Ruby
Only within the last couple years have I found my love of reading again. I've found that my interests lie mostly under that big genre umbrella that is fantasy, but I'm down for anything that will move and/or entertain me.
Siege and Storm
So, really, no improvement from the first book. And to be perfectly honest here, I think it's even worse than Shadow and Bone.
The pacing problems are nearly identical to Shadow and Bone. The beginning is okay, the middle is mind-numbingly boring Surprise, Alina's back at the little palace!, and the last 15 or so pages are the only real action.
The story is still just a subpar fantasy that refuses to improve. Again my complaint is going to be the same as it is for so many other fantasy books, I don't feel like anyone has to earn anything. The stuff they need and the ideas they have are just given to them when it suits the story. There is never a moment where I read some character's revelation or watch a scene unfold and think to myself, "Holy Fuck!" and backtrack ten chapters and say, "How brilliant was that?!". It's just a bunch of cookie-cutter people plodding along and oh! there's that evil guy in black to shake things up a bit. Then oh! cookie-cutter #3 needs some angst and sympathy so here's a woman being mean to her. Then some laughable ~court intrigue~ happens. Then bad guy in black comes back to shake things up, again.
The characters still don't feel real to me and some are really problematic. New guy Sturmhond is supposed to come across as witty, clever, and amusing and failed on all accounts. Mal is the typical jerky ass boyfriend that no one in real life would want. And the Darkling is just not a complex villain. Alina . . . is completely frustrating. Alina does not and cannot (because she and other women are overwhelmed with jealousy towards each other) have relationships with other women. Alina is totally okay with judging other women based on their appearance. Alina doesn't have any respect for women. So, I'm just going to call it like I see it. Alina is a misogynist.
So between the unemotional, lackadaisical story telling and the annoying characters with no depth there isn't much going for Siege and Storm. Throw in the sexist bullshit that overshadows any other sort of potential this series had and it's just not a good story.
Sever (Chemical Garden Trilogy)
What good things can I say about Sever? Hm, well, it was better than Fever in terms of actual story importance and the prose was pretty. Yep. That’s about it really. This book is simply just nonsensical. There is little explanation, motivation, or reason for the story, characters, and world-building. I won’t even say that the story is convenient because random stuff just happens for cheap dramatics. It’s lazy. The characters are really no different from Wither, none of them have grown or developed. I’d even say that Rhine regresses. Linden remains willfully ignorant and I still can’t believe that I’m supposed to believe he’s a good love-interest, let alone person. And I still can’t believe I’m supposed to accept him and forgive him after all the awful things he’s allowed to happen. Everyone makes excuses for him in this book. It’s fucking problematic. This story is a jumbled mess of drivel. That’s the bottom line. There were some other things I found problematic in the text, and that may just be me and my ~liberal progressiveness~ but I was not happy to see them, yet again, in a YA novel.I'm reminded of that Walking Dead meme, actually. You know, this one:It sums up the book well.Thoughts on the cover:This cover—let me say this respectfully because apparently calling it ugly and poorly photoshopped is terribly disrespectful—is aesthetically not pleasing.
Well, I really wasn't sure what to rate this. I didn't enjoy it as much as [b:In the Woods|237209|In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)|Tana French|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348442606s/237209.jpg|3088141] or [b:The Likeness|1914973|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348934952s/1914973.jpg|6504351] and I really didn't like Frank, which isn't a problem for me unless I feel like I'm supposed to like that character, and, yeah, I felt that way. However, despite not liking characters French does wonderful things with them and gives them such complexity. She's an all around brilliant writer that brings emotion and atmosphere to a story that I don't think I could bare to give it three stars. So, didn't love it as much as previous books in the series but still, come on, it's Tana French.
Finnikin of the Rock (Lumatere Chronicles Series)
I honestly didn't feel like there was anything to like about this book. Story was just convenient and easy and shit was pulled out of thin air. Characters were one-dimensional and cliched. In addition to that, the male characters were total sexist douchebags--not including the attempted rapist because that goes beyond douchebaggery. Sexism on the whole is high in this novel and not dealt with at all. I think this book goes in hard when in comes to traditional gender roles. Women were only allowed a psychological and domestic strength (if they showed other wise they were vilified) while men only showed an aggressive physical strength. Women were never just allowed to be strong they had to show vulnerability as well. And then forgiveness for all because that's the only right thing to do, apparently.
Scarlet
I continued to love the story involving Cinder but the new characters were just not endearing, I found them rather annoying. Unlike Cinder the predictability of Scarlet also deterred my enjoyment. I'd say this is a low three stars.
Eona
Eona was a fantastic sequel to Eon that kept up with a great story and engaging characters and a world that felt authentic.The story was refreshing in that it was all a struggle and nothing came easy. Both the internal and external conflict of these characters never felt convenient. There was a natural buildup of events and consequences that were believable and had a major impact on the characters and setting. I’m most impressed with how well every character was handled in both Eon and Eona because they act and feel like real people. This, to me, is the real indicator of a great book. There are actual reasons for character actions. Hallelujah! Eona is a a great dynamic heroine. She is smart, outspoken, and there’s a selfishness that I appreciated about her. I really liked that she had a sort of moral ambiguity about her. The other characters are just as complex and I often times felt conflicted and frustrated with them.The world building was well done. There was a separation of the Chinese and Japanese culture being used as an influence and that of the actual fantasy world. It didn’t feel borrowed or slapped on, it felt original. Some of the naming conventions bothered me, I have to admit, the just felt odd.I do wish we could have seen what became of certain characters and had a bit of a glimpse into there lives in the aftermath. But overall it’s a great fantasy with great characters.
At first I really did enjoy reading this book. I didn’t mind the slow sort of meandering that this novel did while telling the story of Luck and her transformation into Firethorn. I liked the details and the world building. I even liked Firethorn, and maybe I still do to some extent. The rest of the story is much like the beginning, slow and meandering, and there in lies the problem. I don’t mind slow starts as long as the tension and action start to build but it doesn’t in the story. It’s really a book about the day to day grind of Firethorn’s life as an object of luck and a thing to fuck for Galan. It’s not so much that nothing happens but that nothing exciting happens. The romance was not something I enjoyed either. I have no idea why Firethorn loves Galan so much, and I find it hard to believe that Galan loves her at all. It’s a romance full of sexism that seems to be accepted for the sake of “historical accuracy” and for some that maybe enough of a justification, but it’s not for me. The characters are well written and had a certain depth to them, but none were able to grab me and make me care for them. Firethorn’s actions did not endear her to me in later parts of the novel. It’s safe to say I cared nothing for Galan whatsoever. It just wasn’t an entertaining book and didn’t have any characters that made me feel anything for them other than frustration.
This is a hard one to rate. On the whole this doesn't remind me of the X-files, though it does remind me of that one episode, Home. Yeah, that episode. I found this to be a sickeningly disturbing read. The ending is what makes this hard to rate for me as it does give a little insight as to why all of these horrible things were happening, but in the end it's just too bleak and remorseless for me to appreciate.
Stormdancer (Lotus War)
Aside from how annoying the Japanese language was used I really didn't like this based on story and characters. The story felt really awkward and lacked fluidity, in my opinion. I also wasn't a big fan of Yukiko. I took some notes so if I feel like I can articulate all this in a better way I may post a longer review.
