mariebrunelm's Reviews (478)

Unfortunately, the book as a whole didn't really capture my imagination enough to push me to finish it. The main character was quite likeable (a Black, disabled princess with a taste for learning), but the rest of the book was very classic in its themes when I was looking for something more original. I would however recommend it for readers up to 12 (the age of the heroin) and older readers looking for a comforting story!

 This classic was heartily recommended to me as a delightful blend of realism and fantasy.

It's the story of a friendship between the teenage narrator, François, and Augustin, the "great Meaulnes" of the title, who pops up in François's life with the nonchalance of an older boy. From fascination to attachment to detachment, their relation unfolds on the background of a rural region of France.

I can't say this book fascinated me, but I appreciated the slow moments of contemplation, and the intrusion of the fantastical in a very realistic narrative. And that's what it is: fantastical, and not fantasy. You never leave the French countryside, and yet the characters seem at times to walk into a more colourful reality, in the surroundings of a castle where a fabulous party is going on.

The atmosphere of profound melancholy and uncertainty made me think of Hiromasa Yonebayashi's movie When Marnie Was There (which I now want to watch again - I was very, very moved the first time). And, since the person who recommended this book to me also admitted not having been able to read The Lord of the Rings, I'll just say that I found quite a few common points between the first chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring and Alain-Fournier's novel: descriptions of an unstained countryside, the taste for nature, the intrusion of the fantastical, etc. 

 In this heart-warming graphic novel, Francès is a young seamstress working in a Parisian workshop. One day, after creating a scandalous dress for a client, she is recruited by a visiting princess who asks Francès to create fabulous costumes for her. But on the first day they meet, Francès finds out that the princess is none other than... a prince.

Jen Wang has written and illustrated a fun, beautiful and inspiring story about our dreams and the sacrifices we're ready to make to reach them. Both characters are fully fledged, and it's a pleasure to see them evolve in Wang's airy and colourful pages. Beside the enchanting story, I loved the warm colour palette and the balance between vignettes and negative spaces, which really let the pictures breathe. A lovely, lovely book, to put in every hands. 

Queer. Pirate. Sci-fi.

The first thing I thought, a few chapters in, was: "This is the book I wish I'd written". Les Nuages de Magellan was exactly the book I was craving at that moment. I'd quite hyped it up in my mind before picking it up, but somehow it zoomed past my expectations and soared into space.

This book tells about Dan, a young waitress, sometimes singer, who finds fame where she hadn't looked for it, ends up being chased for an evening she barely remembers, and escapes her planet on Mary's ship. Mary is a sort of space pirate, who's been hunted most of her life and hides deep within her memory traces of a legendary planet. One is fleeing home, the other is trying to find it again.

This book was so much fun! It's rare when I find myself unable to put a book down, but this was one of them. The characters were endearing and diverse, the world-building was just rich enough to provide surprises without drowning me into information I couldn't process, and the overall themes of memories, found families and friendship without borders was just perfect. I so wish this was translated into English! For a similar feel, I highly recommend The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. 

 In her story divided into three periods, like three acts in a theatre play, the author weaves together the fates of Xiao Chen, Cinder-feet, River-mist and Li Mei. Xiao Chen, son of a potter, is forced to flee his village because of a curse. He joins a company of travelling comedians with whom he wanders across 3rd-century China and beyond.

I thought the story was a very pleasant to read. Beyond a rather trope-y overture scene that brought to my mind Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor, Estelle Faye paints an original story, drawing from China's history and legends. The tone is almost that of a fairy tale, thanks to a good balance of surnatural and natural elements, and the characters are well-rounded.

Yet I had some reservations regarding their descriptions, and the importance of physical beauty that is tirelessly repeated. Admittedly, it's an important theme of the novel, that sometimes reminds the reader of Beauty and the Beast, but to me it lacked a little subtelty. I also cringed at the sometimes repetitive way of designating characters, but most of the time this was lost in otherwise elegant style, both simple and evocative. I enjoyed all the details of life in a travelling company, which really plunged me in the characters' daily life. 

 In this queer Asian science fantasy, Neon Yang invites us to meet Mokoya and Akeha, twins who grow up and apart in a world where magic and science meet.

There is a lot to love in this book. First of all, it's a novella, meaning that it falls on the "short" end of the book spectrum, but it doesn't make up for its small count of pages by piling action scene on action scene. The focus is put on characters and dramatic scenes have more to do with feelings and self-discovery.

Then, there is a fantastic representation of gender identities and sexual orientations which I found really refreshing and welcome.

Last but not least, the world-building was both detailed and not overwhelming at all, which is probably the feature that impressed me the most with this book. Neon Yang created an original blend of real-world-inspired elements (one location feels inspired by the Forbidden City, the magic system draws from the 5 elements) and completely original creations. Everything was woven seamlessly into the narrative.

The Black Tides of Heaven is the first volume in The Tensorate Series, the second tome of which is The Red Threads of Fortune. By the end of the first one, it was quite obvious that not everything would be wrapped up. I guess the only thing left for me to do is put Volume 2 on my TBR. 

 Cor Blok is a Dutch artist who discovered The Lord of the Rings a few years after its publication, in the 1950s, and set out to create a series of "pictures to accompany" the text. Between 1958 and 1962, he painted over 140 pictures in a very original technique involving gouache and layers of silk paper. Blok met J.R.R. Tolkien himself in 1961, and the author bought several of his artworks. Blok's art is delightful in its minimalism. He believes in omitting from the image anything that can be removed. The resulting pictures are still remarkably readable, and play on textures and a muted colour palette that are really pleasant.