mmccombs's reviews
709 reviews

It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

A beautiful and strange book about grief. It is a zombie/post-apocalyptic story, but more so a story about loss and change and desire. It was a pretty quick read and the prose packed a punch, though sometimes it felt like a little much. I loved how dark and unsettling it was, while also balancing hope and humanity in glimpses. 
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I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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dark reflective medium-paced

4.5

A calm, lonely, haunting little book. While it was frustrating at first to realize we wouldn’t be getting any answers about why/how this world was built, I ultimately love that its ambiguity provokes further reflection. The sparseness of the prose and the plot laid bare the heart of this novel, exploring what being a person is outside of the culture, technology, and norms we take for granted today. I loved the main character and how she explored the world, acting as a bridge between past and future. It was dark but hopeful and just very alive, I’m so glad I finally got around to this!
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Cross My Heart by Megan Collins

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mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

It was quick, it was mostly fun, and it was twisty! I can’t say I cared for any of these characters and the Taylor Swift references got old pretty quick (comparing her to Sylvia Plath made me lol), but this was the kind of silly concept that keeps me hooked. I thought the twists were wild and the ending didn’t like totally make sense to me, but I’d recommend for a quick and tense thriller.
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Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

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reflective medium-paced

4.0

Surreal and interesting, I loved how this blurred reality to explore themes around womanhood in Japan (but also just in a working, capitalist context). The translation seemed to be done well, and I enjoyed thinking about how pregnancy (real or not!) changes how others see you and how you see yourself. It was short and impactful, would recommend for a quick and thought provoking read.
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Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

This was a tedious, confusing, overly long book and I will be reading the next one for sure. My main complaints are as follows:
  • There are way too many characters, dragons, and places. I simply did not know who most people were and kind of gave up when names happened to me. 
  • There are way too many elements to the magic system and it kind of makes no sense.
  • World building also makes no sense, what even is the government system? Since when is there a queen? Why are important political meetings happening at a war college with children and not in a government building with adults?
  • Writing is often unclear and vague, rendering action difficult to follow. 
  • The island hopping could have been almost completely cut with no impact to the rest of the story. I liked the idea of seeing new places in this world, but we didn’t stay in any one place long enough to truly know it and none of the things they did on those islands seemed to matter, except for the one island with the silver haired people that I forgot the name of.
  • The habit of killing off characters to immediately bring back, or in the case of Andarna leaving and returning, is so frustrating. Emotional impact for nothing?? Cowardly!
And the reason I’ll read the next book?
  • Dragons are cool.
  • I had a good time during the last like 10-15 chapters so I forgot all of the previous suffering.
  • A cliffhanger like THAT?!
  • I am most importantly very nosy.
This could be a much shorter book (and a much shorter series) with probably the same impact, but hey, I am into it and will continue to upset myself as I read this series.
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Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Just an incredibly impressive debut! This had everything I love in historical fiction: it was well researched; the main character was compelling; the setting felt lived in; and the plot was, if a bit predictable, very satisfying. This book felt perfectly mirrored to our moment in time, where panic leads to fear and then to hate, which made something that occurred so long ago feel urgent. I could tell that personal impacts and emotion from COVID directly informed the weight and devastation of the plague described in these pages. The only reason I am not giving this a perfect 5 stars is because I found the characterization of Margot (and most of the side characters tbh) to be lacking. But really, I was absolutely swept away by this read and hope we see more from DeLozier!
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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Fully atmospheric and absolutely the perfect read as an arctic blast creeps into my city. The world building was lush and engaging, from the first chapter I was immediately transfixed and knew I would love it. The audio narration was also excellent (though I've got to admit that I often got lost about who was who because recognizing spoken Russian names is not exactly my strong suit). It was the perfect balance of historical fiction and magical realism and folklore, the interplay between "old" Russia and its pagan spirits vs the new wave of Christianity was especially interesting. I didn't know this was a trilogy so now I'm excited to have more of this world to read!
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Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

4.25

Okay, I get the Brandon Sanderson hype! I initially tried to enter the Sanderson universe with The Way of Kings a few years ago but wasn’t in the right mood, so I’m very glad that a bookclub forced me to start with this one instead. Truly captivating fantasy, I was pretty much hooked from the beginning and didn’t find myself bogged down with confusing lore. The magic structure was unique and so thoroughly imagined, I appreciated that the magic informed the world building and vice versa. Each element felt like it fit together, which made the characters and plot shine. I wouldn’t say this was a heist as the description of this book suggests, but the crew element of the story still scratched that itch. And I do think that some of the writing was a bit juvenile, a few sections of explaining allomancy felt a bit out of place (though they were helpful!). I’m pretty surprised by how much I liked this and am very excited to get to the rest of the series!
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Rosarita by Anita Desai

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.75

The writing was absolutely beautiful and evoked such a strong sense of place, but I ended it wanting a bit more. I enjoyed the themes and ideas it tackled, like trying to reconstruct/find your mother when she has been unknowable and how Mexican and Indian history echo each other. But it was one of those where when it ended I was just kind of like, well okay?? It was very solid and incredibly quick to read, so I’d recommend it even if I wish it was maybe a bit longer.
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Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.0

I really enjoyed the first chapter and the epilogue and that was pretty much it, unfortunately. This book was cozy and I did appreciate the sense of community it established by the end. But I didn’t really care for any of these characters and felt kind of confused about some of the plot points this took. It kind of reminded me of a Fredrik Backman book, where multiple characters with their own issues touch and intersect, which as a general vibe I enjoyed but can’t say the details worked for me. And the narration really didn’t help, the voices he used were over the top (and one character voice actively grossed me out), so I never felt like the writing itself was very good either, though it could just boil down to the audio experience. Unsure if I’d recommend this, but can appreciate the sense of place and character this had.
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