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mejisilliterate's reviews
61 reviews
Others Were Emeralds by Lang Leav
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Disappointed because I was really expecting to like this book.
I was considering just pushing through to the end, but after reading some other reviews I just think the book isn’t for me.
The writing is, in my opinion, awful. So many trying-too-hard adjectives, uninteresting sentence structures, and the classic telling and not showing. Often I felt like I was being told what I should find moving instead of the writing just speaking for itself. Example: that story that Tin tells of his mother shooting a mango out of a tree, and everyone immediately reacts with tears in their eyes and saying “that was soooo beautiful!” — very on the nose. Literally none of the dialogue in this story is believable. They are meant to be 16/17 year olds yet they casually say things like “I can still taste the sweetness of the fruit now, how the juice running down my chin made me feel rich beyond my wildest dreams”. Yes it’s beautiful writing, but great writing would let the emotion of Tins story speak for itself without the flowery language that no high school boy would ever say in casual conversation with his friends.
The writing was also verryyyy YA, which I really do not like. It probably explains why the book generally got so many good reviews that I just completely don’t relate to. Like, the author does that thing where she makes Ai as the narrator say “but I’ll wait for later on to explain that part” which I find so insufferable. I really don’t see why that was necessary: she could have either just done that without clunkily pointing it own, or she could have made the narrative unfold in present-tense. As well, the plot and general actions of the characters from what I’ve read are incredibly juvenile, yet the way the characters speak to each other makes it seem like they’re 50 years old and/or are robots.
The last thing, and what really made me decide to stop reading, was the relationships with Sying. Just like Tins story where the author tells the reader how she wants them to feel through the characters’ reactions, everyone speaks to Sying’s character with the same admonishing tone. Everything she does is considered by the main friend group to be annoying, and then eventually just plain rude and manipulative. And they allll like to tell her so. Personally I found Sying to be a bit misguided, but overall really just mistreated by her “friends” (they literally talk behind her back all the time and even call her neurotic at one point). I kept reading because I was thinking that it was all being set up for the characters to grow up and realize their flaws and mistakes, as well as their mistreatment of Sying. However as I have read in reviews, it seems that Sying stays the “villain” throughout the entire book. So that makes me realize that the authors characterization is really lazy, especially since she uses the other characters dialogue and thoughts as tools to indicate that the reader should also hate Sying. The implications of making an autism-coded (she’s described as somewhat socially awkward/unfiltered/not understanding social context) and outspokenly political character regarded as one-dimensionally ‘bad’ is a bit …problematic, in my opinion. Side note: The problem with the other girls’ intrusion into the political movement Sying started is that they join the movement, only to change the m/o, and then have the gall to act morally superior to Sying’s original tactics. At least show me the ways that she’s supposedly inciting such egregious violence if you want me to agree with the other characters instead of just saying “oh she designed a really questionable poster”. So all this to say justice for Sying fr.
So yeah. Not totally sure why this book is marketed as adult fiction. I would rate what I read a 2/5.
Also, Jesus there were way too many grammatical errors left in for a published book. Did anyone proofread this?
I was considering just pushing through to the end, but after reading some other reviews I just think the book isn’t for me.
The writing is, in my opinion, awful. So many trying-too-hard adjectives, uninteresting sentence structures, and the classic telling and not showing. Often I felt like I was being told what I should find moving instead of the writing just speaking for itself. Example: that story that Tin tells of his mother shooting a mango out of a tree, and everyone immediately reacts with tears in their eyes and saying “that was soooo beautiful!” — very on the nose. Literally none of the dialogue in this story is believable. They are meant to be 16/17 year olds yet they casually say things like “I can still taste the sweetness of the fruit now, how the juice running down my chin made me feel rich beyond my wildest dreams”. Yes it’s beautiful writing, but great writing would let the emotion of Tins story speak for itself without the flowery language that no high school boy would ever say in casual conversation with his friends.
The writing was also verryyyy YA, which I really do not like. It probably explains why the book generally got so many good reviews that I just completely don’t relate to. Like, the author does that thing where she makes Ai as the narrator say “but I’ll wait for later on to explain that part” which I find so insufferable. I really don’t see why that was necessary: she could have either just done that without clunkily pointing it own, or she could have made the narrative unfold in present-tense. As well, the plot and general actions of the characters from what I’ve read are incredibly juvenile, yet the way the characters speak to each other makes it seem like they’re 50 years old and/or are robots.
The last thing, and what really made me decide to stop reading, was the relationships with Sying. Just like Tins story where the author tells the reader how she wants them to feel through the characters’ reactions, everyone speaks to Sying’s character with the same admonishing tone. Everything she does is considered by the main friend group to be annoying, and then eventually just plain rude and manipulative. And they allll like to tell her so. Personally I found Sying to be a bit misguided, but overall really just mistreated by her “friends” (they literally talk behind her back all the time and even call her neurotic at one point). I kept reading because I was thinking that it was all being set up for the characters to grow up and realize their flaws and mistakes, as well as their mistreatment of Sying. However as I have read in reviews, it seems that Sying stays the “villain” throughout the entire book. So that makes me realize that the authors characterization is really lazy, especially since she uses the other characters dialogue and thoughts as tools to indicate that the reader should also hate Sying. The implications of making an autism-coded (she’s described as somewhat socially awkward/unfiltered/not understanding social context) and outspokenly political character regarded as one-dimensionally ‘bad’ is a bit …problematic, in my opinion. Side note: The problem with the other girls’ intrusion into the political movement Sying started is that they join the movement, only to change the m/o, and then have the gall to act morally superior to Sying’s original tactics. At least show me the ways that she’s supposedly inciting such egregious violence if you want me to agree with the other characters instead of just saying “oh she designed a really questionable poster”. So all this to say justice for Sying fr.
So yeah. Not totally sure why this book is marketed as adult fiction. I would rate what I read a 2/5.
Also, Jesus there were way too many grammatical errors left in for a published book. Did anyone proofread this?
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
5.0
What is a woman allowed to feel? How is she allowed to express her feelings?
Incredible. This book made me wish I had a pen on me at all times just so I could mark the countless lines that struck me, made me think, and made me cry.
So many aspects, all weaved together beautifully. I’m really just in awe of this book, and I knew I would love it within the first pages. One of those books that I read ‘meh’ reviews for and all I can think is ‘did we read the same book???’
“In front of Cleopatra he asked, ‘Where’s the asp bite?’
‘Is that all you can say? After ten years of not seeing my work? “Where’s the asp bite?”’
‘I—‘
‘Maybe she died without it. The fear of public shame in itself was strong enough to kill her.’
A sound but not a word came out of his mouth at the idea.
‘Don’t you understand that yet, Father? How deep the fear of exposure can bite?’”
Incredible. This book made me wish I had a pen on me at all times just so I could mark the countless lines that struck me, made me think, and made me cry.
So many aspects, all weaved together beautifully. I’m really just in awe of this book, and I knew I would love it within the first pages. One of those books that I read ‘meh’ reviews for and all I can think is ‘did we read the same book???’
“In front of Cleopatra he asked, ‘Where’s the asp bite?’
‘Is that all you can say? After ten years of not seeing my work? “Where’s the asp bite?”’
‘I—‘
‘Maybe she died without it. The fear of public shame in itself was strong enough to kill her.’
A sound but not a word came out of his mouth at the idea.
‘Don’t you understand that yet, Father? How deep the fear of exposure can bite?’”
the witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace
1.0
My hateritis is flaring up. I will never call this poetry and I don’t think it’s worth the paper it’s printed on. My fault for even buying it, I was an idiot and only read the title and the dedication (both of which I thought were good) before spending 20 goddamn dollars on this. But, do not fear! I plan to use the 95% blank pages as a new sketchbook.
Let me just say, if you want to write poetry to be published, you should probably acquaint yourself with actual poetic devices and what they do before going ham with writing a sentence then inserting a bunch of random line breaks everywhere. Honestly I feel bad for the people who think this “poetry” is the best, because real poetry can do *so* much more than this.
And don’t get me started on the subject matter. Very white feminist.
Let me just say, if you want to write poetry to be published, you should probably acquaint yourself with actual poetic devices and what they do before going ham with writing a sentence then inserting a bunch of random line breaks everywhere. Honestly I feel bad for the people who think this “poetry” is the best, because real poetry can do *so* much more than this.
And don’t get me started on the subject matter. Very white feminist.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
4.0
Harvest moon was stuck in my head because it reminded me of the book so needless to say I screamed and fist-pumped when they started dancing to it
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
2.5
1. This book felt long and convoluted a lot of the time
2. Bored af with the same romance playing out over and over. It was fun when it was novel in acotar but having literally every single goddamn character in this book be falling in love with one another is like…so boring.
3. Building on that ^, sjm writes the most amazing queer romances and doesn’t make them romances. Like girl, CMON. You’re telling me Manon and Dorian is better than her with Elide??? And I’m still pissed that nehemia and aelin was never a thing, would have made so much sense
3. Her writing was getting on my nerves. Do we really have to be repeating so many words and phrases all the time? Example sentence structure that I saw too many times: Bad—the writing was so bad.
4. Low key feel like we’ve lost the plot with the whole wyrdmarks thing. They played such a big role in the first few books and now they are really just in the background.
5. I also just generally dislike the magic system sjm uses. Her characters are almost always tHe MoST PoWeRFuL EVER, and supposedly have almost unending amounts of magic, yet I never feel when reading that this crazy power is actually a thing. In this book especially, we spent more time reading about how these “most powerful” people are drained after one fight with the baddies rather than actually seeing this crazy earth altering magic in action for more than a page.
6. WTF moment when aelin said she would consider taking over the whole world so she can “end corruption”. …….girl.
7. Sjm fucked over aedion, Dorian, and even manon’s (in the later half of the book) characters. They all felt two-dimensional, which is such a shame because they all had so much interest earlier on. Justice for Dorian, who only has two character traits: he’s a sad fuckboy, and he’s a complete pushover.
Not my favourite book but the last one was good af and I’m already like 2500 pages deep into this series so ONWARDS!!! Huzzah
2. Bored af with the same romance playing out over and over. It was fun when it was novel in acotar but having literally every single goddamn character in this book be falling in love with one another is like…so boring.
3. Building on that ^, sjm writes the most amazing queer romances and doesn’t make them romances. Like girl, CMON. You’re telling me Manon and Dorian is better than her with Elide??? And I’m still pissed that nehemia and aelin was never a thing, would have made so much sense
3. Her writing was getting on my nerves. Do we really have to be repeating so many words and phrases all the time? Example sentence structure that I saw too many times: Bad—the writing was so bad.
4. Low key feel like we’ve lost the plot with the whole wyrdmarks thing. They played such a big role in the first few books and now they are really just in the background.
5. I also just generally dislike the magic system sjm uses. Her characters are almost always tHe MoST PoWeRFuL EVER, and supposedly have almost unending amounts of magic, yet I never feel when reading that this crazy power is actually a thing. In this book especially, we spent more time reading about how these “most powerful” people are drained after one fight with the baddies rather than actually seeing this crazy earth altering magic in action for more than a page.
6. WTF moment when aelin said she would consider taking over the whole world so she can “end corruption”. …….girl.
7. Sjm fucked over aedion, Dorian, and even manon’s (in the later half of the book) characters. They all felt two-dimensional, which is such a shame because they all had so much interest earlier on. Justice for Dorian, who only has two character traits: he’s a sad fuckboy, and he’s a complete pushover.
Not my favourite book but the last one was good af and I’m already like 2500 pages deep into this series so ONWARDS!!! Huzzah
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
3.5
Call sjm a bad writer all you want (and sometimes I will even agree with you) but the scene after the labor camps are purged, where a orchestra plays in solidarity of the lost lives and are then themselves killed, was just….such good writing.
So anyway, the review:
Chaol/Dorian storyline was boring to me. Haaaated Dorians romance, it was so undeveloped it felt unnecessary. It took me about halfway through the book to realise that ren and murtagh were actually somewhat important characters that I should pay attention to, even though I don’t care about them. I liked aedion though.
Manon i didn’t get for a lot of the book, but I ended up getting invested in her story near the end of the book, so yay maas! Still rolled my eyes every time the Thirteen was described to be so cold-blooded and blah blah blah. Like, I get it.
Aelin became a bearable character by the end of the book, so again, yay maas! Rowan was abusive, but people like to say that he was just not putting up with her shit?? Sure, but you know, in an abusive way. And tell me why tf he would decide to go from one blood oath to another?? Boy have you learned nothing!
So anyway, the review:
Chaol/Dorian storyline was boring to me. Haaaated Dorians romance, it was so undeveloped it felt unnecessary. It took me about halfway through the book to realise that ren and murtagh were actually somewhat important characters that I should pay attention to, even though I don’t care about them. I liked aedion though.
Manon i didn’t get for a lot of the book, but I ended up getting invested in her story near the end of the book, so yay maas! Still rolled my eyes every time the Thirteen was described to be so cold-blooded and blah blah blah. Like, I get it.
Aelin became a bearable character by the end of the book, so again, yay maas! Rowan was abusive, but people like to say that he was just not putting up with her shit?? Sure, but you know, in an abusive way. And tell me why tf he would decide to go from one blood oath to another?? Boy have you learned nothing!