rachelelizabeth's Reviews (1.21k)

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Before I start this review, I think it's really really important that there be some backstory on Full Fathom Five, and why I find it really hard to support them in good conscience. Exploiting people is never acceptable. Please read this, because context, my friends, is everything.

I would like to say that I am a HUGE fan of the OZ universe, so huge in fact that one time when we drove through Kansas I insisted that we stop at Dorothy's House (which apparently has its own website??) and buy shirts and go on tours. So, I started Dorothy Must Die and was a little cautious. OZ can be really over done, and it usually follows movie canon. These books were different and followed book canon which I was ecstatic about. The first was written so uniquely, and not structured like a typical trilogy. Most trilogies have a pretty short set up, it's established that they need to do four things or three or however many and each book is dedicated to finding one of those things before ending in a big crash bang broohaha. This series wasn't structured like that at all, which was offsetting at first, but I actually really like that it broke from the norm.

This book though was such a disappointment. First of all it's significantly shorter than the first, which is okay if it was packed with action and story which...it wasn't. Part of me yearned for the way the prequels were written with backstory and world building. This was just...bland. The revelation that Pete was gay was not exciting or shocking and I didn't have any sort of reaction to it, the way that I have in the past with other characters. This book was just completely underwhelming if that was a word. While the first book took a bit to get into, it was fire. This one...not so much.

I wonder if this lost it's luster because of the pressure put on Full Fathom Five authors and the little compensation that they receive. I loved the idea of this series but I'm pretty sure I won't pick up the next one. Maybe this is a sign that people shouldn't overextend their authors, especially if it's a book they love.

The Merciless So this book was highly recommended to me, and I'm not...sure why to be honest. This book was way too much for me. I've never been a horror fan, it's just never been a genre I'm interested in and I was told that this one would be more what I would be looking for. In fact it was described as Mean Girls meets horror and I was...oddly in? I love thinking about what I would do in certain situations and how they would pan out. This book just didn't do it for me.
 
The Merciless follows a girl named Sophia and her induction into a friend group that apparently? believes in Jesus? (I use the question marks because it was all very weird) all while hinting at the fact of exorcism and wrong people, wrong place, wrong time. Basically, the leader of the Mean Girls group kidnaps Brooklyn, takes her to a model home???? and they decide to give her an exorcism. Brooklyn was always nice to Sophia, so Sophia feels sympathy towards her and makes every attempt not to hurt her.
 
Except they do hurt her, quite a freaking bit. And there were many times that I got squeamish because it was just too much for me. I don't like senseless violence and this was pretty senseless. I was intrigued by the idea of twists and turns "How do they get out" kind of thing but it wasn't that. It turned into just...gross and not my type of book. Granted, I was always the kid in school that wanted to take care of everyone, and I have a tendency to this day to be overly sensitive about things but this was just too much.
 
I somehow finished this book. Usually once I hit the 70 page rule/mark I try to finish it, even if I'm not enjoying it. I don't know if this is a book you should enjoy though. Brooklyn flies off the handle in the end and actually ends up being "part of the evil" and says that Sophia is one of their own? I feel like it would have been way more spooky if Brooklyn was on the run or whatever but instead now we throw in some weird "one of us" thing.
 
This book just didn't do it for me. I actually felt like throwing up at the end and was so glad to just be done. It's also gone in my rehoming pile. Ugh. Why do I buy books again???

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I really don’t even know where to start with this book. It’s wonderful, different, but absolutely wonderful. Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective through the generations of these two half-sisters. Effia marries a white slaver, and her half-sister Esi is sold into slavery. Effia gets Chapter One, and Esi gets Chapter Two. The subsequent chapters follow the next generation in that order. For example, Effia’s child gets Chapter Three, and Esi’s child gets Chapter Four, and so on and so forth. Don’t worry, there’s a family tree in the beginning of the book.

I couldn’t put this book down. It’s a quick read, but that doesn’t necessarily make it an easy read. I think it should be hard to read books like this, that deal with heavy topics such as this, but I also couldn’t stop reading it. Many people have commented on the fact that they didn’t like the chaptered style of reading, I, however, loved it. I loved the glimpse we got into each characters life and how in the subsequent or even previous generations we’d see more of their lives.

I felt like Gyasi knew the power of a story, and how an intentional glimpse into a life tells so much, and how much you can see in that experience. You can ee how far generations effect the future generations, like something your great-great grandmother is something your family still does or an attitude that’s still prevalent on that side. It’s a wonderful, moving novel.