City of Ghosts ★★★★
Tunnel of Bones ★★★1/2

I found Tunnel of Bones to be quite a bit less compelling than City of Ghosts, but it was still a fun, enjoyable read!

So what's going on here?
Tunnel of Bones follows Cassidy and her best friend Jacob, who just happens to be a ghost, as they make their way through all the ghostly parts of Paris as they film their parents paranormal television show. As is the norm for Cassidy and Jacob, wherever they go trouble follows. This time trouble comes in the form of poltergeist child, hellbent on wreaking havoc for not just Cassidy and her family, but the entirety of Paris as well. Cassidy and Jacob, with the help of Lara, a Paris tour guide, and an 11 year old descendent of the poltergeist, must help the child move on before anyone gets hurts.

What I loved
I absolutely adore the setting of Tunnel of Bones! The blurb makes you think that most of this book will be set in the Catacombs, which the main parts are, but they also explore other haunted areas that are equally famous and creepy. Schwab does a fantastic job at writing spooky scenes while also incorporating a good amount of comic relief (can't be too spooky for a middle grade book of course). But the paranormal aside, I think she did a fantastic job with the Paris setting in general; from the atmosphere, to the attitude of the people, and the deliciousness of the food (god I miss the food in France!). I really enjoyed the character development that Jaco went through, we start seeing more who he is and was before he died. And the side characters are really fun, I especially liked the tour guide (her name is escaping me right now oops).

What I didn't love
First off, I fully understand that this book is intended for a younger audience and I tried not to let that cloud my judgment too much (which is why I rounded up to a 4 instead of down to a 3). Maybe I'm just biased because 1. I've been to France multiple times, even lived there for a few months last year, and 2. I'm Canadian and we learn French in school here. But I found it really frustrating to follow Cassidy around Paris and while she knows absolutely nothing about France or the French language, not even numbers 1-10. Again, I may be biased because I know Americans learn Spanish in schools, but I and mostly everyone I know has some extremely basic Spanish despite not having learned it in school, so I always imagined it was the same with Americans and French. But I could be wrong! And with Cassidy not knowing anything about France, including things like a crepe and the Louvre, I found myself to be rolling my eyes a bit at how dumb she sounded (but at the same time, I understand that Schwab needed that much description because one should never assume that every single reader will know what you're talking about. But still, it was annoying).

Overall thoughts
Despite some small annoyances, this was overall an extremely enjoyable book and series. They're fun and light, with just the right amount of spook factor to make them perfect reads for the halloween season. I'm really looking forward the next book, and hopefully more after that!

I need to watch the film again ASAP! Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favourite movies of all time, so when I heard it was being adapted into a novel, words could not describe my excitement. Del Toro and Funke did not disappoint! The novel adaptation provides a wonderfully fresh take on the beloved film, filling in details and giving side character so much more depth by telling things from their perspective. I especially enjoyed the mini fairytales between the chapters that told the tales of the witch, the Faun, and the bookmaker. All of the stories were fantastic, but those three were my favourites.

I listened to the audiobook while reading along with a physical copy, which I would definitely recommend. The illustrations are stunning and the narrator did an incredible job. I will definitely be going back to reread/listen to this for years to come.

I don't even know where to start with this.

THIS WAS SOME GODDAMN BULLSHIT AND I AM UPSET

This book. THIS FUCKING BOOK.

IT WAS SO GOOD. SO ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL AND GENUINELY TERRIFYING. This book had me so worked up, I've been a jumpy mess for the last two weeks that I've been reading it. IT WAS SO WELL WRITTEN. IT WAS SCARY. I LOVED THE CHARACTERS. THE PLOT WAS CONFUSING IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE. IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED IN A HORROR NOVEL.

U N T I L

EVERYTHING
WENT
TO
S H I T

ABSOLUTE AND UTTER BULLSHIT.

I fucking loved this book up until the 80% mark. I will give credit where credit is due; And The Trees Crept In was wonderful at first. The majority of the book was fantastic, like could have been one of my favourite books kind of fantastic. BUT THEN. THE

Spoiler

FUCKING SEX SCENE IN THE WOODS

HAPPENED. THIS IS WHERE IT STARTED TO GO DOWNHILL.

Before that happened, this was without a doubt a five star book. Afterwards, I was only going to drop it to four stars. Because as stupid as it was, it is YA so I had to forgive it at least a little bit. BUT THEN IT GOT WORSE. IT WAS JUST A DOWNHILL FUCKING SPIRAL AFTER THAT.

THE ENDING????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME. ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING DAWN KURTAGICH?? ALL OF THE HORRIFYING SHIT HAPPENING IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN NOVEL WAS HAPPENING BECAUSE OF THAT???????????? ALL SILLA HAD TO DO WAS

FORGIVE HERSELF

AND THAT WOULD SOLVE EVERYTHING????? HONESTLY. THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY THOUGHT OF, AND IS THE REASON THAT THIS BOOK WENT FROM FIVE FUCKING STARS TO T W O.

THE FUCK KIND OF BULLSHIT

THIS BOOK WAS A WASTE OF MY TIME. WHICH IS REALLY UPSETTING BECAUSE I REALLY REALLY LIKED MOST OF IT. BUT THE FUCKING ENDING COMPLETELY RUINED IT. THE LAST TWENTY PERCENT. KURATAGICH WROTE ABSOLUTE PERFECTION FOR 80 GODDAMN PERCENT AND THEN SHE HAD TO GO AND FUCK IT UP WITH BAD YA TROPES AND BAD WRITING AND BAD STORYTELLING AND BAD CHEESY STUPID FUCKING EVERYTHING OH MY GOD I'M SO ANGRY AT HOW MUCH TIME I JUST WASTED.

★★★.5 maybe? Possibly a full 4 I'm not sure to be honest

It's been like a month since I finished this and I completely forget what I was going to say for my review oops. But I do know that I really enjoyed this! It wasn't perfect, and the story was pretty generic, but I liked the way it was done. Granted, I'll like almost anything with a found family aspect, especially if that found family is on a pirate ship. I found the magic system to be especially interesting and liked how well it was described. The plot and pacing was good, although the plot twist at the end was a little predictable but still well done. Overall, not my favourite book ever but I'll definitely continue with this series! I have zero memory of how this book ended so the next book will be a total surprise, but that's alright lmfao

Another night, another audiobook listened to in one sitting and finished at 2 in the morning

I listened to the audiobook for this at 2 in the morning while in bed, stoned, shortly after coming home from a really shit day at work. I was thinking about all the bad shit in my life and feeling hopeless for the future, and put this one just because I needed something to quiet my brain and help me fall asleep. I think these words were exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. I'll be honest, I don't actually remember most of the poems (thank you, marijuana), but I do remember feeling like Courtney had taken the swirling mess of emotions right out of my soul and turned it into poetry. I really enjoyed the audiobook specifically and I'm glad I chose to read this in that format; it's narrated by Courtney herself and she did a phenomenal job with it, so I definitely recommend going that route

I did find there was a certain level of cheesiness with a lot of the poems, but I don't necessarily thing that it's a bad thing? I personally like all things cheesy but it may not be for everyone

So cute and funny!

★★.5

Not gonna lie, I really didn’t think a solid half of this book was just going to be descriptions of magical creatures. That was pretty boring, but the tiny amount of the book that wasn’t that was cute