trinityb2021's reviews
241 reviews

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

medium-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

4 ⭐️

This is a crazy book! I have so many conflicting feelings but I think this book is good. There’s a lot in this book to unpack. I will be ruminating on that ending for a while I think.

I’ll get into all the things I liked but first I need to get the elephant in the room out of the way. This isn’t a good sequel to Iron Widow. Iron Widow had a very strong YA feel. This book feels like the “Well of Ascension” of the series. It is significantly slower paced, it’s longer, and it's heavily political. It’s no longer YA and is now NA. Ahem throne of glass should’ve done this too for the later books. This book is mostly important people in rooms talking about political theory and how to be an effective ruler (at least in their opinion). There are some fun schemes and trickery but it's still all politics related. People that liked the fast paced, high action of Iron Widow will probably find this disappointing. I think this book is a lot of set up for a sequel that will hopefully be better than both Iron Widow and Heavenly Tyrant.

I think Zetian is a great unreliable protagonist. She reminds me of Katniss but I’m not sure why. They’re quite different and I don’t even really like Katniss but they have similar vibes. Zetian is feisty, slow to trust, and fierce. She does not hesitate to kill. I vibe with that and I think it’s always fun to read about ruthless characters. She’s probably more like Vin or book 3 Elend?

However, Qin Zheng is by far my favorite character. He has so many layers and so much depth. I don’t even know how I feel about him. I love him but also hate him? I guess Zetian and I are in the same boat (I probably wouldn’t peg him tho 😳). He has so many redeeming qualities and theoretically I agree with his politics but he is also the worst tyrant to ever do it sooo… I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FEEL. AND I LOVE THAT. Not just any author can write a character that I don’t immediately love or hate. Many authors TRY to write morally gray characters but that just means that they killed some people once to defend the person they love. Zheng is ACTUALLY morally gray.

Even Yizhi who was kind of boring in the first book had some really interesting moments that made me reconsider his character.

Top notch character writing from Xiran in this book. I think that above anything else makes me like this book more than Iron Widow. Those characters felt very “tropey” and not that unique even if the world was. The characters definitely stand out in this book.

The politics was a little ham fisted as I saw some other reviews say. Sure, it got a little preachy sometimes and that was probably my least favorite part. I think it was important tho to set up Qin Zheng the way he was. I get why it was done but I think there was probably a way to accomplish the same goal while not being as annoying lol.

The world is still really cool and I love the ancient Chinese inspirations. I will say as a white ass cracker I have a hard time remembering the names on audiobook. I’m constantly googling who characters are even after like 30 hours of listening to their names (Yes I am googling the sounds because I don’t know Chinese Pinyin that well). This is a me issue but I felt I needed to mention it.

The ending was absolutely wild. I think some of it worked and some of it didn’t but it totally shocked me and got the reaction it was looking for. Some of the more sci-fi stuff I didn’t like as much but I think that's just because I’m not a big sci-fi fan and like the more grounded stuff.

I am very eager to see how Xiran pulls off the sequel. I’m guessing this is a trilogy? If so, they have a lot of work to do to wrap up the story. I am hoping that there is no happy ending. Everyone, even Zetian, is horrible and I would be okay if they all just died.

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

3.0

3 ⭐️

This was weaker than the last novel for sure. I also have to up my standards because this is no longer YA. This is NA which means its target audience is older.

There were parts I liked. I think the ending was pretty cool and clever. I liked Lorcan a lot. He was different enough from the other characters to hold my interest. Imagine my surprise when Manon becomes an interesting character. She is still kind of just Aelin pt. 2 but she was still fun to read about.

Surprisingly the romance is where this book fell flat. Normally I’d say that SJM can write a romance novel really well but struggles with the fantasy stuff but I feel the opposite about this. There was too much romance in this book. There’s what 4? 5? sex scenes? For reference a romantasy book this size usually has 3-4 and is marketed as romance heavy. Way too many for this genre (she’s trying to make this still be YA). Dorian’s romance was particularly weird. Even the Rowan and Aelin stuff felt kind of dumb. Sex on a beach? I’d rather die sorry. Sand everywhere it doesn’t belong.

The Dorian storyline was not interesting. He was kind of a doorstop for this entire novel which is too bad because he used to be my favorite. Chaol is missing because he gets his solo novel but he’s had the most character growth so I think him being gone made this novel a little worse as well.

I liked what the girls were doing; Lysandra, Manon, and Elide especially carried. Why does everyone more interesting than Aelin? How does this happen?

However, this novel was wayyy too long. There was lots of fluff that needed to be cut. We’re getting to the point in SJMs career where she doesn’t have to listen to editors and that is too bad. After the success of the earlier TOG books, and by this point ACOTAR, she can just write absolute CHONKERS and get away with it. Cut 150-200 pages and this book would be a good bit better. A lot of that could be romance stuff tbh.

I’m very excited for Tower of Dawn. Although, even the TOG girlies don’t like this book. I heard a B&N employee say you HAVE to do the tandem read because “this book is boring because it’s not in the main characters point of view”. My hope is that this book is secretly amazing and the TOG girlies just don’t know good fantasy when they read it.

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

3.5

3.5 ⭐️ 

This was entertaining and fun. It wasn’t that good tho. Everything is just one trope after another that I wasn’t surprised by a single thing. Sometimes it’s nice but when your book is over 600 pages you have to do something unique with it. The magic system and world building was the only thing that seemed to have some effort put into it but after the first 100 pages all development of that ended. 

This is egregiously similar to every romantasy I’ve ever read. Kingfisher is a mix of Rowan X Rhys X Xaden. He has the tattoos and scars. He has the magic shadow powers but also wind powers. He is a fae with vampire teeth that gets horny by drinking blood. This has been done 1000x. 

I thought the spice was really disappointing. It was just poorly written. Almost as if the author wasn’t invested in those scenes. If I had to guess here’s what I think happened with this book. The author had a cool basic idea for a YA or Adult fantasy novel. She couldn’t get any publisher/editor to pick up the idea. She thought “hey this romantasy shit is really popular. What if I add a broody love interest, 3 sex scenes, copy the premises from ACOTAR, and call it a day”. She did that and then accidentally created booktoks wet dream of a book. 

This book is fine and entertaining but it isn’t one of those books that pushes the genre forward. 

I will say that Callie Hart is a better author than SJM. She knows how to form sentences, descriptions, dialogue, wayyyy better. 

Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show by Bethany Joy Lenz

4.5

4.5 ⭐️

What a rollercoaster of a book?!

I think learning how and why abusers take advantage of people will always be fascinating. Hearing the tone and language that the cult leader used to indoctrinate people and make them reliant on him was horrifying.

Rare celebrity memoir where her Hollywood experience was mostly positive. She had great friends on set, a good manager and agent.

My favorite scene was one near the end where Joy meets an old friend from New York who says she “would never be stupid enough to fall for that.” I think a lot of people have that thought but you can never know that unless you’re in a position where you’re vulnerable. Sure, the confident, mature, financially stable version of you would never fall for that. What about when you’re at rock bottom?

Joy struggles with her faith throughout this book. While I’m not religious in the slightest, I still found her journey pretty inspiring. When used for good, religion is a good thing. Unfortunately, this story is one of many examples of how it can be used to exploit the most vulnerable members of society.

I don’t know what to say about this book except that you need to read it. If you have even once wondered how these religious cults pop up and who would join them, this book will answer all your questions with terrifying clarity.

The author’s note at the end through me for a wild loop. She calls Catholicism “awful” and while I agree on some level, I think we agree for very different reasons. How can you call Catholicism awful when you know from personal experience that every sect of religion has the capacity for horrible things? It doesn’t really matter. Religious people will be doing crazy shit for the rest of time but after experiencing the horrors of a religious cult, I couldn’t fathom that Joy still held these beliefs. She also says to hold space for something. I don’t even remember what she said because I was laughing my ass off. What do you mean “hold space”? Is this the Wicked press tour? You can’t unironically use that phrase anymore.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

1.5

1.5 ⭐️

I rarely enjoy non-fiction. This is unfortunately NOT an exception.

In the books defense, I’ve never been a big fan of pirate stories or seafaring adventures. This is just a more boring version of a lot of those.

I like David Grann because he novelizes a real event and makes it feel like a story. This was definitely a story. Just not a story I cared about.

The exploration of human desperation and the lengths they’ll go to survive was interesting. It was dark, but it was the most engaging part of the book.

Again, this is actually a very good book. It just isn’t a topic I care about. 😬

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

4.0

4 ⭐️

I will forever love the mischievousness of fae in stories. I love how clever and manipulative they are. It is just so entertaining to read.

I think the writing style was perfect for this kind of book. Setting it in first person past tense was bold but totally worked. The “overwritten-ness” of it completely sold the book to me. 

Fun, engrossing, and entertaining!

Spectacular gimme 14 of them right now 💳

Why do fictional men…? You know…? and why don’t real men, man, the way fictional men do?

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.5

4.5 ⭐️ 

I love celebrity culture. I keep up with drama, break ups, new song releases, who hates who, etc. If you are not that kind of person, you probably won’t enjoy this book as much. There’s still a lot in this book about what it means to love and how love can be destructive. A lot about addiction and family. But at it’s core it is about popularity and celebrity culture is corrupting and all consuming. 

This book was so emotional and raw. The format was super unique. I love the way it is written. Not just any author could pull this off and Taylor Jenkins Reid 100% did. This book felt like watching a really good Netflix documentary. I don’t even care about rock bands and don’t know anything about music released at that time but still felt fully immersed in that era by reading this book. 

Every character was great. I loved that the cast was small. Very similar to Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (and imagine my surprise when a recurring character shows up! It took me WAY too long to figure out). 

I was engrossed in this story and was surprised when it was over. It has such a sudden end but it fits perfectly. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Slightly unrelated side note: I also love that because of the TV show there is a soundtrack made from the songs the band released. Some of it is pretty decent! Not my style because of the heavy 70s/80s rock sound but some songs are listenable. I wish that they would’ve stuck closer to the lyrics and themes from the book tho. Some songs (I noticed Aurora in particular but probably others too) seem like their meaning has completely changed. And big moments from the book had their lines removed. Honeycomb doesn’t have the line that gets switched and Aurora doesn’t seem to be about Camila? I haven’t seen the show but it seems like they’re focusing too much on the love story in the songs and not enough about the rest of it. Drugs and addiction play a huge part in celebrity culture and I like that it wasn’t shied away from and also not glorified. It has handled really well. A lot of their songs are about those topics and it feels like the songs Amazon did are not about that at all. 

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

3.5

 

3.5 ⭐️ 

This book was honestly pretty good! It’s hard for me to point exactly to what makes this book better than the other ones but I’ll try. 

1. Established characters: By this point every character (for the most part) has been set up, we know them, we know how they relate to the plot, and we understand how they related to Aelin. We aren’t wasting time with exposition which is imo one of SJM’s weakest parts of all her books. I even, here me out, started to like Aelin. I’m not sure if I’m just used to her or if the writing was genuinely better but I liked that Aelin was a little more flawed and complex in this book. Her Celaena personality is insufferable but the actual REAL Aelin has more going on. I liked the dynamic with Arobynn. At first I criticized it for not being fleshed out enough but with some extra dialogue about it and with it being a YA book I think it was handled pretty well. I liked that every single character had their world view upended since the first book. Comparing Chaol from book 1 to this book is like two completely different characters, Dorian too. Both of them are probably the best written characters in these books. It’s too bad we don’t get more time with them but there was a good amount of interesting Chaol exploration in this. Rowan was a treat to read about and there was a really good romance subplot. I just pretend that he isn’t 300 years older and distantly her cousin. I honestly care about the main cast of characters now which is an impressive feat for this book.
2. Clear plot objective: This book has a clearer objective than the others. The first book also had one I guess which is why I liked it better than 0.5 or 2. But Crown of Midnight especially has literally nothing going on. There wasn’t any motivation for me to care about what the characters were doing. This book has a clear plot: rescue Dorian. There are a few side quests that the cast gets swept up with but they were honestly also interesting. Because they dealt with already established characters. There was also a decent mystery about where the word keys came from and exploring secret crypts and translating ancient texts. Tropes that are super fun and were executed well. I love a good “gang explores secret area and discovers ancient stories” trope and this has it.
3. Subverting expectations: There were a good handful of twists that caught me buy surprise. They aren’t the most original twists but I didn’t see them coming so I’ll give SJM congratulations where it’s due. Lysandra in particular was a big UNO reverse card that I didn’t see coming. I liked her a lot! Wish it was her POV in the b-plot not whatever the fuck is going on with the witches (I just pretend those chapters don’t exist). The ending had a good twist I didn’t expect.
4. Consequences: It’s still YA so there isn’t anything too dark and gritty but there WERE SOME consequences to the choices that the main cast made and I love that. It makes the world feel lived in and real. There was some attempt at this in the earlier books but I don’t think it worked until this one.

TLDR: No wasted time with character backstory, a clear goal that doesn’t get too lost in the sauce, and twists that took me by surprise and elevated the story.
 
I liked this a lot and am actually looking forward to finishing the series. Chaol’s book in particular.
 

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

5.0

5 ⭐️

Lexie’s recommendations never miss!

Every single story in this collection was excellent but Boys Go to Jupiter, Anything Could Disappear, and the titular Office of Historical Corrections were exceptionally moving. I am still teary eyed from the ending. What do you mean that's all we get? But also it was the perfect ending. 

I have a growing appreciation for short fiction. The ability to have an impact in 100 pages that is greater than most 600+ page books is from just pure raw talent. Evans is an amazingly talented author. Her prose is beautiful and leaves you with a lot to consider. 

White people love their history right up until it’s true.

Evans has incredible range to be able to write all these stories that share a common theme but are wildly different in execution. They are all incredibly powerful stories about being Black in America, or being a woman in America, or experiencing loss. Topics that most authors shy away from because of the sensitivity required but Evans just barreled through and killed it at every single one.

He kissed her forehead and said, “My little lady of ruthless ambition.” In the months after that, he would sometimes ask her “How’s conquering the world going, my sweet ruthless girl?” in the delighted dumbed-down tone you would use to tell a house pet it was ferocious. She would nuzzle him, beginning to understand that just because he didn’t see something in her didn’t mean it wasn’t there, knowing there was still some freedom in the way he did not fathom yet how real and how necessary her ruthlessness would be.

This was a great pick, especially for Black history month!

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

2.0

2 ⭐️

I may or may not have cranked the speed up to 2.6x to finish this book faster 👀

I don’t think this book was THAT bad. I liked the message and on paper the concept is super interesting. There were a lot of moments that in a vacuum worked well but all together it felt too long. I was bored a majority of the time. Destiny and Jude’s stories really stood out and were incredibly unique. My favorite parts always involved their interactions. It's always nice to see trans representation.

This book just drags on and takes way too long to find the point. The pacing was way off the mark imo.

It’s too bad I didn’t enjoy this more because the concept seems like something I would love.