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halefa's reviews
192 reviews
Double Vision by Shaolin Poe
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
TL;DR:
Over all easy to read and fast paced book. The magic concept certainly is new and might be interesting if you're into urban fantasy.
Personally, I found the main character a complete twat and found some of the relationships unlogical and unfounded.
Long version:
My biggest issue with this book is the main character and how the other characters interact with him.
He is a self-centred, egoistic predator. And everyone around him acts as if he is a loveable, funny hero.
He stalked a woman for a while year, believing that he's in love with her based only on seeing her - the book acknowledges that this might be "a bit creepy" and "a little morally sketchy", but to my disappointment never really goes back to this and properly self-analyzes that as incredibly harmful and predatory behaviour.
To my even bigger disappointment, the stalked-upon woman seems to be enamored with him and is jokingly being described as a "jealous vixen" after only knowing him for a day or two.
Most (not all) of the women are described as absolutely gorgeous looking by the (male) main character, who starts to philosophise how a beautiful woman's looks were their own kind of magic upon meeting a woman for the first time (the one that the stalked-upon woman, who met him for the first time one day prior, got jealous about) - wtf is going on??
The plot of the book only spans over few days,but somehow all the strangers he meets immediately bond with him on an absolute trust level. Like this dude is being invited to top-secret police meetings for no reason whatsoever. The police chief even asks him how to run the mission!
My ick is mostly the main character.
Apart from that, I'd say that the language in the book is very colorful and aimed to be casual, funny and lighthearted - once in a while I got a bit annoyed by five metaphors in one paragraph, but overall it was easy to read.
I had the impression the author might have lost track over how much time passed in the book, cause things happen fast and the vibe as well.
The magic concept seems ... ambitious. Having a character being able to see all reflections certainly is a niche superpower that is unheard of - and how do you place that in an urban world, which boundaries and physics do you set for your character? In my eyes, the author managed to write that manageable - even though the magic concept seems more unhinged and uncontained with every new information provided.
There seem to be no boundaries for what kinds of magic there are. Sometimes it feels like the author just made them up on the spot with whatever was convenient. And obviously found a fancy-sounding name for them, always followed up by a "also known as [insert a shorter version of the fancy-sounding name]".
I feel like this book might have benefit from a slower pace. Slow the world building, let the characters develop, let relationships form naturally. Don't loredump everything into the main character (and thus us) in the matter of hours and days.
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Review copy provided by NetGalley
Over all easy to read and fast paced book. The magic concept certainly is new and might be interesting if you're into urban fantasy.
Personally, I found the main character a complete twat and found some of the relationships unlogical and unfounded.
Long version:
My biggest issue with this book is the main character and how the other characters interact with him.
He is a self-centred, egoistic predator. And everyone around him acts as if he is a loveable, funny hero.
He stalked a woman for a while year, believing that he's in love with her based only on seeing her - the book acknowledges that this might be "a bit creepy" and "a little morally sketchy", but to my disappointment never really goes back to this and properly self-analyzes that as incredibly harmful and predatory behaviour.
To my even bigger disappointment, the stalked-upon woman seems to be enamored with him and is jokingly being described as a "jealous vixen" after only knowing him for a day or two.
Most (not all) of the women are described as absolutely gorgeous looking by the (male) main character, who starts to philosophise how a beautiful woman's looks were their own kind of magic upon meeting a woman for the first time (the one that the stalked-upon woman, who met him for the first time one day prior, got jealous about) - wtf is going on??
The plot of the book only spans over few days,but somehow all the strangers he meets immediately bond with him on an absolute trust level. Like this dude is being invited to top-secret police meetings for no reason whatsoever. The police chief even asks him how to run the mission!
My ick is mostly the main character.
Apart from that, I'd say that the language in the book is very colorful and aimed to be casual, funny and lighthearted - once in a while I got a bit annoyed by five metaphors in one paragraph, but overall it was easy to read.
I had the impression the author might have lost track over how much time passed in the book, cause things happen fast and the vibe as well.
The magic concept seems ... ambitious. Having a character being able to see all reflections certainly is a niche superpower that is unheard of - and how do you place that in an urban world, which boundaries and physics do you set for your character? In my eyes, the author managed to write that manageable - even though the magic concept seems more unhinged and uncontained with every new information provided.
There seem to be no boundaries for what kinds of magic there are. Sometimes it feels like the author just made them up on the spot with whatever was convenient. And obviously found a fancy-sounding name for them, always followed up by a "also known as [insert a shorter version of the fancy-sounding name]".
I feel like this book might have benefit from a slower pace. Slow the world building, let the characters develop, let relationships form naturally. Don't loredump everything into the main character (and thus us) in the matter of hours and days.
-------
Review copy provided by NetGalley
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Stalking, and Death of parent
Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and Grief
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Remember Pompeii by Kika Emers
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was a surprise!
I would almost have scrolled by it because if the book cover, but the title intruiged me - as well as the description.
I'm mostly positively surprised by this book! It is a very unusual plot that was refreshing and exciting to read. There is not a lot of hand-holding and explaining of the fantasy part of the story - when I started reading I had so many questions I wanted to mention in this review, but a lot of them slowly got answered. On one hand, I liked that as it felt very natural and authentic.
On the other hand, the "normal" and "not fantasy" part of the story is very Young Adult with teen drama, misunderstandings and even the hint of a triangle lovestory (luckily not all too much). Sometimes I felt the vastness of the washinqi world clashed with the young adult theme. As if too complicated a concept was tried to be explained by a too simple language. Actually a quite good representation of the vibe of the book.
Some of the washinqi lore still feels a bit loopholey to me. Like how they look down on humans but many of their ways are very human-based (taking hand, lowering yourself, etc). Also, how are all the important figures in families with each other?
The language is pretty easy, some of the topics are tough, though. There is a lot of emotional tomult going on that got a bit frustrating in the end.
The least enjoyable part in my eyes was the main characters' relationship to her parents and the relationship among them - that felt too chaotic and like wanting too much. However, this was apparently only a first book in the series so maybe that will get explained better.
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Review copy provided through NetGalley.
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Review copy provided through NetGalley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Torture, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Abandonment
Minor: Emotional abuse and Violence
The Land of Shadows by Seth Lowen
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
really wanted to like this one, it started so promising. However, I sadly had to DNF at 44%.
This is a very classic adventurous coming-of-age story that many still might find enjoyable. It's good old-school high fantasy with a clear cut villain, clear cut heroes, a beautiful princess, monsters and a lot of stories told as loredrops.
Here are my reasons for DNFing:
1. It's too polished, too clear cut. The heroes are knights in shining armour, true paladins. The protagonist is a tropey naive boy that worships those heroes and in combat situations believes he can be the hero and save everyone - and probably does at the end of the book. There was no edge to anyone, no one stuck out and was likeable enough for me to want to follow them. On top of that, the protagonist has a brother who is basically the same as him?? Why is the brother even there, what purpose does he have for the plot?
2. I did not enjoy how characters were written. They're all polished and shiny and perfect. And then they all speak perfect prose - no person would speak that stiffly and formally when telling a story. But most of all the main characters' reactions to what happens to and around them is absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous. Pretty bad things happen to them and they bounce back without any emotional trauma or other consequences. Present them with a shiny lollipop in form of a pretty princess and they've forgotten everything.
---------------
Review copy provided through NetGalley.
This is a very classic adventurous coming-of-age story that many still might find enjoyable. It's good old-school high fantasy with a clear cut villain, clear cut heroes, a beautiful princess, monsters and a lot of stories told as loredrops.
Here are my reasons for DNFing:
1. It's too polished, too clear cut. The heroes are knights in shining armour, true paladins. The protagonist is a tropey naive boy that worships those heroes and in combat situations believes he can be the hero and save everyone - and probably does at the end of the book. There was no edge to anyone, no one stuck out and was likeable enough for me to want to follow them. On top of that, the protagonist has a brother who is basically the same as him?? Why is the brother even there, what purpose does he have for the plot?
2. I did not enjoy how characters were written. They're all polished and shiny and perfect. And then they all speak perfect prose - no person would speak that stiffly and formally when telling a story. But most of all the main characters' reactions to what happens to and around them is absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous. Pretty bad things happen to them and they bounce back without any emotional trauma or other consequences. Present them with a shiny lollipop in form of a pretty princess and they've forgotten everything.
---------------
Review copy provided through NetGalley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death of parent
Minor: Grief
To End Every War: Book One by Raymond Wilkinson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
DNF at 8%. This is not my writing style.
Some parts are good, some are plain or even cringe. The inconsistent quality in style reminded me a bit of a fanfiction.
Writing from the point of view of so many protagonists is a bold plan that is not put into action well in my opinion.
I had to read the intro scene three times!! I expected to having to read it from every single participants' POV and was ready to DNF much earlier.
I forced myself to continue reading as I am curious how the plot will continue - but then it happened again that I would need to read the same scene from multiple POVs. That's when I stopped - it is a very long dragging read if the plot does not move on.
Additionally, the prose is constantly "interrupted" by the POV character's direct thoughts. Some of the times it makes sense and feels natural, but most times it did not have any purpose or value besides showing a specific style.
----------
Review copy provided by NetGalley.
Some parts are good, some are plain or even cringe. The inconsistent quality in style reminded me a bit of a fanfiction.
Writing from the point of view of so many protagonists is a bold plan that is not put into action well in my opinion.
I had to read the intro scene three times!! I expected to having to read it from every single participants' POV and was ready to DNF much earlier.
I forced myself to continue reading as I am curious how the plot will continue - but then it happened again that I would need to read the same scene from multiple POVs. That's when I stopped - it is a very long dragging read if the plot does not move on.
Additionally, the prose is constantly "interrupted" by the POV character's direct thoughts. Some of the times it makes sense and feels natural, but most times it did not have any purpose or value besides showing a specific style.
----------
Review copy provided by NetGalley.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
The Price by
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This was a very interesting read! The world building and concept was interesting and nicely described. "The Price" describes a common distopian society with some tropes showing up, however, there was not a lot of hand holding of the reader or loredrop which made it actually easy to read. The only information you were fed was the information relevant to the character you're following.
Speaking of characters - there is not a single main character or POV. The book has a total of 12 chapters and each chapter follows their own character. They are all more or less loosely related and connected to the plot, but you don't get to really fall in love and stick with one of them.
In general the narration feels distanced to what is going on. Some of the characters' feelings are being touched upon, but the narrator is never really going deep and discussing their thoughts, considerations, etc. At times it feels a bit like a report describing what happened based on interviews with the different characters.
It requires a bit of getting used to. I feel like it works well with the length of the book - it's not too long to make one get annoyed about just being a drone hovering over the character. (Maybe that is the impression the reader was supposed to have - like being a drone?)
The ending came kinda abrupt and feels like a cliffhanger. The political and societal structures were built so detailed and a lot of questions were raised about how the problems could be resolved - I felt a bit lost and left alone when everything suddenly ended without being resolved or explained. This might have been intentional.
It is not my new favorite book and at times it was a bit dragging to read, but overall I found "The Price" interesting and refreshing compared to what I usually read. The length was perfect even though I would have wished for an epilogue to end things plot-wise.
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Copy received for free through NetGalley
------
Copy received for free through NetGalley
A Bastard's Birthright by JE Payne
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
A high fantasy book about a soldier and a mage apprentice and the adventures they have to go through to fight evil.
It is pretty easy reading, with a semi-slow pace in the beginning that picked up towards the end.
I enjoyed the world building with lore, different cultures and different climates.
There is a magic system that was being touched upon without really going very deep - it mainly just follows usual tropes of different schools of magic and a magic ressource with the creative name "Talent".
What icked me the most was the descriptions of the characters and their personality traits and motivations. There was barely any ambiguity or nuance - the good people were good and the evil people were evil and you weten't in doubt who was what. Also, the characters' backstories and how they impacted the characters were pretty straightforward and mentioned often.
Dialogues seemed stiff and forced at times, again with very little left in-between the lines. They included some proverbs and references that were unexpected in a fantasy plot ("mea culpa", Oedipus complex, "Do you have time to discuss our lord and saviour"). Otherwise a lot of banter and an attempt at humour which only worked half of the time in my eyes, and sometimes was rather cringe and awkward.
The relationships among the characters were also a bit off putting. Military or educational ranks and hierarchy seemed completely irrelevant and were constantly challenged without consequences or just didn't exist.
The biggest confusion in terms of personality was absolutely Jasmine, who got a very specific description of her personality traits in the beginning and then basically did not follow up on it at all.
(Was it just me who noticed that all men have very fantasy-appropiate names and as good as all women have plain, modern day names like Jasmine and Elizabeth?)
Positively, there were multiple strong female characters, even though it had to be mentioned many times how sexy they were.
PS: Javelins? Really??
--------
ARC provided through Netgalley.
It is pretty easy reading, with a semi-slow pace in the beginning that picked up towards the end.
I enjoyed the world building with lore, different cultures and different climates.
There is a magic system that was being touched upon without really going very deep - it mainly just follows usual tropes of different schools of magic and a magic ressource with the creative name "Talent".
What icked me the most was the descriptions of the characters and their personality traits and motivations. There was barely any ambiguity or nuance - the good people were good and the evil people were evil and you weten't in doubt who was what. Also, the characters' backstories and how they impacted the characters were pretty straightforward and mentioned often.
Dialogues seemed stiff and forced at times, again with very little left in-between the lines. They included some proverbs and references that were unexpected in a fantasy plot ("mea culpa", Oedipus complex, "Do you have time to discuss our lord and saviour"). Otherwise a lot of banter and an attempt at humour which only worked half of the time in my eyes, and sometimes was rather cringe and awkward.
The relationships among the characters were also a bit off putting. Military or educational ranks and hierarchy seemed completely irrelevant and were constantly challenged without consequences or just didn't exist.
The biggest confusion in terms of personality was absolutely Jasmine, who got a very specific description of her personality traits in the beginning and then basically did not follow up on it at all.
(Was it just me who noticed that all men have very fantasy-appropiate names and as good as all women have plain, modern day names like Jasmine and Elizabeth?)
Positively, there were multiple strong female characters, even though it had to be mentioned many times how sexy they were.
PS: Javelins? Really??
--------
ARC provided through Netgalley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Slavery
The Selection Series 5-Book Collection: The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, The Crown by Kiera Cass
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
I did not finish the book, cause I can't stand the main character and the absolute slow progression of the plot.
It is as if the main character never once uses her brain, finishes a thought or considers consequences for her actions. She is incredibly daft - and still somehow the book wants to show her as a hero, as the one deserving to be the princess. I fucking hope not.
There is absolutely no character development - I mean apart from her loving one person 100% and then two pages later switching over to loving another person 100% and then switching back. For three fucking books. And she believes it every time. Same goes for the job as princess/crown: I don't want it - oh, I want it - I absolutely never want it - I want it so much now no one saw it coming.
That's all of the plot so far.
Also, time flies very weirdly in these books. Only a few weeks have gone by and characters act as if they've lived their whole lifes. America's sister was very pregnant in beginning of book 1 and only gave birth in book 3, many months later. Wtf.
Read the first book. Enjoy the world building. Don't go further than that.
It is as if the main character never once uses her brain, finishes a thought or considers consequences for her actions. She is incredibly daft - and still somehow the book wants to show her as a hero, as the one deserving to be the princess. I fucking hope not.
There is absolutely no character development - I mean apart from her loving one person 100% and then two pages later switching over to loving another person 100% and then switching back. For three fucking books. And she believes it every time. Same goes for the job as princess/crown: I don't want it - oh, I want it - I absolutely never want it - I want it so much now no one saw it coming.
That's all of the plot so far.
Also, time flies very weirdly in these books. Only a few weeks have gone by and characters act as if they've lived their whole lifes. America's sister was very pregnant in beginning of book 1 and only gave birth in book 3, many months later. Wtf.
Read the first book. Enjoy the world building. Don't go further than that.