aphrael's reviews
680 reviews

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

This is one of those "chronicling a family" books, luckily mainly focused on the younger generation. I generally don't like books that span generations and different time periods, so this book was a bit out of my comfort zone. Overall I did like the book more than I expected of a book of this type. The way the time periods and type of writing (prose, poems, letters etc) kept switching broke my immersion in the story a lot thought. The book ends on mainly prose (and a few letters), which means the ending kept my attention better than the start.
Many of the characters just send to drift through life. This is realistic but doesn't make for a great story. A lot of the book, especially

the deaths

seem pointless. I get that it's a stort of "slice of life" book, but it feels very manipulative of the writer to include

the death of Digby

as a sort of climax. While I do appreciate the way the book gets into daily life, it's still a fiction book, which means that nothing happens without the writer wanting it to happen. I really don't know what the writer wanted me to take away from this book. I don't think I'll be taking away anything other than this book (and/or life) being rather pointless. It's fairly well written and the younger generation of characters are likeable, but even after reading all those pages I still don't know any reason to read this book.

Jack Glass by Adam Roberts

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

2.75

This book consists on 3 parts, the first a rather rough prison story

that ends with the titular character making a spacesuit out of skin, the weirdest thing I've ever heard, and also stupid because in-world there seems not to be a plausible tech for it either

. The next two stories take part some years later and pretty much follow each other. the book and the plot are interesting but the pace is pretty slow. The characters aren't quite likable or relatable but they are believable. There world building is pretty good. It's almost like a play, it has something theatrical about it, the way the characters interact on such a tiny scale. But I'm the second and third book we find out ||that the gate of the world is in the protagonists hands||. That premise of how human beings deal with advanced technology is super interesting. The book itself maybe was a bit less interesting than the ideas it's playing with. I don't dislike the book but I don't think I like the writing style.

Hoe ik van mijn rijangst afkwam by Titia Hoogendoorn

inspiring fast-paced

3.0

Een vlot en vriendelijk boekje over rijangst. De auteur vertelt haar persoonlijke verhaal en ook verhalen van een aantal anderen, zodat meerdere redenen voor en aspecten van rijangst worden belicht. Het boekje is heel praktisch en aanmoedigend, maar het geeft vooral tips voor mensen die hun rijbewijs al hebben, niet voor mensen die moeite hebben om het rijbewijs te halen. Ik weet niet of het mij echt geholpen heeft of gaat helpen, maar het is wel fijn om op zo'n vriendelijke manier aangemoedigd te worden. Ook al herkende ik mezelf niet zo in de auteur, het verhaal van een van de andere mensen was wel heel herkenbaar, het was fijn om te lezen dat het haar ondanks dezelfde worsteling als ik heb wel gelukt is. 

The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster

mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

I loved the mood of this book. Everyone has their own things to deal with, and they are all mostly just people doing their best. Hetta, the main character, cares a lot for her family even though she doesn't quite feel at home after being away for years. I wish we had seen more of her life before she went back, to get to know her a bit better, but on the other hand starting with the idea of a land-sense was very interesting. The prologue was much more dramatic than the rest of the book, but I kept wanting to read on. There was more mystery than drama, in fact a lot of drama was actively prevented by Hetta, for instance by actually talking about things. I find drama sure to misunderstanding a bit cheap sometimes, so I really appreciated that this book had very little of it. The romantic subplots were interesting without overshadowing the rest of the book, and I like how the playfulness with which Hetta approached romance fit very well with her character. 

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

Fairy tale inspired, but with some modern themes like

domestic violence

. At first I thought this would be one of those books that was macical and tried for beautiful and mysterious prose, but with characters that stay a bit superficial or distant. I was pleasantly surprised that it becamw more personal and relatable further into the book. While it still kept the simple heart of a fairy tale, the characters and scenes had a lot of life to them. The premisethat Marra started on a quest and gathered friends/compatriots around her just made the book more lovely and warm the further the story went. Bonedog was magical but also just a wonderful dog. Just such a really warm and lovely book, even if it's about

murder, something nobody seems to have a problem with

.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse

Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

adventurous fast-paced

3.0

Pretty cool. I love the sense of family in this book.

Although I didn't expect it to turn romantic. Why is it that the romantic interests are always guys who are super powerful and seem to like the main character on first sight. That said, the way the main characters overcome their mistrust and feeling unsafe around each other is lovely.

I like how the main characters recognize and appreciate how much they each care for their family. It's a really short book but lovely.

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Very interesting!

The main character is really capable but fucks up literally all the time, which is an interesting dynamic. Everyone seems to be a lesbian for some reason, it's statistically unlikely but ah well so is magic. 

I did relate to this book a lot, almost everyone means well but there's racism and colonialism and misunderstandings and just stuff happening that people don't have any way to change. It's messy, like real life, which means it's pretty relatable. 

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne

adventurous slow-paced

3.0

It's very sweeping and intricate but the writer also knows how to make things very personal. It's reallhy well done. However, the story is so big that even though I do relate to the characters, I still have to think about who's who at times.

It's interesting that things got almost a bit religious, with a prophecy and a dragon death cult.

That might be my failing, but since it's so big and sweeping, I feel like it'll take a little time before I'm ready for another book in this series.

The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout

adventurous fast-paced

3.0

Ok I'm a bit over it now that Casteel seems so devoid of anything but worship for Poppy. The politics and the story about the gods and war between the two kingdoms is still interesting but the main characters aren't as interesting to me anymore.

Looking back over the whole series I really appreciate that feeling safe and things that seem weird are ok if it's what you want are such big parts of the book, even though the writer does seem to have to stress it a lot to make it actually like that. 

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

adventurous fast-paced

3.0

Was this the one with the first Casteel PoV chapters? The longer this book goes on the more it seems that he's only there to say how amazing the main character is, and that's not helped at all in his PoV chapters. I would have loved to see some more of his character/memories. While Poppy is getting more powerful, he just seems to get less interesting.