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ravensandpages's Reviews (598)
I am going to be thinking about this one for a long while.
ARC received in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Quill Tree & Harper Collins!
You absolutely don’t want to miss this one. Wendy Xu comes back with another sweet and thoughtfully crafted graphic novel with an intricate storyline that will tug at your heartstrings. The Infinity Particle centers around Clem, who has recently moved to Mars for the dream opportunity of working with her idol, a pioneer in AI robotics. But when Clem meets Kye, Dr. Lin's AI assistant. His humanoid form and intelligence are cutting-edge, but his growing bond with Clem begins to cause glitches, and Dr. Lin becomes agitated the closer they get.
There are so many things I loved about this book, I wish I knew where to start. The amount of women in STEM made me so happy, and the owls? Owls in the library?? I had to put my phone down and scream into my pillow about it. Partially because of how much I loved them, and partially because they're not real yet! Why! I want library owls this instant!
That aside, I really enjoyed how the sweet romance weaved into conversations of consent, emotional abuse, and grief. The plot was far more intricate than I expected, which I found delightfully surprising. Clem and Kye both have my whole heart, and though I think the progression of their feelings felt abruptly resolved at the end, I didn't truly mind it. I just loved this book to bits, and it's one I highly recommend!
❧ 4.5 ★
You absolutely don’t want to miss this one. Wendy Xu comes back with another sweet and thoughtfully crafted graphic novel with an intricate storyline that will tug at your heartstrings. The Infinity Particle centers around Clem, who has recently moved to Mars for the dream opportunity of working with her idol, a pioneer in AI robotics. But when Clem meets Kye, Dr. Lin's AI assistant. His humanoid form and intelligence are cutting-edge, but his growing bond with Clem begins to cause glitches, and Dr. Lin becomes agitated the closer they get.
There are so many things I loved about this book, I wish I knew where to start. The amount of women in STEM made me so happy, and the owls? Owls in the library?? I had to put my phone down and scream into my pillow about it. Partially because of how much I loved them, and partially because they're not real yet! Why! I want library owls this instant!
That aside, I really enjoyed how the sweet romance weaved into conversations of consent, emotional abuse, and grief. The plot was far more intricate than I expected, which I found delightfully surprising. Clem and Kye both have my whole heart, and though I think the progression of their feelings felt abruptly resolved at the end, I didn't truly mind it. I just loved this book to bits, and it's one I highly recommend!
❧ 4.5 ★
ARC given by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Peachtree Teen!
A WARNING ABOUT SWANS is a fairytale in verse that follows Hilde, a swan girl, who runs from the death magic gifted to her by the All-Father to follow a new path alongside a human boy named Richter, who has promised her normalcy in court life in exchange for Hilde using her magic to pull riches from his dreams. As she becomes drawn to a court artist who seems to see her true self, Richter becomes all the more controlling, and Hilde has to find what she left behind in order to escape the cage closing around her.
One regret I have about being an ARC reader is that sometimes I come across a book that I know is creative and original and honors its comp titles, but I just know I'm destined to not enjoy it, which was, unfortunately, the case for me with this book. I liked it enough to not DNF, but I don't enjoy reading poetry or verse on ebooks because it's hard for me to tell where a line starts or ends without making the font too small for me to read it, so I often found myself wishing the book wasn't written in verse at all and might have even been better served that way. Furthermore, I found Hilde's head frustrating to be inside, and I don't usually care for fiction that draws in real people. There were a couple more reasons, but overall, this book was an amalgamation of my few unreasonable preferences when it comes to books. If Hilde had been a dancer, I would have been done for, so lucky for her that she wasn't.
However, I did find the plot very interesting and creative (although I think far too much of it was given away in the summary-- some plot points given happen 60-70% of the way through, which left me wishing I'd gone in blind instead of constantly waiting for those shoes to drop), and I think fans of The Last Unicorn will adore this book. I was truly gagged by the plot twist about Richter's family, and I liked what the book had to say about magic, control, and power. If you are a fan of historical fantasy, I would recommend you give this a chance!
A WARNING ABOUT SWANS is a fairytale in verse that follows Hilde, a swan girl, who runs from the death magic gifted to her by the All-Father to follow a new path alongside a human boy named Richter, who has promised her normalcy in court life in exchange for Hilde using her magic to pull riches from his dreams. As she becomes drawn to a court artist who seems to see her true self, Richter becomes all the more controlling, and Hilde has to find what she left behind in order to escape the cage closing around her.
One regret I have about being an ARC reader is that sometimes I come across a book that I know is creative and original and honors its comp titles, but I just know I'm destined to not enjoy it, which was, unfortunately, the case for me with this book. I liked it enough to not DNF, but I don't enjoy reading poetry or verse on ebooks because it's hard for me to tell where a line starts or ends without making the font too small for me to read it, so I often found myself wishing the book wasn't written in verse at all and might have even been better served that way. Furthermore, I found Hilde's head frustrating to be inside, and I don't usually care for fiction that draws in real people. There were a couple more reasons, but overall, this book was an amalgamation of my few unreasonable preferences when it comes to books. If Hilde had been a dancer, I would have been done for, so lucky for her that she wasn't.
However, I did find the plot very interesting and creative (although I think far too much of it was given away in the summary-- some plot points given happen 60-70% of the way through, which left me wishing I'd gone in blind instead of constantly waiting for those shoes to drop), and I think fans of The Last Unicorn will adore this book. I was truly gagged by the plot twist about Richter's family, and I liked what the book had to say about magic, control, and power. If you are a fan of historical fantasy, I would recommend you give this a chance!
[Oprah voice] he gets a POV! she gets a POV! you get a POV! and you get a POV! everyone gets a POV!!
As said to someone who unexpectedly betrayed me by fooling me into thinking I would not be alone in my misery /s, "definitely a book where you're like "there's 200 pages left how much more can happen. okay well fuck there's 150 pages left what more is about to happen. there are 100 PAGES LEFT PLEASE STOP"
This was an amazingly epic conclusion to the series, and wow, look, I finished a series! Crazy. At first I wanted to give it 4 stars like the first two books based on the first half feeling a bit like dragging its feet to me, but that was because the final night starts around page 200 and with 408 pages total in the ebook and I was dragging my feet thinking there was no way the final fight was going to be that long. (Boy was I wrong, but in the best, most devastating way possible). I absolutely underestimated all the moving pieces and got my heart wrecked along the way, so I can't in my right mind give it anything less than 5 stars.
I didn't always love the writing style-- at some points the explanations & reviews seemed repetitive, but that very well could be chalked up to the fact that I binge-read these and the information was already fresh. Nonetheless, the characters, the journey, and the plot have been amazing across all three books.
If you're a big fan of Inuyasha, I cannot recommend this series enough. Inuyasha has a special place in my heart as my first anime ever, and the Shadow of the Fox series had a lot of my favorite elements from it, including the feudal setting, demon-slaying, and a great case of diverse characters who all band together because of one girl's journey. (Say what you will about Kagome but she's always been my girl, and so is Yumeko!) The romance also DEMOLISHED me and now I'm even more excited to start the Iron Fey series!
This was an amazingly epic conclusion to the series, and wow, look, I finished a series! Crazy. At first I wanted to give it 4 stars like the first two books based on the first half feeling a bit like dragging its feet to me, but that was because the final night starts around page 200 and with 408 pages total in the ebook and I was dragging my feet thinking there was no way the final fight was going to be that long. (Boy was I wrong, but in the best, most devastating way possible). I absolutely underestimated all the moving pieces and got my heart wrecked along the way, so I can't in my right mind give it anything less than 5 stars.
I didn't always love the writing style-- at some points the explanations & reviews seemed repetitive, but that very well could be chalked up to the fact that I binge-read these and the information was already fresh. Nonetheless, the characters, the journey, and the plot have been amazing across all three books.
If you're a big fan of Inuyasha, I cannot recommend this series enough. Inuyasha has a special place in my heart as my first anime ever, and the Shadow of the Fox series had a lot of my favorite elements from it, including the feudal setting, demon-slaying, and a great case of diverse characters who all band together because of one girl's journey. (Say what you will about Kagome but she's always been my girl, and so is Yumeko!) The romance also DEMOLISHED me and now I'm even more excited to start the Iron Fey series!