sup3r_xn0va_maya's Reviews (387)

💬:“The scene in the basement flashed back—Derek accusing me of talking to ghosts. Had he told Simon? Probably. I bet they had a good laugh at the crazy girl."

Armstrong, Kelley. The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1) (p. 72). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: fiction, fantasy,  young adult, urban fantasy, paranormal

📚Page Count: 396

🎧Audiobook Length: 08hrs 35mins

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3.5/5

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong is the first book in the young adult series "Darkest Powers" by the same author. Chloe Saunders starts seeing ghosts and suddenly her life is turned upside down within the next 24 hours. She ends up in a group home for unstable teens but there are things that she doesn't know about the group home, her peers, and even herself. The group home might be more than it seems, will Chloe figure out what the deal with this group home is and why she's been seeing ghosts?

I don't think this story is as interesting as it could be, but it still ends up being better than average. The majority of the story takes place in the group home and the repetitive scenery was a bit annoying and it wasn't as entertaining as the author aimed it to be. 

I first read this when it was released in 2008 and I liked the story more back then, but this was still okay. I remembered about half of the details about this first book from the first time read it 16 years ago, but there were some details that I forgot all together. I think going into this story semi-unknowing means that I could somewhat experience the story in a similar way to the way I did 16 years ago. 

I think this story was okay, I remember liking it a lot more when it first released but around that time I was in the book's target demographic, so it makes sense that I liked this young adult book back when I was a young adult. Rereading this was an interesting experience because I didn't remember all of the things that took place in this novel so some of the surprises and reveals were still surprising to me. Overall, this was an okay story with a good plot twist. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3.5/5

I listened to this audiobook on [LibbyApp.com]

💬: "God is neither good nor evil, neither loving nor hating. God is Power. God is Change. We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another, in our Destiny."

Butler, Octavia E.. Parable of the Sower (p. 245). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: sci-fi, speculative fiction, dystopia, post apocalyptic, classics 

📚Page Count: 330

🎧Audiobook Length: 12h 01min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 
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The very beginning of the book is very preachy, well a lot of this book is preachy because it's literally the story of a young woman creating her own religion. I'd say the story was overall enjoyable despite the preachiness of it all. I really enjoyed the way this was written and how, it started out hopeless, like a lot of Butler's works. Then, there's a little light at the end of the tunnel and the story suddenly becomes hopeful.

This is my second time reading Parable of the Sower and I finally understand that it's about community and keeping one another safe. Protecting one another in crisis. That is the answer to the question, "what do we do when disaster strikes?"

I also love the diversity in this book. The characters were very diverse like all other Butler books.

The beginning of the book was a bit slow even though the book was interesting overall. Therefore, I'm giving this 4.5 stars out of 5.

 

💬: "“I am old,” she said, masking her fear with anger. “I could be your mother’s mother!” She could have been an ancestor of his mother’s mother. But she kept that to herself. “Who are you?” she demanded. “I could be your mother’s father,” he said. She took another step backward, somehow controlling her growing fear.

Butler, Octavia E.. Wild Seed (The Patternist Series Book 1) (p. 11). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: adult, science fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction

📚Page Count: 404

🎧Audiobook Length: 11h 09min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 

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One of my favorite books of all time. Amazing.

5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


I loved this. 

edit// Jan 23rd, 2023

I'm liking "A Necessary Being" a lot more than I did when I originally read it less than a year ago. The story is a little long but I like the social hierarchy that Butler created with these aliens. I originally gave this book 3 stars, I'm going to give it 4 stars.

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This is a collection of two short stories by Ocative E. Butler. The first is "A Necessary Being" and the second is "Childfinder". I enjoyed "Childfinder" but I did not enjoy 'A Necessary Being". I just found ANB to be very borning and drawn out, this is the first time I've felt this way about any of Bulter's works.