pages_with_panda's reviews
155 reviews

To begin, I had no idea what to expect when I started this book. I went into it completely blind, not even having read the summary and I was absolutely blown away by it.

The main character, Bhanu, is celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary and in the eve of it, she starts to reflect on her life and all the choices that got her there. Seeing events from her point of view and then hearing them from her children really humanized her, and I couldn't help but relate to my own mom and her story.

As a South East Asian, Bhanu recounts her life as a child living in a small village, and her own relationship with her mother and father. She takes us through her decisions in life by also sharing with us her love of the poet Rumi. The story is told through flashbacks of Bhanu's life, and is incredibly introspective as she relives her memories.

The book recounts Bhanu's trauma, weight of her choices, misogyny, the caste system, racism and so much more. We see how Bhanu's children blame their mother for their own problems, and how the generational traumas are carried down.

I fell in love with Bhanu's story and really enjoyed the structure of the book being split up into "Yards," as well as how much details there were about her culture and heritage. Bhanu's feelings were incredibly relatable and I found that she was able to put into words some of my own thoughts.

"...Judge me and then sit on a therapist's couch and have someone else judge me but before you do, understand that most of my decisions were guided by the need for safety and then when I had you, they were about giving you security so you would never have to endure what I did. Whatever I did, I did for you."

The ending was so beautiful and I definitely cried for some scenes. Nair did a great job with this one and I'm so lucky to have been able to read it. There were so many good quotes that I really enjoyed so here's a few:

"I was tired and drowning. Drowning in inadequacy, in loneliness, grief, in feelings of betrayal and abandonment but unable to express any of it."

"What if we are able to heal the brokenness in others through words, through food, through touch and perhaps through this act of service we are able to heal our own broken hearts?

"I wished that she would be totally free. I wished that the thorn that had been in each generation, in my mother, in me, in my daughter, would finally work itself out..."

"Perhaps your children express the grief that you are unable to?

Content Warnings

Passing by Nella Larsen

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

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adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Great collection of a variety of stories by Novik.

There’s a total of 13, and before each story we get a little snippet of Novik’s thoughts about the tale (which she tells us to take with a grain of salt). The majority of these stories had been previous published or built upon, so keep that in mind if you're a big follower of Novik's.

I also really enjoyed how the audiobook had a different narrator for each story that really brought the stories to life.

Here's some quick thoughts on each story:

Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake

Amazing tale with a fun main character. Adventurous pirate story. 5/5

After Hours

New story not previously published anywhere. A return to the Scholomance after the events of the trilogy. Great characters, they really felt fleshed out despite the shortness of the story. Cool Easter Egg if you've read the trilogy. Not sure if it'll have the same weight if not. 5/5
TW: Slight body horror

Vici

Dragon slaying tale with a twist. Fans of ancient Rome might enjoy this, although I didn't get a lot of the references. 4/5
TW: Blood, war, violence, murder

Buried Deep

Retelling of the Greek Labyrinth myth. 5/5.
TW: Body horror,

Spinning Silver

Basically the first draft of the novel by the same name. I loved the novel and really liked revisiting the world in this story story as well. Wraps up nicely but different than the novel. 5/5

Commonplaces

Story about Irene Adler from Sherlock Holmes's books. The way she manages to take Irene and make her a full character is amazing. I really liked the characterization between Holmes and Watson here, and Novik manages to write their deep history in such a simple way that could be overlooked. She says so much by just having Irene hinting at it. 5/5

Seven

Couldn't really pull me in. Seemed too dense for a short story. 2/5

Blessing

Sleeping Beauty retelling but focused on the fairies giving their blessings. I loved seeing the way this was setup. The shortest story, maybe because the world is the most known to readers. 4/5

Lord Dunsany's Teapot

Felt a little out of place in this anthology. War story where soldiers are connected by a teapot. 1/5
TW: War,

Seven Years from Home

Dystopian sci-fi story. Couldn't really get into it either. 1/5
TW: Colonisation, Body horror, Terminal illness,

Dragons & Decorum

Pride & Prejudice retelling but Elizabeth is a dragon-riding soldier. I don't see the point of making it a P&P story when it could've just been something unique. Don't feel like the dragons really added anything but I'm a big P&P fan anyways... 3/5
TW: War

Castle Coeurlieu

Loved this story. A young bride tries to survive a night inside her haunted castle. Gothic vibes and incredible imaginative writing. The game at the end was so cool as well. 5/5

The Long Way Round

New story, as well as Novik's "current project." Another pirate/sailing story. I got really into it but felt like the first few chapters rather a stand-alone short story. I loved Tess and her brother, can't wait to meet them again in their own story. 5/5

Content Warnings

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Quick note: This is a historical fiction book, definitely not fantasy.

I had never heard the myth of Xishi and so I went into this book completely blind.

The prose is beautiful and the story was overall great, but the pacing and lack of character depth was what threw me off a bit. The book felt like a fairytale, I don't think it was meant to have a lot of details or depth but rather a strong overarching story, but it still felt lacking. It felt like all these things were being set up but then fell apart by the end.

For example, the beginning was built up beautifully. We see Xishi and Zhengdan’s humble beginnings, and this felt like a drama. The pace during the training was fine to me, I actually liked Fanli and XIshi's pining. Their dynamic was set up so well with their devotions to their missions being the most important thing to them. Their few scenes were done so well and I loved their interactions, especially the tea house scene.

However, once we get to the middle in the Wu Kingdom is where the pacing kind of falls apart. Time seems to pass so slowly but we skip years, but Xishi also doesn't really do anything? I also felt like Zhengdan was purely a sidekick and I would've loved to see her actually grow more...

The setup for her death was weak as well...It felt like Xishi just needed another reason to hate the Fuchai...

I loved the climax with Xishi and Fuchai. I thought their relationship was soo well done, and really created this gray area between their nations.

Overall, very interesting glimpse into Chinese culture. Wish it would've been fleshed out a bit more!

"The heart is a fickle thing; it takes and takes. It is easily swayed, and tempted, and made weak. Too many have fallen victims to their own irrational desires. But the mind-the mind is dependable, accurate, deadly. It destroys the enemy, not the self, and ensures that we do what we need to, not what we want."

One could live with almost anything, so long as they had something to life for.

"So this is how it feels...to be cut by your own blade."

Something In The Water by Elijah Joseph

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.5

The story felt incredibly rushed and corny. The dialogue was unbelievable and lacked any kind of personality. None of the dialogue felt like it was coming from the characters, like you could just swapped any speech bubbles with any other person's and it wouldn't have mattered.

The characters all felt like caricatures and 1-dimensionial. We see zero development from any of them except for some forced language at the end, and they really reacted so unrealistic. For example

Daniel gets over Lauren's death almost immediately, and we don't actually see any kind of reactions from anyone else...

The plot felt like it had 0 stakes and also 0 emotional weight to anything. The violence felt boring, even when done for shock value. The story didn't flow at all, it just felt like we were rushed from scene to scene without any kind of build-up or foreshadowing.

Then there were some casual racist jokes by characters that added nothing to the plot. One made by the big baddie and then another by Jeremy during what was supposed to be a tense time.

The illustrations were interesting. Incredibly gritty and realistic with a neat style. Really the only good thing about the story, although at times the characters looked creepy and too detailed? If that makes sense.

Anyways, I managed to finish it in one sitting because of how little pages there were, but maybe it could've benefited from an additional volume.

Content Warnings

Warrior of the Drowned Empire by Frankie Diane Mallis

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

(Received an advanced copy from BookSprout and Frankie Diane Mallis!)

I didn’t realize how long this book was until AFTER I finished it. 700+ pages went by quickly, and at no point did I feel like it was dragging.

The pacing felt really good compared to the last book. We get action, romance, world-building, and knowing that this is

only book 4 of 7 really helped me with enjoying the ride.

Lyr and Rhyan are such a power couple and it was interesting to see them in some new environments! I wouldn’t say there was a lot of character development honestly; except by maybe one person. Also, Morgana’s POV was especially interesting to me and I can’t wait to see what she’s planning.

Despite the dangers that the main couple was in, I'm soo glad they were able to find alone time!! Loved that for them.

The multiple POVs seemed a bit excessive at first, especially of a certain character that I didn’t really like, but it ended up working out for plot reasons.

I loved all the parallels with the Lore, it felt like things were really coming together in this book, we even got a few surprises, but somehow this ended too quickly, despite the page length.

The ending was absolutely

heart-breaking!!

Looking forward to the next book!

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pages_with_panda's reviews 155 reviews

pages_with_panda's reviews
155 reviews