gabiirayner's reviews
46 reviews

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

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2.0

NOOOOOO I WANTED TO LIKE THIS SO BAD :((( I'm very very sorry to everyone but I think I'm :

a) not a fan of densely poetic, lyrical writing
b) not a fan of super short chapters that alternate jarringly between minimal narrative and letter-writing dialogue
c) not a fan of romances where they Actually Don't Know Each Other?
d) a lil bit too dumb!!!!
Three Assassins by Kōtarō Isaka

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3.0

2.75

full review incoming I think !!!!!
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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3.0

3.5 !!

Wish I had a really big brain and could translate Shakepearian English on the spot... would've made things a LOT easier! But a dark academia essential methinks, I had a great time with this one.
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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3.0

OOF that was a bit of a slog but it's done!!! I'm glad I finished things all off even though [redacted] should've [redacted] [redacted] and not [redacted]. but hey! c'est la vie!!!!!!
Wit'ch Fire: Book One of the Banned and the Banished by James Clemens

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2.0

2.5

Started so well!!! DRAGGED IN THE MIDDLE MY GOD!!!! Ended pretty well!!! Not sure if I'll continue the series though, watch this space.

Whilst I found particular characters interesting and endearing (Kral, Neelahn, Erril especially), there's just FAR too many names thrown at you at once, and far too many varying combinations of them to pull you through each subplot. The apostrophe usage starts feeling gimmicky after a while, and if I have to see the word "sibilant" used one more time.....

It's harmless enough and some of the descriptive work really had my skin crawling which was fun! I just wish there wasn't so much laborious detail of every single action taken, and that there could've been a bit more action before the finale aside from just running away :/
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