vermidian's reviews
1167 reviews

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

adventurous tense 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? Yes

2.0

I was really disappointed in this one, considering how much I liked the first book. Some of the things I appreciated in the first book were either pushed further or were just not done as well and wound up getting on my nerves as a result.

If you're a fan of pining and romantic indecisiveness, this book is definitely for you. Alas, I am not a fan of that. It was constant, especially during Laia's chapters, though you definitely get some in Elias's chapters as well. The characters would be so much better if their chapters weren't filled with their hormone overflow.

The actual storyline itself was decent. Summarized, it seemed like it got contrived a lot more to burn time so Keenan and Laia's relationship could grow and so Elias's relationship with the grim reaper gal could grow. I wish that they could have gotten to Kauf a whole lot faster. I felt like a lot of things felt like filler.

Helene was the only character where I truly believed she was worth reading the chapters for. Her story was intelligent and well paced, in spite of the slow movements of the characters she's supposed to be tracking. She had clear motivations that were tempered with hard choices and while you got a little of the hormones here and there, you mostly got her doing her best to tread water in the game of thrones, so to speak. (I'm trying not to spoil here.)

All in all, I'm not sure what this means for me for future books. It definitely wasn't quite what I hoped for.

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

dark tense 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? Yes

2.5

2.5 stars on this one. Honestly, I kind of had to force myself through this book. It was not by any means a bad book, but it just didn't have the same quality of the mystery that I loved about the Raven Boys books. If you loved the ghostly vibe of the original four books, please be advised you will not get the same from this trilogy.

I would like to say that as I started reading this book, I found out about Stiefvater's poor behavior regarding the racist portions of the last Raven Boys book and it's really disheartening to hear she couldn't just own up to the fact that it wasn't her best work. There is also a line at the beginning of the book that calls special attention to the main character's surname, Lynch, which really made me feel uncomfortable. And I'm white. The line was, "He was proud of the family name, and it suited him. His mouth was always shaped like he'd just finished saying it." This came immediately after describing how intimidating and scary he is. This is her main character. I was disgusted. There is so much hurt historically attached to that word and painting your main character as a skin head, unintentionally or otherwise, is vile. It was what made me google to see what was up with that line and it was what made me discover the author's poor behavior. Not that I think authors should read reviews, but if you do Maggie Stiefvater, do better.

I kept feeling like I wasn't sure where the plot was going, and even after I got about three quarters of the way through the book, they kept introducing new characters. It was structured in such a way where you never really catch your balance with any of the characters well enough to put your feet down on solid ground. And there were a ton of characters. You get to read chapters from the perspective of about six characters if I'm remembering correctly, though you do get small chapters from throw away characters here and there. I remember being really frustrated when a new character got introduced about half-way through the book who I shall not name for fear of spoilers. I also feel like very little was wrapped up by the end of the book.

If Bryde is Ronan's dad in the next book, we fight him at dawn. I already have in on my shelf so I'll get around to it eventually, but man, this book was frustrating so it might be a while.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

adventurous mysterious 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? No

2.0

I'm really sad to say that I've opted not to finish this. I've always enjoyed Sir Terry's writing, but this book just isn't hitting the spot. I suspect the parts I'm not enjoying are more Stephen Baxter than Terry Pratchett's, as this was nearing the end of Pratchett's life and during a time where he was having issues with Alzheimer's. I quite enjoyed little snippets of how people reacted to things, and it was a really neat concept, but the recurring characters that we got were very flat emotionally speaking and you're never quite given a reason to like any of them. I made it a good quarter of the way into the book and had no emotional connection to any of them. It just wasn't my cup of tea. To any reading this book and enjoying it, I wish you the joy of it that I did not find!

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

This book was absolutely delightful and I loved it and I cried at it. I think a lot of people who are queer go through something similar in their lives. While this character does have supportive loved ones, not everyone has that reaction from people they trust. This is a lovely queer coming of age graphic novel and it is so important to tell more stories like this. I also love the underlying message of encouraging people to live their truth now, not in a hypothetical future - also a very important message.

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

I got about nine pages into this book and could not bring myself to continue reading a book set on a plantation in the antebellum south. Absolutely not.

Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.

This read like a textbook and while it's a great and fun idea to invent a fictional place to have a revolution, I was just not enjoying myself. I hope my copy of the book finds itself in the hands of a person who will enjoy it more than I.

A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez

hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was absolutely lovely.

One thing that I really appreciated is how his world building in this book takes classic fantasy species and ideas and turns them on their heads just slightly where it isn't jarring but it's enough that you take specific notice of it. There were several times where I was really interested in how he'd reinvented a classic thing just slightly, like elves and trolls. (You'll see what I mean when you get there.) If you go into this expecting classic Tolkein, you're going to be very confused. If you go into this expecting Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, you'll be in a much better place. Actually I found some of the sections of this book to have very Pratchett-like vibes and I thought it was lovely. I described it to my partner as feeling like Terry Pratchett's take on Stardust as a general vibe, but I also know this is textbook A Lee Martinez, whose writings I have been steadily collecting over the years. If you enjoy this book, I heavily recommend his other books.

I LOVED that Martinez made the White Knight the DARKEST skinned person the protagonist had ever seen. We absolutely need more people of color in fantasy and the shade of one's skin should never be a descriptor of purity of character.

The whole story has a very fairy-tale vibe about it, like being told a saga by your grandmother while you eat chocolate chip cookies by the fireplace kind of thing. The humor was gentle and kind and very charming. The characters were also quite charming, from our undead magical protagonist to her demon duck companion to the others he picks up along the way.

I was mildly concerned about how it would end, but I found the ending was probably the best thing I could have hoped for. I love an ending that doesn't change characters or take away their agency in order to satisfy that fairytale ending. And I know I did say it was very fairytale, but that was one difference I would never have changed.

The only thing I might have tweaked would have been to scale back the thirst a smidge. It's a pretty constant thing, especially in the latter half of the book and I could have done with a little less of it. I know it was plot important, but sometimes I just wanted to get back to the plot itself and brush past it.

I will say that this is definitely intended for more mature readers. There are a couple of non-descriptive moments of romantic intimacy. Nothing too bad, but definitely more than a PG rating. If your kids know people in relationships have sex sometimes, you're probably golden to hand this to your teen. As far as language goes, I don't recall there being any cursing, aside from the magical variety.

I will absolutely be recommending this to every fantasy fiction reader I know. If you're reading this review, I'm recommending it to you too.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

Okay, so I was gonna try to muscle through this book, but I don't care enough about the characters at 21% of the way through the book to enjoy it. I'm confused by the action sequences. The world politics might be interesting, but I just don't think I feel like muddling my way through the rest of this book to find out.

I will say that the cover design is absolutely beautiful and whoever did that should be so proud of themselves.

Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was a gift from my partner, and while I'm not really a big fan of Kadrey's works, I had to give it a fair shot. I will say that I enjoyed it more than Sandman Slim. As a standalone, I enjoyed getting the narrative really wrapped up by the end of the book, which isn't something you ever really got from Sandman Slim. I also loved the world building that you get in this book. While Sandman Slim is more hell focused, this books goes all over the spheres and introduces you to a whole lot more world mythology in a short span. I love some good world building.

The characters are still not what I would prefer. They were all a little more like an edgy pipe dream of a man writing for men, which I am not so it didn't have the same appeal for me. I had the same issue with Sandman Slim, to be fair. The writer just writes for the male gaze. And that's okay! It's just not for me.

The other thing that I observed is that I think this book shouldn't actually be prose. I think this book should be a graphic novel. The style of the discussion and the way the scenes felt would be perfect for a gritty American comic book style graphic novel series. It's not bad as prose, but I think it would lend itself so well to comic panels.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

This author is utterly unrepentant about using the Sixties Scoop, which refers to a time where the government took the children of the indigenous people and put them in Catholic schools forcibly to "civilize them" but instead beat, tortured, and killed a good number of their children only to have them buried in massive numbers on school grounds never to return home. He used that as his basis for this book as they were actively recovering hundreds of bodies from these schools and thought, "Yes, let me use this as the basis for my story so I, a white queer man, can preach my point to the readers" without ever addressing the harm it caused and continues to cause.

I will never read this book.