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roshans's reviews
58 reviews
The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
Though I’m a hater at heart I try not to be harsh on YA fiction since I’ve outgrown that demographic. That said every single character in this book is absolutely insufferable.
MC must complain about everything constantly. From her name, to her powers, to the people around her she has some sort of issue with all of them. Not to mention fridged mother disease.
Her relationship with her cousins is very cute which is why this isn’t a one star review but both cousins come off a tropey caricatures.
The crown prince who I guess is a/the main love interest is giving a golden retriever bf attempt. He’s supposed to be lovable but naive and a be dense but he just comes off as slow.
But if you can’t have interesting characters you should at least have a good story but I really don’t think anything like that is in the room with us.
The main plot is that the MC and her cousins travel to the capital after passing the first exam to become government officials. There they stumble into a murder scene which they leave alone without getting involved in (good decision no thanks to the MC). Despite constantly stating that all she cares about is providing for and staying with her family, she wants to get involved in the strange occurrences they stumble into in the capital since something like “if there was danger she’d rather be one step ahead.”
Which okay sure. And I get that the plot must move forward but she’s clearly not doing that and instead following it or even creating it. Also, if she cares so much about them why is she dragging her cousins into it? The MC clearly feels like an outsider even in her family while her cousins solely ever refer to her as their sister so there is ample room to create an interesting conflict about her going off on her own. But no all she cares about is her family but also she’s going to drag them down with her unless one of her cousins reminds her not to.
At the same time, the crown prince is certain that he will be assassinated and wants the MC’s help as she can resurrect the dead. While trying to convince her (never mind this could secure her family’s position in court) they have several interactions in which they, of course, learn more about each other. The MC only grows more hostile while he becomes more eager to please which makes her more hostile. I assume parts of these interactions are meant to come off as cute but it was actually just eye rolling. Also she’s constantly yelling at him for some reason. Not taking a side here they are both equally as annoying but she has an actual personality whereas he’s just “naive and dense but kind”.
The MC also suffers from specialist girl in the world disorder where she performs forbidden alchemy and goes up against trained/court alchemists. She also has some sort of depersonalization episodes which seem to hint at some greater power. This all may or may not have something to do with her being mixed race. I nor the book has been able to get me to care about either the murder mysteryish or assassination plots despite being halfway through. I enjoyed the family aspects but that’s about it.
MC must complain about everything constantly. From her name, to her powers, to the people around her she has some sort of issue with all of them. Not to mention fridged mother disease.
Her relationship with her cousins is very cute which is why this isn’t a one star review but both cousins come off a tropey caricatures.
The crown prince who I guess is a/the main love interest is giving a golden retriever bf attempt. He’s supposed to be lovable but naive and a be dense but he just comes off as slow.
But if you can’t have interesting characters you should at least have a good story but I really don’t think anything like that is in the room with us.
The main plot is that the MC and her cousins travel to the capital after passing the first exam to become government officials. There they stumble into a murder scene which they leave alone without getting involved in (good decision no thanks to the MC). Despite constantly stating that all she cares about is providing for and staying with her family, she wants to get involved in the strange occurrences they stumble into in the capital since something like “if there was danger she’d rather be one step ahead.”
Which okay sure. And I get that the plot must move forward but she’s clearly not doing that and instead following it or even creating it. Also, if she cares so much about them why is she dragging her cousins into it? The MC clearly feels like an outsider even in her family while her cousins solely ever refer to her as their sister so there is ample room to create an interesting conflict about her going off on her own. But no all she cares about is her family but also she’s going to drag them down with her unless one of her cousins reminds her not to.
At the same time, the crown prince is certain that he will be assassinated and wants the MC’s help as she can resurrect the dead. While trying to convince her (never mind this could secure her family’s position in court) they have several interactions in which they, of course, learn more about each other. The MC only grows more hostile while he becomes more eager to please which makes her more hostile. I assume parts of these interactions are meant to come off as cute but it was actually just eye rolling. Also she’s constantly yelling at him for some reason. Not taking a side here they are both equally as annoying but she has an actual personality whereas he’s just “naive and dense but kind”.
The MC also suffers from specialist girl in the world disorder where she performs forbidden alchemy and goes up against trained/court alchemists. She also has some sort of depersonalization episodes which seem to hint at some greater power. This all may or may not have something to do with her being mixed race. I nor the book has been able to get me to care about either the murder mysteryish or assassination plots despite being halfway through. I enjoyed the family aspects but that’s about it.
The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris
1.0
Truly appalling how much garbage and half-baked ideas you have to wade through to get to any point he's trying to make. Repetitive and uncritical; comes to the same conclusion as every other two-bit Internet philosopher aka tech does not have ethics, it is what you make of it and we need to use it deliberately etc. etc.. Unfortunately I am being forced to attend a Q&A session with him so I'm now deeply regretting borrowing this from the library instead of buying it second hand, at least then I could burn it down during the Zoom meeting.