Kingdom of the Cursed feels like a bridge. A flat bridge, beautiful but slightly unimpressive, that soars above all the interesting stuff really going on below. The reader can see the general outline of what it's going to look like, way down there below the bridge, but is not allowed to see it in full.
Book Review | Death Fugue
Banned in China for its political implications relating to Tiannamen Square, Death Fugue manages to encompass art, philosophy, and love in an eerie story that sucked me in like quicksand.
Book Review | Shatter Me
The beginning of Shatter Me was an exquisite mix of beautiful, unique prose, complex character, and expert soft worldbuilding. But after that big bang beginning, it gets...soggier. I think if anything, I'm more disappointed by the lost potential than by the actual product. Because I really did enjoy myself in the reading...
Book Review | Zodiac Academy
Brooding inner turmoil and big muscles do not excuse stripping someone naked in public, biting them when they beg you not to, or general assault.
Book Review | Neuromancer
Connecting to these characters is hard, and not necessarily rewarding, even at the end. But that empty kind of discomfort...it reminded me of how modern netizen-dom can feel.
Den of Vipers Book Review: WTF??
I think booktok is just doing me dirty at this point, because how is this book popular? This one was talked about a lot, so I had semi-high expectations. But when I started it...I shit you not, I didn't think I was going to be able to get through the first chapter. Here are some … Continue reading Den of Vipers Book Review: WTF??
Book Review | The House in the Cerulean Sea
I have long been skeptical of cozy reads. If they're so cozy, so feel good, what are the stakes? What's going to make me care? Especially when it comes to a book like Cerulean, which is written with an almost childlike whimsicality and which absolutely bashes you over the head with character development. But Cerulean … Continue reading Book Review | The House in the Cerulean Sea
Book Review | The Atlas Six
CONFIRMED: The Atlas Six has a firm place in the cannon of dark academia. This book's strengths lie in its characters, meticulously and thoroughly written and spinning themselves into complex webs of relationships. I knew little going in, so one thing surprised me most: it's an adult-feeling book about adults. It's most interested in people … Continue reading Book Review | The Atlas Six
Book Review | The Priory of the Orange Tree
I stopped and started and almost put down this novel many, many times. By the second half, I was hate-reading it—or so I told myself. Maybe I was just reading it for the dragons. I like dragons. The audible narration saved me, because reading this novel in its physical form was an exercise in dispassion. … Continue reading Book Review | The Priory of the Orange Tree
From Blood and Ash | Series Review
So much of fun writing is just getting rid of shame. That’s what Armentrout does with this series—making liberal use of vampires, werewolves, sex, allies to enemies to lovers, gods, mates, and more create a potent, fun, guilty-pleasure mix. The writing itself is not good. The pacing can get bogged down in over-indulgent, tedious internal … Continue reading From Blood and Ash | Series Review
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