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eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)
3.5/5
re-read 17/04/17 : The bottom line is this: It's a hell of an interesting idea, and it has a brilliantly diverse set of interesting characters. I do feel like some points could be improved on, such as world-building and the motives beind the characters' actions.
But come on, it's pirates, girls loving girls, and whale-sized turtles. I'd recommend it to anyone!
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"I don't just raise monsters. I am one."
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EN : YESSS ! Althouth the first half let it down a little, the second half of this book was SOOO good ! I can't wait for the second and final novel to come out. I NEED MORE.
It's such a short novel set in an futuristic version of the Pacific where there are pirates, and people who grow and train whale-sized turtles, Reckoners, to fight off the pirates. Our main character, Cas, starts off as a trainer ... but when the pirates get a hand of her, who knows what they'll make her do ?
After a good opening sequence, I felt like there were 40 or so pages of weeks going by and nothing much happening, only Cas training the Reckoner. A Reckoner which I struggled to picture, by the way... Is it anything other than a giant turtle with armour ?
But once the training aspect took a step aside and we got properly introduced to the other characters, the young pirates, and Swift (Oh, Swift...), it immediately got SO much better ! I LOVE Swift. And I LOVE hate-to-love relationships so ... YES. Thank you.
And anyone looking for diversity will thank Emily Skrutskie for this book. We have many strong female characters who are mostly non-white, and more than one non-hetero character, including the main character !!! And none of that 'diversity' is seen as not the norm. YES.
I must say, one of the major reflexions Cas has to deal with in this book is whether she should aim to go back to the home she knew, or to enjoy the home she is making aboard the ship. Yet it felt like she was going with the flow of what she knew was bad, without trying to find another way around it. I kept thinking "You could just try to figure a way around this. There cannot only be two bad options". If you are thinking that throughout the book, DON'T. Because then you have the ending ... And that changes my opinion on the paragraph I've just written.
Basically, it ended up being great.
I need the sequel. Give. To me. Now.
re-read 17/04/17 : The bottom line is this: It's a hell of an interesting idea, and it has a brilliantly diverse set of interesting characters. I do feel like some points could be improved on, such as world-building and the motives beind the characters' actions.
But come on, it's pirates, girls loving girls, and whale-sized turtles. I'd recommend it to anyone!
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"I don't just raise monsters. I am one."
-----------------------------------------------
EN : YESSS ! Althouth the first half let it down a little, the second half of this book was SOOO good ! I can't wait for the second and final novel to come out. I NEED MORE.
It's such a short novel set in an futuristic version of the Pacific where there are pirates, and people who grow and train whale-sized turtles, Reckoners, to fight off the pirates. Our main character, Cas, starts off as a trainer ... but when the pirates get a hand of her, who knows what they'll make her do ?
After a good opening sequence, I felt like there were 40 or so pages of weeks going by and nothing much happening, only Cas training the Reckoner. A Reckoner which I struggled to picture, by the way... Is it anything other than a giant turtle with armour ?
But once the training aspect took a step aside and we got properly introduced to the other characters, the young pirates, and Swift (Oh, Swift...), it immediately got SO much better ! I LOVE Swift. And I LOVE hate-to-love relationships so ... YES. Thank you.
And anyone looking for diversity will thank Emily Skrutskie for this book. We have many strong female characters who are mostly non-white, and more than one non-hetero character, including the main character !!! And none of that 'diversity' is seen as not the norm. YES.
I must say, one of the major reflexions Cas has to deal with in this book is whether she should aim to go back to the home she knew, or to enjoy the home she is making aboard the ship. Yet it felt like she was going with the flow of what she knew was bad, without trying to find another way around it. I kept thinking "You could just try to figure a way around this. There cannot only be two bad options". If you are thinking that throughout the book, DON'T. Because then you have the ending ... And that changes my opinion on the paragraph I've just written.
Basically, it ended up being great.
I need the sequel. Give. To me. Now.
Most of it was "meh" to me but issue #5 was actually pretty interesting so I'll be continuing on and hoping I get into it more as I go along.
Diversity is A+ if that interests you.
Diversity is A+ if that interests you.
2.5 Too many things were not okay for me in this book, iIt was really difficult to get through.
Not only are her so called "friends" awful, but her parents are even worse. Sooo negative, by the end I skipped the very many conversations with her parents. And I get that some people are sadly like that but it didn't feel like much was being done about it for most of the book.
What hurt me the most though was Pen herself and how she talked about women.
She doesn't want to be a girl because to her, they are too fragile, dumb, can't do anything etc. Not only her friends but she as well were regularly using terms such as "man up", "grow some balls", "don't be such a pussy" and things like that. NOT OKAY. I continued reading hoping those words would be criticized but nope. Never are they even questioned.
What I understood from her explanation of why she liked Blake was because Blake was "not like other girls", not the stereotypically girly-girl.
Yes, there is character development in Pen in how she views herself and other people, great, but she still continues to think and use term which, in my opinion, disrespect women, so not great at all.
The positives of this book: Great brother, diverse book, great f/f relationship AND a great friendship between the girls by the end.
It just wasn't enough for me to forget how I did NOT enjoy the reading experience.
Not only are her so called "friends" awful, but her parents are even worse. Sooo negative, by the end I skipped the very many conversations with her parents. And I get that some people are sadly like that but it didn't feel like much was being done about it for most of the book.
What hurt me the most though was Pen herself and how she talked about women.
She doesn't want to be a girl because to her, they are too fragile, dumb, can't do anything etc. Not only her friends but she as well were regularly using terms such as "man up", "grow some balls", "don't be such a pussy" and things like that. NOT OKAY. I continued reading hoping those words would be criticized but nope. Never are they even questioned.
What I understood from her explanation of why she liked Blake was because Blake was "not like other girls", not the stereotypically girly-girl.
Yes, there is character development in Pen in how she views herself and other people, great, but she still continues to think and use term which, in my opinion, disrespect women, so not great at all.
The positives of this book: Great brother, diverse book, great f/f relationship AND a great friendship between the girls by the end.
It just wasn't enough for me to forget how I did NOT enjoy the reading experience.
I needed a short sweet light hearted read after the latest Adam Silvera book and that's exactly what I got from The Melody of You and Me.
At first I thought it was going to be a love at first sight thing but it turned out to be more developed than that and I'm grateful.
Girls loving girls and libraries and music. What more could you ask for ?
At first I thought it was going to be a love at first sight thing but it turned out to be more developed than that and I'm grateful.
Girls loving girls and libraries and music. What more could you ask for ?
3.5/5
I feel like as a graphic novel, I would have given it a 4.5 to 5 star. But it isn't, it's a novel, so... Here we go:
To me, the writing felt ... off?. I didn't particularly like the way it was very simple and straight forward. Sometimes it can work just fine, but for me in this book it definitely felt like a point to improve on.
The actual story took too long to come around so the first half felt flat and predictable.
BUT do not think that this is not a good book; I actually really enjoyed it.
Once the story got going, it was quite interesting. If some things were obvious, others were a pleasant surprise. It makes everyone question what is a hero, and what is a villain and that famous HP quote kept coming to me “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” Anyway, nice lessons.
If I'm being picky the 'villain' characters could be a little more 'grey' in their attitudes - but I think that can and will be looked into more through the next books.
What makes it so great is the amazing and diverse cast of characters.
Our main character is an Asian bisexual daughter of superheroes, who wants to help out even though she can't seem to develop any powers of her own. She just seems to be average at everything. But she really grew on me and I ended up loving her as a beautiful, caring, ambitious and lovely person. I loved how humane she actually felt (often the pb of teenage heroes in YA). Her interactions with her crush Abby were adorable and I couldn't help but smile so many times: CUTE CUTE CUTE.
There's also a huge amount of POC representation, as well as a transgender character whom I loooove.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the whole introduction to him seemed brilliant! Casual. And such amazing friendships between him, jess, as well as the other characters, with talks about gender pronouns, dysphoria and being comfortable.
Knowing what he's now going through, and the fact that he will be the focus of the next book, I CAN NOT WAIT for it to come out!!!!!
Give it t me noooooooow.
I feel like as a graphic novel, I would have given it a 4.5 to 5 star. But it isn't, it's a novel, so... Here we go:
To me, the writing felt ... off?. I didn't particularly like the way it was very simple and straight forward. Sometimes it can work just fine, but for me in this book it definitely felt like a point to improve on.
The actual story took too long to come around so the first half felt flat and predictable.
BUT do not think that this is not a good book; I actually really enjoyed it.
Once the story got going, it was quite interesting. If some things were obvious, others were a pleasant surprise. It makes everyone question what is a hero, and what is a villain and that famous HP quote kept coming to me “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” Anyway, nice lessons.
If I'm being picky the 'villain' characters could be a little more 'grey' in their attitudes - but I think that can and will be looked into more through the next books.
What makes it so great is the amazing and diverse cast of characters.
Our main character is an Asian bisexual daughter of superheroes, who wants to help out even though she can't seem to develop any powers of her own. She just seems to be average at everything. But she really grew on me and I ended up loving her as a beautiful, caring, ambitious and lovely person. I loved how humane she actually felt (often the pb of teenage heroes in YA). Her interactions with her crush Abby were adorable and I couldn't help but smile so many times: CUTE CUTE CUTE.
There's also a huge amount of POC representation, as well as a transgender character whom I loooove.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the whole introduction to him seemed brilliant! Casual. And such amazing friendships between him, jess, as well as the other characters, with talks about gender pronouns, dysphoria and being comfortable.
Knowing what he's now going through, and the fact that he will be the focus of the next book, I CAN NOT WAIT for it to come out!!!!!
Give it t me noooooooow.
Aaw. Sweet short realistic story about girls who love each other to bits.
3.5/5 Yeah, it's a nice book.
You thought you knew the story of Hades and Persephone ? You haven't.
Greek myths, Goddess Hades of the Underworld and a bunch of lesbians. Of course it was nice to read.
Except not that much happened and it was basically insta love so... Although I didn't hate anything about it, I didn't fall deeply in Love with it either.
You thought you knew the story of Hades and Persephone ? You haven't.
Greek myths, Goddess Hades of the Underworld and a bunch of lesbians. Of course it was nice to read.
Except not that much happened and it was basically insta love so... Although I didn't hate anything about it, I didn't fall deeply in Love with it either.
I really love the world that Brian K Vaughan has created. I've read reviews saying that it's a cross between Star Wars and Game of Thrones and ... Yes! I agree!
There are good strong characters and both the drawing and the writing are amazing !
I must say I'm a little sad because my favourite character hasn't really been in the past 2 volumes ... I hope that doesn't mean we won't see him again.
There are good strong characters and both the drawing and the writing are amazing !
I must say I'm a little sad because my favourite character hasn't really been in the past 2 volumes ... I hope that doesn't mean we won't see him again.
3.5
Encore une fois je suis touchée par le vécu de ces personnes, et ravie qu'une trilogie de roman graphiques puissent m'éduquer sur le sujet.
Informatif. Très informatif. Plus informatif que sentimental d'après moi. Ceci n'est pas forcement mauvais, tout depend de ce que vous cherchiez à tirer de cette histoire après tout.
Encore une fois je suis touchée par le vécu de ces personnes, et ravie qu'une trilogie de roman graphiques puissent m'éduquer sur le sujet.
Informatif. Très informatif. Plus informatif que sentimental d'après moi. Ceci n'est pas forcement mauvais, tout depend de ce que vous cherchiez à tirer de cette histoire après tout.