eloise_bradbooks's reviews
780 reviews

THIS REVIEW IS IN FRENCH AND IN ENGLISH.

EN : Well this book was beautiful.
It’s a realistic, sweet and sad look into being unique, not looking like other people and how you and the people surrounding you live with it. It is a reminder that this world is full of mean people, people who bully and make fun; but that it is also full of amazing people who love life and love people and make living a difficult life so much better.
I loved every single character.
It was great to see not just Auggie’s POV but also his friends’ and family’s. And I just loved every single one of them. If I could hug them all I would.
I think I’ll just hug it after I’ve wiped all my tears away.

FR : Magnifique.
C’est un livre réaliste, adorable et triste à la fois, qui montre ce que c’est d’être unique, différent des autres, comment on est notre famille le vit. C’est un rappel que le monde est rempli de personnes horribles, mais qu’il est aussi rempli de personnes merveilleuses qui rendent vivre une vie difficile, tellement plus simple.
J’ai adoré absolument tous les personnages. C’était super de ne pas seulement voir le point de vue de Auggie mais aussi de sa famille et ses amis. Et j’ai craqué pour chacun des personnages. Si je pouvais tous les embrasser je le ferai.
Je crois d’ailleurs que je vais prendre un moment pour faire un câlin au livre, une fois que j’aurai fini de pleurer.

What a gem, this is.
Such a positive, feel-good, happy story revolving around the most loveable gay ice hockey player who loves to bake and loves his friends just as much.
available on the author's tumblr page : http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/episodes ENJOY.
more more more more more gimme more

So.. the moral of this ending is "If you buy me stuff it means you love me"? ...
That's really not even the most problematic thing in this book...

The whole story is about a girl asking a guy to do sexual things to her because she's really uncomfortable. Basically they both agree that, and I quote, he'll "seduce [& fuck] her out of her anxiety"...
And it works.
She is autistic. But many of her autistic traits fade away when he's around... I mean... this is an ownvoices (autism) book so I wanted to believe in the rep but the fact that the symptoms just go because of a love interest? Really?
I picked this book up purely because I wanted aspiegirl rep (bc we don't get enough autistic girls in books), but everything else was the worst... I should have DNFed but I had faith it would get better...

Oh and I hate their relationship dynamics. I understand that some people will like this. I don't. The strong man knows life and teaches the vulnerable woman how to behave... Thanks to that he becomes overly possessive and she only feels safe in his arms.
(Kinda sounds like 50 shades said like that...)

Yep.
I now remember why I loved it the first time.
Everything is so well thought-out. The darkness (and greyness) of the characters gives me life.
I really hope Vengeful won't disappoint...

This essay is heteronormative and very focused on gender being only binary. It would be nice to add a note at the beginning to clear up the language to make it more respectful for people of all genders (and sexuality).
But other than that, all of this essay is true.
I'd like to get 10 copies and distribute it to the people around me who have discussions with me about this subject (but who often disagree).

What can I say ? I love these characters so much I can't even understand it myself.
I will now lay in bed and won't get up until the brilliant Leigh Bardugo writes another book with these characters.

THIS REVIEW IS IN FRENCH AND IN ENGLISH.

FR : Je suis tombée amoureuse.
Une histoire très originale et des personnages que tout le monde peut adorer !
J'ai rencontré mes nouveaux personnages préférés de tous les temps avec Six of Crows et je ne suis pas prête de les oublier.
DONNEZ MOI LA SUITE MAINTENANT.

EN : I have fallen in love.
The story is new, and the characters so loveable.
I met some of my favourite characters of all time with Six Of Crows so I am not ready to forget about them.
GIVE ME CROOKED KINGDOM NOW.

I'm sad to say I was disappointed by this book.
Santino Hassel's characters are always soooo interesting, and these ones weren't an exception. For some reason I feel drawn to these dysfunctional drug dealers and (almost)heartless assassins. And of course I love the world it's set in*.

But everything else sadly just didn't do anything for me.
I got half way through and realised nothing had happened. There was a background plot but it was so poorly developed... and I keep saying this, I know, I'm sorry, but I'm really sad about it. I'm sad because it was potentially very interesting.
If only we got a little more into the action of the fights, the Agency business. Basically, if Adam had more than two chapters, most of my issues could have been solved.
I understand that we were focused on Gordon's struggles, and I did appreciate that aspect, but there was so much more going on which was impossible to care about even though it could have given us such strong sequences.

As much as I love the characters individually, I'm not sure I'm completely on board with their relationship. I know the author had written it a little differently at first, and this one does seem better than the original, but it still didn't work for me. Insta-infatuation on one side, and only really sexual attraction on the other (until he realises the other is infatuated).

So... I'm disappointed. So much potential to be great. Great world, interesting characters, but the development just didn't go with the expectations.


*yes, After Midnight is a stand alone companion novel from In The Company of Shadows. This is why I know the world and love it.
I have only read the first novel from that series so far, desperately waiting for the author to release the director's cut for the next one... (question to those who have read ICoS, can I read the full version of After Image without having read the full v of Evenfall?)

Meh.
Yeah, the guys were sweet, both of them, especially Kyle. Sweet and relatable. But there was also a bunch of things that just made my eyes roll :

- Not a fan of this writing where the first person narrative from different characters feels like they're lying out all their teen - drama - thoughts onto me.
- Why did we get Ezra's POV? Not any use at all. And Ruby's? Not much use either...
- Didn't like the stereotype of the head cheerleader being the most popular girl in school, loves herself and is pretty ego-centrical. Oh but that's fine because life at home is difficult and she wants to redeam herself ... nope. And her superficial friends. And the stupid teen drama that comes from them.
- 100% predictable.

I mean I guess other than that it was fine. But it just seems fine to me. Maybe it's too short : with more development could have been build a better evolving story, less straight-forward and 'easy'.