eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

I'm struggling to breathe right now...
That's all I'm saying.
I'll probably write a more constructive review of this book once I'm calmer. but basically?
It's just... outstanding.

(If I ever meet Patrick Ness, I might have to make him pay for my medical bills and pay for all the tissues he's made me weep into)

If there's one thing I love most about books, it's stories about people who come together to form a family, loving each other for more reasons than any blood relatives could even understand.
This book is about family. Kids who have stuck with each other through the good, but mostly the bad. They love each other. And I bloody love it.

I could criticise a couple things.
Mostly, a couple of decisions taken in the last 10% which I found a little ridiculous if I'm honest.
But all in all, I cried my eyes out because I cared so much. I cared so much because the characters cared. That's all that matters.

The golden clock began to chime the hour and I, very clearly, just died...

WARNING: This was written just as I finished the book. I am a mess so my thoughts on it are also a mess (I might write a better review once I've calmed down)(if I ever calm down).

I care. I care so much about this family. They love each other so much and it is absolutely beautiful to read. My heart is completely ripped into pieces but still... they all love each other to bits.
Can you hear me crying my eyes out over how much they love each other?
Have I mentioned these siblings are the definition of the "We're Nice, But If You Hurt A Member Of Our Family, You Will Die" type of family? And I love it.
Also did I mention I cried my eyes out?

Anyways... when's the next book out?
So I can see big brother becoming the ruthless crazy one they've been foreshadowing. So my darling darling darling baby boy can maybe try and get his life back together after what's just happened (there's no way that's happening, is there?). So those two kids can understand that they love each other. So that one can finally get more POVs because she deserves the world.
So SO MANY THINGS HURT AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT BUT I KNOW IT'S JUST GOING TO HURT EVEN MORE!!!!!!

Can you see that? On my face right now? The biggest smile you've ever seen - mixed with tears.
Yup. Crying of happiness because simply this book exists. I love it so very much. It was just meant for me. That's all.

How To Be A Normal Person spoke to me on so many levels:
* So funny. I'm-creating-a-laughed-out-loud-shelf-because-of-this-book funny.
* There's literally a step by step guide about how to befriend a cat.
* I thought I wasn't normal but then Gustavo Tiberius proves there are people even more abnormal, and that's fine.
* Looking up on the internet how to do things like normal people because awkward af ???.
* Having your pet ferret go shopping with you, on a leash.
* Asexual stoner hipster.
* Hugs. The best hugs. Ever.

Oh my darling darling asexual hipster. You have no idea how wonderful it was to read about an asexual character, seeing a relationship develop with an asexual character, talking about boundaries and different types of love and attraction and ugh.
This book just got me. On every level possible.

4.5 / 5. Wow. Now that was epicness.
A very interesting and yet still mysterious world, which keeps growing, and morally grey characters all around.
You don't know who to trust, you love mostly everyone even though no one is completely good or completely bad.
It's just kids trying to keep the people they love safe, in a place where they're being controlled and thrown into a war between more than two evil sides. Everything is well thought-out and my mind was blown more than once. Let's not even talk about how my heart got ripped out my chest.
I need the final book but I'm also really scared. Will I survive it?

4.5 /5. Oh my sweet sweet sassy lightning struck apprentice wizard and his crew of unicorns, dashing knights, half giants and dragons. I really do love them.
Cry of laughter, cry of fondness, cry of fear.
Gods, I'm so scared of what's going to happen next...

3.5 - Throughout most of this book, I thought the story was nice although not unpredictable, and based on teenage angst that could have been dealt with easier/quicker if they'd just talked.

The last few chapters though, were great. Sooo many emotions.
We finally got to see more in depth the relationships between the guys and their families. That's what I loved the most.
Especially Nate's relationships with all the women in his family other than his mother. How his aunt is his real mother, how his sister still looks out for him and how his grandma's ghost is his rock. All three tugged on mw heart strings but I still felt like we could have gotten MORE.

Actually, the ghosts element was interesting, but could have been developed in so much more depth.
It was pitched as an essential part of the story but I didn't feel like it took that much space or importance...
(Yes, I still cried about them in the end, shhh).

Basically? The romance was nice but a little too teenage-angsty for a too large amount. The rest (family relationships and ghosts) could have been incredible if developed a little more.

V. E. Schwab is a monster. She has ripped my heart out.
But I'm actually, sadly, going to write this: I was disappointed. All along I was longing for more.

At the end of the day, the idea behind this is great, I love monstruous humans and humane monsters. The charactersare just as great as in the first one, and my emotions are f*d up.

Here are the things that bugged me:
- The first half I didn't particularly like: 4 chapters per POV before switching (that did get sorted in the 2d Verse), not much of relevance to our story, just get back to what we want.
- Characters introduced we never saw again.
- Didn't like those poem things.
- Although I understand why we got Sloan's POV and it was at times interesting, we didn't need it THAT much.

Also:
I used to follow Schwab on Twitter whenshe was writing it and I could feel the pain she went through trying to write it. She was late and could'nt get things right. She tweeted about it so much I unfollowed her because it pained me to see that one of my most anticipated releases was so painful to write. And that pain, I think, is felt when reading the book.
Schwab's books are normally great in the way things are revealed as we go along. Here, we just got paragraphs of explanations, of new terms which were being used particularly, instead of letting us find out about them as we read.
Following that idea of simpleness, one major element that comes up near the end

Spoiler

Kate understanding what was happening thanks to a vision

I found pretty cheap to be honest.

I just remembered how fed up the writer was with writing it and I could feel it in the way it felt like it was quickly done and dusted.

I still haven't conjured up a review for this book...
I was SO shaken when I finished it, it took some time to get my thoughts together, but I think that in the end I really loved it. So... this isn't really a review, just a bunch of thoughts I'll put down into maybe-words?

Some parts were a little slower than others, some POV I thought were unnecessary and I just wanted it to get back to the main characters (especially as this book is HUUUGE), but I still got through it really quickly so I must have enjoyed it, right?!

Rhy. Everything to do with Rhy was my favourite. Oh Rhy. Absolutely loved him. My love and respect grew soooo so much.
And I also realised I cared about the other characters too, more than I first thought. I LOOOOVE Holland, I like Alucard, really like Lila and Kell. All the relationships that went on, not just the romantic ones but the friendships the characters never even wanted to create, the love and respect they end up having for each other... hhhhhm yes.

The 'STOP FUCKING WITH THE SHIP' moment.
The 'Everything' moment.
Every Rhy moment.

Basically my emotions were all over the place but I love these characters and this world is just brilliant.

I don't know how I'm going to put all my feelings into words that form correct phrases but I'll try.
First of all, this is Adam Silvera. Get your tissues out from the very start.

To be honest at first I found the story weird because I was pretty sure it was going in a certain direction that didn't feel right to me. But I actually really liked how it planned out and all the weirdness I could have felt throughout the book was swept away.

What I loved most was how truthful it was.
I don't know much about grief, or even about love, but this story felt so openly real that I got sooo emotionnaly envolved.
The characters are flawed - especially Griffin, and his actions are not all good. But, like a puzzle that gets easier to make after a few mistakes, life is a learning curve.

I also liked that, it wasn't just about love, but also about friendship and family. All the kids' parents had their place in the story and weren't left out. Seeing all of them interact was beautiful.
I will not even try and explain how I felt whenever Theo's parents and sister were around because I will only end up transforming my room into a pool of tears.

Just... Ugh. It was really good.