“It wasn't pretending I wouldn't get knocked down that protected me, but the knowledge that I would get back up as many times as I had to.”

Rating: 2.5 stars.

I have complicated feelings about this book. It was okay, and I didn't hate it, but I did find myself waiting to finish it by about halfway through. Unlike most reviewers, I found that I enjoyed the first book and liked the second a lot less, but I think most of my reservations were more about the way that aspects of the novel were executed. Spoilers ahoy

The prologue with Eijeh immediately gripped me, and tbh Eijeh was one of the most interesting aspects of the book to me, but he was barely in it and by the end of the novel, what I thought was going to turn out to be a really cool aspect of the plot was mentioned in passing for the rest of the novel. Apart from Eijeh's few chapters, the book was split between Cyra, Akos and Cisi's perspectives. As someone who found Isae unbearable, and Cisi pretty bland, I didn't really enjoy those chapters. It was nice to have the aspects of political intrigue, and for a hot second I was reminded of the later parts of the Hunger Games series, but everything was so brief and glossed over. I made a note during the beginning of this novel to add it to my queer characters shelf, because yay a lesbian character where it hasn't been a primary facet of her personality, but then the relationship was completely ignored even when it would have been relevant to mention, like during all the stuff that went on with Ast. It felt a little to me like the queer characters had been shoehorned in (Akos inexplicably mentioning Vakrez's husband near the end of the book? what.)

Cyra and Akos predictably have a huge fight about something that wasn't a problem in the last book but is suddenly a problem now, which felt a little uncharacteristic, then a few chapters later they go from completely avoiding each other to cuddling, which just felt weird and off. There wasn't really a resolution or an explanation.

The final nail in the coffin for this book for me was probably the ~big twist~ regarding Akos and Cyra's fates. I guessed about half of the twist, but I didn't guess the specifics of the twist because the specifics of the twist were completely stupid. The ridiculous switching places thing wasn't really given any depth, and it barely made sense.

I think my biggest problem with this novel is that it felt like Roth wanted to create a complex political environment, and then rushed through the complex political intrigue. Perhaps she didn't want to create another trilogy (fair, because the YA market is overflowing with them right now) but it felt like the second book should have been two books; the first handling Lazmet, then the second handling the peace accords. Instead, everything was hurried and glossed over, and things that could have potentially been explained into making sense were just abandoned as half-explained statements.

I did, sort of, enjoy this book. But I really wish it had been given more time to become a stronger story.

I am in trouble here. This woman is not right.

Rating: 4 stars

This book was so goddamn spooky. I've never really been into horror, so this was one of my first forays into reading adult horror after enjoying a few YA horrors and then reading Doctor Sleep recently. I loved it. I read it in (mostly) one sitting, interrupted only by my mum calling me in the middle of

Spoiler

Annie cutting off his FOOT ugh

and at that point I was so creeped out I was kind of grateful for the interruption. I really enjoyed this book though and it leaned in hard to the idea that human nature is way scarier than any kind of paranormal experience, which is something I've always loved in horror because people are WAY scarier than monsters. After loving this and Doctor Sleep, I'm definitely making a concerted effort to read more King in the next few months, and I'm looking forward to expanding my horror tbr just as soon as I've got through some of my sff physical tbr list (it's out of control rn).

Ayoola summons me with these words—Korede, I killed him.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I picked this up after an event at the Cheltenham Literature festival where we got to hear Oyinkan speak about her debut. The way she described it fascinated me so I picked up a copy on the spot and got to it as soon as I could so that I could talk about it with my work colleague who'd already read it. It wasn't hard to do. I sped through this, gripped from the first page to the last, caught up in fast-paced action and gloriously gloriously twisty plot. I love that this was so character-driven, because it meant that I was really invested in Korede's story and what she was going to do next in this horrible, difficult situation.

We're different, this poet and I. In looks, in body,
in background. But I don't feel so different
when I listen to her. I feel heard.

Rating: 4 stars

I read this one over the course of about an hour, after marathon reading Stephen King's Misery. This was a very different novel, and one that I probably wouldn't necessarily have picked up if I hadn't stumbled across it in the library. I'm a big fan of slam poetry though, so I'm glad that I did pick up this one. The whole novel is written as a series of slam poems showing Xiomara's thoughts and feelings about her day to day life as she tackles teenager-hood, her mother's religion and the expectations that she feels are on her shoulders. It's a beautiful insight into a young woman's coming-of-age and discovery of her own power, and the poetry beat keeps the pages flying by. It's hard to stop once you've started, because the rhythm of the writing keeps you moving forward constantly. This is an easy read of some important topics and it's the kind of thing I think is really important for young women to be reading. I'd have loved a copy of this when I was a teenager.

We’re all dying. The world’s just a hospice with fresh air.

Rating: 4 stars

Before this, I'd only read Carrie by Stephen King and while I loved that it didn't drive me to read more horror, just made me slightly curious about the genre. Then I was half-dragged to see Doctor Sleep in the cinema and I loved the movie so I picked up a paperback on impulse to see what it was like. I devoured the whole thing. From what I can tell from various online lists (I was making a Stephen King to read list and wanted more opinions) Doctor Sleep is rated middling for his books, but I adored it. It was, admittedly, much much better than the movie and I found it thrilling and creepy in equal measures. I wouldn't necessarily call this one a horror as such, but I was definitely driven to find out what would happen next and the shining-consuming-spirit-vampires were scary as fuck in moments. As soon as I'd closed the cover on this one, I was reserving The Shining at my local library (soon tbr I swear) and sorting through 'best of' lists so I could add more of King's novels to my tiny growing interest in horror.

Proper review to come when it's not 2am. I have a lot of feelings about this book and one of them is the appalling lack of fanfic

“Wanting to know things and do things is what the human race is all about. Exploration, Gwendy! Both the disease and the cure!”

Rating: 3.5 stars

I follow Richard Chizmar on twitter and I heard a lot about Gwendy's Magic Feather around release date. So when I saw Button Box on the quick choices stand at my library, I had to pick it up. This is a quick read. I'm a particularly fast reader, so I actually read the whole thing on my lunch break at work, but I imagine for most people it would be 2.5 - 3 hours of reading. It's definitely worth picking up, though. The idea is that 12 year old Gwendy has been given a magical button box. It has a button for each continent, and the box gives her great, great benefits but also HUGE responsibilities. The novella explores the control that the box has over her life, and to me also seemed to have an interesting focus on the implications of agreeing to responsibilities without knowing the true implications. I wouldn't say this novella is particularly scary, but I would say that it's definitely a fascinating character study.

Next, I've gotta get my hands on a copy of Magic Feather and revisit a grown up Gwendy.

It's about wrong and less wrong. Bad and less bad.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I absolutely love the His Dark Materials series, and I re-read them this year and loved them even more than I did before, so I knew I had to pick up La Belle Sauvage. I finally managed to get a copy from the library (I'm still 55th in the queue for The Secret Commonwealth though) and while I did really enjoy it, I think my experience was a little ruined by being totally over-hyped for it. Everyone kept telling me it was the best book ever and while it did really, really hold up, it wasn't as good in my opinion as some of the HDM books.

Saying that, I loved Malcolm and Alice and I could read a hundred stories about those two. I thought they were powerfully written and just as lovable as Lyra and Will, and it was sweet to see baby Lyra. I liked finding out how, exactly, she ended up at Jordan College too. This book lost points for me because in places it got... weird? But without much context or explanation. Twice, the book delved into faery territory and then out again and unless I missed something crucial, this made absolutely no sense to me as part of the narrative whereas I was so much more invested in Malcolm and Alice's real-world struggle to reach safety.