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novellie's Reviews (522)
This was very much a First Book In A Series, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Well written and full of action, but I can't help but wish the plot itself felt more substantial. I'm definitely intrigued to see how this continues in Starsight though.
The fact that I used to think this book was quite good just proves that you should never trust any of my Goodreads ratings and also that I am a clown.
To be fair though, I think that for 2012... this was good. Now? Not so much.
I will be holding the funeral for the half of my single functioning brain cell that I lost while reading this book later this week, everyone is welcome to attend. Under normal circumstances I would never pick up the next book in this series... sadly I did not read this under normal circumstances.
To be fair though, I think that for 2012... this was good. Now? Not so much.
I will be holding the funeral for the half of my single functioning brain cell that I lost while reading this book later this week, everyone is welcome to attend. Under normal circumstances I would never pick up the next book in this series... sadly I did not read this under normal circumstances.
To be frank this surpassed all of my expectations.
I picked up People Like Us on a complete whim. It had been sitting on my book cart for ages, but I'd never been completely drawn to it. If someone would have told me this was gay, I would have picked it up much sooner. Full of twists, turns, deadly mistakes, and sordid pasts, this book kept me intrigued form the very beginning. My only beef was that I didn't feel overly attached to the characters. They were all fascinating and I have no issues with them, but I didn't ever become that invested in their well being. The end also wrapped up a little quickly for my taste, but nothing too crazy. Extra points though, for having a bi MC and multiple lesbian characters.
Be warned tho, this book is not for the faint of heart, dealing with murder, homophobia, animal abuse/murder, and non consensual sharing of nudes.
I picked up People Like Us on a complete whim. It had been sitting on my book cart for ages, but I'd never been completely drawn to it. If someone would have told me this was gay, I would have picked it up much sooner. Full of twists, turns, deadly mistakes, and sordid pasts, this book kept me intrigued form the very beginning. My only beef was that I didn't feel overly attached to the characters. They were all fascinating and I have no issues with them, but I didn't ever become that invested in their well being. The end also wrapped up a little quickly for my taste, but nothing too crazy. Extra points though, for having a bi MC and multiple lesbian characters.
Be warned tho, this book is not for the faint of heart, dealing with murder, homophobia, animal abuse/murder, and non consensual sharing of nudes.
This book felt like when you open the fridge to eat those leftovers you've been looking forward to, but find out that someone has eaten them already. The flavor of bitter disappointment is one not easily cleansed from the palette.
This has been recommended to me by nearly family member I have that reads books, and now I'm starting to wonder if they're actually literate. While the concept behind it is good (who wouldn't love wizards in modern day Chicago?) the execution was iffy at best and the amount of blatant male chauvinism made me want to gouge my eyes out at best, and made me physically ill at worst.
I'm willing to forgive a majority of the technical issues I had, as this was Butcher's first book but the main glaring issue to me was just how bad of a detective he made Dresden seem. Personally if I was investigating a missing persons case and I found a the first thing I would do would be attempt to follow up on it rather than just pocket it for my personal use later. For half of the book it felt like we'd completely forgotten about the missing persons case too, which just felt odd. I knew they would tie together, or else why have both a missing person and murders to solve in the same book, but Dresden was so unconcerned for a large portion of the novel.
Really though, what knocked this book down for me was how poorly women were treated within it. Every single woman was either overly sexual or Tragic in a way that made Dresden pity them. I'm sorry but a police officer in charge of her division should not be CRYING when a consultant withholds information. And honestly there was a love potion brought into the mix for no good reason at all. I could go on an on, about the woman whose biggest shame was that Dresden had seen her when she was ugly, or the woman that Dresden blatantly told to "drop the slut act" like that's anything that should ever be said in a conversation.
This series has potential, and I might get around to picking up the second book to see if things improve but I can guarantee it won't be super high up my list.
This has been recommended to me by nearly family member I have that reads books, and now I'm starting to wonder if they're actually literate. While the concept behind it is good (who wouldn't love wizards in modern day Chicago?) the execution was iffy at best and the amount of blatant male chauvinism made me want to gouge my eyes out at best, and made me physically ill at worst.
I'm willing to forgive a majority of the technical issues I had, as this was Butcher's first book but the main glaring issue to me was just how bad of a detective he made Dresden seem. Personally if I was investigating a missing persons case and I found a
Spoiler
empty film canisterReally though, what knocked this book down for me was how poorly women were treated within it. Every single woman was either overly sexual or Tragic in a way that made Dresden pity them. I'm sorry but a police officer in charge of her division should not be CRYING when a consultant withholds information. And honestly there was a love potion brought into the mix for no good reason at all. I could go on an on, about the woman whose biggest shame was that Dresden had seen her when she was ugly, or the woman that Dresden blatantly told to "drop the slut act" like that's anything that should ever be said in a conversation.
This series has potential, and I might get around to picking up the second book to see if things improve but I can guarantee it won't be super high up my list.
Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC of this book!
The Dark Tide was truly a delightful read. This book swept me off my fight from the very beginning, and I found that once I started reading it I really couldn't put it down. This book is so deeply atmospheric it's hard not to fall in love with this waterlogged world of witches and sacrifices. The world is well put together and the sea itself felt like a character rather than just an inanimate body of water.
While we didn't learn much about who Eva really is (though we do learn her past and multiple chapters are told from her POV) she was still a riveting character. Her vibe of pantsuits and cigarettes and magical shoes that can walk on water is everything that I aspire to be. I'm really hoping that in the second book of this duology we'll get to flesh out her personality even more.
Lina is where this book really shone for me. She's headstrong and naive, but somehow that was done in a way that didn't make me want to pull my hair out. Usually I can't stand characters like her, but I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. Her growth throughout the book was truly enjoyable to follow, and I loved her voice.
While I did thoroughly enjoy the romance between Lina and Eva, I will say that defining it as a villainous love story is certainly a stretch. This is what The Dark Tide had been billed to me as, so I found it slightly disappointing when that wasn't the case. Their romance is definitely one of enemies to lovers but Eva never felt quite like a villain to me, rather she was just a girl in a bad situation doing her best.
Overall I highly recommend this book, and definitely will be picking up a physical copy. If you catch me rereading this again in the fall for the vibes.... mind your business.
The Dark Tide was truly a delightful read. This book swept me off my fight from the very beginning, and I found that once I started reading it I really couldn't put it down. This book is so deeply atmospheric it's hard not to fall in love with this waterlogged world of witches and sacrifices. The world is well put together and the sea itself felt like a character rather than just an inanimate body of water.
While we didn't learn much about who Eva really is (though we do learn her past and multiple chapters are told from her POV) she was still a riveting character. Her vibe of pantsuits and cigarettes and magical shoes that can walk on water is everything that I aspire to be. I'm really hoping that in the second book of this duology we'll get to flesh out her personality even more.
Lina is where this book really shone for me. She's headstrong and naive, but somehow that was done in a way that didn't make me want to pull my hair out. Usually I can't stand characters like her, but I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. Her growth throughout the book was truly enjoyable to follow, and I loved her voice.
While I did thoroughly enjoy the romance between Lina and Eva, I will say that defining it as a villainous love story is certainly a stretch. This is what The Dark Tide had been billed to me as, so I found it slightly disappointing when that wasn't the case. Their romance is definitely one of enemies to lovers but Eva never felt quite like a villain to me, rather she was just a girl in a bad situation doing her best.
Overall I highly recommend this book, and definitely will be picking up a physical copy. If you catch me rereading this again in the fall for the vibes.... mind your business.