the_jesus_fandom's reviews
501 reviews

About a Boy by Nick Hornby
Did not finish book.

 Fun story idea, but I’m not really the target audience for books with so much bad language and sex. 

Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters by Peter Vronsky
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

 I stopped reading cause the stories got sickening and I couldn’t really defend reading it with “I wanna know how to avoid this” because it was just a bunch of gory stories with no advice. I skipped over all that and just read the end, where’s there’s actual tips on staying safe. 

It was also pretty clear the author wasn’t unbiased, in the sense that he clearly disliked certain views and people (not serial killers, but people trying to explain their behaviour). Because of this, it felt like he didn’t portray those sides fairly: 

“These days Chesler is buzzing around another turd – the Middle-East and terrorism. […] We can all sleep better now knowing that Phyllis has joined the war on terrorism.” 

Life of Fred Logic by Stanley Fredric Schmidt

4.0

 I struggle with logic but at least the book was fun. I really enjoy the jokes, references and the footnotes about other subjects. 

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

2.0

 At first I liked the morally grey thing; it was interesting. But I think we’re letting Corrick off the hook too easily. It’s all “he has to punish people who do wrong”, but everyone conveniently forgets that poking people’s eyes out while they’re still alive and feeding them to lions, etc. aren’t legitimate punishments. You can punish citizens without torturing them. The author justifies it by making the victims of these punishments into evil people, so then suddenly it’s all ok. 

Other than that, Corrick is such a red flag from the moment we meet him. Genuinely, why do his guards even like him? How are they supposed to know he has good intentions when he never shows it and goes about his day exacting cruel punishments on everyone? The author tries to turn him into a sympathetic figure so hard. Oh boohoo, the poor tyrant, forced into tortuing people. 

All this made the notes in the epilogue about the covid-19 years rather scary:
‘the way COVID-19 affected the world absolutely changed the way I looked at the kingdom of Kandala and what responsibilities rulers have to their citizens, especially in times of tremendous challenge and strife.’ And torture is what you came up with? 

Minor quabble:

there’s a death fakeout

. 

The Wraith and the Rose by C.J. Brightley

2.0

 Parts of this story were good, and other parts I disliked a lot. 

What I liked: 

- The way Chauvelin sows distrust at the wedding was really well done. 

- The same for the way Lily does something suspicious enough that Theo distrusts her but innocent enough that she didn’t actually do anything malicious 

What I disliked: 

- COMMUNICATE YOU IDIOTS. They hardly know each other when they get married and they don’t even trust each other. On the other hand, that’s also how it went in the source material so you can’t completely blame the author. 

- Everyone’s way too chill about

Araminta’s abduction

. 

- Chauvelin (Willowvale in this book) isn’t suave. Rather, he’s tactless and has no self-control. I liked the calm, intimidating version better. 

- The MC wanting to go to the elf realm comes out of the blue and she’s stupid for it. 

- The MC doesn’t actually do anything wrong, yet she’s the one apologising to everyone 5+ times. 

“Because I was frightenend for you, and because I couldn’t bear to think how badly I treated you.” You didn’t treat him badly, though. 

“I forgave you long ago, my love.” FOR WHAT 

“How could you forgive me, then? How could you?” Girlll stop 

- His apology, on the other hand, is super weak.

”I wanted to believe the best of you, Lily. But when I asked you, your answer sounded like a lie, and… I did not want to ask you more, because the thought of you lying to me was so painful.” First of all, you asked her something when she had just woken up and had no idea what you were talking about. Second of all, you let your own feelings get in the way of a resolve.

And when he does apologise, she tells him “no don’t worry, there’s nothing to forgive.” YES THERE VERY WELL IS. 

“‘Theo,’ she whispered. “You apologized already, and I have a thousand more reasons to apologize than you do.” Girl you do not. 

 I hate it when books do the thing where the female protagonist apologises for mistakes the male lead made. 

Or maybe I’m just dumb… “It makes me feel even guilter for my part in the misunderstanding” because genuinely, what part does she mean here? She did NOTHING. 

- Not the next book tease (“But that is another story”) 

- The gimmick of him being drugged and honest drags on a bit too long. 

De zingende draad by René Goscinny

3.0

 I always enjoyed these as a child, so I decided to read this one as a quick diversion. 

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

5.0

This book is so cute and funny; I loved it.

Annabeth's War by Jessica Greyson

2.25

 It was fine, the book was entertaining enough. Like The Flawed Princess, which I read earlier this year, the book got surprisingly dark halfway through. 

The main character is pretty typical. Not like other girls (“I never thought you would fight for me; I thought you would flee and hide like every other daughter I have ever known.”) who bests grown men in swordplay and for some reason has a weird character arc where she forces herself not to cry (“It’s all right, Annabeth. There is no need to cry. It’s all over. You’ve held out this long; you needn’t shed a tear.”) 

I was a bit disappointed with Ransom’s story, because the book kept hinting at something interesting

(It looked a lot like he was an enemy soldier sent to capture her) but then he’s a good guy and nothing actually interesting happens with him.

 

There’s quite a few typos and spelling mistakes and there are a bunch of sentences that dont’ make any sense. (“Slowly, she moved her mind into a place of existence.”) We don’t get any backstory on important characters and plots. 

<spoilers>The timing of her father’s death is hysterical. He just told her she needn’t fear losing him again and then suddenly there’s sword in his back. 

The Flawed Princess by Alice Ivinya

2.75

 For being titled “The Flawed Princess”, the book has a distinct lack of flaws for its main character. Her only two flaws are being crippled and hotheaded. But obviously we get the typical plot of the girl being insecure and afraid of not being “worthy” of the male lead (Like, my goodness, we get it. You hate yourself.) 

And then at the end she decides to

not have her leg healed because then she wouldn’t be herself anymore… idk man I feel like there’s a difference between realising your physical flaws don’t make you worth any less than anybody else and actually refusing to be healed of something that is genuinely a burden in everyday life.

 

The male lead does admit some of his faults at the end, but most of the time he gets away scott free. There’s this whole drama about him

killing her father and uncle. But that’s not the biggest issue. I get why he had to mete out justice. You know what’s never addressed? The fact that he didn’t allow her to see her father and uncle one last time before killing them. That was the real issue.

 

What I did like was the tables turning of her being the powerful and capable one at the end and everyone else needing her help. 

Minor quabble: there were a bunch of grammar issues (its/it’s, to/too) 

The twist in tone??? Very startling.

Fern dies and there’s earth + BLOOD goblins? Genuinely horrifying and kinda cool.

I just didn’t see it coming since up til then the amount of gore and violence had been pretty tame. 

The Complete Guide to Asterix by Peter Kessler

5.0

 This book was super interesting, and it really makes you understand and appreciate the comics and the underlying culture and references even more.