theravenkingx's Reviews (336)

Is it possible to feel happy and disappointed at the same time? And is there a word to describe this feeling?

This was my most anticipated book of the year but I am afraid to tell you gentlefriends it was a bag full of shite! There were some great parts too but not enough to keep me interested.

Tric's revival made no sense. I was hoping for him to play a bigger part but all he did was NOTHING. I never liked Ash and never fancied Mia and Ash together.

Not every story deserve a happy ending. The best part of this series was its unpredictability and dark tone. I think I can say this for everyone that nobody wanted a happy ending from this book.

I am also tired of seeing dead characters coming back to life. Dead chacarers should stay dead! I mean is it too much to ask for?

The ending was way too convenient to be taken seriously. Everything that happened in the end was just urm.. Hasty writing. The middle part of the book was absolutely boring and unnecessary. Jay should have used that space to write an epic ending but he did the complete opposite.

I prefer the ending of second book. It was epic. Unpredictable. Shocking. Perfect. The series should have ended there. Or at least the revenge part of the story.

The shadow cat and the whole shadow thing needed to be in the forefront but it wasn't. The whole revenge part of the story got repetitive and boring. Scevea felt a like a Nerfed version of himself.

4 stars

Plot = 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters = 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing = 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows

May contain minor spoilers

Adam Silvera is one of my favourite author. His stories are always so meaningful and different. I love how he use tragedy to convey an empowering and a life changing message. His writing reminds me of John Green, I don't know why but the similarities between the two are uncanny. They both write from their heart and their books are so damn quotable.

They both die in the end was a heartbreaking story. It made me really really sad. I knew that it would be pretty stupid to fall in love with the characters that were going to die in the end, but i couldn't keep myself from falling in love with Mateo and Rufus. They're so well written and relatable. I related much more with Mateo because I am also an introvert and often feel that I am not living up to my full potential. Seeing him conquering his fears and living a life he was too afraid to live made me realize that if he can do it, I can do it too. After reading this i really want to go out and slay my demons and be the person i have always wanted to be.

Mateor and Rufus are two very different characters but they  complimented each other so well. I really enjoyed their chemistry and their friendship. I was rooting for them to fall in love and when it happened, It made me really sad, because I knew they were going to die and they won't be able to spend much time together. But i guess spending a day with someone who can love you right is better than spending a lifetime with someone who can never understand you. At least they didnt die unloved.

"I want to go to Jones Beach and race you to the waves and play in the rain with our friends. But I want quiet nights, too, where we talk about nonsense while watching bad movies.”

People have their time stamps on how long you should know someone before earning the right to say it, but I wouldn’t lie to you no matter how little time we have. People waste time and wait for the right moment and we don’t have that luxury. If we had our entire lives ahead of us I bet you’d get tired of me telling you how much I love you because I’m positive that’s the path we were heading on. But because we’re about to die, I want to say it as many times as I want—I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

I also loved the Pluto family and Lidia. They all brought so much depth and emotions into the plot. The freindship and kinship they shared was so endearing. Anyone would be lucky to have such friends.

You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.

The conversation between Amie and Rufus. OMG! it was so beautiful.

"And if I can’t wake up, I want to go to sleep forever where there’s a chance I dream everything beautiful about you, like how you looked at me for me and not because you wanted to gawk at this fuckery on my face.”

The best thing about this book were the different POV's. We got to see the world from many different perspectives and it really helped in understanding the world and the whole Death-cast thing. Besides Rufus and Matheo i really enjoyed reading Lidia's perspective. She was such a great friend to Mateo.

"goodbyes are the most possible impossible”

When you know how the book is going to end, you dont get involved in the story as much as you do when you don't know how the story is going to end. This story would have been so much more interesting, in my opinion, if we didnt know the ending. My only issue with the book was that there was no mystery. Adam tried to shock us on multiple occasions, but it didn't work for me. This book was great but i enjoyed History is all you left me alot more than this.

With that being said, I think Adam deserves all the success in the world. He is an amazing author, and I am really looking forward to his next book with Becky Albertalli.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. - steve jobs.

If I had to describe this book in one word I'd say MIND BOGGLONG.

The book had me hooked from the beginning. I am not going to lie when the mystery began to unfold I became certain that i was going to be dissapointed, but this book didnt disappoint me at all. Infact, all the mystery culminated to a pretty enthralling ending. The climax took me by surprise, and putting the book down became absolutely impossible.

I went through three different phases when reading this book:

phase 1: OMG! what the hell is going on? This is so interesting.

phase 2: YaaaaAsss, I knew this was going to happen.

phase 3: OMG! Shi*?! I didn't see that coming.


It was very entertaining, however a couple things were left unanswered like what happened to Amanda (a character that risked her life for our protagonist) and why everyone in the lab was so keen on murdering people to keep their research a secret. I mean they could have just locked them up or something.

Anyway, this book gets an A grade from me.

I totally loved this book. I need more Malcolm gladwell's book in my life.

This book still deserve every single star. It's extremely clever and imaginative. When I read this book for the first time, I didn't know much about the Grishaverse, but this time around It was different, I was able to pick up on all the shadow and bone references Leigh made thoughout the book, and It's was fun. The hype around this duology make perfect sense. It deserve all the praise and appreciation in the world.


All these characters are so precious. I love them to death. My only problem is that none of these characters act their age. I mean the odds of a sixteen year old pulling this level of heist is equivalent to the odds of a 80 year old twerking in the club. No matter how traumatized, no 16 year old is capabale of being so cunningly manipulative and unapologetically criminal.

update

I reread this book after 5 years and I am still in love with every single character of this book. Too bad they didn't make this into a series

Writing:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

“You make errors all the time… as does every other human being who has ever lived. Error is an intrinsic part of the human condition - and it is something I deeply love about humankind.”

I am not going to lie the series has wild premise. I expected to find it ridiculous but it was actually amazing. The idea of scythes culling people to maintain population balance was fascinating and original. The first two books were awesome. The last one had some flaws, but it wrapped nicely.

"A successful lie is not fueled by the liar; it is fueled by the willingness of the listener to believe. You can’t expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it.”

My Critiques (Mild Spoilers Ahead)

plot
o Thunderhead making everyone unsavory was counterproductive. It made it harder for itself to communicate and cooperate with its allies. I understand his motivation was to turn Greyson into a messiah and manipulate the tonists for its ultimate plan, but why did he have to make people at the Atoll unsavory?

o Tonists, even for thunderhead - the benevolent, impartial being - were expandable. He protected them only to use their bodies and was ready to eradicated their entire faith. It made me question the role and authority of the Thunderhead, and whether it was a friend or a foe, or a monster.

characters
o Citra and Rowan were absent for most of the book, and when they did appear, they were mostly reactive and dependent on others. Their relationship needed more development to make it believable. I mean how could someone  wait a 100 years for  someone they barely knew? The readers who have been invested in their journey and growth throughout the series won't get enough closure or satisfaction from the book.

o Jerico felt like an after thought. After two books the author decided to make his books more inclusive. You could just tell that the author was trying really hard with Jerico as he attempted to kill two birds at once with Jerico: made him black for race inclusivity and non binary to include more sexual orientations.

These were my only main issues with the book. Other than that it was a fun, fast paced and a thrilling read. The book was not outstanding, but it was enjoyable. The writing as usual was immaculate and world building top notch.

"We never know what choices will lead to defining moments in our lives. A glance to the left instead of right could define who we meet and who passes us by. Our life path can be determined by a single phone call we make, or neglect to make.”

DNF at 40%

it's a pretty good book, I suppose. if you like them dipped in dog shit, cows piss and utterly rotten.

If i were the publisher and someone had brought this book to me, I'd have advised them to consider getting some help. I don't know what is wrong with Marlon James, but I am pretty sure something is malfunctioning in his brain. Whatever the case, I am really curious to know what was going on in his life when he decided to write this book, and what kind of head space was he in when he thought it would be a great idea to write about child molestation, rape and murder. I mean this dude has crossed all lines.

This book  comes with a trigger warning for everything known to men and more.

There is Rape on every single page.
Homophobia.
Incest.
Pedophilia.
Teleiophillia.
Child abuse.
Mutilation of bodies, specially of children's.
Cannibalism.
Violence.
Kidnapping.
Torture.
Foul language.
Gritty murders.
General disgust arising from superfluous description of genitalia, smell of butt cracks, weird creatures that rape with their huge penises etc.

If it were a stand alone book, I might have forced myself to finish it, but it's a fucking trilogy. I can't, I just can't.

To be absolutely clear this book is disturbing and disgusting.

Now let's move on to the plot and the writing.

Plot was interesting. If it weren't filled with disgusting, gory, creepy shit, I would have enjoyed it. However, i can't say the same for the writing and the structure of the book. It felt like the book was being complicated for the sake of being complicated, like there were stories within a story, (inception level shit) and characters that only talked to each other in riddles.

Almost nothing was grounded in reality. It's was excruciating and painful to read because there was nothing I could relate to.

Edit: After recieving hate on my initial review, I decided to add this note to clarify myself.

I know it's an oxymoron to use fantasy and reality in the same sentence, I am not an idiot to not see that. My point is that almost all fantasy books have some real elements, either in the world building or in the characters, to make readers feel at home. However, this book felt like a course in quantum physics. I couldn't feel anything for anything and I mostly blame the superfluous writing for it. A simpler writing style and plot structure would have made a great difference.

PS: My negative opnion is like a grain of salt in the sea of positive reviews so it shouldn't matter what i think about this book. You are allowed to love this book just as I am allowed not to. Take a chill pill and move on. No need to send hateful comments and death threats.

Things I liked about this book:

1. Plot.
So the plot was alot like NoTW and GoT, and it was the main reason I kept pushing myself to read it but the structure and writing was way too complex for me to fully immerse into it.  I think a TV or movie adaptation would be a better way to consume this story.

2. African myths.
Lets be honest the only reason I picked this book was the fact that it was based around African myths and mythical creatures. I was super excited and went into it with high expectations, which also played a role in intensifying my disappointment for the book. But I really enjoyed the mythical aspect of the book and I really want to learn more about these myths and creatures.

3. Concept.
OK so the concept, as explained by the Marlon James himself,  seemed pretty unique and intriguing.  The whole idea of telling the same story from three different perspectives is bloody genius, in my opnion. However, the execution was bad or you can say it wasn't for me.

FAQs
Am I curious to know the ending?
- Yes, I am.
Will continue reading?
- No, I'll watch the movie instead.
Will I recommend this book?
- I won't. But if you are into dark, gritty, complex books then you can give it a shot. I recommend you to read a few pages (if possible) before purchasing the book to familiarize yourself with the writing style, 'cos this shit ain't for everyone.