Reviews by librarymouse | The StoryGraph

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librarymouse

Skin Game

Jim Butcher

4.5

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think this may be the best of the Dresden files series yet.

Harry's reclamation of faith in himself is so well written. It was wonderful being able to see him fight alongside Michael again and having Michael be the conduit that helps him realize his own humanity is still there. I also really loved Butters's character development. He went from just a self-proclaimed little guy to a guy who's still little, but who's willing to risk himself in order to save people he loves and protect innocents. I loved all the movie references, even if I didn't fully understand all of them. It's nice to know that Harry still has his encyclopedic nerd knowledge. Butters's theories on how to mantle of the winter knight works are really interesting and fit with his previous assessments of wizard healing factors. I'm glad we get to see more of him in these books. The fact that his sword as a knight of the Cross is a lightsaber is just the icing on the cake. Murphy's character development was really solid. I'm glad to see her back on solid ground no longer having to mourn Harry. I was afraid that she had been corrupted by whatever had corrupted Maeve in the last book. She was so angry and short sighted. I'm glad to see her back to being one of the level-headed people in their gang of misfits. I'm also glad she and Harry are actually trying to sort out their feelings for each other. Molly reaching out to Maggie and filling her little head with positive stories of her dad while he was isolating himself on demon reach is adorable. Maggie getting to just be a kid is one of the best parts of the book. Her asking Harry to be her dad is what finally made him feel almost human again. Her rekindled relationship with her parents and siblings is heartwarming to see after her running away and lashing out as a teen, and then living on the street after Harry's death. I'm concerned about what Molly has become in the wake of becoming the winter lady. She's able to use technology that human magic users can't, and I hope that it doesn't lead to her corruption in a different sort of way then what happened to her predecessor. Hannah Asher's character is so dang sad. For her to have been a warlock who finally found a peace with the resistance group fighting against the red Court only to have most of the friends she made there die in front of her makes her desire for revenge against Harry understandable. The execution of her plan, subsequent death, and inability to understand that the denarians were manipulating her it was heartbreaking. I really liked her. Gray was a fun red herring. Him being a skin walker pulled the rug out from under Harry and the reader, as did his fee. I hope you get to see more of him.

This book was stupidly hard to find as a library audiobook. I had to borrow someone's library card to finally get access, but I'm glad I did.

Content Warnings

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs

Fiona Robinson

4.25

informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs is an easily consumable account of Anna Atkins's life and work. Little is known about Anna Atkins's early life, so Fiona Robinson had to surmise what it may have been like from her father's work and common pass times in her community during the years she was a child. I knew there weren't many biographies written about Anna Atkins, but I didn't know that it was mostly due to her signature, A.A., meant that many of her works were attributed to "Anonymous Author". Eventually I'd like to finish reading Sun Gardens, a biography of Atkins accompanying a to scale collection of her cyanotypes, but I'm glad I picked up this children's biography of her. It had a bibliography in the back with some interesting further reading and instructions about how to cyanotype at home. The illustrations have a limited color palate and beautifully integrate sections of Atkins's cyanotypes with colored pencil illustrations. I especially enjoy the motif of a poppy showing up as one of the first flowers she pressed with her father as a child. It's a fictional account that packs a lot of emotion into the cyanotype of a poppy she did just after her father's death. The only colors in the book are the white of the page, two blue tones, red, and sparing sections of black paired with the red for impact among the blue. Overall, one of my favorite children's books, and I'm glad it exists as a resource for more people to learn about Anna Atkins.

Content Warnings

Magic Strikes

Ilona Andrews

5.0

adventurous challenging funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I'm really enjoying this series. The characters are fun and the situations they get themselves into are interesting and enthralling.

the romance aspects of the series are really well done, which I think can be attributed to the fact that the series is written by a married couple. I like that Kate and Curran can work together normally but are also stupidly in love with each other. I love that Kate fights it with every step too. It fits with her character.

Kate hiding Andrea's secret and Andrea being willing to do the same for her really solid female friendship. I need more books like that. It doesn't have the toxic "I'm not like other girls" tropes, despite Kate actively not being like other people because of her parentage. She doesn't deem herself to be better or worse than the people she works with or the people she loves. I really enjoyed that she badassed her way into Julie's school to give her adoptive kiddo street cred at her bougie school. The way they handled Derek's injuries and recovery was really well written. I adore Julie's crush onIhim. I would have been so mad if he died. I also loved how Kate threatened Jim with binding legal action up until the point that he brought her to Derek, and then forgave him and his team immediately.

Gladiatorial games are an interesting setting to tie our cast of characters in close quarters for a minimum of 3 days. It also gave really good insight into Kate's background. The setting gives her friends further insight into her as well as the reader.

I'm really looking forward to the next book.

Content Warnings

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

Jeff Guinn

3.5

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

This is a really well written exploration of how Jim Jones came to power as a religious, social, and political figure, and his slow descent from a man known for his good works man torious today for the slaughter of the majority of his followers. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea how large Jones's following was, how wide spread his his influence was, or the sheer number of people who died at his command. I also hadn't known that some of those who died at Jonestown we're injected with the poison instead of having taken it of their own free will. After having read a few titles of this nature, you can see that Jones follows a life path that many other cult leaders and demagogues take. He intially worked toward a goal, curating a group of followers who shared at least part of the goal, and slowly warped himself and his flock until he was power hungry and those who once followed him, instead served him. A defector of the People's Temple aptly said that being a part of the organization was like boiling a frog. If you put it right into boiling water it would hop out, but if you put a frog in warm water and slowly heated it till it boiled, the frog would stay, being boiled alive. Mob mentality and isolation are scary things. As with previous books on similar topics, I'm somewhere uncomfortable having read this. It feels voyeuristic and dirty to be curious about the deaths of so many people.

Content Warnings

Magic Burns

Ilona Andrews

4.75

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This series is really fun. I Love the addition of Julie to the cast of characters. Kate immediately starts referring to her as "my kid", and the dynamic of the pack and they're protective nature around children is really nice. I like that Kate doesn't try to replace Julie's mom, but offers up the role of weird aunt. This is a really interesting storyline, and I look forward to seeing how the plot twist that was revealed in this book about Kate's parentage plays into future novels in the series. I also really enjoy the addition of Andrea into the series. I love a good female friendship, and the two of them are really good for each other. Curran's reactions to learning about Kate's words of power is very funny. It feels a little bit like a sitcom to have him psych her out of a kiss. The one thing that really messed me up for a while is the death of the dog in the honeycomb.

Content Warnings

Magic Bites

Ilona Andrews

4.25

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I've found that I really love urban fantasy, and Magic Bites is no different. It's gripping and it made me want to pick up book two immediately after I put it down. Kate is an interesting protagonist. Having a mystery about her parentage and the strength of her magic hinted at but not quite explained left me wanting more. The world building is extensively, but not excessively explained. We're shown how things work throughout the course of the novel. Curran and the pack are interesting. Kate's issues with authority combined with current position of authority make them curious allies. They work well together, though. The end to this novel was satisfying, but I'm excited to read the next one.

Content Warnings

Running with Scissors

Augusten Burroughs

4.5

challenging emotional funny fast-paced

This was the book that got me interested in reading nonfiction, when I first read it in early high school. Augusten Burroughs's life is wild, intricately weird, and occasionally heartbreaking. I'm glad he shared what became of the people who were important to him. Burroughs uses deceptively descriptive language that makes the scenes he describes real to the reader. The image of his mother in a bath tub with the bubbles stained pink with her blood is burned into my mind's eye. It's interesting reading this book after having visited Massachusetts. It's jarring to recognize landmarks mentioned in a second read through of the book when I hadn't recognized in the first.

There are occasional, uncomfortable moments of ableism in which the names of disabilities are used in describing undesirable mannerisms.

Content Warnings

The Hollow Boy

Jonathan Stroud

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I disliked the first half of the book. Having the only two female characters be pitted against each other, possibly over the conventionally attractive main male character felt like a sharp turn away from the style and plot of the last two books. It got far better in the second half, but having the two be catty with one another and so judgmental was sad. The book was written in the peak of the "I'm not like other girls" YA era, and I think that's one of its main flaws. I really enjoyed how the story progressed and how the tension was broken between Lucy and Holly. The characters are all dynamic and round, and in the first two books they were far more adults than they were in this book. Even though I didn't quite like how the interactions were written, I do think that this book is more human. They are just teenagers, no matter how professional they are or how dangerous their jobs are. They're young, and I think this novel did a good job reminding the readers about that. I do have some theories about who was working in that underground mass grave. The cigarette is a good clue, but may be a red herring.

Mr Rockwell coming up with the ideas for the parade, his adept swordsmanship, and his habit of smoking point at him and/or the organization of rich people trying to find the source of the problem being the ones who caused the Chelsea outbreak. I'm interested to see how Lucy resigning is going to play out in book 4. Her being traumatized by what the ghost showed her is really well written written and I think that's an interesting move for her character to make.

Content Warnings

Lust & Wonder

Augusten Burroughs

4.5

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

This memoir is so fucking weird and so fucking good! I read Augusten Burroughs's books Running With Scissors and Magical Thinking far too young, and they are the books that got me into reading nonfiction. I'm glad he's found joy and love. He does reference some character traits in others as being "kind of autistic", which was a casual incorrect use of a medical diagnosis that I didn't like, but it's not coming from a place of malice.

Content Warnings

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Becky Chambers

5.0

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet might be my favorite book of the year. The characters are so round and dynamic. They're very fun to read about and even easier to love. I love that Rosemary's secret identity is just a talking point throughout the book. It's not the major linchpin to the plot. Some characters are more prominent than others in the story telling, but no one in the crew is more important than anyone else. I love them all and I'm devistated by the loss they face at the end. I look forward to living in and finding comfort in this world for the rest of the series!

Content Warnings

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