howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

3.5 stars

I think the average reader's experience with Great Goddesses is going to depend heavily upon what you're looking for. I tried to review this fairly with a middle-of-the-road rating because, as a poetry collection, it didn't work. There's no rhythm or flow to 90% of the writing, much of the text feels a little repetitive, and more passages than not instilled about as much of an emotional response as the average textbook would. On the other hand, as a collection of tales about Greek deities, it works fabulously. Gill does a splendid job of subverting old tropes and offering new perspectives into the stories of many beings, in both positive and negative ways. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes:

Somewhere inside my heart, I misplaced my faith, misunderstood my own origin story, became a person half tragedy, more misery, and I started to relish it. I revelled in this losing of everything that I thought I was, the lack of self-care; the drowning becomes such a needful thing when you think there is nothing left to look forward to.

——————

This is the story told in hushed tones. It is the version of the tale they do not want you to know. After all, what is more powerful than women who know all about the blessed fires inside them that grow.

——————

Sometimes I watch Girl become Goddess and the metamorphosis is more magnificent than anything I have ever known.

——————

Sometimes I pray for the living in me,
And sometimes I pray for the dead.

Christmas is an especially big deal in Molly’s town, where the citizens decorate extravagantly each year—including the tremendous amount of sparkling lights that go up each year. Something is different about the lights this year, and they’re having a terrifying effect on the children in town.

I’m a total sucker for Christmas horror stories, so I would have added this to my TBR based on the synopsis alone, but when I learned it also featured an f/f romance? Well, count me in!

Before the horror that was my darkest Christmas, the lights were a welcome sight.

First, the plot of this story? Genuinely a little terrifying. Kids can be creepy to begin with, and the idea of these children being turned into raging murderers just by staring at a few strings of Christmas lights is unsettling. Likewise, the gore put on display during the murders is surprisingly dark for YA horror, which was a nice change of pace from what I expected. There’s a line that describes a man’s entrails being wrapped around the tree like garland, and my gore-loving little self couldn’t help but cackle a little over that.

For the characters, the relationship between Molly and her girlfriend Chelsea feels like an actual teen relationship with some tender moments mixed in with a bit of bickering that ups the reality factor. There’s also a nonbinary/ace side character who was honestly the star of the show for me.
The only notable flaw in the story for me was the ending and explanation of events. While it wasn’t bad, I think the bulk of the story was so well-done that I expected more and was a little surprised by how vague and up in the air the last little bit felt to me. That said, if you’re looking for a fun, short holiday horror read with some diversity thrown in, definitely grab a copy of The Lights. I had a ton of fun reading this and would very happily pick up future horror releases from this author!

Content warnings for gore, murder, child death

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to the author for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I always love a good horror collection, and when I was offered this one, it felt implied that the stories were not only spooky, but also feminist in nature, which immediately hooked my interest. I will say that there are a lot of feminist notes to the tales, as well as subversion of some tropes here and there, though it wasn’t enough to make this anthology a complete winner for me.

There are definitely a few gems in the collection, such as:
• Red Room, in which a woman tries to warn her boyfriend about the terrifying, bloody photos that keep mysteriously appearing on her phone—but nobody ever listens to the women, do they?
• All Souls of Eve, a Halloween retelling of Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale—except this time, the ghosts are dead ex-boyfriends, and they’re just as toxic in the afterlife as they were when Eve dated them.
• Lady of the Flies, a story full of secondhand awkwardness and cringe-inducing grossness, albeit dimmed slightly by a lackluster back story.

Unfortunately, the other ten stories in the collection were mostly 3-star reads for me.

The most bothersome aspect for me is how heavily it relied on repetition of drug-related narratives. I know that the synopsis mentions substance abuse as one of the themes, but I think nearly half of the stories featured drug usage and/or characters with addictions. While I have no problem reading about addiction, it reached the point of repetition.

On one hand, many of the tales had serious potential; I think Christa Carmen shows definite potential as a writer, and I’d love to see where she goes with it, but the vagueness of most of the characters’ motives frustrated me, and on a more personal “pet peeve” note, the over-usage of similes in descriptive text kept jarring me out of the story, especially when there were multiple in a paragraph. All in all, though, I still enjoyed myself quite a bit while reading!

All in all, if you’re looking for a unique and feminist collection of indie horror, go ahead and give this one a try. I’m definitely willing to check out more of this author’s work in the future, because I think she has potential to go far, but this collection just didn’t quite "wow" me.

Thank you so much to the publicist for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Content warnings for violence, death, abduction, slut-shaming, abuse, suicide, alcoholism, addiction, drug usage, animal death, torture, mutilation, sexual assault, and self-harm.

You can find this review and more on my blog, or you can follow me on twitter, bookstagram, or facebook!

“There will come a time when we will love humanity, when we will gain the courage to fight for an equitable society for our beloved humanity, knowing, intelligently, that when we fight for humanity, we are fighting for ourselves.”

This was absolutely phenomenal. I haven't read the original by Ibram X. Kendi yet, but I certainly plan to after listening to Jason Reynolds' magnificent YA re-working of it. I don't know how much this book will help educate many of the Black individuals in my lives who grew up knowing this information and who work hard for civil rights, but as a white person who was raised in the deep south, so much of the truth that Jason Reynolds revealed here was painfully skimmed over in my upbringing and education. I feel like I learned things that I should have known a long time ago, and I was certainly reminded of how little I will ever truly grasp the Black experience, especially here in the US. But it also reminded me that there are always things I can do as long as I keep learning and listening and do everything in my power to be anti-racist.

I'd also like to say that Reynolds' narration skills are unparalleled; he's so much fun to listen to, and I can see why so many people have raved to me now about audiobooks of his works. I could have listened to him for hours longer and I know I'll be reaching for audio formats of everything else he's written because it was just so enjoyable.

Thank you so much to the publisher and LibroFM ALC Program for providing me with this finished audio copy in exchange for an honest review!

i've always been told that
i was born chasing sunsets, but
sometimes i wonder if i'm really
just trying to find a way
to be in two places at once.

Nocturnal is an interesting collection; it doesn't ever settle on just one main theme, but seems to flit between love and loss, insecurities and self-love, all tossed with a healthy focus on nature and all the healing it can offer us.

my heart tends to live
in the wrong place at
the right time,
but i've always loved
the sound of rain
on a sunny day
and the moon after
sunrise.

So many of the poems in this collection resonated deeply with me, particularly the creator's acknowledgement of their own patient-to-a-fault attitude towards toxic partners (been there!). More than anything, I loved the sections on self-love, and would have enjoyed more of those scattered throughout. The only reason I'm giving this 4 instead of 5 stars is that some of the pieces felt repetitive or out of place in the grand scheme.



I also feel like I can't complete this review without showing you an example of what I mean when I say that this is, without a doubt, the most visually beautiful poetry collection I have ever seen. It's filled with illustrations and watercolor scenery that lend the most incredible atmospheric touches.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

#1 The Lightning Thief ★★★★☆
#2 The Sea of Monsters ★★★★☆
#3 The Titan’s Curse ★★★★☆
#4 The Battle of the Labyrinth ★★★★★
#5 The Last Olympian ★★★★★

While I’ve given every book in the series 4 stars each so far, those have been very different 4-star ratings. The Lightning Thief was a solid 4—no more, no less. The Sea of Monsters was really a 4.5, but I couldn’t quite round it up to 5, so here we are. The Titan’s Curse, unfortunately, is a 3.5 rounded up—and I almost didn’t do that, but I have enjoyed the series itself so much overall that I felt like it was worth it. This was the least interesting book in the series so far to me, and had the least enjoyable cast.

In a way, it's nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force is really trying to mess up your day.

Of course, as always, we get to spend time with Percy and Grover, but the opening of the book enters into Annabeth being whisked away, and that set a bit of a bad precedent for the entire installment for me, as I genuinely enjoy Annabeth’s character, as well as the banter she offers. Her presence is more or less replaced by Thalia’s return, as well as the new introduction of Artemis’ righthand Huntress, Zoe—neither of whom quite lived up to the standard that Rick’s books have set for characters so far.

“Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"
"Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?"
"Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart.”

Struggles with the characters aside, enough things remain the same to be enjoyable: Percy is goofy and funny, Grover is terrified and precious, the gods and goddesses are weird and/or hilarious, and the action is suspenseful and easy to follow. Most MG fantasy series have a formula of sorts to them, and Percy is no exception, but the formula in these books is comforting and warm, rather than growing stale.

The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeleton army that had come to kill us.

As I expected, it feels as though the narrative is growing with Percy—these books feel like they were created for a fanbase that could age alongside each title’s release, and the plots and dialogue are steadily beginning to feel closer and closer to the YA age range. I love watching this development unfold in the characters and storyline, and genuinely cannot wait to see where it leads to next.

“Stars," she whispered. "I can see the stars again, my lady.”

The last thing I want to say about The Titan’s Curse is that I was taken aback by how sad some of its scenes are. There’s a surprising amount of death and impending doom in this installment—the heroes even begin their journey with a prophesy looming over them that promises one child’s death—and, without spoiling anything, I’ll just tell you that this was the first installment to make me cry over a loss. The fact that I found myself connecting to the characters that well, despite not loving all of the ones who get a lot of screen time in this installment, felt promising and made me incredibly eager to continue this series.

“Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it's a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades.”

All in all, this book was my least favorite so far, but that doesn’t change the fact that I cannot recommend this series highly enough if you enjoy fantastical adventures, lovable kids, hilarious (albeit super goofy at times) dialogue, and a really fun plot to suck you in.

You can find this review and more on my blog, or you can follow me on twitter, bookstagram, or facebook!

#1 Just Like That ★★★★★
#2 Just Like This

How strange, he thought. How strange indeed, that the world suddenly became more real, more crisp, the colors sharper about the edges in the slow span of breaths it took to wait for Summer to answer.

Good gods, where do I even begin with how utterly trash I am for Cole's characters, and how wholly captivated I am by this story?

But in certain circumstances, someone's name could be a love word. Intimate and shivering, rolling off the tongue.

As I've found to be the case with everything I've read from Cole so far, this isn't a fluffy, easy romance — it's soft and slow-building and even a little bit painful at time, because these are three-dimensional characters with aches and memories and traumas that have shaped them — but it is an incredibly rewarding romance, and you can rest easy knowing that these soft, broken men are still going to get the happily ever after they deserve... they just might have to fight for it. But that's my favorite part, truly.

Suddenly the stone of Iseya wasn't forbidding, but instead... stable ground. Stable ground that made Summer's world stop spinning out of control, that held him in place and grounded him until he could stop feeling like the floor was dropping out from beneath him.

Whether it's Summer's anxiety and past traumas or Iseya's loss of his first love and the way he's hidden from his grief for so long, there are a lot of heavy moments in this story. There's a depicting of loss and depression so deep it broke my heart, but there are light, sweet moments of domestic tenderness that patched it back up. Summer is such a brave, eager young thing despite his anxiety; on the other hand, stoic Iseya is tough as nails on the outside and fragile on the inside, but watching him slowly recognize that he deserved to give himself another chance at happiness? That was everything. Not to mention, his incredibly emotional Buddhist rituals and his gradual return to his love for herbalism? I loved these quiet moments of insight into his character so much.

Everything had that feeling of old spaces, of haunted spaces, quiet and whispered; the kind of place that had lace curtains and ghosts and a fifth step between every floor that creaked when the shades walked on it at night.

I'm reluctant to stray from rambling about how much I cared for the characters, but I have to also gush about the writing. Cole's way with words is absolutely brilliant and I'm already craving a return to the dark, cozy atmosphere of Albin Academy. I'm so pleased that it looks like we'll be spending more time in these halls soon! I also have to give a mention to the brief nod to Khalaji and Summer's time in Baltimore, as I'm such a sucker for authors who let their series cross paths here and there. ♥

Everything felt odd to him, as if he were an ancient and rusted machine whose circuits and pathways had gone dormant for so long that the first surge of sizzling lightning pouring through them was just a painful rush, electricity searing and burning and singeing fine and fragile things to ash because they just couldn't handle it anymore.

Lastly, I can't review this without addressing the fact that there are elements that some readers are probably going to find a bit taboo in this story. Summer is a former student of Iseya's (though nothing whatsoever happened while Summer was younger), and Iseya is more-or-less Summer's supervisor. I'm not a romance reader who has many triggers or topics I consider taboo, to be fair, but I still feel wholly confident in saying that Cole executes these tropes brilliantly, without playing into power dynamic problems or imbalances. As long as you don't expect the pairing in and of itself to bother you, I can't recommend this gorgeous romance highly enough!

✨ Representation: Summer Hemlock is queer & has anxiety; Fox Iseya is biracial (Japanese/white), queer (implied bi/pan), & has depression/suicidal ideation

✨ Content warnings for:

Spoiler

depression, anxiety, implied suicidal ideation, previous loss of a spouse, bullying, negligent parents

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Carina Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

update - november 2019:
I'm changing my rating because I constantly think about this book and how much I hate some of the content in it (like Simon's friends never really being challenged on their TERRIBLE treatment of him while he's being outed???) and frankly, I don't know why I gave this 4 stars to begin with, other than the hype and how lenient I used to be when reviewing books. :(

———

“People really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows. And maybe it's a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other.”

People have been recommending this book to me for a solid year or more, and I've owned a copy since January, but I kept putting it off. I finally realized I had only put it off so long because it had been hyped so hard for me that I was scared I would be let down! I can safely say I wasn't.

PLOT ➳➳
It's hard enough being a gay teen, but being closeted, too? That's not an easy life. Luckily for Simon Spier, he's got an online penpal: another gay teen boy from his school, who he gets along swimmingly with. In fact, he might even be falling in love! The problem? He doesn't have a clue who the kid is.

SIMON ➳➳
Simon is a really enjoyable narrator in that authentic, teen sort of way: he's a little bratty at times, he can be incredibly self-centered, and some of his views on things are warped (see below), but at his core, he's got a heart of gold and he's such a fun perspective to read the story through. He made my heart ache a few times over his coming-out process, because I remember how hard it was to be a closeted, queer teen, and I just wanted to give him a hug and tell him everything would be okay. ❤

BLUE ➳➳
Blue, Simon's penpal, is such a cute little guy and I loved reading the banter between these two! Sadly, someone on twitter had spoiled the secret of who Blue was a freaking week before I started reading the book, dammit. I think I would have enjoyed it so much more if I'd been able to be wrapped up in the mystery of who the penpal was, but obviously, that isn't the book's fault.

FRIENDS ➳➳
First, there's my favorite: Abby. I don't know what it was about her character, but something about her told me right from the start that she was just going to be a really lovable character and a good friend to Simon, and I wasn't wrong. I lived for their little bonding moments, and if Becky Albertalli ever decided to write a book on Abby, I'd pick it up for sure.

Then, there's Nick: I don't really have anything to say about him, honestly. I know he was supposed to be one of Simon's best friends, but I never felt like he got any character development whatsoever and if he hadn't existed at all, I wouldn't have noticed.

Finally, Simon's last best friend: Leah. I have spoken to so many people who really adored Leah's character and are super excited that she's apparently getting her own book, and sadly, I don't get it. I felt like there was this immense amount of potential for Leah to be an incredible character, and none of it was taken advantage of. She was mean and petty throughout the bulk of the book, and while I did feel sorry for her from time to time, I mostly found myself wishing her segments would hurry up and finish.

I don't want to leave out two other characters I enjoyed so much, though: the Spier sisters. They were such fun little pops of weirdness and/or adventure in the book, and I wish we'd gotten to see so much more of them.

WHAT I LIKED ➳➳
The entire book is, from cover to cover, pure fluffy cuteness. There are so many little bits here and there that are sure to give you warm fuzzies and a smile. Simon would be a fantastic book to pick up to pull yourself out of a slump, because the quick pacing and the cuteness are sure to draw most YA readers out of their ruts.

The banter between Simon and Blue, as I mentioned, is flirty and fun and adorable and I wanted more, more more.

As a bonus for readers from the area, like myself, Becky did an impeccable job portraying the Atlanta metro! I loved how many names she used that I recognized immediately, and some of Simon's inner monologues about the city were so fun and relatable.

WHAT I DISLIKED ➳➳
Simon has some minor areas of being problematic here and there, but there's one specific moment worth highlighting:

"I guess there are a few lesbian and bisexual girls, but I think it's different for girls. Maybe it's easier. If there's one thing the Tumblr has taught me, it's that a lot of guys consider it hot when a girl is a lesbian."

This baffled me a little, but I thought, Oh, it's just the character talking, it's not like those are Becky's thoughts... or are they? It never gets challenged. It's frustrating enough in the real world to be told that bisexual women don't have hard lives (while we're simultaneously being shunned by both straight culture AND queer culture), but to see it in a book that's meant to positively portray queer characters is just sigh-worthy.

Another thing that irked me a bit was Simon's trip to the gay bar in Atlanta. Out of all of the experiences that he could've had, we choose to go with the stereotype of him being picked up by a beautiful, slim, flamboyant, white blonde man who gives him drinks without checking his age? Obviously, that's an actual scenario that happens, but if you're picking Atlanta - one of the most diverse cities in the nation - as your setting, you could really do with a little more diversity than that, right?

None of these are problems that were enough to make me dislike the book by any means, and I'm not trying to start any arguments or sway any opinions. These were just a few minor things that bugged me about the book, and they contributed to my lowering the rating a star.

FINAL VERDICT ➳➳
Was I disappointed in this book that had been so strongly hyped for me? No, not at all! Did I think it was as ground-breaking as many of my peers do? No, not at all. It's a cute story with some decent rep and fun characters, but I doubt I'll rush to reread it and it definitely doesn't make my "top queer contemporaries" list. I'll be sure to check out more of Becky's writing in the future, though!

This was absolutely fantastic. That ending? Probably one of the best climaxes and endings to a book I've ever read. I can't wait to pick up book 3! RTC

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Buddy read with the ever amazing (and patient!) Jules ♥