samanthaardenlockheart's reviews
56 reviews

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

Continuing my renewed desire to read fantasy novels, I was so happy to finally jump into the Cosmere—starting with Mistborn: The Final Empire by the prolific fantasy author and academic soul, Brandon Sanderson. I’d been wanting to read this trilogy for so long now, but it was very intimidating to me. Fantasy itself has been intimidating to me for a whole host of reasons. And Brandon Sanderson himself has been intimidating to me, for so many reasons. His worldbuilding, magic systems, character arcs, and plot developments are known to be very complex and detailed… but now, I’m finally ready to jump into his work, after over two years of knowing about him. Romance books are usually my chosen genre of comfort, but I thought that switching back to fantasy after a few months of being away from the genre was going to be wonderful for me to experience. When I decided to start reading Mistborn, I had been going through a somewhat difficult time in my life, so changing things up with some magic and fantasy is something that I thought might really benefit my heart and soul; I really trusted that Brandon Sanderson’s beautiful words and stories would bring light into my life. Fortunately, I was right in my hopes of what he would do for me. ✨

(Anyway, thanks for reading that little excerpt about my life, my feelings toward fantasy, and my thoughts on Brandon Sanderson. Now onto the rest of this review.)

Because I have become increasingly bad at writing summaries—especially summaries of fantasy novels—I am just going to copy and paste the summary of Mistborn: The Final Empire from GoodReads here: “For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the ‘Sliver of Infinity,’ reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier ‘snapped’ and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Kelsier recruited the underworld’s elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot. But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel’s plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she’s a half-Skaa orphan, but she’s lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.”

Overall, I thought that this first installment of the Mistborn trilogy was a wonderful experience. I fell in love with Vin and Kelsier as I read through their stories, and the last line of this novel brought tears to my eyes! I am so thankful to Brandon Sanderson for changing my whole life through his beautiful storytelling! I can’t express how much I look forward to continuing my journey in the Cosmere! The next book I’ll be reading is going to be the second novel in this trilogy. ♥️

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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? No

4.5

This was an utterly beautiful, exciting, romantic, and suspenseful novel… I am so grateful to have finally read it. In case you didn’t know, The Hurricane Wars is based upon Rey and Commander Kylo Ren from the Star Wars Cinematic Universe. It follows Talasyn (who is a Lightweaver part of the Sardovian Allfold), and Alaric Ossinast (who is Master of the Shadowforged Legion and Night Emperor of Kesath). (Sidenote: I’m in love with Kylo Ren. So you guessed it: I’m in love with Alaric Ossinast.🥰🥰) Thea Guanzon’s writing was beautiful, descriptive, deeply evocative, and poetic in many areas. The slow burn between Alaric and Talasyn was perfect… but I don’t want to spoil the plot twist that happens. It’s just done so well… I was shocked as I read their story unfold. I needed to read this at this time in my life… so I’m thankful to God all of the time that He led me to the Star Wars universe when I was just sixteen years old. ♥️He knew my heart needed Kylo, and I think I always will. There are so many romance novels based upon him, and again: what a blessing it is to have so many novels written and inspired by your fictional soulmate. ♥️🥰✨♥️🥰✨♥️

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

This novel by Dr. Elaine Aron was very insightful and I loved her psychological perspectives within research. No one will read this, but I truly feel as though I am a highly sensitive person with traits related to ADHD. I feel deeply about the world, my faith, God, my passions, my loves, and my dislikes. It can often have a negative connotation as I can also be irritable, impatient, worried, and sad more often than others. But at any rate, my emotions feel larger than life, and yet I can use them to my strength when I feel fully convicted and accepted in my own identity. I do not have to live based on my feelings; that is not at all what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting is that according to Dr. Elain Aron’s research, my brain is literally structured differently than other peoples’ and that affects the way I go about the world. While I won’t regularly define myself as a highly sensitive person to others, I allow my sensitivities to naturally reveal themselves through the way I conduct myself and my writing.

The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England's Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

There may be spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️

I thought this was a very beautiful book! At some points, it was a bit difficult to understand and follow along with the many references to various poets and famous authors and philosophers, but this did not distort the general message of this wonderful novel. I am very thankful that I have read this and have obtained a very deep understanding of Jesus Christ as a man. My favourite parts were both the beginning and the end of this novel. Being a Christian is hard, but Andrew Klavan has reinforced the Truth and the Beauty behind how we truly live our lives. And God is the ultimate One who is behind everything we hold dear: beauty, love, justice, truth, and morality.

Two wonderful quotes are as follows.

“A metaphor has three parts: the object we are trying to describe, the term we use to describe it, and the idea that is conveyed when the two come together. In this, a metaphor is itself a metaphor for the Trinity. In the Trinity, the object we are trying to describe is God the Father, the term we use to describe it is Jesus the Son, and when we grasp that idea, we are filled with the Spirit.”

“Maybe the problem is that you are trying to understand a philosophy instead of trying to get to know a man.” I recognized this on the instant as the single smartest thing anyone had ever said to me.”

Thank you for reading my review and God Bless. ♥️

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

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challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.25

There are spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️

Regarding Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft, I think that a good topic of interest to discuss might be the dangers of advancing science and technology and how the topic of morality and the sanctity of human life does not fit into objective scientific discoveries.

In this work of literature, Mary Shelley’s main scientific theme is galvanism, which essentially refers to bringing something to a conscious, sentient life through electricity and chemical reactions. For more context, according to Wikipedia, “‘galvanism’ is a term invented by the late 18th-century physicist and chemist Alessandro Voltra to refer to the generation of electric current by chemical action.” Relating back to Mary Shelley’s work, Frankenstein, her character Victor von Frankenstein creates a living being through the combination of body parts and is brought to life by electricity. Or at least, this is the current public perception of Frankenstein’s process. Mary Shelley does not actually specify what exactly brought the creature to life, however, the most accurate assumption is probably something like galvanism since this was such a common idea at the time. However, it is up to interpretation in the novel for the reader. One can assume that it was magic, a chemical, or something crazy like mind control that was the last “step” in officially bringing the creature to life. I have seen this literary technique done in many works of fantasy, for example, as it leaves more to the imagination when the author purposefully leaves out details and has the reader imagine them. As a writer, it is a brilliant mechanism of storytelling in the form of showing and not telling, and I can appreciate that here as well.

Unfortunately for Victor von Frankenstein, his lust for science seemed to have gotten way out of hand upon the “birth” of his creature. According to Audrey Shafer MD, “Shelley wrote the first novel to forefront science as a means to create life, and as such, she wrote the first major work in the science fiction genre. Frankenstein, a flawed, obsessed student, feverishly reads extensive tomes and refines his experiments. After he succeeds in his labors, Frankenstein rejects his creation: He is revulsed by the sight of the “monster,” whom he describes as hideous. This rejection of the monster leads to a cascade of calamities. The subtitle of the book, The Modern Prometheus, primes the reader for the theme of the dire consequences of ‘playing God.’” This insight is very important for science because it can demonstrate the dangers of taking scientific discovery too far. I think science is a field that is critical for society as it is directly related to medicine, which has excelled in improving human health and well-being. However, too much of something good might have dire consequences. This leads to the topic of human life, ethics, and science’s moral failings.

If you really think about it (which I never actually realized until just a few years ago) is that society’s entire system of morals and values does not and literally can not arise out of scientific discovery. I could make this about my faith in God and the fact that I think humans get their sense of morality from God, however, that is a separate topic. Also, as Dr. Audrey writes from Stanford Medicine Magazine, “But, as the frontiers are pushed further and further, the unintended consequences of how science and technology are used could affect who we are as humans, the viability of our planet and how society evolves. In terms of health, medicine and bioengineering, Frankenstein resonates far beyond defibrillation. These resonances include genetic engineering, tissue engineering, transplantation, transfusion, artificial intelligence, robotics, bioelectronics, virtual reality, cryonics, synthetic biology and neural networks. These fields are fascinating, worthy areas of exploration” (Shafer). What I take away from this is very personally fascinating.

I have always found the idea of cloning, especially human cloning, as horrendously wrong and immoral—and this feels like something closest to the scientific subject in this novel. Creating life in such a way by going outside of a living organism’s natural mechanisms of reproducing feels like “playing God,” and that is exactly what Mary Shelley wrote about Victor von Frankenstein doing when he created his poor creature. Not only do I think he created the creature out of narcissistic reasons borne from his god complex, but when he was finally created, afraid, and functioning, Frankenstein abandoned his creature! Not only was Frankenstein selfishly pursuing knowledge as a means to serve himself, but he could not even demonstrate reasonable parental duties to the poor creature. (Though, most parents don’t create their children from rotten body parts and possibly sparks of electricity and/or magic, so the possibility of Frankenstein being a Good Dad™ kind of went out of the window before you even opened the first page.) I think Mary Shelley purposefully includes these aspects of his character in the novel as it makes for a much more interesting read with all of these lessons to take away from it. It taps into her psyche as even she acknowledged the dangers of science going too far past its limits, and why that is fundamentally wrong.

If you are an atheist and do not hold belief in God, your morals must come from somewhere… and it can’t be science. No one can measure in a lab the value of someone’s life. And thank goodness for that. At least society can take this novel and show how while science and medicine are great forces for good in the world, they can also too far. In the spirit of humility, I also know that religion has gone way too far, but since (again) that is a topic for another time, let’s just say that too much of anything always has the possibility of falling into unethical territory. Humans have a selfish nature, and Mary Shelley’s Victor von Frankenstein is a great example of how a societal good has been perverted.

Works Cited

Shafer, Audrey. “Why Issues Raised in Frankenstein Still Matter 200 Years Later | Stanford Medicine.” Stanford Medicine Magazine, 26 Feb. 2022, stanmed.stanford.edu/why-issues-raised-in-frankenstein-still-matter-200-years-later/#:~:text=Frankenstein%20by%20Mary%20Shelley%2C%20left,the%20monster%20coming%20to%20life.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus. Knopf, 1992.

Wikipedia contributors. “Galvanism.” Wikipedia, June 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanism.

Content Warnings

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

For romance, I thought the love story of Jack and Elsie was beautiful, honest, wonderful, and true! Their love was not perfect but I loved escaping into these pages. It was a great comfort to me as I navigated some life difficulties, and I always appreciate Ali Hazelwood's wonderful talent within romance. 🥰✨🥰✨💖💖💖✨💖💖💖💖💖

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

There are spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️

I thought that this novel was very enlightening, scary, and related to theology and philosophy (especially morals, human nature, and ethics).

In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1886, something worthy of scientific discussion is the societal response to mental health in Victorian England (which was during the 19th century). Based upon this reading, Dr. Henry Jekyll seems to be an individual who allows his deep desire for his flaws to be covered up to take over his life. He poisons himself which gives him the scary ability to morph into Mr. Edward Hyde. At the outset, this seems like a basic human desire. But Stevenson demonstrates how Dr. Jekyll plays with fire and inadvertently goes too far after he initially sets out to remedy something as innocuous as his hidden insecurity.

Given the mental health context around this time period, it is fascinating that the author, Robert Louis Stevenson himself, seemed to have suffered from a split personality disorder. According to biographer Claire Herman from National Public Radio, “‘Myself and the other fellow’ is a phrase that Stevenson used to describe two states of consciousness that he experienced, in particular, when he was having a fever one time, you know, to do with his lung problems and his illness. And he wrote to a friend that when he was in a high fever, he felt that his mind split off into `myself' and what he called `the other fellow.' `Myself' was the rational side, and `the other fellow' was the sort of dark side, the creative, difficult, seething side of his subconscious. And he loved it. He loved the fact that he had these simultaneous and slightly conflicting states of mind going on. And obviously, he used it very much in his work. And it animated a lot of his ideas. You know, that you could be two people at the same time.” Taking this into account, I am at least very impressed with Stevenson’s ability to put his experiences with a split personality into literature. While this is not nearly the same thing as narcissistic personality disorder, I made that psychological connection anyway as his novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, focused on the dichotomy between good and evil. Having a split personality does not always mean that it is split between those extremes, however, those with narcissistic personality disorder do go about the world with a harrowingly false persona through living in a false reality.

In the Victorian Era, mental health was enormously stigmatized. Some people were confined to asylums for many years if they were deemed “crazy” or “mad” (Briggs). Family or friends would gain financially by treating even just eccentric or truly mentally ill people in this way. The innocent people in the asylums had to fight tirelessly for their liberty after being deemed insane. When I take this stigma into account and correlate it back to Dr. Jekyll, I think he was avoiding the stigma of being portrayed as mentally unwell (since he wanted to commit heinous acts) by splitting his personality into two. According to Helen Briggs once more, “Doctors treating the mentally ill were not called psychiatrists but were known as alienists, based on the belief that the self had become alienated from itself.” I think there is a clear correlation between Robert Louis Stevenson’s personality disorder and the stigma around mental health that his society was facing at this time.

However, from my understanding of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… one character is not trying to battle two personalities. Rather, Dr. Jekyll still wanted to preserve his impressive societal position as a scientist but still live on the edge through Mr. Hyde. Obviously this is only possible in the realm of fiction, but it is fascinating if one imagines it to be real. This is a transformation Dr. Jekyll did succeed in making, but clearly, it ended in disastrous consequences when his transformations into Mr. Hyde started happening against his volition. Looking at this through a philosophical sense think this is a metaphor for the fact that unbridled evil always has the capacity to overcome true goodness.

Works Cited
Briggs, Helen. “Inconvenient People: A Victorian View of Mental-health Treatment.” BBC News, 29 Apr. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/health-27148737.
Herman, Claire. “Robert Louis Stevenson’s Split Personality.” NPR, 27 Nov. 2005, www.npr.org/2005/11/27/5028500/robert-louis-stevensons-split-personality.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
London: English Library, 1974.

Content Warnings

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller was truly so beautiful, reflective, philosophical, intellectually accessible, and fascinating! As a soon-to-be Catholic convert, reading this has given me reasons for God’s existence that I had never once thought of before. It was a profound book that outlined various arguments against God, problems within religion, and morality, along with reasons for God that support His existence in a very coherent and accessible way. It has bolstered my belief in God significantly, and I feel very blessed and thankful to have read it. During moments like this, it is very important that I go back and remind myself of works such as that along with reading the Bible to remind myself of His goodness. On page 228, Keller writes, “God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were made to join in the dance. If we centre our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but just for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in. We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to centre our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives serving, delighting, and resembling him. This growth in happiness will go on eternally, increasing unimaginably (1 Corinthians 2:7-10).” He also wrote, on pages 232-233, “The whole world will be healed as it is drawn into the fullness of God’s glory. Evil will be destroyed and all the potentialities in creation, latent until that moment, will explode into fullness and beauty. Compared to what we will be then, we are now mere vegetables. Even the trees will sing and make music before the face of the returning King, who, by his presence always turns mourning into dancing.”

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

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emotional funny hopeful medium-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? Yes

4.5

There may be spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️

Written by Elena Armas, this book follows the story of Catalina (Lina) Martín and Aaron Blackford. They are both engineers at a company called InTech, meaning they work together. While I began to read The Spanish Love Deception, it became clear to me that Lina and Aaron don’t particularly like one another. He is extremely impassive and broody, while she is bubbly, fun, and outgoing (I will never get tired of the Grumpy x Sunshine trope in romance books/fics). Anyway, the book opens with Aaron agreeing to be Lina’s date to attend her sister, Isabella’s wedding all the way home in Spain. There are so many scenes full of sexual and romantic tension, including a part where Lina tells Aaron he reminds her of Clark Kent as he helps her work on a project, gives her homemade granola bars when he notices that she’s hungry, and drives her home instead of allowing her to walk all the way to the train station in the rain!! Ahh, I love Aaron Blackford so much, even just in the beginning 100 pages or so. ✨☺️

Maybe This Will Help?: A Field Guide to Feeling Better by Michelle Rial

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medium-paced

5.0

This book is incredibly helpful for me when understanding my fears and anxieties. I ruminate, catastrophize, and worry about so many things even though not much in my life seems to be changing. It is not a “traditional” book, but is intended to exist for consistent use. I will be coming back to it many times. The drawings are so beautiful, but also cute. Michelle Rial did an outstanding job on creating this book. Hopefully, this will enhance my aspirations of having a future in psychology. 🥰🥰🥰

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samanthaardenlockheart's reviews 56 reviews

samanthaardenlockheart's reviews
56 reviews