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ellemnope's Reviews (2.4k)
Upon a Once Time
Anna Fagundes Martino, M. Regan, Suri Parmar, Anna Madden, Jamie Lackey, Kit Falbo, Joshua Gage, Dennis Mombauer, Brent Baldwin, C.J. Dotson, Nike Sulway, Lin Darrow, Maya Chhabra, Mike Morgan, Rebecca E. Treasure, Melissa Mead, N.A. Sulway, Evan Dicken, Cat Rambo, Taryn Haas, Alex Langer, Jude Reid
I love fairy tales and folklore. Retellings are right up my alley. This collection did not disappoint. There are a lot of talented writers who came together in this book and the compilation as a whole was quite fun to read. Short story collections are difficult to find where there is a sort of "flow" from start to end, but this one moved very well. I found myself excited to start each subsequent story.
This was just a wonderful piece of escapism. There is a mix of light and dark, but things are balanced so that the whole book doesn't feel like a black hole. All of the stories were highly creative and wound around a theme of fantasy/sci-fi. There were combinations of various tales and folklore that I found quite interesting to pair and I loved that there were some lesser known tales thrown into the mix with several cultures being represented. The writing was very atmospheric in most cases and a lot of the stories felt like they could easily have been expanded into something bigger. This is the challenge with short stories. The endings are often ambiguous or leave more to be explored. Though this certainly existed within these stories, the majority of them still felt natural as standalone pieces.
Most of the individual stories fell in the 4-5 star range for me. There were a couple that weren't my speed, but these still would've landed pretty solidly in the 3-star range. They all had good writing and the pieces I didn't enjoy as much would likely get higher ratings for those who enjoy their specific subgenres.
This was a really fun read for me and a good reminder that modern short story collections can really be fantastic hidden gems.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This was just a wonderful piece of escapism. There is a mix of light and dark, but things are balanced so that the whole book doesn't feel like a black hole. All of the stories were highly creative and wound around a theme of fantasy/sci-fi. There were combinations of various tales and folklore that I found quite interesting to pair and I loved that there were some lesser known tales thrown into the mix with several cultures being represented. The writing was very atmospheric in most cases and a lot of the stories felt like they could easily have been expanded into something bigger. This is the challenge with short stories. The endings are often ambiguous or leave more to be explored. Though this certainly existed within these stories, the majority of them still felt natural as standalone pieces.
Most of the individual stories fell in the 4-5 star range for me. There were a couple that weren't my speed, but these still would've landed pretty solidly in the 3-star range. They all had good writing and the pieces I didn't enjoy as much would likely get higher ratings for those who enjoy their specific subgenres.
This was a really fun read for me and a good reminder that modern short story collections can really be fantastic hidden gems.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This was a decent and cute middle grade read. It is a very quick story, less than 100 pages. It reads quite simply and is a perfect tale for the younger middle grade set. The story is whimsical and clever, though I do think that the term fantastic may be expecting a little too much. There is nothing terribly mind blowing in the plot, it is just following the foxes as they try to outwit the farmers. I will say that it was entertaining and did have me laughing out loud in a few places. This would work very well as a comfort read and is likely a great choice for a bedtime chapter read with younger children.
3.5 stars.
Magic Lessons is a good novel with rich historical writing. Hoffman presents a lot of description and historical references throughout along with pieces of magical information. This would have likely served the book very well had it not been a prequel for the Practical Magic series. The other two books are written in a more whimsical and magical style, while Magic Lessons leans more toward a darker narrative and has quite a bit of somber overtones. The clash of these two styles partially made this book less enjoyable. Had I read this book before the others in the series, it may well have been rated slightly higher.
The biggest problem for me with this book was the pacing. While I appreciated the historical detail and attention to description (and I indeed learned some historical tidbits along the way), the writing made things a bit more dense and dragged things to a very slow pace. A flattened plot made it difficult to continue in some places, so I ended up reading a good portion of this book in small snippets.
Maria was an interesting character. She has a lot darker soul than the other Owens women and this made her a bit harder to like and connect with. She is somber and in some places quite intense. Her emotional volatility made her feel slightly distant for the reader. She was a bit of an acquired taste. Again, this would have been totally fine had I not had the preconceived notions of what to expect from Owens witches based on the other novels in the series.
I found this read to be okay. I enjoyed the informational content and did like that the backstory for a character frequently mentioned in the other books was presented. However, I was a bit let down by the flavor of the book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. *
Magic Lessons is a good novel with rich historical writing. Hoffman presents a lot of description and historical references throughout along with pieces of magical information. This would have likely served the book very well had it not been a prequel for the Practical Magic series. The other two books are written in a more whimsical and magical style, while Magic Lessons leans more toward a darker narrative and has quite a bit of somber overtones. The clash of these two styles partially made this book less enjoyable. Had I read this book before the others in the series, it may well have been rated slightly higher.
The biggest problem for me with this book was the pacing. While I appreciated the historical detail and attention to description (and I indeed learned some historical tidbits along the way), the writing made things a bit more dense and dragged things to a very slow pace. A flattened plot made it difficult to continue in some places, so I ended up reading a good portion of this book in small snippets.
Maria was an interesting character. She has a lot darker soul than the other Owens women and this made her a bit harder to like and connect with. She is somber and in some places quite intense. Her emotional volatility made her feel slightly distant for the reader. She was a bit of an acquired taste. Again, this would have been totally fine had I not had the preconceived notions of what to expect from Owens witches based on the other novels in the series.
I found this read to be okay. I enjoyed the informational content and did like that the backstory for a character frequently mentioned in the other books was presented. However, I was a bit let down by the flavor of the book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. *
Though admittedly not as action-packed as the first installment, I still quite enjoyed this sequel in the Legacy of Orisha series. The writing is still fantastic and the world-building/magic system are really well done and complex.
The plot was problematic in a few ways that definite pulled down my enjoyment. There were several instances where it felt like things were running in circles. The same conflicts occurred over and over again with no progress in any direction. That grew a bit frustrating as the characters didn't seem to have any changes in opinion or learning from mistakes for a while.
I still really like the multiple POV for this series. Though it does remove some of the intrigue by giving a glimpse into the thoughts of the main characters, it makes things feel deeper and the stakes higher as motivations and feelings grow more complex.
While there was a lot of character development, some of it felt contradictory to what was completed in the first book. This was particularly true for both Zelie and Amari. They felt a bit waffly, not always seeming to have the same goals and values as they had established by the end of Children of Blood and Bone. While I appreciated the growth of Zelie's relationships, her interactions with Roen and her feelings about Iman made her feel flaky and prone to quick love interest--something that conflicted with her often overly suspicious nature. In Amari's case, she lost a lot of her humanity along the way and felt much less powerful as a leader figure by book's end. That was quite disappointing.
Knowing that there is still another book coming has me assuming (hoping?) that some major conflicts of character and unanswered questions about motivations will be resolved. This was still an enjoyable read for me, though it was occasionally a frustrating one. I also highly recommend the audiobook, as Bahni Turpin's narration is amazing as always.
The plot was problematic in a few ways that definite pulled down my enjoyment. There were several instances where it felt like things were running in circles. The same conflicts occurred over and over again with no progress in any direction. That grew a bit frustrating as the characters didn't seem to have any changes in opinion or learning from mistakes for a while.
I still really like the multiple POV for this series. Though it does remove some of the intrigue by giving a glimpse into the thoughts of the main characters, it makes things feel deeper and the stakes higher as motivations and feelings grow more complex.
While there was a lot of character development, some of it felt contradictory to what was completed in the first book. This was particularly true for both Zelie and Amari. They felt a bit waffly, not always seeming to have the same goals and values as they had established by the end of Children of Blood and Bone. While I appreciated the growth of Zelie's relationships, her interactions with Roen and her feelings about Iman made her feel flaky and prone to quick love interest--something that conflicted with her often overly suspicious nature. In Amari's case, she lost a lot of her humanity along the way and felt much less powerful as a leader figure by book's end. That was quite disappointing.
Knowing that there is still another book coming has me assuming (hoping?) that some major conflicts of character and unanswered questions about motivations will be resolved. This was still an enjoyable read for me, though it was occasionally a frustrating one. I also highly recommend the audiobook, as Bahni Turpin's narration is amazing as always.
4.5 stars.
This is a wonderful memoir and I very much enjoyed it. It is written as a means to tell about Trevor Noah's childhood through a blend of personal anecdotes and cultural information about the years leading up to and just following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
The writing is quite special and Noah's voice comes through clearly in the pages. It was a good balance between his humor and the harrowing circumstances of his youth in South Africa. He is very good at delivering things in a witty way, with a great sense for balancing the dark and serious with wry quips to lighten the impact. This made it easy to read through and grasp the full weight of the issues without the book simply being a depressing slog of a read.
I learned a LOT about South Africa that I was completely oblivious to. The racial disparities were shocking and the dangers of living there as anything other than white were gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.
I love how he wrote of his mother. She is clearly a very strong woman and someone he admires. His positivity, appreciation, and respect for her are genuine, lovely, and not usually what you see in celebrity memoirs.
Because of the structure of the book, the flow can sometimes be nonlinear in places and some of the chapters provide overlapping information. This was a bit confusing or frustrating in places, but easy to overlook for the most part as what was being presented was consistently powerful, informative, and important.
This was a great read told from a very unique perspective. Trevor Noah is an incredibly intelligent individual who clearly has a good heart and an amazing story to tell.
This is a wonderful memoir and I very much enjoyed it. It is written as a means to tell about Trevor Noah's childhood through a blend of personal anecdotes and cultural information about the years leading up to and just following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
The writing is quite special and Noah's voice comes through clearly in the pages. It was a good balance between his humor and the harrowing circumstances of his youth in South Africa. He is very good at delivering things in a witty way, with a great sense for balancing the dark and serious with wry quips to lighten the impact. This made it easy to read through and grasp the full weight of the issues without the book simply being a depressing slog of a read.
I learned a LOT about South Africa that I was completely oblivious to. The racial disparities were shocking and the dangers of living there as anything other than white were gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.
I love how he wrote of his mother. She is clearly a very strong woman and someone he admires. His positivity, appreciation, and respect for her are genuine, lovely, and not usually what you see in celebrity memoirs.
Because of the structure of the book, the flow can sometimes be nonlinear in places and some of the chapters provide overlapping information. This was a bit confusing or frustrating in places, but easy to overlook for the most part as what was being presented was consistently powerful, informative, and important.
This was a great read told from a very unique perspective. Trevor Noah is an incredibly intelligent individual who clearly has a good heart and an amazing story to tell.
Warmaidens is the second installment in the Gravemaidens duology. I was a big fan of the first book and the amount of action it contained. I was really looking forward to seeing how the story continued.
Kelly Coon's writing is fun and descriptive, creating a great atmosphere with world-building that is concise, but effective. I love the use of the Egyptian influences. This installment is not quite as action-packed and does carry a little more political movement than the first. The feeling of the book is a little dark and tense. There is a lot of conflict on different fronts that really adds complexity and makes the story take a lot of twists and turns.
The characters are full-bodied and interact well, though there is some circling to the plot as the characters resist change and choices that will encourage forward movement in the plot. There were a lot of side quests that distracted from the main goal and dragged down the pacing just a little bit. However, I very much enjoyed the character interactions that resulted from these endeavors. There is some great relationship building and some difficult situations that force the protagonist to become more mature in her decisions. Kammani is intelligent and fierce and I loved her. She is independent and works to protect herself as well as others, but she has to learn to balance her instinct and conflict to make wise decision.
The ending turned out well and I like that everything was resolved in a reasonable way. There weren't any moments where it felt overly convenient and there weren't loose ends that left me unfulfilled. There was a little corniness in one of the end scenes that felt excessively chummy, but I gave it a pass since I really did enjoy the writing for the grand majority of the book.
This duology was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what else Kelly Coon has up her sleeve.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*
Kelly Coon's writing is fun and descriptive, creating a great atmosphere with world-building that is concise, but effective. I love the use of the Egyptian influences. This installment is not quite as action-packed and does carry a little more political movement than the first. The feeling of the book is a little dark and tense. There is a lot of conflict on different fronts that really adds complexity and makes the story take a lot of twists and turns.
The characters are full-bodied and interact well, though there is some circling to the plot as the characters resist change and choices that will encourage forward movement in the plot. There were a lot of side quests that distracted from the main goal and dragged down the pacing just a little bit. However, I very much enjoyed the character interactions that resulted from these endeavors. There is some great relationship building and some difficult situations that force the protagonist to become more mature in her decisions. Kammani is intelligent and fierce and I loved her. She is independent and works to protect herself as well as others, but she has to learn to balance her instinct and conflict to make wise decision.
The ending turned out well and I like that everything was resolved in a reasonable way. There weren't any moments where it felt overly convenient and there weren't loose ends that left me unfulfilled. There was a little corniness in one of the end scenes that felt excessively chummy, but I gave it a pass since I really did enjoy the writing for the grand majority of the book.
This duology was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what else Kelly Coon has up her sleeve.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*
