unlikelyplaces's reviews
244 reviews

Gods and Monsters - Mythological Poems by Ana Sampson

emotional informative lighthearted

4.75

Gods & Monsters - Ana Sampson

⭐ - 4.75

📗

I feel somewhat under-qualified to review a poetry collection as I don’t really read poetry very much but I loved this a lot more than I thought I was going to!

This is an anthology of poetry written about myths and folklore from around the world by many different writers (including some of the classics like Homer) and is stunningly illustrated by Chris Riddell.

The first thing I will say is don’t be put off by the fact that this is officially published as a children’s book, I don’t think I would have even realised if I hadn’t already known. Because of the vast variety of writers and styles in this collection I definitely think it can be enjoyed by all ages (maybe if you are buying it for a child, I’d probably recommend more pre-teen age due to the complexity of some of the language). Some of the poems and illustrations have a more light-hearted, silly feel, but many of them are beautiful and tragic and reflective and I really think that there are entries in here that could be enjoyed by anyone.

I was absolutely blown away by the art in this. I’ve included some of my favourites in my post but I honestly could have taken photos of the whole book. Every page is illustrated and they each fit the mood of the poem that they’re with and Chris Riddell did such an amazing job on them.

As with any anthology, there were some entries that I liked more than others but that’s all going to be down to personal taste and I loved that they weren’t all just focused on Greek Mythology but many different traditions from around the world. As I say, I’m really not a poetry girl, I like it on occasion but I think a lot of it tends to go over my head and I found this collection to be really accessible.

I really haven’t seen anyone talking about this (I only picked it up because Natalie Haynes wrote the introduction and I love her work) so I would highly recommend checking this out if you’re interested in mythology or poetry.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

5.0

Beartown - Fredrik Backman

⭐- 5

📱

I’m not even sure how to begin to review this book. This book had such a profound impact on me, I’m just going to gush about it.

I have enjoyed all of the Backman that I’ve read but none have impressed me as much as this. It would have been so easy to take this subject matter and write something completely bleak and hopeless, but Backman somehow managed to craft something so full of hope and empathy and understanding while never diminishing the gravity of the situation. He has such a unique perspective of how people function and their emotions, I’ve never seen an author write characters with such a level of understanding.

(This next paragraph may be considered spoilers but I think that it’s important that you know the subject matter of this book before going into it but just to warn you if you want to know nothing…)

Beartown is set in a small town that really hasn’t got much going for it apart from it’s love of hockey. Everyone in the town is obsessed with hockey and it’s the thing that keeps them all going. But things kick off when a s*xual assault is committed by one of the hockey players and then we follow the ways in which this affects the townspeople.

As I said, this would have been so easy to write something really bleak but the themes that Backman explores of loyalty, friendship, parenthood, family, and sports culture make it such a more interesting and rounded story than that. It’s a story that is filled with tragedy but also filled with healing and love and reflection and I thought it was so beautiful.

If I have any criticisms, I could understand people not liking Backman’s writing style. It does occasionally feel like “inspirational quotes” being inserted into the story at random points but that didn’t bother me and so much of what he has to say it so beautiful that I appreciated it.

And then Backman explores a lot of characters with a lot of prejudice and who say a lot of horrible things but there seems to be a weird underlying fatphobia which was unclear whether it was intended or not. I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt based on when it was released and the character’s perspectives but if you are particularly sensitive to that it’s something to be aware of.

So yes, easy 5 stars from me, I will definitely be getting to the rest of this series as soon as I’ve read some more of the books I already own…

Content warnings:

Obviously sxual assault (this does happen on page and is described), child d3ath, sucidal thoughts, self h@rm, alcoholism, homophobia, fatphobia, racism, bullying

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

dark emotional

3.0

I listened to Savage Her Reply by this author last year and it was one of my favourites of the year so I was excited when I saw that my library had the audio for this one as well but I probably should have predicted that this one wouldn’t work as well for me.

I would describe this as somewhere in between a short story and poetry collection of retellings of classic fairytales. Now I know for a lot of people that sounds like the dream and to those people I would absolutely recommend this book. 

However for me, although I love mythology retellings, for some reason I’m really not a fan of fairytale retellings (which I realise does not make much sense, I can’t explain it) and I often struggle with an overly poetic writing style.

I think my main issue with this was that I didn’t always understand the point the stories were trying to make. The book has obvious feminist themes and in some of the stories the author’s message was clear, but there were a few that either I just missed it or it was unclear what was happening and what the point was. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t know all of the original stories so when the author was taking just one character or a snippet of the story, I didn’t have the context for it which made it difficult to follow at times.

This book did cover a wide range of stories and a lot of them have very heavy and difficult subject matter (as do many of the original tales) and there were definitely some that I liked more than others. Please do check for trigger warnings if you feel like you need to as there are many.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytale retellings, especially with a feminist lens, and who likes poetic writing. This was definitely a case of “it’s a me problem” but I actually think this was very well written and would work for a lot of people.

Content warnings (I’m not sure if I’ve got all of them as I didn’t follow all of the stories very well so there may be some missing from this list): Gore, sxual abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse, incst, binge eating, alcoholism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Eating disorder, and Incest

Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Alexandre Dumas

3.75

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

3.0

The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden

📱

⭐⭐⭐

I was so sure I would love this book but unfortunately it really didn’t work for me.

To start on a positive note, the main thing I hear about this book it how atmospheric it is and how beautiful the writing is. And I do agree with both of those things. I did enjoy reading this curled up under a blanket over Christmas with some snowy ambiance on the TV (because obviously we just get rain here).

I did enjoy the last third of the book which was full of the fairytale-like whimsy that I was promised and I think the slightly horrific/fantasy elements were really well done in this.

However, the main reason I didn’t like this book was that I was just so bored. Literally nothing happened until about 60% of the way through this book. Like many fairytales, this book has a bit of a detached storytelling style but because it took so long for the plot to get going, I didn’t care at all about any of the characters and even struggled to keep track of who they all were a lot of the time. And then by the time the plot did pick up a bit I was already so fed up with it all that I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have.

So I decided to give this 3 stars because I can acknowledge that this is well written and because I did enjoy the ending but I don’t plan on continuing with this series. But I think that if you enjoy historical fiction more and are wanting to branch into fantasy a bit this could work really well for you.

Content warnings: Child marriage, s*xual harassment, religious themes

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

4.0

I almost really loved this…

I feel really conflicted about this one 😬 I did really enjoy it! The writing was beautiful, it had that dark/whimsy that I love in stories like this. It almost felt like a mix of like Daphne du Maurier and Neil Gaiman to me. And I think that it used its themes really cleverly. 

It had all the components for me to love it but for some reason there was just something missing for me. I’m not sure why but I just didn’t feel a connection to the characters. And then I also predicted all the reveals quite early on so idk if that’s because they were obvious or because I’m just so smart (lol) but that took away a lot of the tension for me.

So although I appreciated a lot about this book and would definitely recommend it, there was something about it that fell a little flat for me but I don’t think that would be the case for everyone!

I have to stress, if you have any particular triggers, please check the content warnings for this! I imagine this could be really difficult to read for some people. Definitely avoid if you’re not in a good headspace. ❤️

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

4.75

It’s really difficult to review this without spoilers but what I will say is that this series deserves all the hype it gets and has definitely become one of my favourite series of all time!

There was a bit in the middle of this that felt a little slow, as I often find with Sanderson but he always wins me back with his reveals and endings. I love (most of) these characters and I love seeing them each shine in the different books. I’m amazed by the way Sanderson manages to keep track of all the different moving parts of these books, they’re so intricate and carefully crafted so everything fits together.

My least favourite part of this book was the half-hearted love triangle attempt. It was really unnecessary and romance is so not Sanderson’s strength but it was quite a minor element so it didn’t ruin the book for me.

Great book, amazing series. I can wait to move on to the next one!

Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross

4.0

Dreams Lie Beneath - Rebecca Ross

I really enjoyed this! 

Obviously, Rebecca Ross' other book, Divine Rivals, has been all over Bookstagram recently. I haven't read that one yet but I had this on my tbr for a while so I thought I'd give it a go and it was so fun.

Dreams Lie Beneath is a YA Fantasy about a land where every new moon people's nightmares come to life and we follow Clementine who, along with her father, is trained to fight the nightmares to protect the townspeople. The story begins when someone comes to challenge Clem and her father as the local magicians in their town. 

This was filled with a lot of popular tropes, including a rivals to lovers romance and the concept was similar to other things I'd heard of before but I had a lot of fun with it. It felt very fairytale-like and whimsical. I think that if you like the Cruel Prince series, this would work really well for you, it had that same feeling to me. 

If I was being really nitpicky there were some plot elements that didn't fully make sense to me but I went into this with the expectation that I'd have a good time with it and I did so I'm happy.

Definitely worth it you want a fun, YA, whimsical read!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

4.0

This was cute 🥰

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my thing and it’s not like a new favourite for me but I did really enjoy it! This basically reminded me of like a Hallmark Christmas movie but a fantasy version and worked well for the beginning of the Christmas season (not that it’s anything to do with Christmas but it’s the vibe)

The way that people talk about this book made me think this would have literally no plot at all but there was definitely enough of a story to keep me interested. I think I might have struggled if it had been any longer but as it was, it worked for me.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of the author reading the audiobook and had to listen to it on 1x speed because if I had it any faster I found it quite grating. And if I was going to be nitpicky, it for some reason really bothered me that they kept referring to Tandri as “the woman”… I don’t know why but it just felt weird and unnatural.

But overall this was a good pallet cleanser to read alongside Oathbringer for me, definitely not the kind of thing I want to read all the time but it was a good time.

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

2.25

The Atlas Paradox - Olivie Blake

⭐️- 2.25

If you love this book you probably won’t want to read this

I don’t have too much to say about this honestly. I was a bit on the fence about the first one but where the first one was a bit predictable but fun and addictive, this one was predictable and also boring and tedious 😬 There was nothing about this book that I like hated but I was just so bored throughout. I think it’s unlikely I’ll be finishing this series… sorry to everyone who loves this series…