Take a photo of a barcode or cover
glitterwater79 's review for:
The Secret World of Maggie Grey
by Granger
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh, dear. I promise yall I really wanted to love this book. I was so excited to read it but it never came together for me.
The positives:
There are parts that are good and characters I enjoyed. Quan the cat and Souxie were my faves. I found myself agreeing with Quan a lot šš¤·šæāāļø. I laughed several times times.
The aesthetics of HBCU life came through real great in some points (and not in others, see below).
The concept for the book is dope and thereās so much potential in the world the author imagined. Like I saw like dozens of books in this world, honestly.
Some really great moments like the door were lost on me because I didnāt get the references from the authorās previous books, but when I read the explanation at the end that was dope.
I did have a āwhatās gonna happen ?ā focus throughout. Thatās a good thing for me as a reader, but only if it pays off. (See below).
Negatives:
For a magical/paranormal/supernatural novel, there was hardly anything happening. I was like where is the spell casting and such. When magic and paranornal did come up ā like the four girls under the tree - it just disappeared.
The story never went anywhere. Now, I would not say I was bored but I kept thinking I knew what this was about and it never was about any of those plot lines. And every time I thought it was on a trajectory of like hereās the thing and I felt like I had the cast of characters we got like 4 more characters, not exaggerating. Perhaps that is because this is going to be a series and the author has known that all along, but even in a series there has to be a place I am introduced to and a conclusion even as you set up more story.
Relatedly this book was too slow and repetitive. I was like letās get on with it. 200 pages in and I felt like the book was just starting for like the third time š©.
Based on the description I personally expected much more for working with HBCUs as the setting than what we got. It did successfuly capture many of the aesthetics of HBCU but things with just the structure, politics, nostalgia of HBCUs ā even a fantasy version of that - didnāt really ever come through enough for me.
The characters were interesting but really chaotically underdeveloped among the main folx. And then there were these secondary folks that got so much book time and they gave nothing to the story.
The worst of it for me was there was just a lot of cavalier attitude about rape and sexual assault, misogyny, homophobia and other issues expressed through the characters in ways that were just out there and off putting.
Overall, I wasnāt bored. And I see why others may have enjoyed it. But as for me and my bookshelf, I donāt feel inspired to read the next books in this series. I would consider reading something else by this author that is really focused like a straight up mystery, or straight up horror, but the genre shifting big fantasy world build that is also doing mystery, and horror, and romance, didnāt hit for me in this one.
The positives:
There are parts that are good and characters I enjoyed. Quan the cat and Souxie were my faves. I found myself agreeing with Quan a lot šš¤·šæāāļø. I laughed several times times.
The aesthetics of HBCU life came through real great in some points (and not in others, see below).
The concept for the book is dope and thereās so much potential in the world the author imagined. Like I saw like dozens of books in this world, honestly.
Some really great moments like the door were lost on me because I didnāt get the references from the authorās previous books, but when I read the explanation at the end that was dope.
I did have a āwhatās gonna happen ?ā focus throughout. Thatās a good thing for me as a reader, but only if it pays off. (See below).
Negatives:
For a magical/paranormal/supernatural novel, there was hardly anything happening. I was like where is the spell casting and such. When magic and paranornal did come up ā like the four girls under the tree - it just disappeared.
The story never went anywhere. Now, I would not say I was bored but I kept thinking I knew what this was about and it never was about any of those plot lines. And every time I thought it was on a trajectory of like hereās the thing and I felt like I had the cast of characters we got like 4 more characters, not exaggerating. Perhaps that is because this is going to be a series and the author has known that all along, but even in a series there has to be a place I am introduced to and a conclusion even as you set up more story.
Relatedly this book was too slow and repetitive. I was like letās get on with it. 200 pages in and I felt like the book was just starting for like the third time š©.
Based on the description I personally expected much more for working with HBCUs as the setting than what we got. It did successfuly capture many of the aesthetics of HBCU but things with just the structure, politics, nostalgia of HBCUs ā even a fantasy version of that - didnāt really ever come through enough for me.
The characters were interesting but really chaotically underdeveloped among the main folx. And then there were these secondary folks that got so much book time and they gave nothing to the story.
The worst of it for me was there was just a lot of cavalier attitude about rape and sexual assault, misogyny, homophobia and other issues expressed through the characters in ways that were just out there and off putting.
Overall, I wasnāt bored. And I see why others may have enjoyed it. But as for me and my bookshelf, I donāt feel inspired to read the next books in this series. I would consider reading something else by this author that is really focused like a straight up mystery, or straight up horror, but the genre shifting big fantasy world build that is also doing mystery, and horror, and romance, didnāt hit for me in this one.