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snowbenton
I thoroughly enjoyed Blued Moon and Fire Watch. I wish I had never read All My Darling Daughters, I need some kind of extra strength brain soap. I like Willis' creativity and bizarre ideas, but I wish she would give the reader a little more background. I finished several of these and felt cheated out of a real conclusion.
I had to skip reading some of these because I haven't read the Wicked Lovely series, but I love fairy tales so I read the rest. They weren't terrible, but I'm sure I'll forget every word within a month.
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Fun, fast-paced, just enough romantic longing to make me sigh. I love the magic system in these books.
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This was really weakly plotted, and at 201 pages, too short. Ceony kept ditching her schoolwork to chase after Saraj, which made me so angry I kept having to put the book down. But then I tried to remind myself that killing Saraj was the main plot, so it was fine. . . but then Emery kills Saraj and it felt like the big plot went back to being school. It was very jarring.
There were also no interesting side characters to distract from Ceony's unbearable stupidity, which I think made this one so irritating.
And it really infuriated me that Emery upstaged her graduation and instead of meeting her family for dessert afterward as planned he drove her super far away to propose. Such a dick move. Let her enjoy her graduation with her family.
There were also no interesting side characters to distract from Ceony's unbearable stupidity, which I think made this one so irritating.
And it really infuriated me that Emery upstaged her graduation and instead of meeting her family for dessert afterward as planned he drove her super far away to propose. Such a dick move. Let her enjoy her graduation with her family.
This has been the year of doors so far, first Ten Thousand Doors of January then Starless Sea, now this. Unfortunately this book was a door that opened into nothingness.
It was such a brilliant concept, and such a weak execution. Logic worlds and Nonsense worlds and Rhyme worlds and etc etc all exist at the peripheries of our world, found by children who need them. And when those children unexpectedly find themselves back in our world the lucky ones end up in the care of Eleanor, herself a returned child who grew up, who runs a boarding school to help them cope.
And. . . that's it. That's the entire book. There's a halfhearted attempt at making a plot out of a murder mystery with a dismayingly obvious killer, but you never get to know any of the kids. You certainly don't get enough substance to care about any of them.
The only moment of emotional resonance in the entire book is Spoiler when you find that Floriel suffered and died needlessly because the door to return her to her world was in her bedroom all along but even that was sad more as an abstract than actually caring about the character herself.
This could easily have been a short story and I would have probably loved it.
UPDATE: Re-read on audio for a book club, and I still think it's terrible and overhyped.
It was such a brilliant concept, and such a weak execution. Logic worlds and Nonsense worlds and Rhyme worlds and etc etc all exist at the peripheries of our world, found by children who need them. And when those children unexpectedly find themselves back in our world the lucky ones end up in the care of Eleanor, herself a returned child who grew up, who runs a boarding school to help them cope.
And. . . that's it. That's the entire book. There's a halfhearted attempt at making a plot out of a murder mystery with a dismayingly obvious killer, but you never get to know any of the kids. You certainly don't get enough substance to care about any of them.
The only moment of emotional resonance in the entire book is Spoiler when you find that Floriel suffered and died needlessly because the door to return her to her world was in her bedroom all along but even that was sad more as an abstract than actually caring about the character herself.
This could easily have been a short story and I would have probably loved it.
UPDATE: Re-read on audio for a book club, and I still think it's terrible and overhyped.
A fun little story, definitely gave me some chills. Unfortunately, it felt half-formed. It's a story about a murder, but it's hard to call it a mystery when no one is trying to solve it because they think they know what happened. And the ghost of the murdered girl pops in to narrate, but she doesn't interact with anyone or move the story along so it's not really a ghost story either. Guess we'll call it a beach read. (Or in my case, quarantine read.)
Alvie is just as annoying as Ceony, but if you can get over that, this is a fun little book. I liked that she was into inventing and discovering and changing the world.
A fun look at the history of nursery rhymes, lullabies, and other Mother Goose esque items. I learned a lot, and was blown away by the fact that Ring Around the Rosie is actually not a plague rhyme!
I don't know if I would have liked this more as a physical book, but I found it nearly impossible to focus on the audio.
I didn't like Theo because my introduction to her was her being a brat and then her guardian/tutor listing all of her flaws and abandoning her . . . so I would have needed a lot to convince me to like her, and it just never happened. I think this is why I didn't care about the plot - Huck abandoned her so I don't like him, her father is never on screen just shown as absentee, so I didn't like him . . . It's hard to get invested when the characters are imperilled and you could care less.
Also I hate romances between characters raised as siblings, but even more I hated that Huck and Theo spent days and days together with plenty of time to talk and still never once had a real conversation about their feelings.
I didn't like Theo because my introduction to her was her being a brat and then her guardian/tutor listing all of her flaws and abandoning her . . . so I would have needed a lot to convince me to like her, and it just never happened. I think this is why I didn't care about the plot - Huck abandoned her so I don't like him, her father is never on screen just shown as absentee, so I didn't like him . . . It's hard to get invested when the characters are imperilled and you could care less.
Also I hate romances between characters raised as siblings, but even more I hated that Huck and Theo spent days and days together with plenty of time to talk and still never once had a real conversation about their feelings.
I picked this up in New Orleans last year and was excited for a trip down memory lane. Unfortunately, this book was a mess. It tried to be a walking tour and a history and failed at both.
There should have been many more modern pictures if this was truly meant to be a walking tour. It didn't help that the only map was a completely unmarked list of cross streets inside the front cover, and the directions to get you from one building to the next were either unhelpful or nonexistent. There wasn't even a "start here" prompt. Unfortunately, many of the buildings listed don't even exist anymore -- so it thoroughly fails at being a walking tour. I wouldn't have minded a history, but there weren't enough pictures for that either.
The biggest problem is the endless typos. "Per-occupation" instead of "preoccupation." "Nicholas Cage" instead of "Nicholas Cage." Among many others. And one memorable instance where a building managed to be occupied "from 1823 - 1820." I'm no historian, but I'm pretty sure that was not the case.
There should have been many more modern pictures if this was truly meant to be a walking tour. It didn't help that the only map was a completely unmarked list of cross streets inside the front cover, and the directions to get you from one building to the next were either unhelpful or nonexistent. There wasn't even a "start here" prompt. Unfortunately, many of the buildings listed don't even exist anymore -- so it thoroughly fails at being a walking tour. I wouldn't have minded a history, but there weren't enough pictures for that either.
The biggest problem is the endless typos. "Per-occupation" instead of "preoccupation." "Nicholas Cage" instead of "Nicholas Cage." Among many others. And one memorable instance where a building managed to be occupied "from 1823 - 1820." I'm no historian, but I'm pretty sure that was not the case.