syllareads's Reviews (951)

This book has immaculate vibes.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is a beautiful and somewhat short story of labyrinths and being at peace with oneself and forgetfulness of the rest we'd much rather tuck away, about how we shape our own identity and about how quiet and solitude can be wondrous things. Piranesi's story, who is so sure his name isn't Piranesi, is told in a somewhat weird way at first, disjointed and just fantastically odd that you very quickly get the feeling it is not just fantastically whimsy, but something more. 

The first-person perspective helps immensely in creating this illusion of closeness to our main character and narrator, Piranesi, who lives in a giant house, The House, if you will, filled with empty rooms and statues and bones. He's been living there ever since he can remember, with only one living person nearby (whom he calls "The Other") and 13 bony, dead companions. He is, however, quite content with his life - until something changes around him and suddenly, things do not seem so clear anymore.

I was hooked from the very start, and I'm very glad I went into this completely blind. Clarke's prose is simple enough to mirror her main character's thoughts, yet meanders beautifully whenever Piranesi starts thinking about how much the House has done for him and how well-protected he feels in its arms. Piranesi himself is far from stupid or simple, but the way he uses words as opposed to The Other (or other books I have read) lends him such a unique voice of mingled innocence and scientific thirst of exploration that I fell in love immediately. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Buch Traum Küsse is a very sweet and short romance book all about a woman, Annie, who breaks up with her fiancé just before the wedding, desperate to change her life before she has no chance to do so anymore. She flees to her sister to Silver Creek, a small and idyllic village where she not only manages to snag a small part-time job in a book shop (her secret dream) but also manages to find a man she is very interested in... but isn't it a bit too soon? And is this man even attracted to her at all, or just really nice?

The premise was very basic and the twists predictable but I nonetheless enjoyed myself with this book! It was a super-fast read, almost too sweet and I did find myself relating to Annie a few times over (girl just wants to read books and I support that).
There were a few sentences that I didn't particularly love and found downright annoying at times, specifically when it came to why Annie thinks her new boss might not be in love with her, ever. 

Due to a misunderstanding and him continuously telling the biggest gossip in town that he's not interested in women, she, like a lot of other people, thinks he's gay. That is not the case, which is not the problem (and the book does acknowledge that bi people exist btw!) but the way it's talked about was a bit,,,,iffy sometimes. Annie going on and on how he just "can't be gay because she doesn't get those vibes from him" or how he's "too manly to be gay",,,,,,yikes. No thanks

However, apart from that, it was just what I was hoping for: A cute romance involving books and a lot of tea. Nice!

Monstress is a beautiful Graphic Novel series and the first volume alone shows that beautifully. I'm in love with that artstyle!

Sadly, the story itself was extremely confusing to me and I found it very hard to follow it. I'm not that great with Graphic Novels to begin with, so I don't 100% fault the series, but I had a hard time trying to understand what was happening and who these people were. The worldbuilding itself felt great but I was given no time to try and understand it and the weird and long history lessons in between only helped to a certain degree. I was also left feeling emotionally unattached to the characters (which was probably because I literally forgot every single name and had a hard time assigning faces to things that were happening).

It did intrigue me enough to continue on, though, so...goal achieved?

This book was such a visceral, blood-dripping Dracula-retelling that I had to pause every other moment to appreciate yet another line meant to end me entirely.

S. T. Gibson's Dowry of Blood is a polyamorous Dracula-retelling with more than just one gut-wrenching twist to it. Our narrator is, in fact, not even the man himself nor does she ever name him explicitely, for stripping him of his name is the only thing she feels appropriate. For this is not just a tale of vampires - it is also a brutally honest tale of toxic relationships, manipulation and undying love so painful it can only end in blood.

Our tale begins when our main character gets found by the vampire (A person she only ever calls "you") on her deathbed, with her brutalized village just behind her. Instead of leaving here there to die, he takes her in and changes her into a vampire, christening her as well - from now on, she is his lovely Constanta, his jewel of the night, his, his, his. And Constanta loves him for that. She revels in the attention he heaves onto her, in her newfound strength, the vengeance it allows her to take, and his seeming devotion in the bedroom. Until the signs grow darker, and her lover harsher, and she slowly, irresistibly, notices just how much her presumed lover and husband has kept her away from everything but him...

I fell in love with the writing style from page 1 and it only got better and better. The sorrow and longing, painfully put into words took my breath away - I literally cannot recommend this book enough! I'm gonna have to buy my own copy just so I can mark up some of the quotes I loved in particular, goddamn.

This was a work of art.

When the tiger came down the mountain is the second novella set in the same world by Nghi Vo and I've been looking forward to this for so long - and it did not disappoint!

The monk Chih is on their travels again, writing down stories as they find them when they get ambushed by three tigers together with their current travel companion, and have to unravel an old story about a tiger and a woman to save their life (and that of their companions for the night).

As always, Nghi Vo's writing style is simply impeccable and I found myself mesmerized from the very start. The way she weaves a story within the story, the way magic drips from every word and syllable,,,,and I can't forget the explicit gayness of it all. My notes for this novella are just full of "gay gay homosexual gay" because that is what Nghi Vo does to me: make me forget all comprehensive thoughts I ever had and just functional on my one bisexual braincell. Well done!

The way the story of the Tiger and the woman she fell in love with differs between what Chih knows and what the tigers tell them was fascinating to read about and the tender emotions, the wild abandon and feral ways of a tiger in love with a fragile mortal woman had me by the neck from start to finish. It is, I think, time to just aggressively shove Nghi Vo's works into everyone's face so they read all of her things.

Breach of Peace is the first novella clearly meant to be usher in a new fantasy series written by none other than the Goblin--- I mean Daniel Greene. Flintlock Fantasy with a darker dash somewhere in there as well, it was a very fast - but supremely satisfying - listen on the train!

The narration by none other than Kate Reading and Michael Kramer was fantastic as well and lent these characters an unforgettable voice. The action was fast-paced, much as the rest of the book, but even within the relatively short amount of time this novella had, it delivered solidly when it came to emotional impact and hinted at bigger things when it came to worldbuilding etc in the background just enough to make me curious and eager for more, but not too much that I felt like the author was trying to cram every information available onto the pages.

Needless to say, I already pre-ordered book 2 <3

Binti is the first in a series of novellas by Hugo-Award-Winner Nnedi Okorafor and while I can absolutely see the appeal and was mesmerized by the ideas behind this piece of work, it wasn't exactly for me :c

The novella starts with Binti's journey to a prestigious university as the first of her kind, the Himba (which, btw, are the indigenous people of Namibia! I did not know that the name was real but I'm immensely happy it is, and will proceed to find out more about them now). Armed with not much except a jar of otjize, a mixture of her homeland clay and oil and a traditional way of cleaning and adorning their bodies for her people, she boards the ship that will carry her to her new destination - her new life. Except on the way there, the ship gets boarded by creatures who slaughter her future classmates and leave her stranded on a ship filled with the dead and the creatures themselves, patiently on course for the University - for they have stolen something of these people and they want it back.

The overall ideas, as I have already said, were beautiful and intriguing. I was especially glad to see the end play out

when Binti helps them recover the Stinger of their chief. It was such a pivotal moment

and the way the importance Binti's culture was for her was emphasized was very impactful and full of joy. However, the overall pace was still too fast for me. I didn't have time to fully process any emotions apart from a few appreciative nods, and yet it still felt like a lot of time had passed in the novella itself. I was expecting for it to be fast-paced, given that it's barely 90 pages, but I was sadly really not a fan of how it played out in the end.

I would still recommend this novella, given that it's fairly short, because for the ideas it carries, and I might very well pick up book two anyway after this! <3