howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

 Considering how much I've loved most of the other Erin Bowman books I've read and how incredible the premise of this book is, I had very high hopes that Dustborn would be a new favorite; unfortunately, though, it fell short for me in a lot of ways. Despite a lot happening in the first half of the book, it dragged by, and the second half, while being substantially more action-packed, was still hard to connect with.

Delta's a protagonist who should have worked well for me in theory (she's grouchy, pragmatic, and yet her maternal urges are overwhelming - all of these are typically ingredients for a main character I can root for), but somehow, I never was able to emotionally invest in her, and I think part of that may be due to this being a stand-alone.

While I love an SFF stand-alone as much as the next person does on occasion, this is a story that I personally feel would have lived up to its potential so much more if it'd been further embellished upon and split into a duology. I would've had a chance to grow to genuinely love these characters, and so the stakes would have felt higher, but as it was, none of the risky moments of action ever struck a chord because I simply didn't care what happened to anyone (other than Bay and Rune - and frankly, I could knock off an entire star just for how furious I was over that scene with Rune).

The romance was lackluster, the twist was very interesting (and surprising) but ultimately not enough to save the story leading up to that point, and the ending felt anti-climactic and strange. Again, I sound like a broken record here but I truly believe that splitting this book into two installments would have gone a long way to allow it to live up to the tremendous amount of potential the synopsis held.

I'm excited to read more from Erin Bowman because I know what she's capable of, but Dustborn was disappointing and unmemorable, and I strongly recommend that people who are new to Erin's work start with Contagion or Vengeance Road instead.

✨ Representation: BIPOC side characters; queer side characters; multiple side characters have disabilities (including missing eyes and prosthetic limbs); the main character and love interest are heavily scarred 

 

I genuinely don't have words for how much I adored this book, or how grateful I am to have finally read it. I've been meaning to pick it up for years, and finally did after making a deal with my mother (she would read Finlay Donovan Is Killing It if I would read this — we've both been very happy with this deal's outcomes), and honestly, Mom, thank you for harassing me endlessly to read this. You were right. I loved every single page.

I don't think any book has ever made me laugh so hard, but I also don't think any book I've ever read has captured mental illness and chronic illness/pain so well. There were chapters in this book that hit me so hard, I had to pause my audiobook and go do something else for a while to give myself a chance to recover, because there's something painful in the best way about listening to someone say all the things you never quite have the words for, like how unfair it is that depression is a chronic illness nobody ever congratulates you for surviving, or how bullshit it is that our society treats mental health medications with so much hostility and skepticism despite the fact that we would never look down on someone for taking medications for, say, migraines, or arthritis, or cancer. I could rant for a long time, but honestly, just read this book, because Jenny says it all so much more eloquently than I could.

But alongside all of the heavy topics, this book is just a damn delight from start to finish. Maybe part of it is because Jenny reminds me so much of myself in the ways she looks at the world and how her thought processes work (ADHD brains unite!), but I laughed until I cried at least three times, and two of those times were probably related to her incredible taxidermy animal stories.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go grab audio copies of her other books... and maybe look into pricing a taxidermy raccoon.

✨ Representation: Jenny has ADHD, multiple physical conditions (including rheumatoid arthritis), and multiple mental illnesses (including but not limited to depression, anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, OCD, trichotillomania, suicidal ideation, and self-harm) 

 Sometimes you realize you've "outgrown" a book, and that's okay.
 

 

Summer's Edge was pitched to me as "The Haunting of Hill House meets I Know What You Did Last Summer", and let me start off by saying that's actually an excellent pair of comps for this title. The book has the same "secret individual seeks revenge for a death with a suspicious story" vibes as the latter, with the bizarre, topsy-turvy feel of the former, all set in a lake house that often feels as though it has a mind of its own. If you're looking for an eerie YA thriller/horror tale this summer, Summer's Edge has you covered, and I think a lot of readers are going to be very enraptured by the twists and turns within these pages.

Unfortunately for me, there were a lot of elements of this story that did not work for me, with most of them boiling down to the writing and editing. I read an eARC of this, so hopefully these issues were fixed by the time the final edits went to print, but I found some glaring continuity errors (such as a character destroying an item on one page, and then having it in his hands, unharmed, two pages later) and there were some unlikely scenarios that I couldn't quite suspend my disbelief for. While some of those scenarios are somewhat explained later, avoiding tying up those loose ends struck me as incomplete and a missed opportunity to make this book a lot more solid than it was.

While I won't give any spoilers for the twists or the ending, I will say that I saw it coming, and while it was a trope I've enjoyed in many other pieces of media, I didn't love its execution here. That said, there were some redeeming qualities in a few of the characters and many quotable, creepy lines that I enjoyed (especially in the "in-between" short chapters in the first half of the book), and the atmosphere of the lake house was immaculate. Overall, Summer's Edge wasn't a story to write home about and I was a little relieved when it was over, as I think it dragged on a bit too long, but I'm still happy I read it and think it will be a big hit with a lot of summer thrill-seekers!

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

✨ Representation: Chelsea is bi/pan (not specific); Kennedy is sapphic (unknown if lesbian or bi/pan) 

 I knew this book had a lot of fans, but I didn't know what to expect and, for some inexplicable reason, didn't expect to love it this much. I was completely blown away by how fantastic and terrifying this book was, though. I cringed, I wanted to cry, I felt legitimate dread for these characters, and all the while, I was fully sucked in. I've been having a hard time getting totally pulled into stories lately, but I read this 500+ page book in 3 days, and it would have been less than that if I'd had more free time over that timespan.

Though shit hits the fan around the 20% mark, the build-up for The Ruins is a little bit slow, but it's worth every moment, because it introduces you to the cast of characters in such a way that they feel so real. They're very flawed, ultimately complex characters with a layer of authenticity that I don't see mirrored often by other horror authors; I felt like I could have known any one of these tourists, or could have even been one of them, and so I couldn't help but root for them right to the very end.

Above all else, there's a sense of bleakness and misery permeating this entire story that is inescapable, and it's all I could think about even when I wasn't reading, making it an incredibly unputdownable book that I feel will stick with me for a long time to come. The Ruins feels like a masterpiece of the genre and I am so glad that I finally experienced it for myself. 

 I re-read Volume 1 before reading this one, since it had been so long since I started the series, and I'm glad I did, because Volume 2 doesn't stand as well on its own. Not only does it feel a little bit insta-love-y and lacking in chemistry and depth, but I was also bothered by the lack of focus on consent. While I get that the idea is a taboo dom/sub romance forming between these two, there were some moments where even I, as the reader, wasn't 100% sold on whether Shirotani was enjoying himself or wanted Kurose to stop. It was all just a bit rushed, too. That said, I'm still really intrigued by these characters and the plot, and I think the pairing has a lot of potential (I was rooting really hard for them in volume 1 and the first half of this volume!), so I'm excited to continue the series and I still enjoyed this volume for the most part.
 

 I'm sad to DNF this, given how much I loved Emily's debut and how excited I was to read this new release, but I'm so bored. :( Maybe I'll try it again someday, but every page is just dragging by.