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kaitlynisliterate's Reviews (466)
A very compelling debut novel!
YA female main characters are usually very hit or miss for me and I have to say, I really liked Lauren. I felt like she had a really clear internal voice and acted her age, even if that resulted in some more than questionable decisions. I especially liked how Lauren and Robbie’s relationship did not take over the whole book. Their focus was appropriately on the actual murders taking place around them.
I really appreciated how there was always more than 1 viable suspect until the very end. Some murder mysteries make identifying the real killer too obvious by spending a lot of time developing a random minor character, which can only be for the purpose of a big plot twist reveal.
The author mostly avoided using Gen Z references that won’t age well (though I’ve never seen music described as alt-J-esque). However, there are some YA tropes that I personally don’t like. For example, there’s a Gossip Girl type Instagram account that posts rumours/gossip about the students.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
An enthralling whirlwind of a story that kept me absolutely engrossed!
Apart from the gripping plot, the characters exhibited remarkable depth and complexity. The main character, Amanda, is morally grey and the author deftly handles the dilemmas that she faces. Even better was the main antagonist who is difficult to not feel empathy towards, at least in the beginning. The loss of a loved one is dealt with extremely compassionately and the book showcases the myriad of ways people deal with grief.
Even though it seems obvious in retrospect, I did not put together the main plot twist until it happened. However, the ending of the book started to get a little bit out of hand and strain my suspension of disbelief. The last few plot twists started to feel forced and somewhat contrived as characters began behaving in ways opposite to how they had been written previously.
I also think this book struggled to juggle its multiple POVs. In particular, Farrow’s POV seemed to exist solely to provide exposition as his character wasn’t particularly interesting or unique.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
This book had a lot of promise but ultimately fell short of the mark.
I enjoyed the magical realism and how Jamaican folklore/legend was incorporated into the story. The protagonist, Alicia, struck a chord with me as I empathized with her struggles to adapt after graduating from university.
Regrettably, the promise of the book wasn't fully realized in its plot. Rather than embarking on an enthralling journey, the plot resembled a lackluster side quest from a video game, the kind that involves mundane tasks to fill time.
The comb is, for all intents and purposes, a MacGuffin. The only reason it’s important is because its owner is a deity, the River Mumma, who has threatened a massive drought if it is not returned by an arbitrary (by their own admission) deadline. This isn’t necessarily bad but it leads to a lack of investment, on the part of the reader, in the goal of the quest. So without a particularly compelling goal, all that’s left is the journey which, unfortunately, isn’t particularly interesting either. Most of the quest to find the comb consists of Alicia, Mars, and Heaven traveling from point A to B.
The main character, Alicia, is never challenged in any way since each obstacle is solved by either looking information up online or running away. Alicia never has to use any particular skills or even be clever to solve a problem or move the quest forward. This in turn led Alicia to lack a certain sense of agency since she’s always just responding to things that happen to her.
Curiously absent is a substantial antagonist since the person who stole the comb doesn’t particularly care about keeping it, while the pursuing duppies merely offer mindless opposition. The duppies sort of just appear whenever the story needed some action but it never feels like they present any significant threat. Every duppy has the same two weakness which is that they must stop to count whatever is thrown in their path and they dislike salt.
The pacing of this story also felt off. One of the reasons for this was how often the story stopped in its tracks to make some little inside joke or reference for fellow Torontonians. While I personally understood the references, I don’t think someone not from Toronto would. I’m surprised they didn’t make a joke about Tim’s iced coffee tasting different every time. Though I lived in Toronto for many years, even I found these asides distracting. It’s not any less annoying than when New Yorkers do it!
The other issue with the pacing was how elements of the story connected, or rather failed to connect, with each other. For example, Alicia experiences visions of the memories of her ancestors. These visions take up a lot of pages and serve to explain Alicia’s ancestors’ connection to River Mumma. However, the visions don’t explain why Alicia, specifically, was chosen for this specific quest since her ancestors have no connection to the comb. The visions provide no information to help Alicia and her friends find the comb. The entire story also takes place within an extremely short time frame (around 24 hours). These two facts combined with how the story starts off pretty slow and takes a while to ramp up, the actual quest to retrieve the comb was given relatively few pages and thus the resolution seemed fairly rushed. In fact, for the first 2/3 of the book, they make no progress on finding who stole the comb (the first step in retrieving the comb), but this is solved for the characters by deus ex machina. So the whole quest takes up only 1/3 of the book.
This book also features a certain Toronto-based celebrity rapper who remains unnamed but it’s extremely obvious who it is. I admit that I found this pretty funny when it was first revealed but the joke quickly got old. It ended up being pretty gimmicky and the whole encounter felt really forced (we’re supposed to believe that this huge celebrity is checking their DM requests 24/7).
Finally, at least half of the dialogue is in Jamaican patois (and/or Toronto slang) and if you, like me, are not fluent, it might take you a second to understand what the characters are saying. This linguistic barrier disrupts the reading flow and comprehension.
In sum, magical realism and the representation of Jamaican culture and folklore shine, yet the weak plot and pacing pitfalls tarnish the overall experience.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I enjoyed the magical realism and how Jamaican folklore/legend was incorporated into the story. The protagonist, Alicia, struck a chord with me as I empathized with her struggles to adapt after graduating from university.
Regrettably, the promise of the book wasn't fully realized in its plot. Rather than embarking on an enthralling journey, the plot resembled a lackluster side quest from a video game, the kind that involves mundane tasks to fill time.
The comb is, for all intents and purposes, a MacGuffin. The only reason it’s important is because its owner is a deity, the River Mumma, who has threatened a massive drought if it is not returned by an arbitrary (by their own admission) deadline. This isn’t necessarily bad but it leads to a lack of investment, on the part of the reader, in the goal of the quest. So without a particularly compelling goal, all that’s left is the journey which, unfortunately, isn’t particularly interesting either. Most of the quest to find the comb consists of Alicia, Mars, and Heaven traveling from point A to B.
The main character, Alicia, is never challenged in any way since each obstacle is solved by either looking information up online or running away. Alicia never has to use any particular skills or even be clever to solve a problem or move the quest forward. This in turn led Alicia to lack a certain sense of agency since she’s always just responding to things that happen to her.
Curiously absent is a substantial antagonist since the person who stole the comb doesn’t particularly care about keeping it, while the pursuing duppies merely offer mindless opposition. The duppies sort of just appear whenever the story needed some action but it never feels like they present any significant threat. Every duppy has the same two weakness which is that they must stop to count whatever is thrown in their path and they dislike salt.
The pacing of this story also felt off. One of the reasons for this was how often the story stopped in its tracks to make some little inside joke or reference for fellow Torontonians. While I personally understood the references, I don’t think someone not from Toronto would. I’m surprised they didn’t make a joke about Tim’s iced coffee tasting different every time. Though I lived in Toronto for many years, even I found these asides distracting. It’s not any less annoying than when New Yorkers do it!
The other issue with the pacing was how elements of the story connected, or rather failed to connect, with each other. For example, Alicia experiences visions of the memories of her ancestors. These visions take up a lot of pages and serve to explain Alicia’s ancestors’ connection to River Mumma. However, the visions don’t explain why Alicia, specifically, was chosen for this specific quest since her ancestors have no connection to the comb. The visions provide no information to help Alicia and her friends find the comb. The entire story also takes place within an extremely short time frame (around 24 hours). These two facts combined with how the story starts off pretty slow and takes a while to ramp up, the actual quest to retrieve the comb was given relatively few pages and thus the resolution seemed fairly rushed. In fact, for the first 2/3 of the book, they make no progress on finding who stole the comb (the first step in retrieving the comb), but this is solved for the characters by deus ex machina. So the whole quest takes up only 1/3 of the book.
This book also features a certain Toronto-based celebrity rapper who remains unnamed but it’s extremely obvious who it is. I admit that I found this pretty funny when it was first revealed but the joke quickly got old. It ended up being pretty gimmicky and the whole encounter felt really forced (we’re supposed to believe that this huge celebrity is checking their DM requests 24/7).
Finally, at least half of the dialogue is in Jamaican patois (and/or Toronto slang) and if you, like me, are not fluent, it might take you a second to understand what the characters are saying. This linguistic barrier disrupts the reading flow and comprehension.
In sum, magical realism and the representation of Jamaican culture and folklore shine, yet the weak plot and pacing pitfalls tarnish the overall experience.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
A bit hard to get into in the beginning, especially with so many POV switches, but everything comes together in the end.
I have such mixed opinions about this book because I think there are some things that it does excellently and there are some that are quite disappointing.
The world-building ended up being my favorite aspect even though it started off pretty rough since the book throws you into the action on page 1. There’s a lot for the reader to get caught up on and the author does exposition slowly throughout the whole book. I would recommend that readers unfamiliar with Mesoamerican mythology and Mexican history read the chapter at the end of the book about history and terminology before starting the book. I didn’t realize that this chapter existed until halfway through reading the book so I think some of my early confusion with the world could have been avoided.
I did not realize that this was the first book in a series instead of a stand-alone until I had finished the book. I thought way more plot threads were going to be tied up but instead, almost everything was left very open-ended, presumably to be addressed in the sequels. While series often leave room for continuation, each installment should ideally provide a satisfying conclusion on its own. Regrettably, this book fell short of achieving that sense of closure.
The main reason for my disappointment with the ending had to do with the plot and pacing. The narrative felt meandering and disjointed, with the protagonist Leonora's actions sometimes lacking impact. The pacing felt uneven, with significant events receiving only brief attention while mundane actions were drawn out. Initially a reimagining of Zorro, the story veers off into a new direction, focusing on the prophecy and the Fifth Sun toward the latter portion.
The main antagonist for most of the book is Captain Nabarres, who is essentially a figurehead for Spanish colonization/occupation. So many pages are dedicated to Leonora talking to, fighting against, and escaping from Captain Nabarres. However, most of the interaction between Nabarres and Leonora feels perplexing and devoid of purpose. There’s this extremely confusing scene where Leonora “outsmarts” Nabarres with a political maneuver but it ends up not having any effect so I’m still not sure what the point of that scene was. The book spends so much time developing the antagonistic relationship between Leonora and Nabarres but then introduces a completely new villain in the last part of the book. This new villain lacks the build-up and emotional investment required for their ultimate defeat, especially because Leonora is almost immediately told exactly how to defeat them.
I didn’t feel like the characters were particularly compelling including the main protagonist, Leonora. Leonora’s thoughts are pretty repetitive throughout the book in order to really make sure that readers can’t possibly miss the main themes of this book. We’re also introduced to a pretty big cast of secondary characters early on and it’s difficult to distinguish between everyone. This becomes even worse when they get to Snake Mountain and are introduced to all the leaders of La Justicia.
Leonora’s secret identity, Pantera, is underdeveloped because we’re never told what she did as Pantera, before the start of the book, to become so beloved by the people. Conveniently in the first chapter, she gets shot in the leg (while failing to save someone) so she can’t do her normal Pantera activities for the first part of the book. Even so, there’s never any mention of what she previously did as Pantera and the only times she ever dons the Pantera disguise in the whole book is to taunt Captain Nabarres and try to steal back her sword. Even in the Batman movies, they show him stopping some random petty crimes apart from the whole supervillain plot.
Leonora’s motives for being the vigilante Pantera are also underdeveloped because she states that she wants Pantera to give people hope but this is never actually displayed through her actions. She spends most of the time arguing for diplomacy between La Justicia and the viceroy, her brother, which honestly makes her seem more naive than anything else. I always feel like it’s kinda weird when a fantasy book involves a fight against injustice and tyranny but does not ever question the concept of an absolute hereditary monarchy.
In essence, this book possesses commendable strengths in its world-building and initial premise, yet it falls short in weaving a compelling plot with well-developed characters and motives. While the foundation for an engaging series is present, more effort could be invested in pacing, character depth, and plot structure to create a more cohesive and fulfilling narrative.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The world-building ended up being my favorite aspect even though it started off pretty rough since the book throws you into the action on page 1. There’s a lot for the reader to get caught up on and the author does exposition slowly throughout the whole book. I would recommend that readers unfamiliar with Mesoamerican mythology and Mexican history read the chapter at the end of the book about history and terminology before starting the book. I didn’t realize that this chapter existed until halfway through reading the book so I think some of my early confusion with the world could have been avoided.
I did not realize that this was the first book in a series instead of a stand-alone until I had finished the book. I thought way more plot threads were going to be tied up but instead, almost everything was left very open-ended, presumably to be addressed in the sequels. While series often leave room for continuation, each installment should ideally provide a satisfying conclusion on its own. Regrettably, this book fell short of achieving that sense of closure.
The main reason for my disappointment with the ending had to do with the plot and pacing. The narrative felt meandering and disjointed, with the protagonist Leonora's actions sometimes lacking impact. The pacing felt uneven, with significant events receiving only brief attention while mundane actions were drawn out. Initially a reimagining of Zorro, the story veers off into a new direction, focusing on the prophecy and the Fifth Sun toward the latter portion.
The main antagonist for most of the book is Captain Nabarres, who is essentially a figurehead for Spanish colonization/occupation. So many pages are dedicated to Leonora talking to, fighting against, and escaping from Captain Nabarres. However, most of the interaction between Nabarres and Leonora feels perplexing and devoid of purpose. There’s this extremely confusing scene where Leonora “outsmarts” Nabarres with a political maneuver but it ends up not having any effect so I’m still not sure what the point of that scene was. The book spends so much time developing the antagonistic relationship between Leonora and Nabarres but then introduces a completely new villain in the last part of the book. This new villain lacks the build-up and emotional investment required for their ultimate defeat, especially because Leonora is almost immediately told exactly how to defeat them.
I didn’t feel like the characters were particularly compelling including the main protagonist, Leonora. Leonora’s thoughts are pretty repetitive throughout the book in order to really make sure that readers can’t possibly miss the main themes of this book. We’re also introduced to a pretty big cast of secondary characters early on and it’s difficult to distinguish between everyone. This becomes even worse when they get to Snake Mountain and are introduced to all the leaders of La Justicia.
Leonora’s secret identity, Pantera, is underdeveloped because we’re never told what she did as Pantera, before the start of the book, to become so beloved by the people. Conveniently in the first chapter, she gets shot in the leg (while failing to save someone) so she can’t do her normal Pantera activities for the first part of the book. Even so, there’s never any mention of what she previously did as Pantera and the only times she ever dons the Pantera disguise in the whole book is to taunt Captain Nabarres and try to steal back her sword. Even in the Batman movies, they show him stopping some random petty crimes apart from the whole supervillain plot.
Leonora’s motives for being the vigilante Pantera are also underdeveloped because she states that she wants Pantera to give people hope but this is never actually displayed through her actions. She spends most of the time arguing for diplomacy between La Justicia and the viceroy, her brother, which honestly makes her seem more naive than anything else. I always feel like it’s kinda weird when a fantasy book involves a fight against injustice and tyranny but does not ever question the concept of an absolute hereditary monarchy.
In essence, this book possesses commendable strengths in its world-building and initial premise, yet it falls short in weaving a compelling plot with well-developed characters and motives. While the foundation for an engaging series is present, more effort could be invested in pacing, character depth, and plot structure to create a more cohesive and fulfilling narrative.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I hate when books have an epilogue with some side character's POV addressing the reader directly to explain everything that happened off the page.
The main word I would use to describe this book is empty. The story seems to be building towards a dramatic final confrontation and then sort of falls flat. Themes are developed and then abandoned while subplots culminate in “plot twists” that are exciting only because they come out from nowhere.
The main story centers around Catalina and Paul going on a quest to find the Man of Sap. By their very nature, quest plots provide a lot of downtime for the characters to think and talk while they travel. Catalina thinks a lot about her family, her memories of her mother, dealing with loss/grief, who she truly is, and her hopes for the future. These themes are repeated in her conversations with Paul. But the themes rarely factor into the conflicts or their subsequent resolutions, making the protagonist overcoming them feel devoid of meaning. Apart from the final confrontation with the main antagonist, the banker, Catalina responds to each danger by running, hiding, or being saved by someone else.
None of the antagonists in this book felt very compelling because the priority seems to make them look/feel creepy rather than to have any interesting or thematic motivations. For example, the wedding party scene with Ruth could have been a warped/deranged reflection of Catalina and Paul’s sense of survivor’s guilt but ended up with the antagonist as essentially just the ultimate Bridezilla, monologuing in a cartoonishly evil way to deliver exposition. There is nothing clever or meaningful about the way that they defeat her and it seems to take barely any effort.
The main antagonist, the banker’s, entire shtick is that he offers Faustian bargains/deals with the Devil, using the wording of contracts to trick his victims and making what seems like a blessing to be a curse. But his power alternately seems bound to the contracts that he makes but when convenient or required for the narrative, he can suddenly do as he pleases. The “terminating the contract” clause doesn’t make sense because the book implies that the banker continues to be bound by the terms of the contract even after it is terminated and the victim is released from its terms. That’s not how contracts work!?
John aka the Man of Sap’s storyline ended in an anticlimactic and unsatisfying way. John’s POV is told through letters/journal entries that he’s writing in order to tell his whole life story. When she finally reads these letters, Catalina spends maybe a page thinking about them before moving on and their contents are never brought up again.
The descriptions of the world are poetic and vivid but the actual worldbuilding is barely fleshed out. Catalina and Paul encounter various mythical beings: tree weepers, Hill Dogs, and a White Spider tree. They each appear for a single scene, don’t speak, aid Catalina and Paul for seemingly no reason, and then are never mentioned again. Apart from describing their physical appearances, we find out basically nothing about their backstories, how they came to be, or what they do.
Some more minor issues: The descriptions rely very heavily on similes and metaphors, initially to great effect but it begins to feel overdone later on. Also, some of the similes are kind of ridiculous or don’t make sense (for example, Catalina compares a row of three apples to teeth).
The romance between Paul and Catalina is generic and feels like it’s included solely because a romantic plot or subplot seems to be a requirement in fantasy books these days.
Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The main story centers around Catalina and Paul going on a quest to find the Man of Sap. By their very nature, quest plots provide a lot of downtime for the characters to think and talk while they travel. Catalina thinks a lot about her family, her memories of her mother, dealing with loss/grief, who she truly is, and her hopes for the future. These themes are repeated in her conversations with Paul. But the themes rarely factor into the conflicts or their subsequent resolutions, making the protagonist overcoming them feel devoid of meaning. Apart from the final confrontation with the main antagonist, the banker, Catalina responds to each danger by running, hiding, or being saved by someone else.
None of the antagonists in this book felt very compelling because the priority seems to make them look/feel creepy rather than to have any interesting or thematic motivations.
The main antagonist, the banker’s, entire shtick is that he offers Faustian bargains/deals with the Devil, using the wording of contracts to trick his victims and making what seems like a blessing to be a curse. But his power alternately seems bound to the contracts that he makes but when convenient or required for the narrative, he can suddenly do as he pleases.
John aka the Man of Sap’s storyline ended in an anticlimactic and unsatisfying way. John’s POV is told through letters/journal entries that he’s writing in order to tell his whole life story.
The descriptions of the world are poetic and vivid but the actual worldbuilding is barely fleshed out. Catalina and Paul encounter various mythical beings:
Some more minor issues: The descriptions rely very heavily on similes and metaphors, initially to great effect but it begins to feel overdone later on. Also, some of the similes are kind of ridiculous or don’t make sense (for example, Catalina compares a row of three apples to teeth).
The romance between Paul and Catalina is generic and feels like it’s included solely because a romantic plot or subplot seems to be a requirement in fantasy books these days.
Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
It’s so unrealistic and unbelievable that it’s unintentionally hilarious. I’ve never read a political thriller that tried so hard to distance itself from actual politics before.