Scan barcode
fiekesfiction's reviews
321 reviews
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-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
4.5
I feel like I really can’t say anything about this that hasn’t been said already. It’s a great book. My favourite Leigh Bardugo book so far. Absolutely amazing.
Did they seem much older then teenagers? Yes.
We’re there some really annoying things about the “Dutch-inspired-language”? Yes.
BUT did the awesome characters make up for it? I mean mostly yeah.
Okay okay actually let me write a longer review even though you all probably know this already.
First let’s start with the bad. Because there were some unfortunate things. I can ramble about the half-Dutch words for a long time, but other than it being annoying it’s not really a bad thing for anyone who doesn’t speak Dutch so... let’s just say “van” is actually not supposed to be written in capital letters and also if you take a word don’t just translate half of it, use either English ór Dutch (yes I am screaming at you, ‘stadwatch’)
The part that I mostly disliked about six of crows is that the worldbuilding is very small compared to the worldbuilding in the grisha trilogy. I really don’t think people should read this duoligy without reading the grisha books first because you would really not understand mutch.
HOWEVER there’s a lot of good. And by a lot I mean specifically about 7. Or at least 6.
The characters are really awesome! I can’t say I have a favourite because it is IMPOSSIBLE to chose THEY ARE ALL AMAZING!! (okay mostly Wylan, Jesper and Inej) And I loved how they all had such big backstories and goals and they all really felt real.
This is just the perfect found family of a bunch of children with a whole lot of trauma, feeling alone in the world and then finding eachother. Kaz and Inej especially.
And since I felt for them I loved the story and was actually emotionally invested in it.
The plot was good. It was in a lot of ways very clever and fun.
Did they seem much older then teenagers? Yes.
We’re there some really annoying things about the “Dutch-inspired-language”? Yes.
BUT did the awesome characters make up for it? I mean mostly yeah.
Okay okay actually let me write a longer review even though you all probably know this already.
First let’s start with the bad. Because there were some unfortunate things. I can ramble about the half-Dutch words for a long time, but other than it being annoying it’s not really a bad thing for anyone who doesn’t speak Dutch so... let’s just say “van” is actually not supposed to be written in capital letters and also if you take a word don’t just translate half of it, use either English ór Dutch (yes I am screaming at you, ‘stadwatch’)
The part that I mostly disliked about six of crows is that the worldbuilding is very small compared to the worldbuilding in the grisha trilogy. I really don’t think people should read this duoligy without reading the grisha books first because you would really not understand mutch.
HOWEVER there’s a lot of good. And by a lot I mean specifically about 7. Or at least 6.
The characters are really awesome! I can’t say I have a favourite because it is IMPOSSIBLE to chose THEY ARE ALL AMAZING!! (okay mostly Wylan, Jesper and Inej) And I loved how they all had such big backstories and goals and they all really felt real.
This is just the perfect found family of a bunch of children with a whole lot of trauma, feeling alone in the world and then finding eachother. Kaz and Inej especially.
And since I felt for them I loved the story and was actually emotionally invested in it.
The plot was good. It was in a lot of ways very clever and fun.
Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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
3.5
This story is super cute. Once again. It is a really cool twist on Beauty and the beast in a way that makes you recognize a lot of elements but it's still original.
I loved the romance. It was great to see Rosie and Vance pining for each other and the whole cute ways they connected and the stupid insecurities and feelings and I loved seeing both perspectives. The audiobook is also really nice!
I also loved the friendships, the main character has a non-binary friend who's trying to win prom and the whole group of friends was cute and super supportive.
The fandom parts are obviously great (apart from at least two unfortunate Harry Potter references) and relatable and I mean it's beauty and the beast so of course there's the amazing AMAZING LIBRARY that I just wanted to be in. I loved how much the main character loved it and the way she talked about it and the way it connected her to other people.
I also loved her dad. He was super nice and happy and a goofy idiot in a relatable way.
I did think the story was very predictable and also some things the main character did were a bit stupid. I didn't really love some things about the ending. BUT still think this whole series is super cute and nice and has very awesome ships and thats cool.
I loved the romance. It was great to see Rosie and Vance pining for each other and the whole cute ways they connected and the stupid insecurities and feelings and I loved seeing both perspectives. The audiobook is also really nice!
I also loved the friendships, the main character has a non-binary friend who's trying to win prom and the whole group of friends was cute and super supportive.
The fandom parts are obviously great (apart from at least two unfortunate Harry Potter references) and relatable and I mean it's beauty and the beast so of course there's the amazing AMAZING LIBRARY that I just wanted to be in. I loved how much the main character loved it and the way she talked about it and the way it connected her to other people.
I also loved her dad. He was super nice and happy and a goofy idiot in a relatable way.
I did think the story was very predictable and also some things the main character did were a bit stupid. I didn't really love some things about the ending. BUT still think this whole series is super cute and nice and has very awesome ships and thats cool.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death of parent
Contains multiple references to Harry Potter
Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It took a while, but I finally read the sequel to girls of paper and fire. Altough the first book ended with a huge cliffhanger, I didn’t already have the sequel so I just didn’t get to it.
Because of that I spent the first few chapters of this book trying to remember who all the characters were. I remembered most of the storyline from the first book, but none of the characters other than Lei and Wren had really stuck with me.
In this book though, I really started to care about the side characters. Especially their conflicting ideas about what they were doing were really interesting. (Though I’d like to learn more about their history!)
The characters all feel very different from eachother and they clearly all have their own goals, strengths and weakness. Lei is an okay main character because although she does have some of the basic-ya-maincharacter traits, she isn’t completely the big saviour. I still felt less conected to her than to some of the side character, because she just seemed a bit like every other main character. She is different from everyone else, she has a special nickname, she is well known for being part of a rebellion and there’s the whole thing about doubting if what they’re doing is better than the things the current ruler is doing. she is not really exactly a chosen one, it kind of seems like Wren is.
And that I did enjoy. Wren was a really really great and complex character! In a way you wouldn’t expect. I really liked learning about her. Aside from the ‘you must lead a revolution’ kind of way we’ve seen before, it focusses more on the way the expectations she’s dealt with her whole life have changed her. Their relationship was absolutely one of the best parts of this book. <Spoiler> I say relationship and not romance because in this book I liked Wren as a character more and more but as a person I started disliking her. I have to agree with Merrin here because she did some terrible things and I especially didn’t like the way she treated Lei. It was realistic and understandable and very well written but it was also a bit frustrating.
Bo was my favourite character in this book though. At first his character felt a bit stereotypical and I was like ‘yeah he’s that funny friend character’ but the more the story progressed the more I liked him. And started rooting for him and his cute romance story! and his death is one of the reasons I lowered my rating.
Where in the first book Lei and Wren just felt like the king was the big problem standing between them and their happiness, in this book they start to realise it isn’t that simple. You get to see little ways in which every character has different ways of dealing with trauma and that felt realistic.
The story itself felt very predictable. I don’t really know if I could describe the plot because aside from spoilers, it’s very much just people going to different places. Which I guess is fine. (I mean I also love pride and prejudice and that’s essentially just people going to each others houses!) My favourite parts were actually the chapters where we got to see a different point of view from a very different person in a different location. These chapters made it feel like there was a lot going on in this world and I just enjoyed learning about the way other people were impacted by the events.
I also liked the story when it was closer to the end and we got introduced to more characters, but it took a while.
As in the first book, I really like the world building and magic in this story. It’s very orignal and dark. BUT at the same time, I wish I knew more about it. There’s a lot of things about the world that are never really explained like the casts or the history. Some of it makes sense, but other things could’ve been added. I did want to know more about the Steels and wished they were a part of this story.
I don’t think I can say much else without spoilers, but I really want to read the last book in this trilogy! I know I said a whole bunch of negative things but I still also feel like this book talks about important issues and I feel like it could mean a lot to people. There’s also some great elements to it so I am very hopefull I’ll like the third book.
<b> representation:</b> own voices all asian cast (author is Malaysian), f/f relationship, m/m relationships.
<u>(The trigger warnings might contain spoilers)</u>
<b> trigger warnings: </b> gore, sex trafficking, PTSD, past trauma of sexual abuse and rape, loss of loved ones, brief mentions of animal death, murder, self-harm, being in an abusive and manipulative relationship, fire, death (lots of it), whipping and torture, self-medicating with alcohol, mentions of slavery, war themes.
Because of that I spent the first few chapters of this book trying to remember who all the characters were. I remembered most of the storyline from the first book, but none of the characters other than Lei and Wren had really stuck with me.
In this book though, I really started to care about the side characters. Especially their conflicting ideas about what they were doing were really interesting. (Though I’d like to learn more about their history!)
The characters all feel very different from eachother and they clearly all have their own goals, strengths and weakness. Lei is an okay main character because although she does have some of the basic-ya-maincharacter traits, she isn’t completely the big saviour. I still felt less conected to her than to some of the side character, because she just seemed a bit like every other main character. She is different from everyone else, she has a special nickname, she is well known for being part of a rebellion and there’s the whole thing about doubting if what they’re doing is better than the things the current ruler is doing. she is not really exactly a chosen one, it kind of seems like Wren is.
And that I did enjoy. Wren was a really really great and complex character! In a way you wouldn’t expect. I really liked learning about her. Aside from the ‘you must lead a revolution’ kind of way we’ve seen before, it focusses more on the way the expectations she’s dealt with her whole life have changed her. Their relationship was absolutely one of the best parts of this book. <Spoiler> I say relationship and not romance because in this book I liked Wren as a character more and more but as a person I started disliking her. I have to agree with Merrin here because she did some terrible things and I especially didn’t like the way she treated Lei. It was realistic and understandable and very well written but it was also a bit frustrating.
Bo was my favourite character in this book though. At first his character felt a bit stereotypical and I was like ‘yeah he’s that funny friend character’ but the more the story progressed the more I liked him. And started rooting for him and his cute romance story!
Where in the first book Lei and Wren just felt like the king was the big problem standing between them and their happiness, in this book they start to realise it isn’t that simple. You get to see little ways in which every character has different ways of dealing with trauma and that felt realistic.
The story itself felt very predictable. I don’t really know if I could describe the plot because aside from spoilers, it’s very much just people going to different places. Which I guess is fine. (I mean I also love pride and prejudice and that’s essentially just people going to each others houses!) My favourite parts were actually the chapters where we got to see a different point of view from a very different person in a different location. These chapters made it feel like there was a lot going on in this world and I just enjoyed learning about the way other people were impacted by the events.
I also liked the story when it was closer to the end and we got introduced to more characters, but it took a while.
As in the first book, I really like the world building and magic in this story. It’s very orignal and dark. BUT at the same time, I wish I knew more about it. There’s a lot of things about the world that are never really explained like the casts or the history. Some of it makes sense, but other things could’ve been added. I did want to know more about the Steels and wished they were a part of this story.
I don’t think I can say much else without spoilers, but I really want to read the last book in this trilogy! I know I said a whole bunch of negative things but I still also feel like this book talks about important issues and I feel like it could mean a lot to people. There’s also some great elements to it so I am very hopefull I’ll like the third book.
<b> representation:</b> own voices all asian cast (author is Malaysian), f/f relationship, m/m relationships.
<u>(The trigger warnings might contain spoilers)</u>
<b> trigger warnings: </b> gore, sex trafficking, PTSD, past trauma of sexual abuse and rape, loss of loved ones, brief mentions of animal death, murder, self-harm, being in an abusive and manipulative relationship, fire, death (lots of it), whipping and torture, self-medicating with alcohol, mentions of slavery, war themes.
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier, Val Wise
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-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
3.5
Wonderland by Juno Dawson
It is very hard for me to describe “wonderland” by Juno Dawson because it was not what I expected it to be.
“If my hair isn’t blue, how will anyone know I’m transgender?”
“Natural colours only,” she says for the millionth time.
I smile slightly “Ms Grafton, I think I left natural behind years ago, don’t you?”
The story follows Alice. After she had a one night stand with Bunny, the girl has disappeared and no one seems to care. When she tries to find out what happened to her, Alice ends up in a strange party for the elite.
Even though this is written in a funny way, the story has a lot of darker things going on. Especially in the beginning with Alice making sarcastic comments, the story felt a bit light and I thought it would just be a quick fun read. But soon I realised that was absolutely not the case.
She winks again and walks off with my phone. It feels a lot like she’s removed a vital organ. I’d rather she’d taken a kidney to be franks, I have two of those and can’t watch memes on either.
Juno Dawson is very good at adding topical themes to her story in a clever way.
The Alice in wonderland retelling is very well done. This story has the same surreal feeling of things not being quite right, as the original story does. The wonderland in this case is obviously the different lives extremely rich and privileged people live. The world is a bit different for them.
It’s really obvious which characters are based on the original Alice in wonderland characters, but it was actually fun to compare them. I did think this story doesn’t really have a ‘plot’, mainly Alice is just stumbling around not really knowing what she’s doing, but it makes sense with the way this story ends and I think it also adds to the feeling of “wonderland” since the original tale is also really not a lot more than Alice trying to understand a strange world. The themes were great, the writing was funny and the main character was flawed but well developed.
“Is our collective self-esteem so waferthin that we rely on compliments from strangers for sustenance?”
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a very different and diverse story with themes of feminism and class.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It is very hard for me to describe “wonderland” by Juno Dawson because it was not what I expected it to be.
“If my hair isn’t blue, how will anyone know I’m transgender?”
“Natural colours only,” she says for the millionth time.
I smile slightly “Ms Grafton, I think I left natural behind years ago, don’t you?”
The story follows Alice. After she had a one night stand with Bunny, the girl has disappeared and no one seems to care. When she tries to find out what happened to her, Alice ends up in a strange party for the elite.
Even though this is written in a funny way, the story has a lot of darker things going on. Especially in the beginning with Alice making sarcastic comments, the story felt a bit light and I thought it would just be a quick fun read. But soon I realised that was absolutely not the case.
She winks again and walks off with my phone. It feels a lot like she’s removed a vital organ. I’d rather she’d taken a kidney to be franks, I have two of those and can’t watch memes on either.
Juno Dawson is very good at adding topical themes to her story in a clever way.
The Alice in wonderland retelling is very well done. This story has the same surreal feeling of things not being quite right, as the original story does. The wonderland in this case is obviously the different lives extremely rich and privileged people live. The world is a bit different for them.
It’s really obvious which characters are based on the original Alice in wonderland characters, but it was actually fun to compare them. I did think this story doesn’t really have a ‘plot’, mainly Alice is just stumbling around not really knowing what she’s doing, but it makes sense with the way this story ends and I think it also adds to the feeling of “wonderland” since the original tale is also really not a lot more than Alice trying to understand a strange world. The themes were great, the writing was funny and the main character was flawed but well developed.
“Is our collective self-esteem so waferthin that we rely on compliments from strangers for sustenance?”
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a very different and diverse story with themes of feminism and class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
dark
3.0
I have a lot of thoughts and mixed feelings about this one so prepare for some chaotic rambling (and basically me Fangirling and ranting about the handmaidstale and the show and this book.)
In an attempt to give this some type of structure, let’s start with talking about the handmaids tale.
I read the handmaids tale about a year ago. It was an instant five stars. That’s a book that really disturbed me. It stayed with me. For those of you who don’t know, the handmaids tale follows Offred who lives in a dystopian future where women are stripped from their rights and basically used for breeding. The scariest part is that it is all based on things that have happened/ are happening all over the world.
The handmaids tale was a great book with a frustrating but good ending. I won’t spoil it but I did think the ending worked very well. It fit the themes and tone of the book. You are left with a lot of questions and things to think about. You get a bit of hope at the end with the notes, but also a big warning of how we should take history seriously. It’s hopeful and tragic and ambiguous and critical at the same time. So I felt like it didn’t really need a sequal, BUT there’s the tv series. And then there’s also the fact that I am super curious and needed to know more.
After reading the handmaids tale I obviously had to also watch the show. It was hard to watch. Even more so than reading the book was for me. It’s just very graphic. (Btw if you’re interested in these books or the show please check the trigger warnings!) It is also a bit different in some ways (as is expected). so after the first season I decided it wasn’t worth my nightmares and stopped watching. It was a good place to end since the first season follows the book and the other seasons take place afterwards.
But then I got curious and I genuinely wanted to know what happened in the other seasons. The next seasons definitely had some more hope in them, which made me feel better watching them. Not that I didn’t also cry like the whole time. Where I liked the book ending, I also wanted a bit more. I wanted to see some good things happening. So I watched on. And it’s good. It’s so so good. I love the show a lot, especially BECAUSE it is so hard to watch. It gave me nightmares and it feels like I’ve ran a marathon at the end of each episode, I completely feel like I’m there. That’s not a great feeling but it’s amazing storytelling. So I had accepted the fact that in a way the story continued after the first book (not just in everyone’s own imagination). After watching the third season (and the trailer of the fourth season, they better release it at the same time on Videoland here) it was time to read the testaments.
A lot of times it’s hard to read a sequel because it will never be exactly what you imagined. After reading the book and watching the show I had thought of ways the future could have gone, especially because of the way the first book ends. Though when reading this I tried to ignore all those expectations.
I knew it wouldn’t follow the same characters. Which made me glad. And I really enjoyed it. Where the handmaidstale was very slow, this story was filled with action and cliffhangers. Partially because, there are 3 different points of view. It was easy to read and really interesting. There are themes of migration and not being able to find refugee in different countries and the fact that good people can live in bad places. The idea that maybe you would be a hero, but more likely, you would just be a person making the best of a terrible situation. However, I am still not convinced this story needed to be there. It was very different because it had a different tone and a different type of writing. There was more dialogue and less symbolism. I felt a lot less connected to these three characters than I felt to Offred in the first book. Mostly because you get less time with them and don’t get as much information on the way they think, but I think it might also be because they didn’t always seem very realistic. The way they talked and acted was a bit inconsistent. Because two of the characters are young people, some of the times they are naïeve and you can see the way they have been shaped by the ideas they grew up with, but then in different moments they will do something that is suddenly not fitting. That is probably my biggest issue with this story.
Then there’s the other character from this book , aunt Lydia. I don’t think that’s a spoiler. Though I won’t say too much about her role in this story. Just that I’m not sure I liked it. My favourite part about her perspective was the parts about her life before Gilliad.
It is more active and more about fighting and rebellions. You can see a little bit of the influence current politics might have had on this story as it is published in 2019 (though the first book was written 30 years ago and they dispended congress in that one). It was good to read, but it doesn’t feel like I will remember this book as much. (Also there were some things that seemed like they were supposed to be ‘plot twist’ but they were very obvious to me? Is this a sign of my extreme intelligence or were they always supposed to be obvious? Haha)
I don’t think it takes away from the first book. So I would recommend it and would love to hear if you do or don’t agree that it doesn’t live up to the first one. You will probably like this for very different reasons from the first book.
In an attempt to give this some type of structure, let’s start with talking about the handmaids tale.
I read the handmaids tale about a year ago. It was an instant five stars. That’s a book that really disturbed me. It stayed with me. For those of you who don’t know, the handmaids tale follows Offred who lives in a dystopian future where women are stripped from their rights and basically used for breeding. The scariest part is that it is all based on things that have happened/ are happening all over the world.
The handmaids tale was a great book with a frustrating but good ending. I won’t spoil it but I did think the ending worked very well. It fit the themes and tone of the book. You are left with a lot of questions and things to think about. You get a bit of hope at the end with the notes, but also a big warning of how we should take history seriously. It’s hopeful and tragic and ambiguous and critical at the same time. So I felt like it didn’t really need a sequal, BUT there’s the tv series. And then there’s also the fact that I am super curious and needed to know more.
After reading the handmaids tale I obviously had to also watch the show. It was hard to watch. Even more so than reading the book was for me. It’s just very graphic. (Btw if you’re interested in these books or the show please check the trigger warnings!) It is also a bit different in some ways (as is expected). so after the first season I decided it wasn’t worth my nightmares and stopped watching. It was a good place to end since the first season follows the book and the other seasons take place afterwards.
But then I got curious and I genuinely wanted to know what happened in the other seasons. The next seasons definitely had some more hope in them, which made me feel better watching them. Not that I didn’t also cry like the whole time. Where I liked the book ending, I also wanted a bit more. I wanted to see some good things happening. So I watched on. And it’s good. It’s so so good. I love the show a lot, especially BECAUSE it is so hard to watch. It gave me nightmares and it feels like I’ve ran a marathon at the end of each episode, I completely feel like I’m there. That’s not a great feeling but it’s amazing storytelling. So I had accepted the fact that in a way the story continued after the first book (not just in everyone’s own imagination). After watching the third season (and the trailer of the fourth season, they better release it at the same time on Videoland here) it was time to read the testaments.
A lot of times it’s hard to read a sequel because it will never be exactly what you imagined. After reading the book and watching the show I had thought of ways the future could have gone, especially because of the way the first book ends. Though when reading this I tried to ignore all those expectations.
I knew it wouldn’t follow the same characters. Which made me glad. And I really enjoyed it. Where the handmaidstale was very slow, this story was filled with action and cliffhangers. Partially because, there are 3 different points of view. It was easy to read and really interesting. There are themes of migration and not being able to find refugee in different countries and the fact that good people can live in bad places. The idea that maybe you would be a hero, but more likely, you would just be a person making the best of a terrible situation. However, I am still not convinced this story needed to be there. It was very different because it had a different tone and a different type of writing. There was more dialogue and less symbolism. I felt a lot less connected to these three characters than I felt to Offred in the first book. Mostly because you get less time with them and don’t get as much information on the way they think, but I think it might also be because they didn’t always seem very realistic. The way they talked and acted was a bit inconsistent. Because two of the characters are young people, some of the times they are naïeve and you can see the way they have been shaped by the ideas they grew up with, but then in different moments they will do something that is suddenly not fitting. That is probably my biggest issue with this story.
Then there’s the other character from this book , aunt Lydia. I don’t think that’s a spoiler. Though I won’t say too much about her role in this story. Just that I’m not sure I liked it. My favourite part about her perspective was the parts about her life before Gilliad.
It is more active and more about fighting and rebellions. You can see a little bit of the influence current politics might have had on this story as it is published in 2019 (though the first book was written 30 years ago and they dispended congress in that one). It was good to read, but it doesn’t feel like I will remember this book as much. (Also there were some things that seemed like they were supposed to be ‘plot twist’ but they were very obvious to me? Is this a sign of my extreme intelligence or were they always supposed to be obvious? Haha)
I don’t think it takes away from the first book. So I would recommend it and would love to hear if you do or don’t agree that it doesn’t live up to the first one. You will probably like this for very different reasons from the first book.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
emotional
funny
medium-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
3.5