dbguide2's Reviews (863)

This was my last read of August, like I finished this on the last day of August, sometime after midnight. I think I was watching Tarzan, actually. So maybe I was too into Tarzan to properly pay attention

I really thought the characters would have powers linked to death because it’s called Graveyard Wars so that’s where my line of thinking was. But actually they can just access people’s skills sets? So like, if you need a doctor right now, boom you know how to do open heart surgery, I guess. I didn’t understand some of the restrictions on their powers – like can they access ordinary people’s skill sets or is it limited to dead people who also had the ability (to access the skill sets)? Maybe that’ll be explained further down the line but I also don’t know if I’ll want to carry on with the series.

I realised (a couple of pages had passed) that there was a difference between 2 characters –  I thought like it was the same girl. but it was actually 2 different girls. Another thing I did have an issue with was it the wasn’t a lot of dialogue. so all I’m left with is stills of the characters instead of, say, narrative. With narrative, it makes it easier to follow the characters whereas with stills you have to sort of draw your own conclusion and I wasn’t really interested in doing that. Might’ve been a reason why I didn’t like it it as much as I was hoping I would.

It’s a very interesting concept – diamonds being used in magic, but not just any magic – blood magic. Which does have darker connotations.  And I think (one of the reasons why) I became so disinterested in this book is because I thought there would be a much bigger emphasis on the whole blood magic thing, then it was barely touched on.

I actually had this whole paragraph about how Kohl takes in people that are like nearly dead or who don’t have many prospects, and then I finished the book and realised ‘oh no he’s actually really bad.’ Like he’s absolutely awful. A terrible, terrible person. I like that we’re told that he’s awful, but we’re also shown a little goodness, just enough to make us think he could be good. He is very good at manipulating people – which isn’t a good thing of course, but he thinks he’s a good guy and actually helping people – which makes him an even more complex written character – because we’re fooled into thinking he can be a good character.

I liked most of the other characters. Tannis was my favourite side character – I wish we saw more of her, but maybe she’s a bigger character in the sequel. As for the others, yeah, I actually wish they had given Tannis more page time rather than those that had. I’m not saying I didn’t like or care for Teo or Ryuu, or the others, (okay, I am a bit) they didn’t really hold much interest for me.

One of the aspects of the book I really liked was all the crime mentioned in the book. Aina being an assassin, the city basically thriving on crime and forcing the people to take on lives of crime to live and then blaming them for the crime. That was interesting to see because it mirrors real life in a way – people being forced to do what needs to be done in order to survive and then being blamed for that exact thing.

I liked the plot, until it made me very confused. There kept being another plot point behind a trap door, because that’s what it felt like to me – I turn the page and boom, there’s a new area of the plot I didn’t know or didn’t see happening. Sure, a part of that was because I wasn’t paying as much attention as usual, so that’s probably my fault.

The more I write this review the more I get so annoyed because I know I should be into this book and loving it, and honestly, I will probably read the sequel; but this book just made me so frustrated with dragging me along, promising me a good time, and basically, failing to provide that.

That is definitely the case in this book. Even though I first thought it would be hard to understand, what with all the alchemy and science information, but I’m glad it wasn’t! Thea (the main character) is more than passionate enough about alchemy and trying to complete any alchemist’s life goal and dream. I felt Thea’s need and want to create the Stone – it wasn’t just for her, she also wanted to prove herself to her mother.

Oh, her mother. What a character and a half. While she isn’t actually physically by Thea all throughout the book, her mom’s words and actions are most certainly there. And they affect her as the mom is really manipulative and only thinks of herself. She’s so dismissive of Thea’s alchemy skills and only wants Thea to help her in her triumph.

I won’t say much of the romance because it holds some spoilers, but it did not go the way I thought it would have. But I’m also impressed that it went that way. I enjoyed it and the fact that it wasn’t the usual cookie-cutter romance we see.

There was something I’m always not keen (in the slightest) to see and that was girl-on-girl hate/pitting girls against each other – whatever you prefer saying. And I’m so so tired of seeing it in books! Why do they have to think less of the other? Because the one girl enjoys ‘pretty’ things while the other prefers to study? Because a certain boy pays more attention to the one girl than the other? Would the story change if it were taken out? In this book, I think it wouldn’t change much if the criticising of the girls (by the girls) were taken out.

I think a big reason why I stay away from historical fiction is that there’s so much of the writing, usually of the narrative and description. Which is probably funny because if you present me with a fantasy book that has an overabundance of narration and description, I’ll probably thank you. But I didn’t feel that way in here! I could easily keep up with all the alchemy talk and kept being intrigued by how much Thea’s mom annoyed me (with how unfair she was to her daughter). 

I’ve realised I really really like angst. Like I knew I liked it, but I didn’t realise that I actually prefer angst until I read Wayward Son (sequel to Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell). So, while I do really love happy endings and the sequel being all happiness and butterflies; I like the sadness and angst, especially with bountiful amounts of yearning and yearning, all the while the angst just builds and builds and it’s all so gorgeous.

And this is definitely the case in this book. You have Séverin perpetually pining over Laila, and that makes him sad. And he’s sad because of the very sad, awful thing that happened at the end of The Gilded Wolves (which is, you know, we don’t talk about that, okay). He must be so tired from thinking he’s doing things all wrong and a team that he’s bound to let down and/or lose them; can we all just chip in to buy him a gift voucher for a couple of therapy lessons? Like, please, Séverin, accept some love from your team.

And then on the other hand, Laila is also pining over Séverin, and I can now definitely count them as a favourite ship, and they need to be together at the end of the series. But there’s another issue that she also has to worry about, and which issue does she need to be worried about more? And the two of them go back and forth on their relationship and feelings, all written excellently and it’s all so good. 
 

Don’t get me even started on how much I love Hypnos, Enrique, and Zofia. I love them so so much. Like I said below, I love all the cast equally but I do have a special super interest in these three because they seem to share the same thought – that they don’t belong, that they’re most likely annoying. Like, HI, I resonate!! FULLY! So that’s probably why I feel so much for them because I can relate to them just a little bit more than the others.

I had so many emotions while reading this. So, so many emotions – my Kindle is just full of it. If you’re a reader who reads for emotions and is wanting to find more books that’ll make you swoon and squeal (or whatever your choice is), then I highly, highly recommend this series.

Roshani is just a master at creating prose for her characters. Its all so beautiful. I don’t even feel like I’m sitting on my couch and watching a movie while I’m reading – the prose and the story and the way the characters speak with each other makes me feel like I’m right there with them. Basically, I just want to eat the words, I know that probably doesn’t make any sense at all, but that’s how I’m feeling – like I want to pick up the words and chew the words.

I love how sometimes, in the kindle notes I’m like Roshani, this and Roshani, that; like I personally have Sunday lunch with her or something, like she’ll read this review and then invite me to lunch 

Again, I can’t even begin to say who’s my favourite character. Okay, like, if you push and push and push me to give you an answer, then I’ll say Zofia – she is my utter favourite. But then ever so quickly afterwards, I’ll yell out Enrique and Hypnos’s name. So you see, it’s pointless to ask me that question because they’re all my favourite!

Even how they interact with each other – with Séverin having this whole façade and he thinks he’s lying successfully to everyone but his team sees right through him. Is that because Séverin subconsciously trusts them enough to let his guard down or are they all too good at seeing through lies and falsehoods? Either way, bound to make me more emotional.

Also, Roshani, we need to have a whole short story collection of some of their adventures. I want to know every little detail about the VOLCANO that was first mentioned in The Gilded Wolves. And then you mention MECHANICAL SHARKS?? Now I HAVE to know!! I’m glad I listened to the audiobook (of tgw) because now I know how to pronounce the stuff! And now I can see how everything is spelt. 

THE MAGIC
Okay, you know I’m a huge fan of magic in books and the magic system. I especially loved that in here. The type of magic seen in this book is called Forging, and includes both mental and physical abilities – like I believe you would be able to change an object’s appearance, or be able to tell its history – who the owners have been, where it was made, etc., just by a touch. The amount of intricacy involved in the art of each Forging and how the character used it every time is definitely something I’d love to see on screen. Will the magic be conveyed by sparks? By swirls or streams of colour? Only visible to those with Forging abilities?

The book also showed what each forging ability could do and couldn’t and what their caster’s limits are too. I love it when magic has limits, because then it shows that magic can’t do everything; that in the end, we’re all so helplessly human.

THE COSTUMES
If a movie/tv series gets a good wardrobe budget and costume designers, then you have outfits that are truly amazing. And because The Gilded Wolves is a historical fantasy, you’re able to have gorgeous historically accurate clothing, rather than what’s in style at the time that the book is set in (I’ve recently been watching Hannah Montana and… what was the fashion back then and why was it so bad?).

The outfits described in the book sound so elegant and fashionable and while we do get to see that with the occasional art, I would love to see that depicted on the screen. Great, swooshing amounts of fabric, each character showing their style – their way of dressing, their favourite clothes to wear when they’re just at home; all good things I must see.

THE FOOD
Laila is the resident Mom™ Friend of the group and makes sure everyone’s eating. She also likes to bake a lot, which is amazing, because I always prefer to eat rather than bake (like if you ask me to help you roll out cookie dough and the recipe says makes 40, the tray will end up making 20 if I help).

The food was described in ways that just made me want to reach into the book and pull out the food. You could almost smell the fresh food, almost feel the piece of let’s say, donuts – did they have donuts back then? Maybe you could even imagine tasting whatever you were eating – I know I was thinking along those lines.

I would love to see that on screen, just be able to to see the food and it’ll be almost as good as actually smelling and eating the food. Or, can you imagine, if they released a cookbook made exclusively out of Laila’s recipes or recipes submitted by Roshani, something like that. Or maybe the cast’s favorite foods – I would buy that book and possibly make the food in there.

THE CHARACTERS
This group of characters is definitely going in my book as one of the best cast I’ve ever read. There were more than just characters in the book, having to perform jobs and missions together. They were friends, wanting to be with each other, have fun and laugh with each other. They felt more like a family than just a team working together – which is great, because the whole concept of the found family trope is that they want to spend time with each other. Sure, you can add a whole bunch of banter and Feelings™, but you can’t fake becoming closer.

I can’t even begin to think who is my actual favourite, because it’s ALL of them! Even Séverin who gets on my nerves a lot with how he thinks and treats the other characters, I still like to read his view. I loved reading how each character feels about Forging and what they think is their role in the group versus what their role is actually (which made for a lot of my comments to be ‘soft’).

I’d love to see Zofia and Laila become friends, everyone crowding around Laila and asking about the food. Hypnos just randomly coming over and making himself at home, sitting too close to Enrique and flirting with him. I want to see Enrique getting all excited over something historical or linguistical (same, Enrique. Same) and no one’s really interested. Tristin, even walking around casually with Goliath in his hands. is something I’d even want to see (and then he has to be back in his cage – Goliath, not Tristan, that is). And let’s be real, we all want to see Séverin moping, don’t lie. We all love the angst.

THE REPRESENTATION
This review would have been shorter, but I couldn’t not include this, as it’s so vitally important. So, the entire cast is all super diverse and I think it’s extremely, majorly important that the casting respects and follows the representation. Maybe there’s a Jewish Polish girl who’s autistic and always thought herself to be extremely weird and unlikable – what if she sees The Gilded Wolves (with or without reading the book, we don’t shame here), sees Zofia on screen, sees herself in Zofia?

Titles, whether or not they’re book adaptations suffer a lot through whitewashing or dancing around labels. Either because they’re afraid how the audience will react, or the studio doesn’t want it; taking away a label, an identity, is something that can be harmful, and shouldn’t happen. Whenever this book is adapted (I’m choosing not to say if), it should be correctly casted. Someone who understands why Laila’s dancing is so important should be playing Laila. Enrique’s actor needs to be played by someone who understands him and his heritage.

I’m not saying that the adaptation will be a total flop if the actors aren’t a 1000% copy of the characters. I’m just saying that you don’t know who’s watching and who sees themself in a character, and I think that’s an extremely important point to consider.

THE STORYTELLING
Okay, so, I have no idea how they’ll be able to transfer the sheer and utter art of the narrative and the storytelling – the way the paragraphs were weaved together and how they seamlessly followed another onto the screen. I invite them to try, though.

I suppose that’s one of the pros of the book over the movie/series. You’re able to see how the characters feel about a situation, whereas with actors, you just have to hope they can convey the same feelings. Or with dialogue – we all know our favourite lines in our favourite books, but who knows if they’ll be carried over 100% to the screen.

A cute easy read that will certainly make you reread Little Women and wish there’s magic and witches in there (just in time for the movie remake, right?). I didn’t remember much of the original Little Witches, except that I liked Jo the best, probably because she reminded me of George from the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton (also my favourite character. Timmy and Julian were like tied for second place).

I’ve become more used to reading Comics and Graphic Novels, and while I am (most definitely) not gifted in drawing or you know, anything visual creative stuff (writing’s more my speed, obviously), I can and do definitely tell and admire when the graphics are good! And this is the case with Little Witches – they’re so cute and like soft? Which doesn’t really make sense – but it’s like their faces (facial features etc) are softly drawn.

I really liked all the characters. I’m always up for siblings in novels and I was happy to see that they looked and felt like siblings – their banter, conversations. Even if they got into some fights and arguments along the way (like listen, which siblings don’t? My sister and I used to fight over the remote or even who was doing the dishes). But in the end, when it really matters, they come together and help each other and that’s what I love about sibling interaction! That they still love each other very much, even though they annoy each other and fight and all that; when it comes down to it, when one sibling needs the help, the other will be there to do whatever they can.

I already spoke about Jo being my favourite character but Laurie was definitely my second-favourite! I loved him. Everything about him was great, his personality and I liked what a strong character he was. I liked his grandfather too.

And then when the magic played into the story I was even more excited. I enjoyed how the magic showed different genres – like you could be stronger in one area in magic than other. Which is always a thing I loved because as cool as it may be, it’s actually more realistic for a character with magic to not be top in all categories or areas of magic. I liked how they showed the sisters practicing the different areas of magic and what they could do.

The plot was pretty interesting. It is a usual thing with magic – if you have magic, wield magic etc, there’s bound to be bad/dark magic – because it’s a common theme in books where magic is, or even in fantasy books where the good beat the bad. And I liked how they showed it in here.

Wow, I really thought I wouldn’t have a lot to say about this book – just because I thought I wouldn’t be able to put down what I liked about this book, but turns out I did! Have you read this book? If so, what do you think about it? Did you like the graphics and the sibling interactons?

f my mother knew I was reading this… luckily I’m like half-sure she doesn’t read my posts. But, if you are reading this, mamma, uhm, I love you and be sure to give my cat a kiss from me.

This was my first manga, compared to just comics and graphic novels previously, so I did have to keep reminding myself of the rules of reading manga. But I would quickly remember the rules before I read much of the page. I enjoyed it being in black and white, though! I thought I wouldn’t as I’m so used to colour on the pages and thought: “Maybe the story wouldn’t be good in b&w as it would be in colour” – but that was not the case with Saint Young Men!

So, this doesn’t have much of a plot, okay? It’s mostly Buddha and Jesus walking around Japan and being friends and roommates – which I really liked, as you know what? It would be really cool for the deities/gods of different religions to be chilling with each other. The conversation and banter between the two main characters was great! I could tell they were friends and were comfortable with each other. It’s so humourous, all their experiences and adventures.

I can’t speak for how accurate Buddha was portrayed but Jesus was pretty accurately portrayed. Like He’s meant to be, not the person most ‘Christians’ make Him out to be. I didn’t want to read this in the first place, because I thought that He wouldn’t be shown correctly. But then He was! And I loved it! Aside from how accurate their portrayals were, I really enjoyed how their characters were written. And how they managed to fit in with the modern crowd and at the same time, struggled to not show their immortality and their giftings, or anything that’ll draw unneeded/unwanted attention to them. Which ended up in some hilarious experiences (I’m looking at you, Jesus).

All in all, great characters. Little actual plot but to be honest, I actually liked that. Do I recommend this: Yes! If you’re wanting a light-hearted chuckle of a manga.

Have you read this this? Or are you meaning to? If you were in their position (had powers of their magnitude, not being an actual god/deity), would you keep it to yourself or just show it? I’d go around and perform small miracles, you know – paying off a random student’s loan, giving a person the exact amount of money that they need at the exact time, allowing a pet shelter all that they ever need for the animals

Well, first of all, the synopsis (the true synopsis, not my summarisation) is fantastic and it’s a major major reason that I took the book; it is also massively long. Even for a fantasy novel. So, picture this, right? The synopsis is all fantastically good, makes me super excited to read the book and I can’t wait because it’s going to be epic… aaand it… just fell apart.

And by ‘just fell apart’, I mean the synopsis built up this expectation and I was already thinking of like it’s gonna be like Game of Thrones with the dragons or some type of siren-like power with the singing, but it didn’t have any of that.

And the whole thing with the actual wing walkers (who only showed up a bit) – this confused me a lot because I thought they would be there a lot and that their role would be important; and while it was, I didn’t think it was properly used. And that was a shame because they could’ve been fantastic. But alas.

It was a quick and easy read. There were mini dragons involved and a smart female main character – I was interested. But that’s all I was – just merely interested. I don’t remember much of this other than a cave? And the school project? There was enough to keep me reading, sure, but there wasn’t enough to keep me involved in the story, and not enough for me to want to read further.

I liked the writing, and the characters, Khaly was probably my favourite character and I do like how spunky she was. And like, yes, tell the superiors off, definitely, because they don’t want to listen to reason – just because they think they’re the better person or more educated – you can always learn from another person. I like the cover – it’s a good drawing and partly why I took it (as I think it was a download now arc).

I absolutely loved this book. It’s more about fashion, it’s more about a good summer. It’s about love, and acceptance, and understanding why you do what you’re good at. It’s about finding yourself and finding more friends and even love (listen, I get happy at some cliché things, and this is definitely one of them).

Abby is such a good character. She’s realistic and funny. She makes you root for her, you want her to be happy and to get what she wants. What’s more is that she makes you feel like you’re there – which is something I always enjoy in books and something I think is important to have – the ability to relate to a character.

Her love interest, Jordi, was a good character. I liked to see her passion of photography and was happy to see her as Abby’s love interest.

Another point of the book that I really liked was the romance. It was super sweet and so cute and just something that I really liked seeing. That and it had the feeling of a total rom-com – like something you could see on the big screen.

A side character I just wanted to squeeze becuase he too great was Jax – he was absolutely delightful to read. He was kind, and a good friend to my girl, Abby. And I mean, he had the best job – where can I get a job like this? Like eating burgers in the name of helping your dad? Could we carry on to trying the other foods – like the ice-cream? Or the nachos or sushi? Yes, please, I will sign up for all of those.

All in all, a very cute read, definitely perfect for the summer and great if you need a pick-me-up book with good ownvoices representation.