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angelicasreads 's review for:
Lifel1k3
by Jay Kristoff
And to think, I could have loved this book! Reading slumps are the worst!
I've been a fan of Jay Kristoff for a quite some time now. Before he co-wrote the thrill ride that was Illuminae, he had written a steampunk sci-fi fantasy series names The Lotus Wars, set in feudal Japan, filled with magical creatures, deadly machines, and some pretty epic swordfights.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I've known from the very start that I was going to end up reading whatever Jay Kristoff wrote and that I was going to love it.
But I didn't love this one. And it's not entirely the book's fault.
By all means, I should have loved this. It has everything I could want in a book, and then some. The action was none stop, from the opening lines to the last sentence of the novel, it was a complete roller coaster.
The charcters were fun and compelling and there is a brilliant example of female friendship in this one between Lemon and Eve (and yes, her name is Lemon and I love her). Also with Cricket who was such an entertaining addition to the gang. And let's not forget about Zeke, who only got better as the book progressed because let's be real, for the first few chapters he had the personality of a toaster.
The writing was super fun and fluid. The plot was engaging and fun and interesting. There were many many twists, some of which took me entirely by surprise and left me speechless, some of which didn't surprise me at all, but that's to be expected.
Sadly, my life has been quite hectic lately, and to make matters worse, I'm currently in a serious slump so I wasn't able to enjoy this as I would have liked. I can't blame the book for that
Another thing for which I can't really blame the book is that I could kind of predict when and how things were going to happen. This though is mostly an effect of reading so many books and knowing how stories tend to work, especially when you've read several of that author's books.
Although the slump and the busy life and all the inconveniences that have been plaguing me lately all influenced my low rating, there were some problems I would have had with the book regardless.
The main issue being the romance aspect. I felt a little...flat? A little weird, maybe? A little too Romeo & Juliet?
Also, the pitch is “Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men, with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the sidelines”. I guess it does have elements of all these things, and in fact does have a scene that looked taken right out of Mad Max, but I feel like a more accurate description would be Pinocchio meets I, Robot meets Anastasia, with a little bit of Paradise Lost dropping biblical references from above, but I guess that didn't sound cool enough.
I think if I weren't in a slump this would have been a four-star read, for sure. If my life weren't going to crap right now, and I had read it in less than the three weeks it took me to finish, I would have enjoyed this so much more.
But that's not how it all went down.
So, do I recommend this book? Sure. It's a fast-paced, action-packed thrill ride. It's fun and futuristic and very Jay Kristoff-ish.
I just don't think I was in the right mindset to really read this book. I will definitely be trying to read the sequel because I'm actually really curious at two what happens next.
*** This last part involves a very minor spoiler! Heck, it might not even be considered a spoiler. Read at your own peril! ***
I wonder if book two is going to focus more on the this Anastasia retelling part of the plot. I'm really excited about it.
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I've been a fan of Jay Kristoff for a quite some time now. Before he co-wrote the thrill ride that was Illuminae, he had written a steampunk sci-fi fantasy series names The Lotus Wars, set in feudal Japan, filled with magical creatures, deadly machines, and some pretty epic swordfights.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I've known from the very start that I was going to end up reading whatever Jay Kristoff wrote and that I was going to love it.
But I didn't love this one. And it's not entirely the book's fault.
By all means, I should have loved this. It has everything I could want in a book, and then some. The action was none stop, from the opening lines to the last sentence of the novel, it was a complete roller coaster.
The charcters were fun and compelling and there is a brilliant example of female friendship in this one between Lemon and Eve (and yes, her name is Lemon and I love her). Also with Cricket who was such an entertaining addition to the gang. And let's not forget about Zeke, who only got better as the book progressed because let's be real, for the first few chapters he had the personality of a toaster.
The writing was super fun and fluid. The plot was engaging and fun and interesting. There were many many twists, some of which took me entirely by surprise and left me speechless, some of which didn't surprise me at all, but that's to be expected.
Sadly, my life has been quite hectic lately, and to make matters worse, I'm currently in a serious slump so I wasn't able to enjoy this as I would have liked. I can't blame the book for that
Another thing for which I can't really blame the book is that I could kind of predict when and how things were going to happen. This though is mostly an effect of reading so many books and knowing how stories tend to work, especially when you've read several of that author's books.
Although the slump and the busy life and all the inconveniences that have been plaguing me lately all influenced my low rating, there were some problems I would have had with the book regardless.
The main issue being the romance aspect. I felt a little...flat? A little weird, maybe? A little too Romeo & Juliet?
Also, the pitch is “Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men, with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the sidelines”. I guess it does have elements of all these things, and in fact does have a scene that looked taken right out of Mad Max, but I feel like a more accurate description would be Pinocchio meets I, Robot meets Anastasia, with a little bit of Paradise Lost dropping biblical references from above, but I guess that didn't sound cool enough.
I think if I weren't in a slump this would have been a four-star read, for sure. If my life weren't going to crap right now, and I had read it in less than the three weeks it took me to finish, I would have enjoyed this so much more.
But that's not how it all went down.
So, do I recommend this book? Sure. It's a fast-paced, action-packed thrill ride. It's fun and futuristic and very Jay Kristoff-ish.
I just don't think I was in the right mindset to really read this book. I will definitely be trying to read the sequel because I'm actually really curious at two what happens next.
*** This last part involves a very minor spoiler! Heck, it might not even be considered a spoiler. Read at your own peril! ***
Spoiler
I don't know if y'all caught on to this, but I was getting some serious Anastasia retelling vibes all throughout, and then that ending confirmed it all! Anastasia Monrova, daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov = Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Nicholas and Alexis Monrova.I wonder if book two is going to focus more on the this Anastasia retelling part of the plot. I'm really excited about it.
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