leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

A quest to find a fallen star. Really, I didn’t need to know anything else, but that, to want to read this novel. I was not disappointed in what I read.


STARDUST follows Tristran Thorn, a lad who is in love. In stories like this, is there ever any other type of protagonist? His one true love, Victoria Forester, has told him that if he can retrieve the star that they saw fall, then she would give him whatever he desires. And like any young man in love, he pounces on that opportunity, because what he desires most, is Victoria’s hand in marriage.

And so his journey begins.

The reader gets to see not only Tristran’s journey, but several other characters’ as well, including a wicked witch who wants the fallen star for herself and heirs to a throne, needing to prove themselves (and take out their competition) and find an heirloom that would show their rights to the throne.


When Tristran finally finds his fallen star, he discovers that it’s not an inanimate object, diamond like and exquisite, but a young girl who’s quick to temper and despises him for his quest. However, Tristran wants Victoria, so he bind the Fallen Star to him, and makes his way back to his town.

They’re adventures are just getting started, because the evil witch still wants the Fallen Star, and the heirs to the throne are on a similar journey, but for very different reasons.

Tristran must protect his Fallen Star (whether she likes it or not) and get them safely to his home.

It was one magical adventure, and I really loved it, through and through.


While there was a lot of predictability to this story, it didn’t take away (at least for me) the fantastical adventure that Tristran went through. Overall, I really loved STARDUST, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading other novels by Neil Gaiman.


I would definitely recommend this to anyone who’d want a quick, fantasy read where good beats evil, and the main character discovers himself and grows into a hero.

Well, I tried again and have learned that Josh Malerman just isn't the author for me. He has some really unique and interesting concepts but the execution has fallen flat twice for me. I won't be trying his work out in the future, because at this point, I feel like a bully.

This was arguably better than Bird Box, so there's that. However, a lot of this story wasn't defined well enough for me. There were too many characters to fully develop any of them, and what the hell was up with the supernaturally element to this? Fuck that. It was useless as a plot point, as a big bad, and as an anything.

This actually could have been better being just a western with more fully realized characters.

But alas.

This was a re-read, but since I don't remember when I first read it, and I didn't write a review the first time around, I guess I'm starting from scratch.

And that's OK, because this edition with illustrations by Chris Riddell added so much to the story. I honestly wish I had read this, listened to the audiobook, and had these illustrations all at the same time. It would have been fantastic. 2/3 of those ain't bad though.

As someone who watched the movie before ever reading the book, I have to say, I still prefer this. There are elements of the movie that I absolutely love, but Neil's words just add something special that visuals can't compete with. Makes sense since this is his story.

Coraline is a character that I genuinely aspire to be like. She's brave and curious and inventive and just such a wonderful role model for youngins' and old'ns alike.

And of course, my other favorite character is the showstealer - the cat. It's such a marvelous cat character. It oozes cat every time it's on the pages. I love it.

What makes this story work so well, in my mind, are not only the well written protagonists, but the true evilness of the villain, Other Mother. She's creepy and crawly and she gets under my skin. She's horror and nightmares and the illustrations of her in this makes me want to re-watch the movie and soon!

Still very much in love with this story, and I cannot wait to share Coraline with my nieces and nephews so that they know what it means to be brave.

The Daughter Cells - 3/5 - I wish it was longer and filled with more gore and horror. I'd love to see this story explored as a full-length novel.

The Thankless Child - 2/5 - I may not have the necessary smarts to really get this story, but I found it boring and not all that horrific. There are elements of it, but this definitely needed to be a couple more pages to really flesh it out fully.

Fear Not: An Incident Log - 1/5 - Religious retellings are usually not my cuppa tea to begin with, but I always try keeping an open mind. I read recently on Twitter to avoid using "boring" to describe books, so I'll try to explain why I disliked this so much outside of that word. I didn't feel like there was any depth to the narrator, and since this is called Tales of Everyday Horror, this story is probably the most lacking in horror. It wasn't horrific. It wasn't depressing. It didn't make me think. It just left me unimpressed.

The Six Boy-Coffins - 5/5 - The Merry Spinster may be the catchier title, but this IS the book. It's got the horror, it's got great characters, awesome narrative, and it's all in all some fantastic storytelling. This is the story I wish all the others were like.

The Rabbit - 5/5 - Easily the second best story in this collection, following The Six Boy-Coffins. Oh, the rabbit is one of the creepiest characters I've met in books/short stories/movies/what have you.

The Merry Spinster - 3/5 - A bland retelling that once again needed more pages to develop fully, and it needed probably better placement in the collection. It followed to fantastic stories, and it was completely lackluster compared to them.

The Wedding Party - 1/5 - I can't remember this story, and that's not a good thing. Most unremarkable story in this collection.

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad - 3/5 - I don't know the original story/inspiration for this, but it was OK.

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters - 4/5 - The characters, mainly the mother, absolutely made this story. The plot and whatnot isn't great, but she's fantastic.

The Frog's Princess - 2/5 - Very disturbing, and I don't normally have issues with stories like this, but this one bothered me a bit. I'd say it could even be triggering for some people. Without spoiling anything, if you want to know, I can talk about it in DMs.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - 3/5 - Another meh, not so horror-y story.

I really wish this wasn't labeled as Horror, because it's what I was expecting going into it. Ortberg can tell tales, but not always that convincing.

I feel like I've read all of my 5 star reads in the first half of the year, and now, I'm reading hyped books that just aren't doing it for me.

This is one of those books.

What worked the best for this entire story is the atmosphere of the story. It was dark and a little whimsical and pretty interesting. Shea Ernshaw has beautiful writing that lends itself so well to that vibe. Unfortunately, her characters fell very flat.

They just felt very one dimensional and unsubstantial in this setting. It felt like Penny could've been more. It felt like the sisters should've been more. It felt like the townspeople met needed to be more...and it never happened.

Oh and the plot twist/big reveal...I guessed it so early on that when it happened, I damn near rolled my eyes.

And the ending, ugh, don't get me started on that. I can't share anything because it's spoilery as fuck, but this ending may have been one of the most lackluster endings I've read in a while.

I went into the comic book store for an issue that wasn't out yet, and decided to look around. I liked the cover, so I bought this and Issue #2. And, I'm happy that I did!

The writing/story:

The main character, Sailor (Sail) Rook and her family have just moved to a new town, after some unknown (at the beginning) stuff went down where they used to live. She's a high school student and the reason her family had to move. It has to do with a classmate going missing, and her being accused of murder. I know, drama! And while that may not be the most unique start to a comic, overall it's an OK start.

I like the extra mystery and timeline aspects of the story. We see another "witch" (I'm assuming) from 1919, and see some inner workings of this culture with her being pledged. What does that mean in this series, I don't know, but it looks like she's owned or claimed by someone or something.

We see Sail being called out as a Pledge as well, but nothing more about that word or what it means. Yet.

The characters:

Sailor (Sail) Rook seems like a pretty typical teenager, well, if you forget about her family moving because she's accused of murder. She thinks she made her classmate disappear, and since the title of this comic book series is WYTCHES I'm assuming she actually did do something to her classmate. Since, she's the main character and all. We'll see.

Her dad, Charles, is awesome. He's artsy and weird, and I already really love him. I think (as long as he doesn't get killed or anything like that), he'll be really helpful to Sail as she learns what and who she is. That or he gets killed off super early to make Sail more angsty, we'll see.

We don't see much of Lucy, Sail's mom. We do see that she's in a wheelchair, so there's most likely a story there. But, who knows.


The art:

Art is done by Jock, coloring by Matt Hollingsworth, and while I like the art in general, the coloring is freaking phenomenal to me. I love it! It reminds me of water colors, and it's just really pretty. But there's also some really dark, disturbing panels, and I just love how it's still beautiful (in a really creepy way) and it just seems to work overall. For me, anyway, I love the prettiness.



Anyway, I really think WYTCHES has a decent start with Issue #1, and that Scott Snyder has done a good job at wanting me to read more. I already bought Issue #2, and I'm curious as to where the story will end up going.


I'm planning on scanning in a panel or two to add to this, so there's some artwork to this review, but you can Google it for now.

Damn lackluster endings all to hell! Seriously. This book was long enough that if the pacing was adjusted a bit, it could've been a 5 star book. But that ending ruined any chance of it.

And the pacing took another star with it.

The concept of this book was awesome! The Dragonscale spore was one of the more fascinating plagues I've read about in science fiction. I loved what we got from it, and I wish/hope that Joe Hill makes a companion to this novel just on the spore and survivors. A World War Z of this world if you will.

I think it would lend itself very well to see other survivors all over the world and how they coped with the Dragonscale outbreak. There were great human moments in THE FIREMAN, and I'd love to see more of this world and this spore and this "apocalyptic" setting explored.

Do you love cats?

Do your cats love catnip?

If so, then you should get this book!

If not, then you should get this book!!

So many super adorable pictures. I think my favorite may be Shrampton. He/she/they look so angry. But it's like the cat just can't stop consuming the catnip. It's adorable!

Damn, learning more about Baal in this one and progressing the story to the next level.

I can't wait til the next issue to see what happens next. This last year where it's all going to wrap up is going to be one hell of a ride.

What the hell did I read? Sometimes books/comics are too smart, and I feel like that's the case for this volume.

Paper Girls deals with some crazy concepts and quite a few of them in this first volume definitely went over my head. However, the four protags are energetic, witty, and fearless. And at the age of 12, I wouldn't expect much less.

The Paper Girls definitely made this volume for me. I may not have gotten what they were dealing with, but I could empathize with what these kids were going through.

I'm definitely going to continue on with this series. It won't be the first time that I read a comic that I don't get for the characters alone.

And it won't be the last one, either.