouldn't answer to violence and hatred with violence and hatred but you don't have, and shouting that patriarchy should be replaced by matriarchy is ridiculous. When one is oppressor and has the power over the others, it cannot work. Equity, balance and inclusivity is the key. But also it's not for victims or opressed, to be responsible of their bully's feeling, isolation and sadness, their bad behavior and to excuse them. 

Educate men and/bigot whatever gender they identify with, is important but it is not your responsibility just because you are a woman or a queer person. Working to reclaim space and representations for yourself and your community is already a hard work. Saying that there's no need to worry about women because they have past history of fighting against oppression (same for queer and black...) so they know what to do, but as men don't know how to deal with that we need to assist them and cuddle them was the part that made me crazy. They are not used to it because they are usually the oppression party, historically. And it's neither lies nor propaganda. I don't put all the potatoes in the same bag of course, again whatever gender identity , sexual preference or background, human are human. Flawed and complicated and never learn from the past and fight what they fear and fear what they don't understand, instead of taking the time to understand. Opening a book, learning, communication should be the first answer to fear instead of war, hatred, weaponization and so on. 

I know a lot of people, coming from environment where they had to educate themselves to be a decent and inclusive person with a lot of things trying to stop them to do it. So, It's is possible.

I really cannot recommend this book. I read it until the end because the topic is important and I don't like throwing away something without a complete view of the work. But this book is really not something I can recommend. In the actual climat worldwide not just USA, I think we need books more comprehensive and less single-sided positioned to educate people about feminism, queer community and theirstory. 

The initial idea was a good one but for me the realization failed. 

Kind of a fantasy horror retelling of Snow White tale in T. Kingfisher's way. 

I love this author, especially her horror stories and I was happy to see a mix of horror and fantasy based, loosely, on Snow White Tale with dark humor, and as usual a witty female character developed with talent. 

That's something I love with Kingfisher's work, the character development and this one was awesome. It's probably the character I can relate with the most in all her work. A badass plus size woman, who's not taking bulshit and stereotypical lifestyle and a tad neurospicy in my opinion. I love her. 

The romance is on the light side and without graphic intercourse, much appreciated as writers nowadays seem to add that everywhere to sell wick world building and character development, and badly written stories. 

It's fun to read, a cozy fantasy on a darker side. The writing is excellent as usual with this writer. More a grey kind of villain and not stereotypically over bad in her development. 

The female lead is incontestable as usual. 

I also like how botanic and wisdom in general are studied beforehand and properly introduced in the story we without the scholar boring side and more educative and fun. 

It's a solid dark fantasy tale and as usual a pleasure to read T. Kingfisher's stories. 

I usually don't read western, horror or not, because I always felt this white men typical literature vibes and the genre is usually working on super tight time frame and stereotypical limited scope and povs. But now, I'm so happy I've been offered the opportunity to advance read and review this book by the authors! 

What I found out recently, let's say for the last three to five years, is that the new writers, especially indies, seems to take at heart to redefine genres, whatever genres we're speaking about, and expend reader's visions to new horizons while staying true to the very essence of a genre. 

And that's exactly what I loved in this book. New vision for old time classic western genre reinvented.  

The western roots mix with horror and indigenous folklore, and a dark comedic stylistic that I really really loved during my read. It's solid and it makes sense. And it's definitely well written. Those dialogues ?! Awesome !

It's dark, sometimes weird and unapologetically crass sometimes, in a good way (my creepy way at least 🫣) I really like the atmosphere, the setup but especially the character development. I can go nowhere with bad character development even if the plot and the sceneries are great. Hey! Good news, you've got all of it in this novel : folklore, horror, dark humor, dark vibes, suspense, great character development, awesome world building and description of the scenerie. It's really solid. 

It gave me all along, mixed vibes between Lone Ranger, the hunger (Alma Katsu), Bandidas and Lone Woman with the creepy folk horror after taste of Bone Tomahawk, all together mixed with an indigenous folklore seasoning. My kind of recipe for horror read. 

+Bonus for the incredibly badass and strong female character (usually badly written by men) in a western setting usually ultra misogynistic. She's rocks and you did her real and outside of a stereotypical scope, without excluding (or canceling from a male pov) the shit women had to feel and endure especially for this era. I appreciated this. 

I definitely recommend this book. 

The summary sounded great but I was quickly bored, it kind of fell flat quickly. 

"Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the Star above my mast!”

A short poeme-song by Bilbo. Beautifully illustrated. 

This poeme represents a conclusion, of sort, to Bilbo's story (journals). 

This "book" is more for the illustration work than the reading experience. The words are, of course, full of emotion and the poeme is beautiful. But the illustration are stunning and narrates Bilbo's last goodbye just by themselves.