randi_jo's Reviews (420)

 A rollercoaster book that alternates between intensity and info-dumping, but still somehow the prose gives literally everything a sensuousness that borders frightening. I could do without the pieces of making out with his mom, but like, whatever.

I think I liked book one better, although this book had substantially more plot, but book one focused more on the ideas of the use of religion, ethics, and morality all while operating on a cloud of unanswerable questions. This one the philosophies entered more into western/eastern good/evil dichotomies, which isn't as fun when someone/thing must be vilified and all the questions seem to be answered and leave nothing fun to sit on and think about.

The one quote that sits with me still though, is great:
Old truths and ancient magic, revolution and invention, all conspire to distract us from the passion that in one way or another defeats us all.
And weary of this complexity, we dream of that long-ago time when we sat upon our mother's knee and each kiss was the perfect consummation of desire. What can we do but reach for the embrace that must now contain both heaven and hell: our doom again and again and again. 

 I really enjoyed listening to this. It's a great story of the mother-daughter relationship in the African diaspora, but I feel like it applies to many people and cultures as well, especially when it comes to how women will band together in times of need for the sake of family. And motherhood is another thing that crosses generational gaps.

There was a quote I'll have to paraphrase that I really liked in the context of single mothers or mothers abandoned by their partners: "Men destroy while women are blamed for the ruins."

The audio performer did a fabulous job on this one, too! 

 Very cute slice of life manga. The world is really idyllic and Hakumei and Mikochi are super cute. Had fun reading it and will probs grab more volumes soon! 

 This book has one of the best protagonists I've ever read the thoughts of. The layers of "crazy old lady" going on in here to make you so unsure if she is or is not actually "crazy" is intense and interesting, and at times hilarious.

Plot is slow but they mystery is so covert and misleading that I didn't have an inkling on who the culprit was until the last minute and the ending was so chaotically good and subversive to genre stereotypes. I loved it.

And just for the audiobook. Beata as a narrator is DIVINE. Highly suggest listening to it as it adds a great element of immersion to it. 

Giving this one a 3 stars mostly because it had really good pros and really bad cons, so it sort've evened itself out.

Pros:
- the action scenes are engrossing, and I mean cannot tear eyes away from the page kind of engrossing. Loved it, SO much.
- the plot is *chef's kiss* fabulous. I'm always happy to see more and more non-western retellings of tales and myths, and this one is particularly creative and pretty.
- understandable magic system with clear limitations. MC isn't too OP (although it pushes that towards the end) and fails sometimes.

Cons:
- the romance 'triangle' is too much, too in your face, too constant. The two male leads are always doing the gorilla puff chest whenever they see one another, which is like ALL THE TIME because, idk drama, ig. Too many boundaries about a relationship are set and then almost immediately broken; the flip flopping between "I love him" and "we can only be friends" is cringe and frustrating. Once is meh, but every other chapter is infuriating.
- MC feels too juvenile to even be THINKING about men when she can't even go 30 seconds without having a screaming fit because someone in a position of power told her 'no'. I'm pretty sure she's like 18 or 19 by the end of the book. Actually, I am unsure why this is not marketed as YA. I'm pretty sure this is YA. 

 Cute, fast paced erotic fantasy adventure. You'll need the ability to suspend disbelief - a lot (

things like cocaine and being a cokehead exist in this world with modern connotations

). Lol, otherwise a fun read. 

 This book was... something. Between the emotionally heated ranting in the first half of the book, the dreamy recollections of swamp life in the middle, and the absolute lack of emotion in the end... there's also long tirades of random facts that are wetlands-adjacent... like the enormous section about Bog People... information on the anthropology of ancient Romans... bits on feminism -- ok, it's just all over the place.

I think, in all, there might've been more information about the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, the how's, the why's, the motivations, than there is about wetland destruction (summed up: people hate malaria and being unable to control nature so they drain it and farm it. Sometimes make snide remarks about colonial era excess hunting. Repeat this for the rest of the book).

This is my first time reading anything by Annie Proulx and I feel like this is possibly the worst introduction to her writing, ever. I'm going to read her older fiction, but if she has/writes more nonfiction, I'm going to steer well clear of it lol. The inability to just... stay on TOPIC - it killed me. 

 This one was a fast paced, but good read. The main characters, Red especially, imo, have a fleshed out personalities. The setting is intriguing and the glimpses that you get of it are fascinating. Plus the ending ties everything up nicely, pushing the theme that people perpetuate their own futures no matter what we do to change them - a "it was always meant to be" vibe that can have you question if there is true agency or not.

Only complaints are that it's pretty repetitive with the back and forth letters, the lack of setting information and just general motivations behind the worlds' forces (because it seems like it'd be SO COOL), and that in place the prose can get really purple to the point of annoyance. Easily overlooked stuff considering the book's length. 

 This is something you'd want to pick up if you like guro but put into words. There are some very deep, frighteningly real one liners in this about identity, trauma, and crisis... I feel like I might've read it too fast, but I'll probably revisit this. 

 I have lots of anger - too much to write a comprehensible review so I'll just bullet list things.

I'll start with the positives:
-it had art therapy and therapy for children. good.
-it was short

Whew. Now for some rage-inducing moments:
-Feyre is literally

suffering from PTSD and is then guilted into the idea of having children by a woman who was married for 300 years (important) but regretted not having a child with her deceased husband. Feyre then has anxiety thoughts about her trauma, Rhys' death, happening... again... and comes to the conclusion that they must have a baby despite stating in other books that she wants to experience life and marriage and happiness before bringing a child into the world (very admirable). And yet after a like, 7 month relationship she changes her mind because WHAT IF anxieties.

Fuck that noise.
- Feyre is an absolute menace to everyone around her. The only exception being Rhysand because he's ~perfect~. She not only can't mind her own fucking business about Nesta, whom she couldn't even bother to buy an actual gift for on the holiday even though she spends like 50% of the book trying to bully Nesta into being a big, happy family~ (giving her rent money does not fucking count), but also has to try and convince Elain that she should give Lucien 'a chance' because he's 'a good male'. AND THEN to tell Lucien that he shouldn't have friends, a.k.a The Exiles, because he should live with them, where he's not particularly wanted by anyone, least of all Elain, because isn't she his friend??? AND THEN TO GET MAD AT HIM FOR REJECTING HER OFFER BECAUSE DOESN'T HE OWE HER? But then in the same breath think that she will never apologize for all the wrong she has done to him. Fuck her. Feyre is basically just a femcel but with collecting people under the same roof.
-Feyre's constant narrative of "this is so expensive. I am so rich now but I hate spending money. I could spend so much money but I won't because ~I have morals~". Go drown.
-Mor still exists.
-"Gentlemales."