khnleesi's reviews
58 reviews

Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.0

i got my children (who are older than me...) back and that's all that matters!

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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medium-paced

3.0

i don’t have the strength to write a full review but just know that the ending was the part i enjoyed the most, just like S&S, (i don’t hate or love it, i simply think that it’s ok) and that i, to my surprise, shred many many tears.

am i glad to be done with this trilogy? incredibly so.
but did i hate it? not so much, no. but i wouldn’t recommend it.
are nikolai lantsov and genya safin the superior characters? absolutely, yes!

my favorite quote out of all the trilogy (also known as 🗣️my last straw🗣️) :

‘𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘰𝘭, 𝘴𝘰 𝘪 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩. “𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘬𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳,” 𝘪 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘺’𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘱. 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯.’

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

"AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS, THE NIGHT CAME ALIVE WITH THE MUSIC OF DRAGONS."
name a better last line, i dare you!

Content Warnings

Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.25

i love love love the work Chloe did with ‘These Violent Delights’ and ‘Our Violent Ends’ and will never stop talking about how well-written and awesome those two novels are, but sadly i won’t be able to talk about her third child, ‘Foul Lady Fortune’ , with the same passion.

let’s start with the protagonist : Rosalind.

i think it’s safe to say that i was more infuriated by her acting the opposite as a (good) spy and revealing her real identity every 3 seconds to strangers she encounters than her betraying her family and gang in OVE !

i know that she has been trained as an assassin and not as a spy like Orion (we’ll talk about him later..) , but i didn’t even feel like she made any efforts to prove to her surroundings that she was worthy of the title, which she should’ve !! 🤷🏻‍♀️

there was a passage where coworkers of hers told her that they were going to a party that took place in the club that she used to work in, and she apparently needed to go to that party because ‘she and Orion needed information about those said coworkers’ BUT going to that party would most certainly ruin her cover since people would recognize her! and guess what? SHE WENT TO THAT PARTY ANYWAY , ruined her cover and had to kill someone because of it AND didn’t discover a-ny-thing suspicious about her coworkers!

so what was the point of this scene except confirm me that Rosalind is the biggest idiot of her family?

since i mentioned Orion earlier , as i liked most of the male characters from ‘TVD’ and ‘OVE’ i , therefore , expected him to be an interesting and fresh new character , but oh my should i have lowered my expectations because i found him more personalityless than a 10 months old baby and annoying in the worst sense of the word!

he kept saying ‘beloved’ like it was a ponctuation mark like-.. SIR how can you expect me to take you seriously if you’re talking like that?? is your vocabulary seriously that smal???? urgh.

what is there to know about him except that he is a pretentious philanderer who has a terrible relationship with his parents and who can’t stop teasing Phoebe ? i’m genuinely asking!

i will die on a hill saying that the ‘don’t touch my wife’ and ‘who did this to you? i’ll make them pay’ tropes are terrible and unnecessary ; i thought Chloe knew better than to use them but whatever..

one thing i enjoyed was seeing Alisa and Celia again! especially because we got to see them both 4 years older and so at a total different point in their lifes from where we left them in ‘OVE’ BUT it’s the same thing than with Orion : they lacked some depth that would have made their choices and position in the communist party much more coherent!

lastly i thought the plot to be quite predictable (apart from that final plot twist that i didn’t see coming at all) and the build-up waaaaay too slow.

and about the entire political side : i’m just going to leave this review here ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5073269827 ) because it perfectly summarizes my thoughts!

conclusion : i still intend on picking the sequel up next year because i care about this world and it’s characters (or at least the majority of them) but that’s the only reason..

i’m not mad because i know a lot of people liked this book , i’m just greatly disappointed :/

Content Warnings

Feu et sang - Partie 1 by George R.R. Martin, Patrick Marcel

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adventurous dark emotional informative tense slow-paced

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

3.5

ce livre est la preuve ultime que la Maison Targaryen est, d’un premier temps, la maison la plus intéressante à apprendre à découvrir, et dans un second temps, la plus puissante et majestueuse de toutes.

d’Aegon I et ses soeurs Viserya et Rhaenys à Jaehaerys I et Alysanne , du Fléau de Valyria à la Seconde Querelle, de la Terreur noire à la Reine Rouge ; tous ces personnages mythiques, ces guerres et conflits avec des enjeux et conséquences terribles, ces dragons tous plus différents et fascinants les uns que les autres : ce sont tous ces élements (sans oublier la plume de GRRM) rassemblés ensemble qui me font rêver et remettre la qualité de mes précédentes lectures en question!

je suis prête à laisser passer quelques moments (très) lents où presque rien ne se passait tout simplement car ils ne valent rien face à la grande majorité du livre, c’est-à-dire les histoires rocambolesques et enchanteuses de personnages légendaires comme Rhaena Targaryen ou encore comme sa soeur Alysanne.

qu’elle aventure, qu’elle imagination, quel talent!!

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

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adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.0

i am convinced that NO-BO-DY knows what ugly tears are better than Chloe Gong's readers.
you might think you know what it means to cry your heart out over fictional characters, but trust me, you don't!!

-1 star for some small plot holes & also because i wasn't always fully concentrated while reading, but apart from that i have nothing else to say except that i couldn't be more grateful for writers, story tellers- ARTISTS- to create/express their creativity through films/paintings/songs - and here, through novels- because by doing so, they end up making our lives (a tiny bit) better <3 thank you thank you thank you!!

❛ TOGETHER OR NOT AT ALL ༉‧₊˚

Content Warnings

Ce que je voulais vous dire (Biblio) by Anaïs Nin

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.

dnf 37%
«Si j’ai bien compris, beaucoup de lesbiennes refusent d’admettre que leur homosexualité vient d’un échec qu’elles ont connu avec les hommes. Elles le nient absolument. Elles prétendent que cela ne vient pas d’un échec avec les hommes, mais d’un attrait réel pour les femmes.
A. N. (l’autrice) - C’est parfaitement possible.»

??????????non c’est bon je suis fatiguée

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced