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farairytale's reviews
58 reviews
Milk: On Motherhood and Madness by Alice Kinsella
5.0
Absolutely superb and so poignant. Her writing is visceral and real, and cuts deep to the core - And I say all of this not being a mother myself. Her ability to evoke motherhood within each of us is astounding. I met her and a few other authors in the book talk “Motherhood on the edge of madness: a look at motherhood in times of crisis” and was lucky enough to get a signed copy by her. I cherish this copy, however, I did loan it out to MY mother who is currently reading it and also finds it as emotionally provoking and beautiful as I did. It is acting as a bridge between us, like a shimmering thread that has reconnected us based on my mother’s mothering and my own reality in being mothered. Stunning.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
5.0
While this book starts off slow and can drag at times, I absolutely adored the worldbuilding and the character relationships. In particular, the relationship between Oraya and Vincent was so sharp and cutting, drawing blood even, yet also so poignant and tumultuously soft. Carissa managed to craft a stunning look at the realities of some parental relationships - maybe not all of our parents committed atrocities, but they each have their own mistakes and/or burdens that we as the next generation must bear and work towards undoing. I thought the romantic elements of this book were also extremely convincing and I saw myself in Oraya quite a bit as I am slow to trust due to some of my own experiences. The tension is what really did it for me, as the spice was hot, but not necessarily as intense as I like it. I definitely think that the second book and its spice will be off the walls based on the plot twist, which I did NOT SEE COMING. At all. And I have more than a bit of hubris in that I most of the time can see when a plot twist is coming or predict plot shifts and arcs. This left me on the edge of my seat waiting for the second book, which luckily was already out and I immediately snatched up and read greedily. I definitely recommend it!
The Lost Sisters by Holly Black
4.0
The only reason I like this is because it bridges the POV gaps. It’s not at all Holly’s writing or even the content itself, it’s Taryn. They could never make me like you, Taryn. If Taryn has no haters, I’m dead and buried.
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
4.0
HOSAB was a bit more difficult to get into at first for me and I really didn’t prefer the beginning decision between Hunt and Bryce either re their bargain and the timeline for it as it felt very constructed. Buuttttt once HOSAB picked up, gods did it PICK UP. I loved the whole slew of new characters, new enemies and big bads to face, and the general Maasverse lore we were able to dive into. We got our answers to some pretty huge questions but this also had us on the edge of our seats wanting more. In particular, I think for many people that the relationship that carried the book was Agent Night and Agent Daybright. These two were everything that Bryce and Hunt WEREN’T at this point, and their later reveal had everyone agog, aghast, and SAT. The other plot twists in this book I also didn’t see coming - Sarah gave us crumbs when we wanted the whole cake as by that point we’d been STARVED.
Some things I truly disliked: I did feel the Bryce we got in HOSAB was not the same we’d gotten in HOEAB which is to be expected of course. However, some of her decisions and how they affected others was very Not Bryce©️ in my opinion. She got a lot more secretive, even with Hunt, and made decisions that pushed him away multiple times while treating him quite poorly. Their relationship definitely went downhill for me despite needing one another more than ever. Further, the more we learn about Danika, the more it’s insane how much she hid from everyone. A whole ass mate??? It’s getting unbelievable now.
I do think the multiverse crossover ending was the most insane and effective ending we’ve gotten in a long time. I know it made a lot of readers go feral and brought in a whole slew of new readers which were fans from the ACOTAR series. It was really fun to introduce these characters in a new light and as a longtime Marvel fan, I loved the multiverse crossover that acted as a bridge for a lot of the various SJM scenes like Aelin falling through Velaris and all the worlds she saw, including Crescent City.
All in all, a 3/4 out of 5 book
Some things I truly disliked: I did feel the Bryce we got in HOSAB was not the same we’d gotten in HOEAB which is to be expected of course. However, some of her decisions and how they affected others was very Not Bryce©️ in my opinion. She got a lot more secretive, even with Hunt, and made decisions that pushed him away multiple times while treating him quite poorly. Their relationship definitely went downhill for me despite needing one another more than ever. Further, the more we learn about Danika, the more it’s insane how much she hid from everyone. A whole ass mate??? It’s getting unbelievable now.
I do think the multiverse crossover ending was the most insane and effective ending we’ve gotten in a long time. I know it made a lot of readers go feral and brought in a whole slew of new readers which were fans from the ACOTAR series. It was really fun to introduce these characters in a new light and as a longtime Marvel fan, I loved the multiverse crossover that acted as a bridge for a lot of the various SJM scenes like Aelin falling through Velaris and all the worlds she saw, including Crescent City.
All in all, a 3/4 out of 5 book
Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi
3.0
NONSPOILER REVIEW FIRST:
First let me start of with a disclaimer: I ADORED the entire Shatter Me series, I really did. Unfortunately, Imagine Me just didn’t do it for me, namely because it felt like there should have been a whole other book (not the 6.5 novella but a full on BOOK) to explain everything and wrap everything up perfectly. The plot in this book felt weak and sporadic, and the ending of this book felt RUSHED - as I was reading it and getting closer and closer to the end, I was counting the pages left and googling if this truly was the LAST official book in the series because there was no way a perfectly addressed and detailed ending was possible with the time left.
___________SPOILERS BELOW_____________
I repeatedly asked myself how the entirety of this series was going to be wrapped up in the FORTY pages left, including, at the very least, a moving scene giving us closure through burying/laying to rest Juliette’s sister’s body and, at the MOST, contesting with and crushing the remnants of the Reestablishment, restoring the Sanctuary, and rebuilding the world. The wedding epilogue scene was similarly completely crazy after the last page had been “Juliette mercifully killed her sister, brought down the Oceania Reestablishment facility in hellfire, and then finally walked out with Warner carrying her sister’s dead body”???? CRAZY, I TELL YOU. It just felt like it was unfinished, so much left unwritten. I was truly surprised as Tahereh had dragged out a lot of the rest of the series that she could have compacted yet this - the ENDING of the FINALE of the ENTIRE SERIES - was the area she decided to gloss over and essentially use a fade-to-black methodology? Unsatisfying in every way. I was actually left anxious as I still felt as though Juliette was in trouble despite the 1 second-described ‘emerged victorious’ ending.
We never got to see the beautiful yet haunting parallel of the kids of the supreme commanders coming together to face down their parents, ensuring the betterment of the world through their OWN flesh-and-blood family members’ deaths. Not really, anyways. We didn’t see the kids work together except for a brief mention of ONE SENTENCE after Nazeera freed them. We got a longer look at the freaking Resistance members using their powers/fighting against Sector 45 a few books back than the supreme commanders’ kids TOPPLING A WORLDWIDE REGIME. This is one of those instances where I feel Tahereh, a superb writer, could have written such fantastically moving scenes that really served to tie up the whole series, particularly with the continued dynamics between the supreme commanders and their children, demonstrating to the world that the old regime had fallen and a new hope had risen. So much was left unsaid; such beautifully poignant opportunities were wasted.
Another thing that really bothered me was the RE-kidnapping of Juliette. Not only had they all NOT learned their lesson the first time around, but the second time made the first kidnapping look so pathetic?? They so easily retrieved Juliette the first round of the kidnapping and her mind wasn’t at all impacted that it was SOOO UNBELIEVABLE.
Also, Paris’s final death was soooo unbelievable and anticlimactic after he’d made it out of near impossible-to-survive murder attempts. Also, why the heck do we get such a deep, humanistic look at Paris (his abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, him wanting to be a baker, etc) for him to die like that without a dramatic showdown with Warner or Juliette reclaiming her mind and asserting final dominance over him?
I truly feel as though Tahereh was going to do something entirely different - perhaps a whole other book or, at the very least, a much more detailed, complex, and gratifying ending - and then suddenly just…didn’t? Idk wtf happened but she and her editors really let the ball drop. Speaking of editors, there were a bunch of grammatical errors and word issues (unintentional repetitions, incorrect use of words, etc) with this book which was disappointing as well.
All in all: disappointing, unsatisfactory, and a hole was left inside me that I hope the 6.5 novella will fill. However, even if the novella helps, in my opinion the last true BOOK of the series should have been the one to wrap almost everything up. I’m quite saddened by (what has become) my all-time FAVORITE book series ending not with a bang but with a whimper.
First let me start of with a disclaimer: I ADORED the entire Shatter Me series, I really did. Unfortunately, Imagine Me just didn’t do it for me, namely because it felt like there should have been a whole other book (not the 6.5 novella but a full on BOOK) to explain everything and wrap everything up perfectly. The plot in this book felt weak and sporadic, and the ending of this book felt RUSHED - as I was reading it and getting closer and closer to the end, I was counting the pages left and googling if this truly was the LAST official book in the series because there was no way a perfectly addressed and detailed ending was possible with the time left.
___________SPOILERS BELOW_____________
I repeatedly asked myself how the entirety of this series was going to be wrapped up in the FORTY pages left, including, at the very least, a moving scene giving us closure through burying/laying to rest Juliette’s sister’s body and, at the MOST, contesting with and crushing the remnants of the Reestablishment, restoring the Sanctuary, and rebuilding the world. The wedding epilogue scene was similarly completely crazy after the last page had been “Juliette mercifully killed her sister, brought down the Oceania Reestablishment facility in hellfire, and then finally walked out with Warner carrying her sister’s dead body”???? CRAZY, I TELL YOU. It just felt like it was unfinished, so much left unwritten. I was truly surprised as Tahereh had dragged out a lot of the rest of the series that she could have compacted yet this - the ENDING of the FINALE of the ENTIRE SERIES - was the area she decided to gloss over and essentially use a fade-to-black methodology? Unsatisfying in every way. I was actually left anxious as I still felt as though Juliette was in trouble despite the 1 second-described ‘emerged victorious’ ending.
We never got to see the beautiful yet haunting parallel of the kids of the supreme commanders coming together to face down their parents, ensuring the betterment of the world through their OWN flesh-and-blood family members’ deaths. Not really, anyways. We didn’t see the kids work together except for a brief mention of ONE SENTENCE after Nazeera freed them. We got a longer look at the freaking Resistance members using their powers/fighting against Sector 45 a few books back than the supreme commanders’ kids TOPPLING A WORLDWIDE REGIME. This is one of those instances where I feel Tahereh, a superb writer, could have written such fantastically moving scenes that really served to tie up the whole series, particularly with the continued dynamics between the supreme commanders and their children, demonstrating to the world that the old regime had fallen and a new hope had risen. So much was left unsaid; such beautifully poignant opportunities were wasted.
Another thing that really bothered me was the RE-kidnapping of Juliette. Not only had they all NOT learned their lesson the first time around, but the second time made the first kidnapping look so pathetic?? They so easily retrieved Juliette the first round of the kidnapping and her mind wasn’t at all impacted that it was SOOO UNBELIEVABLE.
Also, Paris’s final death was soooo unbelievable and anticlimactic after he’d made it out of near impossible-to-survive murder attempts. Also, why the heck do we get such a deep, humanistic look at Paris (his abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, him wanting to be a baker, etc) for him to die like that without a dramatic showdown with Warner or Juliette reclaiming her mind and asserting final dominance over him?
I truly feel as though Tahereh was going to do something entirely different - perhaps a whole other book or, at the very least, a much more detailed, complex, and gratifying ending - and then suddenly just…didn’t? Idk wtf happened but she and her editors really let the ball drop. Speaking of editors, there were a bunch of grammatical errors and word issues (unintentional repetitions, incorrect use of words, etc) with this book which was disappointing as well.
All in all: disappointing, unsatisfactory, and a hole was left inside me that I hope the 6.5 novella will fill. However, even if the novella helps, in my opinion the last true BOOK of the series should have been the one to wrap almost everything up. I’m quite saddened by (what has become) my all-time FAVORITE book series ending not with a bang but with a whimper.