zoeelizabethk's Reviews (642)

I think I need to read other discworld books or start over with city watch. I'm just not very connected to the characters and by the time I'm writing this review I remember nothing of this book :/

I have this thing where after every series I finish of RotE, I massively procrastinate on picking up the next series. I think I'm afraid Hobb has peaked with the last series and the next one can only be a dissapointment, but every time I'm so wrong. Fool's Errand gave me all the feelings and emotions. I don't think it's the best of the series in terms of worldbuilding or furthering the scope of the whole RotE - although there are lots of great easter eggs for Liveships in here - but it is such a comforting character read. Back with my heart, Fitz, and the Fool makes me smile. Their relationship makes me so happy. We end up in a lot of familiar places with semi-familiar people and - while I get why some people might feel like Fool's Errand is a little extraneous - but it was a lovely time with my favorite characters - even if Hobb is brutal to them. Anyway, not a very coherent review, but five stars from me.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by James Langton, and would highly recommend the audiobook.

I actually really liked the writing style - it's pretty atmospheric and the tone kinda reminded me of Red Rising actually. But I just felt like I wasn't interested enough to keep going another 250 pages. The events and magic are confusing - which is part of the point - and it just lacked drive or direction to move forward. Then I looked at reviews and evidently Parts 2 and 3 are completely different. But I don't feel like struggling to acclimate to part 1 then start all over in part 2. Anyway, I think this will really appeal to some - and I don't dislike it - I just feel like I have better things to do with my time.

A Single Shard is one of those books that stays with you. For being such a short book, it is such a beautiful story. I was so glad that I still enjoyed this one as much as I did as a kid - the ending even made me tear up this time. I will most definitely read this book with my son.

I listened to the audio narrated by Graeme Malcolm and enjoyed it.

As a chronically ill person, it was lovely to read a book that features someone with invisible illness. It's obviously written for people who aren't really chronically ill because it explains more than is necessary for me, but it made the romance all the more sweet that Red was so thoughtful of Chloe's challenges without being demeaning. This book was more explicit than I expected and more than I personally wanted - I don't love my romances indulging in the smut as much as this one did. Overall a sweet, fast paced read to get through in a day.

I listened to the audio narrated by Adjoa Andoh and she did a good job of bringing the characters to life.

The Blade Itself surprised me. I've put it off because I'm generally not a fan of grimdark, but honestly this first book wasn't really any darker than some of Robin Hobb's books or Mistborn. It's definitely a slow book that is character focused, but Abercrombie does a good job of getting you to care about characters that are flawed. I wouldn't have thought I could like Glockta, but I'm at least invested in his story and he's written very sympathetically in an honest "I'm an evil torturer" kind of way. (Side note: I have very low tolerance for torture scenes, and was relieved that so far most of the torturing has been done off screen or at least not written super graphically.)  There are a few characters I really don't care about, but I think as things start coming together in the next book, likely I will. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by First Law so far and will be interested to see where Abercrombie is going now that he's set up the main characters.

I listened to the audio narrated by Steven Pacey, and as always, Pacey's narrations are brilliant. 

Don't get me wrong, this is an important book, with important themes. I think it's really impressive in a lot of ways, especially for a debut novel. Ace of Spades is a twisty, gossipy, dark academia book, and I think it's best to go in pretty blind. BUT by the end of the book it definitely starts to feel like Abike-Iyimide had so many points she wanted to drive home that they all were clamoring for attention without enough page space to contain them. And even worse eventually certain plot points seemed to exist not to serve the story but to drive the message even deeper. I think all of this could have been mostly solved with more pages. Instead it felt like an editor or an advisor told the author that there were already enough pages and it was time to wrap it up quickly just as there were incredible opportunities to discuss and delve deeper. I think these things won't bother everyone, but for me it's a pet peeve when books use plot as a bludgeon for a soapbox, even if the soapbox is relevant and important. It is entirely possible to have good storytelling and important themes without one being there solely to serve the other. This is not a bad book by any means, but it's almost more frustrating for me to read a good book that didn't quite do it for me...

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Tapiwe Mugweni and Jeanette Illidge and would thoroughly recommend the audio.

I've read part of the online comic before now. I definitely enjoyed being able to just plow through a whole collection at once. The art is stunning.  However, I feel like the nature of the graphic novel/comic is that it keeps you going at such a fast pace that it's almost hard to catch everything going on. Definitely going to pick the next two volumes when they come out later this year. This is a great quick Saturday read to help with reading slumps.

I enjoyed A Pinch of Magic, but I did not like it as much as I expected to. I think I expected it to be more whimsical and magical like a Diana Wynn Jones or Sophie Anderson book and this was not that. It felt like it took almost half of the book to really get going and just didn't pull me in. And it didn't help that I didn't really like Betty. I would have much preferred to get the story from one of the other sisters. I'll give it 2.5 stars. Not bad but not great for me and I'm not sure that I care to read the sequel.