dbguide2's Reviews (863)

Moves around from fantasy to everyday too often. Other things too (etc)

I was waiting for this arc to arrive on BookSirens because I loved Reforged and I’m glad that Haddon has another book! He deserves it. It felt like this had more politics and world-building than the first book – even though the first book literally follows a King. Both books are set in the same world but are standalones. If Haddon planned on writing another book in the same universe, I wouldn’t mind one bit. 

I think he really shines in his world-building. It’s his strong suit and something I can tell he enjoys. Not saying that his character and plots aren’t good – they definitely are. To me, creating and maintaining a world is what he’s best at. It’s really difficult not only to create such an immense fantasy world but to ensure that it doesn’t fall through. Or break apart in a later chapter because you didn’t build the right foundation for it. 

The plot did have standard fantasy vibes to it, if I’m being honest. There’s betrayal, there’s plans, there’s plots from both sides. Characters wonder if they can do it; what will it take etc. But I’m not complaining at all 😄. I like seeing it, and seeing it done well. I did feel Reforged’s plot was easier to understand than this one. Maybe that was because I had seen all of his posts about it – whereas I didn’t see much of Reborn’s (so that’s sort of on me). Luckily I was able to understand and follow for the rest of the book.

I liked Oren and Izra’s characters. I like soulmates as a trope and I knew from Haddon’s debut that he’s good at creating a relationship between love interests. No worries here because that certainly happened! I liked that while Izra knew immediately about Oren, Radok was able to get to know Izra first and develop a friendship (which yes, quickly turned to something more). I prefer that romantic relationships first start with friendships as I believe that’s integral to love. 

They respected each other and saw each others’ strengths and stood by each other in times of weakness – and some of that was before they were together. Really, Haddon truly knows how to create believable characters and relationships that’ll make you grin when you read them. 

The main character had a Tesla. That should’ve been my first hint to dnf it. A lot of other reasons came afterwards. But I carried on because I did want to know what happened.

Nora finds out she’s pregnant early on in the book but she only mentions it when it’s relevant? She knows she’s in a horror book but half the time she acts like she’s not. Scary things happen and I think she’ll mention the baby or try to get an appointment because these things are important in the first trimester? So I kept thinking that even though I’m not usually a fan of pregnancies in books. At the very least be consistent with mentioning it? The ghost makes her fall on the floor and hurt her ankle (or other things). I’m like the only one thinking about the baby! It’s like she’s going on rollercoasters and I’m there waving a sign that says “Think of the baby!” 

I didn’t like any of the characters at all. Not even the pregnant character. The farm animals were probably the ones I liked the most. I wanted to figure out the mystery and the ghosts so I just forced myself to keep reading. I hoped it would get better – it did not.

There were too many short sentences and most of the time it didn’t fit the rest of the writing. There were two sentences that would’ve worked perfectly fine as one. I suppose the writing was a (tiny) bit atmospheric but it was all brought down by the sentences and my dislike of the characters.

The husband is your typical horror movie husband. “No sweetie you’re imagining it.” At least he didn’t say it was the pregnancy when she said “xx weird things happened”. He also said “oh you’re still tense from your assault” that happened a year ago. She’s had therapy and has coping mechanisms but that’s most certainly not the reassuring thing to SAY. 
 

We had some old diary entries included from the family who lived there on the property in the 1950’s and I thought that writing was also odd. Two girls, 16/17 I think, the one’s diary’s entries was okay and the other just felt too modern?

The action and the climax was very weak. I’ve watched a ton of haunted houses and ghosts movies and it just all felt so lackluster. 

I definitely would’ve liked more from the book. I liked it, I liked what the author was doing. I think the book would’ve benefited from being longer. I wanted more – the prior events, the early days, leading up the full-on attacks. What we got wasn’t enough. Williford did well for the very short book, but I think his writing style and voice would’ve showed more if there were more (pages).

I liked Gabby and Nadia for the most part. I found Nadia to be annoying most of the time – she should be happy for Gabby for her career? Luckily we followed Gabby more which I liked. I didn’t really care for the side characters – even though one of my favourite things in post-apocalyptic settings are people coming together and creating communities.

I thought the ending was a but odd as well but it did set up hints of that community building which I like. Who knows if cheese will ever be safe again to eat (for them) 😂. 

Dnfed all 7 books that were included. None of them kept me engaged. 

The only spider in the world I might be potentially okay with touching (because it can talk) is in here and that’s Pauk. I think if I could ever trust a spider it would be him. Not that I need to trust one anyway. But still. And honestly, that’s due to Sutton’s writing! I think possibly another middle grade writer I would trust with (possibly) making me like spiders is Cornelia Funke.

I loved how lyrical the writing is. I really liked the in between chapter tales; they were really fun to read and they all fit in well with the main story. It added to the story-like feeling in a good way.

I liked Olga and Pavel a lot. I related to Olga a lot because she kept thinking she wasn’t good enough. But she also wanted a lot of things and I can relate to that as well. Plus I think the readers can relate a lot to that. Pavel was sweet and I was very glad that they had a good friendship (my heart for more good male/female friendships – without turning romantic).

Sutton did a good job with the plot and writing! It felt exactly right and there was a lot that I liked. Well-paced and I think even someone who isn’t into Middle Grade will like this book. I definitely want to check out her other middle grade book, A Wolf for a Spell. What’s great is that I didn’t even feel it was too young. Not that middle grade books can’t be good – I’m just saying I always like it when I, (an adult) enjoys a Middle Grade book.

I think I was wanting too much from this and it didn’t bring everything for me. A lot of the reviews were all praises but I didn’t feel all the samet. The artwork was amazing, I really liked the faces and I could feel (well see) their emotions clearly. The colouring was done really well and I love vibrant designs in graphic novels.

It was a bit difficult to constantly go from 2112 and 1492. I think both of the times were written well, maybe it was just the way the scenes would move from between the different times? I didn’t really understand the 2112 plot all too well? It felt like Jones was trying to push too much plot into the novel. But as I haven’t read any of his other books; I don’t know if that’s something he usually does.

The characters were interesting and the story was really really good. The synopsis is what made me want to read it in the first place. It just wasn’t all enough to make me like it a lot more. I won’t be reading the next volumes but I will read more from Stephen Graham Jones.