ofclumsywords's Reviews (486)

One of the most unique origins stories I’ve read. I loved every moment of this book, especially the fact that Ayleth doesn’t show many tell tale signs of the evil queen that she becomes until later. It isn’t until the last 30 pages that you see the beginnings of the evil queen that we are all familiar with. Even though Ayleth ultimately becomes a villain I was rooting for her. Those last 30 pages were powerful as Ayleth learns that she is enough and that she is strong and capable no matter what the others say about her. 

With the way the book ended, I have no idea what to expect for the second book. But I am so excited to see how the story concludes. Heather Walters writing, characters, and world building were amazing and I am going to be reading a lot more of her work as soon as possible. 

This short story is included in a list of books for a class I’m taking. It is a fantasy short story that explores a Chinese-American boy and his relationship with his mother. When he is very young, the boy doesn’t think much of his upbringing and his mother who can only speak Chinese and cook Chinese meals. It isn’t until a friend comes over that he realizes that his household is much different from traditional American households and begins to reject his mother and his Chinese heritage. The story continues to become sadder as the boy continues to reject his mother and is never able to rekindle their relationship before she dies. It isn’t until he finds a handwritten note she wrote to him that is folded into one of the origami animals she used to bring to life for him that the boy finally understands who his mother is and what her life is like before she was brought to America to marry his father. 

Although this is a sad story, the idea that a mother has the ability to literally bring her origami creations to life for her son to have toys is really cool. The author made each animal have a personality and acted like the animal for which it was made into. He even made it realistic by including a paper shark who fell apart when put into water so the mother remade one out of tinfoil so it could actually swim. The imagination that was put into an otherwise very real life scenario made this story less sad, but still heartbreaking to see a boy who just wanted to fit in with the other American kids allow himself to push his mother away instead. 

This book picks up during the events of Return of the Jedi where Boba Fett falls into the Sarlacc pit. We find out his fate pretty quickly and how he survives while also going back in time to find out what led Fett to those events and into the employ of Jabba the Hut. 

For how action packed and fast the plot was, all this book was is set up for the rest of the series. Most of the “why” is still a mystery, but that doesn’t mean that this book wasn’t excellent. I loved every moment of it even if it did have a few flaws. 

My only two complaints were that the author used the word “barve” way too many times. Every character was referred to as a barve at least once and I wished that there had been other ways of describing a character. Otherwise, the only other thing to mention is that the chapters were way too long. This is an almost 400 page book with only 21 chapters and when you get to the middle of the book, some of the chapters are 50 pages long and go into quite a bit of detail about what the characters are doing or where they are. I personally prefer smaller chapters so maybe this critique may come as nitpicking to some, but personally some of the chapters could cut some of the descriptions or be cut up into multiple chapters. 

I tried to give this a shot, but the moment the owner of the manor was talking like an influencer and was “manifesting positivity” I was done. It sounded like a cool idea with a manor next to a sinister wood with a lot of lore and deaths connected to it. But I just couldn’t stick it out. 

This is the second time I’ve read this book and it is just as good as I remembered. Even the movie adaptation is incredible, and I can only honestly say that about no more than 5 book-to-movie adaptations. 

This is a great book about survival and what someone would do to stay alive even when there is no hope. After all, Mark was literally left behind on Mars when everyone thought he was dead. 

At the end of the book, Mark reflects on all the people who stepped up to rescue him and says: “…they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.” He then goes on to use the examples of when a hiker is lost in the woods, a train crashes, or an earthquake devastates a town that strangers will come together to search or donate blood or supplies to those in need. I had forgotten about that at the end of the book, but I am so glad it is there as I think we all need that reminder every once in a while of how humanity will come together and help each other in a crisis.