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fayesmovinglibrary's Reviews (718)
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
This book has ruined me, here are my disorganized thoughts to convince you to read:
- a very similar structure to R. F. Kuang’s books & the way she does commentary while still very much standing it’s ground as it’s own unique thing
- genderbent Rin & Nezha dare I say….
- very similar world & magic system and brutality seen within the shows Arcane & Full metal alchemist: brotherhood
- Felt like the perfect Shadowheart (from BG3) book rec
- a seething commentary about colonialism and the violence, theft, and displacement inflicted upon Indigenous peoples
- a very similar structure to R. F. Kuang’s books & the way she does commentary while still very much standing it’s ground as it’s own unique thing
- genderbent Rin & Nezha dare I say….
- very similar world & magic system and brutality seen within the shows Arcane & Full metal alchemist: brotherhood
- Felt like the perfect Shadowheart (from BG3) book rec
- a seething commentary about colonialism and the violence, theft, and displacement inflicted upon Indigenous peoples
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Screaming from the rooftops for the masses to read this cozy middle grade book; here are some reasons to convince you 😤😤
- From the same author as Betty, On the Savage Side, & The Summer that Melted Everything, Tiffany McDaniel tells her version of a magical witchy school story that is just steeped in the Indigenous perspective & filled with social commentary made accessible for a younger audience. (Side note about diverse middle grade, my favourite thing about it is how it tackles these deeply important conversations in ways that get kids asking big questions about the world & as a librarian tech at an elementary-junior high school, books like this fill my heart with so much joy & I’m so excited to bring this into my library & shove it down the kids throats)
- the childlike whimsy and wonder and weirdness is represented sooooo 🧑🍳😘🤌🤌 & it’s something that you don’t often see in older age ranges & it’s truly such a magical feeling & I wish more people engaged with middle grade.
- the disability rep in here made me cry, it’s done in such a cute way that shows how in a world with magic, you don’t have to rely on the magical cure trope & emphasizes the importance of accessibility for all.
- the conversations about protecting nature and the world are so deeply relevant in here, & the emphasis on storytelling and the importance of books and libraries my heart is just soaring
- the beautiful little illustrations throughout & the clever & silly way the McDaniel used footnotes throughout, this book is just so clever
In short: preorder this book, read this book, & dabble in middle-grade novels!!!!!
- From the same author as Betty, On the Savage Side, & The Summer that Melted Everything, Tiffany McDaniel tells her version of a magical witchy school story that is just steeped in the Indigenous perspective & filled with social commentary made accessible for a younger audience. (Side note about diverse middle grade, my favourite thing about it is how it tackles these deeply important conversations in ways that get kids asking big questions about the world & as a librarian tech at an elementary-junior high school, books like this fill my heart with so much joy & I’m so excited to bring this into my library & shove it down the kids throats)
- the childlike whimsy and wonder and weirdness is represented sooooo 🧑🍳😘🤌🤌 & it’s something that you don’t often see in older age ranges & it’s truly such a magical feeling & I wish more people engaged with middle grade.
- the disability rep in here made me cry, it’s done in such a cute way that shows how in a world with magic, you don’t have to rely on the magical cure trope & emphasizes the importance of accessibility for all.
- the conversations about protecting nature and the world are so deeply relevant in here, & the emphasis on storytelling and the importance of books and libraries my heart is just soaring
- the beautiful little illustrations throughout & the clever & silly way the McDaniel used footnotes throughout, this book is just so clever
In short: preorder this book, read this book, & dabble in middle-grade novels!!!!!
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
his book was literally made to become an A24 film
DNF 20% in, I wanted to love this so badly & the fae world was really awesome and unique but I am just bored
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
The first third of this book I was sitting at a solid 5⭐️, but this unfortunately ended up dropping lower :((
Positives:
- the writing is delicious and beautiful and poetic and I annotated a lot of this
- I always love haunted house metaphor and it eats everytime
- the slow burn priest yearning & pining 🙈🙈🙈 I’m literally just a girl
Negatives:
- this hit a point where it just felt very boring (sorry to be that guy that calls a slow burn gothic book boring, but I’m sorry it just kinda was 😬)
- the entire middle portion pretty much felt repetitive & like not a whole lot was happening, & by the time the big reveals and commentary moments were peaking I had pretty much lost interest which is really disappointing because this book does a lot of really cool and good things with commentary and metaphor.
Positives:
- the writing is delicious and beautiful and poetic and I annotated a lot of this
- I always love haunted house metaphor and it eats everytime
- the slow burn priest yearning & pining 🙈🙈🙈 I’m literally just a girl
Negatives:
- this hit a point where it just felt very boring (sorry to be that guy that calls a slow burn gothic book boring, but I’m sorry it just kinda was 😬)
- the entire middle portion pretty much felt repetitive & like not a whole lot was happening, & by the time the big reveals and commentary moments were peaking I had pretty much lost interest which is really disappointing because this book does a lot of really cool and good things with commentary and metaphor.
I love cozy nonsensical whimsicality, but I have no idea what is going on and it’s a tad much
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Another successful buddy read with my grandma
😤😤🫡🫡🫶🫶
This is like a mixture of This is Us & The Fosters & it is perfectly wholesome, heart wrenching, emotional, and happy & I loved it 🥹
😤😤🫡🫡🫶🫶
This is like a mixture of This is Us & The Fosters & it is perfectly wholesome, heart wrenching, emotional, and happy & I loved it 🥹
Dnf 40% in, this isn’t bad by any means & I actually get why people love it. It’s written engagingly & is super interesting subject matter.
The reason for my DNF is that I feel this book was marketed as a book breaking down the linguistic aspect of how language is used within cults and what defines a cult, and I feel like I was only getting very surface level takes of that (to be fair, I have taken some linguistics classics in my degree so I had some understanding going in, so maybe it isn’t as surface level as I think). Instead this book was reading much more like a book about famous cults and the things they did (which I also was aware of) & It’s just not anything new for me or really engaging my brain???
The reason for my DNF is that I feel this book was marketed as a book breaking down the linguistic aspect of how language is used within cults and what defines a cult, and I feel like I was only getting very surface level takes of that (to be fair, I have taken some linguistics classics in my degree so I had some understanding going in, so maybe it isn’t as surface level as I think). Instead this book was reading much more like a book about famous cults and the things they did (which I also was aware of) & It’s just not anything new for me or really engaging my brain???
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love witches and women… as iconic as I remembered ✨✨✨
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5
I loved Leah’s perspective & honestly wish this was almost entirely only Leah’s. Overall I was pretty invested in the story, but I do feel like the ending was kind of anticlimactic & didn’t really go anywhere? This book was also quite lyrical and I annotated a lot of it
I loved Leah’s perspective & honestly wish this was almost entirely only Leah’s. Overall I was pretty invested in the story, but I do feel like the ending was kind of anticlimactic & didn’t really go anywhere? This book was also quite lyrical and I annotated a lot of it