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feralnebulous's reviews
108 reviews
The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid
3.0
Looking back on the first time I read this book, I remember being enchanted with the story and finding it intriguing to go inside the head of a humanoid monster. However, with my recent re-reading of this story, I found several issues that definitely drove my rating down pretty far. First of all, I found the writing to be heavy handed and redundant (if I hear Tyrus's hair described as copper colored one more time...). Most of the time, Nemesis would have a thought, then disregard it by launching into an internal monologue about how she wasn't supposed to have those feelings. It got old by the third time she did that. Another issue I found was that Sidonia was supposed to be this extremely influential figure in the story since she is the sole reason for Nemesis's existence, but she barely got any focus and even with so little coverage managed to have the least character development of any of the other main characters. In fact, I found Sidonia to be even more annoying than the classic bully stereotype, Elantra. It's pretty hard to beat that cliche. I found the story to be interesting, but eventually it descended into a romance that didn't really work for me, since it's mostly just Nemesis saying, "Oh, Tyrus, I love you but I'm not supposed to be able to love you because I'm a monster and also I'm less of a human than you and I can't stop reminding you of that because I'm internally monologuing about it every other sentence!" In my opinion, one of the only redeeming factors is Tyrus because he's the only remotely likable character. He has his faults, but I found he's one of the only characters that doesn't annoy me to no end. I still like the classic story of endless corruption and family treachery though, so I'd give this 2 1/2 stars.
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
4.0
Despite being an avid fan of this book when I was 13, I feel like it still held up fairly well. I enjoyed the story, even with the massive amounts of teen angst (which is a given, since all of the main protagonists are between the ages of 16 and 18). It wasn't spectacular, but it did provide some entertainment. The one issue I had with it was all of the deaths. There were so many that it became too predictable. I had also forgotten how unlikable Cleo was, which annoyed me, but she got some okay character development. I'd give this book 3.5 stars.
Playing with Fire by Derek Landy
4.0
(I never know what to start my reviews with) anyway, I found this to be quite an enjoyable and action packed sequel. I really liked the story and the delivery of the dialogue, but I read the last bit while I had terrible stomach cramps and a migraine, so that's not a fun memory, so I guess the only thing I didn't like was the fact that it dredges up some unpleasant memories from a few days ago. One thing I suppose I didn't like as much was that Valkyrie missed out so much on her life because she could use her reflection every single day with virtually no consequences. Maybe it's just the thought of missing school all the time terrifies me to no end. Just thinking about it makes me anxious. Long story short, this book held up well and I still enjoy reading it (since the last time I read it was when I was 13 or 14)
Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes
4.0
I honestly enjoyed this book more than the movie, which is something since the movie has been a childhood favorite of mine for a while. I really felt like this book captured the true meaning of the story of Lemonade Mouth better than the movie did. You can really get a sense of the characters' souls in a way that makes the story more raw and emotional. Truly a better representation of what it's like to be a lonely misfit in high school. I could find myself in a bit of each of the characters, which made the story that much more real and relatable. It was an enjoyable read and I'd recommend both the book and the movie to anyone.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
3.0
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. The best way to explain them would probably be with a pros and cons list.
PROS
-the story. I found it to be thoroughly engaging and I was always eager to read this book any chance that I got.
-the setting. A murder mystery in 1920s New York is exactly what I needed.
-the atmosphere. The author does a stellar job of setting up a creepy atmosphere that sets the story.
CONS
-the main protagonist. Evie might have grown on me a tiny bit towards the end of the book, but honestly I found her to be a terrible person. Also, I'm not sure how Mabel would forgive her for getting them arrested after Evie gives her one note that says she was sorry.
-the setting. Yes, it's a pro and a con. I'm a bit of a homebody whose idea of a good Friday night is staying home and reading a good book, so the nightclub scenes and the motivation Evie has to have a good time and get as drunk as possible is lost on me. I'm definitely more of a Mabel.
-the final fight scene. It was plenty intense, but part of me thought it could've been dragged out more. You have this terrifying serial killer (who's a ghost) and you're going to make the ultimate face-off between him and Evie like 2 pages long? The fight scene was probably more like a page and a half, I think the rest of that scene was better than the fight since it was Evie and Jericho wandering around a creepy house dousing everything in kerosene. That was much more well illustrated. Maybe I'm just a snob about my ghost books.
-the amount of fighting about Evie's powers. I get that Will is just trying to be paternal towards Evie but the fact that every time they could be using her divination abilities to actually catch John Hobbes Will forbids Evie from using them is just infuriating. I'm thinking of that meme that's the two books next to each other where one is much longer and one is much shorter and the caption on the long one is like "[insert book or TV show]" and the caption on the short one is like "[insert book or TV show] if [character actually contributed something useful]". Mine would be "The Diviners if Evie didn't heed her uncle and just went for it and fully examined Ruta Badowski's (I want to say that's her name, but I can't remember it) shoe buckle". I get it's not that simple, but those are the kinds of problems I was having with that.
-the love triangle, or whatever that was. I already knew Jericho was going to end up with Evie somehow (and if he didn't, I was going to fight someone since he was way better than Sam) but they never really explained what the deal with Sam was. Did he really love Evie? Not sure. I don't like him though.
All in all, I think this is a great stand-alone book. Not sure why I would want to read three more books like it except to figure out what's up with Project Buffalo.
PROS
-the story. I found it to be thoroughly engaging and I was always eager to read this book any chance that I got.
-the setting. A murder mystery in 1920s New York is exactly what I needed.
-the atmosphere. The author does a stellar job of setting up a creepy atmosphere that sets the story.
CONS
-the main protagonist. Evie might have grown on me a tiny bit towards the end of the book, but honestly I found her to be a terrible person. Also, I'm not sure how Mabel would forgive her for getting them arrested after Evie gives her one note that says she was sorry.
-the setting. Yes, it's a pro and a con. I'm a bit of a homebody whose idea of a good Friday night is staying home and reading a good book, so the nightclub scenes and the motivation Evie has to have a good time and get as drunk as possible is lost on me. I'm definitely more of a Mabel.
-the final fight scene. It was plenty intense, but part of me thought it could've been dragged out more. You have this terrifying serial killer (who's a ghost) and you're going to make the ultimate face-off between him and Evie like 2 pages long? The fight scene was probably more like a page and a half, I think the rest of that scene was better than the fight since it was Evie and Jericho wandering around a creepy house dousing everything in kerosene. That was much more well illustrated. Maybe I'm just a snob about my ghost books.
-the amount of fighting about Evie's powers. I get that Will is just trying to be paternal towards Evie but the fact that every time they could be using her divination abilities to actually catch John Hobbes Will forbids Evie from using them is just infuriating. I'm thinking of that meme that's the two books next to each other where one is much longer and one is much shorter and the caption on the long one is like "[insert book or TV show]" and the caption on the short one is like "[insert book or TV show] if [character actually contributed something useful]". Mine would be "The Diviners if Evie didn't heed her uncle and just went for it and fully examined Ruta Badowski's (I want to say that's her name, but I can't remember it) shoe buckle". I get it's not that simple, but those are the kinds of problems I was having with that.
-the love triangle, or whatever that was. I already knew Jericho was going to end up with Evie somehow (and if he didn't, I was going to fight someone since he was way better than Sam) but they never really explained what the deal with Sam was. Did he really love Evie? Not sure. I don't like him though.
All in all, I think this is a great stand-alone book. Not sure why I would want to read three more books like it except to figure out what's up with Project Buffalo.
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
5.0
So here's the thing. I had a lot of mixed feelings about the first book (see my review for my full thoughts). My main problem was with Evie, I found her to be incredibly annoying and generally unlikable. Well, ladies and gentlemen, hold onto your hats because in this book I felt like they actually gave her more of a personality in this book and it worked wonders. Since it's been a few weeks since I read this book, I can't remember everything that I liked about this book, but I actually felt like I wanted to read the rest of the series after finishing this book. Also the character development and the diversity in the cast? Superb. I couldn't put this down when I read it.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
5.0
I absolutely LOVED this book!!! I have read it over and over again because it just never gets old. I've read it about a total of 15-20 times now. This is a book I will treasure forever! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!
The Clockwork Ghost by Laura Ruby
5.0
I'm really not sure how this book got even better than the first, but it did. This took me on an emotional rollercoaster with the disappearance of Nine and all of the (as Cricket would say) NEFARIOUS ACTIONS taking place. I really can't explain why I enjoyed this book so much (I'm better at explaining how much I dislike certain books) but I think it brought out the kid in me who still wants to go on cool adventures and solve impossible puzzles.
The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. Even though it's aimed at younger audiences, I found it to be hilarious with its subtle humor, but still raw and relatable. I expected it to be fairly predictable where Tess, Theo, and Jaime solve the Old York Cipher in the nick of time and get their apartment building back, then in the next book they would be fine when some random problem arises that they need to solve. I honestly gasped out loud at the end when the building got destroyed. I'm extremely glad I randomly selected this book from the shelf at the library.