hollymmcg's reviews
278 reviews

The Collectors by Philip Pullman

5.0

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective

5.0

I have never been so inspired to so fundamentally change the way I am within the world

Once Upon A Time In The North by Philip Pullman

4.0

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

Indigenous Women and Street Gangs: Survivance Narratives by Amber, Jorgina, Robert Henry, Faith, Jazmyne, Bev, Chantel

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

So very grateful to these strong women for sharing their lives with us 💖

The Empire's Ruin by Brian Staveley

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton

5.0

Asteroids: Bridge to Nowhere by Jim Spivey, Mike McCoy, Lori Criswell-Baer

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

A debut novel with a well-researched, interesting, and terrifyingly plausible story that suffered from lack of editing and over-explanation.

The author should be applauded for bringing together various storylines and characters in a story that did ultimately have me wanting to read to the end to see how it all wrapped up. Unfortunately the novel significantly struggled with editing and over-explanation of the subject matter. Spelling and grammar mistakes were not caught and distracted from the story. Conversation was stilted and unnatural. Explanations of science, military tactics/equipment, and politics were gone over in far too much detail, completely taking away from what should have been fast-paced and exciting scenes, making them tedious and long winded.

I want to highlight that I appreciate and celebrate the amount of work the author clearly put in to making this book accurate. He's obviously passionate for accuracy and you can tell he wants the story well told. I think he would have benefited from a few more revisions and more editing.