Take a photo of a barcode or cover
1.26k reviews by:
inkandplasma
Full collection review available on my blog, 13/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/13/the-disorder-collection/
This was really unnerving. Honestly, between this and TENDER IS THE FLESH, I would just like science to Not. The reddit comments in particular freaked me out because they felt so real. I felt like the multiple perspectives were a little disjointed, but I did stay immersed in the story. I had to read the ebook of this one instead of listening though, because I am terrible at listening to anything even slightly sex related. Nats had the most horrifying storyline by far and what happened to her felt like a huge, gross invasion of privacy - and on top of that the white knight trying to save her made everything worse.
This was really unnerving. Honestly, between this and TENDER IS THE FLESH, I would just like science to Not. The reddit comments in particular freaked me out because they felt so real. I felt like the multiple perspectives were a little disjointed, but I did stay immersed in the story. I had to read the ebook of this one instead of listening though, because I am terrible at listening to anything even slightly sex related. Nats had the most horrifying storyline by far and what happened to her felt like a huge, gross invasion of privacy - and on top of that the white knight trying to save her made everything worse.
Full review available on my blog from 16/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/16/the-book-of-living-secrets/
Character - 7
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 6
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars
-
I honestly enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Mostly because it was very different to what I expected overall. I liked Adelle and Connie a lot, and their loyal ride-or-die friendship was really warming. I loved that even separated in the world of Moira, they were still best friends and insistent on coming back to each other again and again. The atmospheric setting of this book was excellent. The book in question, Moira, is a gothic romance but when Adelle and Connie enter that world it’s far more gothic than romance. I listened to the whole audiobook in basically one sitting, enjoying the way that the differences between the world they found and the story they knew were unfolded in a very creepy way.
I loved Missy – obviously, who wouldn’t love a sapphic cowgirl – and I liked that both of the girls’ romances approached characters that were half-ignored in the original Moira book. As someone who reads a lot of fanfiction, I loved the idea of exploring the hidden worlds of side characters. I think that their romances were a little rushed and there was enough happening in the overarching plot that we didn’t have a lot of time to feel their relationships develop authentically. However, I liked the way that Connie’s feelings about her sexuality were handled.
Despite the fact that this has blatant tentacles on the cover and I usually jump straight to Cthulu with no prompting, I didn’t realise that this was Lovecraft inspired. I really enjoyed that it was, though, the nightmares and use of the elder gods was done well and I think even if you didn’t know Lovecraft it would make sense to read. This made for a very eerie fantasy and I enjoyed it a lot. It wasn’t exactly a fantastically written book, there were moments where I found the prose confusing to follow and the ending came out of absolutely nowhere, but ultimately I had fun reading it and that’s clearly the most important thing for fiction.
The ending of this was so surprising I had to go find my physical copy to reread the epilogue again, and I still feel mostly ????? about it. It was a shock, but an intriguing one, and left me wondering what would have happened next.
Character - 7
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 6
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars
-
I honestly enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Mostly because it was very different to what I expected overall. I liked Adelle and Connie a lot, and their loyal ride-or-die friendship was really warming. I loved that even separated in the world of Moira, they were still best friends and insistent on coming back to each other again and again. The atmospheric setting of this book was excellent. The book in question, Moira, is a gothic romance but when Adelle and Connie enter that world it’s far more gothic than romance. I listened to the whole audiobook in basically one sitting, enjoying the way that the differences between the world they found and the story they knew were unfolded in a very creepy way.
I loved Missy – obviously, who wouldn’t love a sapphic cowgirl – and I liked that both of the girls’ romances approached characters that were half-ignored in the original Moira book. As someone who reads a lot of fanfiction, I loved the idea of exploring the hidden worlds of side characters. I think that their romances were a little rushed and there was enough happening in the overarching plot that we didn’t have a lot of time to feel their relationships develop authentically. However, I liked the way that Connie’s feelings about her sexuality were handled.
Despite the fact that this has blatant tentacles on the cover and I usually jump straight to Cthulu with no prompting, I didn’t realise that this was Lovecraft inspired. I really enjoyed that it was, though, the nightmares and use of the elder gods was done well and I think even if you didn’t know Lovecraft it would make sense to read. This made for a very eerie fantasy and I enjoyed it a lot. It wasn’t exactly a fantastically written book, there were moments where I found the prose confusing to follow and the ending came out of absolutely nowhere, but ultimately I had fun reading it and that’s clearly the most important thing for fiction.
The ending of this was so surprising I had to go find my physical copy to reread the epilogue again, and I still feel mostly ????? about it. It was a shock, but an intriguing one, and left me wondering what would have happened next.
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 7
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 6.14 / 3 stars
I totally just wanna read this from the Victims' Club's perspective tbh
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 7
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 6.14 / 3 stars
I totally just wanna read this from the Victims' Club's perspective tbh
Full review available on my blog from 20/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/20/this-wicked-fate/
Thanks to Bloomsbury YA for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Character - 8
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 7.14 / 4 stars
--
This book picks up immediately from the end of This Poison Heart- not that surprising as book one ended with a deadline creeping up on our characters. Usually, I have to reread a book before I read the sequel because of my bad memory, but the beginning of This Wicked Fate very elegantly recapped the first book without it feeling like it stood out from the story too much. I do feel like the early chapters were a little bit info-dumpy but that definitely wasn’t because of the recap. It wasn’t bad, as such, but there was a lot of information there. Ultimately, I kind of felt like I was reading part 2 of a chonky book instead of a whole second book in its own right – I think this could have worked better as one whole piece than as a duology, and that might have resolved the issues I had with the book’s pacing, which just felt a little inconsistent to me.
The highlight in this book for me, much like in the first book, was the characters. Briseis is strong, but she’s all heart too, and I loved seeing her develop and grow into her powers more and more throughout this book. I wasn’t a huge fan of her relationship with Marie, but I didn’t hate it either and I liked the way that they relied on each other in this book. Their relationship was very sweet and loyal in that way. Circe and Persephone were an absolute revelation to me and I loved them. I don’t know why but I was expecting Circe to be a colder and more distant aunt. Instead, we got a caring and concerned auntie and got to enjoy Briseis and Circe puzzling out their relationship after never knowing each other. There was a huge focus in this book on generational trauma and how hard it can be to set that down and I was emotional reading about Circe and Briseis’ arc. I also loved that we still got to see the support from book 1 as Bri’s mom welcomed her birth family with open arms.
Tonally, This Wicked Fate is very different from book one. To me, at least, This Poison Heart felt like urban fantasy with faint Greek elements, and book two felt like a more mature Percy Jackson story with actual gods and a globetrotting quest. That being said, I had a lot of fun once I’d adjusted my expectations and the ending was solid, tying up the loose ends in a satisfying and emotional way.
Thanks to Bloomsbury YA for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Character - 8
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 7.14 / 4 stars
--
This book picks up immediately from the end of This Poison Heart- not that surprising as book one ended with a deadline creeping up on our characters. Usually, I have to reread a book before I read the sequel because of my bad memory, but the beginning of This Wicked Fate very elegantly recapped the first book without it feeling like it stood out from the story too much. I do feel like the early chapters were a little bit info-dumpy but that definitely wasn’t because of the recap. It wasn’t bad, as such, but there was a lot of information there. Ultimately, I kind of felt like I was reading part 2 of a chonky book instead of a whole second book in its own right – I think this could have worked better as one whole piece than as a duology, and that might have resolved the issues I had with the book’s pacing, which just felt a little inconsistent to me.
The highlight in this book for me, much like in the first book, was the characters. Briseis is strong, but she’s all heart too, and I loved seeing her develop and grow into her powers more and more throughout this book. I wasn’t a huge fan of her relationship with Marie, but I didn’t hate it either and I liked the way that they relied on each other in this book. Their relationship was very sweet and loyal in that way. Circe and Persephone were an absolute revelation to me and I loved them. I don’t know why but I was expecting Circe to be a colder and more distant aunt. Instead, we got a caring and concerned auntie and got to enjoy Briseis and Circe puzzling out their relationship after never knowing each other. There was a huge focus in this book on generational trauma and how hard it can be to set that down and I was emotional reading about Circe and Briseis’ arc. I also loved that we still got to see the support from book 1 as Bri’s mom welcomed her birth family with open arms.
Tonally, This Wicked Fate is very different from book one. To me, at least, This Poison Heart felt like urban fantasy with faint Greek elements, and book two felt like a more mature Percy Jackson story with actual gods and a globetrotting quest. That being said, I had a lot of fun once I’d adjusted my expectations and the ending was solid, tying up the loose ends in a satisfying and emotional way.
Full review on my blog 23/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/23/the-color-of-dragons/
Character - 3
Atmosphere - 5
Writing - 5
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 4
Rating: 4.57 / 2 stars
--
Thanks to HarperTeen for the ARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
I was listening to this at work and it still didn’t manage to keep my attention - when a book is less interesting than manual data entry? That’s not a good sign. I didn’t hate this book, and nor did I love it. I guessed the plot twist around 40% into the book, because it was fairly predictable. The writing was fairly simple and felt like it was on the lower end of the YA age range, but then the content felt upper YA with repeated on-page references to sexual harassment, implied assault (from the power dynamics in the court) and prostitution. It meant that the tone felt super inconsistent.
The idea of a medieval world where magic is completely unknown was interesting, and I’m a huge fan of the magic origin story, but this one didn’t really land for me. The fantasy elements didn’t feel that significant, there was far more focus on political machinations, court life and this huge competition (that I just did not care about) than there was on the magic and dragon aspects, and it took over half the book for us to get any actual dragon content - and even then it wasn’t a huge part of the book. For a book with dragon in the name? I gotta admit I was disappointed. The political/court aspects of this were very accessibly written, and I could see a young teen reading this and getting hooked on political fantasy, but as a book on its own? I wasn’t impressed.
Our two main characters, Griffin and Maggie, committed the cardinal sin for a protagonist - they were boring. I didn’t hate them, I didn’t love them. They were meh. I wasn’t really rooting for them at any point, their character arcs didn’t interest me and while they did both have very distinct character voices, I still didn’t like them enough to care what happened to them. I kept listening to see how it ended, mostly because I saw reviews stating that the book’s ending had them hooked. I didn’t really see it. At 98% the book still felt like book 1 in a duology, and that guarantees the ending would feel very convenient. It was a bit too much of a deus ex machina for me, and felt like a very unsatisfying ending for a standalone.
Character - 3
Atmosphere - 5
Writing - 5
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 4
Rating: 4.57 / 2 stars
--
Thanks to HarperTeen for the ARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
I was listening to this at work and it still didn’t manage to keep my attention - when a book is less interesting than manual data entry? That’s not a good sign. I didn’t hate this book, and nor did I love it. I guessed the plot twist around 40% into the book, because it was fairly predictable. The writing was fairly simple and felt like it was on the lower end of the YA age range, but then the content felt upper YA with repeated on-page references to sexual harassment, implied assault (from the power dynamics in the court) and prostitution. It meant that the tone felt super inconsistent.
The idea of a medieval world where magic is completely unknown was interesting, and I’m a huge fan of the magic origin story, but this one didn’t really land for me. The fantasy elements didn’t feel that significant, there was far more focus on political machinations, court life and this huge competition (that I just did not care about) than there was on the magic and dragon aspects, and it took over half the book for us to get any actual dragon content - and even then it wasn’t a huge part of the book. For a book with dragon in the name? I gotta admit I was disappointed. The political/court aspects of this were very accessibly written, and I could see a young teen reading this and getting hooked on political fantasy, but as a book on its own? I wasn’t impressed.
Our two main characters, Griffin and Maggie, committed the cardinal sin for a protagonist - they were boring. I didn’t hate them, I didn’t love them. They were meh. I wasn’t really rooting for them at any point, their character arcs didn’t interest me and while they did both have very distinct character voices, I still didn’t like them enough to care what happened to them. I kept listening to see how it ended, mostly because I saw reviews stating that the book’s ending had them hooked. I didn’t really see it. At 98% the book still felt like book 1 in a duology, and that guarantees the ending would feel very convenient. It was a bit too much of a deus ex machina for me, and felt like a very unsatisfying ending for a standalone.
Character - 9
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 6
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 6
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars
Character - 9
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.43 / 4 stars
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.43 / 4 stars
Character - 5
Atmosphere - 5
Writing - 4
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 3
Logic - 2
Enjoyment - 4
Rating: 4.00 / 2 stars
Atmosphere - 5
Writing - 4
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 3
Logic - 2
Enjoyment - 4
Rating: 4.00 / 2 stars
Character - 8
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 7
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.43 / 4 stars
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 7
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.43 / 4 stars
Character - 8
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 8
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.00 / 4 stars!
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 8
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8
Rating: 7.00 / 4 stars!