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eliotts_library's Reviews (1.01k)
I’m not even going to bother writing a review. Just do yourself a favour and skip this one if you’re not a big fan of sexism, classism, racism, fetishism, slut-shaming, and fat-shaming (just to name a few of the issues I had with this book)
YES. BITCH. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED IM SO PLEASED!!
Proper review to come! I need to gather my thoughts oh man this book was fantastic
EDIT
2 months later and here I am!! Not ever writing a proper review but oh well!
I love love loved this book with all my heart. I was skeptical going into it but within the first couple pages I was hooked. I loved everything from the character, the dialogue and witty banter, the plot, the pace, the world. All of it. It was absolutely amazing and if you have absolutely any interest in this book I would HIGHLY recommend you pick it up! You won't regret it
Proper review to come! I need to gather my thoughts oh man this book was fantastic
EDIT
2 months later and here I am!! Not ever writing a proper review but oh well!
I love love loved this book with all my heart. I was skeptical going into it but within the first couple pages I was hooked. I loved everything from the character, the dialogue and witty banter, the plot, the pace, the world. All of it. It was absolutely amazing and if you have absolutely any interest in this book I would HIGHLY recommend you pick it up! You won't regret it
I read this entire book in a day, which is something I haven’t done since The Raven Cycle.
Y’all
This book was FANTASTIC
I normally really really hate insta-love, but with this book I was so here for it. I fell for this couple almost as quickly as they fell for each other. Rook is both a sweet heart and a childish, petty ass hole and I love him SO MUCH! I loved the bickering, the antagonizing, all the purposely being annoying just to piss each other off. And then all those moments of super sweet tenderness that made me melt. I also really liked the way the author wrote the fairy realm, everyone does it a bit different and I really enjoyed how ruthless, cruel, and inhuman the fair ones in this book are
I will say that this wasn’t the best written book I’ve ever read, I found it was too fast and could have been a bit longer so it didn’t feel so rushed. I also found the ending to be waaaay too easy, like impossibly easy there should have been significantly more struggle. But it’s still 100% a 4 star book because I loved the couple and other characters so much, and I’m a sucker for fairies and stuff <3
Y’all
This book was FANTASTIC
I normally really really hate insta-love, but with this book I was so here for it. I fell for this couple almost as quickly as they fell for each other. Rook is both a sweet heart and a childish, petty ass hole and I love him SO MUCH! I loved the bickering, the antagonizing, all the purposely being annoying just to piss each other off. And then all those moments of super sweet tenderness that made me melt. I also really liked the way the author wrote the fairy realm, everyone does it a bit different and I really enjoyed how ruthless, cruel, and inhuman the fair ones in this book are
I will say that this wasn’t the best written book I’ve ever read, I found it was too fast and could have been a bit longer so it didn’t feel so rushed. I also found the ending to be waaaay too easy, like impossibly easy there should have been significantly more struggle. But it’s still 100% a 4 star book because I loved the couple and other characters so much, and I’m a sucker for fairies and stuff <3
RTC!
9 months later
Wow I'm bad at getting around the actually reviewing the books that I mark as RTC. WHOOPS.
Anyways. This book is.... difficult to describe. I didn't like it, but at the same time I always think fondly of it whenever I see it on my shelf. I found the characters to be odd, not necessarily in a good way, and yet I missed them after I finished it. I don't get it. Maggie Steifvater somehow managed to write a book that I wanted to DNF but couldn't bring myself to do it. I keep typing and erasing things because I'm having such a hard time deciding how to describe the experience of reading this book. It was so beautifully atmospheric. Stiefvater created a world so wonderfully magical and weird and cooky, but still somehow entirely believable. I felt oddly disconnected while reading this, but it also felt like I was right there watching it all in front of me. I really don't know how to describe it. I think the best way would be to say that I felt like an observer of this story, I wasn't part of it but I was there as witness. This story makes you feel like one of the owls calmly watching everything, not necessarily caring about what's going on, but just watching to see how things unfold. I would recommend All The Crooked Saints as more of a reading experience than something you read for the plot, it's left me at a complete loss for words.
9 months later
Wow I'm bad at getting around the actually reviewing the books that I mark as RTC. WHOOPS.
Anyways. This book is.... difficult to describe. I didn't like it, but at the same time I always think fondly of it whenever I see it on my shelf. I found the characters to be odd, not necessarily in a good way, and yet I missed them after I finished it. I don't get it. Maggie Steifvater somehow managed to write a book that I wanted to DNF but couldn't bring myself to do it. I keep typing and erasing things because I'm having such a hard time deciding how to describe the experience of reading this book. It was so beautifully atmospheric. Stiefvater created a world so wonderfully magical and weird and cooky, but still somehow entirely believable. I felt oddly disconnected while reading this, but it also felt like I was right there watching it all in front of me. I really don't know how to describe it. I think the best way would be to say that I felt like an observer of this story, I wasn't part of it but I was there as witness. This story makes you feel like one of the owls calmly watching everything, not necessarily caring about what's going on, but just watching to see how things unfold. I would recommend All The Crooked Saints as more of a reading experience than something you read for the plot, it's left me at a complete loss for words.
That was probably one of my favourite endings to a book I’ve ever read. Just the last couple pages brought this book from 3 stars to 4, that was fantastic
There were good and bad things about Turtles All the Way Down.
I really liked Aza’s romance and how it turned out in the end.
The best thing about this was the representation of mental illness. Aza’s OCD is so present, it’s not just something that mentioned once in a while but doesn’t really do anything. In TATWD, OCD completely takes over every part of Aza’s life. There are very few times where Aza isn’t at least thinking about it. John Green did a fantastic job of portraying an extremely realistic character with OCD without romanticizing it in the slightest. Mental illness is a really hard thing to translate into spoken or written language, and I know that’s something Green was really worried about, but I think he was extremely successful at it.
I also really liked Aza’s relationship with her mother. Throughout the whole book her mom was constantly asking her if she was getting better, and putting a lot of pressure on Aza to not be sick. And there was a part where Aza told her that her putting all the pressure on her was actually making things worse. That kind of conversation between a child and parent, and having her mother actively try to listen afterwards, that’s not something I see too often and I really liked that that was in there.
One thing I didn’t like was Daisy. I wish she had been a better friend. I understand that Green was again just showing the reality, that even people closest to you can be hurtful about your mental illness because they don’t understand. So on one hand I’m glad he did it because it is the reality of the situation a lot of the times, but at the same time I wish there could be more representation of good supportive friendships.
The ending though was just amazing. Green again made sure to not romanticize anything. I really appreciate that he emphasized that Aza will live with OCD for the rest of her life, and it’ll always be a struggle but she’ll also still have a happy successful life. So often in stories of mental illness, people just want to hear a “success” story where the person is “cured” of their illness and goes on to lead a normal happy life. That isn’t the case for the majority of people, so here’s a big thank you to John Green for not going down that route, and actually giving us a satisfying ending that is still realistic
I know quite a few people who have vowed to never read a John Green book, who dislike him just on principle and say all his books are the same. I agree with them to a certain extent, a lot of his books are the same. But if you’re one of those people, if there was ever a John Green book that you should read, it’s definitely this one. It’s not a typical book of his, it actually has a lot of depth to it and isn’t just about romance. Romance is hardly even a concern in TATWD. It’s definitely my favourite John Green book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone
There were good and bad things about Turtles All the Way Down.
I really liked Aza’s romance and how it turned out in the end.
The best thing about this was the representation of mental illness. Aza’s OCD is so present, it’s not just something that mentioned once in a while but doesn’t really do anything. In TATWD, OCD completely takes over every part of Aza’s life. There are very few times where Aza isn’t at least thinking about it. John Green did a fantastic job of portraying an extremely realistic character with OCD without romanticizing it in the slightest. Mental illness is a really hard thing to translate into spoken or written language, and I know that’s something Green was really worried about, but I think he was extremely successful at it.
I also really liked Aza’s relationship with her mother. Throughout the whole book her mom was constantly asking her if she was getting better, and putting a lot of pressure on Aza to not be sick. And there was a part where Aza told her that her putting all the pressure on her was actually making things worse. That kind of conversation between a child and parent, and having her mother actively try to listen afterwards, that’s not something I see too often and I really liked that that was in there.
One thing I didn’t like was Daisy. I wish she had been a better friend. I understand that Green was again just showing the reality, that even people closest to you can be hurtful about your mental illness because they don’t understand. So on one hand I’m glad he did it because it is the reality of the situation a lot of the times, but at the same time I wish there could be more representation of good supportive friendships.
The ending though was just amazing. Green again made sure to not romanticize anything. I really appreciate that he emphasized that Aza will live with OCD for the rest of her life, and it’ll always be a struggle but she’ll also still have a happy successful life. So often in stories of mental illness, people just want to hear a “success” story where the person is “cured” of their illness and goes on to lead a normal happy life. That isn’t the case for the majority of people, so here’s a big thank you to John Green for not going down that route, and actually giving us a satisfying ending that is still realistic
I know quite a few people who have vowed to never read a John Green book, who dislike him just on principle and say all his books are the same. I agree with them to a certain extent, a lot of his books are the same. But if you’re one of those people, if there was ever a John Green book that you should read, it’s definitely this one. It’s not a typical book of his, it actually has a lot of depth to it and isn’t just about romance. Romance is hardly even a concern in TATWD. It’s definitely my favourite John Green book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone
I'm going to start this off by stating that this is bad YA, but the good kind of bad. The kind of good bad that makes you want to read more and more. It's filled to the brim with so many tropes, but somehow Carter did them really well and I give her a whole lot of credit for that.
I'm surprised by how much I liked this to be honest. I went into this expecting it to be a case of Special Snowflake Syndrome where our heroine discovers her magical powers and is instantly the most powerful mage to ever exist and will vanquish all evil with the flick of her wrist. You know, the usual.
I WAS WRONG.
The tagline "Magic just got a whole lot harder" IS TAKEN SO LITERALLY YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Like. Let me tell you a bit about my girl Ryiah.
She is not your typical special snowflake heroine. OH NO. RY SPENDS THE ENTIRETY OF THIS BOOK NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE CLASS. ONE OF THE WORST MAGES OUT OF ALL THE FIRST YEARS. RIGHT UP UNTIL THE END. SHE HAS TO ACTUALLY WORK. HER DAMN. ASS. OFF ALL DAY EVERYDAY IN ORDER FOR HER TO PROVE HERSELF. There are so many times this woman almost called it quits. So many people told her she didn't belong there, not just because of her status but because she was so obviously nowhere near their level. BUT THIS GIRL IS LIKE "BITCH. NAH." AND WORKS HERSELF LITERALLY ALMOST TO DEATH TO PROVE THAT SHE DESERVES TO BE THERE JUST AS MUCH AS EVERYONE ELSE. LIKE SOMEONE GIVE ME A TISSUE AND A SHOULDER TO CRY ON I'M A GODDAMN MESS OVER THIS FANTASTIC CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
AND THE FRIENDSHIPS. HOO BOY.
Ryiah and Ella. The loves of my life. Brotp to end all brotp's. They come from very different social classes, and are placed in a situation where they have to compete against each other for a shot to make their childhood dreams come true. A lot of authors would have pitted these women against each other and made them rivals coughPriscillacough. But Ryiah and Ella? BFFs. There for each other unconditionally. Never jealous of each other, even when their skill levels are so different. They just. Help? Each? Other? Even when that means one of them might surpass the other. It doesn't matter. They just want each other to succeed no matter what. Like. Rachel E. Carter, thank you. I need more tissues.
Ryiah and her brother Alex. Alex is so damn protective of Ry and it's the sweetest thing ever omg. BUT. He also respects her and doesn't overstep his boundaries. He understands that she is a strong independent woman and she can take care of her damn self. But you bet your ass he's going to be there in the background with a proud look on his face as she sets straight anyone who tries to tell her she isn't good enough. MORE TISSUES PLEASE.
The one thing that I really didn't like about this book, what brought it down from five stars to four. *sighs* R o m a n c e. I would have been 3000% here for it if Ry and her love interest had just been bomb ass friends. The weird sexual tension between two people who only know each other through eye contact across the cafeteria and the occasional brief encounter is not necessary. Also, every time Ry said his touch made her feel like her veins were on fire or some shit, I wanted to scream. Just saying.
So yeah. Read this. You might be surprised by how much you like it
I'm surprised by how much I liked this to be honest. I went into this expecting it to be a case of Special Snowflake Syndrome where our heroine discovers her magical powers and is instantly the most powerful mage to ever exist and will vanquish all evil with the flick of her wrist. You know, the usual.
I WAS WRONG.
The tagline "Magic just got a whole lot harder" IS TAKEN SO LITERALLY YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Like. Let me tell you a bit about my girl Ryiah.
She is not your typical special snowflake heroine. OH NO. RY SPENDS THE ENTIRETY OF THIS BOOK NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE CLASS. ONE OF THE WORST MAGES OUT OF ALL THE FIRST YEARS. RIGHT UP UNTIL THE END. SHE HAS TO ACTUALLY WORK. HER DAMN. ASS. OFF ALL DAY EVERYDAY IN ORDER FOR HER TO PROVE HERSELF. There are so many times this woman almost called it quits. So many people told her she didn't belong there, not just because of her status but because she was so obviously nowhere near their level. BUT THIS GIRL IS LIKE "BITCH. NAH." AND WORKS HERSELF LITERALLY ALMOST TO DEATH TO PROVE THAT SHE DESERVES TO BE THERE JUST AS MUCH AS EVERYONE ELSE. LIKE SOMEONE GIVE ME A TISSUE AND A SHOULDER TO CRY ON I'M A GODDAMN MESS OVER THIS FANTASTIC CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
AND THE FRIENDSHIPS. HOO BOY.
Ryiah and Ella. The loves of my life. Brotp to end all brotp's. They come from very different social classes, and are placed in a situation where they have to compete against each other for a shot to make their childhood dreams come true. A lot of authors would have pitted these women against each other and made them rivals coughPriscillacough. But Ryiah and Ella? BFFs. There for each other unconditionally. Never jealous of each other, even when their skill levels are so different. They just. Help? Each? Other? Even when that means one of them might surpass the other. It doesn't matter. They just want each other to succeed no matter what. Like. Rachel E. Carter, thank you. I need more tissues.
Ryiah and her brother Alex. Alex is so damn protective of Ry and it's the sweetest thing ever omg. BUT. He also respects her and doesn't overstep his boundaries. He understands that she is a strong independent woman and she can take care of her damn self. But you bet your ass he's going to be there in the background with a proud look on his face as she sets straight anyone who tries to tell her she isn't good enough. MORE TISSUES PLEASE.
The one thing that I really didn't like about this book, what brought it down from five stars to four. *sighs* R o m a n c e. I would have been 3000% here for it if Ry and her love interest had just been bomb ass friends. The weird sexual tension between two people who only know each other through eye contact across the cafeteria and the occasional brief encounter is not necessary. Also, every time Ry said his touch made her feel like her veins were on fire or some shit, I wanted to scream. Just saying.
So yeah. Read this. You might be surprised by how much you like it
Now that it's been a while since I finished this series and I'm no longer an absolute mess over it, I think I can finally write a review.
This. Series. DESTROYED ME. And I loved every second of it. If you know me, you know I love books with really strong friendships, and if there is a romance then it's just like a side thing and not the main point of the book. This whole series was everything that I love in a book.
Strong friendships. Like literally "I am willing to risk my own life for you because that's the kind of friends we are" kind of friendship. Even when Neil thought they would all abandon him, they stuck by his side no matter what. It's just pure, unconditional love and I'm ?????? KILL ME. They all love and respect each other so much. Half the team are giant pieces of shit in terms of personality, but they still respect each other. Like with Neil not wanting to be shirtless around anyone. None of them know why, but they never question it, and they go out of their way to make sure he's comfortable. Even the characters who don't get along with Neil at all, they still respect this boundary and they never make him feel bad about it and I'm just?? WOW. SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL THESE CHARACTERS.
Strong female characters!! Every single female in this series is bad ass and I love all of them.
Normalized LGBTQ+ characters!!!! My favourite thing ever is reading a book that is not labelled as LGBT and then discovering that one or more of the main characters are LGBT. Like. YES. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME CHARACTERS WHERE BEING GAY ISN'T THEIR BIGGEST PERSONALITY TRAIT. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I just get a little tired when the only time I can read about characters like me is when they're coming out. As someone who has been out of the closet for over a decade, I really love seeing LGBT characters doing other things. And my issue with books that are labelled specifically as LGBT, is that that becomes the biggest "issue" in the book. All for the Game isn't like that. It's just a bunch of normal dudes playing normal sports and running for their normal lives from Yakuza, and some of them just happen to be gay. NORMALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY. THIS IS WHAT I WANT. THIS IS WHAT THIS SERIES GAVE ME. THANK YOU NORA SAKAVIC.
Slow burning romance. The love interests in this series meet in the first book. They don't get together until the last one. They spend time together. They get to know each other. They learn how to work together and how to trust each other as friends first. And then they try a relationship. And the amount of respect between the two??? Oh my god. They will never cross boundaries. They understand each other's limits and respect them, never question it, and never complain. It's such a healthy relationship and I'm still not over it tbh.
CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. And not just with the main character. What I love about this series is that all of the characters have a chance to grow and it's so wonderful. We get to watch them go from angry and broken and no clue what to do, to being still broken but with an incredible support team to help them through everything. Most of these characters in the beginning had the mentality that they were on their own. No one would ever help them, or ever want to. We get to watch them all come to the realization that they do have people in their lives who love them. For some of the characters, this is the first time they've ever felt loved. And it's just so beautiful to watch this kind of unconditional love and friendship develop and oh man I'm crying again brb
I understand entirely that this series is not for everyone. It is very violent and deals with content that could be extremely triggering for a lot of people. But if you don't have these triggers and are ok with reading this level of violence, then I would 100% recommend this series. It's definitely one of my favourites
This. Series. DESTROYED ME. And I loved every second of it. If you know me, you know I love books with really strong friendships, and if there is a romance then it's just like a side thing and not the main point of the book. This whole series was everything that I love in a book.
Strong friendships. Like literally "I am willing to risk my own life for you because that's the kind of friends we are" kind of friendship. Even when Neil thought they would all abandon him, they stuck by his side no matter what. It's just pure, unconditional love and I'm ?????? KILL ME. They all love and respect each other so much. Half the team are giant pieces of shit in terms of personality, but they still respect each other. Like with Neil not wanting to be shirtless around anyone. None of them know why, but they never question it, and they go out of their way to make sure he's comfortable. Even the characters who don't get along with Neil at all, they still respect this boundary and they never make him feel bad about it and I'm just?? WOW. SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL THESE CHARACTERS.
Strong female characters!! Every single female in this series is bad ass and I love all of them.
Normalized LGBTQ+ characters!!!! My favourite thing ever is reading a book that is not labelled as LGBT and then discovering that one or more of the main characters are LGBT. Like. YES. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME CHARACTERS WHERE BEING GAY ISN'T THEIR BIGGEST PERSONALITY TRAIT. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I just get a little tired when the only time I can read about characters like me is when they're coming out. As someone who has been out of the closet for over a decade, I really love seeing LGBT characters doing other things. And my issue with books that are labelled specifically as LGBT, is that that becomes the biggest "issue" in the book. All for the Game isn't like that. It's just a bunch of normal dudes playing normal sports and running for their normal lives from Yakuza, and some of them just happen to be gay. NORMALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY. THIS IS WHAT I WANT. THIS IS WHAT THIS SERIES GAVE ME. THANK YOU NORA SAKAVIC.
Slow burning romance. The love interests in this series meet in the first book. They don't get together until the last one. They spend time together. They get to know each other. They learn how to work together and how to trust each other as friends first. And then they try a relationship. And the amount of respect between the two??? Oh my god. They will never cross boundaries. They understand each other's limits and respect them, never question it, and never complain. It's such a healthy relationship and I'm still not over it tbh.
CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. And not just with the main character. What I love about this series is that all of the characters have a chance to grow and it's so wonderful. We get to watch them go from angry and broken and no clue what to do, to being still broken but with an incredible support team to help them through everything. Most of these characters in the beginning had the mentality that they were on their own. No one would ever help them, or ever want to. We get to watch them all come to the realization that they do have people in their lives who love them. For some of the characters, this is the first time they've ever felt loved. And it's just so beautiful to watch this kind of unconditional love and friendship develop and oh man I'm crying again brb
I understand entirely that this series is not for everyone. It is very violent and deals with content that could be extremely triggering for a lot of people. But if you don't have these triggers and are ok with reading this level of violence, then I would 100% recommend this series. It's definitely one of my favourites
Honestly this wasn't a very good book but goddammit it was addicting in its own weird way. Filled to the brim with every YA cliche you could possibly think of, with unoriginal characters and writing that I would just barely consider to be good. And yet I'm planning on continuing the series. Maybe not finish it, we'll see, but I'll at least give it a shot.
