Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book under 300 pages

First read: September 2012.

★★★★★

I went into this book thinking I would hate it because I don't like The Hunger Games. However, within the first few chapters I was completely in love with it!

Peeta is just wonderful! In the first book, I didn't really care about him, but now I'm so attached!

I'll never love Peeta more than Gale, though. That man is perfection. Go Team Gale!!

All the characters are great!

I love all the plot twists and the anticipation. And I especially love that Catching Fire isn't a rip off of Battle Royale! Bonus marks for that

Second read: May 2020

★★★★★

Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book that has yellowed over time


8 years later and that last line still felt like a punch to the gut. Goddamn that was good.

I'm so happy that this series has stood the test of time so far. I really didn't think I would still love it this much if I read it again as an adult, but wow I love it even more than I did as a teenager. I liked Catching Fire a lot more than The Hunger Games actually. The political aspect got a lot more heated and that's 100% what I'm here for with this series. I don't give a shit about the romance, which is great because neither does Katniss (not much at least). I can't believe 15 year old me wanted this series to be mostly romance, what was I thinking lmfao. Well, 23 year old me I thoroughly enjoying this series about the dethroning of a monstrous political system and I can't wait to get to Mockingjay

Ohhhh boy was this ever bad!

I can't believe how bad this was. I'm genuinely shocked that I was able to get through the entire book. There was literally nothing about How to Fall that was enjoyable in any way, shape, or form.

Of all the very many issues that I have with this book, my biggest one is our lovely main character, Jess. She is quite possibly the worst character I've ever read in a YA novel. Every time she opens her mouth it's to say something judgmental. She slut shames every chance she gets, thinks everyone else is dumb, and for some reason believes that she's superior to all because she can quote some of the poetry that everyone is required to read in school anyways. She was insufferable! Not to mention so fucking insensitive. What right does she have to go up to people who recently lost someone they love and go "so did she kill herself or what?" What the actual fuck. Does she not see that digging around and asking all these questions is hurting people? I think it would have been different if the main character had been someone who was close to the girl who died. That would have made sense as to why she wanted answers and wouldn't stop digging until she found them. But this random ass bitch strolling into down and thinking she's entitled to everyone's life story because she's related to the girl who died? Who she never even met?? What a load of shit. The only reason Jess wouldn't let it go is because she wanted to be right, not because she actually cared about finding answers, or getting justice, or whatever other bullshit excuse she gave to other people

Anyways, don't waste your time with this book unless you really like reading garbage characters and laughably bad "plot twists," if you can ever call them that

3.5★, but maybe 4? Not entirely sure

I'm kind of conflicted on this one, to be honest. It was really beautiful and a unique world, but there was something about it that didn't quite capture me fully. I adored the setting and the bits of world building we got, I really wish we'd been able to see more of that. I would have loved for one of the illustrations to be of a city, I wasn't able to picture what an ocean city would look like but I think it would be stunning. I think my main issue was the plot, I guess? It wasn't boring but it also wasn't exciting. I don't know. Basically, this was good but not great and I have no idea how to articulate why that is lmfao

The Cruel Prince: ★★★★
The Queen of Nothing: ★★★★

All hail Holly Black, Queen of Cliffhangers! We bow down

In a truly shocking turn of events, I'm giving The Wicked King 5 stars??

Here I was, going around saying that I was totally satisfied with the ending of The Cruel Prince and didn't feel a sequel was necessary. AND BOY WAS I WRONG. WOW. I loved this, every last second of it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, literally gasping "oh bitch you better not!" at the plot twist at the end, still absolutely Shook while writing this.

I cannot believe she went there, but I'm so glad she did. The title is so fitting that it's causing me physical pain

I can't remember if I mentioned this in my review for the first book, or in my review video for The Cruel Prince, but my main (actually, only) reason for reading the sequels was because I want to see some twisted shit between Jude and Cardan, and my girl DELIVERED. I have never read a pairing that hated each other so much as these two do and it's so addictive! I barely even care about the main plot, or the drama with Locke and Taryn and Madoc and whoever else Jude has managed to piss off. I just want the betrayals, the scheming, and all those delicious lies and secrets winding their way around these two in the most complicated web that you know is going to end in disaster. That's exactly what I'm here for and it's done so well. Ugh why did I wait so long to read this series!

Highkey would have started The Queen of Nothing right now, but my I'm still waiting for my copy to come in the mail. Come on Book Depository, don't leave me hanging like this!

The Wicked King: ★★★★★
The Queen of Nothing ★★★★★

I'm so pleasantly surprised by this! I did think that I would like it, but I thought it would be more like a 3 star to be honest. But this was a solid 4 star read and I'm actually looking forward to the sequels (although I'm kind of satisfied by the ending of this, I'm not sure if it really needs sequels. But I'll still read them)

So what's going on here?
Twins Jude and Taryn, along with their faerie half-sister Vivi, are whisked away to the land of Faerie one night as children when Vivi's biological father brutally murders their parents in front of them. And so begins their lives in Faerie, where they are treated better than most mortals, but that's not saying much. Jude deals with daily threats that, if not for the protective charms she wears, would lead to the end of her life. The Cruel Prince follows Jude as she navigates life in Faerie, complicated politics in Court, dangerous love triangles, and a secret that she is bound to never reveal, all leading up to the coronation of the new High Kind of Faerie. The question that Jude must find out is, who will wear the crown?

What I loved
I loved that this was not a typical YA plot line, and especially not a typical YA heroine. Jude is not a good person; she is brutal, cold to all but her family, angry, and overall entirely unlikeable. And that's exactly why I love her. Don't get me wrong, I love the hero main character thing, I love being able to root for them. But sometimes it's nice to shake things up a bit, and Jude certainly does that. She steals, sneaks, murders, and plots. She talks back, has a hot temper, and is maybe a little bit too arrogant at times. She was really fun to read and try to figure out which questionable decision she would make next. I loved most of the characters for the same reason to be honest; no one was truly a good person in this book. There were some that were worse than others, but overall everyone is at least a little bit of a prick. That's one of my favourite things about faerie lore, is that they're all ass holes lmfao. And Holly Black does a great job at depicting that, and not sugar coating it or making them nice just to appeal to the masses. I'm not sure how I feel about the romance(s) yet, but I don't dislike them at least.

What I didn't love
In terms of plot, it was fairly predictable to be honest. I didn't see the final plot twist coming until the last second, but everything else wasn't really surprising. This isn't something that I'm mad about, but it's really the only reason this got a 4 star instead of a 5. The plot was still good and engaging, it just didn't have me sitting on the edge of my seat.

Overall thoughts
Solid read, really glad that I finally read this. Ordering the next two books in the series ASAP. While I stand by my thought that this would be fine as a standalone, I do want to see what happens with Jude and Cardan going forward, I think it'll be entertaining to say the least. Also, am I the one seeing the similarities between this and Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb? They have the exact same premise, except this one is YA and has faeries, but otherwise there isn't much difference in terms of premise (plot is totally different, I'm just talking about the general idea of it)

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: ★★★.5
Prince Caspian: ★★★
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
The Silver Chair:
The Horse and His Boy:
The Magician's Nephew:
The Last Battle:

This was actually a pretty delightful read! I will admit that I like the movie more to be perfectly honest, but I'm definitely planning on reading the rest of this series. I think the main issue I have with it is the pacing; I understand that it's children/middle grade and so it can't be too graphic, but skipping over all the major conflicts made the plot feel like it was moving at lightning speed. I didn't even realize the main battle was about to happen until all of a sudden it was over. I love the world and the story but do think it would have fared better as an adult, or even young adult series (which is why I prefer the movie because you see ever so slightly more of the conflict/darker elements)

The Diviners: ★★★.5
Lair of Dreams: ★★★★
Before the Devil Breaks You: ★★★
The King of Crows:

I was really expecting to like this a lot more, to be honest. I definitely didn't dislike it, but it wasn't as good as the hype lead me to think it would be.

So what's going on here?
When Evie is sent away from her parent's home in Ohio for being too much to handle, she's expecting to have the time of her life staying with her uncle in the heart of Manhattan. And that she does, with her old friend Mabel, and new friends Theta, Henry, Sam, and Jericho. But what they don't see coming is the ghost of Naughty John come to rise again and destroy the world as they know it. The lives of these teens will tangle in unexpected ways as they fight to uncover the impossible mystery of Naught John before it's too late.

What I loved
I've always been in love with the idea of 1920s New York (just the aesthetic obviously, not the sexism, racism, etc.), as I'm sure a lot of people who read this book are. Bray did a fantastic job at making me feel like I was in this time period, with all the slang and the fashion and the descriptive beauty of her writing, I really enjoyed the whole setting and atmosphere. The spook level was almost perfect too, there was some moments where I was genuinely freaked out, although I wish there were more of those moments. I absolutely adored the majority of the characters, especially Will, Jericho, Sam, Henry, and Memphis. I wasn't huge on Evie, but more on that later. I found the friendships to be really solid, I liked the banter and this little found family inside a dusty museum. I definitely want to read more of that in the next books. My favourite thing about this book though is the writing style! This is my first Libba Bray book and I couldn't be happier that I finally picked this up. I was hooked on her writing right from the prologue, it's just *chef's kiss* perfection!

What I didn't love
My main issue with this novel was Evie, which is why I gave it such a low rating. Her being the main character, I found it difficult to want to pick this up pretty often because I really didn't want to deal with her. She did get better towards the end, but not nearly enough for me to say that I liked her. She is extremely childish, selfish, privileged, and just plain annoying. The only part of her that I liked was the banter between her and Sam, it was pretty funny. But otherwise I found her nearly intolerable. If literally anyone else had been the main character this would have been aa 4 or 4.5 star book for me. I also found the pacing to be a wee bit off, but in all honesty that may have been because I was so tired of dealing with Evie that this book felt like it was draaaaagging lmfao

Overall thoughts
I really did enjoy The Diviners and absolutely plan on continuing this series, despite the complaints I have about Evie. At least for the next books I can go into them knowing that I'm not going to like the main character and can prepare myself ahead of time. And I really really hope Memphis is in the next one more! I adore him

The Diviners: ★★★.5
Lair of Dreams: ★★★★
Before the Devil Breaks You: ★★★
The King of Crows:

Read for Tome Topple Round 11: read one tome + tome audiobook

Read for Medieval-a-thon: wardrobe, a book with green on the cover


Finished with an hour to spare for Tome Topple woo!

I used CAWPILE to get my rating and it was .1 points away from being a 5 star read, I really liked this one!

I liked this one so much more than the first book! Evie is still one of the most annoying characters I've ever read, but I really enjoyed the plot and the characters here, especially the developing relationships (platonic and romantic). The plot was pretty predictable, I figured it out pretty quickly, but I still liked where it went. The scary elements were done a bit different in Lair of Dreams, and it suited my tastes much better. If these first two books were movies, The Diviners would be one with a lot of jump scares and boring bits between them, whereas Lair of Dreams had a whole bunch of quiet fear sprinkled throughout. The kind that wouldn't make you scream, but it set the hairs on the back of your neck on end and gives you the feeling that you're being watched. I personally really like that, it's way more effective for me and I had a great time reading this

Ordering the next two books asap, I can't wait to get more into this series!

Get a Life, Chloe Brown: ★★★★★
Take a Hint, Dani Brown: ★★★★.5

Oh my god. Oh my god *whispers* ohmygod.

Review to come!