emilyburdick's Reviews (389)

It was fun to get to visit with this group of characters again. Some of the short stories I could have lived without but some of them were really enlightening! My favorites were Glitches, After Sunshine Passes and Something Old, Something New. Marissa Meyer does a really nice job in these shorts, along with the main series of giving equal page time and love to all of her characters and that's something I really admire.

Let me start by saying I'm not big on poetry and I don't read/review it much so maybe I'm off beat here. I was pretty underwhelmed by this collection, as I've heard people fawn over Atticus' poetry. I'm pretty turned off by the tiny, one sentence, two words per line poetry so I was disappointed to see that most of these poems fell into that category. I liked the few poems that were longer because I feel like there's more to delve into with those. I did enjoy the photography included with the poetry, and how he separated the collection into three sections to represent different stages of a relationship. Upon reading some other reviews, I see a lot of people say his first collection was better so I may still try that one out in future. 

I originally read the first two books in the Lux series in 2016 and I was obsessed. It felt like Twilight but with Aliens and I was HERE for it. I never finished the series, so I decided I would put it on my TBR for this year. I don't remember most of Obsidian and Onyx so maybe I've grown out of it but I was so disappointed by Shadows. The relationship was a complete insta-love and the dialogue was so cringy at times. My main gripe is that the romance left nothing to be desired. If the characters felt it, they said it. There was no tension, no surprise, no "will they, won't they?". I remember Obsidian having much more push/pull, maybe even a little enemies to lovers vibe and that's what I was looking for here. 

I did not vibe with the constantly using "like a girl" as an insult (but again I know this was written 10 years ago and maybe JLA has evolved since then). I am not a huge fan of novella's so that likely lends itself to my distaste for this book. I don't feel like this added much to the main story, but, maybe I'll feel differently once I re-read the first book. 

…for the love of PETE! (*eye roll*). I have been duped by a cute cover. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover but I constantly continue to do so, to my own downfall. I had higher expectations for this book, seeing as I thought I loved Alex, Approximately (which looking back I only gave three stars so maybe that should have been a sign), but this was such a snooze fest! 

The main characters, although I know they’re teenagers, sounded so stupid the entire book. Like, we get it, Zorie, your entire personality is being Type A to the highest degree and Lennon’s is liking reptiles and wearing black. SO one dimensional. 

There are blatant displays of homophobia and abuse (emotional and physical) that go practically unchallenged by the other characters. I have never been so grossed out by a YA parent before, and that entire plot line felt so unnecessary. In my opinion, it was put in there solely for Zorie to have daddy issues as a way to relate to Lennon and his own struggles with his father and the two situations are so NOT on the same level. Zorie continued to diminish what Lennon went though and the reason he stopped talking to her; going so far as to be mad that he didn’t tell her and still keep bringing up that he ditched her at homecoming. 

When the characters so openly talked about sex I got kind of excited because it’s good for YA to promote safe sex, but my god, I also don’t need to know that two teenagers went though an entire pack of condoms in two days. One, I think it set a totally unrealistic precedent for intimacy, and, it didn’t add anything to the story for us to know that two underage teenagers bumped like bunnies immediately after they started dating. Maybe it’s not that deep, but it gave me the ick. 

This review ended up a lot longer than I anticipated, but I’ve literally been taking mental notes about how much this book irked me while I read it. I think Jenn Bennett might be a one and done for me as far as good books. Or maybe I’m just outgrowing YA contemporaries. 

DNF'd - don't know why I just can't get into this! Upset because I love Renée Ahdieh's writing style.

Holy moly. I loved everything about this. This group of characters, this place, these feelings, could easily become one of my top three favorite reads of all time. I was so excited to read this series because I heard it was better than it's predecessor, Shadow and Bone, and my god, they're worlds apart. Six of Crows drags you into the water and doesn't let you back up for air. 

I have such a deep love for every one of our six main characters and I want the world for them. I did watch the Netflix show already and I am so happy with how canonically accurate the characters felt in the show after reading their story, and I was so excited about the Jesper twist (my bf totally called that when we watched the show)! Bardugo built some amazing relationships without shoving it right into your face and making their love the end all be all and more important than the task at hand. I stan the hell out of Bardugo with all of her representation in this book. Not just her POC, LGBTQ+, badass lady characters, but having our ultimate main character have a disability that doesn't overtake their entire life and still allows them to be a total badass? Sign me the f*ck up. I wish to Sankta Alina this wasn't just a duology. I could read eight books about these characters and still eat it up.

This story was so well-developed, and even though the climax of the heist didn't happen until a little over halfway through, I was engrossed the entire time. I also felt like Bardugo's writing was much improved from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, or maybe SoC was just less world-building focused (which is one of my least favorite parts of reading). I don't think I've ever read a book with the heist trope, but I think it might be one of my new favorite things. So much morally gray behavior, and proper thievery to be had...I love it. I feel like I have so much more to say but all I can really get out is that I just got this duo for Christmas and I've already started reading it. This shows just how eager I was to get to it because I NEVER read my new books quickly (damn TBR is so long they get shoved to the end). If you're even questioning whether you should read this book, just freaking do it. You won't be sorry. Even if you hate the story or the plot (which you won't), I guarantee you'll love these characters so damn much. 

P.S.
Kaz Brekker could certainly ruin my life...and I would say thank you.

P.P.S. 
If the next first words out of Kaz's mouth to Inej aren't: "I'm sorry," I'm throwing myself off a cliff.

I don't read a lot of poetry, but I saw this on my storygraph recommendations one day and the title instantly drew me in. I really enjoy Mateer's prose style and I plan to read more of her collections! The poems in this collection were a nice mix of long and short, and her writing varied from more casual to lyrical. I felt the hurt and the healing in her words. This was a quick, easy read and I look forward to diving into more poetry this year!

First book of 2022, done and dusted! I've had this on my shelf for years and I thought it would be a nice, quick, read to start off my reading challenge. I listened to it on audiobook and the narrator did such a good job with the character voices and childlike expressions. I was surprised at the adultness of the book, when discussing killing and death so openly. I thought this was going to be very whimsical and childish, which it was, but there were more adult themes than I expected. Upon comparing it to the likes of The Chronicles of Narnia, I think this was simply more lax in children's books in the 1900's. This book was very strange, but I think what I liked most about it was the reason Barrie wrote it in the first place. I could see elements of the loss of a child and a mother's/parent's unfaltering love all over this story, hidden under the guise of a children's fantasy book. I'm glad I waited until I was older to read Peter Pan. I feel I truly understood it better than I would have in my youth.

Four stars for content, five stars for the utterly breathtaking illustrations. I read this on my kindle app on my iPad and it is not only illustrated, but some illustrations are animated. This was so much fun and so well made. This is my second favorite out of the Hogwarts library series, and was worlds better than QTTA. The Tales of Beedle the Bard just lends itself to requiring more creativity and thought than the other two, and that’s why it’s my favorite.

What a good ending! Everyone ended up how I wanted them to, and I’m so excited to read the next trilogy in this world. The side character death hit me in the feels but I sort of wish it had been a main character. That would have been way more intense in my opinion. I love the idea of Nine as a teacher. One of my favorite things Lore did with this was he didn’t make the main character too good to or afraid to kill. Sure it had an effect on John and it was good to see that but he knew what he had to do and he knew there wasn’t an alternative way around it in the war. Overall, an amazing sci fi YA series and I love love love this whole cast of characters!!