jurizprudence's reviews
235 reviews

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

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House of Slaughter #8 by Sam Johns, James Tynion IV

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.25

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Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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? No

5.0

congratulations to nona the ninth for being the only fictional book that made me pull up a bible while reading it

tor and netgalley rejected my arc request because they knew i won't be able to shut my little mouth if i read this book earlier. and what a tragically beautiful book about apocalypse, rebirth and resurrection, found families, and love in its purest, most innocent, and childlike form nona the ninth is! the way it broke my heart into pieces and put them back together in a span of almost 500 pages just like the previous books did was criminal—towards the end i was so fragile that even thinking about camilla's little smiles would require me a five-minute breakdown and a lie-down on the floor of my room. nona's eagerness to give love and her desire to be loved back brought me to tears the most when i finished. she's just so sweet and endearing and too pure for this world that i can't wrap my head around how can anyone not like—even love her.

i'm not a very articulate person, and i mean it when i say i can't describe how much i adore pyrrha and camilla and palamedes, and how much i miss gideon and harrowhark in this book. a certain prince—the saddest girl in the whole entire world!! i want to sob—got me acting unwise, and i will defend her to anyone who says something bad or mean about her i swear to god. i still admire ianthe's gall and i'm rooting for corona and judith. anyways i hate john with a burning passion and i think he is very pathetic and i want to study him under a microscope. this goes to show that muir is great in writing multifaceted characters—even awful, evil, and minor ones—that you can't help but feel attached to them. i saw readers saying that they didn't care much for nona's friends but i did!! god, i did cry and laugh for hot sauce and born in the morning and even that lying honesty—and it's all thanks to nona and her perspective.

notice how all i've talk about are the characters? yeah. yeah because the character dynamics are the highlight of this book for me. as for the plot, ntn was obviously easier to follow than htn, and thank goodness for that because i wasn't able to fully reread the previous books. i still got lost several times, but i think i did pretty well, having guessed one (lol) important plot point. still in awe that muir refuses to explain in detail everything that's happening by writing the most unreliable narrators in this universe—and that i actually love it. this series made me realize that i do like being confused. if gideon the ninth is a locked room mystery designed like a puzzle and harrow the ninth is a psychedelic dream meant to gaslight you, nona the ninth is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fully built on love—love for oneself, friends, family, beliefs, and love for the planet that was your home. i didn't know that it would be as heartbreaking as htn was, but it is—even more so, i think. and for that tamsyn owes me therapy and a promise that griddlehark is endgame in alecto the ninth, thanks very much.

also tamsyn muir can you please stop introducing foul-mouthed and bright-haired women characters because i literally fall in love every time, yes this about pash, dearest our lady of the passion whom nona and i have a crush on, thank you

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A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

i had fun annotating this book, but i admit it caused me to finish this later than i initially planned. writing down my thoughts and guesses about the plot lines kept me invested in the story, most of the time, though i had trouble with the pacing and the court politics on some instances that i had to take breaks. the exploration of language, the tools, seduction, and horrors of empire, as well as mahit's inherent longing to belong in a civilization that was quite literally meant to alienate her, were impressively done—martine's passion about her book and the influences it was based on really seeped through the pages. excited to return to this world for the second book once i'm done rereading gtn and htn.

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Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

it's hard to review a book that deeply resonated with you and made you feel desperately seen, without giving too much of yourself in turn. so i will just say that i found myself consuming this book in small amounts in a span of four days because i wanted to stay longer in gilda's head, despite it being a much more intense version of mine. her ruminations about the futility of human existence, contrasted by her compassion to those around her and her attempts to unburden them with further sadness, is something that can be devastating yet comforting at the same measure. this book was so heartbreaking and beautiful and humane and i know i will be thinking about it for a long time.

everyone in this room will someday be dead is also often compared to fleabag, and i have to agree. i love fleabag. it's no surprise to me that i also love this book. one of these days i might go back to this review and add my thoughts about the portrayals of gilda and fleabag and how they intersect and differ from one another, but right now i just want to sleep lol

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