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adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
If I’m understanding all of this correctly, the King of Landover lives in a dungeon and is attended by a menagerie.
This book was among my earliest fantasy reads as a kid, and I remember really enjoying it when I was something like 12 or 13. I can't remember what exactly made it enjoyable; most likely it was because at that point, the very idea felt novel and not too predictable.
By this point, though... Well. Sometimes re-reads help us recapture that feeling of being a kid discovering something new and amazing. Other times, they're meh. This was an example of the latter for me. The story felt slow to start, many of the characters were pretty two-dimensional, and the central idea of applying lawyer skills and zeal to running a fantasy kingdom got a pretty shallow treatment. The plot was predictable, and I kept needing to remind myself that back when the book was written, Dungeons & Dragons had only existed for like 12 years and there had probably been fewer adventures with the exact same twists played around the tables world-wide. :D (Although, of course, then I remember some of the published D&D adventures from the 80s that I've looked through or even played at a later note with later additions, and I'm becoming less certain of my earlier statement.)
Oh, and the weirdest part: even though the character was I believe forty years old, huge parts of the book read like middle grade.
I think I'll avoid going deeper down the nostalgia hole with the rest of this series.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Well, I always wanted to go out with ‘Fuck you,’ but whatever.
What I knew about this book going it made it sound like the perfect read for me. I mean, enemies to lovers? A love triangle with a poly solution? A demisexual MC? Screwed-up found families? Sci-fi adventure with magical/psychic powers? Give me all of it! Needless to say, I was super excited to read this.
Unfortunately, reality didn't exactly live up to my expectations. I wouldn't call this book bad; maybe it's just not for me, despite being built out of the tropes I usually love. But it just failed to keep my attention and I often struggled to figure out what was even going on. The way the worldbuilding was presented often made me feel like I was reading book 2 in a series and desperately lacked the knowledge of what happened in book 1. To be honest, many aspects of the plot made me feel the same. It didn't help that transitions between scenes often felt choppy and a lot of the side characters felt same-ish (with the exception of Jay who was hands-down my favorite character). As for the romance part, I never got invested into any part of it either. I just... didn't feel like any of these people were good for each other in the long run. Also, about 1/3 in I started feeling like there's just too much violence for violence's sake and trauma for trauma's sake, and that feeling only kept intensifying as I read on.
Honestly, I hate giving this book a low rating. It's wonderfully, wonderfully diverse. Everything I know about the author makes me feel they're a really cool person. The premise of the story is fantastic. There are a lot of exciting moments. I'm still in love with the idea of this story. It's just that the execution really wasn't for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol
Moderate: Sexual violence
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
We’re so close to nature here. Lots of hidden life. And hidden death.
Wow. This book turned out to be way creepier than I expected.
It started mild enough: two twin sisters move to a mysterious little town as a result of their mother's second marriage, and then one gets obsessed with an older guy who is clearly bad news while the other struggles to figure out all sorts of things: what to do about her sister's destructive romance, what to make of this strange new place, how to figure out her own sexuality. There's also witchcraft. Dark and disturbing things happening in the local woods. Promises of more creepiness to come.
For the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the book, the story mostly stays rooted in the regular confusing teenage experience, with some mystery/witchy stuff added in for flavor, and it does the job rather well. Maddie's struggles are relatable. Lon, the older guy, is clearly a creepy abuser whether there's anything supernatural about him or not. The twins' family relationships are compelling.
Then, in the final part, the author decides to deliver on all those dark and disturbing promises, and my, does she go all out. There were several scenes there, in rapid succession, that made me physically cringe. I wish I was more thorough about checking the trigger warnings going in.
I mostly like the conclusion everything worked up to, but that last part was honestly jarring. It didn't come out of nowhere; it did flow quite logically out of all the earlier foreshadowing. But I felt like some of it was sort of too much for a young adult book somehow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Cannibalism
Minor: Homophobia
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Many things had changed, of course, in the interim years, but in the end, they were what they’d always been.
I'm not familiar with the rest of the series this book belongs to, but it didn't stand in the way of my enjoyment. A Lady's Desire is a sweet little story about two friends reconnecting, finally seeing their mutual pining for what it is after a bit of clashing, and carving a life togeter in spite of the family's and the society's wishes. Both characters are interesting and sympathetic, and the narrative moves back and forth between the timelines, gradually exposing the backstory of their relationship.
Even though the story is pretty short, being a novella, it feels quite complete. I mean, I wouldn't say no to spending a bit more time in Win's and Sarah's company, but I don't feel like I missed out on a single important bit in their journey. Nothing felt rushed or underexplored.
All in all, a really pleasant read to spend an evening with.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“You didn’t tell me the truth.”
“Why should I have? Do you blurt out all your worst acts and features on first acquaintance? I’m quite sure there’s parts of your life you’d rather not reveal to me.”
That was true, and thus intolerably unfair.
Such a fun, emotional book to get lost in! It has it all: secrets, lies, a big scary conspiracy, spy intrigue, and a cozy bookstore. Will really made me feel for him throughout the story, and Kim was an intriguing character in his own right. As I've come to expect from K.J. Charles's books, there were a number of fully realized female side characters, too, who were quite compelling. Phoebe in particular has me totally enamored.
The non-romance part of the plot was full of tension and had me anxiously turning pages. As for the romance part, on one hand, I'm not 100% sold on it; that is to say, I did enjoy following this couple's relationship and want them to have a HEA one day, but I also can't yet see them actually getting there. On the other hand, this is kind of the point, I guess? This book is the first part of a trilogy, with the resolution of the romance arc delayed until the end of book three, so Will and Kim do still have a long way to go. I'm excited to pick up the next book and follow them down the rest of the road.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, War
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself.
I have to admit I have a bit of mixed feelings about this book, mainly centered around the major plot twist/revelation, or maybe around the way it was helpful. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend the hell out of it. It's a compelling, well-written YA thriller that raises a lot of very serious questions and I feel does a superb job of painting the effects of systemic racism and classism on individuals. The promised Dark Academia vibes didn't kick in for me until a couple chapters in—the beginning read like just another high school YA—but once the flavor was there, it was there. The characters are complex and richly drawn. It took Devon some time to grow on me (and now he's forever in my heart); Chiamaka, on the contrary, had my attention from her first appearance and only got more interesting to follow from there with each chapter.
The pacing was pretty good, with the tension raising in steady bursts, making it hard to stop reading. Both of the main characters had mysteries in their past that provided extra suspense in the addition to the main plot: Devon's missing memories that other people seemed to know too much abot, Chiamaka's all-too-present ones that her best friend kept denying. Really, there are so, so many awesome things about this book.
The resolution, however...
Still, despite my feelings about the big twist, I did enjoy the book a lot, and the epilogue was just such a good part. And the very last few lines—gasp! What a way to end this story. It was all honestly very cinematographic: very often, I could easily envision everything I was reading about as parts of some big motion picture playing on a huge screen. Who knows, maybe one day this book is going to land a movie deal—I bet it would make a great movie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Car accident, Outing
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Love is violence, my darling, it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. More often than not, love ends in tragedy, but we go on loving in the hopes that this time, it will be different.
This book is, simply put, beautiful. A gothic novel at its finest, with all my favorite vampire tropes gathered under a single cover, dark in a way that has nothing to do with bloodsucking monsters, and leading up to a glimpse of dark, bloody hope at the end.
My love for the vampire genre was largely shaped by my teenage exposure to Vampire: the Masquerade, and I guess I keep seeking out the same things in various types of vampire-related media: beautiful and dangerous creatures of the night used as a metaphor for mundane terrors—abuse, gaslighting, controlling behavior. Stories like that is my safe way to interact with this topic, I suppose. When it gets too close to home, I can distance myself from it. I can tell myself, "I'm just reading a horror novel. Look, there are monsters on the page." But it's still a far more realistic type of monstrosity that I read about in these cases—in this particular case—and I still get to confront it and try to make sense of my own experiences through it.
This book is perfect at what it does, and at how it is constructed. The prose flows, the pacing hits all the write notes, and the characters come alive on the page. I can't help thinking that the one good thing that came from Dracula, for all his terribleness, was bringing the other members of this policule together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Gore, Self harm, Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Rape
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
We weren’t handed rulebooks and it’s not in our contracts. These are the rules we’ve learned by working with Jeff. By the tour riders suggested for each of us, the wardrobes we’re given, the interview questions we’re asked.
I really liked the character cast and the concept: a boy band with a controlling manager who, thanks to some high-tech voice implants, has the ability to literally silence the singers if they stop going along with his plans. However, sadly, the execution felt somewhat underdeveloped. The first half of the story was reasonably engrossing, with the tension gradually rising up and the sci-fi elements subtly sneaking in. There was a nice moment of friendship and unity after the halfway point, too. But the ending really wasn't satisfying for me, and felt a lot like the author wasn't sure how they wanted to finish the story. Still, I wouldn't mind learning more about these guys and the shiny musical dystopia they live in!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The townspeople watched as the two kings flew off toward the sun. They were never seen again.
This novella leaves me with a certain set of mixed feeling. On one hand, it reminded me just how much I loved The Wicker King, and it was really good to meet these familiar characters again. On the other hand, I didn't feel like I gained anything new, anything that I didn't already get from the original novel. Yes, this little novella offers some insight into Jack's POV, but I can't say it shows anything that isn't evident already from The Wicker King. At the same time, I'm not sure it can stand well on its own, or as an intrudoctory glimpse of the novel. Across ~40 pages, there were multiple instances where I took a moment to remember certain details from the novel, and only then did the things I was reading about make sense.
Still, it was really, really good to meet Jack and August again, and the author's prose is as haunting as ever.
Still, it was really, really good to meet Jack and August again, and the author's prose is as haunting as ever.
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Once upon a time, Kristy's Great Idea was the first real book I read in English. The Baby-Sitters Club series—not in its entirety, maybe around 100 books with gaps between them and just a few specials thrown in—took up the only shelf in the foreign languages section of my school library that was considered appropriate for an 11-year-old kid. I latched onto it, naturally. For me, those books were a literal gateway into a different world. Okay, well, a different country. At that time, for me, it was pretty much the same thing. They were also what made me see actual value in all my endless English classes: I was no longer figuring out the intricacies of Past Perfect Continuous simply to make my parents proud. This foreign language was more than a collection of rules and weirdly spelled words. It was a way to read books that I wouldn't have ever read otherwise—to my knowledge, the Baby-Sitters Club books were never translated into my language.
In many ways, it was a formative experience.
So reading this collection of essays about other people's formative experiences with the same series was pretty fun. Some were more relatable than others, but nearly all of them were, in some way, deeply familiar.