essjay's Reviews (635)

The first third of this was GREAT, loved how the characters were all the same but different. And then they switched artists and woooooof. Everyone is suddenly wall-eyed and no one looks like who they're supposed to look like (there were multiple times I had no idea who someone was supposed to be until their name was said). HOWEVER, I am digging the story, so will keep reading. Love Willow being out so young, love this weirdly nice Cordy, I even like what's going on with Xander so far

but he always kind of had incel vibes to begin with, so tnis was unsurprising.

I feel like the last time I read these, I rated them higher than I am this time. One of the perils of aging. I still love Buffy even tho we know a lot more about the bullshit happening behind the scenes at the time. Anyway, these issues vary wildly in terms of art and story, got super distracted by how male gaze-y they were at times. Still gonna finish re-reading s8 (and I don't think I ever actually read past s10, so that'll be new-to-me), but am going to take a break to check out the 2019 BOOM! reboot and see if that hits any better. 

Adding an additional half star bc I really loved the art, but the dialogue was so clunky. I didn't realize this was MG before checking it out, but even for children's lit, it had a lot of "who would even talk like that??" issues. I also am not entirely sure I understand the point of the ending,

Juniper wanted her own bakery, so the owner of the shop she worked at gave her a cart, but she's still selling things from the same bakery and this is somehow a reward?

Me: So why are we giving this one a four?

13y/o: I do really love this and think Cora is great, but we spent so much time in Confection and didn't really learn enough about the inner workings, and I KNOW Kade has ideas about it, but I NEED MORE. 

Me: Okay, but this is one of the odds, so it's technically a SCHOOL book, we have to wait for one of the evens to get something like that. This was just a quest. 

13y/o: NO. QUESTS. 

Me: Yeah, but...Eleanor sent them on this quest, didn't she?

13y/o: I didn't think of it like that. 

So, yeah, the sign is bullshit. But we love Cora and I can't think too much about the implications of how her door appeared without sobbing; she might be the most relatable character in the whole series for me for a few more books. Altho I'm p sure the kid would disagree and tell you without a doubt that I am 100% a Katherine Lundy. Which I will talk about when we finish reading the next book aloud. 

Me: Okay, so how do we rate this one?

13y/o: 4?

Me: But you said the last one was 4¼, and I thought you liked this one more?

13y/o: I do.  But I'm a little mad there's not more Alexis, so it gets a 4 because of that.

Me: [sigh] fine.

As you can see, I've actually given this one 4¼, bc I disagree that Every Heart a Doorway was better than this one. 13y/o can deal. On to reading Beneath the Sugar Sky aloud!

More messy women, this time in the 90s. The ending was rather abrupt and the "twists" were telegraphed from the beginning, but still an enjoyable enough way to spend an evening reading  

Something about this just isn't hitting for me. 

Love a messy bitch unreliable narrator. 

I have so many problems with this book, but the biggest has to be the FMC's fresh water allergy, which makes no sense for an ENTIRE SPECIES

or two

from an evolutionary standpoint. Cool idea, poorly executed. And the smutty bits were p mid, especially since half the time I wasn't sure if they were actually happening or a dream. 

Re-reading this series aloud to the 13y/o before bed. I have read them all once. They have read them all at least 10 times. This is their rating. 

I love this series, and while it is NOT my favourite (I prefer the evens for the most part, IYKYK), it is still a wonderful introduction to the series and the many MANY worlds it contains.