Scan barcode
sipping_tea_with_ghosts's reviews
54 reviews
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
While I do like this book, I feel like the issues I see some cite are legitimately prevalent and damning enough to exclude it from the mountain of other great epic fantasies that are coming out now. The lack of a glossary in a fantasy book published by Orbit is truly baffling, and I don't think having to google half the italicized words adds to the reading experience. Even if Norse mythology and wording was as well known as Greek, including a point of reference in the back is just common courtesy nowadays.
Other than that, while the plot is interesting and the characters have some great moments, I found the pacing overall to be frustrating. Sure, do things technically happen? Yes. Does it change the status quo for the chapter's character? No, not really. Revenger is still gonna revenge, pillager still gonna pillage, and dead loved one motivation is still gonna get that one guy up in the morning. It feels like if the action scenes in Rage of Dragons or Game of Thrones gave little fuel to progress the overall story - which stems from the overall plots being intertwined but still fairly simple so there's no way for it to grow substantially. We learn about the world, we spend time with disposable characters but 500 pages later, the plot has only moved by an inch instead of a mile.
I say this out of frustration, not of hate. With the exception being the purposefully unsatisfying ending and a heel turn from one hazy blur of a character to another hazy blur of a character - I enjoyed the parts before when my brain wasn't overanalyzing why some things were happening and then thinking it was just for melodramatic chapter enders. I enjoyed characters such as Elvar and Orka, Varg being my least favorite due to a rather repetitive character motivation and seeming to have no ambition or real thought outside of that for more than two seconds. Here's hoping that the next book will have more memorable side characters, because I often found myself getting confused or detached because there were so many that felt like meager talking heads. The plot will surely expand in the next book due to how this one ends, but I like the first book in a series to still feel satisfying and wrap up some of the smaller conflicts, and even 120 pages from the end, I just knew this was going to do none of that.
Other than that, while the plot is interesting and the characters have some great moments, I found the pacing overall to be frustrating. Sure, do things technically happen? Yes. Does it change the status quo for the chapter's character? No, not really. Revenger is still gonna revenge, pillager still gonna pillage, and dead loved one motivation is still gonna get that one guy up in the morning. It feels like if the action scenes in Rage of Dragons or Game of Thrones gave little fuel to progress the overall story - which stems from the overall plots being intertwined but still fairly simple so there's no way for it to grow substantially. We learn about the world, we spend time with disposable characters but 500 pages later, the plot has only moved by an inch instead of a mile.
I say this out of frustration, not of hate. With the exception being the purposefully unsatisfying ending and a heel turn from one hazy blur of a character to another hazy blur of a character - I enjoyed the parts before when my brain wasn't overanalyzing why some things were happening and then thinking it was just for melodramatic chapter enders. I enjoyed characters such as Elvar and Orka, Varg being my least favorite due to a rather repetitive character motivation and seeming to have no ambition or real thought outside of that for more than two seconds. Here's hoping that the next book will have more memorable side characters, because I often found myself getting confused or detached because there were so many that felt like meager talking heads. The plot will surely expand in the next book due to how this one ends, but I like the first book in a series to still feel satisfying and wrap up some of the smaller conflicts, and even 120 pages from the end, I just knew this was going to do none of that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Gore
Leech by Hiron Ennes
2.0
I intend no hyperbole here when I say that the first half of this book would've easily warranted 4 stars or more from me. Two halves make a whole however and the last 50% of this parasitic horror story regrettably jumps off a cliff, leaving the intrigue, subtle worldbuilding and decent characters looking forlornly at the battered corpse on the ice below. Atop this viscera is a mess of a plot disposing of characters as quickly as possible and adopting a tone and resolution I'd expect from a disposable YA novel from the early 2010s.
World building falls beneath the par set beautifully by the first 150 pages, the key players all become different flavors of "can't shut up fast enough", character revelation is just blatant assassination, and rules are inconsistent throughout. The lead and their unique POV comes off as forced, displaying feelings and behaviors you'd expect from a 17 year old and not a 500 year old body snatcher. I could've misinterpreted what was going on by the end and what the true strife was, but I can live with that because the amount of surreal cuts and repetition of "I can't do this." and "I have to if I want to survive" became white noise after a while.
I really wanted to enjoy this book but the revelation that I was starting to hate it came quickly after chapter 15 or so. A gothic infection mystery that turns into an existential breakdown and saccharine vivisection of an ending.
World building falls beneath the par set beautifully by the first 150 pages, the key players all become different flavors of "can't shut up fast enough", character revelation is just blatant assassination, and rules are inconsistent throughout. The lead and their unique POV comes off as forced, displaying feelings and behaviors you'd expect from a 17 year old and not a 500 year old body snatcher. I could've misinterpreted what was going on by the end and what the true strife was, but I can live with that because the amount of surreal cuts and repetition of "I can't do this." and "I have to if I want to survive" became white noise after a while.
I really wanted to enjoy this book but the revelation that I was starting to hate it came quickly after chapter 15 or so. A gothic infection mystery that turns into an existential breakdown and saccharine vivisection of an ending.
Brother by Ania Ahlborn
3.0
It's easy to have words such as FINE or OK in criticism to come off as purely negative and nothing more. I fall into the trap myself, using fine on something in the same breath that could come off as :
Begrudging - Because I settled on not loving but not having enough energy to hate it entirely.
OR
Accepting - Being content and happy with a predictable kind of joyride.
Brother for me falls into the Accepting camp, a story that doesn't really do anything new or have amazing characters but I had fun reading regardless. As much as the summary unintentionally promised me something fairly absent from the actual story, I was never truly bored due to the fast pace and long burn to an explosively bloody ending.
The summary and first chapter of this story might make you think you're in for some cannibal family adventure, and while there are elements of that, its mostly in the background while an atypical family drama takes the forefront - primarily between the protagonist and his abusive foster sibling. The eventual return to those spooky elements is definitely going to be too much of a wait for some, and like I said, the characters aren't the strongest in Brother. The amount of details for each isn't evenly spread across, keeping most of the characterization for Michael and Rebel while the scary mother, passive father and troubled sister are just stepping stones to the end.
Due to the drama aspect of this tale, it can often feel like you're reading the PG-13 version of a crazy cannibal movie, but the second half more than dumps the depraved aspects back onto the foreground. So a content warning is definitely warranted, even if their descriptions are fairly brief.
So while I don't think this book is amazing, its what you could call a "popcorn fun" kind of scenario. Hell, if they made a movie, I'd watch it. Highlights for me would be the bloody finale and a series of flashbacks that deal with a character not seen in the main story, I thought the resolution of that arc was genuinely interesting and mortifying. So a Fine / 5, an OK / 10 is pretty good in this instance.
Begrudging - Because I settled on not loving but not having enough energy to hate it entirely.
OR
Accepting - Being content and happy with a predictable kind of joyride.
Brother for me falls into the Accepting camp, a story that doesn't really do anything new or have amazing characters but I had fun reading regardless. As much as the summary unintentionally promised me something fairly absent from the actual story, I was never truly bored due to the fast pace and long burn to an explosively bloody ending.
The summary and first chapter of this story might make you think you're in for some cannibal family adventure, and while there are elements of that, its mostly in the background while an atypical family drama takes the forefront - primarily between the protagonist and his abusive foster sibling. The eventual return to those spooky elements is definitely going to be too much of a wait for some, and like I said, the characters aren't the strongest in Brother. The amount of details for each isn't evenly spread across, keeping most of the characterization for Michael and Rebel while the scary mother, passive father and troubled sister are just stepping stones to the end.
Due to the drama aspect of this tale, it can often feel like you're reading the PG-13 version of a crazy cannibal movie, but the second half more than dumps the depraved aspects back onto the foreground. So a content warning is definitely warranted, even if their descriptions are fairly brief.
Spoiler
(Rape, attempted incest, animal cruelty, torture, murder, some offensive language)So while I don't think this book is amazing, its what you could call a "popcorn fun" kind of scenario. Hell, if they made a movie, I'd watch it. Highlights for me would be the bloody finale and a series of flashbacks that deal with a character not seen in the main story, I thought the resolution of that arc was genuinely interesting and mortifying. So a Fine / 5, an OK / 10 is pretty good in this instance.
It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Outside of the GoodReads rating system, I'd be giving this book a 2.5 / 5 - a tale full of good descriptions of horror that help in building a sense of mystery and Lovecraftian strangeness, but is aggressively weighed down by a tone imbalance, prickly characters and an ending that felt like it was rushing for the bus with its pants around its ankles.
With this being a story focusing on the creation of art, I feel a warning is valid since the descriptions of known art pieces, figures and techniques isn't a just a feature of the characters, its a full on plot element. This text overall is bursting from its chest in references and in-jokes. If you're an outsider looking in, hoping for a digestible explanation for the artistic struggle, you're not getting it. Either you know or you don't.
Thankfully I understood most of them being a music creator and nerd with art, black metal culture, and true crime but most aren't going to pick up on that because the characters never explain beyond "Hey, this is just like _____". I might be in the minority, but I find tales that take place in our own semblance of reality to be irritating when it relies on pop culture references and what not for its worldbuilding.
There's a character that narrates Museum Interludes when the book is mostly a 3rd person affair who feels like they were designed just to irritate me with that kind of bile, and they're the main culprit in the murder of this book's tone and pacing. The interludes serve as a look into the villain's hideout while Lark tries to build this devious art piece. Other than failing to make the villains sound interesting or compelling, these brick walls of text just love to belt out brand names, inane tangents and make me wish we were back with the actual main character.
Not that Lark comes close to being a great protagonist - being a flavor of dickhead to match the town he lives in. The guy goes through a lot and some sections of this book dealing with the fate of his prickly neighbors did genuinely make me feel uncomfortable in the best way possible, but that feeling is fleeting. Closing out with an ending you'll expect if you've ever read anything Lovecraft adjacent, it just rolled off of me as soon as I closed the book. You just can't pull that kind of ending when I legitimately can't care for the characters.
So I loved the concept and Marino gets the strange horror bits so right, but the connecting fibers were unfortunately flossy at best.
With this being a story focusing on the creation of art, I feel a warning is valid since the descriptions of known art pieces, figures and techniques isn't a just a feature of the characters, its a full on plot element. This text overall is bursting from its chest in references and in-jokes. If you're an outsider looking in, hoping for a digestible explanation for the artistic struggle, you're not getting it. Either you know or you don't.
Thankfully I understood most of them being a music creator and nerd with art, black metal culture, and true crime but most aren't going to pick up on that because the characters never explain beyond "Hey, this is just like _____". I might be in the minority, but I find tales that take place in our own semblance of reality to be irritating when it relies on pop culture references and what not for its worldbuilding.
There's a character that narrates Museum Interludes when the book is mostly a 3rd person affair who feels like they were designed just to irritate me with that kind of bile, and they're the main culprit in the murder of this book's tone and pacing. The interludes serve as a look into the villain's hideout while Lark tries to build this devious art piece. Other than failing to make the villains sound interesting or compelling, these brick walls of text just love to belt out brand names, inane tangents and make me wish we were back with the actual main character.
Not that Lark comes close to being a great protagonist - being a flavor of dickhead to match the town he lives in. The guy goes through a lot and some sections of this book dealing with the fate of his prickly neighbors did genuinely make me feel uncomfortable in the best way possible, but that feeling is fleeting. Closing out with an ending you'll expect if you've ever read anything Lovecraft adjacent, it just rolled off of me as soon as I closed the book. You just can't pull that kind of ending when I legitimately can't care for the characters.
So I loved the concept and Marino gets the strange horror bits so right, but the connecting fibers were unfortunately flossy at best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Animal cruelty
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I don't come on here to sound like a contrarian, but its books like these that make me genuinely disregard any quote or blurb ever left on covers by other authors in the industry - especially horror or thriller books. This is the prime example of a provocative concept being stretched out far beyond its means - cruising by on its shocking question and hoping that you don't bother to look behind the curtain, leaving the theater in silent awe.
Worse than that however is witnessing a narrative that is trying to come off as insightful and well meaning, when it unintentionally confirms a very harmful view on the "non-traditional" family and doesn't do enough to dissuade a crazy person from believing they're being supported. If someone tells you this is an LGBTQ+ book, they're either dense or should no longer be your friend.
Outside of the troubling morals, purely accidental I'm sure - the story itself just isn't that compelling. Once you get over that moral quandary, a good 2/3rds of the runtime is:
"No, we won't sacrifice anyone!"
"But you have to!"
"No we won't!"
And there isn't enough tension building to keep the knife against your throat, loading off flashback exposition in the most egregious way - like it was a last minute addition...13 times. The ending is ambiguous in a way that might be interesting to think about later down the line, but that also means a lack of payoff for a question I already knew the answer for far before we got there.
I hope Paul's other works are more interesting and don't come off so much as a messy stumble in the dark, but even if there's an apocalypse going on outside our windows - just hire an editor for the good of mankind.
Worse than that however is witnessing a narrative that is trying to come off as insightful and well meaning, when it unintentionally confirms a very harmful view on the "non-traditional" family and doesn't do enough to dissuade a crazy person from believing they're being supported. If someone tells you this is an LGBTQ+ book, they're either dense or should no longer be your friend.
Outside of the troubling morals, purely accidental I'm sure - the story itself just isn't that compelling. Once you get over that moral quandary, a good 2/3rds of the runtime is:
"No, we won't sacrifice anyone!"
"But you have to!"
"No we won't!"
And there isn't enough tension building to keep the knife against your throat, loading off flashback exposition in the most egregious way - like it was a last minute addition...13 times. The ending is ambiguous in a way that might be interesting to think about later down the line, but that also means a lack of payoff for a question I already knew the answer for far before we got there.
I hope Paul's other works are more interesting and don't come off so much as a messy stumble in the dark, but even if there's an apocalypse going on outside our windows - just hire an editor for the good of mankind.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
If you can give me a good world and some well rounded characters, the story in any book can be mediocre at best. Regrettably, while Wolfe can certainly throw in some interesting concepts, that's all he really can contribute to these broad demands - and even then, half the time the ideas and bits of lore honestly feel like they are purposely tossed in to change the scene in some way, not to build character backstory, world history or establish a plot point. If the author was asked to build a bridge to connect two scenes - be it with character motivation, introspection, action or even the cheapest of fluff - he would just make Severian t-pose and fly over the bridge and be surprised when people ask how he got from A to B with no explanation.
This and the first book wouldn't earn 3 stars if it wasn't for the worldbuilding and the occasional lore and character moment that hits - as vacuous as they now seem in retrospect. The killing blow to anything higher, even the future books I haven't read but know will remain steeped in this flaw - is the characters. Wolfe makes the mistake of making the main character seem like the most boring character to exist in this world. Even when the self-insert isn't being boring, he's reflecting the kinds of thoughts towards women that unfortunately give me the impression of a sexually insecure man that curses his nether regions while whacking the sinful rises with a bible. The latter half of this book makes Severian sound like a horny moron: putting himself in danger, fawning over and condescending any woman that contrivedly fancies him, and still being so naïve and temperamental after so much time alone. I have to agree with Mark Lawrence when he said that he doesn't believe any of the connections that Severian has with any woman.
There's a particular scene in this second half where Severian is talking to a woman he took a boat ride with in the first book named Dorcas.
There's also another scene after with another woman named that was apparently trying to describe consensual love making in a boat but it sounded like anything but. This was also with a character that gets undressed by the narrator's eyes every time she enters a scene, belting out the kind of descriptions that would never be given to a male character.
So yeah, unfortunately as a sucker for lore and worldbuilding, I'm putting up with more chaff than I probably should. While I'm not someone who will burn a book for having some antiquated portrayals and views, it does bring down the experience if it feels tied into a larger problem overall. So the lore and world is neat, the overarching goal is static yet somehow feels unclear and preceded by a route that gets jumbled by Google Maps every time you make a turn, and the characters are either the boring people upfront or the interesting people being vague jerks that occupy a page or two at most.
I'm sure by next year, I'll feel the need to continue, but I'm in no rush.
This and the first book wouldn't earn 3 stars if it wasn't for the worldbuilding and the occasional lore and character moment that hits - as vacuous as they now seem in retrospect. The killing blow to anything higher, even the future books I haven't read but know will remain steeped in this flaw - is the characters. Wolfe makes the mistake of making the main character seem like the most boring character to exist in this world. Even when the self-insert isn't being boring, he's reflecting the kinds of thoughts towards women that unfortunately give me the impression of a sexually insecure man that curses his nether regions while whacking the sinful rises with a bible. The latter half of this book makes Severian sound like a horny moron: putting himself in danger, fawning over and condescending any woman that contrivedly fancies him, and still being so naïve and temperamental after so much time alone. I have to agree with Mark Lawrence when he said that he doesn't believe any of the connections that Severian has with any woman.
There's a particular scene in this second half where Severian is talking to a woman he took a boat ride with in the first book named Dorcas.
Spoiler
I found myself laughing at this scene because the lack of subtlety in this scene with how he downplays her worries and bad dreams, assuring her that maybe she'll feel better with him around, made me think of a draft in which he would bold facedly say "Ahh. don't worry, fair maiden...feel the power of my Staff of Penetration +6 wipe away your womanly strife."There's also another scene after with another woman named
Spoiler
JolentaSo yeah, unfortunately as a sucker for lore and worldbuilding, I'm putting up with more chaff than I probably should. While I'm not someone who will burn a book for having some antiquated portrayals and views, it does bring down the experience if it feels tied into a larger problem overall. So the lore and world is neat, the overarching goal is static yet somehow feels unclear and preceded by a route that gets jumbled by Google Maps every time you make a turn, and the characters are either the boring people upfront or the interesting people being vague jerks that occupy a page or two at most.
I'm sure by next year, I'll feel the need to continue, but I'm in no rush.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
challenging
informative
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Red Mars is ambitious, diverse, complex, and boring.
Intrinsically, irreversibly boring.
The premise is betrayed by an overly dense writing style and a priority on the most dull parts of any other story. I started referring to this story as Red Rover because of how much Robinson seemed to fetishize the amount of time our characters spend just going from place to place. Only about 20% of the story is focused on the actual science that would go into the colonization of Mars or the dynamics between the characters. Even so, the cast of this adventure isn't what I would call well-rounded, representing ideologies instead of personalities. The interesting bits of science and the debate around terraforming the Red Beauty is buried under line after line of superfluous detail and introspective moments that feel well intentioned but patronizing.
The cultural conflicts alluded to by the premise are rather simplistic affairs, but maybe that's because human drama is caustic in its simplicity and divide. The first half of the book was more interesting when all the scientists started putting in their own view on the terraforming debate and the perceived autonomy of being away from Earth agencies, but the second half introduces a subplot with the presence and threat of a doormat. You want some tension? What's that, the thing that comes before eleven-sion? Naw, you want some more dull walls of text and the same old relationship malarkey that's been apparent since the first fifty pages.
I want to like this setting, I want to like more than two characters consistently, but the words on the page threaten my sanity in how relentlessly they enter my brain but leave no presence.
Intrinsically, irreversibly boring.
The premise is betrayed by an overly dense writing style and a priority on the most dull parts of any other story. I started referring to this story as Red Rover because of how much Robinson seemed to fetishize the amount of time our characters spend just going from place to place. Only about 20% of the story is focused on the actual science that would go into the colonization of Mars or the dynamics between the characters. Even so, the cast of this adventure isn't what I would call well-rounded, representing ideologies instead of personalities. The interesting bits of science and the debate around terraforming the Red Beauty is buried under line after line of superfluous detail and introspective moments that feel well intentioned but patronizing.
The cultural conflicts alluded to by the premise are rather simplistic affairs, but maybe that's because human drama is caustic in its simplicity and divide. The first half of the book was more interesting when all the scientists started putting in their own view on the terraforming debate and the perceived autonomy of being away from Earth agencies, but the second half introduces a subplot with the presence and threat of a doormat. You want some tension? What's that, the thing that comes before eleven-sion? Naw, you want some more dull walls of text and the same old relationship malarkey that's been apparent since the first fifty pages.
I want to like this setting, I want to like more than two characters consistently, but the words on the page threaten my sanity in how relentlessly they enter my brain but leave no presence.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Murder, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, and Police brutality
The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Murder, and Gore
The Girl and the Moon by Mark Lawrence
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
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
4.0