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roadtripreader's reviews
357 reviews
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
“There are no pirates in Port Royal,” - Almont
I was worried when the first few chapters followed a cantankerous, sweaty, fat, gout ridden, mildly racist corrupt Governor Almont aka "James the Tenth" cause you know I did not sign up for a play by play of colonial Beauracracy I signed up for pirates - and pirates we delivered.
I know not why, but I kept seeing Chris Hemsworth as Captain Hunter - but it didn't help. I was rooting for no one in this book but I got through it.
Wait... I was rooting for Don Diego aka Black Eye.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
🤷🏽♀️I love how they all pretend to not be pirated calling themselves privateers but once they hit the open waters might as well start singing about rum as the head for certain death but "GLORY BE TO GOLD" if they can succeed.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Anne Sharpe was 14 years old. Just let that sink in. Her journey to Jamaica was awful and filled with men taking advantage of her although she doesn't see it that way. Victim of the time. Yeah fck that whole era.
I feel like the words rascal and ragamuffin were like a huge insult back in the day? Like a killer could be called a rascal and it carried weight or something ... lol I love how the English language has evolved so far away from that.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
You there, play: Hans Zimmer POTC main theme now:
🌸The Gathering of Pirates: Captain Hunter on a recruiting mission for his pirate, pardon me, privateering raid: Lazue, Don Diego, Mr Ender, Bassa, Sanson, Trencher et al
🌸The Taking of Matanceros
🌸Monkey Bay people! Monkey Bay
🌸Boca Del Dragon and the Caribee
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “You know that I need you,” Hunter said.
“But life is sweet, Captain.”
“So is gold,” Hunter said.” (A gathering of pirates)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Matanceros
■Cassandra
■ “Bring out your dead.”
■Black Eye inventing grenades
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy (Adventure) Books by 2025
I was worried when the first few chapters followed a cantankerous, sweaty, fat, gout ridden, mildly racist corrupt Governor Almont aka "James the Tenth" cause you know I did not sign up for a play by play of colonial Beauracracy I signed up for pirates - and pirates we delivered.
I know not why, but I kept seeing Chris Hemsworth as Captain Hunter - but it didn't help. I was rooting for no one in this book but I got through it.
Wait... I was rooting for Don Diego aka Black Eye.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
🤷🏽♀️I love how they all pretend to not be pirated calling themselves privateers but once they hit the open waters might as well start singing about rum as the head for certain death but "GLORY BE TO GOLD" if they can succeed.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Anne Sharpe was 14 years old. Just let that sink in. Her journey to Jamaica was awful and filled with men taking advantage of her although she doesn't see it that way. Victim of the time. Yeah fck that whole era.
I feel like the words rascal and ragamuffin were like a huge insult back in the day? Like a killer could be called a rascal and it carried weight or something ... lol I love how the English language has evolved so far away from that.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
You there, play: Hans Zimmer POTC main theme now:
🌸The Gathering of Pirates: Captain Hunter on a recruiting mission for his pirate, pardon me, privateering raid: Lazue, Don Diego, Mr Ender, Bassa, Sanson, Trencher et al
🌸The Taking of Matanceros
🌸Monkey Bay people! Monkey Bay
🌸Boca Del Dragon and the Caribee
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “You know that I need you,” Hunter said.
“But life is sweet, Captain.”
“So is gold,” Hunter said.” (A gathering of pirates)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Matanceros
■Cassandra
■ “Bring out your dead.”
■Black Eye inventing grenades
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy (Adventure) Books by 2025
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
"The sun never pierced the Mariana Trench."
When sharks are afraid of a particular area in the ocean - of course puny humans do not stand a chance.
Doomed Expedition to Sea and magic in the water. I shouldn't feel this joyful about it but honestly Mira Grant does not disappoint. No surprise I am inlove with this deeply depressive horror - I settled in for this and then went on a series readathon because well The Deep do be haunting and tragic like that.
So, how do I get the metabolism of those mer-creatures huh? It ate like 200 people and stayed skinny like c'mon share the secret🤔
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A massive ship meant for delightful cruises and docking in shallow water. , A captain and ship crew stuck with a tv crew (cameras and all) mix all together with some scientists, scripts and The Mariana Trench home to something and you've got a horror movie I wish they'd make already.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
The omnipresence of the third person narration really drives home the fact that where once there was a vibrant ship with people so different coming together for this voyage- they are all gone, presumed dead. It is melancholic.
Mermaid is too pretty and gentle a word for what they are. Predators need names like; Lion, shark, Orca, Snake (I mean whales, dolphins Bears Seals get a pass they are cuties who kill but we still fear them)
Great Disability representation.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🧜♀️The first Dive: The Blue Seas (faux)Mermaid Troop diving into the water for the first time leaving Anne stunned.
🧜♀️Blood In the Water: Alexandra's Probe unwittingly declaring war with the world below.
🧜♀️The first hum: The hidden kill. The first siren-lullaby call.
🧜♀️Mermaid troop meets Predator Pod
🧜♀️Arise: Mermaid wrapped around a camera, Anton's fingers and his face.
🧜♀️Peter and his Miracle. Peter and his throat
🧜♀️Communication: David and The Three Mermaids
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “This is a good boat. It rides high in the water and it seems unsinkable. But this is the ocean. It’s sunk better boats than this one. It’ll sink us all if We’re not careful.” (Peter basically prophesizing)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■Ghost Ship: Atargatis
■Mariana Trench: Bathypelagic Zone,
■Modern Ghost Ships: The Atargatis
■Mertensian mimicry
■ Hyper-reality programming documentaries
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror Books by 2025
When sharks are afraid of a particular area in the ocean - of course puny humans do not stand a chance.
Doomed Expedition to Sea and magic in the water. I shouldn't feel this joyful about it but honestly Mira Grant does not disappoint. No surprise I am inlove with this deeply depressive horror - I settled in for this and then went on a series readathon because well The Deep do be haunting and tragic like that.
So, how do I get the metabolism of those mer-creatures huh? It ate like 200 people and stayed skinny like c'mon share the secret🤔
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A massive ship meant for delightful cruises and docking in shallow water. , A captain and ship crew stuck with a tv crew (cameras and all) mix all together with some scientists, scripts and The Mariana Trench home to something and you've got a horror movie I wish they'd make already.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
The omnipresence of the third person narration really drives home the fact that where once there was a vibrant ship with people so different coming together for this voyage- they are all gone, presumed dead. It is melancholic.
Mermaid is too pretty and gentle a word for what they are. Predators need names like; Lion, shark, Orca, Snake (I mean whales, dolphins Bears Seals get a pass they are cuties who kill but we still fear them)
Great Disability representation.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🧜♀️The first Dive: The Blue Seas (faux)Mermaid Troop diving into the water for the first time leaving Anne stunned.
🧜♀️Blood In the Water: Alexandra's Probe unwittingly declaring war with the world below.
🧜♀️The first hum: The hidden kill. The first siren-lullaby call.
🧜♀️Mermaid troop meets Predator Pod
🧜♀️Arise: Mermaid wrapped around a camera, Anton's fingers and his face.
🧜♀️Peter and his Miracle. Peter and his throat
🧜♀️Communication: David and The Three Mermaids
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “This is a good boat. It rides high in the water and it seems unsinkable. But this is the ocean. It’s sunk better boats than this one. It’ll sink us all if We’re not careful.” (Peter basically prophesizing)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■Ghost Ship: Atargatis
■Mariana Trench: Bathypelagic Zone,
■Modern Ghost Ships: The Atargatis
■Mertensian mimicry
■ Hyper-reality programming documentaries
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror Books by 2025
Jumping the Shark by Ash Raven
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Not gon lie this cover is some scintillating Fight or flight gone wrong. No because seriously, sharkman never ever crossed my mind in any capacity and now I know how they ... ahem☺ yeah that.
In the words of Scott Bakula on that nautical military cop show : "Learn Things". Well I learnt that not only do I love the ocean as much as a selkie, but now I wish there were some real razor-teeth shifters out there. Oh hush - you know you do too😉
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
The idea that earth is being watched by beings and treated as a nature reserve that alien scientists study from afar is really clever. Also these aliens study consent in relationships and strive to achieve it - ticks all the boxes until you factor in the ALIEN ABDUCTION lol wtf. But also hot in this context and seems to end in success.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Whooweee the age difference is gross in human form but I'm all for it in Axilarian Shark-man form. Also I don't know why all these women i thesw books like their men to have calloused hands, like I can't understand it.
I have a random question:
✔️How can Ma'xon sit on a couch with a massive shark tail that's apparently really thick? I still think about the couch scene ... for obvious reasons and of course, the tail
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸Uhm...well🤗 of many of the spicy scenes but what I loved was the shopping sequence.
🌸Mission to retrieve Marbles
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
Everything was bordering on spicy to scorching:
☺ “He promised me a mess and I won’t be denied.” (Odette taking alien abduction really well)
😍“All I want is to snuggle up with my giant shark man and slurp down a bucket of noodles. Maybe also have my back blown out, but that’s secondary.” (I want that tooo make the noodles Samyang buldak and we're good)
😯“Everything in my soul pulses. My 😻 clenches around his finger until I see god and all the angels.” (well damn, excuse me)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Terrain Rehoming Program
■The Solarium Union
■ Axilaria
■TRP Gel: Body Swap
■Real People Dating App
■boneless buffalo wings and rosé.
■Axilarian bonding saliva
■bureaucratic apologies 🤣
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025
In the words of Scott Bakula on that nautical military cop show : "Learn Things". Well I learnt that not only do I love the ocean as much as a selkie, but now I wish there were some real razor-teeth shifters out there. Oh hush - you know you do too😉
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
The idea that earth is being watched by beings and treated as a nature reserve that alien scientists study from afar is really clever. Also these aliens study consent in relationships and strive to achieve it - ticks all the boxes until you factor in the ALIEN ABDUCTION lol wtf. But also hot in this context and seems to end in success.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Whooweee the age difference is gross in human form but I'm all for it in Axilarian Shark-man form. Also I don't know why all these women i thesw books like their men to have calloused hands, like I can't understand it.
I have a random question:
✔️How can Ma'xon sit on a couch with a massive shark tail that's apparently really thick? I still think about the couch scene ... for obvious reasons and of course, the tail
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸Uhm...well🤗 of many of the spicy scenes but what I loved was the shopping sequence.
🌸Mission to retrieve Marbles
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
Everything was bordering on spicy to scorching:
☺ “He promised me a mess and I won’t be denied.” (Odette taking alien abduction really well)
😍“All I want is to snuggle up with my giant shark man and slurp down a bucket of noodles. Maybe also have my back blown out, but that’s secondary.” (I want that tooo make the noodles Samyang buldak and we're good)
😯“Everything in my soul pulses. My 😻 clenches around his finger until I see god and all the angels.” (well damn, excuse me)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Terrain Rehoming Program
■The Solarium Union
■ Axilaria
■TRP Gel: Body Swap
■Real People Dating App
■boneless buffalo wings and rosé.
■Axilarian bonding saliva
■bureaucratic apologies 🤣
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025
Drowned Country by Emily Tesh
dark
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
Aaaw! It's got such a sweet cathartic ending filled with hope and I didn't know I wanted that so badly.
Now, let's talk turkey👏Fae being the natural enemy of vampires ... bueno I like it too damn much, I believe it - and it is fascinating. But then *frowny face* it didn't even happen so I'm kind of sour about that! You baited me Ms Emily Tesh but the ensuing switch was excellent.
Don't know why, but I loved all the different age representations from 21 year old Maud Lindhurst, 28-30 year old Silver (going on 100), maybe 55-60 year old Mrs Silver, centuries old Tobias now just 35-ish and almost a thousand year old; Abbot Julius The Black
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
In Silver's own words: The peculiar case of Maud Lindhurst.
"If you’ll excuse me, I mean to chart the road to Fairyland, to discover its history and its society, and by interview and observation to ascertain the nature of its inhabitants." - Maud is a force of nature.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
When I grow up I wanna be Mrs Silver.
🤔Henry Silver, Woodland Silver is ethereal and gorgeous albeit a tangled mess whilst the vampire is old, bald and not immediately handsome. HAH! Fae Propaganda right there. And listen, I firmly believe not only is he the avatar of Green Hollow but he is Fae because the Lord of Summer was a Fae-Demigod.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸Tobias, Silver and Maud on the cliff with the drowned forest below. Silver and Maud holding hands. Silver's moment to decide.
🌸The Satyr and the sour apple
🌸Maud and the Death Mask
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “She was extraordinary, but she was a parasite of the worst kind,” (Silver on the The Fairy Queen)
🖤 “Keep to the shadows, he'll be in one of them” (Tobias on the Nature of the vampire)
🖤 “Hunting monsters could be a messy business. Bloodstains hardly showed on black.” (Mrs Silver is Badass!)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■The Lord of Summer, Jack of The Wood
■The Drowned Hollow Wood
■Genii Revocati Malignantes
■Faerie: Mazed, fairy-mad
■The Language Of The Dead
■ Vampire Dust
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025
Now, let's talk turkey👏Fae being the natural enemy of vampires ... bueno I like it too damn much, I believe it - and it is fascinating. But then *frowny face* it didn't even happen so I'm kind of sour about that! You baited me Ms Emily Tesh but the ensuing switch was excellent.
Don't know why, but I loved all the different age representations from 21 year old Maud Lindhurst, 28-30 year old Silver (going on 100), maybe 55-60 year old Mrs Silver, centuries old Tobias now just 35-ish and almost a thousand year old; Abbot Julius The Black
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
In Silver's own words: The peculiar case of Maud Lindhurst.
"If you’ll excuse me, I mean to chart the road to Fairyland, to discover its history and its society, and by interview and observation to ascertain the nature of its inhabitants." - Maud is a force of nature.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
When I grow up I wanna be Mrs Silver.
🤔Henry Silver, Woodland Silver is ethereal and gorgeous albeit a tangled mess whilst the vampire is old, bald and not immediately handsome. HAH! Fae Propaganda right there. And listen, I firmly believe not only is he the avatar of Green Hollow but he is Fae because the Lord of Summer was a Fae-Demigod.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸Tobias, Silver and Maud on the cliff with the drowned forest below. Silver and Maud holding hands. Silver's moment to decide.
🌸The Satyr and the sour apple
🌸Maud and the Death Mask
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “She was extraordinary, but she was a parasite of the worst kind,” (Silver on the The Fairy Queen)
🖤 “Keep to the shadows, he'll be in one of them” (Tobias on the Nature of the vampire)
🖤 “Hunting monsters could be a messy business. Bloodstains hardly showed on black.” (Mrs Silver is Badass!)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■The Lord of Summer, Jack of The Wood
■The Drowned Hollow Wood
■Genii Revocati Malignantes
■Faerie: Mazed, fairy-mad
■The Language Of The Dead
■ Vampire Dust
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
Sleeper, arise!
This kid is seventeen! Coming of age dialed up to 1000. Also all those reviewers minimizing this story because it's "dADDy iSSues inside a wHAle" are nincompoops or leftover squid in the belly of a whale honestly. It's a whole original work and this impossible event would not have even occured without almost 2 decades of the daily abuse (not daDDy iSsuEs) of Jay Gardiner by Mitt Gardiner. That man was a fucking misunderstood nightmare-broken-soul, I too would get swallowed by a whale whilst trying to get out from his dead and water-buried shadow and simultaneously reconcile and make peace with him. FFS.
It was gripping and I love the writing style, short scenes, short chapters - all bursting with soo many visual accents, smells, fears and traumas - sometimes, just hints other times massive waves of it. What an experience.
I would watch this movie and bawl my damn eyes out like I did for The Pianist
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Jay is on a mission to find his emotionally abusive father's remains on the ocean floor. Remains of the skeleton variety. It's a morbid goal. It's throw-up inducing and that's at the beginning when it's just him and the ocean bed. And the whale. My god the Whale. There be precious cargo in that belly.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
●Jay has been emotionally abused by his father his entire life - he calls the experience "the jaws of his father swallowing him whole". Enter the whale.
●Man the whale is just doing his business, living his life eating things - it ain't his fault a scrawny human got sucked in with the giant squid. Like I can hear it going: welp...oops sorry dude. If I could upchuck you I would.
Mitt Gardiner is on my Top Ten List of: I hate you but I get you He wants Jay to be him but better. He is so smart but not socially acute, a fierce protector of the ocean he's all fire, action and less talk or reasoning. Mitt feels like his wings were clipped but he did the clipping and resents the world for it. Funny enough, by 1228 PSI, I started to see him the way he wishedto be seen and by 998 - I mourned old Mitt for a life he could've lived if he had just unclenched.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸The abyss Speaks: TAK! It was chilling.
🌸Sperm whale versus giant squid,Leviathan versus Kraken, rock versus scissors.
🌸2014: Breath, sleepy one of the few tender sweet moments. between father and son. That and "Option Five. The prey becomes so dangerous the predators let him go."
🌸1072 PSI: An Armada of Female Sperm whales😍
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
This book is quoteable. Too many pages anotated it was hard to whittle it down to 3
🖤 “(We failed) “I don’t like this we you keep using. You don’t get to share blame with a whale. The whale didn’t do anything wrong.” (Conversations onside a whale)
🖤 “Stay away from me.” Air from a punched gut: four words Jay’s waited fifteen years to say.” (This whole scene was just bonkers)
🖤 “With their tidy, evenly spaced teeth, pillowy pink tongues, and cheerful faces, orcas look like malevolent clowns, so embroiled in the religion of death their markings resemble skulls.” (A pod of death cometh for Jay's Whale)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Diver's Peace
■ Heiliger's Shauer - The Holy Shiver
■Spermwhale: The Old Father of the Sea
■Click Coda & marguerite formation
■Nitrogeon Narcosis, Beaky
■The Bringer of death: Orcinus orca
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror (Survival Fantasy) Books by 2025
This kid is seventeen! Coming of age dialed up to 1000. Also all those reviewers minimizing this story because it's "dADDy iSSues inside a wHAle" are nincompoops or leftover squid in the belly of a whale honestly. It's a whole original work and this impossible event would not have even occured without almost 2 decades of the daily abuse (not daDDy iSsuEs) of Jay Gardiner by Mitt Gardiner. That man was a fucking misunderstood nightmare-broken-soul, I too would get swallowed by a whale whilst trying to get out from his dead and water-buried shadow and simultaneously reconcile and make peace with him. FFS.
It was gripping and I love the writing style, short scenes, short chapters - all bursting with soo many visual accents, smells, fears and traumas - sometimes, just hints other times massive waves of it. What an experience.
I would watch this movie and bawl my damn eyes out like I did for The Pianist
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Jay is on a mission to find his emotionally abusive father's remains on the ocean floor. Remains of the skeleton variety. It's a morbid goal. It's throw-up inducing and that's at the beginning when it's just him and the ocean bed. And the whale. My god the Whale. There be precious cargo in that belly.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
●Jay has been emotionally abused by his father his entire life - he calls the experience "the jaws of his father swallowing him whole". Enter the whale.
●Man the whale is just doing his business, living his life eating things - it ain't his fault a scrawny human got sucked in with the giant squid. Like I can hear it going: welp...oops sorry dude. If I could upchuck you I would.
Mitt Gardiner is on my Top Ten List of: I hate you but I get you He wants Jay to be him but better. He is so smart but not socially acute, a fierce protector of the ocean he's all fire, action and less talk or reasoning. Mitt feels like his wings were clipped but he did the clipping and resents the world for it. Funny enough, by 1228 PSI, I started to see him the way he wishedto be seen and by 998 - I mourned old Mitt for a life he could've lived if he had just unclenched.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
🌸The abyss Speaks: TAK! It was chilling.
🌸Sperm whale versus giant squid,Leviathan versus Kraken, rock versus scissors.
🌸2014: Breath, sleepy one of the few tender sweet moments. between father and son. That and "Option Five. The prey becomes so dangerous the predators let him go."
🌸1072 PSI: An Armada of Female Sperm whales😍
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
This book is quoteable. Too many pages anotated it was hard to whittle it down to 3
🖤 “(We failed) “I don’t like this we you keep using. You don’t get to share blame with a whale. The whale didn’t do anything wrong.” (Conversations onside a whale)
🖤 “Stay away from me.” Air from a punched gut: four words Jay’s waited fifteen years to say.” (This whole scene was just bonkers)
🖤 “With their tidy, evenly spaced teeth, pillowy pink tongues, and cheerful faces, orcas look like malevolent clowns, so embroiled in the religion of death their markings resemble skulls.” (A pod of death cometh for Jay's Whale)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Diver's Peace
■ Heiliger's Shauer - The Holy Shiver
■Spermwhale: The Old Father of the Sea
■Click Coda & marguerite formation
■Nitrogeon Narcosis, Beaky
■The Bringer of death: Orcinus orca
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror (Survival Fantasy) Books by 2025
Across the Floors of Silent Seas by C.S. Johnson
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
My second book with the Rusalka and This one is giving me Atlantean feels with a hint of horror. Oof, What a closed off underwater society hellbent on sticking their heads in the sand.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I'll believe it when I see it - Thats2how the Rusalki approach the myth of humans and then ... when confronted with evidence of human existence in the flesh - they jump through hoops to designate Jay Bishop anything but human.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Pago is such a kind soul. That's his real magic. A comforting, kind soul.
The fact that Jay was still insanely attracted to Sira knowing she just wanted to vivisect him is hilarious. But at least he had his wits about him and something to live for.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️The orca saving his life and the same orca escorting him up.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “It was the most horrifyingly beautiful face he had ever seen.” (Jay on Sira, little did he know ...)
🖤 “Paga, please. We all know that there are no such things as humans.” (Sira with a human literally 5 feet away)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Rusalka city
■ Ocean-Sky
■ Juan de Fuca
■Scripps
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I'll believe it when I see it - Thats2how the Rusalki approach the myth of humans and then ... when confronted with evidence of human existence in the flesh - they jump through hoops to designate Jay Bishop anything but human.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Pago is such a kind soul. That's his real magic. A comforting, kind soul.
The fact that Jay was still insanely attracted to Sira knowing she just wanted to vivisect him is hilarious. But at least he had his wits about him and something to live for.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️The orca saving his life and the same orca escorting him up.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “It was the most horrifyingly beautiful face he had ever seen.” (Jay on Sira, little did he know ...)
🖤 “Paga, please. We all know that there are no such things as humans.” (Sira with a human literally 5 feet away)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Rusalka city
■ Ocean-Sky
■ Juan de Fuca
■Scripps
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025
Rescued by the Kraken by Jade Waltz
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
I am a kraken, the protector of these waters, and I will not let Rey be claimed by the stormy sea. -Zethe😭
Absolute cuteness. What a sweet little novella.
The one thing this book made me want to do besides find my own Zethe, is book a holiday to Fiji. Those gorgeous resorts with a whole private cabana thing on the water - I mean it's not Fiji in the book but it is damn near that perfection. 🤔okay. I might need a vacation.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I mean it's easy and unbothered and it's just what I needed after some stressful irl chaos. A hot kraken shifter and a curvy human get together in what can only be described as paradise.
Riddle me this though, is Zethe naked all the time? He has no legs because he's not a shifter with a full human form so is dude in his birthday suit all day?
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Give it up for Rey the first human guest at Starlight Resort! How brave was she when she booked her trip? Just imagine it. What a cutie.
Zethe he's a protector😍 and he's hot and sweet which is my favorite personality combo like the perfect bathbomb to soak in. Also he goes against the grain - a kraken lifeguard as opposed to the natural order of drowning prey and dragging it to the ocean floor for the devouring.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️A dragon in the middle of a storm at sea, shielding the Kraken and the Human as they make their way to shore. My heart swelled.
✔️Meeting Sora and the merfolk at the lagoon
✔️Sunset wakk along thw beach with Zethe looking for treasuresthe sea storm left behind.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “We own the deep, the waters that others fear. It is in these depths that we find our place, our purpose.” (Zethe on being a Kraken)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Orcs can't swim in this world👎🏼
■Starlight Resort
■ Cool Gadgets: Vidtablet, SR bracelet
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance (Romantasy) Books by 2025
Absolute cuteness. What a sweet little novella.
The one thing this book made me want to do besides find my own Zethe, is book a holiday to Fiji. Those gorgeous resorts with a whole private cabana thing on the water - I mean it's not Fiji in the book but it is damn near that perfection. 🤔okay. I might need a vacation.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I mean it's easy and unbothered and it's just what I needed after some stressful irl chaos. A hot kraken shifter and a curvy human get together in what can only be described as paradise.
Riddle me this though, is Zethe naked all the time? He has no legs because he's not a shifter with a full human form so is dude in his birthday suit all day?
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Give it up for Rey the first human guest at Starlight Resort! How brave was she when she booked her trip? Just imagine it. What a cutie.
Zethe he's a protector😍 and he's hot and sweet which is my favorite personality combo like the perfect bathbomb to soak in. Also he goes against the grain - a kraken lifeguard as opposed to the natural order of drowning prey and dragging it to the ocean floor for the devouring.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️A dragon in the middle of a storm at sea, shielding the Kraken and the Human as they make their way to shore. My heart swelled.
✔️Meeting Sora and the merfolk at the lagoon
✔️Sunset wakk along thw beach with Zethe looking for treasuresthe sea storm left behind.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “We own the deep, the waters that others fear. It is in these depths that we find our place, our purpose.” (Zethe on being a Kraken)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Orcs can't swim in this world👎🏼
■Starlight Resort
■ Cool Gadgets: Vidtablet, SR bracelet
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance (Romantasy) Books by 2025
How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster) by Marie Cardno
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Word. This was surprisingly good and written with style and finesse. I am re-evaluating my expectations of spicy novellas beware, the bar just rose way up there. Also, this is a win for non-blurb readers - I saw a captivating cover and was drawn to it like a cobra to an urchin in the streets of Fez - and it was a good read.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
It's a trippy fever dream traveling with an intrepid witch explorer into another dimension complete with a hot otherworldly entity, a not so hot but raging monster dormammu-ish entity and *insert lovey dovey sighs here* ...LOVE.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
🌸Sian is infectiously positive and optimistic in the face of being stranded, sans magic, in a dimension with a massive all encompassing tentacle monster. So likeable.
🌸Trillin is so asorable in her awkwardness and so relateable. You don't need to have a skeleton to fumble a meet cute, yoi can have tentacle and sprout extra eyes instead of blushing🤣
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️Trillin saving Sian the furst time and realizing that The Endless was not self-aware.
✔️Sian's Cat-rabbit monster creature pet:
How did you do that?” she asked.
“What, giving it a scritch? Everything likes a scritch,” Sian said, and added to the crumb, “You’re like a cat, aren’t you? Or a rabbit. A cat-rabbit.
With, uh, lots of eyeballs. Which seems to be a trend, round these parts." - now I want my own monster pet thing
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Her heart thudded. She suddenly had a heart to thud. It seemed to fill her entire body.” (self-awareness colliding with infatuation)
🖤 “Sian. A name like the sound of skin brushing against skin. Soft and intimate.” (Well, that's just sweet!)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ The Endless Void
■Bunny Monster
■The Endless
■ Spellsuit
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
It's a trippy fever dream traveling with an intrepid witch explorer into another dimension complete with a hot otherworldly entity, a not so hot but raging monster dormammu-ish entity and *insert lovey dovey sighs here* ...LOVE.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
🌸Sian is infectiously positive and optimistic in the face of being stranded, sans magic, in a dimension with a massive all encompassing tentacle monster. So likeable.
🌸Trillin is so asorable in her awkwardness and so relateable. You don't need to have a skeleton to fumble a meet cute, yoi can have tentacle and sprout extra eyes instead of blushing🤣
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
✔️Trillin saving Sian the furst time and realizing that The Endless was not self-aware.
✔️Sian's Cat-rabbit monster creature pet:
How did you do that?” she asked.
“What, giving it a scritch? Everything likes a scritch,” Sian said, and added to the crumb, “You’re like a cat, aren’t you? Or a rabbit. A cat-rabbit.
With, uh, lots of eyeballs. Which seems to be a trend, round these parts." - now I want my own monster pet thing
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Her heart thudded. She suddenly had a heart to thud. It seemed to fill her entire body.” (self-awareness colliding with infatuation)
🖤 “Sian. A name like the sound of skin brushing against skin. Soft and intimate.” (Well, that's just sweet!)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ The Endless Void
■Bunny Monster
■The Endless
■ Spellsuit
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
mysterious
slow-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? N/A
3.75
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
If you want to be haunted and feel unending sadness wrapped in beauty and magic - this is the book.
Merfolk born from land and they have memory-harnessing and a kind of empathic telepathy that plays a key role in accessing tangible power is only a surface layer of the story. This one weaves ancestral, tribal memory during a traumatic time in history of their people and the keeper of thesw memories is slowly losing her faculties.
"One can only go for so long without asking who am I? Where do I come from? What does all this mean? What is being? What came before me, and what might come after?" - The Remembrance
I do so enjoy these mermaid tales that
Avoid the Ariel-trope altogether. No shade to Ariel - you know I love you long time🌸
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A mermaid in crisis abandons her pod (I mean it's not a pod it's so big numbering thousands) and flees a gift that eviscerates her health and youth. I don't know what song inspired the book, I keep hearing Bird York - In The Deepbut somehow it feels like too small a sound for this massive event underwater.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Zoti Aleyu is a builder of nations all to never feel loneliness ever again. I fully understand that. Thanks to David Attenborough I learnt about an amazing whale quest to curb loneliness. There is a whale that visits the Great Barrier Reef during migration season and actively seeks out humans. He is alone but for 8 years he has been doing this.
There is loneliness in the sea but there is also a calling: home,family, legacy and beauty. I love it.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
Too many captivating and devastating scenes. So, just a few:
✔️The Remembering in the mudwomb😭Yetu does the thing for self-preservation...something bad this way comes
✔️Language and names: Zoti encountering a land-dweller.
✔️Lonely no more: massive whale and merpups
✔️The Birth of Aj
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Yetu was becoming an ancestor herself. Like them, she was dead, or very near it.” (hhmm, something unchangeable is about to happen)
🖤 “Could you be our god?” we ask,
“I am too small to be a god,” Waj says.” (Zoti at the feet of their land-dweller)
🖤 “We are not worried about dying, though we are not yet at the point where we are wishing for death” (Zoti on the btink of a great discovery)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Dragonfish+Sharks Attempted suicide
■ The chorus: wajinru
■ Skalu: whale saviors
■Waj, Zoti Aleyu, Anutza, Ketya, Omwela, Erzi, Udu, and Tulo.
■The Birthing Song
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025
Merfolk born from land and they have memory-harnessing and a kind of empathic telepathy that plays a key role in accessing tangible power is only a surface layer of the story. This one weaves ancestral, tribal memory during a traumatic time in history of their people and the keeper of thesw memories is slowly losing her faculties.
"One can only go for so long without asking who am I? Where do I come from? What does all this mean? What is being? What came before me, and what might come after?" - The Remembrance
I do so enjoy these mermaid tales that
Avoid the Ariel-trope altogether. No shade to Ariel - you know I love you long time🌸
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
A mermaid in crisis abandons her pod (I mean it's not a pod it's so big numbering thousands) and flees a gift that eviscerates her health and youth. I don't know what song inspired the book, I keep hearing Bird York - In The Deepbut somehow it feels like too small a sound for this massive event underwater.
Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Zoti Aleyu is a builder of nations all to never feel loneliness ever again. I fully understand that. Thanks to David Attenborough I learnt about an amazing whale quest to curb loneliness. There is a whale that visits the Great Barrier Reef during migration season and actively seeks out humans. He is alone but for 8 years he has been doing this.
There is loneliness in the sea but there is also a calling: home,family, legacy and beauty. I love it.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
Too many captivating and devastating scenes. So, just a few:
✔️The Remembering in the mudwomb😭Yetu does the thing for self-preservation...something bad this way comes
✔️Language and names: Zoti encountering a land-dweller.
✔️Lonely no more: massive whale and merpups
✔️The Birth of Aj
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Yetu was becoming an ancestor herself. Like them, she was dead, or very near it.” (hhmm, something unchangeable is about to happen)
🖤 “Could you be our god?” we ask,
“I am too small to be a god,” Waj says.” (Zoti at the feet of their land-dweller)
🖤 “We are not worried about dying, though we are not yet at the point where we are wishing for death” (Zoti on the btink of a great discovery)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Dragonfish+Sharks Attempted suicide
■ The chorus: wajinru
■ Skalu: whale saviors
■Waj, Zoti Aleyu, Anutza, Ketya, Omwela, Erzi, Udu, and Tulo.
■The Birthing Song
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025