Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA fantasy
Short Summary: I don't have enough brain cells to summarize this. It involves lots of heist and tragic backstories, though.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Violence, gore, trauma, death of wolves, allusion to rape.
My rating: 4 stars

Plot:

The plot isn't particularly good or memorable, especially since I've read a few heist books before, but it stands out from the other heist books I've read because in all the others, the characters are always motivated by saving the world and the greater good, ect. Having characters motivated by four million kruge is a bit refreshing.

Towards the end, though, there were some inconsistencies and it seemed a bit rushed.

Characters:

The characters are the best aspect of the book. I've heard people saying that the tragic backstories are a bit much, and perhaps they are, but I'm a sucker for tragic backstories. I literally read the whole Stormlight Archive series just for flashbacks and backstories, so. . . The backstories in Six of Crows aren't a problem to me. Now, on to the characters themselves:

Kaz Brekker: I know a lot of people hate him, but I don't see where the hate is coming from, at all. I really like him. He's a male YA character with a whole badass, gritty aesthetic, and he's not abusive. He's amazingly respectful. I've read so many abusive YA guys that a character like Kaz Brekker stands out simply because he's respectful. And in his own right, he's not the most original character ever, but I still love him.

Inej Ghafa: In the first half or so of the book, I thought she was pretty bland and boring, but she developed more as the book went on. She's still not my favorite character, but she's okay.

Jesper Fahey: He was a lot of fun and still had ✨issues✨. He was one of my favorite characters, and the fact he's a sharpshooter stood out to me because I don't think I've ever read a high fantasy book with guns before.

Nina Zenik : She's probably my favorite character. I think I'm in love with her. She seemed the most unique character to me, and she's beautiful and she knows it, which is refreshing when so many female YA characters don't know they're pretty when they are.

Matthias Helvar: He's okay. I didn't like him at all originally, but when I saw more of how backstory I liked him more. He got a lot better toward the end, but he's still unoriginal and not very interesting.

Wylan Van Eyck: I felt as if I didn't know him very well. I didn't see much of his backstory, and he had a lot fewer lines of dialogue than the other characters.


Writing:

I really liked the writing style, except when it got slow, but in general the writing was really good, witty but not ridiculous, sometimes quote touching. However, I felt that it could use more description at time.

Setting

I liked the setting overall, but it didn't seem fleshed-out enough. Hopefully this will improve in the sequel.

Other:

Since I'm a sensitive soul, the gore and violence was a bit much at times, especially the violence against wolves.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Yes, I would.

The stories in this book are all important and informative, but the execution wasn't the best. All the stories were told the same exact way, to the point where it almost seemed as if I were reading the same story over and over at times. The writing was rather dry, and really lacked details of any kind.

I also feel like it's probably aimed at a younger audience than me, maybe like 9-14 year olds? The language is very simplistic, the illustrations seemed sort of juvenile, and the passages that were directly speaking to the reader definitely felt as if they had a young person in mind.

In short, I didn't really like this very much, but it's still very important.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Genre: Middle Grade
Short Summary: The Baudelaire orphans are adopted by their evil relative, who wants to steal their fortune.
My rating: 2 stars

Plot:

Well, that was convoluted and contrived as heck.

Spoiler

Violet got out of marrying Olaf just by signing with her left hand? Really?

Not very interesting at all and the antagonist's motives are very generic.

Characters:

Literally all the characters only have one personality trait each: Violet likes to invent stuff, Klaus likes to read, Sunny likes to chew things, (because that is obviously an extremely compelling personality. I know she's a baby, but still, chewing things is portrayed as if it's a personality trait.), Olaf is evil, Justice Strauss is kind. No one has any depth or backstory or motivation for doing things or anything.

Writing:

I've never read such condescending writing. To see what I mean, here are a few quotes:

the kitchen grew cozy as the sauce simmered, a culinary term which means “cooked over low heat.”

It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between “literally” and “figuratively.” If something happens literally, it actually happens; if something happens figuratively, it feels like it’s happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for other matters.

"The world 'nupital,'" Klaus said, "means 'relating to marriage.'"

Those aren't isolated incidents, either; it sounds like that throughout the book. I know it's for young readers, but still, I'm sure even small children usually know what 'simmer' means.


Other:

1. There's a minor character in this book who is always described as looking "like neither a man nor a woman", and on one occasion, this person is refered to multiple times as "it" and is also called "a creature", although it was made clear that this is a person. So apparently, if some kids can't immediately assign you a binary gender upon looking at you, they have a right to dehumanize you. I don't think I need to spell out how problematic this is

2. On a positive note, I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was really good -- possibly some of the best audiobook narration I've ever heard.

Would I recommend it? Heck no. Maybe the audiobook, but not likely.

Read first time: 2014 (?). Hardcover
Read second time: January 2021. Audiobook

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Contemporary fantasy
Short Summary: There is a magic library place underground. (There's hardly any more to the story than that, so I think that's a fair summary).
My rating: First reading: 5/5 stars (November 2019)
Second reading: 2.5/5 stars (November 2020)

My thoughts:

Plot: 1/5 stars
More accurately utter lack of plot. The little plot there is is a confusing mess, and the vast majority of the book is just random stuff happening and the setting being described. For a book about stories, one would imagine that it would have, you know, a story, right? Wrong. Apparently describing random stuff is a better way to write about stories.

Characters: 2.5/5 stars
Here is the cast:
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is just a normal guy who likes to play video games and read and. . . uh, that's about it. He's so gosh-darned normal it would be horrible if he actually had something like a ✨personality✨

Dorian is the love interest. That's all there is to him. He is a love interest. Thus he has to be mysterious and broody.

Mirabel (forgive me if I misspelled her name; I listened to the audiobook) at least has a little bit of something that might have been a personality. She was a little annoying, though.

The Keeper does little more than spout random profound stuff.

Agatha . . . Well. She actually had potential, but

Spoiler

she dies before she can actually do anything

Kat is the only character I actually liked. Now, here's a character who actually had emotion and depth. Why couldn't she have been the protagonist? Why are we stuck with Zachary Ezra Rawlins the Bland?

Writing: 3.5/5 stars
I honestly don't know what to say about the writing. I really love this kind of writing usually -- the attention to detail, the descriptions, the gorgeous word usage. But. If writing gets in the way of having a story. . . I'm not sure if I like it as much.

Setting: 3/5 stars
For a book in which the setting is the main focus, I can't even picture the setting. It's too sprawling, too broad, too much. Contrast this with the circus in The Night Circus. The circus is contained, easy to picture. It's one particular place. It's not a giant world like the Starless Sea and its harbors and its dollhouses and its everything else.

Do I recommend it? Not really. If you like description-heavy books with a focus on setting, I'd recommend The Night Circus instead.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Genre: Contemporary YA with demisexual rep, bisexual rep, gay rep, mlm relationship rep, wlw relationship rep (sort of)
>> TRIGGER WARNINGS: Child abuse, animal abuse, depression<<
My rating: 4.5 stars
My thoughts:

Plot: 3 stars
Here's another of those quiet books that aren't heavy on the plot but pack a punch (like Eliza and Her Monsters and The Cure for Dreaming). One thing about the plot really bothered me, though:

Spoiler

Carys came up out of nowhere. I really, really needed more explanation and foreshadowing for that.

There's also the fact the plot is very similar to Eliza and Her Monsters' plot. I enjoyed Radio Silence a bit more though, even though I liked both.

Characters: 5.5 stars (is that a thing? No? Who cares?)
ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK ARE MY BABIES AND I'D FIGHT TO THE DEATH FOR THEM IF I NEEDED TO. I know I need to be more logical and analytical right now. Do I care? No.

Writing: 5 stars
The writing is so good, just perfect.

Setting: 4 stars
Honestly, I don't remember the setting much, but what I do remember was pretty well-done.

Other: 5 stars
You want to know what the very best things about this glorious book are? Well, here they are:
1. Universe City
2. Frances and Aled's relationship.
3. All the representation and diversity!!!!

Do I recommend it? Heck yes.


* * *

Note: I only read this once, but some Goodreads glitch is saying I read it twice but when I try to fix that it won't let me, so I thought I should mention that to make things less confusing.

I don't really have much to say about this book, but since it took me almost six months to read it, I figured I should attempt to write a review.

I don't really remember the earlier part of the book very well, since it took me so long, but I do remember that the first 300 pages or so felt quite repetitive and a bit boring, but the later part got a bit more interesting and informative.

I wasn't expecting this book to be as much of a memoir as it was; I was expecting it to be more of a self-help book, so I was mildly disappointed when it turned out to be a therapist memoir.

3.5 stars

2.5 stars, rounded down

The only reason I read this book at all is because it's short and I am behind my reading challenge.

Most of the book was very fluffy and didn't have much substance, mostly consisting of jokes that were not funny and random recipes and crafts. I'm still angry about the blackberry jam recipe that called for butter.

There were a few interesting facts, but not enough to make me rate it any higher than 2.5 stars.