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raisingself's reviews
519 reviews
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
3.0
Well written historical fiction with an interesting rethinking of the Underground Railroad. The characters were complex and the back stories enabled the reader to really connect with their narratives.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
5.0
This book a woven tapestry of characterization and narrative! The novel covers well over 100 years following two lines of an African family, one that is sent to America as slaves and another that remains in Africa profiting from slavery. Gyasi’s talent shines as she follows each generation through time, giving each successive person in the lineage one chapter to tell their story within a changing world. Homegoing is (I dare say) a beautifully written work of art. It’s moving, epic in scope yet intimate in character, relateable and will undoubtedly leave most readers changed in some small yet profound way.
Your Creative Career: Turn Your Passion Into a Fulfilling and Financially Rewarding Lifestyle by Anna Sabino
4.0
A helpful, engaging and well formed book perfect for budding entrepreneurs and also those who have had a prior venture. The book is encouraging and practical. I quite enjoyed it.
The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey
5.0
I have to come back and do a full review, but I must admit that this book was just magical, I feel filled by it with dread and mourning, and hope. M.R. Carey is an amazing story teller!
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
2.0
This book, I just don’t have the words for how disappointing it was. Let me preface this by saying: I am a Sarah J. Mass fan, I really love the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and after reading Throne of Glass it shows that the literary glow up is real.
Maybe it was the fact that I listened to the book and had to endure one of the worst narrations I have ever paid for, maybe it’s because I just finished a book before this that was so firmly 5 stars because of its eloquence, concision and content that my bar is unnaturally high, but I found this book painful.
The Good
SJM wrote a YA epic fantasy novel while she herself was a teenager still developing her literary identity and skill set. She is obviously slaying at the game of life. Throne of Glass is not some skinny book of barely there material, SJM is creative and imaginative and you can see that well even in this book. So I have to acknowledge the unique situation of me, an adult, critiquing the work of her as a child, while still developing and growing in her art. Throne of Glass shows that on a raw and basic level, SJM is incredibly skilled and talented fantasy and sci-fi writer.
The Really Bad
The narration:
The narrator made every (and I mean every) character sound like some variation of a petulant child. She made male characters described as handsome, well-read and valiant sound wholly unattractive and irritating. She struggled with male and female voice alike.
The Assassin
Celaena Sardothien is a great character in theory but not execution. Here are some of the notes I made while reading the first few chapters:
"How are you a master assassin and not realize it’s a better strategy to be underestimated by your opponents and how sad that you labeled someone brilliant for pointing out this basic and obvious fact to your vain and constant boasting self!? How!!!"
"Ugh this main character, No strategy and layers to her assassin persona, how is she not dead already?”
"This book is horrible so far. The lead is not believable as a master assassin, she seems basic and obvious. She is all talk and I’ve noted little actual skill or instinct to match her enormous ego and obnoxious swagger. She loses her first fight in the book and the whole world can read her."
Celaena going on for literally hundreds of pages about her skill and prowess as a killer. How deadly she is. How brilliant she is. But the heifer lacks basic skill sets. Like she does not know how to mask her own emotions when facing opponents. She possess little to no skills at strategy. She struggles with big picture cues and analytics. She lacks stealth. Though I get she is supposed to be an assassin not by choice while maintaining a deep sense of empathy after being forced into a life as a child soldier, some of her inner dialogue and actions are so contrary to her characterization that I am at a loss for words, often just yelling “but why” or cringing while I reading this book.
So Many Moving Parts
This book has a ton of (wonderful in theory but not execution) moving parts from magic to some variation of parallel worlds to other mythical beings and creatures that it at times did not do a good job of properly integrating and clarifying.
The Other Characters
There are a ton of interesting minor and supporting characters that weren’t so consistently and clearly developed. Many of the characters were disjointed and confusing. Like a Captain and revered combat leader, skilled at the sword, who had never killed anyone while serving a much hated leader constantly invading and murdering other people groups!? How have you never killed anyone, HOW! And why are we wasting all of this melodrama on you and your first act of death, while protecting another person.
In the end, I will try to read through to book three but I am not optimistic about the first two books in the series. I will continue to read SJM’s more recent material because I see now that her writing and characterization has truly blossomed over the years.
Maybe it was the fact that I listened to the book and had to endure one of the worst narrations I have ever paid for, maybe it’s because I just finished a book before this that was so firmly 5 stars because of its eloquence, concision and content that my bar is unnaturally high, but I found this book painful.
The Good
SJM wrote a YA epic fantasy novel while she herself was a teenager still developing her literary identity and skill set. She is obviously slaying at the game of life. Throne of Glass is not some skinny book of barely there material, SJM is creative and imaginative and you can see that well even in this book. So I have to acknowledge the unique situation of me, an adult, critiquing the work of her as a child, while still developing and growing in her art. Throne of Glass shows that on a raw and basic level, SJM is incredibly skilled and talented fantasy and sci-fi writer.
The Really Bad
The narration:
The narrator made every (and I mean every) character sound like some variation of a petulant child. She made male characters described as handsome, well-read and valiant sound wholly unattractive and irritating. She struggled with male and female voice alike.
The Assassin
Celaena Sardothien is a great character in theory but not execution. Here are some of the notes I made while reading the first few chapters:
"How are you a master assassin and not realize it’s a better strategy to be underestimated by your opponents and how sad that you labeled someone brilliant for pointing out this basic and obvious fact to your vain and constant boasting self!? How!!!"
"Ugh this main character, No strategy and layers to her assassin persona, how is she not dead already?”
"This book is horrible so far. The lead is not believable as a master assassin, she seems basic and obvious. She is all talk and I’ve noted little actual skill or instinct to match her enormous ego and obnoxious swagger. She loses her first fight in the book and the whole world can read her."
Celaena going on for literally hundreds of pages about her skill and prowess as a killer. How deadly she is. How brilliant she is. But the heifer lacks basic skill sets. Like she does not know how to mask her own emotions when facing opponents. She possess little to no skills at strategy. She struggles with big picture cues and analytics. She lacks stealth. Though I get she is supposed to be an assassin not by choice while maintaining a deep sense of empathy after being forced into a life as a child soldier, some of her inner dialogue and actions are so contrary to her characterization that I am at a loss for words, often just yelling “but why” or cringing while I reading this book.
So Many Moving Parts
This book has a ton of (wonderful in theory but not execution) moving parts from magic to some variation of parallel worlds to other mythical beings and creatures that it at times did not do a good job of properly integrating and clarifying.
The Other Characters
There are a ton of interesting minor and supporting characters that weren’t so consistently and clearly developed. Many of the characters were disjointed and confusing. Like a Captain and revered combat leader, skilled at the sword, who had never killed anyone while serving a much hated leader constantly invading and murdering other people groups!? How have you never killed anyone, HOW! And why are we wasting all of this melodrama on you and your first act of death, while protecting another person.
In the end, I will try to read through to book three but I am not optimistic about the first two books in the series. I will continue to read SJM’s more recent material because I see now that her writing and characterization has truly blossomed over the years.
The Crown by Kiera Cass
3.0
(Review for both The Heir and The Crown since I read both in two days)
Hands down The Crown is the best book in the Selection series!
Think a slightly more woke and feminist bachelorette meets fairytale. The lead character, Eadlyn, is 100% annoying the first third of book 1 (The Heir) but there is true character development by the end of The Crown.
I found the first 3 Selection books detailing her parents: America Singer and Prince Maxon’s The Bachelor meets Cinderella story with a dash of dystopian melodrama contrived, wrought with chauvinism and lacking depth and overly drawn out (how they squeezed out 3 books still shocks me). Much of their story was so campy that it was more annoying than endearing.
Eadlyn’s love story is endearing and interesting. Not obvious like her parent’s and slightly more nuanced. She’s a first born twin girl whose parents changed the law to make her the heir “despite” her gender. She is the first generation after the 8 tiered numbering caste system that still haunts her kingdom with systemic discrimination and former caste bias.
Eadlyn starts as a brat that takes her future role as queen seriously but is not in touch with the people and agrees to the selection out of a duty to her parents to help be a distraction for a nation on the cusp of rising up because of social unrest. She doesn’t plan on falling in love and thinks she may be able to get out choosing a husband for a few more years. She wants to prove she can be queen and doesn’t want that to be overshadowed by her being a woman and the first female sovereign.
The reader is not 100% sure who Eadlyn will fall in love with or of her heart. I was presently surprised by this book and really enjoyed it for what is was: a lovely simple YA fairytale love story.
Trigger Warning: one non-graphic scene of near non-consensual touching
Woke Meter: issues with slightly stereotyping of LGBT characters and a mostly white washed cast with a singular token black character that is poorly and inconsistently developed.
Hands down The Crown is the best book in the Selection series!
Think a slightly more woke and feminist bachelorette meets fairytale. The lead character, Eadlyn, is 100% annoying the first third of book 1 (The Heir) but there is true character development by the end of The Crown.
I found the first 3 Selection books detailing her parents: America Singer and Prince Maxon’s The Bachelor meets Cinderella story with a dash of dystopian melodrama contrived, wrought with chauvinism and lacking depth and overly drawn out (how they squeezed out 3 books still shocks me). Much of their story was so campy that it was more annoying than endearing.
Eadlyn’s love story is endearing and interesting. Not obvious like her parent’s and slightly more nuanced. She’s a first born twin girl whose parents changed the law to make her the heir “despite” her gender. She is the first generation after the 8 tiered numbering caste system that still haunts her kingdom with systemic discrimination and former caste bias.
Eadlyn starts as a brat that takes her future role as queen seriously but is not in touch with the people and agrees to the selection out of a duty to her parents to help be a distraction for a nation on the cusp of rising up because of social unrest. She doesn’t plan on falling in love and thinks she may be able to get out choosing a husband for a few more years. She wants to prove she can be queen and doesn’t want that to be overshadowed by her being a woman and the first female sovereign.
The reader is not 100% sure who Eadlyn will fall in love with or of her heart. I was presently surprised by this book and really enjoyed it for what is was: a lovely simple YA fairytale love story.
Trigger Warning: one non-graphic scene of near non-consensual touching
Woke Meter: issues with slightly stereotyping of LGBT characters and a mostly white washed cast with a singular token black character that is poorly and inconsistently developed.
The Heir by Kiera Cass
2.0
(Review for both The Heir and The Crown since I read both in two days)
Hands down The Crown is the best book in the Selection series!
Think a slightly more woke and feminist bachelorette meets fairytale. The lead character, Eadlyn, is 100% annoying the first third of book 1 (The Heir) but there is true character development by the end of The Crown.
I found the first 3 Selection books detailing her parents: America Singer and Prince Maxon’s The Bachelor meets Cinderella story with a dash of dystopian melodrama contrived, wrought with chauvinism and lacking depth and overly drawn out (how they squeezed out 3 books still shocks me). Much of their story was so campy that it was more annoying than endearing.
Eadlyn’s love story is endearing and interesting. Not obvious like her parent’s and slightly more nuanced. She’s a first born twin girl whose parents changed the law to make her the heir “despite” her gender. She is the first generation after the 8 tiered numbering caste system that still haunts her kingdom with systemic discrimination and former caste bias.
Eadlyn starts as a brat that takes her future role as queen seriously but is not in touch with the people and agrees to the selection out of a duty to her parents to help be a distraction for a nation on the cusp of rising up because of social unrest. She doesn’t plan on falling in love and thinks she may be able to get out choosing a husband for a few more years. She wants to prove she can be queen and doesn’t want that to be overshadowed by her being a woman and the first female sovereign.
The reader is not 100% sure who Eadlyn will fall in love with or of her heart. I was presently surprised by this book and really enjoyed it for what is was: a lovely simple YA fairytale love story.
Trigger Warning: one non-graphic scene of near non-consensual touching
Woke Meter: issues with slightly stereotyping of LGBT characters and a mostly white washed cast with a singular token black character that is poorly and inconsistently developed.
Hands down The Crown is the best book in the Selection series!
Think a slightly more woke and feminist bachelorette meets fairytale. The lead character, Eadlyn, is 100% annoying the first third of book 1 (The Heir) but there is true character development by the end of The Crown.
I found the first 3 Selection books detailing her parents: America Singer and Prince Maxon’s The Bachelor meets Cinderella story with a dash of dystopian melodrama contrived, wrought with chauvinism and lacking depth and overly drawn out (how they squeezed out 3 books still shocks me). Much of their story was so campy that it was more annoying than endearing.
Eadlyn’s love story is endearing and interesting. Not obvious like her parent’s and slightly more nuanced. She’s a first born twin girl whose parents changed the law to make her the heir “despite” her gender. She is the first generation after the 8 tiered numbering caste system that still haunts her kingdom with systemic discrimination and former caste bias.
Eadlyn starts as a brat that takes her future role as queen seriously but is not in touch with the people and agrees to the selection out of a duty to her parents to help be a distraction for a nation on the cusp of rising up because of social unrest. She doesn’t plan on falling in love and thinks she may be able to get out choosing a husband for a few more years. She wants to prove she can be queen and doesn’t want that to be overshadowed by her being a woman and the first female sovereign.
The reader is not 100% sure who Eadlyn will fall in love with or of her heart. I was presently surprised by this book and really enjoyed it for what is was: a lovely simple YA fairytale love story.
Trigger Warning: one non-graphic scene of near non-consensual touching
Woke Meter: issues with slightly stereotyping of LGBT characters and a mostly white washed cast with a singular token black character that is poorly and inconsistently developed.