A sweet (often bittersweet) story about empathy, grief, and finding/creating joy in the simple act of being present. Also, Wallace's story is a bit like if Scrooge stumbled into a meet-cute gay rom-com

My heart is singing, this book filled me with so much JOY!!! It is the Drarry revision of Half-Blood Prince that so many fans would have wanted, and it's The Marauders fanfiction I've always craved! Everything about this book feels nostalgic and familiar, while also improving on all the problematic elements of Harry Potter. Of course there's a queer romance front and center! Of course the headmaster who makes sacrifices "for the greater good" is not the hero he believes himself to be. Of course the girlfriend isn't a trophy awarded in the epilogue to The Chosen One after he's saved the day, but rather a full person with her own feelings and motivations who doesn't want to put her life on hold, or worse, be fridged! Of course there's a legacy child who grew up with magic and is BORED TO TEARS at how wasteful and selfish it is, so she actively chooses a magic-free life! Of course one of the main characters is an English-Indian descendant who deals with the microaggression of "your name should match your skin color". Of course the modern school doesn't rely on slavery, but rather encourages the students to learn some life skills while away at boarding school by having them pitch on for meals, laundry and cleaning! Of course the language of spells isn't Eurocentric and archaic Latin, but rather songs and rhymes and idioms, words we give power and meaning by how much we repeat them and pour feeling into them, and it evolves as we do. Of course it's an ensemble cast and THEREFORE is written with multiple PoV!!!

This book DEFINITELY reads as Harry Potter fanfiction (really really good Harry Potter fanfiction!), but it stands on its own merit, too. Starting in media res, the book assumes you've read some fantasy before, and you don't need your hand held through all the naive, wide-eyed, introductions to the magical world. There are enough details given that the reader can figure out the world for themselves, and still feel its depth. But it starts with a hero who has already been on half a dozen adventures, who is sure of their place in the magical world, and then has to challenge what they've learned as truth. In short, the book remembers what Fantastic Beasts forgot: That the magic of the magical world is not in the spectacle and whackadoodle theatrics of magic, but in the heart of the characters and who they grow to be because of each other.

BRAVO, RAINBOW ROWELL!!!!! I am so hyped to read the rest of the Simon Snow books!

You know how some people complain that Tolkin waxes poetic about trees waaaay too often? Or GRR Martin is obsessed with feasts? THIS BOOK is OBSESSED with DRESSES!!! Almost the entire book is descriptions of fabrics, wraps, accessories... Yes there is a language of symbols going on here, but it's WAY TOO MANY lists of outfits, or scenes of someone buying an outfit, commissioning an outfit, changing their outfit.... And the simple act of day-to-day getting fitted read more like a teenager's diary than a BOOK! Who wants that?!

With what remains after you yada yada over clothing descriptions... the book felt oddly stilted. Every character's dialogue is just an info dump, every conversation expositional. They explain the world they live in, instead of having genuine conversations. And the descriptions were full of so many proper nouns in another language (I THINK a made up language?), with no context clues as to what those words MEANT, that whole passages were just unintelligible.

But, beyond excessive makeovers, or info shoe-horned into unnatural dialogue, THE CARDINAL SIN is that this book BORED me. It bored me to tears! I fell asleep multiple times! For all the fun that should have been had with heart-sharing and necromancy, this book was just a run of the mill origina story. Here's a girl who thought she was average, but turns out she harbors a magical taboo, and has to go to secret magic school! There's the Mean Girl who makes magic school unfun. There's the stuffy old mentor who's a hard@$$ but will mold our hero well. There's the love triangle, the royalty she falls for first and the brooding bodyguard who will be her actual love. There's the dying maternal figure. There's the enemy she defeats, captures, and will inevitably go to for a fresh perspective. Snooooore. I have seen ALL of these tropes so many times before. But THIS book seemed to be on a quest to use every stinkin' trope! Trope Bingo!

If you need a sleep aid, read this book. Otherwise, skip.

A paint-by-numbers YA fantasy without banter, sizzle,

A stunning debut! The fantasy elements alone are both beautiful and sinister, and gain a big 5 stars for /not/ being inspired by Western Europe! Yey diverse representation!
But more than that, this book opens a powerful discussion about Otherness (racial, gender, religious...), the monsters hate can make us see, and the powerful ripple effect a willingness to learn and befriend can have. The book focuses heavily on how, in particular, girls are systemically subjugated, taught to deny what is strong and beautiful and natural about themselves. But girls have a power and a magic greater than any when they are free to live truthfully and are bonded by sisterhood. Girl power!!!

This book is SO "now", it is so important, it ought to be required reading. And I'm excited that Namina Forna has a background in film and screenwriting, because this book SCREAMS to be adapted into a movie! (Give me Ixa. Right now.) And can someone get Namina and Roseanne A. Brown in the same room?! Because a crossover between The Gilded Ones and A Song of Wraiths and Ruin NEEDS to be a thing!!!

I will say one tiny, minor, itsy bitsy thing: The twist ending gets a little rushed, a little campy. Some monologuing. Nothing atypical of a first novel, or a YA book. Nothing that tarred the rest of the book for me. I'm hopeful for sequels; this world is too good not to return to ^_^.

This sequel was everything I was hungry for, I devoured it! The first book was very much Girl Power because it was about Deka - and by extension, all the girls of Otera - learning to be and love and liberate themselves. But THIS book widens the umbrella: NO ONE should be assumed to have, or forced to conform to, a particular temperament or behavior, based on physiology. This book addresses queerphobia, gender identity and spectrum, the trauma engendered from birth - from conception, even - of having an expectation of what a child should be rather than celebrating who they are, generational trauma, religious genocide, toxic masculinity, grief and the importance of therapy, toxic family vs found family, how feminism does NOT mean anti-male, and the importance of unity and overcoming the human instinct to categorize then judge/segregate/punish based on the arbitrary Us/Them lines WE'VE drawn. This book is POWERFUL in its themes! For anyone who thought the first book was a little too binary, oh no baby birds, no no no, just you wait. Namina Forna knows what she's doing. She's pacing you. The Gilded Ones was an appetizer. The Merciless Ones is going to fill you up, never fear.

And lest you're worried from above that this book is all themes no substance, rest assured dear readers, it stands as a fantastic fantasy, too! So many twists and turns, nothing is as it seems. The main characters are diverse, strong, shrewd, and supportive of one another. The stakes are even more dire (which is saying something, when the end of the last book was, "Destroy the patriarchy!") There are even more unique creatures, magics, and lands, and everything has that air of myth about it, like it came to life out of a book of folklore. It's cinematic in its action scenes, and poetic in its quiet scenes. And like any good bit of magic, the book leaves you wanting more.

I CANNOT WAIT for the third book in this trilogy!!! What a treasure!!!

"To everyone out there who prefers the villains to the heroes". 100%, I had a huge Return of Jafar poster, I am all about this twisted ship, I was ready to love this book. And the concept of an entire shady city where all our favorite Disney characters cross paths was really really intriguing; yes, NC-17 Once Upon a Time, I'm here for it!
...
But the book failed to meet expectations. When the book was being an homage to/retelling of Disney, it was witty and genuine, I felt the root of those characters and those potential relationships transplanted into a new setting. But way way WAY too much of the time, this was just another mob boss erotica. Man has all the power, pretends to offer consent but it's really more like coercion, damsel is fiery but inexperienced and mistakes the adrenaline of danger for passion and the necessity of dependency-for-survival as aftercare. It's the same old BDSM myths bad writers have been rehashing for ages - this book even made a 50 Shades of Grey reference!

And beyond the erotic scenes, the world-building is flimsy! What territory do these villains run, what are their businesses, how are they connected besides proximity and favorite watering hole?

On the rarest occasion a secondary character might expand the story beyond the boudoir... I was increasingly annoyed that these minor characters weren't always Disney characters, or were the wrong characters!

Bloated and boring: 704 pages of brooding and basketball.

Nothing more needs to be said about this book. I wish I could have those hours of my life back.

#JusticeForJaxon

Deja vu. I have a love/hate relationship with Stephanie Garber's writing. Like J.J. Abrams: She can set something up, reel me in... but she can't stick the landing. She creates a disorienting amount of mysteries and conveniences, recycles plots/characters, expects cameos and nostalgia to be as rewarding as fleshing out new characters/scenarios... Is this book atmospheric and delightful with its Cinderella meets Alice in Wonderland meets Vampire Romance fairytale? Absolutely. Am I, nevertheless, dissatisfied with the final outcome? Unfortunately, also absolutely. I keep waiting for the day when Jacks will finally get HIS story. But this is not that. And in the end, Evangeline and Marisol are just the more malicious version of Scarlett and Tella. I'm tired of girls fighting over boys, tricking each other with magical subterfuge, and undergoing too many costume changes. I am, sadly, even tired of girls finding their inner hero by pitting themselves against much wilier, stronger, magical men. I just want Jacks - who is a delightful, tortured, complex character - to finally have HIS due. Evangeline is a distraction from the story I REALLY want. And unfortunately, she seems to have dashed all my hopes for a redemption arc for Jacks.

#JusticeForJacks

Pirates of the Caribbean watered down: All the cockiness, snark, double-dealing, and mythical activity, but with less swashbuckling and no likable characters.

I was particularly offended by how prejudiced this book is. "Men always behave this way." "It's surprising if a woman behave's this way." The only gay character is a violent threat and gets killed immediately after his sexual preference is revealed. The heroine describes herself as becoming the epitome of beauty when she sheds her sun-browned skin for white-as-pearl skin. On and on and on.

I kept WAITING for this book to make a massive twist, and for Alosa to be a TRANS girl, the only born-male siren ever! What a twist! The book kept using language that would have been phenomenal had the lead been trans, like her descriptions of being confidant in HERSELF but not in her BODY, and how she didn't like using her body to play to expectations... Would have been really cool if Alosa's obsession with clothing were about crafting herself and making herself feel good, instead of... ha ha prissy women love clothes... Riden's confusion over falling for Alosa would have been BRILLIANT if he had ascertained what her physiology was from his interrogations of her, and were struggling to reconcile his knowledge with his feelings, having never fallen for a trans-woman before. He would be real-time falling in love with the person for who she is. But... NOPE.... Riden is just confused because "Hey, women supposed to be soft, not stroooong."

WHICH... siiiiigh... let's get into that: Writers....ugh....once again... A Strong Female Lead is not about a girl who can kick and punch, or a girl who has no regard for others and a ton of swagger... A Strong Female Lead is measured by her empathy and endurance - she is strong for a reason, she fights for a reason. Wonder Woman is not strong because she can deflect a bullet; she is strong because she's willing to take an entire barrage of bullets to protect the innocent. What does Alosa stand for? What does she fight for? What does she overcome? Every "trial" she underwent in this book was pre-planned, a false narrative. Her sole motivation is "to please Daddy", and she never has to wrestle with what an abusive, horrible, underserving person her father is. She crews a ship full of women, she knows the seas are unsafe for most women, but the book spends next-to-no time with Alosa ACTUALLY in danger, and zero time with her training or defending the young women in her crew. We also know nothing about the women in her crew, where they came from, why Alosa would shelter them... They are fodder. We are purely meant to be impressed by the fact that All The Single Ladies have their own boat. Girl Power! Not.

I know this book is using the myth of sirens at its center, and sirens are predators... but I REALLY hated what this book had to say, about how a woman's strength is in her "feminine wiles", using her body to seduce and trick her way to what she wants. I don't feel empowered or inspired after reading this book. I feel ashamed. This is the worst version of women, what small-minded people expect of women: hot-headed, materialistic, stubborn, selfish, trollops.

And even if I ignored all the lame, outdated messages... this book still doesn't stand out much as a BOOK! It suffers from the "And then I did this. And then I did this. And then I did this" style of narrative. Very little room for artistry or memorable quotes. And since everything was pre-planned, or overcome easily by Alosa's cunning or magic or friends-in-high-places, there are no stakes. By the end of the book, the plot could easily be summed up as: Alosa willingly got in and out of a cage a couple of times, then unwillingly got stuffed in a different cage for a quick sec, then she went home, the end. Boring.

TL;DR? Overhyped, read something else.

If The Night Circus and The Prestige were a queer romance, and a commentary on The American Dream! <3 <3 <3

I loooove that this book provides a safe space for queerness; no one is vilified for loving who they love. I needed Jack and Wil's love story, and both the historical romance genre and the YA paranormal romance genre also NEEDED Jack and Wilhelm.

This historical romance is a particularly /American/ story. I love that this book is an honest look at the heart of American history. It doesn't sugarcoat the ugly parts: The history of exploitation, appropriation, racism and abuse. But also it celebrates the good parts: The ingenuity, hope, wonder and wanderlust. Multiple characters personify the good and the bad of the American frontier. And the theme of the younger generation inheriting the abuses and expectations of the older - that they could be starved with false promises and still believe in a brighter future - got me right in The Feels. America is The Thief and The Dreamer side by side, and I am aaaaall about that hard look in the mirror.

Messages aside, getting into the nitty-gritty mechanics: This is a GOOOOOD BOOK!!!! SWOON!!! I read a lot of YA. A LOT of YA. And certain words and phrases get recycled over and over and over again....snore. THIS author sat his SAT's XD. He opened a thesaurus, or swallowed a dictionary, or something! There were words in this book that /I/ had to look up! This book is smart. It is smart in its characterization, it's witty dialogue, its word choices, its poetry... PRAISE BE!!! Thank you Shaun David Hutchinson for elevating YA, thank you for bringing fresh writing to a genre oversaturated with lust and longing and thoughtlessness. Thank you!

I will say, though... The only criticisms I have that might knock off half a star...
1) Why does each PoV switch have a location and date stamp? The setting of the book never changes without in-universe discussion, and it largely DOESN'T CHANGE, so... The stamp seems irrelevant. The author could have gotten away with just stating the name to give us the PoV for each chapter.
2) I don't believe the reasons for Jack leaving Wil trapped for so long. I just don't. The clear and present immediate danger is more important than the hypothetical threat of Teddy could do in the future. I was practically screaming at the book for Jack to just abscond with Wil and hide out somewhere. Yes yes there's a whodunnit, and the book needed to justify the time it would take for Jessamy to crack the case. And yes yes this is a love story about magicians, so there's the clear echo of a great escape trick... But I just have a really really hard time swallowing my disbelief THAT much XD. That Jack and Wil could picnic in a rowboat by day, and Jack would escort Wil back to his literal cage by night... But whatever, I had faith in the characters, and they had faith in each other, and it all works out, so... I guess I can't be TOO mad XD.

I love this book, it stole my heart!!! I will be following this author for sure! More. Of. THIS!!!!