You know those books you picked up as a kid for the sole purpose of looking at the beautiful art, and your parents always told you it was too long for a bedtime story.

That perfectly describes this book for me; I found myself staring awestruck at the art while my eyes skimmed over the text. Even in my 3rd or 4th attempt, I struggled to pull myself away from Frédéric Pillot's gorgeous art truly, and eventually, I had to settle that this was going to be the case. And I can't be upset with that.

Because I can't say, I've come across a children's book in a long time that inspired the same level of awe that I remember having the first time I got to look at Jan Brett's The Mitten up close and personal.

And honestly, it's the type of book that I would buy a young one in my life because these were the types of books that I remember spending so much time looking at the pages and then being so proud when I could come back and read it for myself.

I initially started this book in January but had to stop due to running up against the due date

Between now and then I heard a lot of the controversy surrounding this book. A lot of it definitely exists in this book, especially when it comes to racist depictions that left me going yikes.

I did enjoy El, both her growth throughout the story and her banter with Orion. It was a genuinely enjoyable read for me outside of the cringe.

I'm torn in regards to this book because there were parts that I really liked, and then there were other parts that left the nastiest taste in my mouth.

With the gut-wrenching ending of The Last Graduate, I wasn't exactly expecting it to be all sunshine and roses. On the contrary, I was expecting quite a bit of grief and further trauma, to be honest, which I got in spades.

Novak did a good job wrapping up many of the plot threads she had laid out for us; some of them had been laid out so long ago that they had easily slid under the radar. But how she chose to wrap up one, in particular, has had me grinding my teeth for weeks.

This was an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end; to some extent, I had expected that. But I could not have predicted the number of times I would want to slam my head into a brick wall because people just refused to communicate.
It was honestly frustrating just how much of the plot is based on a lack of communication or just making decisions for Bree, and then there are massive fallouts due to people not being able to sit down and talk to her like she is a competent person.

Spoiler

I had to put this down initially just because of how frustrated I was with the fact that we were introducing a Miscommunication Plotline with Sel and Bree, like we didn't have enough going on in their relationship. Here let's add one more thing to the pile. To make it worse, this plot point could have been resolved with a google search at any point. But also, we had no less than three other times we could have resolved the "Miscommunication" before it was finally taken care of in the last 15% of the book, and we nearly didn't deal with it. I was so close to throwing my phone across the room.

This book has some of the most heart-racing action scenes I've ever read; I was literally on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding.
It also had some exciting twists that I did not expect, especially the one that ties into the book's title.

The real question is, is this the end of the series? It sure doesn't feel like it. Deonn was out here teasing us with romances until the end. But we get a fan fiction-level cliffhanger and no word on whether or not we are getting more.

-1 star for Cliff Hangers and Miscommunication Tropes.

This book has been on my radar for a long time, and I honestly don't think I ever really read the description. I just saw the title and knew I needed to read it. I'm sure my initial thought process made me think about it in similarity to Aokigahara in Japan, a Modern day Thriller about girls going missing.

Given the lack of insight I had into what this book was about, I loved it. I'm often a sucker for well written Historical Fiction, especially when it is outside the standard Eurocentric books.

Both sisters are interesting in their own way, and the way they interact with each other. It made me reminisce about my own relationship with my sibling.
But what I honestly loved was watching Hwani grow as a person and learn to discern her wants from those that had been placed on her. While also learning to rely on others to help make sure things work out.

This was a book was one of my most excited releases last year, and honestly I found it lacking.

For a book that's selling point is it being a "heist" book, I never got any rush from any of the heists, and by the end it felt formulaic. I could predict the chapters, and it left me feeling like there was no skin in the game. At no point did I find myself on the edge of my seat for as if I was sitting outside with Lily waiting in the get away car, or like I was victorious with Alex when she accomplished something she thought she couldn't.

At the beginning I found the literary style of Li's writing really nice and was enjoying it, but by the end it felt often repetitive. Not even in a systematic way, just in a we could really use a thesaurus type of way.
Similarly by the end I felt like the characters lacked a lot of diversity in thought. It felt like they could have been fleshed out into more people like people, because outside of their rolls it often felt like that I could describe everyone in a sentence maybe two.

I did really enjoy how Alex and Irene's relationship developed, it was a cute enemies to lovers romance. With the fact that Alex never pressured Irene to be anything other then her icy self, it was nice to see them slowly accepting each other for who they are.

I also found myself really moved by the evolution of Daniel and his father's relationship, as someone who has a strained relationship with my parents. It was really heartwarming.

Content Warning: racism, colonization, (mentioned) death of parent, cultural appropriation, grief, xenophobia, terminal illness,

3.5⭐
This book left me with feelings, these feelings centering around absolute frustration. Which is made more frustrating because I had been able to brush off any frustrations I'd had with Evangeline up until the end of the book with the warm cozy feelings Garber was feeding me with the relationships Evangeline was building.

Spoiler

Only for my heart to be ripped out, trodden on, spat on, and then set aflame with Marisol's reaction to Evangeline going to Jacks

Evangeline is a girl who describes herself as raised on fairytales and knows there is truth among those stories if you just know where to listen. You would expect someone raised on stories of the Fates and The North to tread much more cautiously. In my mind, making a deal with "The Fates" is like making a deal with The Fae; the deals are meant for their gain or amusement, and while she states, "The Fates [aren't] dangerous because they are [are] evil; the Fates [are] dangerous because they [can't] tell the difference between evil and good.", they will bend a deal to their benefit to take everything you have.

Spoiler

But even knowing this and actively thinking about it on many occasions, she still manages to fall headfirst into basically every trap laid for her. While also creating some for herself.

Being that this was my first dip into the overarching world of Caraval, I honestly really loved it; it feels nostalgic to the art style of the off-brand fairy tale books I had as a kid, specifically the version of the little mermaid I had, which had the OG ending where the mermaid turned into seafoam.


Content Warning: Death of a Parent, Death, Blood, Emotional Abuse, Infidelity, Toxic Relationships, Gaslighting, Grief.