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kit_alexander's reviews
314 reviews
Borderline by Mishell Baker
3.0
This, uh. This was kinda boring? I didn't hate it or anything, but despite a decent length and plenty of plot, I didn't like *any* of the characters because they all felt pretty wooden, whittled down to a couple archetypes without much depth. The couple characters I might have liked didn't get nearly enough screen time (page time?), and while I love the BSD representation (and I found it extremely accurate based on my interaction with the borderline folks in my life), Millie was not a compelling MC for myriad other reasons.
I dunno. Can't say that I'll pick up the sequel, but I had a good enough time following the plot strings to the conclusion, even if every character I met along the way was either an asshole or a liar, lol.
I dunno. Can't say that I'll pick up the sequel, but I had a good enough time following the plot strings to the conclusion, even if every character I met along the way was either an asshole or a liar, lol.
The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho
3.0
I think I didn't really get this?
I mean. I *got* the lore, and I understood the *point*, but ... I dunno. It didn't really do anything for me. Everything that happens is a flash in the pan. The love story, if you can call it that, didn't make me feel much if anything because it was entirely undeveloped, imo.
I dunno. People are saying such lovely things about this story, but it was merely okay to me. I loved the look into Chinese mythology and the individual characters, for what little we see of them. But the plot just wasn't enough for me to see myself ever coming back to this.
I mean. I *got* the lore, and I understood the *point*, but ... I dunno. It didn't really do anything for me. Everything that happens is a flash in the pan. The love story, if you can call it that, didn't make me feel much if anything because it was entirely undeveloped, imo.
I dunno. People are saying such lovely things about this story, but it was merely okay to me. I loved the look into Chinese mythology and the individual characters, for what little we see of them. But the plot just wasn't enough for me to see myself ever coming back to this.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
3.0
3.5 stars.
Really neat worldbilding, likeable, if somewhat frustrating, main character. I will definitely read the next book in the series.
That said, man, this book took me like 2 weeks to get through. It was hard to read for more than an hour at a time and barely held my interest. Normally, they say you should show and not tell, and this book does that in spades. But so much of the scene writing, from conversation to action, is very ... declarative without any of the more inward-looking depth I like in fiction. Despite this book being written in the first person, I don't really feel like Kate did a whole lot of thinking. It was more, "I went to the place. The man I was looking for met me at the door. We spoke for a while and he laughed at me. I said something snarky and then we both drew our weapons and fought." There's more description than that, of course, but I never really felt myself transported or connected to the characters and events.
I did enjoy enough about this to continue on, and I hope my niggles get worked out as the series progresses and the writers have more time to practice and hone their craft.
Really neat worldbilding, likeable, if somewhat frustrating, main character. I will definitely read the next book in the series.
That said, man, this book took me like 2 weeks to get through. It was hard to read for more than an hour at a time and barely held my interest. Normally, they say you should show and not tell, and this book does that in spades. But so much of the scene writing, from conversation to action, is very ... declarative without any of the more inward-looking depth I like in fiction. Despite this book being written in the first person, I don't really feel like Kate did a whole lot of thinking. It was more, "I went to the place. The man I was looking for met me at the door. We spoke for a while and he laughed at me. I said something snarky and then we both drew our weapons and fought." There's more description than that, of course, but I never really felt myself transported or connected to the characters and events.
I did enjoy enough about this to continue on, and I hope my niggles get worked out as the series progresses and the writers have more time to practice and hone their craft.