This one was better!! I think! I liked some elements of the first one better, but the characters are a lot more developed and interesting in this one. Regardless, great sequel! Big fan of this world, I love the politics in it and the plot twists.

Possible (??) spoilers below

I did not, however, like the romance. I know I said they were my ship in the first book and I’m glad it happened, but did they really have to pine after each other for SO LONG? A little annoying, but maybe that’s just me. I have very little patience for that oops

2.5 stars

Received in exchange for an honest review

Read the full review here:
https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=99209

3.5 stars

The first half of this book was as so many people say: a complete snooze, boring even though there are things going on, not much to it. It was beautiful and atmospheric, the setting was gorgeous, I liked the characters, and the plot seemed to be interesting enough. But for some reason I still couldn't get into it. I actually ended up putting it down for about 4 months without any immediate plans to return to it. It wasn't a DNF, but I definitely didn't want to be reading it at the time.

Then I don't know what happened, but 2 nights ago I randomly decided to pick it back up and read a couple pages to see how I felt, and I ended up falling completely in love? In all honesty, I think it's almost entirely because it takes place in Montenegro and I'm planning on going there soon, so I couldn't get enough of it because of the setting. But even so, the plot was all of a sudden really interesting to me as well and I actually ended up really enjoying it. I'll definitely be reading the second book (not any time soon most likely, but I'll still read it eventually).

What a great ending to the series! I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, I sobbed with every fibre of my being. Seriously though there was some genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this book, those one-liners!! Brilliant. This book made me fall in love with the characters that I already loved even more. Most of the Weasley's, Tonks and Lupin, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Ron and Hermoine, Hagrid, Mad-Eye, Luna, Neville, and a couple others are all tied for my favourite character. I honestly can't choose between them, I love them all too much

Harry was actually good in this novel too. I hated him in Order of the Phoenix and everything before that, Half-Blood Price he redeemed himself a bit, and then this one I actually liked him quite a bit and was impressed by his selflessness and bravery. He was so much more mature in this novel, for the most part. He understood things and people better, he had significantly less temper tantrums, he listened more often, he made good smart decisions, he was more emotionally vulnerable. 100% improvement for Harry, love that character development!

I don't really have anything negative to say about this book. The other HP books there was always something that stood out to me that I wish hadn't been in there, and while I'm sure there are things that could have been better with The Deathly Hallows, there's nothing significant enough that it's worth mentioning or hinders how much I liked this book. Overall I really enjoyed this book and this series, I'm glad I finally gave it another chance!

Thanks to this book, I’m officially a Harry Potter fan.

My heart has been torn into a million pieces. My soul is utterly destroyed. Why do I allow fictional characters to RUIN ME

I won’t say much in this review, because at this point everything that could possibly be said about this series has been said already. But I will say that up until the last few pages of this book, I absolutely HATED Harry as a character. I thought he was childish, rude, a horrible friend and even worse person, immature, and just damn annoying. Of course he has his reasons for being angry with the world, I don’t blame him for that. And he is just a kid and isn’t expected to be mature. But reading these last two books as an adult has been soooo frustrating because I view Harry the way the other adults in these books do; as an inexperienced child too young and naive to be trusted with confidential and dangerous information. Watching him throw temper tantrums for being kept in the dark, and taking out his anger on Ron and Hermione was so annoying and made me hate him. But those last few pages, especially him conversation with Scrimgeour, 100% redeemed his character for me. It’s unfortunate that the events of this book is what caused me to like him finally, but it made him mature really quickly and become the brave, awe-inspiring person that other characters, in my opinion undeservingly, saw him as.

I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with this book so much! I loved it from the very first page; I even read the acknowledgments because I didn’t want to be finished with this story LOL

I can’t actually think of anything that I disliked about Sky In the Deep; the pacing was great, there was phenomenal character development, the world is so interesting and the way you get immersed into it was fantastic. If anything it was maybe a little predictable but the story went in the way I hoped it would so I didn’t mind that at all. I would have liked for it to be longer as well so that we could get even more into the world building, but it was still good as is

One of my favourite things about this book is the emotionally vulnerability of the characters. Eelyn is what I want when I say I want a strong female character; she will kill someone without hesitation if they threaten her or her loved ones but she also isn’t afraid to cry and is very in touch with her emotions. All of the characters are like that, which I really enjoyed seeing especially with all these big, manly, Viking men. One of my favourite lines in this book, and the moment that Eelyn’s father became my second favourite character (right behind Fiske) was “My father looked them over carefully, left to right he stood beside me, his sword still hanging at his side. The glisten of tears still shone on his cheeks, but my father was a dangerous man. Anyone could see that.” This book portrayed strong but emotionally vulnerable characters so well; no one was afraid to cry or scream or mourn, but every single one of them was strong when they needed to be. Absolutely loved every single one of these characters.

I also loved the romance. I’m a big fan of slow burning romance and this one was perfect for me. They put their families and the safety of their people before their interest in each other which I thought was fantastic, it drives me nuts in books where the love interests throw away their whole lives and everyone else they love for the sake of a new relationship. But in this, both were still willing to die for their people rather than hide out somewhere and be together. Thank. Fucking. God.

I could honestly keep ranting about Sky In The Deep forever but I’ll leave it at that, 100% would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

A Quiet Kind of Thunder is definitely a must-read! There were some things that I disliked, but the vast majority was adorable and wonderful and really important!

Dislikes
The ending conversation with the parents. That felt super rushed and unfinished, I feel like that should have been a much longer conversation, and probably should have included a one-on-one with Steffi's mother. I really didn't like the mom, she was so unsupportive and frustrating and made Steffi feel stupid/useless/a myriad of other things. I feel like none of those issues were actually resolved before the mom was all "oh no I'm actually really proud of you and think you're totally capable!" A complete 180 from where she was a few chapters prior. The entire ending conversation was kind of like that, not just with the mom. Everyone else had at least been more supportive for the whole book so it wasn't as odd for them to say what the did, but the whole section was just really cheesy for me and felt like the most obvious ending to this book

Same with Steffi and Rhys' final conversation, that also felt like the most obvious way to end the book which made it feel super cheesy. I feel like Barnard could have been a little more creative with it, but regardless it was still a sweet moment between the two of them. The location they were in made me like it a bit more, that really added to it

Likes
Steftember is my favourite thing ever I LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY SUPPORTIVE FRIENDSHIPS! This friendship is what I wanted Turtles All The Way Down to have; they argue and get mad at each other sometimes but it's never ever ever about Steffi's anxiety or her selective mutism or anything social anxiety related. Tem doesn't see any of that as an "issue that needs to be dealt with." She never sees it as an inconvenience or an annoyance and that's exactly the kind of supportive friendships I want to see when it comes to someone who struggles with mental health

Discussions about sex and consent and the notion of virginity! A+ Sara Barnard! I especially liked that one conversation Steffi and Tem had, where Steffi said something like "You weren't saving it for marriage, you were saving it for you" and putting so much emphasis on being ready and there never being any judgement. Everything with Rhys and Steffi was great as well, I really appreciate Barnard putting so much emphasis on getting consent even without words. And the conversation Steffi and her mom had about sex and vibrators was first of all hilarious and second of all something we need to see more of in YA, parents talking to their children so casually about sex and not villainizing them for wanting to do it.

Anxiety! There was heavy focus on the thoughts that go through Steffi's head on a daily basis and how much anxiety controls her life, and how difficult it is to get that control back. This is so important both for people who also struggle with anxiety to have representation, and for people who don't so they might understand a little better. Also big points for not making medication be this big huge deal like it so often is. Going on medication does not mean you're giving up, or letting something else do the work for you!!!! This book did a good job of showing that, especially during that conversation between Steffi and Tem. I also really liked how much Steffi described and talked about her coping mechanisms, and what things gave get anxiety and what things didn't.

Addressing issues around deaf and hearing worlds! So many times Rhys told Steffi when she did or said something as a hearing person that is upsetting to him as a non-hearing person. I love this so much! I don't have significant hearing problems and can't comment on the accuracy of the problems he brought up, but it's so so so important to show how to go about bringing up these conversations and how you should/shouldn't react to them. They often aren't easy conversations to have, they're uncomfortable but still extremely important regardless. I really liked seeing Steffi grow and learn how to be more considerate until it was eventually just second nature, and she grew to start question others as well. She started to realize her own privilege and address others as well when Rhys wasn't able to. Some good shit right there!

There's a lot more that I really enjoyed but I'll stop there, this is already long enough LOL

TL;DR READ THIS BOOK IT'S GREAT

09/15/17
I'M FINALLY READ TO REVIEW THIS
It's been two months and I'm still just as in love with it. I talk about this book to whoever will listen, it was so good.

The first thing I want to talk about it the representation of depression and how accurate it was! That's something that I very very really see in books, especially in YA. Rachel is depressed and watching her come to terms with this was honestly wonderful? It's so rare to see a character go through an arc like that, and it was so relatable and realistic. I also loved that her friends didn't push her to just get over it, her family was super supportive, and she was allowed the time to grieve and move on at her own pace. It was so so good I can't express how much I appreciate Crowley for doing that so well!

I also really love the relationships. Not just between Rachel and Henry, but between every character. They all fight, they all argue, they all fuck up sometimes. And instead of being petty and ignoring each other, they act like actual adults, talk it through, and they forgive each other. What a concept.

The pacing was really good too! This was a fairly simple book, it was mostly about emotional development within characters rather than plot, but it felt like things happened at the right time. It was a bit predictable at times, though. I also really appreciate how the side characters got an ending to their stories too. Honestly the side characters were probably my favourite part of this book, they were all so wonderful! Especially the man who was trying to find one specific copy of a book, he made me sob more than I'd like to admit...

I could probably talk about this book all day and give you a million reasons to read it but I don't have time for that so just GO READ IT


07/13/17
It's 1 in the morning and I'm lying in bed trying really hard to keep my sobs silent so I don't wake up my friend. RTC I'm too emotional right now

09/15/17
Strange the Dreamer is one of those books that I still think about pretty much everyday, even though I finished it a couple months ago. I both loved and hated this book. I want to say that I loved it more than hated it but honestly I'm not really sure

What I loved the most about this book was Lazlo. Lazlo Strange is easily one of my all time favourite book characters. I fell in love with him instantly, he's the Gansey that I've been searching for ever since the Raven Cycle left a hole in my heart that will never truly be filled. Lazlo got as close as I can ever hope to loving a character as much as I love TRC characters. Same with Eril Fane, I loved him so so much, I really hope the next book will have more of his story in it.

The first half of this book was everything that I wanted. The pure magic and wonder that Lazlo made me feel while he talked about Weep made me feel like I was with him in the story. I felt so much pride when he left on his journey, and every friend he made along the way made me so happy. If Lazlo was happy, then so was I

I wish Strange the Dreamer had stayed like that. I wish it had been a book about Lazlo going to Weep, fulfilling his lifelong dream of seeing the city, helping defeat whatever was going on, and then spending the rest of his days travelling the rest of the world but always going back to Weep. (I also wish I hadn't been queerbaited like that, because I 100% thought that Lazlo was gay in the beginning, but that a whole other topic that I'm not going to get into)

Unfortunately, Strange the Dreamer did not remain the wonderful magical book that made me fall in love with it. And the thing that ruined it, without a doubt, was the moment Sarai saw Lazlo. The insta-love ruined everything, to the point where I actually considered DNFing it. One part that really pissed me off was when Lazlo said the best day of his life was meeting Sarai. Not the day where he left the library on a magical horse while all those who mocked him watched with their jaws on the floor. Not the day where he finally, after 15 years of waiting, looked at the lost city of Weep for the very first time and all his dreams came true. Nope. It was when he met a girl in a dream. I'm still so mad about that. The romance absolutely killed this book. If it weren't for Eril Fane, I most likely would have DNF'd it, to be honest.

I still gave it four stars because of how much I loved it in the beginning, and for all of the side characters that I fell in love with. Those are the only things that redeemed it. I'm still going to read the second book, but I'll pretty much just be reading it for Eril Fane at this point

06/07/17
WAT. WHAT. WHAAAAAAT.

COHERENT REVIEW WILL BE WRITTEN LATER I CAN'T RIGHT NOW