mj_reads's Reviews (415)

“’You thought I was crazy?’
‘No, no crazy in a GOOD way! Evil mad scientist kind of thing!’”

Nimona is this cute, fun, fast paced graphic novel about an evil villain who isn’t all that evil. The story follows our two MCs, Lord Blackheart and Nimona as they cause some trouble around town in order to expose the institution isn’t as great as they seem. Lord Blackheart is such a softie and watching him interact with Nimona, who is supposed to be is sidekick but is actually more evil than him, is honestly just so adorable. These two are really opposite from one another and yet they just click in a way that is absolutely perfect. This book had me laughing on multiple occasions, it was just so funny.

As the story unfolds with their attempt to expose the institution, Blackheart realizes that there is much more to Nimona than she originally let on. This is the result of a lot of craziness, which keeps readers hanging on! All of our characters (including secondary ones) have clean cut character arcs, everything in this feels important to the story. The ending of this story, and the explanation of what is going on, is a little confusing, but I ultimately found that I was so entertained by the whole thing, and that I liked the overall feel of it so much that I really didn’t mind.

There is a lot more to love about this story but I’ll leave the rest for you all to find out! This was so much fun, I smiled pretty much the entire time I was reading it, I think everyone should give it a chance.

WOW. OKAY HONESTLY WOW. All the hype around this series just makes so much sense to me now.
This book was so incredible. Whenever I go to review a book I first ask myself what I didn’t like about a book, because that is usually easier to discuss and then I also know what good things I can focus on…but I cannot think of a single thing that I disliked about this book? I loved it so much, it was unique, fun, fast paced, easy to follow without being predictable, full of INCREDIBLE characters and ugh just AMAZING.

This book has everything that a good fantasy story should have. To sum all of THAT up without giving to much away that includes: magic, noble houses, a ruler that needs to go, and a group of heroes who take matters into their own hands.

The characters in this book were incredible. They felt very realistic, I believed and understood them as they made their decisions and everything about them (ie: relationships and character development) felt really natural and realistic. The plot was impressive, even when I thought I had something figured out (and I was pretty close a few times) there was at least one factor that managed to surprise me.

REVIEWING A POPULAR BOOK THAT YOU LIKE IS HARD BECAUSE LIKE WHAT CAN I SAY THAT HASN’T ALREADY BEEN SAID?

This book was just amazing. It focused on all the right things, it had tons of layers, and it had something for everyone. Also it was just well written and the pacing and development of the world and the fantasy factors was really well done. Idk just give it a TRY, I was so hesitant since it was so hyped but I GET IT NOW. IT IS WORHT IT.

Rereading the Harry Potter series always feels like coming home and reuniting with some of my best friends.

This story is so special to me. My entire childhood is full of moments where I was reading Harry Potter, playing with my friends pretending I was a wizard, and having movie marathons all the time with this series. There isn't much I can say about this series that hasn't already been said, and to be completely honest I always have a difficult time reviewing books when I reread them, so I'm just going to talk about my feelings instead. Sorry if you were hoping for anything more than that!!! :')

Book one is always such a fun adventure to reread. I always seem to forget how quickly this story flies by. I really love the introduction to the world, from explaining the concept of magic to just the general world building...it's all so much fun. I love that JK Rowling is able to give such a brief introduction to the world that still fits perfectly with the things that we learn later on in the series.

I also always seem to forget just how pure and innocent everyone is at the very beginning. It amazes me how Harry who has such a tough life is still full of such hope and desire to do the right thing. He is so young and already has so much on his shoulders, and he just doesn't let it get him down, it makes me really emotional!!! Ron is such a sweetheart in the first book, he is starting to figure himself out and trying to create his own place out of the shadows of his brothers. And my sweet Hermione is figuring out that there is more to life than books and knowledge, and that doing the right thing doesn't always mean following the rules.

The other characters are also great, I love the introduction we get to the other Weasley's, especially the twins *heart eyes*. Draco is such a smug little asshole in this one, but he is still so innocent it's great to see him still being a kid. Hagrid plays a larger role in this one that I remember, but I'm not mad about it. His character provides a nice message to younger readers that mistakes can happen and sometimes good intentions aren't enough. On the other hand I always think that Dumbledore plays a much larger role in this first book than he does, I always seem to forget how behind the scenes he is in the first few books. The introduction to the ghosts, peeves, and the professors feel really fun to me since I know what to expect from them throughout the rest of the series.

This was basically just a trip down memory lane, and as always this reread has my heart feeling incredibly full and also incredibly torn because I know that there is pain waiting for me as the series continues.

This took me months to read, the writing and the story were really lovely but as a whole it really didn't do much for me lmao I'm honestly not sure if I'll bother with the third book when it finally comes out.

I was a bit nervous going into this book after reading so many mixed reviews, so I am very relieved to say that this book was exactly what I hoped it would be.

There’s Someone Insider your House has all of the qualities that readers love in a Stephanie Perkins novel, plus an interesting horror/thriller vibe. It’s basically like watching your favorite cheesy teen slasher movie, but in a book form and also just better. This book is full of representation and diversity, characters who feel real enough to come to life, and of course a swoon worthy romance.

I finished this book a few days ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. While I do need to point out that I don’t read a lot of horror novels, I still felt severely spooked by this book. The killer in this story plays with his victims before taking them out, and after I finished this story I found myself on edge worried that similar things were happening to me. The relationships in this story, both friendly and romantic, have great chemistry. They felt really genuine and pure, I found it very easy to believe in them throughout the story.

But once I move past all of those praises, this book wasn’t really much more than an entertaining read. The only thing that truly blew me away was how effortlessly Perkins gives readers the diversity and representation that YA lit needs more of. I think this is especially important in the last few weeks with all the drama all over twitter about how authors need to stop being diverse just for the sake of being diverse, because Perkins gives us an entire cast of MC who aren’t typical without turning it into a big thing and shows how simple it can be. Turns out authors can incorporate characters just for the sake of adding diversity to their cast without over doing it, twitter trolls please read this book and take notes.

OK SORRY BACK ON TRACK NOW. But yeah other than the characters nothing about this story had any wow factor. It was exactly what I thought it would be and the fact that nothing surprised me just kind of left me wanting more. Plus the only part of the story that I had a difficult time believing was the motive behind all the murders. These two aspects left me wanting more from the story and unfortunately they are pretty important, so I can't give this book five stars despite being thoroughly entertained. This was a good book but for me it was just lacking something to make it great.

Chamber of Secrets is brilliant.

This is my least favorite of the series. Because, basically this book has a lot of pettiness, the worlds most irritating character (LOCKHART), and giant spiders, and yet it is so important to the series because it sets everything up so well and indicates just how much JK had planned for her series even this early on. So while there are a lot of qualities that I dislike and which sort of distract the reader from all the important things, there are still a lot of important things that happen!! It’s really well done because it shows that at this point in Harry’s story he is still young and focused on the more trivial things (including the petty, the irritating, and the scary spiders ok). I just…this is brilliant.

This isn’t my first, second, third or even fourth time rereading this so I’m sorry to say that I can’t really write a proper review. It becomes difficult to talk about how you feel about a book/how a book makes you feel when you have so much history with them. So instead I am just going to mention some of the things that I really appreciated THIS time around!!!
- I need to acknowledge that every single time I read this book I find Dobby to be incredibly annoying when he is first introduced. Obviously by the end I am singing a different song (my lil precious baby) but I just love that his character is so well done that even though I understand his struggle and the reasons for him acting the way that he does, that it doesn’t change my first initial reaction to him.
- I love Collin Creevy.
- I really appreciated the car in this book more this time than I ever have before.
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Spoiler

I love how we start to see similarities in Harry & Voldemort in this book!!! From their back stories, to their time at school it is just SO WELL DONE IMO. Really sets the stage for a lot of things that are revealed later on in the story.

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Spoiler

I love how Harry mentions that he is so drawn to the diary because this ends up being incredibly relevant in the later books when dealing with the other horcruxes. This really shows how well thought out the series was!

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Spoiler

When Tom Riddle explains how he takes control over Ginny by winning her over and gaining her trust is really important in helping to show the power that he had over people, especially when he was at his peak!!

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Spoiler

I love the tension over believing Harry is the heir of slytherin in this book because it becomes so ironic later on when readers discover everything that is revealed in Deathly Hallows

So yeah everything, including every single annoying thing, is so important to the story even if readers don’t realize until later on. This is amazing. I love it, even when I hate it, I love it.

Don’t let the three stars fool you, the writing, characters and the story were all so LOVELY. I think everyone should give this book a try. I unfortunately was just kind of bored and easily distracted while reading it. But it was definitely a me not you situation.

My heart is so full. This was so sweet. I loved this i can’t wait to read it 53 more times. Bye.

THIS BOOK DELIVERS EVERY THING THAT WAS LACKING FROM BOOK ONE AND THEN SOME.
And book one was a four star read for me, so what I’m really trying to say is this book was incredible.

Revisiting this world felt really natural to me, it has been a few months since I read Rebel of the Sands, but I was surprised to see how much of this story I remembered. The plot picks up shortly after the end of book one, but the characters do a really great job showing readers what they missed out on, rather than just having a time jump with no explanation.

The characters were just as incredible as I remembered them, and they continue to grow so wow my heart hurts quite a bit after this :’). One of my only complaints from book one was that I wanted to see more of the secondary characters to flush out the story a bit more, and that definitely happens here!! Not necessarily how I wanted it too, but I was really satisfied with how everything played out. This story was really driven by the characters, but still focused on the setting and the events going on in the story that I think this can be enjoyable even for someone who might not love the characters as much as I do. That being said, the characters are incredibly more dimensional in this one! We see characters go through a lot of growth and cope with some really interesting obstacles that help readers see them in a different light.

The writing was honestly incredible. The descriptions were vivid but not overdone, it was relatively easy to guess some of the plot twists but they were still revealed in a way that had me unsure until I actually read about it happening. And there were also a few things I did not see coming, BUT once they were revealed I felt that they fit well into the story (aka nothing felt like it was thrown in for a wow factor).
There are certain chapters in this story that act as origin stories for some of the characters/ideas and honestly every time I reached one of those chapters I was so excited because they were done so beautifully, they felt like a fairy tale!!
I actually started reading this book, and then put it on hold because of life getting in the way. But when I picked it back up over a month later I didn’t have to reread any of what I had previously read. That is how well this story was written.

This book was everything I needed it to be, and so much more. I am very eagerly awaiting the release of book 3!!!!

This book is the equivalent of a warm summer day.
This book cleared my skin and watered my crops.
It was so pure, and wholesome, and healing in such a cute light-hearted way.

My heart is so full. I am overwhelmed with feelings. I loved everything about it.