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apollo0325's reviews
380 reviews
Play It Cool, Guys, Vol. 1 by Kokone Nata
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Really solid slice of life about 4 endearingly goofy and clumsy guys in different stages of their lives with their own personal struggles and finding each other cool haha genuinely did make me laugh out loud a few times. Souma is my son now. I react very similarly when I goof up đ
How to Cook and Eat the Rich by Sunyi Dean
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
A quick little short story that gives you exactly what you expect with a title like that. This definitely could have been a solid novella, but the short format packed a punch. I love when a rich person gets their comeuppance :)
A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
An incredible exploration of family, generational trauma, vultures and bugs, and how we perceive our particularly cruel and horrible relatives with a dash of supernatural elements. T. Kingfisherâs books are always infused with humor and heart despite the horrific circumstances many of our characters find themselves in. Sam was an excellent protagonist, and I felt for her even more going into my thirties, relationship-less and fat than if I had been 23. Thereâs nothing wrong with any of that, but I think Sam was easy for me to connect with because I too love telling people silly fun facts about the stuff I love (for Sam, itâs bugs. For me, itâs mythology). I also really enjoyed Samâs understanding of her grandmother and the relationship Sam had with her mom felt so real and warm; I love them.
Iâve read 3 T. Kingfisher books now and I can tell you with full confidence, she is now an instant buy author for me.
Iâve read 3 T. Kingfisher books now and I can tell you with full confidence, she is now an instant buy author for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Gore, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Child abuse
Sensitivity to bugs / ladybugs
Sensitivity to birds (vultures)
Zhara by S. Jae-Jones
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had to sit with my feelings on this book before I wrote a review because when I finished the book, I was angry, irritated, and even frustrated. There was wasted potential everywhere bogged down by inconsistent characterization, unnecessary romantic subplot, and yes, we MUST reference BTS in every way we can. My review is full of spoilers so beware.
Iâll breakdown my frustrations one at a time.
My first frustration is how inconsistently our FMC, Zhara is portrayed. Weâre immediately introduced to her as our nervous, shy, and introverted protagonist who loves reading and is of course a magician/magic user. She is our Cinderella as she is the step daughter to a horribly selfish woman and has a little step sister who is blind because of Zharaâs magic. Later on, we learn Shizun was always going to be blind, so did Zhara really actually blind her? No, soooo⌠Anyway, Zhara stutters around her step mother and any authority (until about 70% of the way through the book and then the stuttering suddenly stops) and is a big rule follower in private and in public. Until we meet our MMC, Han. This is when she starts to flirt hardcore and even make sex jokes! But only occasionally because other times, sheâs quiet and attentive, blushing and becoming shy all over again. Huh??? What??? In your first meeting, you cracked a sex joke!!! Why are you suddenly shy now?? The inconsistencies only progress from there where Zhara is so smart one minute and then absolutely oblivious the next just so the audience can be info-dumped. Our BIG BAD ANTAGONIST of the ENTIRE SERIES info dumps in the last chapter right before the epilogue. What the fuck was that?
Which leads to my second point: the pacing. Chapters upon chapters will be a day or two in time, but then suddenly, weâre at the Big Celebration Night?? Zhara is stuck in a kitchen for 3 days, but thereâs no sense of that time happening. Sheâs not talking about her hunger, her smell, nothing. Thereâs no true sense of being betrayed by Shizun because Zhara immediately forgives her without a second thought. That would have been a perfect character moment to harden Zhara to reality or even explored her relationship more with Shizun. I said fuck Shizun after that moment because we hardly get much scenes with Shizun to begin with and the moments we do get she is reduced to âhelpless blind girl #1.â Why would I care about Shizun AT ALL??? Being abused isnât a fucking character trait and I wish people would understand that more. Shizun is a ragdoll for Stepmother or the Chancellor, and her only trait is âomg sheâs a prodigious zither player.â I donât give a fuck because why should I when I know virtually nothing about her?
Han⌠Sweet Han. The victim of a trope of strong man = stupid man. I really enjoyed Hanâs story at first because his position in life gave his story some actual stakes. Anyang being young and a magician, Han being the next in line for the crown thatâs supposed to remove magicians from the Morning Realms. Amazing! I love that. Instead, itâs barely that. Similarly to Shizun, we know virtually nothing about Anyang. Why not? We get these great little moments but what about beyond the times Anyang has nightmares? Where are the moments of tenderness and calm between Han and Anyang that arenât giving Anyang nightmares/night terrors of demon frogs? We have so many moments with Han and Xu; why were we lacking so much with character relationships that should have stakes?? Han himself suffered because of the overly consistent characterization and quickly became very flat by the 40% mark. He became muscled stupid man so quickly.
Truthfully, Yulana should have been the FMC. Her stake in the game is incredibly high and actively feels relevant to the plot. Sheâs the granddaughter of the magician-hating Warlord while she herself is a magician, even the Guardian of the Wind. She actively chooses to be engaged with Han because she needs information, and I think thatâs great! It created this uneasy tension between Yulana and Han, and that was probably one of the better set of character interactions. Also, Yulana being this big lesbian really sent an arrow straight to my heart. Han and her had more chemistry than Han and Zhara! Because guess what? They actually had substantial interactions!
A love story was not necessary to this plot. What we should have been focusing on was the character relationships within the plot like Shizun and Zhara and Han and Anyang. The relationship could have been a beautiful slowburn built on friendship and trust but no. We MUST have them kiss. Why?? Why can we not explore a relationship further instead of immediately jumping into âope, theyâre together now, yay!â WHAT FUCKING CHEMISTRY WAS THERE????? âOmg she looks at me like a normal personâ okay??? Thatâs the dumbest reason to want to be with someone. They barely know each other!
I will give the book points for a few things: the magic system has a lot of potential and is interesting especially when introducing brushes as the conduit for magic and the setting itself is thought out and expansive, making it easy to create a series within it. However, the trappings of this world mean nothing when your characters are simply cardboard cutouts.
The ending⌠What the fuck was this all for? If the crown could have denied the eradication of magicians in the first place, why did any of this start to begin with? Could the magicians of before not protect themselves? Could they have not rebelled against the Warlord like the epilogue says theyâre doing now? I literally donât fucking get it. I donât understand why we went on this journey when they could have just done this in the first place.
My final critique of this book is the not subtle at all inclusion of BTS. I learned from a friend that I was sharing my cringe experience with this book to her about the heavy inclusion of BTS that S. Jae-Jones got into BTS around the time she was writing this book. I think in the future, should you want to include shit like this again, I recommend you stop and think and maybe just write your fun little ideas on a post-it note instead. Everything about the BTS inclusion made me cringe in real life. I had to literally stop my reading to take in the fact that these motherfuckers did a goddamn kpop introduction as if they were on a game show. I fucking lost it. I was MALDING. I kept asking myself why? Why are we doing this? To be cheeky? Because we like BTS?? It was so fucking stupid. It was so goddamn stupid. I think about it and then get unnecessarily angry because WHY. We sacrifice potential character development and relationship development so we can self-insert into a Bangtan Bomb video. Come the fuck on. Itâs so fucking transparently what it is and it makes me so angry. Thank God my friend Iâm buddy reading with has zero context and isnât cursed like I am. She can read those moments in blissful ignorance while I yell from my cave about how annoyingly cringe it was to read it.
Anyway, 2 stars for the setting and magic system. In my heart, Iâd give this a 1 but clearly, I still think about how infuriated this book made me so I guess 2/5.
My first frustration is how inconsistently our FMC, Zhara is portrayed. Weâre immediately introduced to her as our nervous, shy, and introverted protagonist who loves reading and is of course a magician/magic user. She is our Cinderella as she is the step daughter to a horribly selfish woman and has a little step sister who is blind because of Zharaâs magic. Later on, we learn Shizun was always going to be blind, so did Zhara really actually blind her? No, soooo⌠Anyway, Zhara stutters around her step mother and any authority (until about 70% of the way through the book and then the stuttering suddenly stops) and is a big rule follower in private and in public. Until we meet our MMC, Han. This is when she starts to flirt hardcore and even make sex jokes! But only occasionally because other times, sheâs quiet and attentive, blushing and becoming shy all over again. Huh??? What??? In your first meeting, you cracked a sex joke!!! Why are you suddenly shy now?? The inconsistencies only progress from there where Zhara is so smart one minute and then absolutely oblivious the next just so the audience can be info-dumped. Our BIG BAD ANTAGONIST of the ENTIRE SERIES info dumps in the last chapter right before the epilogue. What the fuck was that?
Which leads to my second point: the pacing. Chapters upon chapters will be a day or two in time, but then suddenly, weâre at the Big Celebration Night?? Zhara is stuck in a kitchen for 3 days, but thereâs no sense of that time happening. Sheâs not talking about her hunger, her smell, nothing. Thereâs no true sense of being betrayed by Shizun because Zhara immediately forgives her without a second thought. That would have been a perfect character moment to harden Zhara to reality or even explored her relationship more with Shizun. I said fuck Shizun after that moment because we hardly get much scenes with Shizun to begin with and the moments we do get she is reduced to âhelpless blind girl #1.â Why would I care about Shizun AT ALL??? Being abused isnât a fucking character trait and I wish people would understand that more. Shizun is a ragdoll for Stepmother or the Chancellor, and her only trait is âomg sheâs a prodigious zither player.â I donât give a fuck because why should I when I know virtually nothing about her?
Han⌠Sweet Han. The victim of a trope of strong man = stupid man. I really enjoyed Hanâs story at first because his position in life gave his story some actual stakes. Anyang being young and a magician, Han being the next in line for the crown thatâs supposed to remove magicians from the Morning Realms. Amazing! I love that. Instead, itâs barely that. Similarly to Shizun, we know virtually nothing about Anyang. Why not? We get these great little moments but what about beyond the times Anyang has nightmares? Where are the moments of tenderness and calm between Han and Anyang that arenât giving Anyang nightmares/night terrors of demon frogs? We have so many moments with Han and Xu; why were we lacking so much with character relationships that should have stakes?? Han himself suffered because of the overly consistent characterization and quickly became very flat by the 40% mark. He became muscled stupid man so quickly.
Truthfully, Yulana should have been the FMC. Her stake in the game is incredibly high and actively feels relevant to the plot. Sheâs the granddaughter of the magician-hating Warlord while she herself is a magician, even the Guardian of the Wind. She actively chooses to be engaged with Han because she needs information, and I think thatâs great! It created this uneasy tension between Yulana and Han, and that was probably one of the better set of character interactions. Also, Yulana being this big lesbian really sent an arrow straight to my heart. Han and her had more chemistry than Han and Zhara! Because guess what? They actually had substantial interactions!
A love story was not necessary to this plot. What we should have been focusing on was the character relationships within the plot like Shizun and Zhara and Han and Anyang. The relationship could have been a beautiful slowburn built on friendship and trust but no. We MUST have them kiss. Why?? Why can we not explore a relationship further instead of immediately jumping into âope, theyâre together now, yay!â WHAT FUCKING CHEMISTRY WAS THERE????? âOmg she looks at me like a normal personâ okay??? Thatâs the dumbest reason to want to be with someone. They barely know each other!
I will give the book points for a few things: the magic system has a lot of potential and is interesting especially when introducing brushes as the conduit for magic and the setting itself is thought out and expansive, making it easy to create a series within it. However, the trappings of this world mean nothing when your characters are simply cardboard cutouts.
The ending⌠What the fuck was this all for? If the crown could have denied the eradication of magicians in the first place, why did any of this start to begin with? Could the magicians of before not protect themselves? Could they have not rebelled against the Warlord like the epilogue says theyâre doing now? I literally donât fucking get it. I donât understand why we went on this journey when they could have just done this in the first place.
My final critique of this book is the not subtle at all inclusion of BTS. I learned from a friend that I was sharing my cringe experience with this book to her about the heavy inclusion of BTS that S. Jae-Jones got into BTS around the time she was writing this book. I think in the future, should you want to include shit like this again, I recommend you stop and think and maybe just write your fun little ideas on a post-it note instead. Everything about the BTS inclusion made me cringe in real life. I had to literally stop my reading to take in the fact that these motherfuckers did a goddamn kpop introduction as if they were on a game show. I fucking lost it. I was MALDING. I kept asking myself why? Why are we doing this? To be cheeky? Because we like BTS?? It was so fucking stupid. It was so goddamn stupid. I think about it and then get unnecessarily angry because WHY. We sacrifice potential character development and relationship development so we can self-insert into a Bangtan Bomb video. Come the fuck on. Itâs so fucking transparently what it is and it makes me so angry. Thank God my friend Iâm buddy reading with has zero context and isnât cursed like I am. She can read those moments in blissful ignorance while I yell from my cave about how annoyingly cringe it was to read it.
Anyway, 2 stars for the setting and magic system. In my heart, Iâd give this a 1 but clearly, I still think about how infuriated this book made me so I guess 2/5.
Blackout by Angie Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, Ashley Woodfolk, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Tiffany D. Jackson
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A solid collection of loosely interconnected stories a la âHeâs Just Not That Into Youâ/âValentineâs Dayâ/âLove Actuallyâ centered on black teens during a complete city blackout based in New York City and none of the stories will let you forget that!
Itâs one of my more recent pet peeves with contemporary literature, and while I knew going in that the stories would center on NYC, I figured it wouldnât be THAT bad. I was deluding myself lmao
I originally picked this up because I absolutely loved The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson, but I hadnât read any of the other authors. I definitely want to check out Nic Stoneâs work as I felt his story was one of the strongest ones in the book, but Iâm not sure if I will pick up any of Dhonielle Claytonâs work as I found the 18 footnotes in the span of 25 pages to be a little much and tonally different than the rest of the book; that story was definitely a skimmer for me. Ashley Woodfolkâs story was a bit too insta-love for me, but I overall enjoyed that story, same with Tiffany D Jacksonâs.
Overall, not bad, but some of the stories were overwritten (Angie Thomasâs) or didnât mesh well enough tonally with the rest (Claytonâs).
Itâs one of my more recent pet peeves with contemporary literature, and while I knew going in that the stories would center on NYC, I figured it wouldnât be THAT bad. I was deluding myself lmao
I originally picked this up because I absolutely loved The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson, but I hadnât read any of the other authors. I definitely want to check out Nic Stoneâs work as I felt his story was one of the strongest ones in the book, but Iâm not sure if I will pick up any of Dhonielle Claytonâs work as I found the 18 footnotes in the span of 25 pages to be a little much and tonally different than the rest of the book; that story was definitely a skimmer for me. Ashley Woodfolkâs story was a bit too insta-love for me, but I overall enjoyed that story, same with Tiffany D Jacksonâs.
Overall, not bad, but some of the stories were overwritten (Angie Thomasâs) or didnât mesh well enough tonally with the rest (Claytonâs).
The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Very obvious in its themes and predictable story, but for the target audience of middle grade/young tween readers, itâll be a fun read. I have a lot of questions regarding the world building because I understand why the children of Grandmother had powers, but did they HAVE to marry someone with powers as well? Is that why they canât interact with ordinary humans? But also whatâs the point of having power if youâre not helping the greater community? I probably shouldnât think too deeply about itâŚ
Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This graphic novel is SO GOOD!!!! The art, the story, the characters, and the world building were so interesting and really packed a punch in a short amount of time. Definitely a big recommend for anyone who loves graphic novels, witches and magic, and a fun time.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book still fucking SLAPS so hard. Beautiful writing, elegant prose, excellent characters and setting, and magical and donut-y world building. Caution: look into trigger warnings, but if youâre able to handle it, PLEASE read this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Dysphoria, Outing, Transphobia, Bullying, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Deadnaming, Rape, Violence, Body shaming, and Self harm
Minor: War
Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry
This book was absolutely heart-wrenching, and the fact it was/is the reality of queer kids is even worse. Despite the best efforts, people still think queers are an illness, something that can be âcuredâ when this is who we are. So many drape their homophobia with religion too.
This book is H E A V Y and even so, itâs an understatement. Itâs important but difficult and necessary to have queer books centered on subject matter like this. Every queer story doesnât end in a happily ever after.
Framing it within Greek mythology adds another layer of interest and way to connect to Rayaâs journey. It also felt like a coping mechanism for Raya which is a common trend among queers (shout out to my PJO queers, ayyy).
My only critique of this book is the lack of understanding of time passing. It feels like SO MUCH has happened but then Raya mentions being dropped off four days ago? It felt a bit unclear. Then again, this may have been an intentional choice by the author to show even Raya has no concept of time and self in the latter half of the book.
Lastly, I implore anyone wanting to read this book to PLEASE LOOK AT TRIGGER WARNINGS. This book does not fuck around. For real.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
With every action they make to take away your rights, they adopt an air of phony shame, as if they actually cared about the consequences of their beliefs.
This book was absolutely heart-wrenching, and the fact it was/is the reality of queer kids is even worse. Despite the best efforts, people still think queers are an illness, something that can be âcuredâ when this is who we are. So many drape their homophobia with religion too.
This book is H E A V Y and even so, itâs an understatement. Itâs important but difficult and necessary to have queer books centered on subject matter like this. Every queer story doesnât end in a happily ever after.
Framing it within Greek mythology adds another layer of interest and way to connect to Rayaâs journey. It also felt like a coping mechanism for Raya which is a common trend among queers (shout out to my PJO queers, ayyy).
My only critique of this book is the lack of understanding of time passing. It feels like SO MUCH has happened but then Raya mentions being dropped off four days ago? It felt a bit unclear. Then again, this may have been an intentional choice by the author to show even Raya has no concept of time and self in the latter half of the book.
Lastly, I implore anyone wanting to read this book to PLEASE LOOK AT TRIGGER WARNINGS. This book does not fuck around. For real.
âYou know, the thing about family is that you can choose it. And I choose you.â
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Biphobia, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Torture, Violence, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Outing, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, and Confinement
Note for sexual harassment tag: the kids forced to go to the conversion camp are also forced to watch content of boys kissing boys or girls kissing girls or near sexual experiences between the same sexes. Nothing is explicitly detailed but it is mentioned. I didnât know which tag to choose so I chose that one.
Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
A really lukewarm and rushed end to what started as a really stellar horror middle grade series. I would still definitely recommend it to middle grade readers especially if they enjoy the frights and horrors of Goosebumps or other horror series.
I had really high hopes for this final volume since the last one felt the most rushed and especially with the cliffhanger ending. I don't think we spent enough time with Coco and especially Brian as well as Phil, who felt really underdeveloped over all (why was he constantly comparing himself to Ollie??). We spend most of the novel with the kids constantly talking about their fear of the Smiling Man and hope for Ollie as well as them trying to convince their parents for the "final confrontation" to be resolved in two chapters? That's insane to me. Out of the entire series, this one was the most rushed and this series could have capped at 3 books rather than 4. We don't even get a resolution on the dolled people nor Ruth and Tim.
I still enjoyed the writing and overall horror elements, but I wish there had been more development of the plot and characters and less of a rushed ending.
I had really high hopes for this final volume since the last one felt the most rushed and especially with the cliffhanger ending. I don't think we spent enough time with Coco and especially Brian as well as Phil, who felt really underdeveloped over all (why was he constantly comparing himself to Ollie??).
I still enjoyed the writing and overall horror elements, but I wish there had been more development of the plot and characters and less of a rushed ending.