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eliotts_library
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Charms: read a book with a white cover (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
First read: some point in early 2012. 3 stars.
Second read: April 23rd, 2020. 4 stars
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Care of Magical Creatures: read a book that has a creature with a beak on the cover (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
I'm pleasantly surprised, and also very relieved. I first read The Hunger Games when I was 15 years old. I devoured it then, and I remembered liking it quite a lot. I was genuinely surprised when I looked at my rating today to see that I had only given it 3 stars, because I hold this series up so highly in my mind. I apparently liked it more the second time around, which is what I'm so relieved about. I was nervous to re-read this because I thought my tastes would have changed too much, and re-reading would ruin this series that I hold so dearly in my heart. But instead it did the opposite; I remember why this story has stayed with me so well for nearly a decade, and reading it again brought me right back to sitting in my 10th grade science class, sneaking in paragraphs under my desk whenever the teacher wasn't looking. It brought me back to the days (years, really) where I would sit and binge read and entire series in one weekend with plenty of time left over for homework. I read this in one sitting (aside from a few snack breaks) and enjoyed every second of it. I cried at the all the same parts I did the first time around, laughed at the same parts, and even though I know this story very well it still somehow felt fresh. While I do recognize that the writing is my no means extraordinary, there's something so compulsively readable about this book that even now I still loved it.
I think one reason why I actually enjoyed this more as an adult is that I have a better understanding of politics now. I knew literally nothing about how politics worked when I was a teenager. I don't think I even knew who the prime minister of my country was until I became old enough to vote, and I didn't understand what a dictatorship meant until I met someone in university who lived through one. I didn't even know what poor leadership looked like, with how little I paid attention to how my own country was run, let alone the one below me. But now as an adult, with a passion for politics and social justice that I didn't have all those years ago, I understand this story a hell of a lot better. I can understand their anger, their need for rebellion, the fear they face every day. Living in Canada I definitely don't experience those things first hand, but I have seen it in the real world now, and I know what it means. So while I was a little scared that reading this from the lens of someone who had grown up would ruin this series for me, it actually gave me an even deeper appreciation for them and I found it to be a lot more valuable than I did then. The first time I saw this story the same way the people of the Capitol did, as a love story. But now I understand the people of the districts, and I'm actually really looking forward to re-reading the other books before Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes comes out, if only to see how much of this story I missed when I was really only in it for the romance
Second read: April 23rd, 2020. 4 stars
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Care of Magical Creatures: read a book that has a creature with a beak on the cover (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
I'm pleasantly surprised, and also very relieved. I first read The Hunger Games when I was 15 years old. I devoured it then, and I remembered liking it quite a lot. I was genuinely surprised when I looked at my rating today to see that I had only given it 3 stars, because I hold this series up so highly in my mind. I apparently liked it more the second time around, which is what I'm so relieved about. I was nervous to re-read this because I thought my tastes would have changed too much, and re-reading would ruin this series that I hold so dearly in my heart. But instead it did the opposite; I remember why this story has stayed with me so well for nearly a decade, and reading it again brought me right back to sitting in my 10th grade science class, sneaking in paragraphs under my desk whenever the teacher wasn't looking. It brought me back to the days (years, really) where I would sit and binge read and entire series in one weekend with plenty of time left over for homework. I read this in one sitting (aside from a few snack breaks) and enjoyed every second of it. I cried at the all the same parts I did the first time around, laughed at the same parts, and even though I know this story very well it still somehow felt fresh. While I do recognize that the writing is my no means extraordinary, there's something so compulsively readable about this book that even now I still loved it.
I think one reason why I actually enjoyed this more as an adult is that I have a better understanding of politics now. I knew literally nothing about how politics worked when I was a teenager. I don't think I even knew who the prime minister of my country was until I became old enough to vote, and I didn't understand what a dictatorship meant until I met someone in university who lived through one. I didn't even know what poor leadership looked like, with how little I paid attention to how my own country was run, let alone the one below me. But now as an adult, with a passion for politics and social justice that I didn't have all those years ago, I understand this story a hell of a lot better. I can understand their anger, their need for rebellion, the fear they face every day. Living in Canada I definitely don't experience those things first hand, but I have seen it in the real world now, and I know what it means. So while I was a little scared that reading this from the lens of someone who had grown up would ruin this series for me, it actually gave me an even deeper appreciation for them and I found it to be a lot more valuable than I did then. The first time I saw this story the same way the people of the Capitol did, as a love story. But now I understand the people of the districts, and I'm actually really looking forward to re-reading the other books before Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes comes out, if only to see how much of this story I missed when I was really only in it for the romance
3.5⭐️
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - History of Magic: a book featuring witches/wizards (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
The Glass Magician was much better than The Paper Magician (although still kit fantastic to be honest). The romance still disturbs me a whole lot, and I’d hoped the love interest would have maybe been more responsible and put a stop to it before things got inappropriate. But alas no such luck. The plot was so much more interesting than the first one, and I especially liked that plot twist at the end. I’m not entirely sure where this series is going to go, but I wouldn’t be mad if Ceony ended up becoming a villain after discovering what she did
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - History of Magic: a book featuring witches/wizards (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
The Glass Magician was much better than The Paper Magician (although still kit fantastic to be honest). The romance still disturbs me a whole lot, and I’d hoped the love interest would have maybe been more responsible and put a stop to it before things got inappropriate. But alas no such luck. The plot was so much more interesting than the first one, and I especially liked that plot twist at the end. I’m not entirely sure where this series is going to go, but I wouldn’t be mad if Ceony ended up becoming a villain after discovering what she did
4.5★
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Divination: use a random number generator on your TBR (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
What a beautiful collection! I really enjoyed this, I'm so glad I finally got the chance to read it! Like all short story collections, there were of course a few that I liked less than others. But amazingly there wasn't a single one that I outright disliked. Even when the stories weren't that interesting to me, the writing was still so beautiful that I didn't mind reading it.
My favourites in this collection were Olivia's Table by Alyssa Wong, Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia, and The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon. These stories really stood out to me, The Crimson Cloak even made me tear up a bit.
My least favourites were Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee, and The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliette de Bodard. And with that said, as mentioned above, the writing was still so stunning that I still enjoyed reading them, even though the actually stories didn't quite capture me.
Just a really fantastic collection, there really isn't anything else that I could say about it. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a lover of fairytales
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Divination: use a random number generator on your TBR (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
What a beautiful collection! I really enjoyed this, I'm so glad I finally got the chance to read it! Like all short story collections, there were of course a few that I liked less than others. But amazingly there wasn't a single one that I outright disliked. Even when the stories weren't that interesting to me, the writing was still so beautiful that I didn't mind reading it.
My favourites in this collection were Olivia's Table by Alyssa Wong, Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia, and The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon. These stories really stood out to me, The Crimson Cloak even made me tear up a bit.
My least favourites were Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee, and The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliette de Bodard. And with that said, as mentioned above, the writing was still so stunning that I still enjoyed reading them, even though the actually stories didn't quite capture me.
Just a really fantastic collection, there really isn't anything else that I could say about it. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a lover of fairytales
First read: March 2013. ★★★★
I didn't like it as much as the others, but the ending was perfect!
Second read: May 2020. ★★★★★
Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book that has yellowed over time
Of all the terrible heartbreaks that happen throughout this entire series, of course it was the fucking cat that broke me. I'm not even a little bit surprised lmfao
My god I loved this. I'm so so glad that I decided to re-read this series, and completely surprised that I loved it even more now than I did when I was 15/16. This was such an interesting story, and I was weirdly invested in the characters despite the writing of them to be pretty simplistic. Reading this again as an adult who has refined my reading tastes over the years, I can see now that from a technical standpoint these books aren't phenomenal by any means. From the start of the first book you pretty much where things are going and have a rough idea of how they will eventually end. And while it wasn't entirely certain, you have some degree of confidence over who will still be alive by the end of it. But regardless this story is still so gripping, still kept me biting my nails and on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was coming. So despite the lack of technical finesse, this series is still a huge success for me almost a decade after reading it the first time. I'm so unbelievably hyped for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes now!
I didn't like it as much as the others, but the ending was perfect!
Second read: May 2020. ★★★★★
Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book that has yellowed over time
Of all the terrible heartbreaks that happen throughout this entire series, of course it was the fucking cat that broke me. I'm not even a little bit surprised lmfao
My god I loved this. I'm so so glad that I decided to re-read this series, and completely surprised that I loved it even more now than I did when I was 15/16. This was such an interesting story, and I was weirdly invested in the characters despite the writing of them to be pretty simplistic. Reading this again as an adult who has refined my reading tastes over the years, I can see now that from a technical standpoint these books aren't phenomenal by any means. From the start of the first book you pretty much where things are going and have a rough idea of how they will eventually end. And while it wasn't entirely certain, you have some degree of confidence over who will still be alive by the end of it. But regardless this story is still so gripping, still kept me biting my nails and on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was coming. So despite the lack of technical finesse, this series is still a huge success for me almost a decade after reading it the first time. I'm so unbelievably hyped for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes now!
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
Robin Wasserman, Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson
Read for Tome Topple Round 11: the tome that has been on your TBR the longest + tome from a series
I -
I loved this?
So much??
No one is as shocked as I am that I loved a Shadowhunter book again but here we are!
If you know me then you probably know that over the last several years I have very much fallen out of love with the world of the Shadowhunters, and Cassandra Clare in general. But I keep reading this books for three reasons; I'm apparently a masochist, I've dedicated so much time and money to this world that I'm determined to read all of it, and most importantly because I keep waiting for one of them to give me the same feelings I had when I first got into this series almost a decade ago. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy actually, and very surprisingly, did that. I had been avoiding this book for four years, just kept putting it off, but I'm so glad that I finally read this. And it flew by! I read this in three or four sittings? I was invested in all the side characters, in the small plots of each story but also the bigger plot taking place throughout all of them. This was just a really well done collection, and I especially loved getting to know more characters who weren't just the same few that we've been reading about over and over again for years. And this also made me unbelievably excited to read Chain of Gold, which I've also been dreading for years but no longer
Anyways, at this point I'm just rambling. But point of the matter is, I really enjoyed this book, I'm very glad that I read it, and I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now because THAT ENDING THOUGH WTF
I -
I loved this?
So much??
No one is as shocked as I am that I loved a Shadowhunter book again but here we are!
If you know me then you probably know that over the last several years I have very much fallen out of love with the world of the Shadowhunters, and Cassandra Clare in general. But I keep reading this books for three reasons; I'm apparently a masochist, I've dedicated so much time and money to this world that I'm determined to read all of it, and most importantly because I keep waiting for one of them to give me the same feelings I had when I first got into this series almost a decade ago. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy actually, and very surprisingly, did that. I had been avoiding this book for four years, just kept putting it off, but I'm so glad that I finally read this. And it flew by! I read this in three or four sittings? I was invested in all the side characters, in the small plots of each story but also the bigger plot taking place throughout all of them. This was just a really well done collection, and I especially loved getting to know more characters who weren't just the same few that we've been reading about over and over again for years. And this also made me unbelievably excited to read Chain of Gold, which I've also been dreading for years but no longer
Anyways, at this point I'm just rambling. But point of the matter is, I really enjoyed this book, I'm very glad that I read it, and I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now because THAT ENDING THOUGH WTF
Yes. YES. A HUNDRED TIMES YES The Scorpio Races is everything that I wanted it to be while also being not at all what I expected. I don’t really know what I thought this was going to be about but I’m so pleasantly surprised
The action!
The lowkey romance!!
The family dynamics!!!
The atmosphere!!!!
EVERYTHING IS AMAZING
I’m still in the process of drying the tears off my face from that ending
The one reason that this is not a 5 star read is because I found the beginning to be pretty slow. I ended up switching to the audiobook around page 70, which I think was a good choice for me
The action!
The lowkey romance!!
The family dynamics!!!
The atmosphere!!!!
EVERYTHING IS AMAZING
I’m still in the process of drying the tears off my face from that ending
The one reason that this is not a 5 star read is because I found the beginning to be pretty slow. I ended up switching to the audiobook around page 70, which I think was a good choice for me
Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Astronomy: read a book mostly at night (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)
Yikes. Ohhh boy
This started off SO GOOD and went downhill SO FAST
Full review to come, might make a rant review on BookTube, we'll see what happens
Wow this was something
UPDATE here's my rant review video
Yikes. Ohhh boy
This started off SO GOOD and went downhill SO FAST
Full review to come, might make a rant review on BookTube, we'll see what happens
Wow this was something
UPDATE here's my rant review video
Read for Medieval-a-thon: weapons, bow/arrow - read a romance
This is definitely on the lower end of 4, not quite 3.5 but not a full 4 either
Full review to come!
This is definitely on the lower end of 4, not quite 3.5 but not a full 4 either
Full review to come!