shidoburrito's Reviews (1.54k)

I'm not going to tag this as horror, but know: it does have ghosts! And ghostly happenings! And the MC's recently deceased Uncle has a message their spirit is desperately trying to convey. What is it???

This book was amazing and definitely had me tear up (in happiness) a few times!

3.5 stars
A great book for teen Puerto Rican representation. With dragons!

Definite Harry Potter vibes what with wands, magic users, Ministry of Magic (tm),

Spoiler

Voldemort is a dragon trying to regain his true form

, a Quidditch-like sport where a person is kinda like the Snitch.

And then a smattering of Hunger Games vibes, but definitely more like Quidditch.

I didn't really understand Victoria's intensely angry bitch attitude toward Lana the whole time. She explains it eventually but it honestly wasn't a good enough reason for me. If I had been Lana I'd have been like, "Girl, that doesn't give you the excuse to be an absolute and unsupportive bitch to me this whole time."

Anyway, a fun read. I'm sure fans of Harry Potter and Hunger Games would find this a nice little read-alike. And any fans of dragons books.

OOoh, I liked this one!

A great, spooky teen book that at its heart is about family, loss, mothers and daughters, grief, secrets, and especially anger. All consuming anger. Anger you don't know where it comes from but when it hits there's no stopping it. And then also dealing with all these feelings of grief and anger (hint: don't keep it locked up and a secret).

Also some supernatural happenings that are just icing on the cake for me! :)

Spoiler

And that ending where she gives in to Jemima and her anger *chef's kiss*

ADORABLE! I freakin' loved this comic! And the body positivity! All different body types! Great representation in the gender department too! But Kat Leyh is a fantastic artist and creator, so I suppose it is to be expected. The characters are loveable and hilarious and I want to be a part of their pod now too! A fun and heartfelt comic. Love love love! <3

Ah, it's good to be back in Valdemar. But not Valdemar as I've ever read it, we get to read about the man himself: Kordas Valdemar! The founder of the setting we have grown up reading about (well, grown up reading in my case, anyway).

So while there's no Companions there are plenty of wonderful characters to enjoy while reading this.

Spoiler

I'm convinced Jonaton is from our world since he drops some meme speak here and there. And also, if the Emperor was NOT based off of Trump, I'll eat my shoe.

I can't wait for the next book!

Read for horror book club:
Would I have read this on my own? Probably not. But I had fun reading these. Jeffty was by far my favorite, but the second story, "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" cracked me up! "Executioner of Malformed Children" was a great, short sci-fi story as well.

So glad my husband bought this for me! Perfect for an X-Phile like me. A lot of fun stuff about the characters and the cases, all set up to look like a new agent in the FBI was made by A.D. Skinner to go through the X Files and compile them into this book as best they could (since there was that fire in Mulder's office when someone burned the files).

Yes! Fantastic! Such a fun read! I love me some good sci-fi that has a great little mystery wrapped in it. I would gush more about the elements that I liked about it, but that would mean giving too much away!

Is this really deep, literary writing? Not at all, thank goodness. I read it so fast and couldn't put it down. Is it going to change the way we read and write YA LGBTQ fiction? Nah. But it's sweet and fluffy at times, harsh many other times, and quite honestly, I was able to easily read this in between all the Star Trek fanfiction I've been devouring lately. Many similarities to some of the really well-written fics and fits in quite nicely :)

While I enjoyed this book, I can see how it might not be for everyone. It is certainly very strange. If giving a quick book talk about it I would say it's about a teenaged girl running from her problems at a quiet, pristine, organized, all-girls' boarding school, to her family home with wild, chaotic werewolves as family members. She's left in charge of the household but doesn't feel wanted or like she belongs no matter where she goes.
It's a nice little summary, but the book gets much stranger. Very old-world fairy tale-ish where there's more than just werewolves, people are running from more than family, and there are darker things than a couple of family members that can turn wolfish and eat too much meat at the dinner table. So it gets strange and dark, but I really enjoyed Szabo's story-telling and atmosphere. As well as the characters. I feel they did a fantastic job fleshing out the characters, especially Eleanor and her complicated feelings about friends and family.

3.5 stars. Good read, fun strong characters (as always). Similar vibes to Mr. Mercedes.
Jeff, when I close the book I just finished: "So how was it?"
Me: "Good, I guess. Kinda reminded me of the Mr. Mercedes series. MC is an older guy, one last job before retiring. Saves younger, female character and helps her become stronger and better after meeting MC but thankfully things never get sexual. Female character then becomes best character.

Spoiler

Then MC of course gets killed doing this last job but they kinda know deep down it's coming, finish the job, die, and then female character must carry on to be better than MC now that they have the strength and confidence to do it.

Jeff: "I think Stephen King is trying to tell his readers something..."