mrtvavrana's reviews
832 reviews

If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

What if the Devil showed up in your home, offering you a deal? You get to live another day, but in exchange you need to make a thing disappear from the world. Would you take it? 

 

That is what the narrator of this short book is dealing with—the Devil offering him more time. 

 

The story, while quite sad and a bit depressing, takes place over the span of seven days. I loved the idea behind this book; the pace and plot were very nice, but I found the book a bit dull and boring at times. I suppose that's how life is sometimes, isn't it? 

 

I am not sure how to feel about the open ending. On one hand, I am upset we did not get to see the narrator finish what he set out to do before his ultimate death. On the other hand, that gives your mind a lot of space to make your own conclusions about what might have happened. 

 

I feel like I kept thinking more about what I would make disappear if I were able to make a deal like this rather than the book itself. Despite that, I had a theory that the whole story is just the narrator having hallucinations before he ultimately gives up and chooses death instead of another day on Earth. 

 

Overall, If Cats Disappeared From The World is a really lovely and fast read. Unfortunately, the actual cats did not get that much space. 

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King, Owen King

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Posol by Neal Shusterman

adventurous slow-paced

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

1.0

 

I have read this book in Slovak. 

I did not bother tagging spoilers so read at your own risk

 

I am not sure why I did this to myself, but I managed to get through the entire trilogy. While the first book was somewhat coherent, the second one was quite ridiculous. They were both riddled with plot holes, contradictions, and nonsense. 

 

Does it get better in the last book? No. But it surely gets much worse. At first I did not know if I would even finish the book, and then I was not sure whether I would be able to finish this review. But here we are! 

 

The book takes off pretty much where the last one finished. The Cliffhanger. During the first 250 pages, nothing happens. It´s just filler. There is basically no Rowan or Citra (thank lord), but somehow that makes it worse. We get a lot of explaining of what happened during their absence; we get to see Goddard getting into power and nobody opposing him. All while Rowan and Citra are taking a silly little nap at the bottom of the sea. Once they are freed, they do not really see each other until the very end of the book. Citra works on building a resistance, and Rowan is busy being in jail. Also, let us not forget how special, incredible, and talented amazing star Citra is. 

 

We, however, get to see more of Greyson. As you would expect, his storyline just keeps getting downhill. He is now a prophet. Basically a Jesus Christ of this book series. 

 

As I have mentioned in the previous two reviews, this series lacks any consistency. Plot holes are filled with ridiculous ideas. At some point you just stop trying to make sense of things and try to let the vibes lead the way. Unfortunately, everything still stinks extremely. First of all, there are so many POVs you do not even know who some of those characters are. They disappear after a chapter. 

 

The absolute worst part of this book for me was the introduction of a non-binary character, Jerico. I am not a transphobe; I am not cisgender myself. But. This character changes their gender according to the weather. They are not the regular they/them. They are a woman when the skies are clean and a man when it is cloudy outside (or the other way around?). So, sometimes, their gender changes within seconds when a cloud passes the sun or the moon. 

 

I am genuinely not sure whether Shusterman was trying to be extra phobic or he was trying to be supportive, and I am genuinely afraid to ask. Either way, this was the most disrespectful way to write a queer character I have ever encountered. And I did not even mention how Thunderhead used them as their own personal broadcasting system. Without their consent, of course. He just invaded their body to know what it felt like to be human! 

 

And then Thunderhead decided to make copies of himself. 

 

Okay, perhaps I lied. The ending is probably worse than a weird gender. The Big Battle happens, Thunderhead finishes his super secret project, and... It is a space fleet ready to colonise other planets! Basically nobody questions him, and they decide to blast off to the space, mid-battle. No last showdown with Goddard (who is killed and then replaced with Tiger´s consciousness), no satisfying finale, no nothing. 

 

Well, Citra does get mortally wounded, so that was nice. But she will be revived on their brand new planet, 117 years into the future, with Rowan waiting for her all those years so they can have their nonsensical love story. 

 

But honestly, in what hell do the main characters, the biggest heroes of resistance, pack their bags and leave the fight? What is the point of writing all these long as heck books when you literally destroy everything you spent years building? 

 

Have I mentioned the Scythedom is dead and deceased? Faraday´s side quest came to an end, and he caused the destruction of Scythe rings. They released evil nanobots that are now terrorising humanity every few years, killing millions of people. And there is literally no way to stop them. Ever. 

 

The end. Thankfully. 

 

That being said, the way this book ends literally means there was no point in any of this. It singlehandedly defeated the entire purpose of Scythedom, and essentially everything that ever happened was useless and pointless. 

 

Thank you, Neal Shusterman, for writing the single worst piece of literature I have read with my own eyes in the year of our Lord 2024. 

 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

 

This was my first book by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I have decided to go into it completely blind. In retrospect, that was probably not the best idea. 

 

Right in the beginning, we are introduced to Kathy, the main character and narrator. She tells us a bit about her life, and then she goes on reminiscing about her childhood and teenage years. 

 

Chapter after chapter, I kept waiting for her to come back to the present, and before I knew it, I was on page 203, and the book was rapidly coming to an end. 

 

The writing seemed a bit messy; we were jumping from one event to another and then back again. And I often felt that the sentences were very repetitive. 

 

That being said, the novel is very slow. I would not call it boring, but it also was not very entertaining. I definitely think it is a perfect autumn read, albeit a bit depressing. 

 

Before I continue talking about the story, I just want to say I kind of liked the characters. They definitely had their moments, and it was lovely to see them grow and interact with each other. 

 

Their relationships, though, were a little weird, and at times their actions (or lack thereof) annoyed me greatly. 

For me, the story takes place during the last 80 pages. Up until then, it is just a build-up with very little information about what is really going on. The big reveal, unfortunately, falls flat and does not seem very well thought out. It lacked some stronger base and more information.

Even more so since it is dealing with cloning and using humans for spare body parts.

 

This book deals with extremely heavy topics, but they are not explored or discussed in more detail. Overall, I would not say this was a bad read, but it lacked in many ways and left me feeling extra disappointed.

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

 

Right in the beginning, we are thrown in the middle of a story. Everything is pure chaos for about a hundred pages. I did not necessarily mind that, but it was really a struggle to follow the story. 

 

The chaos does not disappear until the very end, unfortunately. The world-building leaves a lot to the reader´s imagination. I mean, you can definitely piece some things together, but a lot of important details are shrouded in mystery. 

 

When it comes to the plot, I think it was really well thought out, but it was rushed and it missed many explanations. And while The Bone Orchad appears as a murder mystery at first, it mostly felt like a slice of life. It has strong steampunk and sci-fi elements, but unfortunately they are not explored in much detail. Similarly, we are only provided vague information about the magic system. 

 

Charm and the other characters surrounding her really make you wonder about what and who they are up until the end. For the longest time, I thought she had DID (dissociative identity disorder that was previously known as multiple personality disorder). I still don´t think the reality was well explained; we mostly just received bits and hints throughout the story and had to put it all together. 

 

I really liked the concept behind Charm, The Lady, Justice, Shame, Pain, and Desire, and I honestly wish it was explored in more detail. Generally, I do not think this book works well as a stand-alone. There is simply too much going on, and it felt like we were only scratching the surface. 

 

The ending seemed a bit underwhelming after all the build-up, and I have to say many of the events that happened towards the end were predictable even despite the endless mysteries surrounding the story. 

 

The Bone Orchad deals with some incredibly heavy topics, such as paedophilia, murder, child murder, abuse, prostitution, and sexual assault, but I was genuinely surprised that there were no explicit scenes. 

 

I really enjoyed this book, and while it had many holes, I think it´ll make it into my top 10 books of 2024.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Murder, War

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

 

Ms. Ice Sandwich is the first Mieko Kawakami book I have read. This year, I am reading more women in translation and more new authors, so I could have skipped her work. 

 

The story is very short and simple. We get a look into the life of a boy and his family; we get to see him build friendships, and, of course, we see his interactions with the mysterious woman he names Ms. Ice Sandwich. 

 

I loved the pace and atmosphere, I loved the characters, and I was pleasantly surprised with how deep this book seemed despite being so short. 

 

Somehow, it reminded me of those short, lovely moments in Studio Ghibli movies where not much is happening. But they make you feel warm and content. 

 

I cannot wait to dive into more of Kawakami´s works.

Been Here All Along: He's in Love with the Boy Next Door by Sandy Hall

lighthearted slow-paced

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

1.0

 

I am not sure where to even start with this review! I think this was by far the worst book I have read this year. 

 

This book has 4 first-person POVs. I think that is two too many, given how short and simple this book is. I understand Gideon and Kyle having their own, and I can even understand Ruby, but why Gideon´s brother Ezra? He is so useless; all he does is lay around and eat. Not to mention he literally called a 14-year-old Ruby hot. He was 17-18 AT THE TIME!!!!! Disgusting.

What is worse, they end up dating...

 

 

All of the characters are shallow and very childish. I found it extremely hard to connect with them in any capacity. Kyle is constantly described as a stupid basketball player, and as a bonus, the author slapped an unspecified and definitely unresearched diagnosis of "learning disability." Somehow it went undetected until he was 17, because up until then he was always with his very wise and intellectual bestie, Gideon. This is now how this works. 

 

Both Gideon and Kyle are super duper big massive nerds about The Lord of the Rings. Somehow they both speak perfect "elvish," but we are not even told that the language they speak is (most likely) Sindarin. I am a Tolkien nerd, and I was excited about these two being nerds also, but similarly to an unspecified learning disability, it feels like the author just took whatever they knew and did not bother to even look up the simplest, most basic information available online. 

 

I think Ruby was the only somewhat genuine and good character, but the author tried to paint her as the villain most of the time. Ruby comes from a poor family, while Kyle, Gideon, and Ezra are rich, spoilt kids. She has a difficult home life—

her dad losing his job, she is worrying about whether she will be able to afford university, and then her bloody boyfriend breaks up with her because he is suddenly and magically, without any proper logical reason, in love with a guy he´s been best friends with for 15 years. And she is supposed to be the bad guy in this story. Right.

 

 

Moving on to the actual story: it was a disaster. I usually love simple stories and simple characters; I have come to really like them. When they are done right. 

 

The main conflicts revolve around a love triangle between Ruby, Kyle, and Gideon. Gideon, who discovers he is gay and in love with Kyle, writes a list of positives and negatives of Kyle and dating him. Ruby finds the list, takes a photo, and then attempts to blackmail him. Gideon distances himself from Kyle, trying to understand his own sexuality. Kyle is upset because they have barely been hanging out in the past couple of days, and they are probably not besties any longer because Gideon is keeping a secret from him!! And then the whole thing disappears until the last 30 or so pages. 

 

Kyle and Gideon start dating after Gideon´s (awful) coming out during a game of truth or dare, and everything is going well; even Ruby seems to be coming around. And then her friends find a photo of that list on her phone, and they send it to the whole school. Kyle is upset, ghosts Gideon for weeks, and suddenly comes back with a romantic gesture. Because who needs to communicate and overcome problems with their partner like equal when ghosting works so well sarcasm)? Every one is forgiven, everyone is happy, and everyone is best friends forever, including Ruby, who is now dating Ezra.

 

 

I had zero expectations for this book, and yet I still ended up extremely disappointed.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Outing, Alcohol

mentions of sex and pornography, adult character calling a minor "attractive"

Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav

emotional slow-paced

2.5

 

I rarely read poetry nowadays because I often struggle to find anything that would resonate with me. 

 

Just like with Sea of Strangers, sometimes I get my hopes up and then I end up disappointed. I did find multiple poems and prose I really loved, but I found this collection a little dry and quite repetitive. 

 

Another thing I definitely did not like is the size of this particular edition. There is so much empty space, and for what? I own multiple poem collections that are smaller than my phone, so I simply cannot understand this trend (or how to call it?) of mostly empty books. 

 

Either way! I will probably give Laev another chance in the future, but I will definitely be getting an ebook this time.

Nimbus by Neal Shusterman

tense slow-paced

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

1.0

 I have read this book in Slovak. 

 

 If you thought the first book was bad, you haven´t seen anything yet, I promise you that. The entire plot of this book was, simply put, ridiculous, and it made even less sense than the Scythe. 

 

Our characters do not experience any sort of growth throughout Thunderhead either. Citra acts like a god because she is so special. Thunderhead said so! And so did the author, so simply she must be. On the other hand, we experience Rowan turning into an even edgier, black-wearing, annoying manchild. 

 

My biggest issue concerning Citra was that she is somehow very influential and many Scythes look up to her. That itself would not be an issue, but she literally properly talks to and interacts with 2 people in total: Curie and Rowan. I have to admit, though, that her way of taking life made a small impression on me. I think she was quite fair, and so was Rowan, technically. I still do not approve of his actions. 

This book introduces us to some new characters and brings forth some characters we have already seen in the previous book. I was excited we would see more of Tyger, but I was horribly disappointed. His entire personality was changed to cover some holes in the plot caused by him

becoming a Scythe apprentice. I definitely did not like that he was only used to make Goddard´s resurrection more brutal and painful for Rowan. Because that whole subplot with Goddard coming back? It did not make sense. Rand was able to walk into an unregistered clinic and get the care she needed, so why didn´t she bring his head along? Surely, they would have been able to do something given his brain was okay. I mean, even if it wasn´t, they have the technology to revive a person even if their brains are turned into mush.

 

A new character, Greyson (Slayd), was introduced, and for a couple of minutes I felt hope. His storyline

as a spy for Thunderhead

seemed interesting; I was excited to see what he would accomplish. But I feel like it was poorly executed, and it nearly bored me to death.

It also kind of confirmed that Thunderhead is also evil and does not really care for people as much as we were led to believe.

With him, we are introduced to a group of people who fell out of Thunderhead´s favour—the unsavories. They are, simply put, criminals who did “something really bad,” and they now live without access to the Cloud. 

In my review of Scythe, I mentioned that I did not form any opinion about Thunderhead. We definitely saw more of him in this book, given it was named after him. I still think his part was much less significant than it should have been, and it, again, was not very well executed. My biggest issue with his existence lies, once again, in Scythes. As we learnt in the previous book, he chose them to carry out the killings because he did not want people to see him as a monster. But how, with all that knowledge and after seeing the whole of human history, could he choose people to do that? He surely must have known how easily corruptible they must be. 

The only somewhat interesting subplot was Faraday´s quest. Unfortunately, this did not get enough space. 

As I have already hinted, the plot was a disaster. But I think the ending takes the cake in this case. I am not going into the details, because I would not be able to talk about it spoiler-free, but the island of Endura and the events happening there have to be at least mentioned. This whole part of the book really solidified my negative opinion about Thunderhead. He simply decided to let humanity suffer because skeletons are untouchable. Because he himself made up a law a long time ago that they are not his problem.  

The book ends with a cliffhanger. A horrible and predictable one. It almost made my blood boil; honestly, this entire book is a joke. If you have read the first one and decided to continue, please save yourself. Do not read this mess. 

A few more words before I eject myself into the outer space: I think the three most ridiculous moments of this book, and perhaps even the whole trilogy, were Scythe Beyoncé, remotely controlled fish, and Texas. I also cannot mention that Shusterman decided to call the middle eastern region Israebian. What the hell, Neal? What the hell? Out of every single possible option, this was the worst one. 

Kosec by Neal Shusterman

reflective tense medium-paced

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

1.0

 

I am convinced I have read a different series than everybody else. I do not understand how this entire trilogy can have so many good ratings. 

 

Initially, I found the concept intriguing. A society finally reaching immortality and creating the perfect Utopia: incredible. Except—it just isn´t. 

 

The first issue literally comes up with the existence of Scythes and their behaviour. Murdering people is simply not a thing in the perfect Utopia. Even the seemingly “good” Scythes are, unfortunately, very evil. There is literally no difference between the good and bad Scythes; they are all the same; they just have a different outlook on how to murder. 

 

Another issue comes up with who and how they kill. Instead of choosing people who do not want to live any more, they murder whoever they please, whenever they please. <spoiler > And if a person who wants to die dies, they just bring them back and re-program their minds, literally making them into a new person against their will, because it´s law. How is this Utopia? How is any of this “good”? 

 

What I hated the most, though, is how the Scythes are forcibly portrayed as these grey or neutral characters. Every single one of them is extremely biased and evil. 

 

I think that the two characters who fit this dynamic the best are Scythes Goddard and Curie. Goddard is described and shown as a bad guy, while Curie is often described as kind and merciful. 

 

Goddard carries out mass killings with his cult followers and uses quite sadistic and horrifying methods to take the lives of people, such as public executions. He enjoys his work too. I think the reader can see how that is considered "bad." On the other hand, we have Curie, who takes lives in a simpler manner—she just walks up to a person and kills them without a warning. She then invites the mourning family over and cooks them a meal as a “sorry for killing your loved one." But how is that considered “good”? She still violently murdered a person. Not to mention she constantly acts high and mighty and sees herself as so much better than Goddard and his followers. And that is the biggest issue with all other “good” Scythes. I think Faraday could be considered "neutral,” as he fakes his own death and escapes as he can´t kill people anymore.

 

 

The plot is incredibly simplistic and filled with inconsistencies. Thankfully, Shusterman covers them with even more nonsense. But I will talk about that in the follow-up reviews a little bit more. 

 

The world-building is incredibly vague, and the whole series is haunted with contradictions. The characters are also pretty simple and one-dimensional; there is literally no growth. 

 

When it comes to the main characters, Citra and Rowan, they are literally the perfect YA stereotype. Insufferable edgy teenagers. They are more bland than plain oatmeal soaked in lukewarm water overnight. They lack any kind of personality, and then, by the end of volume one, they absorb the personalities of their respective teachers. 

 

I don´t even want to talk about their "love story", honestly. It did not make any sense whatsoever, but Shusterman was desperately making this into the good old “enemies to lovers” trope. 

 

After Faraday "dies",

they barely acknowledge each other´s existence and they do not interact with each other. How the hell were they supposed to build any sort of relationship? 

 

 

Another subplot that does not make a whole lot of sense comes after

Faraday kicks the bucket, and Citra is accused of his death. She has to go on the run, hide all around the bloody planet; she is sentenced to death; she then kills herself; and then suddenly she is free to go; all charges dropped; no explanation is  is needed. And I am not even going to mention how Thunderhead bent his own biggest rule to communicate with her while she was dead. It makes no sense!

 And then that whole thing with Rowan and Goddard comes down at a mass killing at the laboratory,

so how is Rowan better than any of them for murdering Goddard and Rand??

 

 

When it comes to the AI that controls everything, Thunderhead, I did not really form a proper opinion about him in the first book. He was just there. I do think, though, that it was a good idea to put him in control, given his programming. 

 

One last thing I would like to bring up is the blatant fatphobia aimed at a 9-year-old girl and an old man. Literally, what the hell? What was the point of that? 

 

There is so much more I would like to talk about, but I genuinely want to keep this short and as spoiler-free as possible.