randi_jo's Reviews (420)

Hey guys. This book was like riding a rollercoaster and it's nice and smooth at first so you get overconfident about how not fucked up you're going to get on that first drop - and then suddenly it hits, your ass leaves the seat, you're clawing at the harness, and swearing you will NEVER ride another coaster again. And when it's done you're like HOLY FUCK THAT WAS COOL.

So yeah. I liked it. There were moments where I was like "this could be more interesting" and in other places I thought the translation maybe seemed lacking although it's hard to tell, but once I finished I think I would've been less stunned after being punched in the face. 

I'd definitely recommend for people that like modern dystopian settings mixed with a bit of the unbelievable.

Ending spoilers ahead:

I loved how the end was open to interpretation. If you think the spirit possession was real you can attribute this idea into how spiritualism/ritualism is discriminated against by "polite" society and that the chilis here represent other means of trance inducement from other cultures, such as peyote.

And if you don't believe that the spirit possession was real it can be explained by the fact that Vera is a very intelligent woman and once she had the background information on Harri and his gambling, plus the information he told her in the bathroom, that she could've deduced the human trafficking scenario and hallucinated that she saved Mira's spirit and keeps it safe inside her mind, either to ease her own guilt or a way to keep Mira in her thoughts always etc.

In the end I do like how the message is that humans will always corrupt - no matter how strict, well meaning, and kind those in power are (even though the Authority here really is NOT), there will always be others that take advantage of the unseen places and gouge out 'seedy underbellies'.

This book was so nice. Short but never hurried; when I hit the last page I immediately wanted to leave work to go find a copy of book 2. I almost did, but responsibility won out... barely.

The prose was sweet, the setting idyllic, and the tone wistful. It makes for a great story that you want to listen to while cozy in a blanket with warm drinks. And while it is super comfy it deals with a lot of big themes such as the perception of self, how things can be more than the sum of their parts, religion, and purpose; all handled superbly. I think I had a bit of an existential crisis towards the end when the idea of having purpose in life is challenged. It was so well done that even now I'm am but a hollow shell existing simply because I can lol.

All in all, I loved it and would recommend it to anyone, not just lovers of sci-fi/fantasy genres.

Solid 2/5 stars. Had some pretty ugly issues, but there were a few pockets in here that I enjoyed.

To start with the good:

There's plot!! An actual plot! But joking aside, it finally didn't feel like someone going down the checklist for "progression" and instead almost organically went through its phases, along with a couple surprises (such as unpredicted battles - something that did not happen in other books where everything was predicted by the characters beforehand). The first 150 or so pages were probably the best in the entire book: espionage, revenge, making Ianthe look stupid, and the rickety relationship Feyre has with Lucien was great! It wasn't as great once Feyre returned to the Night Court, but also she actually has conversations with other characters? Has literal conversations with Cassian and Azriel!! Instead of just focusing on being horny with Rhysand? Amazing.

I did also like the idea that not everyone was "on their side" although

that was ruined by the end battle where literally everyone becomes their allies in a massive dues ex machina sweep

which took some fun out of rooting for the underdog.

I actually like Nesta and Cassian. I like how their relationship builds here. I like that Nesta sets boundaries and defends them, even if everyone treats her like shit for it, and honestly I hope she punches everyone in the goddamn face because IT WAS OKAY FOR FEYRE TO HAVE PTSD AND GET ANGRY AT THE WORLD but it's not okay for Nesta to suffer.

Nesta is a badass and I'm glad she has her own book now.

The not so good:

Everyone in this book was WAY too focused on lying to all their friends and family and then fighting when it's discovered that they've been withholding information and/or flat out lying. This is normally not an issue, and can actually make for good drama, but you can only do it SO MANY TIMES before it gets ridiculously tedious. This one went beyond tedious and into "are you fucking kidding me" territory. And most of the lies are wholly unnecessary or small things like 'Oh I didn't tell you I was inviting your ex to this meeting' and 'I didn't want you to worry while I ran away to risk my life gathering information' or 'how could you not have told me you were High Lady before we left for Hybern last book!'. And some of the reasonings for the deceptions? There are none. Feyre even goes as far as to think: "I wasn't entirely certain why I didn't mention it to the others." (page 478; 2020 hardback) when thinking about her bargain with Bryaxis. Like, okay... great. I think the only people who <i>don't</i> lie are Cassian and Azriel who straight up say what they're going to do and do it with or without permission. Thank God for honest men, I guess.

Continuity errors happen pretty often, too. Although this was also an issue in book 2 from book 1

tell me to my face that Rhys was <i>not</i> written as a white man in book 1 and then became a black man in book 2 for diversity favors (he is much better this way, but it's obvious this wasn't the original intention)

. A couple minor examples being: Feyre who suddenly is not suffering from angst and is a muuuuch more tolerable character, Rhysand is now a wet noodle and only tells Feyre yes ma'am, no ma'am, and only ONCE suggests licking her; he's boring af now, and Amren suddenly being upset about people going into the mountain prison and talking to the prisoners even though she encouraged Feyre to go in book 2. 

The book's ending was mediocre. Everything that happens after

Hybern being killed by Nesta

is obviously out to try and get some gasps for exactly 30 seconds until

Rhys is immediately resurrected along with Amren

. They all went through so much with zero consequence. At least one of them should've died; not everyone can come back from a war that... the narrator claims to have been almost lost... several times...

It's disconcertingly obvious where SJM gets her inspiration. GoT

implied incestuous twins, a seer sibling

, Howl's Moving Castle (google this one there's a whole video for it); The literal Bible

Amren prowls the city at night to seek out more agents of Hybern and the city protects themselves by <i>painting their doorways with lambs blood</i>, which hahahaha but also this implies that Amren is either God or an agent of God and whyyyyy would you allude to religion in a universe where there ISN'T really a religion beyond the Fae beginning 'myths'. Just bad taste all around.

. And also The Golden Compass

ARMORED WHITE BEARS? please be more obvious!

. 

And for the ugly:

The big one being Mor's confession.

Sure, being bi with a lesbian leaning is <i>great</i>, and even struggling with your sexuality because of your shitty family is <i>fine</i> but willingly and knowingly stringing along a man for CENTURIES because of your own insecurities, basically maliciously using your "friends" as a comfort shield is pretty despicable. I could get over that if this hadn't literally been happening for FIVE. HUNDRED. YEARS. like you cannot sort yourself out in that amount of time? But you've known Feyre for less than a year so you can admit it now and then.... keep doing it? Because Feyre said she understands?

YOUR SEXUALITY DOESN'T EXUSE YOUR SHITTY ACTIONS.

You thought I was done? But! But then to bully the shit out of Nesta just because Cassian was interested in her and not Mor!!! Her shield!! She doesn't even like men romantically!! But she needs them all to be super attentive towards her!! Why does anyone ever think this is okay?!? This is NOT how bisexuality needs to be represented in a massively heterosexual book.

There was also this line:

'Dagdan and Brannagh had listened to her fawning with enough boredom that I was starting to wonder if the two of them perhaps preferred no one's company but each other's. In whatever unholy capacity. Not a blink of interest toward the beauty who often made males and females stop to gape. Perhaps any sort of physical passion had long ago been drained away, alongside their souls.' (page 32) I'm sorry, what? Is she seriously implying that if a set of twins don't feel immediate sexual attraction to a random woman (Ianthe), who may or may not be to their tastes, that it means they're either in an incestuous relationship or HAVE NO SOULS. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Maybe they don't like her. Maybe they both only like men. Maybe they know she's an awful person.

MAYBE ASEXUAL PEOPLE EXIST?? CRAZY.

And finally WHERE ARE ALL THE MISSING QUESTION MARKS????? It actually affected how well I was able to read this because they were literal questions and not statements or like flat intonations. In some spots I misread who was actually speaking because I assumed it was a continuation statement and not dialogue alternation and then got confused when people actually answered the statement as if it were a question!!! There were so MANY. I wanted to meme it about halfway through the book but then there were so many more that I was legit upset by the end that I couldn't even find the humor in it anymore.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I <i>devoured</i> this book. Honestly Jennette's prose is easy to read, flows like water, and makes the time go by so fast that you don't even realize it's passing. And while it's very candid, I wouldn't go as far as to say there is humor in this book. There are a few morbidly humorous lines, but it's certainly not the overall tone. Rather, the book comes with an entire list of trigger warnings that include but are not limited to:

eating disorders, mental illness and the refusal to be treated, child abuse, sexual abuse, and alcohol abuse

, so it might not be for everyone, but I feel like it tells an important story about toxic parents and how their children suffer in various ways because of them, during and after their relationship with them.

Spoilers from here on:

I think what I was most impressed about was the 'before' section where Jennette wrote about her mother and all the abuses she suffered, but framed in the narrative where she sees her mom as an angel, that her mom can do no wrong, about how much she loves her mother and her mother loves her. There moments where she's uncomfortable, or anxious, or upset, but she always manages to write it off instead of pointing finger at what, we the audience, know is the manipulations of her very unwell mother.

And I love that the 'after' section wasn't just an immediate "yay, she's dead! Now I can live my life!", but rather years of struggle to find her identity, the truth, and the help she so desperately needed in order to choose the life that she wanted for herself. Recovery is a long, difficult process and I'm really glad that it's represented here as the trials and tribulations that it is. The ending was perfect, light, and optimistic, but not so much that it was cheesy. I loved it.

 Reread for the... fourth time? Not sure, but it's such a good play to revisit. Helena, Puck, and Bottom make this whole play, is2g. Almost wish it was longer because the setting is so great. 

FINALLY finished. Finally. :( The burning question for this book since I picked it up was: 'is it better than book one?' The answer is yes. But the bar was set SO LOW that I think it would be very difficult for it to not be better than book one. Overall I'd give this a 1.5 but rounding down because it wasn't a good book either. It had some good moments, but they certainly did not outweigh the bad.

I think I had 3 major issues with this book:

1) Fayre is a massive hypocritical asshole. Is she traumatized? Yes, and that's okay. People are allowed to hurt and to be angry. But all of Fayre's anger is misplaced and misguided and is never, ever addressed properly except for a half sentence in chapter FIFTY TWO when she thinks 'wow, leaving Rhys in the freezing mud while wounded (whilst protecting ME no less) and refusing to listen to him and going off on a hissy fit and running away to a cabin a literal day after I told him I'd never walk away from him, was a little bit of a dick move'. Also just the fact that she never really tells Rhys any of this, just solves it in her own head and the fact that Rhys just info dumps book 1 backstory is enough to mend ~everything~ and ~prove his love~ is underwhelming. Like at least give this girl consequences to her actions, PLEASE. Instead, we're beaten over the head with "I'm hurt and broken," in lieu of any kind of proper apology or growth.

2) The inclusion of Fayre's sisters. It was unnecessary. Like at this point they're only here because SJM is into recycling characters for all they're worth? Because there could literally be no other human liaison, assuming there even needed to be one? And then to have them

become FAE and ALSO HAVE A VERY RARE BOND THAT MOST FAE NEVER SEE IN THEIR WHOLE LIVES IMMEDIATELY WITH LUCIEN AND CASSIAN (you cannot tell me it's not obvious that Cassian and Nesta aren't fated mates) is stupid as fuck

. Like even having Lucien attached to Elain so that he won't do something/say something about Fayre at the end is a flimsy motivation at BEST. Nesta is at least interesting, so I can get why'd there'd be a book in her POV but also... meh. 

3) The setting. Why does it feel so different than book one? It's more modern than book one presented it to be. It has flushing toilets? Electricity? Team sports?? Modern mountain cabins with running water? Surprisingly this took me out of the story way more than the weak plot (which was more like an RPG side quest plus a couple fetch quests). The fact that most of these things are in filler text and offhand descriptions makes it feel like SJM was trying to hit a word count and not really thinking critically about what kind of setting she wanted to perpetuate. 

Oh and I guess 4) why did SJM have to do Tamlin dirty like that? I didn't particularly like him in book one, but she turned him into a raging, borderline incel, and for what? To give an excuse for Fayre to 'break up' with him? To highlight Rhys' white-knighting and make that seem attractive? They're in a constant juxtaposition of good/evil, kind/mean, open/closed; and even when Rhys is like STOP COMPARING ME TO HIM, Fayre is just like lol no I'm not and then CONTINUES TO DO SO LIKE, Tamlin is GROSS but Rhys is BEAUTIFUL. Please stop. Why does one have to be utterly evil in order for the other to be good? Why isn't Rhys allowed to be kinda evil? Why can't Tamlin STILL BE GOOD BUT JUST NOT RIGHT FOR FAYRE? Maybe Fayre just isn't good enough for HIM?

I did like Rhys' inner circle since they seem to have interesting dynamics, though Amren is probably the most interesting and I wish there was more about her

it'd be cool to see if she ever goes back to her 'true' form

. And all the coolest places they visit seem to be underground, but otherwise some of the action scenes were fun. I wish the magic system was explained better, especially since Fayre gets protagonist bias and is OP, it would be nice to better understand just HOW she differs from all the others beyond "you have ALL the magic types!!".

The most impactful part of this book was learning that there are organized team sports in the fae lands, despite 50 continuous years of genocide and war. I wonder how long a fae's contract is to play on a team... 🤔

 Despite that this took me over a month to read, it's a good book. I didn't really like Lyra much, but also I'm not exactly in the demographic for this, so it can't be helped. I never read this as a kid so I had FOMO.

I love the overall plot of the book. It's dark, it's twisted, and there are moments of reflection with Paradise Lost, which is such an interesting choice of inspiration for a children's/YA book, that I couldn't help myself but try and draw as many connections as I could between the two, though they're fairly scarce in book one, I'm told it becomes more interesting/obvious once you get into books 2 and 3. I might just read summaries of those, though. I don't know.

Besides Lyra being very much juvenile and a bit stupid (but not overly so, thank heavens), I did really enjoy the other characters, especially Farder Coram and Mrs. Coulter (who I loved to hate). Serafina was interesting but I think the witches in this are like the angels in Paradis Lost; disconnected from Earth and Earthly things, but with their own laws and concerns.

I definitely recommend for fans of dark fantasy, alternate Catholic fiction, and trilogies. 

 3.5 stars because I enjoyed myself far more than I was anticipating.

Probably the best Harry Potter fanfic I've ever read. The meta was great, and the satire really hit the most perfect things to make fun of. The trans rep was pretty good, not perfect, but also nothing deep nor offensive.

Would be a solid 4 star if it didn't have some minor spelling errors, but that's to be expected from a small self publishing. Only real issue was that

Harriet literally never had her wand or lost her wand during every emergency, since I guess her solving problems with magic would ruin half the plot lol

. Minor, but annoying.