Scan barcode
_readwithash's reviews
150 reviews
Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire
5.0
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the copy of this audiobook
Once again Seanan McGuire does it again.
I love the way each of the books in this series work off of what happened in the prior books, but expands further into McGuire's incredibly developed world. When I first read Middlegame I said in my review, "McGuire's world building was fantastic, but my favorite part was that it was very evident that she has developed WAY more than she let us see," and I'm so happy to report that not only was I right about that, but that there is so much more than I expected. This is the type of series that I could see easily being 20 books, because there is so much space to work with.
For what it's worth, I didn't love the primary narrator in Seasonal Fears, but Tidal Creatures goes right back to being a damn near perfect novel.
Once again Seanan McGuire does it again.
I love the way each of the books in this series work off of what happened in the prior books, but expands further into McGuire's incredibly developed world. When I first read Middlegame I said in my review, "McGuire's world building was fantastic, but my favorite part was that it was very evident that she has developed WAY more than she let us see," and I'm so happy to report that not only was I right about that, but that there is so much more than I expected. This is the type of series that I could see easily being 20 books, because there is so much space to work with.
For what it's worth, I didn't love the primary narrator in Seasonal Fears, but Tidal Creatures goes right back to being a damn near perfect novel.
Golden State by Ben H. Winters
3.0
*disclaimer, I listened to this entirely on audiobook, and a lot of times I don't vibe with audiobooks as much as print books. This may have been an example of that.*
Another mid-tier book this year. It's an interesting concept, in a dystopian world lying is illegal. Characters devote themselves to rituals that require truth telling, and to the record of all of their existence. An extremely devoted cop, trying so hard to live up to his dead brother's reputation, gets called out onto an accident scene, and finds an "anomaly." This crime story unfurls from there.
I think that's where my issue with this book comes in. I bought it because of the cool dystopian premise, but that part of the novel isn't explored, it's mainly just the mystery part, and I'm not a mystery girl. I'm also not a cop story girl, and that's what this is, just wrapped up with a different bow. Additionally, the emotional parts never hit hard, the most interesting parts of this novel are glossed over or summarized quickly, while the tedious parts are explored ad nauseam, and pretty much every character is super annoying.
Another mid-tier book this year. It's an interesting concept, in a dystopian world lying is illegal. Characters devote themselves to rituals that require truth telling, and to the record of all of their existence. An extremely devoted cop, trying so hard to live up to his dead brother's reputation, gets called out onto an accident scene, and finds an "anomaly." This crime story unfurls from there.
I think that's where my issue with this book comes in. I bought it because of the cool dystopian premise, but that part of the novel isn't explored, it's mainly just the mystery part, and I'm not a mystery girl. I'm also not a cop story girl, and that's what this is, just wrapped up with a different bow. Additionally, the emotional parts never hit hard, the most interesting parts of this novel are glossed over or summarized quickly, while the tedious parts are explored ad nauseam, and pretty much every character is super annoying.
Inspection by Josh Malerman
3.0
Ultimately mid.
This book has a good concept, although it is very committed to the gender binary, and the corresponding assumptions about sexuality, which never feels real to me. You're telling me that out of 52 preteens, not one of them was pining for one of their roommates? It was never even considered that if one removes the "distracting opposite sex" that same sex relationships would flourish? Maybe the characters were just too young for that to be seen yet? I don't know, but it prevented this book from taking off for me.
Putting that out of one's mind, the rest of the world building was great. Malerman has a great setting, an interesting concept, and he revealed aspects of his story in a way that was really interesting and kept the reader sort of engaged.
However, I feel mainly like nothing happened in this book. As far as things that did happen, it all felt contrived, not written.
Also, despite most of the characters being 12 years old (if I'm remembering correctly) they were all written like adult characters. That could be because of the results of the experiment they were living, however it again, felt unbelievable to me.
Ultimately this one was fine. I was engaged at parts, other times though I would put the book down for days. I don't regret finishing it, but I can't recommend to everyone. If the premise sounds SUPER engaging for you, it might be worth it. If you're on the fence though, it's time to move onward.
This book has a good concept, although it is very committed to the gender binary, and the corresponding assumptions about sexuality, which never feels real to me. You're telling me that out of 52 preteens, not one of them was pining for one of their roommates? It was never even considered that if one removes the "distracting opposite sex" that same sex relationships would flourish? Maybe the characters were just too young for that to be seen yet? I don't know, but it prevented this book from taking off for me.
Putting that out of one's mind, the rest of the world building was great. Malerman has a great setting, an interesting concept, and he revealed aspects of his story in a way that was really interesting and kept the reader sort of engaged.
However, I feel mainly like nothing happened in this book. As far as things that did happen, it all felt contrived, not written.
Also, despite most of the characters being 12 years old (if I'm remembering correctly) they were all written like adult characters. That could be because of the results of the experiment they were living, however it again, felt unbelievable to me.
Ultimately this one was fine. I was engaged at parts, other times though I would put the book down for days. I don't regret finishing it, but I can't recommend to everyone. If the premise sounds SUPER engaging for you, it might be worth it. If you're on the fence though, it's time to move onward.
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this review copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book wasn't well written. It also wasn't poorly written. We're not in Fourth Wing territory here, but there were multiple inconsistencies strewn about that repeatedly brought me out of the story to say, "that doesn't make sense." That's really the reason for the rating, Now I want to be clear though, that does not mean that I did not ENJOY this book. I actually really enjoyed it.
There are, however, a few things that I think readers could find very off-putting so I'm going to start with that, and then go into the good.
The bad:
-The main character felt like a woman written by a man. (She is a woman written by a man.) We've all seen it, it's super annoying, but once you get past that these books can still be enjoyable. (Artemis by Andy Weir, the original Mistborn series, Riley Sager's entire catalogue except for that one that was just too bad, but I digress) This book has those same vibes. The first 10% I spent thinking, "why make the main character a woman, this is silly," but then somewhere along the line she grew on me and I stopped caring so much. I want to be clear, it didn't get better, I got more tolerant. You might too. But if that's really not your jam, move on to the next book.
-The humor is mostly pop culture cringe. Sometimes it's also funny. Sometimes it isn't. For a character who repeatedly mentions how little she remembers about Earth, she has a pop culture reference around every 4 paragraphs. That annoyed me. However, there was some great humor in this book. (As there should be. This will be shelved with the SFF books, but much like the romantasy/fantasy romance debate, this is definitely a fantasy comedy. Or a cometasy.)
-The main character sexualizes and objectifies everyone. Which amplifies the first two points. Do people really think that way? It made it really difficult to like her for the first, although she did eventually win me over. I'm not entirely sure if that was me getting more tolerant or the character growth though.
The good:
-I love a good time loop. I'll admit, that was all it took for me to request this book, but the trouble with "i start over every time I die" stories is that the reader doesn't really want to see the character's progress erased, so they don't die enough. This was handled in a cool way, that left me wanting more. (admittedly without reading the rest of the series though, it could be a cop out. I'm hoping it sets up this story for something fascinating to come.)
-the magic/worldbuilding/etc. I think if we were looking at Epic Fantasy here I would be let down by the world building because (it's even mentioned in the novel) it felt more like moving through biomes in a video game, where every biome and the people who live in it have to be super distinct from the others, and on a grander scale that doesn't really make sense, but in this type of novel it worked well. I've rarely been so entertained by a "the main character moved from one part of the realm to another for the entire book" book. Plus the magic is neat!
-It was funny. It felt like the author might have been trying too hard on the humor, but a lot of it worked.
Overall: This book certainly has flaws, however if you're looking for a fun, easy, summery fantasy, I would recommend this one.
This book wasn't well written. It also wasn't poorly written. We're not in Fourth Wing territory here, but there were multiple inconsistencies strewn about that repeatedly brought me out of the story to say, "that doesn't make sense." That's really the reason for the rating, Now I want to be clear though, that does not mean that I did not ENJOY this book. I actually really enjoyed it.
There are, however, a few things that I think readers could find very off-putting so I'm going to start with that, and then go into the good.
The bad:
-The main character felt like a woman written by a man. (She is a woman written by a man.) We've all seen it, it's super annoying, but once you get past that these books can still be enjoyable. (Artemis by Andy Weir, the original Mistborn series, Riley Sager's entire catalogue except for that one that was just too bad, but I digress) This book has those same vibes. The first 10% I spent thinking, "why make the main character a woman, this is silly," but then somewhere along the line she grew on me and I stopped caring so much. I want to be clear, it didn't get better, I got more tolerant. You might too. But if that's really not your jam, move on to the next book.
-The humor is mostly pop culture cringe. Sometimes it's also funny. Sometimes it isn't. For a character who repeatedly mentions how little she remembers about Earth, she has a pop culture reference around every 4 paragraphs. That annoyed me. However, there was some great humor in this book. (As there should be. This will be shelved with the SFF books, but much like the romantasy/fantasy romance debate, this is definitely a fantasy comedy. Or a cometasy.)
-The main character sexualizes and objectifies everyone. Which amplifies the first two points. Do people really think that way? It made it really difficult to like her for the first, although she did eventually win me over. I'm not entirely sure if that was me getting more tolerant or the character growth though.
The good:
-I love a good time loop. I'll admit, that was all it took for me to request this book, but the trouble with "i start over every time I die" stories is that the reader doesn't really want to see the character's progress erased, so they don't die enough. This was handled in a cool way, that left me wanting more. (admittedly without reading the rest of the series though, it could be a cop out. I'm hoping it sets up this story for something fascinating to come.)
-the magic/worldbuilding/etc. I think if we were looking at Epic Fantasy here I would be let down by the world building because (it's even mentioned in the novel) it felt more like moving through biomes in a video game, where every biome and the people who live in it have to be super distinct from the others, and on a grander scale that doesn't really make sense, but in this type of novel it worked well. I've rarely been so entertained by a "the main character moved from one part of the realm to another for the entire book" book. Plus the magic is neat!
-It was funny. It felt like the author might have been trying too hard on the humor, but a lot of it worked.
Overall: This book certainly has flaws, however if you're looking for a fun, easy, summery fantasy, I would recommend this one.
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
4.0
Thank you NetGalley for providing me a review copy, although I did purchase and listen to the audiobook.
This review is really interesting because I probably would never have purchased this book m, simply because it’s written entirely as an epistolary work. That said, I think it works really well for this novel, in ways that these types of novels usually don’t.
Other than that, this novel was wonderful. The characters are beautiful, their journeys together are incredible, and it feels primarily to be an exploration of love (in all forms.) I truly enjoyed it. (The audiobook in particular.)
So why only four stars? This book should not have ended where it did. It feels like it’s ending right where the story is beginning, gearing up for the next book. But we need to bring back door stoppers for situations like these. The journey though this novel was so good, but the plot didn’t really start to pick up until around the 50% mark, and it feels as though the book ended right before the natural climax for book one. The timing feels all off.
Still, I eagerly await the next book, and I would recommend this one. (Although maybe wait until you can pick up the next book.)
This review is really interesting because I probably would never have purchased this book m, simply because it’s written entirely as an epistolary work. That said, I think it works really well for this novel, in ways that these types of novels usually don’t.
Other than that, this novel was wonderful. The characters are beautiful, their journeys together are incredible, and it feels primarily to be an exploration of love (in all forms.) I truly enjoyed it. (The audiobook in particular.)
So why only four stars? This book should not have ended where it did. It feels like it’s ending right where the story is beginning, gearing up for the next book. But we need to bring back door stoppers for situations like these. The journey though this novel was so good, but the plot didn’t really start to pick up until around the 50% mark, and it feels as though the book ended right before the natural climax for book one. The timing feels all off.
Still, I eagerly await the next book, and I would recommend this one. (Although maybe wait until you can pick up the next book.)
The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills
4.0
Thank you NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.
This book was such a treat. I'll admit, in the beginning I found myself wondering why I should care about the main character, but that soon dissipated and quickly enough I was devouring this story. The world building was interesting, the gods fascinating, and the technology both incredible and almost painful.
A story about religion, abuse, and oppression, you never really get the big answers you seek, but Mills writes with just enough certainties that you're left feeling satisfied.
My biggest complaint is that I could have used some sort of appendix to remind myself of all of the places, titles, and roles within the book, but I was able to forge on even in uncertainty and found myself really appreciating this unique novel.
This book was such a treat. I'll admit, in the beginning I found myself wondering why I should care about the main character, but that soon dissipated and quickly enough I was devouring this story. The world building was interesting, the gods fascinating, and the technology both incredible and almost painful.
A story about religion, abuse, and oppression, you never really get the big answers you seek, but Mills writes with just enough certainties that you're left feeling satisfied.
My biggest complaint is that I could have used some sort of appendix to remind myself of all of the places, titles, and roles within the book, but I was able to forge on even in uncertainty and found myself really appreciating this unique novel.
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
5.0
Okay I went into this book completely blind, and I am so glad that I did. This was an incredible book, that's hard to read at times, but so so very worth it. Give it a read, please.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
5.0
This is a very strange review for me to write because I truly did not enjoy this book. I don't really like romance, and ultimately the plot just wasn't for me. However, I think to rate Emezi's writing as anything less than perfect would do this book an extreme injustice. I noted 18 quotes in this book, when my average per book is less than 1, for a book I didn't even really like. If that's not a testament to their skill as an author, I don't know what would be.
So ultimately, if you like romance, you need to read this, but even if you don't like romance, there is still so much beauty within these pages, you should probably read it anyway.
So ultimately, if you like romance, you need to read this, but even if you don't like romance, there is still so much beauty within these pages, you should probably read it anyway.
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz
4.0
This is one of those books that I didn't really enjoy reading, it has a lot of very heavy content, and knowing that it is a memoir makes it all the more difficult to read. I do however believe that it is worth reading. Additionally, I think Díaz has one of the most incredible writing styles I've seen in memoir, her prose is beautiful, dramatic, and incredibly unique at times.
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
3.0
This is one of those books that I wanted to enjoy, but instead I went from really enjoying the first few chapters, to becoming more and more disinterested because there was just too much going on for me to feel like I had any connection to the characters.
I'd love to give something else by Okorafor a shot, but I think there's a reason I don't see Lagoon around very often, and I think reading one of her other works will be more interesting
I'd love to give something else by Okorafor a shot, but I think there's a reason I don't see Lagoon around very often, and I think reading one of her other works will be more interesting