paperback_cat's reviews
1437 reviews

Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

4.0

My favourite characters in this book were the teenage boys! Making me like teenage boys who are making pretty dumb decisions all around is a very impressive feat!

It took me a little while to get into this one, but I think that's how I felt about the whole series except the first book, and I think it's mostly due to the new MCs that each book introduces. However, once it got going I was having a great time :)

As always, Ilona Andrews' humour, action, world-building, and characters are impeccable. Or at least perfectly to my taste when I'm looking for a fun time :)

Locke & Key: The Golden Age by Joe Hill

adventurous dark fast-paced

3.0

Not as good for me as the original Locke & Key series - mostly because I wanted more magical keys and less war - but the new characters did grow on me.

I'm also not much of a Sandman fan, but I still appreciated the crossover and I imagine Sandman fans would like it even more.

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

5.0

I loved this! It made me laugh more than I expected and I loved the post-apocalyptic setting.

The main character is a loveable idiot, but the real star of show is Monono. Any details about her are spoilers, but she is both ridiculous and spectacular.

I do recommend the audiobook for this, because it's written in a strange dialect due to the post-apocalyptic / lack of education situation and it's a bit of a struggle to read with your eyes.I found it easy to listen to though! And the audiobook narrator is great, even with the challenge of voicing Monono.

I was expecting there to a lot more menacing trees than there were, but pleased with the surprising amount of confused AI and misunderstood technology.

Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

This was great but it was a lot!
Firstly, I think I made a mistake by reading this straight after On the Edge because 1. it was too much of the same world/style of story but 2. it took me a bit to get over being disappointed that this wasn't following the same characters. So maybe it's my fault that the pacing felt off the beginning and I was struggling to pick up on what was happening.
But I loved Cerise's family so eventually I did end up enjoying this story. The plot was a rollercoaster with so much going on! I wasn't really into the romance though (but it was fine).
I'm going to take a bit of a break from the series before I continue!

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I love Ilona Andrews, and this has all the things I love about their writing.
The great world, cool magic, relatable characters, great humour, romance with great partnership and trust. In this one I also particularly liked the younger brothers. I'm only sad that the rest of the books in the series don't seem to follow Rose and her family directly.

Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 2 by Kamome Shirahama

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I think there is something about the pacing of manga chapters/volumes that doesn't work well for me.
I am enjoying the story. There's a lot to like about it, and a lot that I'm intrigued about. But it was just so short that hardly anything happened  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Firstly, what I had heard from people was that this was an anthology of connected short stories following a travelling theatre group in a post-apocalyptic, post-pandemic situation. But that's not really what it was. It is more of a multi-perspective story told non-linearly, primarily following an actor, his ex-wives, and other people with some connection to him. There are some parts set in the post-apocalyptic timeframe, but most of the story is actually pre-pandemic or during the pandemic. Obviously, in our post-covid times, this now reads very differently.

My favourite parts were when the post-apocalyptic characters would reminisce about pre-pandemic things like refrigerators and the internet.

Other than that, there were only a few parts really pulled me in. For the most part, the writing style is very high level, often skipping through characters' lives, and I discovered that I find it very hard to connect to the characters with that writing style.

There was also some action type scenes at the end, which I found quite inconsistent with the pacing and tone of the rest of the book.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

This book uses the concept of a women who can’t be remembered to examine the impact of society’s expectations. The plot also revolves around an app called Perfection, where users give it access to their data and in return get points for being ‘perfect’ as per the apps definition. It’s very thrilling at times, as our main character becomes involved with people trying to destroy Perfection.

The writing style often loses the plot, wandering off into lists of definitions, excepts of historical information, and jarring rants. I think this is what will make this book unreadable for many people.

I did enjoy the way it built atmosphere through this stream-of-consciousness narration style, especially during the more thrilling parts of the book. At times it was difficult for me to put this book down because I NEEDED to know what would happen.

But ultimately, I thought this was a book of amazing ideas that was lacking in execution. My dream would be if this could be adapted into a (well-written) TV show. Regardless of all of my criticisms, this is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

medium-paced

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

3.0

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was everything I expected and nothing like I expected 😅
I loved it! Everyone was right when they said it was great!
But it's weird. Weird humour, weird descriptions, weird characters. Sometimes it's hard to really know what's happening. But that's part of the charm?
Everything came together in the ending and it was devastating D: