reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

The opening of this was the strongest part from me, and unfortunately it was all down hill from there. 

I was extremely close to tears finding out that Gansey knew all along he was going to die. BUT then it was never even mentioned again?? Blue had been agonising the whole series about whether she should tell him, and we never even get a conversation between them where she finds out that he knows? Instead, we’re just left to assume she knows that he knows, and all the emotional weight of that really strong opening was completely lost. 

And ‘completely lost’ is a good description for the rest of the book, as well as ‘what was the fucking point of anyone of it?’. NOTHING from the past three books, or even most of this one, seemed to have any relevance to the ending. All of the Glendower stuff = pointless. The group of friends even being together = pointless (because without each of their nonsense's combining, there wouldn't have been an issue in the first place). Blue’s family involvement = pointless. Orphan kid = pointless. Greenmantle being involved again = pointless. Henry = pointless (and maybe purely a diversity hire if Stiefvater was getting flack for the lack of diversity). Angst over Gansy dying = pointless. Declan = pointless. The whole fucking book = pointless. 

The ending was also so horrifically muddled, with so many threads that never properly came together or explained/resolved. Pfff. 

Well. Fuck. Me. 
 
For the last 166 pages my eyes were literally glued to the page and I read them all in one 3ish hour sitting. Completely unheard of for me.
 
One of the things that astounded me the most was the authenticity of every single character. They were incredibly well rounded, and the dialogue was so natural. I could completely see them as real people walking about in the world.
 
So fucking relatable, intriguing, magical, mysterious, devastating. A bloody wonder. 

This book has me so confused over how much I liked (maybe even loved) it, even though it has SO many glaring issues. 

What got me through was the amount of originality and subversions to keep me entertained, a writing style I really got on with, and a plot I was really invested in. I know I’ll definitely continue on with the series. 

At points I got annoyed by how naïve Mare is, but then I realised that the book never portrays her in any other way, and everything that came out of her naiveté and her delusions over her own power and success made perfect sense. 

However, there were still a lot of things I couldn’t get over: 

1. The world building left quite a lot to be desired. Reading the first chapter, every time a modern/tech thing was introduced I was shooketh. It wasn’t the vibe I was expecting, but it also rang a little false with the other descriptions. If Aveyard had whacked an obvious bit of tech on the very first page (where there was definitely space for it), it would all have felt a lot more natural.
The antiquated clothing also really didn't help. They’re all swanning around in rags, gowns or tunics, which is completely at odds with the modern tech vibes. Where are the jeans, trainers, any kind of modern clothing?? 

2. The plot points in the first half were all pretty obvious, but they definitely got more interesting as the book went on. 

3. The (apparently mandatory) romantic interest from the run-down hometown… Why is these kind of books is he always such a possessive, insecure bastard?? They always immediately go to 'how dare you decide to leave your real life/town/me' instead of taking two seconds to think about how bad it is for the gal and her reasons for making the choice (if she even had a choice). 

4. And then Mare is even WORSE at this. Her relationships (both romantic and otherwise) with EVERY SINGLE character are bizarre. A character will do one thing she doesn’t like and it’s a massive assault on her honour. She just decides about someone's whole ethos or worth on the flip of a coin, and never even thinks their own life and motivations apart from the ones she assumes of them. SPOILERS E.g. Cal being the 'enemy' for not (to her knowledge) wanting to join the guard, even though at the same fucking time she thought the guard were terrible and didn’t want to join them under a month before. Madness. And then at the end it doesn’t even cross her mind that Maven might be being controlled by his mother, even though THAT’S WHAT SHE FUCKING DOES. I’m sure that’s going to prove true in later books. 

5. Oh, and of course the only 3 boys she knows are all in love with her - why exactly? I couldn’t tell ya. 

6. Then coming to the Guard.

How the FUCK had their leader, who has done SO MUCH SHIT, never heard of a fucking COUP before??? Or never even had the thought to enact a coup without knowing its name??? And why in such a massive organisation has Kilorn managed to seemingly be her right-hand man out of fucking nowhere? He hasn't exactly done much to prove himself.

7.

But then, once Mare has brought this ‘wisdom’ to them at midday, the very next morning, not even 24 HOURS later, they enact the coup?? As if they could move and plan that fucking fast.

8.

Then coming to the final standoff, surely, SURELY, Arven could have been outside the arena/protected by the electric shield? And why didn’t they immediately plan to kill him to get her powers back??? Cal could’ve shot fire at him immediately and done him in. But no, it had to be Mare that shared this majestic 'wisdom’.

But even after all this ranting, I still had a really great time reading. What an interesting turn of events. Aveyard seems to have her hooks in me, and I don't mind one bit. 

I just didn’t get this… 

Everything was really confusing to me, and I couldn’t get a grasp on what Yeo-sun was trying to imply. I feel like I learned more about knee cancer that the plot of this book. 

It also definitely didn’t help that a man narrated one of the women’s PoVs, so every time it was her section I got confused over who was speaking. 

Oof, the intergenerational trauma depictions in this novel are so powerful and nuanced. Took my breath away at points. The way Bennett ebbs and flows between the different generations is masterful. 

I read this for the first time a few years ago, before realising I was trans. On re-read, I absolutely LOVE the trans rep in here. The best part of it was that there wasn’t any ‘bonus’ trans trauma. Bennett showed the traumatic reality of trans guy's day-to-day lives really clearly, but without the need for violence/hate crime etc. at every corner. That was really nice to read. 

At that point really stands for the novel in its entirety. The characters do experience trauma, but a lot of it is off page, or told in a removed flashback, so the reader can fully understand the events, but not be overwhelmed by them. It’s then clear that the climactic events we do see on-page are included very intentionally, rather than purely for shock factor or drama. 

What showcases Bennett’s skill, is that as a reader I still felt the full weight of each event, even if I didn’t experience it on-page/’first hand’. She includes really important discussions on these topics, and it’s clearly all done with a solid purpose. 

Such a powerful book. 

OOowwee, this one is GOOD. I finally understand why so many people say the City Watch books are their favourite. This might be the best yet (though I feel like I say that about pretty much every single one…). 

It has a full-on murder mystery plot, as well as the range to have me almost crying with tears in so many places (including the pure GOLDEN majesty of the Watch oath taking and the Fool’s Guild stuff) but also shedding fully sorrowful tears at the end. And what an insanely gripping ending!

It also did a MUCH better job with its race/ethnicity conversations than Witches Abroad did, which was great to see. 

What an absolute banger. 

What is it about TJ Klune audiobooks?!? The narrators are ALWAYS insufferable. 

I picked this up and couldn’t even make it one minute in. Physical read it is, I guess. 

Well, first of all, what an ICONIC narrator. I’ve barely seen any of her work outside Doctor Who, but I love her, and she did a fantastic job narrating this. 

The book itself I’m a little torn on. I was happy not understanding what was going on throughout – what did the seed actually do? Where did it come from? Did it cause her powers? Or were the two completely separate? But this ambiguity meant that the ending was completely nonsensical to me. It was clearly meant to be impactful, but because I didn’t understand any of the true origins of the plot lines, the meaning was all lost to me.  

I also couldn’t see ANY significance of the ‘remote control’ phrase, because nothing Sankofa did was anything like a ‘remote control’. Nor could she control things apart from when she touched them, which is the literal opposite of a remote control. 

Having said this, I thought the story was really well written, and had great atmosphere and presence for such a short work. If those key plot points had been a little clearer, or the ending more accessible, it would have been a clear 5-star read. 

John is clearly an utter twat, and I don't want to waste any more of my time on him than I already have. 

Oof, this one is a goodun! 

In a book like this, where the characters are in a state of pretty much constant terror, I’d anticipate moments where the author can’t keep hold of the tension and it falls flat, or moments that get way too intense and go the other way, becoming almost comical. But this novel is a fantastic example of how to do it right – I felt a creeping terror throughout the book, interspersed with sorrow, existentialism, love, and hate at the perfect moments. Such a great balance. 

And HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH a good, dare I say great, ending!! If this had ended poorly, I would have been so upset, so I’m immensely grateful that this one has a really great ending by anyone’s standards, let alone King’s. 

The following are three things that stood out to me like a sore thumb whilst reading, but didn’t detract anywhere near enough to give this less than a 5-star rating: 

- Why the FUCK did King use ‘minge’ for midges??? Even if they don’t use the word in the US like we do in the UK, surely someone would have clocked it before publishing? Completely dragged me out of the story every time it happened, but thankfully it was only used towards the beginning. 

- It was a bit weird how insistent Tim was that Wendy had ‘never been cut out’ for on the ground police work, yet every time we see her doing on the ground police work, she has no issues? What was that about? 

- It’s blindingly obvious to most people alive today that Luke could easily have made a copy of the flash drive. It was truly maddening that Stackhouse, let alone anyone else in the book, mentioned that possibility just once. I’ve noticed this happen in books before, and I think authors just pretend that copying doesn’t exist?  

But as I said, overall, a fab book. My faith has been restored after a disastrous Fairytale read.