Full Review available here on 30/07/2020: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/07/30/star-wars-poe-dameron-free-fall-by-alex-segura-review/

I honestly, hand on heart, enjoyed this book a thousand times more than I expected. I was excited about it to begin with, but also a little wary. I’ve been stung before with Star Wars content. This book was not a letdown. It starts with Poe in trouble and I felt immediately like Alex Segura had a really good grasp on Poe’s characterisation and kept it consistent throughout the book. He’s not exactly the same as the Poe we know and love, but that’s a good thing. This Poe is sixteen, inexperienced and desperate for adventure, but I could very clearly see how he would develop into Poe Dameron, Resistance hero. After reading this one, I actually picked up my TROS novelisation and read that and it gave so much depth to the sections with Zorii and Babu and mentions of Poe’s past that I had to stop and think about Free Fall again. I love Poe and have from the start, but this novel gave me a strong and deep connection to a character that didn’t get explored so much in the movie and I loved it.

We also, of course, got our expected firefights and crazy aerial manoeuvres, blaster battles and cameo mentions of famous Star Wars characters but I liked that this was focused on Poe’s story – not one of Jedi and Sith and the Force. I liked the focus on smugglers, criminals and the New Republic instead. The Spice Runners of Kijimi are exactly as horrible and criminal as we’d expect, but their violence is softened a little for the younger Disney audience. This is the first Star Wars YA novel I’ve read where that softness is explained within the text though and justified with Poe’s internal conflict – he wants to be a part of the team but he doesn’t want to hurt people. This was perfect for characterising Poe and also had the benefit of not knocking me out of the realism of the moment. The Spice Runners, and their criminal operations, were a good background for Poe to develop and I felt like we really got to see Poe grow from a boy desperate for any kind of adventure into a man who realises that believing in the cause you’re fighting for is more important than the fight itself.

The real highlight of this book is the relationship between Poe and Zorii. They’re two teenagers growing together, finding companionship around harsh and dangerous adults and learning to be themselves. They teach each other skills and my favourite thing about it was that there were romantic tones to their interactions but ultimately they felt most like teenage friends finding comfort in each other. It explains the complicated relationship when they are reunited in The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the fact that Zorii was fast to anger and fast to forgive.

DNF at 55% , this book is good but just not for me personally. I was hoping for a bit more spooky and a bit less police procedural - but that's personal preference. Highly recommend to anyone who likes crime novellas, and will probably look out for author's other writing as the writing itself was interesting!

I first read this back in 2015, and in all honesty when rereading it for review in 2020 I expected my rating to drop. However, I enjoyed this just as much. I think it's easier to read the problematic aspects of ACOTAR when you know that they are challenged in ACOMAF - though the lack of diversity in this series is kind of painful. ACOTAR shows us an amazing, fantastical world of magical fae. Straight, white magical fae. I found it tiring so it's no wonder that POC have very justifiable problems with this series.

For a Beauty and the Beast retelling, I do like this series. Feyre as a protagonist grows and grows across the remaining books, but it's ACOTAR that shows us where she started. I like that she's not shown to be entirely soft and sweet, she kills a wolf in cold-blood when she suspects it to be a fairy and she's ready to fight her way out of the Spring Court if she has to. Without delving into spoiler territory, she continues to show this harsh edge throughout the book and in the final act she does things that are not the behaviour of a soft MC. I like it much better that way. I also love that she's not shown to be naive or innocent. She's had relationships before and she's had casual sex before. For the older reader this is a nice change from most early to mid 2010's fiction focusing on the magical purity of virginity

I received an ARC of this graphic novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the use of colour in this graphic novel. The two tone art was interesting and added a lot of depth to the drawings, and I think I find two-tone less distracting than full colour art. The linework really stood out to me, and the monochromatic nature of the art made me see more of the jagged post-apocalyptic landscape and really added to the mood of the book in places.

I liked the three main characters a lot. Ginny, Wes and Harry had a very realistic sibling relationship and seemed appropriately aged, though the younger ones switched between childlike immaturity and moments of forced responsibility - which I think makes sense for the setting of this graphic novel and was well done. The setting was well-developed and well-explained without the use of exposition. I managed to predict a could of the twists in this story, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable, and this was an easy and interesting read. It didn't shy away from the dark moments that post-apocalypse stories call for and I'm nervous and excited to find out what happens to the siblings and Maya next.

I found the digital format a little hard to read and blurry in places but that may just be an issue with my eARC. I'd definitely be interested in seeing this one in paperback because I think that would make the art really stand out. Definitely looking forward to the rest of this story, and to seeing more of Jonathan Hill's work.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF @ 20%

I liked the concept behind this a lot, but it lost me somewhere in execution. The art is excellent, but the dialogue was too much and overwhelmed the page. There was so much going on that it was hard to read, with a lot of visuals and a lot of words crammed into each page, and right at the start there was so much exposition that it made me immediately weary. Graphic novels should show, not tell, and this just didn't do that for me. I also found the white text on the pink background really hard to read, and squinting at the page to read him talking to his internal systems got old fast.

I think the idea behind this is excellent, and the plot is interesting if standard sci-fi fare, but unfortunately I just struggled to get into it, which is a shame because I was getting Murderbot-esque vibes at first and had high hopes.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF @ 66%

I liked the art and the setting of this graphic novel a lot. I'm a sucker for a zombie apocalypse and I liked the cover to the book so I was keen to pick this one up. Unfortunately, I really struggled to get attached to the characters. Even two thirds of the way through the book I didn't care much about either of the main characters, or the struggles they were going through. Both have something going on (I won't say what, because spoilers) but while I understood one character's story, the other was still confusing and strange. I do think there was some intentional lack of clarity and maybe there's a big reveal later in the novel, but I was confused and disinclined to keep reading to find out what it was. I did like the art style a lot though, and the use of colour was brilliant. There was excellent contrast between creepy zombie stuff and surviving life, and I do think that the setting was really well shown through the graphic novel instead of relying on clunky exposition.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 40%

I want to start this by saying that this book is excellent and my DNF definitely shouldn't be held against it. This book is beautiful and it's telling an amazing and powerful story about change and hope. It's full of nuanced thoughts about the trans experience and mirrors our society against a backdrop of a gorgeous magical world. It just didn't click for me personally and I struggled to get into it. The prose is gorgeous but I found it a little difficult to get into the story and the characters.

The idea of the weaves is gorgeous, I'm completely obsessed with being able to weave from wind, sand, song and bones. The fantasy world is fascinating and well-built, creative in a way that I haven't seen before. It's also a hugely diverse book with trans MCs, racially diverse characters and a plus-sized woman and I think that most people would love it and it's a shame it didn't work for me.

Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/the-majesties-by-tiffany-tsao-review/

Thanks to Pushkin Press for the review copy of this book, it has not affected my honest opinion.

From the first line, this book grabbed me. I would have read it in one sitting if we hadn’t had a power cut that made reading in the dark impossible. Instead, I sat and sulked about how much I wanted to be reading THE MAJESTIES.

The Majesties is a family drama at its heart. It’s about a wealthy and powerful family in Indonesia for whom money has never been an object. When the children grow up, if they want to work, they’ll be handed a section of the huge conglomerate to run and set to work. They fly around the world on a whim to go shopping. It’s a wild and wonderfully wealthy lifestyle. But that doesn’t mean that the family are living the ideal life they like to present. The Majesties is set from Gwendolyn’s perspective as she dives into her memories of her and her sister to search for the real reason that her sister killed their family.

It’s hard to get into too much detail about the things that are uncovered because I had such an intoxicating experience uncovering the truth among the memories that I don’t want to spoil that experience for anyone. But I can say that through Gwendolyn’s eyes we start to see the truth behind their wealthy lifestyle and the darkness that shadows Gwendolyn and Estella as she gets closer and closer to finding the truth behind the murders. This isn’t an easy read by any means but for someone who loves dark books, like me, it was perfect. Not too long, not too short, the prose is tightly written and I like the way the past was gently unravelled without it feeling like I was facing a lot of wordy exposition.

And the ending? Hoo boy. There’s a sting in the tail that managed to do a complete rug pull on me and knocked this book from a four star rating to a solid five star within the last few pages.

“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”

Rating: 5 stars. 10 stars. As many stars as I can possibly give this magnificent book.

I don't know where to start with this review. If anyone is looking for a copy of the Count of Monte Cristo to read, look no further than Robin Buss' masterful translation that made a hefty book a delight to read. (And please don't read an abridgement, it's worth every one of the 1200 pages.)

I haven't marked this review as a spoiler because I haven't necessarily discussed specific aspects of plot, but I do talk vaguely about a few characters and about the Count of Monte Cristo's motivations so read at your own risk.

I started this book expecting a wild adventurous revenge story, describing it as a book where one who was falsely accused of a crime 'gets out, gets rich and gets even'. While that's true, and while this book certainly was a wild, adventurous revenge story, the impression I'm left with is so much more than that. At it's core, The Count of Monte Cristo is a story about a man who's life was stolen from him, and who dedicated his remaining existence to exacting revenge upon those who were responsible. But at the end of it all, there is a profound sense of joy and happiness, not at successful revenge but at the rediscovery of a happiness and life that Monsieur le Comte thought he'd lost. Dumas wrote that “All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope” and I think that that will stay with me for an awfully long time. It's absolutely not overstating things to say that I have a new favourite book, and will be inflicting this 1200 page beast of a book on everyone and anyone I can convince to read it.

I am usually a little hesitant to read classical novels, not because I don't enjoy them but because I often find them dense and slow to read, and compared to my usual easily consumed fare of YA fantasy novels, they require a significant amount of focus and attention. Despite that, I was engaged in this novel from the very first page, because Dumas doesn't waste a single word. Every line is absolutely essential, and if it doesn't seem so, then you simply haven't read far enough to see the significance, because Dumas, and Dantès, is always ten years ahead, not just ten steps. I thought that this would take me a long time to get through, but instead I found myself waking up at 6am, so that I could get in two hours of reading before I had to leave for work, and skipping out on running errands on my lunch break so I could sit in our break room and devour another fifty pages.

Dantès is a delight of a main character, lovable and kindhearted at the start and cold and bitter after his incarceration, but utterly addictive to read about. Dumas fed information in little hints and sly comments that let you see just how far ahead Dantès had planned and worked for his revenge, when characters would cite Abbé Busoni or Lord Wilmore in seemingly insignificant friends and Monte Cristo would mention them as friends, while he and the reader know full well that they were one of many, many alter-egos that Monte Cristo had developed. Dantès plan was an inconcievably huge web built on so many factors and secrets and carefully planned reveals, and every time Dumas revealed how a character was significant, or how they would play their part in the downfall of Danglars, Fernand and Villefort, I would honestly gasp out loud like I was watching some kind of TV drama. I will definitely read this book again, and I intend to watch one or more of the movie interpretations at some point, but I'll never quite get the same sense of desperate need to find out what happened next, or the feel of pure shock at some of the reveals Dumas had waiting. I think if a genie offered me a wish right now, I'd forget this book so I could read it for the first time all over again.

Dantès plan wasn't harmless, and what he was doing wasn't even necessarily right, but it was understandable, and when I finished the novel, I couldn't help but note that most, if not all, of his plans were built on the actions of his "victims". They dug their graves, and the Count of Monte Cristo was just waiting for the opportunity to push them in. Innocents were punished just as often as the criminals, but the last few hundred pages did show a beautiful development in the Count's character, as he learned from Albert and Mercédès, and particularly Morrel and Valentine that it wasn't always right to punish a child for the sins of their fathers.

Effectively, I think I could talk about this book all day, and I might come back to this review once the book-hangover fades and I've thought about some of the other aspects I loved so dearly, but I'm risking getting a ludicrously long review. In short, read this book.