randi_jo's Reviews (420)

The entertainment value on this one is top notch. MC picked a lane and stayed in it, and honestly I really appreciate some character consistency right about now.

It takes a chapter or two, to really get a hang of the universe, but once you do it's very consistent and easy to grasp. The ending is an unfair hook, not really a cliffhanger, but enough to make you invested in book 2 without actually picking up book 2. Pretty great job.👌

 I was a bit leery going into this one because I think I picked up a lot of misinformation/assumptions about this book and series that I quickly learned are not true. Having read part of Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, I thought this would have the same type of tone and be more overt in some political themes, like gender identity etc. Nor was it modern YA-ish or a Harry Potter alternate.

In the end I absolutely adored this book and it's themes of light and dark, good and evil, and the balance between them both. The MC's growth from page one to the very last is amazing, and the setting feels just as fantastic as the magic within. I'm still not a massive fan of Le Guin's overall prose, but I found this one much more engaging than her science fiction novels. This one is definitely a series I will continue. 😊 

Finished this one first thing in the morning and now I'm left here feeling pretty neutral about it. 

The basics: the book's plot is set up with past and present timelines that run concurrently, each one slowly throwing out crumbs for world building. Each timeline has a pretty compelling plotline with (mostly) the same characters, so they grow on you.

Pros: 
       - The setting. The world in here is interesting, the races, politics, grand schemes all seem to interlock and have purpose (even if we still don't know all of it at this point).
       - The characters. The main cast is great! Each one seems to have their own abilities, attitudes, and values, and even if this book crashed and burned in absolutely every other aspect, I'd still pick up book two just to learn more about

Kai and Bashasa's relationship

and the others.

Cons:
       - The exposition was lacking. Even having a huge list of all characters and their traits at the front of the book did not make piecing together the world building easy. (Probably a red flag for those that dislike convoluted fantasy worlds.) And after almost 500 pages I think I still have too many questions about certain, important and prevalent, races and politics.
       - The lost character building potential. I have so many questions about, well, just about every character because while they're fleshed out personality-wise, they're all seem to have their own personal quest plot-holes or obscured/unanswered background that's not even mysterious, it's just never mentioned but context makes it obvious that something did/should've happened. Some examples:

How do Zeide and Tahren have biological children? I'm curious. What happened to Dahin to make him go from enthusiastic scholar to paranoid Immortal Blessed hater? What happened between Kai and Bashasa to make Kai so loyal even 60 years later? What the hell was up with the entire Arn-Nefa mini plot???

       - The future plotline

basically ending with Kai telling Ramad "I knew all along lol" and the mystery behind 'where is Tahren and why' is just.... thrown away like hot garbage. It made all the buildup before seem pointless. Also I think that the switching timelines was too choppy and made any excitement for other parts wane as you're stuck reading 50 pages of plotting and chatter or something when it had just left off on a tense cliffhanger.

This is also a small complaint of mine, but I read an author interview with Martha Wells about this book in Book Page and they talked a lot about the themes of decolonization, which got me hyped for this book, but it's really not in here. There's a small bit towards the end, i.e. "finding things to unburn", but I can't call it a central theme or even a large one. So, that was disappointing.

In all, I think it would've been a stronger read as two separate books that follow a linear timeline. There's obviously enough material and plot to do so and the characters would actually have the space to shine and develop. Also I would read a novel that was just Kai and Bashasa.

Not a fan. Went into it blind as I've never read any of Miller's other works, but I am semi-familiar with the Odyssey and the Telegony literatures so I thought this would be a cool telling of Circe's hedonistic and free willing motivations, maybe even a kind of villain origin story. But no.

I could probably just do a wall of text just dumping all my grievances but for the sake of legibility I'll just make a bullet point list:

 

✱ Circe is one of the most unlikeable character's I've ever read. She has no depth, no passions, no actual motivations outside of the ones clearly stated in the original literatures (i.e. being in love with Glaucus; changing Scylla out of jealousy; is into witchcraft for plot reasons; etc). Miller's Circe is boiled down to nothing but a victim. A victim of men, of women, of family, of Gods and mortals, of her own victimhood. Everything happens to her, but not until the last, idk, 10 pages does she actively do anything, which happens and ends as quickly as it began.

 

✱ The plot is lackluster at best. Circe herself doesn't have a story that Miller can follow line for line and give artistic license, but rather a few cameos in the stories of others and so those cameos become reference points in the timeline. Sadly this means the book seems like it's just skipping from point to point with nothing but some limpid storytelling about other myths in-between (the Minotaur and Ariadne, Helen of Troy, Icarus, etc). Only the post-Odyssey plotlines have more ingenuity to them, if only because there really isn't much that survives from the Telegony, which is what most of the events seem to be based on (Telegonus' existence, his prophecy, Circe marrying Telemachus). And what does happen during this arc is... boring and packed with a lot of 'and this is what happened while you were sitting on this island'. Ick.

 

✱ The fact that Circe ends her "forever" exile by telling Helios, in more words but with less meaning, "I'm going to tell on you." If it had been that simple all along, then why even bother with the long episodes of self-pity and loneliness? (Oh that's right, she had to be on Aiaia at least until Odysseus showed up, because plot.)

 

✱ The... bastardization of Odysseus. He was written to be some kind of sadistic warmonger who succumbs to PTSD(?) and some kind of schizophrenic induced paranoia to align with the idea that Heroes and anyone favored by the Gods are as morally corrupt as the Gods themselves, who Circe particularly detests because. . . victimhood again. And that only in death do these mortals realize their mistakes, whereas Gods don't die so they live forever in idiocy; idk. OH, BUT NOT CIRCE. She's not like other girls.✨ But she still fucks Odysseus because he's ~manipulative~ and charming and she was lonely. :( Oh, and because the forced plotline.

 

✱Finally, there was little to nothing of feminism in this book. It had terrible men, sure, but it had equally terrible women - if not worse. There was no challenge to the status quo, there was no epiphany, no changes, not even some cosmic, karmic event that showed how complex, toxic, and deeply entrenched misogyny was and is. Sure, there's a couple pretty lines, but they lead to nothing. An offhand statement to look pretty in the flowery prose.

 

I don't think I'll be reading any more of Miller's books, past or future.

 Probably not as strong as book one was, but gotta say I massively appreciate the idea of a romance sequel that doesn't involve breakups, love triangles, or ✨miscommunication ✨ as plot devices lol. The themes of community togetherness and inclusivity were great and definitely filled my cup. Fun read once again.

Book 3, when. 

 Great book! The author's journalistic style was smooth and engaging, as well as represented both the informational side and emotional side of the story with equal gusto and finesse. Still has great information and insight for being 6 years old (at the time of my reading), and the ending made me ugly cry. 5/5 

 Honestly blown away by this memoir. There's so much to unpack, but it really is such a good representation of what it was like to grow up in the 90s & 2000s, especially as a girl and how society treated - and in some ways continues to treat - them, from any social class. I think I loved this memoir so much because I resonated a lot with Paris, her views, and her ethics. Definitely a worthwhile read.

ADHD really is a superpower. ✨ 

 Basically a short story. Not the best Chuck Tingle I've ever read since it lacks the absurdist plotlines, but it was fun. 

 I think I would've liked this book more if it hadn't been written by Chua. She only came off as very unfunny and lacking self-awareness, while making grandiose blanket statements about parenting and ignoring all the benefits her and her husband's money, prestige, and power had brought their children even as they continuously reaped said benefits (as well as the benefits she reaped from her own parents, but alas) and instead attributed their success only to her (grey-scale abusive) parenting style. The topic itself I believe is too nuanced for Chua's black/white dichotomic views. 

 I've never read a TJ Klune book before now, so I didn't go in with any expectations other than "a lot of people like House on the Cerulean Sea". And really, that is probably a benefit for me.

It reads pretty much like your typical male/male romance with some pretty typical werewolf tropes. It did do some subversive work on a couple tropes that made it fun at points, but it really isn't much different than most werewolf fiction, which is pretty tried and true at this point in time.

I think in the end I'm going with 3 stars since the prose is pretty simple and has its fill of drama, it's an easy read, but nothing I really considered special.

The new cover is pretty and a good representation of the book, too.