cody_crumley's reviews
162 reviews

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.5

“No one thinks of himself as a villain, and few make decisions that they think are wrong. A person may dislike his choice, but he will stand by it, because even in the worst of circumstances, he belives that it was the best option available to him at the time. On its own, being a decent person is no guarantee that you will act well."

The resounding thought I had when finishing the second book in the Inheritance Cycle is why should I care about the major plot points that get revealed at the end of the majority of the journey to get there is disappointing. So far, after crossing the halfway point of Paolini’s fantasy tetralogy, I feel just like Eragon, it is getting crushed by expectations that we’re being set by everyone else.

My major complaint with Eldest comes from the fact that a lot of the interesting and exciting aspects are from an extreme zoomed out perspective. The details about the Empire, Gavatorx, Murzahn, how the Elves, Dwarfs, Humans, and Urgles interact with each other, the history of dragons and their riders, etc. All of the lore that Paolini spent probably huge amounts of time crafting and building is all fascinating. 

The problem then lies with when it zooms in on the finer details, like either Eragon and his decision making, his relationship with Sapheria, his “romance” with Arya, the actual training he goes through to learn his abilities. Eragon suffers from what I consider the “Harry Potter” curse, were the named character of the series is the least interesting/exciting/developed character.

This thought gets doubled down on when improvements and well crafted story beats happen with the other POVs like Rowan and Neshwada. Rowan does a complete 180 from probably the most unnecessary character perspective to easily the most interesting. His growth and change makes complete narrative sense and actually feels like Paolini planned and mapped it out really well. Neshwada also shows growth, but more politically than how Rowan does. She is shown to be able to outsmart the council of elders that control the Varden, while making levelheaded gestures and decisions that show how nature of a leader she is.

Another disappointment is the doubling down on being “Fantasy Star Wars”. We had started to slowly move away from that but man it went back to that well again with some Lord of the Rings sprinkled on top 

I keep getting told that this series is amazing, so maybe my expectations have just been too high, but I hope from this point forward the story beats/plot start to gain its own footing instead of continuing the “Inheritance Cycle” of poor narrative decisions.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

“Twilight, again. Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end”

I have struggled with what to write about this book, my first foray into the writing of Stephanie Meyer. What I know about the Twilight Saga is from what I remembered watching from the movies and how my feelings as a male tween/teen were with anything that I deemed to girly or not manly enough to actually like. Since I am now almost 30, with a group of friends at work I have decided to visit the town of Forks and become immersed in the romance between Bella and Edward. 

I am kinda torn with how this book made me feel. Do I think this is good writing or a good book? No, I think most of the writing is heavy handed and has a large dose of teenage cringe to it. Did I still find Twilight to be an easy, extremely entertaining, and enjoyable? Yes! Very much so! 

I look at this book in the same way that a bad or cheesy show is. I can separate in my brain and acknowledge that there are better books with better writing that tell wonderful stories and have deep, meaningful characters with interesting plot ideas. I can also still say that I was caught up in the romance and the chemistry of Edward/Bella. This book is the definition of “turn your brain off and just enjoy”.

I think this works for the first book in this series, but if every book in the Twilight Saga is like this, where all the characters are paper thin (Ex: All we know about Charlie is he can’t take care of himself, he is a sheriff, and he likes to fish) then we could have a problem, but for the first book that is geared toward tween/teen girls, this is entertaining enough to have me interested in what happens, with “Supermassive Black Hole” on repeat.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

The Watchers by A.M. Shine

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

“Suppressing a smile isn’t easy. The happiness always creeps out somehow. But sadness can be stashed under the skin like a dark secret.”

I have gone back and forth on what I wanted to rate this book. The idea of this book, which takes aspects of Irish/Celtic mythology (perfect time for St. Patrick’s Day) and used that mythos to create subtle mental horror story. While the idea is strong, there are certain aspects of the execution that leave me wanting more from it.

Even though the middle section is the longest, it really feels like nothing major happens. I could see this being cut down to more of a novella sized story, and it benefiting from the shrink in prose. Where the story shines is the beginning, which helps establish Mina, the main POV and what her character dynamics are and the ending which plays into the mental/paranoia aspects. The twist at the end, while kinda telegraphed is still solid enough to be worth it (and also has me looking forward to how the movie adaptation is gonna handle it.) 

Overall, while the story is not everything I wanted, it is a quick enough read/listen that I think is worth giving a shot and more than likely you will get something enjoyable out of it. 

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune — often the surfeit of our own behavior—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars…as if we were villains on necessity”

I can see why this book has such a differing of extreme opinions on whether this book is genre defining or being on someone’s overhyped list. Rio made a book that she is one of the only people who could have, with her background in Shakespeare and theater. Because the direction of the story, the characters, and the overall pacing of the book follow Shakespeare’s tone. “If We Were Villains” is unapologetic about what it is at its core, and it will really depend on the reader to the lasting impact (or lack there of) of this novel. 

As someone who really enjoys Shakespeare style plays, including Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth, having the story follow that traditional flow worked in its favor for me. During one of our book club meetings, the discussion we had after the first act I said that “this comes across as a book that breaking up will hinder it more” and think looking back on it I was correct because of the breaks in the flow. 

My favorite thing about this book is the slow burn on the love triangle between Oliver (who is your POV character, relating the tale to the retired detective), James (Oliver’s roommate and closest friend) and Meredith (Oliver’s “situationship” and part-time lover) The way M.L Rio shows how their on and off screen performances impact their relationships is to be applauded. 

Unfortunately the weakest part of this book is what most of the book is about, which is what happened to Richard of the night that “the incident” happened. It is pretty easy to guess and is probably the least interesting thing about the book. I cared more about what the gravitas of the situation put on the other characters than what actually happened.

The ending and epilogue were well done, and if you were hoping for a warm/fuzzy feeling then be prepared for that feeling to never come. 

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous emotional informative reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Classism

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

“Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.”

One of the things that I have enjoyed getting back into reading is covering series that I either missed out on or tried to get into and for some reason or another just did not. One of the biggest ones I had on my list was the Inheritance Cycle series by Christopher Paloni. Reading through the first book in the series, I can see why teenager me struggled with the initial attempt to read it. Even with it being presented as a Young Adult novel series, it has a lot of heavy lore, that can be deep to digest and tough to keep straight. Overall I think this is a good introduction to the world, with hoping that the next books in the series help resolve and smooth out some of the rougher edges.

One of the most impressive things is that Paloni was only fifteen when he first wrote this story. Even with some of my misgivings and critiques of it, that remains being the most impressive thing. The fact that he had such an imagination and breadth of knowledge to not only create this fantasy world, but to come up with language and history that feels lived in is incredible.

There is a lot of influence with popular media that he would have been reading and watching at that age. The main two that becomes very apparent as you read through is Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Brom is essentially Obi-Wan, even down to the hidden identity. Eragon is Luke, a farm boy who has hidden magic abilities. The Urgals are Orcs, even with how they are organized just like in LotR. While it is not a bad thing and even following the hero’s journey as much as he does, I do hope that later books start to establish their own identity more and rely on tropes from other media less.

One of those pillars that I think Eragon does a great job creating that could be used going forward on that path is the magic system. Having everything be language based and have those words mean so much is great. He does a fantastic job explaining why the “words of power” matter so much and stresses the importance early on. 

Overall I think this does a solid job of establishing what this world is, and really sets the stage for what could be an epic New Adult fantasy world if the right decisions are made. 

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0