eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

1.5 - Oh how do I write this without sounding disrespectful?
It was so interesting and could have been amazing... UNTIL IT GOT HOMOPHOBIC AND TRANSPHOBIC WITHOUT EVEN REALISING IT WAS DOING SO.

Honestly, for the first half of this book, I was really hyped. I was reading about Jack, a female-pharmaceutical-robin-hood and Paladin, a robot who is starting to question autonomy when you're a robot and autonomy when you're human. I couldn't wait for the amazingness that was to come...

Did it come? Well... in some parts, maybe... Jack's chapters were often flashbacks and although half of them were great, the other half I didn't care much about. The whole pharmaceutical/medical elements was super interesting though! And not too complicated that I couldn't follow. The writer works in scientific fields and it shows.

Then Paladin was develping feelings for Eliasz, a human who was on the same mission, and questioning if the feelings are from the robot-programming or autonomously created. I was SO HYPED - this could have been SO INTERESTING.

And yet... Something happened. To explain why I ended up hating this book after so much hype, I have to tell you about an element of the story which some of you will consider a spoiler, so be warned. Also, be warned that it deals with homophobia and transphobia.

Robots in this world don't have a gender, but they are assigned one at they creation, based on their looks. Paladin, our MC here, displays very masculine features so has always been spoken to/about with masculine pronouns, and Paladin has always been fine with that.
Then comes Eliasz. A human dude who, clearly, is attracted to Paladin. However he doesn't want to act on it because he sees Paladin as male. Slurs are thrown, along the lines of "i'm not a faggot".
HOWEVER at one point we learn that a member of Paladin's body belonged to a female before she died. That is when Eliasz says that Paladin must therefore be a female robot. He suggests using female pronouns for Paladin and considering her a woman. Paladin, to make Eliasz happy, accepts.
YUP. There is a genderchange simply and only because the guy is too homophobic to want to be in a relationship unless Paladin is a woman.
HOW MESSED UP IS THAT?

I continued reading, thinking it would be called out or spoken against, or that something would change, but, SPOILERS: it's never questioned. Paladin is happy with her gender change because it makes that homophobic guy happy. End of story. It's NOT because she wants to use female pronouns or questions her gender in any way.
I had to go to the end of the book to check if the genderchange was still in play by the end and it was. From then on, I couldn't feel many more emotions other outrage and disgust towards this book.
I would love to know of transgender people, or non-binary people have read this, and what their thoughts on it are so feel free to link me to reviews of that kind if you know of any.

Another main character has a healthy same-sex relationship which was brilliantly dealt with, with no questioning whatsoever. That must mean the author clearly didn't realise how insulting Paladin and Eliasz's development could be to some people... Or is it me who missed out on something and messed up?

I bought this book... I spent money on this without reading an excerpt of it before because it sounded SOOO brilliant.
I am still completely confused at how something with such an amazing premise turned out to be my worst-rated book ever.

I'm ripping the pages out of thi book to make origami

American War is set at the end of the 21st century, yet it could very well be set in 2017. Whether it's the narrated story or the official papers, every event is one we could read about somewhere in the world today.
They're put together here to create a story of how such an accumulation of events can ruin someone.
Sarat is a brilliant character. Head-strong and not always easy to get behind, which makes her all the more amazing.
There aren't good guys. The world is a mess. People have made it a mess. People have made a mess out of kids, families, warriors.

2.5 /5
If you want a beautiful heartfelt profound brilliant story written by Shaun David Hutchinson, about deciding whether or not to live, go read We Are The Ants. That book is one of my favourites and I cannot recommend it enough.
Weirdly, I'm not sure how the same person wrote The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley.

I didn't care about much.
Which is an awful thing to say about a book dealing with grief, love, family, and life. But it's true.
- The writing was meh.
- We're meant to sympathise with Drew but I couldn't seem to, maybe cause he explains his grieving and blame very late in the book, they don't come off as impactfull the rest of the time, and his morals remain questionable throughout.
- That "plot twist" existing only to try and shock us was cheap and easily predictable.
- BUT MOSTLY: I. Didn't. Get. Behind. Their Love Story.
We don't actually witness the first few interactions between Drew and Rusty. We know that they happen and that Drew now feels like he wants to protect the Kid, but WE can't care because we didn't follow those interactions. How am I meant to be on board of their growing love for each other if I don't see it develop??? Well... I just didn't.
- That's too bad seeing as their love for each other was basically their only reason to keep on living? Eeerm... okay? Not exactly the best moral to a story in my opinion...

Oops, did I spoil a little too much?
Oh well... you don't need to read it. Instead, read We Are The Ants. You'll be amazed by that one.

Un livre très court que j'ai beaucoup apprécié jusqu'à ce que j'arrive à la fin.

J'ai l'impression que la narratrice dit à son neveu (et donc à ceux qui lisent) qu'elle a mal vécu son homosexualité, qu'elle n'en a rien tiré de bien, et qu'elle voulait lui dire puisque visiblement c'est ce que lui aussi va commencer à vivre. Super!

Je préfère recommander des livres qui traitent de sujets de façons plus optimistes. (Lisez Aristote et Dante découvrent les secrets de l'univers par exemple.)

Oui, ces histoires peuvent être difficiles ou sombres parfois, mais il faut aussi faire comprendre aux lecteurs que ce n'est pas pour ça que vous vivrez triste et rejeté pour le reste de votre vie.

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'.

THIS REVIEW IS IN FRENCH AND IN ENGLISH.

EN : I felt as many emotions reading this as a teaspoon would have had: none at all.
None of the characters had any personnality, therefor I didn't care for anyone, or anything that happened for that matter.
I felt a mild interest for Talis, and also the thing that happened at the very end (although I knew it would happen as the second book's blurb spoils it), but realy not that much to continue on with this series.
For me, it was one of those annoying stories where everything happens to and around our main character, but she does absolutely nothing.
Yeah, it's good to see f/f relationship in YA dystopian but if you don't develop a personnality for either of them, I'm still not going to care.

FR : Je n'ai ressenti absolument aucune émotion en lisant ce livre. Aucun des personnages n'avait de personnalité du coup je ne tenais à personne. Je n'avais pas d'intérêt pour l'histoire non plus.
Bon, je me sentais un peu intriguée par Talis, et l’événement qui se passe à la fin (même si je savais dès le début que ça allait arriver puisque le résumé du second tome nous le spoile), mais vraiment pas assez pour me faire continuer la série.
Pour moi, c'était une de ces histoires où tout arrive à notre personnage principal alors qu’elle, ne fait absolument rien.
C'est vrai que c'est bien de voir une relation f/f développée dans une dystopie YA mais si aucune des deux n'a de personnalité, je n’en aurais quand même rien à faire.

4.5 / 5 - OMG I AM SO SCARED ABOUT WHAT THESE CHARACTERS ARE EVOLVING INTO... But I'm going to put that fear aside for a second to talk about how good this book was.

Many have said this is CC's best book, and I totally agree !
For once our main character isn't new to the Shadowhunter world, and that means we can get into an original story that isn't just about an annoying girl discovering this word. I loved that the main premise of this book is actually a mystery.
But the best thing about it, is actually the characters. They are sooo good ! All of them ! I normally struggle to like all of CC's characters, especially with her romantic relationships, but I fell in love with these guys and their love for each other. I loved the friendships, the romance, and of course the family relationships. Also: KIT/TY YES PLEASE !!!
As said above, I'm a little scared that those great relationships are going to get ruined in the next books ... I hope not !
I hope not, because I was really impressed by Lady Midnight, when does the next one come out ?