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inkandplasma
"I wish sometimes I could be less fierce with you. No- I feel sometimes like I ought to want to be less fierce with you."
Rating: 5 stars
Review available on my blog
It is so unusual for me to give a romance story five stars, and while This Is How You Lose the Time War is also a time-travel sci-fi novella it is definitely a romance book. But I've also never read a romance novel quite so compelling as this. The story premise is simple, and beautiful. Red is part of the Agency, and Blue is part of the Garden. They are on opposite sides of the time war, working against each other to travel through time and alter events to sway the war to their sides' advantage. The Garden are all natural, growing their agents from a seed, and the Agency are mechanical, technological. By all accounts Red and Blue are in direct opposition, and they begin to leave taunting letters for each other that slowly develop into something more.
For such a short novel, only 200 pages, This Is How You Lose The Time War feels timeless and endless. The story stretches thousands and thousands of years, all lived in the wrong order. I'm a sucker for epistolary at the best of times and this book is the best of times. The way that Red and Blue talk to each other feels so real, even in a setting that is wild and unrecognisable, and a lot of that is due to El-Mohtar and Gladstone's impressive writing. This book is a future classic, and I know that already because I found myself carefully putting sticky tabs to mark beautifully written passages as if I was still studying English Literature and prepping for an exam. I would love to write an exam on this book, actually, because I could talk about the symbolism and the parallels for days. It's a book that I can imagine myself coming back to over and over on a quiet afternoon to read in one sitting and gorge myself on their words.
At the crux of it, this book made me feel love-sick, and I'm aromantic. If that doesn't tell you how well written it was, nothing will. I fell in love with both women, and in love with their love, and like they carved out a space to hide their letters, I'm carving out a space in my heart to hide the post-war future I'm dreaming of for them.
Full review on my blog: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2019/09/04/review-the-mercies/
Even after all this, Maren thinks, Ursa believes herself to have power over him. Witch-hunter or no, Absalom is, after all, still only a man.
Rating: 4 stars
The Mercies is inspired by a historical event, the Vardø storm of 1617 where a terrible storm sank ten ships and killed forty men- the majority of Vardø's male population. This storm ultimately led to one of the biggest witch-trials in Scandinavia, and the first major witch-trial in Norway under the new laws of witchcraft and sorcery.
The Mercies pretty much broke my heart, but I knew that was going to happen from the start. This book doesn't give you any allusions that you're going to get a happy, glorious ending, and what else would you expect? It's the 1600s, and we're talking about witch-hunters and sapphic characters. I was pretty sure I was getting an unhappy ending from the start but I still let myself get overly attached to the women in this story, and hoped somehow that they'd overcome the injustices of history and create a happily ever after. I finished the book, and I'm now genuinely kicking myself that I've read this book in September, and now I've got to wait until February before more people read it and I can talk about it with everyone I know.
I don't tend to read historical fiction, but character driven fiction is my bread and butter, and Kiran Millwood Hargrave has created a masterful character piece here, worth picking up no matter what genre you tend to read.
Even after all this, Maren thinks, Ursa believes herself to have power over him. Witch-hunter or no, Absalom is, after all, still only a man.
Rating: 4 stars
The Mercies is inspired by a historical event, the Vardø storm of 1617 where a terrible storm sank ten ships and killed forty men- the majority of Vardø's male population. This storm ultimately led to one of the biggest witch-trials in Scandinavia, and the first major witch-trial in Norway under the new laws of witchcraft and sorcery.
The Mercies pretty much broke my heart, but I knew that was going to happen from the start. This book doesn't give you any allusions that you're going to get a happy, glorious ending, and what else would you expect? It's the 1600s, and we're talking about witch-hunters and sapphic characters. I was pretty sure I was getting an unhappy ending from the start but I still let myself get overly attached to the women in this story, and hoped somehow that they'd overcome the injustices of history and create a happily ever after. I finished the book, and I'm now genuinely kicking myself that I've read this book in September, and now I've got to wait until February before more people read it and I can talk about it with everyone I know.
I don't tend to read historical fiction, but character driven fiction is my bread and butter, and Kiran Millwood Hargrave has created a masterful character piece here, worth picking up no matter what genre you tend to read.
Full review available on my blog on 16/09/19: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/why-should-i-read-girls-of-paper-and-fire-by-natasha-ngan/
Initially I gave this book a 3.5 star rating, but the more I've been thinking about it the more I've wanted to bump it up. So I have. Overall, I loved this book, and it was beautifully balanced between trauma, romance and the dystopia-crushing subplot. The last quarter of the novel was an action packed page turner building up to a crescendo of an ending that left me reaching straight for the sequel.
Read if you love:
- F/F romance
- Asian-inspired fantasy
- Demon races
- YA dystopia (caste system)
- #ownvoices
Initially I gave this book a 3.5 star rating, but the more I've been thinking about it the more I've wanted to bump it up. So I have. Overall, I loved this book, and it was beautifully balanced between trauma, romance and the dystopia-crushing subplot. The last quarter of the novel was an action packed page turner building up to a crescendo of an ending that left me reaching straight for the sequel.
Read if you love:
- F/F romance
- Asian-inspired fantasy
- Demon races
- YA dystopia (caste system)
- #ownvoices
Full review on my blog here on 04/12/19!
I didn't like Girls of Storm and Shadow as much as I loved
Paper and Fire. I raced through Paper and Fire in one sitting, but some of my
favourite aspects of the first novel were missing from the second. Frustratingly,
I couldn’t define exactly what that is. It’s taken me over two months to get
this review written, because I’m really struggling to verbalise how I feel
about this follow up to a book I adored.
Despite that, this was still a good book, with a more complex plot than the previous series entry and fascinating insights into the political world, and I settled on a 3 star rating. As a rule, I’m a huge fan of series becoming more politically complex and multi-faceted in later books. The Hunger Games series is a typical example of this. But for me, unfortunately, it felt like there was something absent from this book for me. I still enjoyed it, and I’ll still definitely read the currently untitled third book when it comes out (probably 2020), but it might be a library pick up for me rather than an automatic pre-order.
Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, sex trafficking, sexual assault, rape, violence, sex shaming, violence against animals, caste discrimination and racism, raids and mass murder. This is a heavy one again guys.
"There is nothing stronger than people who endure the worst hardships in the world, and still raise their fists at the start of a new day to fight all over again."
I didn't like Girls of Storm and Shadow as much as I loved
Paper and Fire. I raced through Paper and Fire in one sitting, but some of my
favourite aspects of the first novel were missing from the second. Frustratingly,
I couldn’t define exactly what that is. It’s taken me over two months to get
this review written, because I’m really struggling to verbalise how I feel
about this follow up to a book I adored.
Despite that, this was still a good book, with a more complex plot than the previous series entry and fascinating insights into the political world, and I settled on a 3 star rating. As a rule, I’m a huge fan of series becoming more politically complex and multi-faceted in later books. The Hunger Games series is a typical example of this. But for me, unfortunately, it felt like there was something absent from this book for me. I still enjoyed it, and I’ll still definitely read the currently untitled third book when it comes out (probably 2020), but it might be a library pick up for me rather than an automatic pre-order.
Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, sex trafficking, sexual assault, rape, violence, sex shaming, violence against animals, caste discrimination and racism, raids and mass murder. This is a heavy one again guys.
BLOG POST HERE!
Rating: 5 stars
The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon, was a 2019 release that I missed when it came out in February. I ended up picking it up solely because of an off-hand tweet of Shannon’s that I saw that said something to the effect of ‘I love dragons so much I wrote an 848 page book about them.’
I’ve been gushing a lot about this book, but honestly it was a really powerful read. As a whole piece, this novel is beautifully crafted, and despite being long as hell, it doesn’t drag at any point. I was gripped from the first word to the last, and I actually sulked when I hit the end and ran out of book. Not because the ending wasn’t just as good as the rest of the book but because I just wanted… more.
There are four narrating characters throughout the novel: Ead, Tané, Loth and Niclays. I’ll put my hands up and admit I found Loth to be boring, and Niclays to be irritating, but the information learned in their chapters was interesting enough that I forgave them those minor sins. Ead, Tané and Sabran on the other hand, I adored.
The world that Shannon created is rich and detailed, and creates beautiful conflicting regions with an interesting and realistic depiction of religious conflict. I particularly liked that there was evidence to support all of the legends, and it took a long time of weighing up the stories to decide what to believe in before evidence to disprove some of the legends started to appear. Every character had motivations that were fleshed out and influenced by the culture in which they were raised, giving a huge depth to the world and the people living in it. It felt like I’d known about this world for years, as intimately as I know my own.
Rating: 5 stars
The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon, was a 2019 release that I missed when it came out in February. I ended up picking it up solely because of an off-hand tweet of Shannon’s that I saw that said something to the effect of ‘I love dragons so much I wrote an 848 page book about them.’
Sabran IV is the Queen of Inys, the ruling family for the last thousand years. She’s unwed, still, and her court are growing anxious as they wait for her to conceive a daughter to protect her Queendom from certain doom. It is her bloodline that keep her realm safe – while the Berethnet house sit on the throne of Inys, the Nameless One cannot rise again.
Ead Duryan is a lady-in-waiting in Inys’ court, but she’s much more than she seems. A mage from a secretive society that draw magic from a powerful orange grove blessed by an ancient ancestor, she is hidden in the court that would kill her as a heretic to protect Sabran from assassins that are intent on ending the Berethnet line once and for all.
Across the Abyss, Tané has been training to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but a moment of kindness towards an outsider risks ruining the future she’s always wanted.
The Nameless One is rising, and his wyrms along with him, and if the East and West can’t learn to make peace, then chaos will certainly rule.
I’ve been gushing a lot about this book, but honestly it was a really powerful read. As a whole piece, this novel is beautifully crafted, and despite being long as hell, it doesn’t drag at any point. I was gripped from the first word to the last, and I actually sulked when I hit the end and ran out of book. Not because the ending wasn’t just as good as the rest of the book but because I just wanted… more.
There are four narrating characters throughout the novel: Ead, Tané, Loth and Niclays. I’ll put my hands up and admit I found Loth to be boring, and Niclays to be irritating, but the information learned in their chapters was interesting enough that I forgave them those minor sins. Ead, Tané and Sabran on the other hand, I adored.
The world that Shannon created is rich and detailed, and creates beautiful conflicting regions with an interesting and realistic depiction of religious conflict. I particularly liked that there was evidence to support all of the legends, and it took a long time of weighing up the stories to decide what to believe in before evidence to disprove some of the legends started to appear. Every character had motivations that were fleshed out and influenced by the culture in which they were raised, giving a huge depth to the world and the people living in it. It felt like I’d known about this world for years, as intimately as I know my own.
A quick review for a quick read. I picked up Pumpkin Heads because I’m a complete sucker for Halloween and autumn is my favourite season and from a quick glance I was totally enamoured with the art style. It’s cute and light-hearted and the colour palette just screams autumnal energy. I ended up reading it earlier in October than I anticipated after Gideon the Ninth ripped out my heart and tossed it aside, and The Deathless Girls trampled all over its remains. Pumpkin Heads was exactly what I needed to cheer me up.
Pumpkin Heads follows two friends who work together every year on the local pumpkin patch. Deja wants to finish out their final year in style and her plans include eating all the snacks they sell in the patch and finally getting Josiah to talk to his crush. Her plans go awry when Fudge Girl is sent all over the patch to different stalls and they have to track her down. Things might go a little differently than Deja and Josiah expected, but there may still be romance on the cards…
This is a very American story, based in what I would guess are fall traditions and snacks. Some of it I loosely recognised, some of it I didn’t recognise at all. Most of it made me jealous that we barely do anything for Halloween in the UK because it’s my favourite holiday and nobody celebrates here. Even with the Americanisms I didn’t recognise the story was wholesome and comforting, easy to follow and the kind of cute easy romance that I’ve come to expect from Rainbow Rowell. I particularly loved that Deja was beautifully, shamelessly bi, and beautifully, shamelessly curvy. She loves men, she loves women, and she loves food. As a big bi girl myself, I love her. Most people would probably see the ending coming, but honestly I was so sucked in by the characters and the fun, campy autumnal setting that I was still kind of pleasantly surprised by it.
Pumpkin Heads follows two friends who work together every year on the local pumpkin patch. Deja wants to finish out their final year in style and her plans include eating all the snacks they sell in the patch and finally getting Josiah to talk to his crush. Her plans go awry when Fudge Girl is sent all over the patch to different stalls and they have to track her down. Things might go a little differently than Deja and Josiah expected, but there may still be romance on the cards…
This is a very American story, based in what I would guess are fall traditions and snacks. Some of it I loosely recognised, some of it I didn’t recognise at all. Most of it made me jealous that we barely do anything for Halloween in the UK because it’s my favourite holiday and nobody celebrates here. Even with the Americanisms I didn’t recognise the story was wholesome and comforting, easy to follow and the kind of cute easy romance that I’ve come to expect from Rainbow Rowell. I particularly loved that Deja was beautifully, shamelessly bi, and beautifully, shamelessly curvy. She loves men, she loves women, and she loves food. As a big bi girl myself, I love her. Most people would probably see the ending coming, but honestly I was so sucked in by the characters and the fun, campy autumnal setting that I was still kind of pleasantly surprised by it.
I was so hyped for this book, and then my pre-order didn’t show up so I had to wait weeks to read it. It was painful. I got an ARC for Kiran Millwood-Hargrave’s adult debut in February, The Mercies, and I loved it so when I heard she’d written a Brides of Dracula retelling for a YA audience, I was so excited. I would say this is probably a mid-to-low YA novel, because while the themes are dark (this is Dracula after all), the story is fairly simplistic. That wasn’t a bad thing, ultimately, because it gave me room to fall ridiculously in love with the main character, Lil. She has a twin sister, Kizzy, but they’re anything but identical. Kizzy is beautiful and curvy, Lil is plain and boyish. In Lil’s eyes, everyone would rather pay attention to her sister and she doesn’t blame them. Lil would rather pay attention to her sister too. To me this is a story about sisterhood and loyalty, and while the sapphic romance warmed my cold dead heart it wasn’t the focus of this book.
Lil and Kizzy are taken as slaves and given to a local lord as serving girls, though they know there is much worse in store at his hands. Before he can get his hands on them, the Dragon claims Kizzy as his own. She is a bear dancer, and he has a bear. Lil knows she must go after him, even though the rumours filtering down from the Dragon’s territory speak of demons and monsters. Lil is forced to find her spine and be brave, and ultimately to decide whether her love for her sister outweighs her love for Mira, her love for herself and her love for life.
The themes this book covers are dark and if you’re looking for a sapphic HEA, you’re not going to get it here. There’s racism, slavery, rape, and that’s before you even get into Dracula’s lands. But this is a really interesting view on the usually nameless brides of Dracula, and I’m such a sucker for retellings of and ‘prequels’ to fairytales and myths that I was guaranteed to love it. I will almost certainly read this again, maybe when I’m not reeling off of the end of Gideon the Ninth (don’t read both in quick succession, it was bad for my fragile woman-loving heart) and I think I’ll be able to take in more of the beautifully described settings. I was so engaged in Lil’s story that I’m sure I missed a lot of it the first time around.
Lil and Kizzy are taken as slaves and given to a local lord as serving girls, though they know there is much worse in store at his hands. Before he can get his hands on them, the Dragon claims Kizzy as his own. She is a bear dancer, and he has a bear. Lil knows she must go after him, even though the rumours filtering down from the Dragon’s territory speak of demons and monsters. Lil is forced to find her spine and be brave, and ultimately to decide whether her love for her sister outweighs her love for Mira, her love for herself and her love for life.
The themes this book covers are dark and if you’re looking for a sapphic HEA, you’re not going to get it here. There’s racism, slavery, rape, and that’s before you even get into Dracula’s lands. But this is a really interesting view on the usually nameless brides of Dracula, and I’m such a sucker for retellings of and ‘prequels’ to fairytales and myths that I was guaranteed to love it. I will almost certainly read this again, maybe when I’m not reeling off of the end of Gideon the Ninth (don’t read both in quick succession, it was bad for my fragile woman-loving heart) and I think I’ll be able to take in more of the beautifully described settings. I was so engaged in Lil’s story that I’m sure I missed a lot of it the first time around.
