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caughtbetweenpages's reviews
671 reviews
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
- good and helpful that Mosscap is the one in crisis now, but Dex is still not 100% healing is neither linear nor a thing with a fixed end goal
- idea of commerce in a post-capitalist world really cool, ditto reactions to disability
- awareness is good, but doesn't necessarily help with the self care
- expansion of world, not just seeing new people and new settlements, but watching them, those established things, react to something new
- good that we're in Dex's POV--we're like them--but it's Mosscap's story, M's growth, M's reckoning with itself
- sometimes there are no answers except that you love someone else and the two of you get to exist joyfully even when things are hard
- idea of commerce in a post-capitalist world really cool, ditto reactions to disability
- awareness is good, but doesn't necessarily help with the self care
- expansion of world, not just seeing new people and new settlements, but watching them, those established things, react to something new
- good that we're in Dex's POV--we're like them--but it's Mosscap's story, M's growth, M's reckoning with itself
- sometimes there are no answers except that you love someone else and the two of you get to exist joyfully even when things are hard
Zenith by Lindsay Cummings, Sasha Alsberg
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I knew if I was ever going to read this book it would have to be after the hype for it died down, because having a neutral opinion when the trend is to be performatively low- or high-regarding of a thing is seen as dishonest. And that's what my assessment of Zenith is: completely neutral.
Regarding characters, I found Andi to be pretty flat. She was definitely at her best with her crew, Lira, Breck, and Gilly. While Breck was mostly Just There and Gilly was an eye-rollingly precocious murder-brat, Lira was a rather well rounded character in her own right, with a complex backstory and bonds outside of the crew which (if allowed to hold more conflict and take up more space in the narrative) could have been quite interesting. But the four of them together had an organic chemistry. Did it make sense in terms of them being Hardened Space Pirates? No. (But neither does the Night Court in ACOTAR--everyone loves to have the veneer of badassery without doing anything to back it up in books like this, and I just have to make my peace with it). Andi was at her worst with Dex, the love interest so bland that I truly have nothing to say about him. The dialogue throughout the book was stilted, but when it was an Andi and Dex scene it became so... scripted feeling? Performative? Beyond stiff. There was absolutely zero chemistry between them and I kind of wish he hadn't been part of the story at all.
Who else is of note... Andi's parents are flat characters sans substance, the General is slimy... I did like Nor and her mother, in terms of making things happen. Nor actually lives up to her reputation, though I wish the moments of humanity and anxiety about her rule we saw actually came to more fruition. And her mom is fascinating, though the rape she does to the General by mind controlling him into impregnating her with Valen was awful. I wish there'd been a TW for that, and I worry that it wasn't warned about because it was a woman committing it against a man. Still, the two of them were interesting. Valen was too, and while I understand to some degree the criticism of his repeated line, it's made very clear that that's a thing he's holding on to to keep from losing his identity while being tortured in prison. If you're fine with Arya Stark having a list of people she wants to kill that she repeats every night but not this, consider that your critique is maybe with the authors and not the literary device of repetition (it DOES happen too often on one page to be ok, I will admit).
I think the worldbuilding was rather thin. Part of this may be that the novel was going to be a serialized self-pub thing, and then it was speed written in like 2 months before being put on a crashed publishing schedule. Your plot and characters mustn't fall flat, so if you have to put anything by the wayside, I get why instinct would be to ditch the world, but in SFF especially that's a BAD IDEA. I found the book to be bloated at the length it was, but if there'd been less repetitiveness between Andi and Dex's arguments or Andi moping about the killing she's pretty willingly done, there'd have been room freed up to expand on the world and earn this page count. As it stands, this could've been 200 pages shorter, easy. But it did read fast. The book was not unenjoyable for the flimsiness of the setting; the world not enriching the story didn't make it egregious (harping on moon chew when it's clearly a chewing tobacco corollary is worse reviewing than writing moon chew is writing, actually), and I found the scene-setting to be fairly vivid and colorful overall, if, again, flat in terms of narrative utility and resonance. Pretty set dressing, if you will.
This did unfortunately mean the plot, which centered on the aftermath of an intergalactic conflict, was built on shaky ground. This would normally require higher than average levels of suspension of disbelief (why are each of these planets ruled by One Guy? Why are these rulers so universally Bad At Their Jobs any why are some of them beefing with teenagers? How can space pirates be both "just smugglers looking for the next job to put enough fuel in their ship to get them to their next gig" and also "hardened criminals leaving a galaxy of blood behind them"? And how can just 4 girls man an entire spaceship if they're the latter sort, with only a captain, a pilot, and two gunners as the crew? At least that last fact is why it's so painfully easy to take them over...). However, because the worldbuilding was so flimsy, and thus the contradictions in character and plot specific points were so ubiquitous as to be expected (and thus ignorable), that actually fell by the wayside. Much like Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass, this was very much book candy: no substance, all aesthetics.
And I say SJM specifically; from the glass spaceship (yes, like the glass castle) to the white blonde sword-wielding (yes, swords in space against guns) trust-me-i'm-baddass space pirate protagonist (yes, like the white blonde sword-wielding trust-me-i'm-baddass king's assassin protagonist), to the paper thin world and plot, to the... well, the frankly unbelievable (given we're in space and there's aliens everywhere) cishet whiteness of it all, Zenith is remarkably like ToG. I think if people weren't ready to scrutinize it so deeply given the YouTube success of one of the authors, the same audience that got their start in reading fantasy with TOG and love it would've liked Zenith, too. A little less, perhaps, because Zenith suffers, like Fourth Wing does, from the authors clearly being aware of SJM's success and perhaps parroting it a little too closely. But the quality is pretty comparable, both in terms of overarching craft structure and in terms of writing skill. As I said, book candy.
Will I be continuing on? ...maybe? Certainly not any time soon. But I am a completionist, and it's only a duology, so I just might. I read all of ToG after all, and this is a much smaller lift. Never say never.
Regarding characters, I found Andi to be pretty flat. She was definitely at her best with her crew, Lira, Breck, and Gilly. While Breck was mostly Just There and Gilly was an eye-rollingly precocious murder-brat, Lira was a rather well rounded character in her own right, with a complex backstory and bonds outside of the crew which (if allowed to hold more conflict and take up more space in the narrative) could have been quite interesting. But the four of them together had an organic chemistry. Did it make sense in terms of them being Hardened Space Pirates? No. (But neither does the Night Court in ACOTAR--everyone loves to have the veneer of badassery without doing anything to back it up in books like this, and I just have to make my peace with it). Andi was at her worst with Dex, the love interest so bland that I truly have nothing to say about him. The dialogue throughout the book was stilted, but when it was an Andi and Dex scene it became so... scripted feeling? Performative? Beyond stiff. There was absolutely zero chemistry between them and I kind of wish he hadn't been part of the story at all.
Who else is of note... Andi's parents are flat characters sans substance, the General is slimy... I did like Nor and her mother, in terms of making things happen. Nor actually lives up to her reputation, though I wish the moments of humanity and anxiety about her rule we saw actually came to more fruition. And her mom is fascinating, though the rape she does to
I think the worldbuilding was rather thin. Part of this may be that the novel was going to be a serialized self-pub thing, and then it was speed written in like 2 months before being put on a crashed publishing schedule. Your plot and characters mustn't fall flat, so if you have to put anything by the wayside, I get why instinct would be to ditch the world, but in SFF especially that's a BAD IDEA. I found the book to be bloated at the length it was, but if there'd been less repetitiveness between Andi and Dex's arguments or Andi moping about the killing she's pretty willingly done, there'd have been room freed up to expand on the world and earn this page count. As it stands, this could've been 200 pages shorter, easy. But it did read fast. The book was not unenjoyable for the flimsiness of the setting; the world not enriching the story didn't make it egregious (harping on moon chew when it's clearly a chewing tobacco corollary is worse reviewing than writing moon chew is writing, actually), and I found the scene-setting to be fairly vivid and colorful overall, if, again, flat in terms of narrative utility and resonance. Pretty set dressing, if you will.
This did unfortunately mean the plot, which centered on the aftermath of an intergalactic conflict, was built on shaky ground. This would normally require higher than average levels of suspension of disbelief (why are each of these planets ruled by One Guy? Why are these rulers so universally Bad At Their Jobs any why are some of them beefing with teenagers? How can space pirates be both "just smugglers looking for the next job to put enough fuel in their ship to get them to their next gig" and also "hardened criminals leaving a galaxy of blood behind them"? And how can just 4 girls man an entire spaceship if they're the latter sort, with only a captain, a pilot, and two gunners as the crew? At least that last fact is why it's so painfully easy to take them over...). However, because the worldbuilding was so flimsy, and thus the contradictions in character and plot specific points were so ubiquitous as to be expected (and thus ignorable), that actually fell by the wayside. Much like Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass, this was very much book candy: no substance, all aesthetics.
And I say SJM specifically; from the glass spaceship (yes, like the glass castle) to the white blonde sword-wielding (yes, swords in space against guns) trust-me-i'm-baddass space pirate protagonist (yes, like the white blonde sword-wielding trust-me-i'm-baddass king's assassin protagonist), to the paper thin world and plot, to the... well, the frankly unbelievable (given we're in space and there's aliens everywhere) cishet whiteness of it all, Zenith is remarkably like ToG. I think if people weren't ready to scrutinize it so deeply given the YouTube success of one of the authors, the same audience that got their start in reading fantasy with TOG and love it would've liked Zenith, too. A little less, perhaps, because Zenith suffers, like Fourth Wing does, from the authors clearly being aware of SJM's success and perhaps parroting it a little too closely. But the quality is pretty comparable, both in terms of overarching craft structure and in terms of writing skill. As I said, book candy.
Will I be continuing on? ...maybe? Certainly not any time soon. But I am a completionist, and it's only a duology, so I just might. I read all of ToG after all, and this is a much smaller lift. Never say never.
Shift by Ruby Dixon
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The Shift series takes place on an Earth town known as Pine Falls, which feels very Pacific Northwest town, except instead of the Twilight vampires, we have a town full of best shifters. These shifters live right alongside the human population and in theory it's meant to be a secret (but they do a pretty bad job of keeping it so, at least within the context of these novellas).
Again, sometimes what you need from your entertainment is a little bit of predictability, a little bit of knowing how the story is going to go, and Ruby Dixon just always delivers for me, what can I say? The Shift novellas were quite distinct from her sort of Risdaverse, books in that the shifters are simply different; the bear shifters are far more human-adjacent, not just probably from living in such close proximity to humans, but because they have a literal human form (albeit one that's quite large and sort of ursine.) But I think having more of a tether to humanity allows for Ruby Dixon's bear shifters to... well, be a little bit more human. to be a little bit more varied and complex and to have those humanlike quirks that we have, for better and for worse.
Where it's familiar (and where Ruby's books shine for me) is in the male leads' devotion towards their partners. It does, in the case of the shifters, veer a little bit towards territorial the way that it does in Ruby's dragon books more so than in her masaka books. But because it's less "fated mate"-y, and because the shifters are more human, the level of obsession is just a little bit toned down, like they're a little bit more normal about it? Not that they're normal about it at all but, like, I'm not normal either so like? who am I to judge?
These novellas were spicy, but they were also very very sweet, and they put me in mind of a certain Baldur's Gate 3 druid who I just love so so so dearly.
I think part of the reason that I enjoyed the Shift novellas so much was because we were on Earth rather than in the wide galaxy where humans are at such a distinct disadvantage species-wise. These human women were allowed to have more agency and sort of exist on their own turf and, thus, not be in sort of constant survival mode and fear mode. At no point do any of Ruby's relationships ever feel non-consensual or like dubiously consensual, but I feel like she doesn't shy away in her sort of Risdaverse series from telling you "no, the world is bad, actually. Like, it's really rough to be a human out here." And while those women do love their partners, the partners also in a very real and tangible sense offer them a tremendous amount of safety that they wouldn't have otherwise. In the Shift novellas, that safety was sort of understood as much as safety is for any human woman, and I think removing that sort of looming sense of danger allowed for the romances to take more Center Stage if that makes sense. I had an absolute blast with these.
Again, sometimes what you need from your entertainment is a little bit of predictability, a little bit of knowing how the story is going to go, and Ruby Dixon just always delivers for me, what can I say? The Shift novellas were quite distinct from her sort of Risdaverse, books in that the shifters are simply different; the bear shifters are far more human-adjacent, not just probably from living in such close proximity to humans, but because they have a literal human form (albeit one that's quite large and sort of ursine.) But I think having more of a tether to humanity allows for Ruby Dixon's bear shifters to... well, be a little bit more human. to be a little bit more varied and complex and to have those humanlike quirks that we have, for better and for worse.
Where it's familiar (and where Ruby's books shine for me) is in the male leads' devotion towards their partners. It does, in the case of the shifters, veer a little bit towards territorial the way that it does in Ruby's dragon books more so than in her masaka books. But because it's less "fated mate"-y, and because the shifters are more human, the level of obsession is just a little bit toned down, like they're a little bit more normal about it? Not that they're normal about it at all but, like, I'm not normal either so like? who am I to judge?
These novellas were spicy, but they were also very very sweet, and they put me in mind of a certain Baldur's Gate 3 druid who I just love so so so dearly.
I think part of the reason that I enjoyed the Shift novellas so much was because we were on Earth rather than in the wide galaxy where humans are at such a distinct disadvantage species-wise. These human women were allowed to have more agency and sort of exist on their own turf and, thus, not be in sort of constant survival mode and fear mode. At no point do any of Ruby's relationships ever feel non-consensual or like dubiously consensual, but I feel like she doesn't shy away in her sort of Risdaverse series from telling you "no, the world is bad, actually. Like, it's really rough to be a human out here." And while those women do love their partners, the partners also in a very real and tangible sense offer them a tremendous amount of safety that they wouldn't have otherwise. In the Shift novellas, that safety was sort of understood as much as safety is for any human woman, and I think removing that sort of looming sense of danger allowed for the romances to take more Center Stage if that makes sense. I had an absolute blast with these.
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.0
I think Chuck Tingle did a great job with the tension building and the building to horrific moments; when he puts you in one of those horror scenes where something absolutely nasty is happening, you can't really look away. He forces you to just sort of be in that scene and I found that in the horror books that that I like to read, I enjoy that feeling; that's the sort of thing I go to horror for. I felt actual concern and even fear for Rose and the other characters when they were in these dangerous or sort of horrific circumstances, not only from the Demonic creatures that haunted them, but even from (or rather I should say especially from) the wealthy people in power who are trying to get them to pray the gay away (and some of whom genuinely believe that they are helping the queer youth they're "converting").
I did struggle a little bit with feeling like my hand was being held and that I was being told what to feel about certain things rather than just letting the thing I was shown be bad enough to stand on its own self. I feel like systemic homophobia and a conversion camp are horrific enough. I don't need to also be told this is bad; it's very clear the stance Tingle is taking, the sort of ethos of the story is pointing in that direction. I don't feel that the inclusion of a conversion camp in any way intends to condone the existence thereof.
Also, because we were in Rose's point of view and she is both autistic and actively deprogramming herself from this awful cultish Evangelical upbringing, I was a little more forgiving in the fact that we got some of that telling rather than showing in terms of figuring out her identity as a gay woman, her <spoiler? parents' role in placing her at Damascus , and the cruelty of homophobia and the empowerment that comes with self-acceptance and finding comunity. Shifting from one paradigm of thinking into another paradigm of thinking does (at least in my experience) have a little little bit of that black and whiteness, but I also kind of struggle with the stereotype of the hyper-clinical autistic person, mainly because there's simply not enough alternative autistic representation in books, so there isn't as much to battle those sorts of stereotypes. It's not a red flag but it is something I don't necessarily love , neither in terms of storytelling nor in terms of characterization for an autistic character in particular. But again, because Rose is being fully deprogrammed from a cult, I'm a little more forgiving of it in this circumstance. I do sort of wish other feelings had been elaborated on, like the feeling of well being deprogrammed of losing that sort of built-in sense of community, especially when you are leaving behind the comfort of everything you've ever known (and even though that comfort is a cold one, there is still a tremendous amount of upheaval and difficulty to losing a community like that, even if it harms you). But I get it there was plot to get through, and there wasn't necessarily enough room to dive into those things and still have, like, a good horror genre fiction piece.
And as a piece of horror fiction, I feel that it did a great job. I think the prose read a little bit YA and simplistic for my personal tastes. I was kind of surprised when I saw that this wasn't listed under the young adult category on goodreads but rather the adult category. because I truly felt it read more YA. Despite Rose being 20, she was quite juvenile, simply because that is how she as a young woman in this Evangelical cult was raised to be which... the way that learning that she was 20 made me absolutely shudder given the way that she spoke? excellent job Chuck Tingle. The tension that grew not only as Rose began to cotton on about her sexuality and the demon that possessed her became more and more present and began to physically harm her and those around her , but in the way that the adults in her community began to watch her for signs that she needed to be re-programmed... It was chilling, and I had a hard time putting the book down because I didn't want to leave her there, being watched like that by people with so much systemic power over her. The normalization of everything from Rose not being allowed a door to her room to literal flies erupting from her mouth, all being swept under the rug by the "God works in mysterious ways and it's a sin to question Him, or me as your human father, actually" fundamentalist thing? Even more horrifying than the demons! At least the demons, you can kill.
Contrast that with the love and mutual care of Rose's found family. The circumstances by which they come together is Bad, but they love one another the way they need to be loved, and they literally help one another slay their demons in order to live an honest, free, joyful life. It's the queer dream!
I did struggle a little bit with feeling like my hand was being held and that I was being told what to feel about certain things rather than just letting the thing I was shown be bad enough to stand on its own self. I feel like systemic homophobia and a conversion camp are horrific enough. I don't need to also be told this is bad; it's very clear the stance Tingle is taking, the sort of ethos of the story is pointing in that direction. I don't feel that the inclusion of a conversion camp in any way intends to condone the existence thereof.
Also, because we were in Rose's point of view and she is both autistic and actively deprogramming herself from this awful cultish Evangelical upbringing, I was a little more forgiving in the fact that we got some of that telling rather than showing in terms of figuring out her identity as a gay woman, her <spoiler? parents' role in placing her at Damascus , and the cruelty of homophobia and the empowerment that comes with self-acceptance and finding comunity. Shifting from one paradigm of thinking into another paradigm of thinking does (at least in my experience) have a little little bit of that black and whiteness, but I also kind of struggle with the stereotype of the hyper-clinical autistic person, mainly because there's simply not enough alternative autistic representation in books, so there isn't as much to battle those sorts of stereotypes. It's not a red flag but it is something I don't necessarily love , neither in terms of storytelling nor in terms of characterization for an autistic character in particular. But again, because Rose is being fully deprogrammed from a cult, I'm a little more forgiving of it in this circumstance. I do sort of wish other feelings had been elaborated on, like the feeling of well being deprogrammed of losing that sort of built-in sense of community, especially when you are leaving behind the comfort of everything you've ever known (and even though that comfort is a cold one, there is still a tremendous amount of upheaval and difficulty to losing a community like that, even if it harms you). But I get it there was plot to get through, and there wasn't necessarily enough room to dive into those things and still have, like, a good horror genre fiction piece.
And as a piece of horror fiction, I feel that it did a great job. I think the prose read a little bit YA and simplistic for my personal tastes. I was kind of surprised when I saw that this wasn't listed under the young adult category on goodreads but rather the adult category. because I truly felt it read more YA. Despite Rose being 20, she was quite juvenile, simply because that is how she as a young woman in this Evangelical cult was raised to be which... the way that learning that she was 20 made me absolutely shudder given the way that she spoke? excellent job Chuck Tingle. The tension that grew not only as Rose began to cotton on about her sexuality and the demon
Contrast that with the love and mutual care of Rose's found family. The circumstances by which they come together is Bad, but they love one another the way they need to be loved, and they literally help one another slay their demons in order to live an honest, free, joyful life. It's the queer dream!
A Crown So Cursed by L.L. McKinney
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I think A Crown So Cursed did a pretty solid job of concluding the plot that was going on, and it did a pretty solid job of concluding Alice's arc in specific, but I felt that there were some threads left untied from the previous book that I really wanted to see closed up in this one, so I'm hoping that we either get some sort of spin-off or bonus book in The Nightmareverse to wrap up all those final loose ends and explain some things a little further that I felt were kind of neglected within A Crown So Cursed.
My series review wraps it all up in more depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkE_D01YUPY
My series review wraps it all up in more depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkE_D01YUPY
A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney
adventurous
emotional
fast-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? Yes
4.0
The SG app on my phone deleted my detailed review so I'll just do a tiny elaboration on my note bullet points, because this does deserve a good review! It's my favorite of the series.
- ADSD is an absolute success as a sequel for me. McKinney expands on the world not only in the sense that we see more of the Wonderland setting physically, but we also learn more about the local customs and mores (Wonderland is WAY more medieval-ish fantasy than I expected based on the source material and based on the characters we'd already seen! But also super not?) the introduction of the In Between as the space between Wonderland and Earth where both worlds bleed into each other and it acting as kind of a fairy ring that you need a guide to get through is quite cool! We also get expansion on the characters we know and love, with not only more backstory from Maddi and Hatta but actually seeing some POV chapters from Hatta's perspective. It delves into his madness, and into his history, which enriches the backstory of all of wonderland from a POV Alice has no tangible way of accessing. Plus, we get more Duchess, Courtney, Dee and Dem, Xelon, and Odabeth, all of whom I adore.
- I'm thrilled that Alice's family is being brought further into the story. It's so easy to make parents seem absent or stupid in YA urban fantasy where the protagonist has to constantly duck them, and while that worked well as a device in book one, by this book things get complicated enough that I don't know how it would succeed. Alice's mom being thrust into the world by Humphrey attacking Alice at her own house and having a hard-introduction into the world felt true to the world (where Wonderland is bleeding into the real world) and to the raising stakes of the plot. Plus it felt necessary for Alice to have a parent there to support her as much as possible, and Tina's struggle with her baby being constantly put in danger while Tina can't do anything to help... the emotional charge of that was great. Also, Nana K giving Alice an heirloom necklace that has a connection to Wonderland?? I know what roses mean in the Alice in Wonderland mythos. Does Nana K have a connection to Wonderland? Was she a dreamwalker? Is she a descendant of one of the missing queens? Is that why Alice has so much Muchness?? it raises so many questions, and gives more reason for Nana to be in the story, which I love, because she's a great character. I love all the Kingston women's interrelationships. The three generations of them are simply god tier.
- We get introduced to cool new characters alongside the new elements of Wonderland, specifically Romi the Eastern Gate guardian and Haruka, her Dreamwalker. Alice as a big anime nerd getting to go to Japan felt simply right, and I wish she got to stay there longer. I do wish we got more characterization of Haruka, but I bet that will happen in book 3 given the creation of the Dreamwalker group chat where she, Alice, Dee and Dem are all becoming real life friends and keeping in touch with folks who get their exact weird life circumstances. AND THE DRAGONS <3333
- Ok more on the dragons because I really do love them. I love the gentle Wonderland twist to them (they were called furies, and I wish it'd been bandersnatches or jabberwocks, or even mock turtles, to really get that Carroll-esque wonderland back in there), and the introduction of what felt like an upcoming plot point with the dragon that used to belong to a queen who won't take a rider anymore... idk, I think maybe it'll come through for Alice when she needs it someday soon!
- And then we have the characters we do know, but with a twist. The Black Knight getting backstory reveals as his memory of his life as the Red Knight/Humphrey/Hatta's boyfriend coming back in pieces is so fun and fraught and incredibly messy. I love a reformed villain arc, but he's going to have a lot of work to do to win over Alice. And dark!Chess after the slithe takeover from the last book! Nothing gets me so much as a character losing themselves to something but being called back to themselves by someone they love... and then that calling back not working. So much tension and drama interpersonally, on top of a fast paced plot and a big bad who just won't quit??
- Speaking of, the Bloody Lady is a formidable foe, and the final battle scene was an absolute delight. Alice really leveled up in this installment, and I can't wait for book 3!
- ADSD is an absolute success as a sequel for me. McKinney expands on the world not only in the sense that we see more of the Wonderland setting physically, but we also learn more about the local customs and mores (Wonderland is WAY more medieval-ish fantasy than I expected based on the source material and based on the characters we'd already seen! But also super not?) the introduction of the In Between as the space between Wonderland and Earth where both worlds bleed into each other and it acting as kind of a fairy ring that you need a guide to get through is quite cool! We also get expansion on the characters we know and love, with not only more backstory from Maddi and Hatta but actually seeing some POV chapters from Hatta's perspective. It delves into his madness, and into his history, which enriches the backstory of all of wonderland from a POV Alice has no tangible way of accessing. Plus, we get more Duchess, Courtney, Dee and Dem, Xelon, and Odabeth, all of whom I adore.
- I'm thrilled that Alice's family is being brought further into the story. It's so easy to make parents seem absent or stupid in YA urban fantasy where the protagonist has to constantly duck them, and while that worked well as a device in book one, by this book things get complicated enough that I don't know how it would succeed. Alice's mom being thrust into the world by
- We get introduced to cool new characters alongside the new elements of Wonderland, specifically Romi the Eastern Gate guardian and Haruka, her Dreamwalker. Alice as a big anime nerd getting to go to Japan felt simply right, and I wish she got to stay there longer. I do wish we got more characterization of Haruka, but I bet that will happen in book 3 given the creation of the Dreamwalker group chat where she, Alice, Dee and Dem are all becoming real life friends and keeping in touch with folks who get their exact weird life circumstances. AND THE DRAGONS <3333
- Ok more on the dragons because I really do love them. I love the gentle Wonderland twist to them (they were called furies, and I wish it'd been bandersnatches or jabberwocks, or even mock turtles, to really get that Carroll-esque wonderland back in there), and the introduction of what felt like an upcoming plot point with
- And then we have the characters we do know, but with a twist. The Black Knight getting backstory reveals as
- Speaking of, the Bloody Lady is a formidable foe, and the final battle scene was an absolute delight. Alice really leveled up in this installment, and I can't wait for book 3!
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
After the events of the first book, it is no longer safe for Vasya to remain in her hometown so she and her magical horse Solovey end up doing what Vasya has always wanted to do, which is bucking off the sort of expectations put on daughters and female children and going off to see the wider world and explore and have all of these adventures. It does not go easy for Vasya at first because, again, as a young girl who sort of been in one village her entire life, she is woefully unprepared for The Wider World At Large. Luckily the spirit of the winter known as Morozko has an affinity for Vasya and keeps an eye out for her; he teaches her how to dress like a boy and how to hold her own in a knife fight (which is a skill that she will need to use if she is planning on masquerading as a boy and going out throughout the Wilderness). And as Vasya ends up going out on these adventures she realizes that tartars are coming in and ruining and burning Russian villages down to the ground, and the people, the *victims* of these crimes predominantly end up being women and children, and obviously as a woman and former child herself, she feels a deep affinity for these girls and wants to figure out a way to help them, even if that means going to Moscow to appeal to her cousin the Tzar and thus putting a lot of attention on herself and making it so that her status as a human woman is discoverable and the story really goes from there.
The Girl in the Tower does everything that I want my sequels to do in that it expands on everything that was established in book one. Obviously the world gets bigger because we see more of it with Vasya's travel going out and about, we see the way that other people live. Vasya grew up quite privileged (regardless of how constrainted she was as a woman during this time and in this place); she's never been hungry, she has never been sick without there being help around, and she's never been in a place where the spirits/the cherti have been as weakened as they have in the rest of Russia by the overwhelmingly rising tide of Christianity. Obviously, around her who could see them and who worshiped them, they were very, very strong, but now she's coming across ones that can't help her as much. And on top of that, the winter is slowly giving way to spring so even Morozko's power is not as omnipresent and strong as it was in the first book. You can't really rely on him in The Girl in the Tower to get Vasya out of trouble if she needs, at least not all the time.
On the other hand, Vasya has never seen any sort of thing quite as grand as the great city of Moscow and the enormous streets and the bazaars and the wealth of people from all walks of life. It's all very very grand to her as a pretty much Village girl from a farm. She's completely naive to the political machinations that are necessary for the powerful to survive in these sorts of situations, whether or not they are rich, whether or not they are influential, there's always sort of the noose around their neck of somebody more powerful than them who is ready to pull and take advantage and put somebody else in their place if they're not careful.
These are things that Vasya's siblings who ended up leaving in BatN but feature heavily in this book--her older sister Olga and her older brother Sasha, who is a priest but is also sort of like a warrior priest who's traveling a lot--they know that very, very well. And so as Vasya is reintroduced to these people who she loved as a child, and who she loves still but who can't quite trust her in the same way because she's breaking all of these social rules and mores, there's a lot of clashes within this family. It doesn't make their family bond any less strong, but it does make it more on the knife's edge and teetering and dangerous for all involved parties.
And of course if Vasya's secret of knowing about the house spirits was a small danger in the previous book, in The Girl in the Tower we recognize that the far greater threat is pretending to be a boy. The spirits are one thing, madness is one thing. To buck against a society that has very very strict rules and limitations for what women are allowed to do? That is a far more dangerous thing and that is a far more difficult thing for her to reckon with, even as her popularity and her star is on the ascent as she pretends to be Vasili Petrovich, the threat of being revealed to be herself of being Vasilisa Petrovna hangs ever more ominously above her head.
And though I said that the cherti that Vasya interacts with and encounters in The Bear--pardon me, in The Girl in the Tower are weaker than the ones that we had witnessed before, that does not make the elements of magic any less intense and strong, which I won't elaborate on further given that it is incredibly spoilery and I feel like everyone should read these books so I don't want to spoil anyone and otherwise discourage them from picking this book up themself.
Also the relationship between Vasya and Morozko grows in a tremendous way in this book. In the first book when Vasya is still very much a child, there is a very caring relationship for one to the other but as she matures and grows and as she becomes a little more wise to the ways of the world, the relationship between the two not only becomes deeper in the sense that she recognizes the feelings that she has for him and vice versa are not necessarily so childlike and immature in nature, but also she begins to recognize his fallibility and that she is not the only one benefiting from the two of them seeing and knowing about one another, if that makes sense. I very much enjoy both of them sort of stumbling into feelings for one another and figuring out what those mean and those incredibly charged moments that the two of them have with one another, while at the same time (because, again, spring is coming and because we are in Moscow and therefore surrounded by Christianity) Morozko is weaker and weaker and Vasya ends up having to not only save him but save herself as well.
I feel like Vasya really becomes a woman in this book, in that before she had the wide-eyed wonder and naivete of, like, the Maiden in the fairy tale archetype way, whereas now she understands a lot more, for better or worse. And the things that she understands aren't always beautiful but they are always important.
The Girl in the Tower does everything that I want my sequels to do in that it expands on everything that was established in book one. Obviously the world gets bigger because we see more of it with Vasya's travel going out and about, we see the way that other people live. Vasya grew up quite privileged (regardless of how constrainted she was as a woman during this time and in this place); she's never been hungry, she has never been sick without there being help around, and she's never been in a place where the spirits/the cherti have been as weakened as they have in the rest of Russia by the overwhelmingly rising tide of Christianity. Obviously, around her who could see them and who worshiped them, they were very, very strong, but now she's coming across ones that can't help her as much. And on top of that, the winter is slowly giving way to spring so even Morozko's power is not as omnipresent and strong as it was in the first book. You can't really rely on him in The Girl in the Tower to get Vasya out of trouble if she needs, at least not all the time.
On the other hand, Vasya has never seen any sort of thing quite as grand as the great city of Moscow and the enormous streets and the bazaars and the wealth of people from all walks of life. It's all very very grand to her as a pretty much Village girl from a farm. She's completely naive to the political machinations that are necessary for the powerful to survive in these sorts of situations, whether or not they are rich, whether or not they are influential, there's always sort of the noose around their neck of somebody more powerful than them who is ready to pull and take advantage and put somebody else in their place if they're not careful.
These are things that Vasya's siblings who ended up leaving in BatN but feature heavily in this book--her older sister Olga and her older brother Sasha, who is a priest but is also sort of like a warrior priest who's traveling a lot--they know that very, very well. And so as Vasya is reintroduced to these people who she loved as a child, and who she loves still but who can't quite trust her in the same way because she's breaking all of these social rules and mores, there's a lot of clashes within this family. It doesn't make their family bond any less strong, but it does make it more on the knife's edge and teetering and dangerous for all involved parties.
And of course if Vasya's secret of knowing about the house spirits was a small danger in the previous book, in The Girl in the Tower we recognize that the far greater threat is pretending to be a boy. The spirits are one thing, madness is one thing. To buck against a society that has very very strict rules and limitations for what women are allowed to do? That is a far more dangerous thing and that is a far more difficult thing for her to reckon with, even as her popularity and her star is on the ascent as she pretends to be Vasili Petrovich, the threat of being revealed to be herself of being Vasilisa Petrovna hangs ever more ominously above her head.
And though I said that the cherti that Vasya interacts with and encounters in The Bear--pardon me, in The Girl in the Tower are weaker than the ones that we had witnessed before, that does not make the elements of magic any less intense and strong, which I won't elaborate on further given that it is incredibly spoilery and I feel like everyone should read these books so I don't want to spoil anyone and otherwise discourage them from picking this book up themself.
Also the relationship between Vasya and Morozko grows in a tremendous way in this book. In the first book when Vasya is still very much a child, there is a very caring relationship for one to the other but as she matures and grows and as she becomes a little more wise to the ways of the world, the relationship between the two not only becomes deeper in the sense that she recognizes the feelings that she has for him and vice versa are not necessarily so childlike and immature in nature, but also she begins to recognize his fallibility and that she is not the only one benefiting from the two of them seeing and knowing about one another, if that makes sense. I very much enjoy both of them sort of stumbling into feelings for one another and figuring out what those mean and those incredibly charged moments that the two of them have with one another, while at the same time (because, again, spring is coming and because we are in Moscow and therefore surrounded by Christianity) Morozko is weaker and weaker and Vasya ends up having to not only save him but save herself as well.
I feel like Vasya really becomes a woman in this book, in that before she had the wide-eyed wonder and naivete of, like, the Maiden in the fairy tale archetype way, whereas now she understands a lot more, for better or worse. And the things that she understands aren't always beautiful but they are always important.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I've been a Vlog Brothers fan since I was I think in, like, middle school or high school, and I have read everything that John Green has ever written and for me The Anthropocene Reviewed is the best thing he's ever done. The humor and the compassion and the passion with which he writes about these various topics, whether he five- or one-stars them, acts not only as a sort of viewpoint into this one man's mind and his feelings about the world, but also in a very real way creates a pastiche and a collage of the anthropocene/the human era. But also those aren't the things that *I* necessarily would have chosen to write about as a emblematic portion of stuff to review from the anthropocene, and I'm pretty sure they're not the things that *you* watching this would have chosen if you were the one writing an Anthropocene Reviewed book. So in addition to being a collage that's emblematic of this time, it's also a collage that's very emblematic of John Green's time on this world and the things that he chooses to put his focus on. So it's an anthropologic study, but maybe it's mostly an anthropologic study of John Green and his preoccupations. I don't know. But I did very much enjoy it! Many of these scripts were written during the covid times, so there is a sort of everpresent sort of looming cloud of the awareness of that Great and Ongoing human tragedy coloring the feelings about the other things being talked about, but that in no way detracts from the honesty with which they are written. I really don't know how to talk about this further; it's it's so specific and each individual chapter (I guess you'd call it section?) of the book is its own unique thing, and the collection of them as I mentioned earlier are quite eclectic, so it's hard to talk about how one bridges into the other very much (if it bridges at all).
Suitor Armor, Season 2 by Purpah
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What I really enjoy about Suitor Armor and why I've continued reading it is because of the character work. I feel like the author is doing a very good job of creating complex circumstances that characters have to react to. It creates conflict even between people who, in theory, love each other and, in theory, want to do best for each other but simply can't overcome certain complications that arose because they have contrasting information or are simply in different positions sociopolitically, and thus cannot see things the same way. It's a comic so it's harder to demonstrate internality, but I think Purpah's art style makes for very expressive characters and the art does as heavy a lift as the text (if not more so) for demonstrating the Big Feelings the characters have about their conflicts.
I had a couple of complaints in season 1 about Lucia's passivity and overabundance of optimism, but I feel like in season 2 we really see a little bit more of the traits that we enjoyed in her in season 1--her pragmatism and her ability to empathize and be kind and compassionate--but also we see her kind of grow a backbone and realize, like, "no, I can't just nice people out of their bigotry; I I need to stand up for things and put my money where my mouth is in terms of my moral standings, otherwise I'm complicit in some of the cruelties that other people are taking part in, just because I'm not standing against them." So seeing her grow into herself and sort of take agency over her ability to do magic and her position within the court was really empowering and I really enjoyed seeing that growth in her. I also enjoyed seeing her sort of un-isolate herself and find a greater support system among her friends (including but obviously not limited to Modeus, though I do really enjoy Lucia and Modeus's relationship).
And then (it's very hard to talk about it without spoiling, so I'll just say:) the twist that happened at the end, the sort of cliffhanger that we're left off at, was....really rough and horrifying, and I'm really glad that I waited to read it until another couple of episodes were out from the season 3 of this webtoon because if I had to end the story on THAT cliffhanger? I would have lost my ever loving mind.
I had a couple of complaints in season 1 about Lucia's passivity and overabundance of optimism, but I feel like in season 2 we really see a little bit more of the traits that we enjoyed in her in season 1--her pragmatism and her ability to empathize and be kind and compassionate--but also we see her kind of grow a backbone and realize, like, "no, I can't just nice people out of their bigotry; I I need to stand up for things and put my money where my mouth is in terms of my moral standings, otherwise I'm complicit in some of the cruelties that other people are taking part in, just because I'm not standing against them." So seeing her grow into herself and sort of take agency over her ability to do magic and her position within the court was really empowering and I really enjoyed seeing that growth in her. I also enjoyed seeing her sort of un-isolate herself and find a greater support system among her friends (including but obviously not limited to Modeus, though I do really enjoy Lucia and Modeus's relationship).
And then (it's very hard to talk about it without spoiling, so I'll just say:) the twist that happened at the end, the sort of cliffhanger that we're left off at, was....really rough and horrifying, and I'm really glad that I waited to read it until another couple of episodes were out from the season 3 of this webtoon because if I had to end the story on THAT cliffhanger? I would have lost my ever loving mind.
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Though this book is relatively short--I don't think it breaks 200 pages--it packs one hell of a punch. I used to think that I struggled with novellas and that I didn't like them very much because I always felt that something was missing, whether it come from the plot or the world building or the characters, always something somewhere would give, but perhaps I just hadn't been reading the right novellas up till now, because this had all of those factors in spades.
I think P Djeli Clark is kind of a master of worldbuilding, and not just in the terms of creating the world, but in terms of figuring out how much of it one needs to reveal to create a cohesive narrative in itself. So the Kluxes, the monsters in this world that Maryse and her friends are trying to destroy and save the world from, are kind of monsters hidden amongst men. They were allowed into this world based on the overwhelming festering hatred within members of the KKK that already existed and more and more are let in as this hatred grows in other human beings and other tremendously racist things going on during this time in American history. So they fester within the hatred of these people and eventually they fully take over and consume the vessel from inside out until there's nothing but an inhuman, hungry, evil thing remaining. And what makes it worse is that--not just within the plot of the story but overall within the world that P Djeli Clark has created--these creatures are intentionally spread, this hatred is intentionally encouraged within others to make more room for this monstrous, hungry entity that wants to come in and take over.
On the less horrific and more our-protagonist-centered side of things, there's also a beautiful exploration of the folklore. Each section of this book is begun by a historical exploration of what ring shouts are and they're just woven into The Narrative of this book without, you know, a tremendous amount of explanation. They are as true and as real (even more true and more real) than the hatred and the bigotry of the KKK. But where Ring Shout really stood out for me was its character work. I really loved Maryse and her friends (both those on this world and in the spiritual world where Maryse has a connection to) all of them have suffered a tremendous degree of loss but are still all called together to fight this threat, not just to themselves but to the world at large. But instead of being sort of dour and bound and restrained by this, like, tremendous degree of purpose that they all have, together they find that their community and their love for one another and the support and the joy that they can find together is actually the greatest strength that they have, even more so than magical swords.
A really important element of this story and Maryse's journey overall is Maryse's reckoning with her own emotions and, at first, her refusal to deal with her trauma and her festering of her own hatred against these people who have harmed her and her family seem seems like it is the strength that she needs to defeat the Kluxes and their whole deal. But ultimately where she draws her strength from and where her success in the end comes from is not from hatred but from love, the tremendous amount of love, that she has for her friends and they have for her. Truly have no notes. I cannot wait for the next thing that P Djeli Clark writes cuz I will be picking it up.
I think P Djeli Clark is kind of a master of worldbuilding, and not just in the terms of creating the world, but in terms of figuring out how much of it one needs to reveal to create a cohesive narrative in itself. So the Kluxes, the monsters in this world that Maryse and her friends are trying to destroy and save the world from, are kind of monsters hidden amongst men. They were allowed into this world based on the overwhelming festering hatred within members of the KKK that already existed and more and more are let in as this hatred grows in other human beings and other tremendously racist things going on during this time in American history. So they fester within the hatred of these people and eventually they fully take over and consume the vessel from inside out until there's nothing but an inhuman, hungry, evil thing remaining. And what makes it worse is that--not just within the plot of the story but overall within the world that P Djeli Clark has created--these creatures are intentionally spread, this hatred is intentionally encouraged within others to make more room for this monstrous, hungry entity that wants to come in and take over.
On the less horrific and more our-protagonist-centered side of things, there's also a beautiful exploration of the folklore. Each section of this book is begun by a historical exploration of what ring shouts are and they're just woven into The Narrative of this book without, you know, a tremendous amount of explanation. They are as true and as real (even more true and more real) than the hatred and the bigotry of the KKK. But where Ring Shout really stood out for me was its character work. I really loved Maryse and her friends (both those on this world and in the spiritual world where Maryse has a connection to) all of them have suffered a tremendous degree of loss but are still all called together to fight this threat, not just to themselves but to the world at large. But instead of being sort of dour and bound and restrained by this, like, tremendous degree of purpose that they all have, together they find that their community and their love for one another and the support and the joy that they can find together is actually the greatest strength that they have, even more so than magical swords.
A really important element of this story and Maryse's journey overall is Maryse's reckoning with her own emotions and, at first, her refusal to deal with her trauma and her festering of her own hatred against these people who have harmed her and her family seem seems like it is the strength that she needs to defeat the Kluxes and their whole deal. But ultimately where she draws her strength from and where her success in the end comes from is not from hatred but from love, the tremendous amount of love, that she has for her friends and they have for her. Truly have no notes. I cannot wait for the next thing that P Djeli Clark writes cuz I will be picking it up.