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horrorbutch
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Xifeng is the most beautiful girl in her city. Wei, a man she's known since he was a young boy, is in love with her. However, Guma, her aunt, has other plans for her. Bigger plans. The cards tell her that Xifeng is destined for greatness. She is destined to be a Queen, higher and more powerful than anyone else. Will she embrace that destiny, even though it could plunge her into darkness, or struggle against what she was raised to believe?
This is a beautiful retelling of the story of the evil queen of Snow White, even though I probably wouldn't really have figured that out if I hadn't seen it promoted that way. There are some similarities, but also a lot of refreshing differences.
This story is magical. No, not only because of its beautiful writing style and captivating characters but also in the literal sense. There's magic. Fascinating, scary, dark, awesome magic.
The story is pretty dark, so there are quite a lot of trigger warnings. There are scenes of child abuse, heavy physical and emotional abuse, murder and torture. This is certainly a very dark retelling of an already pretty dark fairytale. And like I said, it is wonderful.
While the story starts quite slow, it develops beautifully the further in you get. It is a bit hard to get into this story, because at first Xifeng only seems like a very...unlikeable character. She hates every other girl around her and only cares about a man's affections. However, there is so much more to that, from her destiny to marry the King to so many amazing plot twists. Her place in this world, which she as a woman can only secure by her beauty, is something she desperately wants. Her struggles with her moral self and the - quite literal - demon inside her, where so interesting and fascinating to read.
All characters have depth and even when you can't approve of a character's actions, you can understand at some level why they act the way they do. They all feel very alive and all have their own motivations, dreams, and wishes that influence them.
What I enjoyed most were the incredibly poetic writing style and the incredibly detailed world building. Even though it's been a while since I read this book, there are just some places I can remember so vividly due to how well described they were.
Xifeng is the most beautiful girl in her city. Wei, a man she's known since he was a young boy, is in love with her. However, Guma, her aunt, has other plans for her. Bigger plans. The cards tell her that Xifeng is destined for greatness. She is destined to be a Queen, higher and more powerful than anyone else. Will she embrace that destiny, even though it could plunge her into darkness, or struggle against what she was raised to believe?
This is a beautiful retelling of the story of the evil queen of Snow White, even though I probably wouldn't really have figured that out if I hadn't seen it promoted that way. There are some similarities, but also a lot of refreshing differences.
This story is magical. No, not only because of its beautiful writing style and captivating characters but also in the literal sense. There's magic. Fascinating, scary, dark, awesome magic.
The story is pretty dark, so there are quite a lot of trigger warnings. There are scenes of child abuse, heavy physical and emotional abuse, murder and torture. This is certainly a very dark retelling of an already pretty dark fairytale. And like I said, it is wonderful.
While the story starts quite slow, it develops beautifully the further in you get. It is a bit hard to get into this story, because at first Xifeng only seems like a very...unlikeable character. She hates every other girl around her and only cares about a man's affections. However, there is so much more to that, from her destiny to marry the King to so many amazing plot twists. Her place in this world, which she as a woman can only secure by her beauty, is something she desperately wants. Her struggles with her moral self and the - quite literal - demon inside her, where so interesting and fascinating to read.
All characters have depth and even when you can't approve of a character's actions, you can understand at some level why they act the way they do. They all feel very alive and all have their own motivations, dreams, and wishes that influence them.
What I enjoyed most were the incredibly poetic writing style and the incredibly detailed world building. Even though it's been a while since I read this book, there are just some places I can remember so vividly due to how well described they were.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is told from Ryan's perspective. He is a teenager, who due to cerebral palsy in his legs, has to use a wheel-chair. Living in a small town isn't easy. Even his school had to be changed to be inclusive of him specifically as he is the only wheelchair user in his town. The only time he doesn't really feel all that different is when he is swimming. He actually is on the swim team and really good at it too.
One day while he is hanging out in the park, he sees a boy wearing a skirt walking into the water and not coming back up. That's how his life intersects with Jack's, even though rather unwillingly as he acted mostly on instinct by jumping in after him and saving him.
This is the story of two outsiders, who very unwillingly become something akin to friends, but only due to their shared outsider-status. This is a story about growing up and growing as a person, about learning things about oneself and others and kind of even about friendship. Even if it's not really one, at least not at first.
Personally, I found the story quite interesting, though it is certainly not my favorite story. There were some parts that bothered me, like Cody's constant homophobia, which really grated on my nerves. Ryan was definitely an interesting character and I liked seeing him grow and learn more about him. I also liked that he was quite funny with a dry sense of humor which I greatly enjoyed.
The ending was quite abrupt and not at all what I was expecting, but otherwise, this was certainly a nice story, though it did not pull me in as much as I had hoped it would.
This book is told from Ryan's perspective. He is a teenager, who due to cerebral palsy in his legs, has to use a wheel-chair. Living in a small town isn't easy. Even his school had to be changed to be inclusive of him specifically as he is the only wheelchair user in his town. The only time he doesn't really feel all that different is when he is swimming. He actually is on the swim team and really good at it too.
One day while he is hanging out in the park, he sees a boy wearing a skirt walking into the water and not coming back up. That's how his life intersects with Jack's, even though rather unwillingly as he acted mostly on instinct by jumping in after him and saving him.
This is the story of two outsiders, who very unwillingly become something akin to friends, but only due to their shared outsider-status. This is a story about growing up and growing as a person, about learning things about oneself and others and kind of even about friendship. Even if it's not really one, at least not at first.
Personally, I found the story quite interesting, though it is certainly not my favorite story. There were some parts that bothered me, like Cody's constant homophobia, which really grated on my nerves. Ryan was definitely an interesting character and I liked seeing him grow and learn more about him. I also liked that he was quite funny with a dry sense of humor which I greatly enjoyed.
The ending was quite abrupt and not at all what I was expecting, but otherwise, this was certainly a nice story, though it did not pull me in as much as I had hoped it would.
Disclaimer: This book was provided for free as the October's Sapphic Book Club read hosted by sapphicliterature.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was its amazing pacing and the interesting world building. There were no info dumps or scenes that seemed hurried or stretched on until you were bored.
Most importantly I fell in love with pretty much all characters, almost immediately. We meet Andrea on her farm and are pretty quickly introduced to the stories main problem: the lack of magic. While people have slowly learned to live with the fact that magic is waning, the problems it causes are still ever-present. Andrea is determined to find a way to end this problem, starting her journey that will lead her much farther than she ever expected. Then we got to meet Cassie and slowly the other characters. What really helped me connect to all of them was that they were introduced one after the other and we could see them fall into the already formed group, as well as getting to know them individually.
Besides the constantly rising stakes, amazing characters and a super interesting world building, I also enjoyed the writing style most of the time. There were some moments during which you could see that it was the author's first book, but this really picked up after the first few chapters and helped turn this book into a really engrossing and fascinating read.
Furthermore, I also quite liked the character's relationships and especially Cassie's and Andrea's relationship was amazing to read, starting as unlikely allies and them rather unhappily working together, but then soon growing into actual friendship and later on even romantic feelings for each other. I found myself enjoying their romance more than I dared hope because the setting could have easily used cheap melodrama to ruin it for me, but it worked well most of the time.
There were some scenes of unnecessary miscommunication at the end, which bothered me a bit, but other than that I quite enjoyed the book.
Most importantly I am very interested in the second book of this series because despite their first journey being over, I am still incredibly interested in learning more about the other characters such as Kye and Elisa.
If you're looking for an interesting fantasy story with a slow (oh so slow) burning f/f romance, interesting magic and a cast of great characters, then please do yourself a favor and check this book out.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was its amazing pacing and the interesting world building. There were no info dumps or scenes that seemed hurried or stretched on until you were bored.
Most importantly I fell in love with pretty much all characters, almost immediately. We meet Andrea on her farm and are pretty quickly introduced to the stories main problem: the lack of magic. While people have slowly learned to live with the fact that magic is waning, the problems it causes are still ever-present. Andrea is determined to find a way to end this problem, starting her journey that will lead her much farther than she ever expected. Then we got to meet Cassie and slowly the other characters. What really helped me connect to all of them was that they were introduced one after the other and we could see them fall into the already formed group, as well as getting to know them individually.
Besides the constantly rising stakes, amazing characters and a super interesting world building, I also enjoyed the writing style most of the time. There were some moments during which you could see that it was the author's first book, but this really picked up after the first few chapters and helped turn this book into a really engrossing and fascinating read.
Furthermore, I also quite liked the character's relationships and especially Cassie's and Andrea's relationship was amazing to read, starting as unlikely allies and them rather unhappily working together, but then soon growing into actual friendship and later on even romantic feelings for each other. I found myself enjoying their romance more than I dared hope because the setting could have easily used cheap melodrama to ruin it for me, but it worked well most of the time.
There were some scenes of unnecessary miscommunication at the end, which bothered me a bit, but other than that I quite enjoyed the book.
Most importantly I am very interested in the second book of this series because despite their first journey being over, I am still incredibly interested in learning more about the other characters such as Kye and Elisa.
If you're looking for an interesting fantasy story with a slow (oh so slow) burning f/f romance, interesting magic and a cast of great characters, then please do yourself a favor and check this book out.
