Great!! A modern classic in the making. However… as crazy as it is to say I think I preferred the movie?

I thought this was great!! I loved Kiki’s narrative voice and thought the entire storyline with their relationship, while a little ridiculous at the jump (but in a fun, omg drama way - like good ridiculous) was surprisingly realistic in how it developed, their hurdles, how they handled them, etc — it’s a very cute first love type storyline so i liked that they kind of had to figure out how exactly to communicate together, how it wasn’t perfect, etc. Kiki & Malakai are both really well-realized as characters which I really appreciated a lot. Had some problems w the pacing in the second half (especially since it takes so long to get to where the blurb stops) but still really enjoyed this one <3 and I think the sequel follows them out of college, which I’m excited about because I want to see if they can make it work after graduation

Bursting with potential but ultimately felt very hollow, meandering… writing is extremely pretentious and contrived but not enough happens, thematically, for the reader to forgive or overlook that. The surrealism doesn’t feel warranted because none of these metaphors actually mean anything, and while that might lowkey be the point, it makes the book extremely annoying to read because you’re reading to find meaning and the more you read the less of it there is. Again, maybe that’s the point, but even so, who fucking cares? Not me, because I found nothing in this to latch onto. 

James Baldwin might be one of the best to ever do it actually and I’m mad at myself that I’ve never read him before. The kind of book you finish and immediately want to reread. Absolutely beautiful writing and absolutely devastating too. The way Baldwin balances David’s self-loathing with genuine empathy — like as a reader you don’t like David and yet you know exactly why he’s doing all that and you feel bad for him but also lowkey fuck him but also look at where & when he’s living! — is just a total masterclass in writing.

Charming and nostalgic, even though some stories got a bit repetitive at times & the somewhat questionable way race is sometimes handled. Tintin in America is by far the weakest of the stories, but the double-arc in Cigars of the Pharaoh + The Blue Lotus is great!!

So guys. I KNOW my romance. It’s quite literally been my top-read genre for years now. 

I think this is the best romance novel I’ve ever fucking read. A new all-time favorite.

I adore quite literally everything about it but I must go to bed so I will expand on that later 

Reactions ranged from “omg me too” to “ugh why are we as a community talking about this”. Added absolutely nothing to my life besides thinking “maybe i should watch the OC”. Very smith college, not in a derogatory or appreciative way just in a very blah way. Not very insightful at all, just talking points or analyses that could have been a tumblr post. Author mentions having had the idea for this to be a podcast instead and I think that would have been a lot more fun since podcasts mean GUESTS and more life experienced beyond a relatable but no-longer-interesting “i felt a lot of shame but then came out and nothing happened and it was fine” — i wanted to see how those experiences shaped the author now and not just how they affected her when she was growing up, you know? a lot more about becoming than being than I would have preferred

Review Incoming, but:

- The Hedge Knight: 5  
- The Sworn Sword: 4.25
- The Mystery Knighf: 2.75

A weird one for me because it’s so colored by The Movie in my mind even though it’s actually quite different from the movie like a lot different from the movie like has maybe the opposite difference from the movie. Is evil innate or can anyone succumb to it? I think I like the story of the book more but prefer the execution of the movie! I like being in Jack’s head even if (I guess that’s the point) it’s so VILE in there sometimes. I think the chapter where Halloran almost

succumbs to the evil of the Overlook and for a second thinks of killing Danny

was what made me turn go “I get it..”. Not to mention how the relationship between Danny and Halloran is so much stronger here. Slow pace is atmospheric except when it’s boring. Ending feels so much more optimistic. Stephen King im still quite mixed on you but I think this one is a banger with flaws 

I don’t like starting my reviews for books aimed at younger demographics with this but in this instance it’s a compliment: I would have LOVED to read this as a teenager in middle or high school, in fact I think it would have been quite foundational. I love Middle Eastern fantasy* (*not really bc no magic but it’s not Our World so whatever), I love KNIGHTS, I love postcolonialism and I think this is postcolonialism made digestible for someone who’s like 12 and 4-8 years away from ever hearing the name Edward Said. I love the relationship that develops between Aiza & Doruk. I love the Knight Lore. I loooove the general vibes.

Some criticisms: I couldn’t always follow or visualize the action when it was happening, which isn’t the greatest when your hero is training to fight and thus fighting a lot. I also thought we were going through everything at kind of a breakneck pace - for example

Aiza becoming a squire and then becoming disillusioned with being a squire in what felt like one day or maybe a week max.

I think there could have been more of a sense of time passing especially with Aiza being I think 12-13 at the beginning and PROBABLY older by the end (

though no more than 3 years older since she broke Basem’s father’s record for the fastest recruit to become a Squire

), but I didn’t think she looked like she got any older other than going back and seeing that she seemed to grow a few inches (even that is suspect because of how loose the drawing style & scaling is). Squire is a relatively small story in pure plot but a vast story in themes so I would have liked a little bit of a slower pace and more in-universe time passing. 

Anyway I’m gonna need about a dozen more of these. I could read Aiza, Husni, & Sahar’s adventures for volumes and volumes, and this has a very… first book in the series vibe. Manifesting a sequel even though

I think the ending is very much meant to say “you should hope these characters don’t get more stories because that would mean they’re still struggling”

…. Just show me them hanging out for 2000 pages or something

Doruk <<<<3333