emmreadsbooks's Reviews (1.28k)

This book is the perfect amalgamation of Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games. We take the atmosphere of New York, toss in a bunch of highly-trained warriors who want to kill the Greek gods, and just let them run wild! This book was a wild ride filled with rich Greek mythology, betrayals, combat, love, and redemption. Clear your schedules because once you pick this book up, you're not going to want to put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great thriller, honestly. But I found myself questioning the characters' decisions the entire time, which ruined the thrill for me. The only character that I really found myself enjoying was Liz, Eva's neighbor. I feel like there were so many avenues left unexplored, like Petra and Danielle. I feel like their perspectives would've added to the book.

I loved the commentary on preserving your culture and generational differences. I honestly devoured this book. But it suffered from my typical problem with romance novels - namely that every problem could be solved by just communicating with each other. I found Azere's stubbornness a bit too on the nose, and neither her nor Rafael possessed any kind of empathy for each other's situations. When I read a book, I want to fall in love with the characters despite their flaws. Here the only character that I loved was Christina, and she suffered by having a strained relationship with Azere.

I'm a sucker for a serial killer mystery, but this one fell short from his other books to me. Don't get me wrong, it's still a damn good book but I've come to expect more. I enjoyed the discussion of vampirism as well as the dynamics of a serial killing duo. However I felt a lack of tension and the perpetrator was obvious to me from the get-go. But I'm glad that he knew when to call it quits with Zoe's story, unlike other thriller authors.

I quite enjoyed Swain's first 2 books in this series, but this one was so disjiointed and farfetched that I have to stop. Daniels continues to be annoying and hard to root for, while Lancaster is revered as a hero by nearly everyone outside of law enforcement. The entire plot depends on the conspiracy surrounding the death of Daniels' father, but we rarely get to see her processing grief or anything that would expand her character beyond the stereotypical female FBI agent. Not to mention that the entirety of the plot could've been prevented if they'd gone about this investigation carefully. So many of the plot points came from oversights on the characters' parts.

This was a perfect mystery novel and I seriously don't understand why it's rated so low. As a mathematician, I loved the characterization of the 7 fundamental types of murder mysteries with beautiful examples. However the tension builds as Julia begins to suspect that Grant is withholding information from her and the audience is left to wait as they launch into another short story. While I didn't find Grant to be very compelling, it was so nice to read a compilation of solid murder mysteries within this framework.

This was a nice discussion of mental health and the restaurant industry, serving as a memoir for Chang and somewhat of an instructional guide for aspiring chefs (see Epilogue). I benefited immensely from hearing Chang narrate the audiobook, but I did feel a disconnect with the material. He can be brash, but I find him to be incredibly critical both of himself and others. But I did come into this book expecting it to discuss food from a chef's perspective, rather than his journey through his business endeavors, so that was a small disappointment.

As an amateur kpop stan, I loved getting a take on the trainee process from someone who actually experienced it. It was also nice getting a somewhat authentic view of the culture in Korea and the challenges that Rachel faced being from America. However I did find some of the manipulative plot elements to be cliche and predictable. But ultimately I'm excited to read the next book, so it paid off!

This book was so relevant for 2020, touching on cultural identity as well as the hidden (and not-so) racism in Midwestern communities. Following Lou who is coming into her identity as Native while navigating the perils of high school was compelling. However I felt like there was something missing in this book that kept me from truly connecting with the characters. Lou tended to be overly in her head and narcissistic, everything she "hates" about Cam. What hurts is that I loved the idea of this book so much, just not the execution.

This is ultimately a book about vengeance and deceit. However I feel a bit deceived by this book, as near to none of it took place in Night Vale itself. I loved hearing about the history of The Faceless Old Woman who Secretly Lives in Your Home and the swashbuckling adventure that ensued, however it all felt too normal compared to the zany things that go down in Night Vale. I missed the interludes of podcasts by Cecil and would've liked to see a bit more of Craig and Amarinta. That being said, I can't fault the writing or plot in the least and it did end in a typical Night Vale manner.