wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

In an alternate 1828 Paris, Nina is learning the arts of being a thief within the Court of Miracles following her adoption by the Master of Thieves. Soon Nina, aka 'The Black Cat' is honing her craft among the wealthy of Paris while also plotting revenge on Master of Flesh, The Tiger, who ruined her older sister and has now set his eyes on Nina's adoptive sister Ettie. Using her skills, and connections from the palace, the college and the criminal underworld Nina is set to cause an uprising that Paris won't forget for a while.

I listened to this on audiobook which I highly recommend as the narrator was really good, and brought to life the pain, emotions and anger felt by every single character in this book. If you are a Les Mis fan, you may also enjoy many elements of this book as there is a lot of inspiration taken from Victor Hugo's famous novel from the feeling of a revolutionary Paris, as well as some character names and relationships. You have Eponine, Cosette, Valjean, and Javert among others.

I thought this was a really well-thought out novel and I loved the type of underworld that was introduced to readers within these pages - people of criminal undertakings from thievery, poisoning, begging and prostitution yet held together by rules and criminal honour. We also have many small families within a big family under the Court of Miracles as each Master 'adopts' children and they think of them as father or mother.

Nina as a character is everything you could hope for - clever, and tricksy but also young enough to often show her heart on her sleeve and show her weaknesses a bit too easy. I loved seeing her travel around Paris as she schemed against the Tiger, but also left some hearts beating in her wake including Master of Assassins, Montparnasse.

I think people who liked the criminal underworld seen in other books like Six of Crows or even The Lies of Locke Lamora could like this book as well though the setting of Paris is different to a fantastical world. This book is described as a fantasy but is more so alternative history as other than some mesmerisation, there isn't anything super fantastical or supernatural in the book.

I really enjoyed this though and I would love to read the next book when it's out to see what happened but I can also predict myself rereading this in the future as I'd already like to take it all in again! 

Set in New York in the 1960's, this book follows 17-year-old Mae as she breaks away from her home-life and begins to work as a typist for Andy Warhol, transcribing his book and become immersed in a world much bigger, brighter and vulgar than her own.

This book is very much a coming of age-type novel as we see Mae really grow a lot during the book, and regress at times too, and begin to really understand the true side of the world away from the shelter of her home and school. I myself don't know much about the art world in general and knew nothing about Andy Warhol except his name and some of his art before going into this book. The artist himself isn't much of a character in the book but instead is always on the periphery and never interacts with Mae or her new friend Shelley.

I liked the setting of this and found the concept of the novel very unique and I don't think I've ever really read anything like it before. I think the book was well-written, and we do get a true sense of who Mae is, and who she wants to become in the book, and we see glimpses of her as an older woman as well not completely satisfied with the direction her life took and her complicated relationship with her mother. Despite being a part of something 'big', Mae's life remains small and ordinary.

I enjoyed this but I don't think I'd ever reread the book. However, I'm sure those with a lot more knowledge about the art world and this time period would enjoy the story even more. 

Nic Blake is 12 years old which means it's finally time for her dad to show her how to use The Gift, the type of magic that people like her (Remarkables) wield to make life a little better than if you were an Unremarkable (normal humans like her best friend JP). But things take a turn when Nic meets her godfather, and finds out some things her father has been hiding from her - mainly her mother, and her twin brother Alex - and suddenly she has to find something really special to save her dad.

This was a very fun and magic-filled adventure that anyone who loves anything magical or urban fantasy will appreciate. I love the sense of representation in this book as pretty much all characters are people of colour, as well as the history behind the type of magic Remarkables/Manifestors can do and how a lot of it tied into African-American history, and also just worldwide Black history as well. While I was not the target audience of this book as a white, thirty-something woman, I just know that any child that sees themselves represented in the pages of this story is going to absolutely love it, and this makes me very happy.

There are a lot of nods of the well-known 'Chosen One' trope in this book (mainly the big one with the Golden Trio) and I liked how it flipped it on its head a bit as we are following the trio's children and see what it's like living with a heavy legacy and expectation upon one's head as well.

One of the best things I liked about this book as well is that I could tell Angie Thomas had a lot of fun writing this book, you could really feel it in the pages and with every new magical mishap that happens to our group of friends. This is a very fun start to what I think will be an exciting series, and I'm looking forward to what comes next. 

Twenty years ago, a serial killer hit homes in an area of County, Cork, in Ireland, leaving devastation in his wake. There were a couple of survivors including 12-year-old Eve Black who woke up to find her entire family dead in the house. Now Eve Black has written a book about The Nothing Man, her experiences with grief and her determination to discover who he is all these years later.

Jim Doyle is reading The Nothing Man, and the more he reads, the angrier he gets because he is The Nothing Man, and he remembers the night he murdered Eve Black's family, alongside all of the other people he terrified and tortured. Now he's ready to come out of retirement and he knows who his next victim will be.

This book is a genuinely very creepy and ofttimes terrifying read (especially if you have any fears of burglary, night stalkers or sleep alone!) but I really loved the premise of it. The book worked really well on audiobook due to the dual narration - Eve Black's portions of her book, and then Jim's POV and his reaction to what Eve is saying.

Catherine Ryan Howard is definitely becoming an auto-read author for me as she writes thrillers I love - engrossing, quick to read and original.

Part of me would have loved a little twist in the end with the epilogue and Katie's POV as it felt all a bit too safe, and a little sad but I do think it reflected a line in the book about a one-way ticket to loneliness and that was handed to Eve at 12 years, and Katie when she was a young adult. 

22-year-old Sophie has no idea what she's going to do next. She's graduated college and isn't having much luck with her job and living with her parents with no hope of ever moving out and affording rent let alone buying her own home in the future. When a large crack appears in the sky, Sophie's social media obsession becomes even worse as she juggles boys, friendships and a contentious relationship with her twin sister - and not to mention the ever looming presence of the crack and what it means for humanity.

This book is an interesting one. I feel like I loved it for all the different things it and the characters had to say about the world as it is right now - especially for young Irish people, but I can also see where in parts it was overdone and pretentious and how others wouldn't have gotten on with the book. I think it's very 'of the now' book - the social media obsession, the problems young people are facing as they leave college and can't get jobs, can't afford rent and already stress over ever owning a house, emigration and then all the normal things of body image, romance problems and friendships changing and evolving.

Sophie as a character is fairly complex. She is probably one of the most self-absorbed yet at the same time incredibly insecure characters I've ever followed and while that should bring on a certain amount of empathy, there were times I just didn't like Sophie and found her a little bit of w whingebag and also not a particularly good friend to Grace (MVP of this book in my opinion) and her other friend Dan who is struggling with loneliness after emigrating.

I think Sophie's relationship with social media is obviously one of the biggest things in the book, as well as the biggest relationship in the book as well as Sophie obsessively finds herself down rabbit holes on Twitter, listening to podcasts deep into the night and exploring conspiracy theories about the crack. People Sophie's age have grown up surrounded by social media and it's become like their right hand and without it they feel lost and it's often what they use to help them understand the world. I think with time and age, distance from social media becomes easier as real life takes over - relationships, jobs, responsibility but Sophie is not there yet and effectively, without a job, has all the time on the world to spend on her phone.

I actually really liked the presence of the crack in the sky and it's ever presence in the book, always in the background. In a way I wondered if it was a stand in for something like the pandemic, and if not, definitely inspired by it - and I think it was a brilliant way to show that when unexplainable, scary things happen, life still more or less goes on as normal. Worldwide pandemic? Life stopped for a while but a majority of everyday normal things happened and now the world is more or less back to the way it was. Ukrainian War? Everyone is still doing their day-to-day activities albeit with a heavier cost of living situation but parties, romance, school and life is still happening every day.

I think this book is clever, and while I would have liked maybe a couple less conversations about capitalism (listen you talk about capitalism, you'll get compared to Sally Rooney and that's that), I think the author understand the mind of a twenty-something very well and all the fears and insecurities people can have when they're young and life still feels very unknown and scary. 

A lovely non fiction book from Irish journalist and gaeilgeoir Una-Minh Kavanagh as she details her childhood growing up in rural Ireland as a woman of colour, and how her beloved grandad instilled a love of the Irish language in her from a young age and how Irish has helped her become the person she is today.

I've been a follower of Una's for quote a while, and I'm glad to have finally read this book and learned more about her mother's journey to Vietnam in 1991 to bring Una home, and her beautiful relationship with her grandad (which I think hit me deeper as I'm a couple of days away from my own grandad's two-year anniversary). As someone who deeply regrets my failure of learning Irish in school, I really appreciated Una's fun attitude towards encouraging the ability in others and her passion in keeping Irish alive in as many ways as possible which includes gaming in Irish. Now, thanks to Una I've switched my email inbox to Irish to help me tune my mind a bit more to the language.

Una also details some of the horrible racism she has experienced in Ireland - both offline and online - and her strength of spirit and character in the face of such low behaviour is commendable. I liked how she encouraged people to speak up for themselves or for others with her story and how she turned her story into a brilliant online campaign to highlight that Irishness means more than freckles and white skin but comes in a kaleidoscope of beautiful skin tones, backgrounds and experiences.

I think there were times the writing and the story stayed on the simpler side of things, and I wasn't always here for detailing of the amount of engagement different tweets got online (I also think all of this would mean nothing to an older read and could repel them from the book). However, I did enjoy Una's sense of humour that stayed intact for the entire book, and how can I not enjoy a book that is more or less a love letter to both the Irish language and a wonderful Irish grandad.