cyanide_latte's reviews
1538 reviews

Fate/stay night, Volume 4 by Datto Nishiwaki

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

CASTER AND ASSASSIN, LET'S GOOOO

This volume gets props for them, as well as for further content with Kiritsugu, Fuji-nee and Issei.

Fate/stay night, Volume 3 by Datto Nishiwaki

adventurous dark tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

I have some mixed feelings on this volume, but I will say I think I enjoyed it more than some others.

We get a lot more information from Rider than what those who are more familiar with the Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works anime are accustomed to, especially since she's the one to clarify more about the nature of Heroic Spirits not always being clear-cut heroes of legend. Her presence in this volume delights me.

This is also the volume where we finally learn about Noble Phantasms and their function, which proves further my point that I do feel like this series did serve a needed purpose for accessibility for a lot of newer Western fans when it was released.

Unfortunately this volume also introduces us to Shinji, which, while needed, is its own degree of frustrating and a point against it, in my opinion. Also I'm not sure why but the art in this volume seems pretty bad. Ah well. Can't win 'em all.

Fate/Stay Night Volume 2 by Datto Nishiwaki

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

While the opening moments of this volume serve to show what happens after the cliffhanger of the first one, the first real chunk of this volume is backtracking to the day before, first from the POV of Rin and Archer, as well as interspersing a present discussion between Shirou and Saber with Shirou's day before. The latter chunk also gives us an introduction to Sakura and Fuji-nee, and shows us the start of the fight between Rin and Shirou before the high school comes under attack.  There's a lot more dense lore explanation in this one.  Again, it's not bad and for what it was at the time of its release, I feel it was fairly accessible to a lot of people who only were able to access the manga.  That aside, I do feel like some things could have been handled better and there were plenty of choices here that had me raising a brow.

Summer Fling by Diane Ames

funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this book but it does read a lot like a 90s teen after-school show, which isn't a bad thing!

I would say to go into this and be willing to forgive a lot, otherwise you're not going to have much patience for the characters or the drama they go through. Personally I'm not sure how I feel about that ending, but all-in-all, this wasn't a bad read.

Fiends on the Other Side by Vera Strange

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This wasn't bad. I think for what these books are supposed to be, they fulfill their purpose well and they manage to be fairly eerie. I know this is only the second book in the series but a lot of the same aspects of the writing are also present here that were present in the first one, and I feel like that informs a lot about this series on its own. There's a few quirks I don't care for (such as the constant repetition on the villain's part of one or two of their iconic lines from the associated movie,) but all in all it's not so awful that it would deter me from continuing.

Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

5.0

To my understanding, Lloyd Alexander wrote this because he was of the opinion that more story was needed to show Taran's character growth and development between the previous installment and the final one. And honestly I can say that I'm very glad he went ahead and made this book, because it does very much focus on and showcase the growth of Taran's character in a way that was very much still needed. The same is also true for Gurgi, albeit to a lesser extent.

I do want to say that if anyone is reading the Chronicles of Prydain and you reach this book, don't skip it. Make no mistake that this one is very much a bit of a slow burn, and it goes quite all over the place, but it's worth it for what we get in terms of character growth. It is very much needed and I think overall the final story of this quintet is going to be much richer for what we got in this book and what was focused on. I continue to be very very glad that I am reading this series at last, and this is just so highly underrated among any fantasy children's books I ever hear talked about. I really do think more people need to give this series a shot.

Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy by Serena Valentino

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

I'm going to need to wait until later to write my review for this but ugh oh God, this series is TESTING me.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.0

While I don't think this is one I'll be keeping, this was a lot of fun, very refreshing, and I immensely enjoyed my time with it! I'm going to leave my review at this, because I really think this is a book you're better off going into completely blind, and it's worth the read.

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 5 by Anri Yoshi, Kōhei Horikoshi

funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.25

It took me a while to finally get through this one but I've done so at last and this means there's only one more light novel (in English) for me to read!

Honestly, this one wasn't bad per se, but it really feels like a weaker entry in the series. Perhaps it was trying to cover too much ground at once? Again, not bad, but it didn't keep me engaged all that well.

Part of Your Nightmare by Vera Strange

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was definitely a fun and interesting little book in between everything else. Goosebumps and its many contemporaries from the 90s weren't ever something I read as a kid for a couple different reasons, but when I saw this series listed on Amazon, something about the idea of 90s-esque middle grade horror done with Disney villains seemed like enough fun to get me to try it out.

I don't have much to offer on the plot or the characters at this point in time, but I enjoyed it and was surprised at that rather grim and ruthless ending. Definitely planning on continuing the series to see what the rest are like!