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genericpuff · 4 months

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The Elephant in the Room - Queer Erasure and Westernization in Lore Olympus (and all its horrid stepchildren)

This is one people have been asking me for a while now, and I've been waiting for the right inspiration to hit, as is required for my ADHD hyperfixation-fueled rants. After recently watching a video that did an objective review of Cait Corrain's Crown of Starlight, I felt now was the time, because Crown of Starlight effectively proves exactly what Lore Olympus - and other Greek myth interpretations like it - has issues with.

And I want to preface this post with one question - why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

Buckle up, because this one's HEFTY.

In that aforementioned review of A Crown of Starlight, there were a lot of points that came up about how Cait wrote the female protagonist - Ariadne, wife of Dionysus - where I immediately stopped and went, "Wait, this sounds awfully familiar."

It should be mentioned briefly for anyone who's unaware - Cait Corrain is an author who was recently (and still) under fire for using sock puppet accounts on GoodReads to intentionally sabotage the ratings of other debut authors, many of whom were her own peers or from the same publishing imprint as her (Del Rey), and most of whom were POC. I mentioned in that previous essay that I just linked that Cait Corrain is a fan of Lore Olympus and decided to give it 5 star ratings from these alt accounts, not just de-legitimizing the reputation of the books she bombed, but also the ones that she praised (including her own book, because of course she had to leave an obvious calling card LMAO). I felt it necessary to tie Cait into my discussion of white feminism in LO and its fanbase because people like Cait are exactly who we're talking about when we dissect the intent and consequences of LO's writing - much of its brand of "feminism" seems to only be catered to a specific kind of woman (i.e. white women who fetishize queer people/relationships) and seem to encourage/embrace violence towards women if those women aren't "behaving correctly" or just aren't fortunate enough to be white and rich - and so Cait choosing to give Lore Olympus 5 stars in her hate-raiding and even have it visibly in the background of her headshot photos was... not exactly disproving my argument that these are the types of people LO caters to and encourages, to say the least.

But then I watched Read with Rachel's "Did It Deserve 1 Star" review of Crown of Starlight and it cemented my assumptions and concerns regarding Cait's intentions and influences even more.

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As a brief tangent, I've read A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Claire. It very obviously is using Lore Olympus as its blueprints, but it's not super obvious that if you didn't read Lore Olympus or weren't aware of it, you probably wouldn't notice. It's still not a great book on its own, it's riddled with writing problems, but at least it can call itself its own thing to some degree.

Crown of Starlight is just blatant Lore Olympus fanfiction pretending to be original, even down to its marketing (which I'll get to shortly) but swapping out Hades and Persephone with Dionysus and Ariadne, and setting the entire story in space. Why is it in space? There doesn't seem to be any actual necessary reason for this, it just is, go with it. I'd be willing to accept this because changing up the setting of pre-existing stories can be fun (god knows I loved the premise enough of Lore Olympus being a modern day Greek myth retelling that I had to go and make my own version of it that's still in that modern setting) but as RWR says in her review:

"... we're told that it's the 'island' of Crete, but then we talk about commbands, airlocks, [holo-shields] and it wasn't really written in a way that I felt meshed 'Greek retelling' and 'sci-fi' in a cohesive way."

Needless to say, Crown of Starlight unsurprisingly suffers from the same problems Lore Olympus does, where it will try to "subvert" the original myths by changing their setting and characters and then doing absolutely nothing interesting with them to justify those changes.

To really drive my point home that Crown of Starlight is undoubtedly Lore Olympus fanfiction, Lore Olympus was literally used as a comparison point in Crown of Starlight's marketing which is a fair tactic to use to advertise to a specific niche or demographic, and while some have argued that Cait isn't technically the one to come up with that marketing jargon, it's made much more clear that she used that comparison herself when writing and pitching the book because it is quite literally just Lore Olympus with a different couple in space, right down to the main female protagonist being part of a purity cult. And of course it wouldn't be a bad Wattpad romance if it didn't have our main female protagonist Ariadne talking about how inconvenient her MASSIVE BREASTS are and of COURSE Ariadne is a poor innocent uwu babygirl who needs a man to come in and rescue her from the evil purity cult and of COURSE it hints at them eventually having raunchy sex just for it to wind up being milquetoast bondage and of COURSE it all just winds up taking traditionally queer characters and stories and turning them into this sanitized Disney-esque plotline where the boy and girl were always meant to be together and nothing else matters except their love-

And that, at its core, really just screams "this is bad LO fanfiction". From the stylization of the book's writing which never outgrew its "adorkable fanfiction writing" phase-

"Realizing that I'm being gaslit by my entire world doesn't make it easier to deal with, but hey, at least I still have some part of my soul!" - an excerpt from Crown of Starlight quoted from RWR's review timestamp 13:03

-to the "creative" choices made to turn Ariadne into a chastity cult girl whose resolution is obviously going to be to have what's implied to be dirty raunchy sex just for it to be like... the most tame level one bondage stuff;

-to the classic "she breasted boobily down the stairs" focus on Ariadne's body and breasts and sex appeal that's being kept in check by that pesky purity club.

And that's really disappointing because I had seen people say, "Yeah, Cait did an awful thing and deserves to be removed from her publishing schedule, but it's a shame that that book was written by Cait because it's actually a really good book!" because now it's just making me even more sus of people's Greek myth adaption recommendations (I'm still mad at BookTok for convincing me that A Touch of Darkness was worth reading). All I could think while listening to some of the excerpts quoted by RWR was that if I didn't know about Cait Corrain and read Crown of Starlight blind, I'd undoubtedly assume it was being written by a heterocis guy... but it's in fact being written by a queer woman.

And this is where I segue into talking about the root of this problem, where the calls are really coming from - Lore Olympus and its erasure of queer identities and relationships, despite also being written by a queer woman who should know better.

I could think of no better character to help carry this essay than Eros.

Unlike many of the characters in LO that Rachel has managed to straightwash by changing their motives entirely or straight up changing their identity from the source material (ex. Zeus, Apollo, Crocus who was turned into a flower nymph, Dionysus and Achilles because they're both literally babies, the list goes on), Eros has largely remained the same on paper who had zero reason to not be queer within the story.

Eros is still the god of love in this, he's still a guy and presumed to be an adult, but we NEVER see or explore him having relationships with anyone other than Psyche, aside from a brief mention of organizing orgies in the beginning that's used as a quick joke and then promptly never mentioned again.

Just like with Crown of Starlight and A Touch of Darkness and all these other "dark romance" stories, it's that brand of "pretends to be sexually liberating but isn't actually" writing, where they'll briefly mention orgies or sex-related things and then beat around the bush or avoid involving them entirely like a kid at Sunday school who doesn't want to say the word "penis".

(fr out of all the corny and awful slang for genitals I've seen used in stories like this, "a certain part of my anatomy" is definitely one of the most boring and stupid, like for god's sakes Hades you're both adults and at the beginning of this comic you thought she wanted to bang in the kitchen, why are you suddenly talking like a 7 year old boy LOL)

All that aside, while Eros might still be hinted at being queer and sex-positive, it's only as vaguely as possible so that the story can quickly move on to focus on him and Psyche or, better yet, Hades and Persephone. When Eros isn't deadset on finding Psyche, he's being the gay best friend for Persephone, who he has NO right having a friendship with when he introduced himself by intentionally getting her as drunk as possible with the intent of dumping her in Hades' car as per his mom's command. It's brushed off later as "well Aphrodite maaade him do it, for Psycheee!" but Eros still agreed to potentially put Persephone in danger over a relationship that had NOTHING to do with her and was also mostly his fault in its fallout (which Artemis calls him out for, but of course, like all the other times characters have called out the actual issues in the story they're inhabiting, they get brushed aside so that Persephone can talk about Hades):

Now, the Eros and Psyche plotline is one I've talked about before here and not the focus of this essay so I'll keep this tangent brief, but it's absolutely wild to me that Rachel took a story about a woman going to the ends of the earth to prove her love for someone whose trust she broke (a common theme in a lot of Greek myth stories, such as the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice) and turned it into... woman of color gets turned into a nymph slave for Aphrodite to 'test' Eros, a test that isn't clear at all in what it's trying to achieve, and wait hold up, didn't Eros actually fail that test by kissing Ampelus while completely unaware that it was Psyche-

This is just that episode of Family Guy where Peter justifies emotionally cheating and eventually physically cheating on Lois because "well you were the phone sex lady the whole time so no harm done!", isn't it? (×﹏×)

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Anyways. It's all very convenient that the comic will hint at queer rep just to either have it be a constant question of whether or not they're actually queer (ex. Morpheus) OR to have it be promptly swept under the rug to make way for other characters/plot points. It's like when mongie tried to be "inclusive" by writing a stereotypical vaguely Asian character with no specific ethnicity just to get angry at her fanbase for calling her out on this that you can't just call a vaguely Asian character "representation" of anything (because Asia is MASSIVE and covers so many different ethnicities and languages and cultures).

Eros is only as gay as he needs to be to fill the role of "gay best friend" for Persephone.

Krokos is no longer a male lover of Hermes but a flower nymph created by Persephone because... apparently we can't dare imply that Hermes would be into anyone besides his unrequited childhood love, Persephone.

Achilles is introduced as a baby even though it makes no sense in the comic's own timeline where Odysseus is presumably already a well-known hero in Olympus, so much so that he was invited to the Panathenea.

Apollo is turned into a flat-out rapist who's only concerned with getting Persephone at all costs and when that doesn't work, he tries to get ANOTHER flower nymph (Daphne) who's actually genuinely interested in him (contrary to the original myth, there's that "swap it subversion" Rachel is known for) to cut her hair so she'll resemble Persephone more because we can't have a single plot point not resolve around Persephone.

Despite there being loads of genderbent characters already, Morpheus is supposedly the only one we're supposed to assume is specifically trans and not just a gender-flipped version of a Greek myth character. Why? Not because Rachel stated so explicitly, not because the comic has actually explored her identity as a trans woman, but because the readers just assumed it in good faith and Rachel was clearly fine with taking credit for trans representation that's only there via assumption (and only confirmed via her mods in Discord, which is... not how you establish canon information in your comic, Rachel.)

Hestia and Athena are part of a chastity club, until uh oh how convenient that they're secretly in a relationship with each other even though it further vilifies them and their morals, particularly Hestia who was promptly called out for being a hypocrite for taking Persephone's coat gifted to her from Hades while secretly being in a relationship the whole time. Not only does the Hestia and Athena relationship manage to commit queer erasure - of two gods who are considered icons in the aroace communities - but it also makes the only two lesbians in the story come across as assholes AND ON TOP OF THAT ALSO manages to somehow invalidate queer sex and relationships as being legitimate due to the even deeper implication that breaking their chastity vows "doesn't count" because it's not a male x female relationship. It's the 'ole poophole loophole all over again.

And then there's Artemis, who has MORE REASON THAN EVER TO BE IN THE PLOT but keeps being conveniently ignored. Her finding out about Hestia and Athena doesn't get any more screentime than her going "oh you're in a relationship, okay" , we never see her question the true intentions of TGOEM or what it means to her, we never see her have any opportunity to carve out her identity beyond just being Apollo's twin sister (it tries to at times, but then immediately goes nowhere with it, amounting to just poetic word salad), and she really just comes across as what a lot of people assume aroace people to be - alone and standoffish, because obviously someone who's nice and a good person would be in a relationship, there has to be a reason they don't want to have sex or fall in love, and that reason obviously has to be that they just hate everyone and want to be alone forever (￢_￢;) Then again, like many of the queer characters in LO, I don't know if I can definitively call her aroace because it's kept as vague as possible, and - going by Rachel's answers to these questions way back in her Tumblr era - apparently people can't be gay and ace at the same time-

There are undoubtedly loads more examples that I could cover here but that goes for practically any essay I write about LO - the more you peel it apart, the more you start unearthing some really questionable and frankly mean-spirited stuff. Queer people feel largely ignored in LO, alongside many of its derivative offspring such as A Touch of Darkness and Crown of Starlight, and it really speaks to how so many people - queer women, no less - have somehow managed to bastardize and sanitize what were traditionally very queer stories with queer characters. It's like these people think "olden times" and can only get as far as "women were slaves and men were rich assholes". Like, yeah, okay, that was the case for many cultures, but not all of them, and for some of them it wasn't as clear cut as that, many had misogynist power struggles in them while also still celebrating women and queer people in their own way. Greek myth is full of stories of women being forced into marriage or being made the victims of assault, but many of them are supportive of women and their struggles, unlike works like LO that somehow manage to be less feminist and sympathetic to women and queer people than these works from thousands of years ago.

This is another topic that's surely meant for another post, but it really speaks not only to the straightwashing and whitewashing of Greek myth, but also the Westernizing of it. That's not to say Rachel Smythe and Cait Corrain and Scarlett St. Claire are intentionally trying to whitewash another culture's works here, but if you're raised predominantly on Western media, you're undoubtedly going to absentmindedly adopt ideas about society that are primarily molded around Western beliefs .

And this is apparent in LO, while Rachel is from New Zealand, you can tell she grew up on a lot of Western media and its influences are sorely showing through LO's worldbuilding, character designs, and narrative choices. That "modern setting" that I mentioned before is much less Greek and a lot more adjacent to The Kardashians which lends to the theories that most of the media that Rachel consumes is American. Rather than actually going to the effort of doing her research on Greek culture, she seems to just prefer defaulting to the easiest assumption of how modern society is across the board - a generic Los Angeles clone with big glass skyscrapers and pavement walkways. She rarely ever draws food or clothing from those time periods; despite this story being about gods she's spent so little time on the people who passed on the stories about those gods, the mortals, and the gods themselves rarely feel like gods, rather just like Hollywood celebrities covered in body paint. The clothing feels very generic and uninspired with often very little Greek influence, even though Greek clothing is designed around Mediterranean living which you could do a lot with, to such an egregiously Western degree that Hades and Persephone's wedding was Christian-coded. The food... well, there ISN'T any because as we've seen, like the stereotypical American child, Persephone apparently only wants chicken nuggies and Skittles for dinner, so we never see her eat; and not only do we not see Persephone eat, but Rachel weirdly tries to use Persephone's vegetarianism as some kind of anti-capitalist characterization when much of the Greek diet is predominantly vegetarian. It's NOT HARD or uncommon to be a vegetarian in Greece!

(it looks like they're literally all eating the same thing so IDK what Hera is referring to here, it looks like they're all eating toast and lettuce LMAO)

All that's to say, much of LO - and the books like it that I've gone over here - are written with this idea that every culture - including the one that it's trying to adapt - was subject to the same ideas that Western culture lives by in the modern day - that being a vegetarian is "counterculture" in every culture, that the notion of sexual purity is enforced in the same way it's enforced in the Western education system (cough Christianity cough), that queer or otherwise "unconventional" relationships should stay inside the bedroom and not be seen. As much as Rachel claims she wants to "fight the patriarchy" and "deconstruct purity culture", all she winds up doing is reinforcing it through a Westernized lens, which is, as I've talked about before, very indicative of right-leaning white feminism and what it embraces and promotes - being a "good woman" who follows the rules and willingly becomes part of the system that's oppressing them because that's what "good women" do. Women who are confidant in their sexuality are evil and should be shunned for being "sluts". Women who are in relationships with other women "don't count" as real relationships the same way heteronormative relationships do, and cannot be trusted because they're likely trying to spread an agenda that's designed to brainwash heterocis women. Women should only aim to achieve marriage and their entire personality has to be built around their true love. Women are allowed to be kinky, but only as kinky as roleplaying the exact same gender structures that puts the man in a position to dominate a woman, and it should always and only ever be with her first love who she marries immediately, no one else.

This is exactly what the critics are getting at when they hold LO - and its creator - accountable for the messages it's been sending for five years to its audience of middle aged women and young girls. Having a demographic is fine, if this were just a comic for girls it would be fine, but it becomes a lot more problematic when that demographic is being fed toxic power fantasy stories based on a culture that's being gentrified and sanitized of all its original messaging and characterization right before our eyes. It feels blatantly misinformed from the very beginning in its intention to be a "feminist retelling" of Greek myth, because somehow Lore Olympus manages to be less feminist than these stories drafted and written by men from 2000+ years ago.

I opened this essay with a question: why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

I think cases like these really highlight how deep the heteronormative brainwashing from childhood onward goes. That, despite these writers being queer or women, still manage to reinforce the same ideas and tropes and harmful predisposed notions that were designed to be used explicitly against queer people and women. These are things that we can't ever stop challenging, and asking, and truly deconstructing, because it runs deep in many of us who grew up on popular media even as innocent as Disney. Learning about more complex social concepts like sexism and misogyny and queerphobia doesn't automatically absolve us of those very same biases that have been both blatantly and subtly ingrained into us since childhood. All that said, Rachel being bisexual does not mean she's not capable of straightwashing; Cait Corrain being a queer debut author with a POC main character didn't stop them from targeting other POC debut authors at their own imprint; being part of any minority group or identifier does not automatically protect you from perpetuating the cycle that you, too, likely had enforced upon you at some point or another in your life. The fact that these creators and writers are still perpetuating that cycle to begin with is indicative of why it's a cycle at all - it takes work to break on a subconscious level because those cycles are specifically designed to target and hijack the subconscious.

At its worst, do you really think Lore Olympus can claim to be a feminist retelling that's "deconstructing purity culture" when the creator herself admittedly never fully identified or understood sexism until her mid-30's and has the audacity to say her audience is "harsh" on the female characters that she constantly vilifies through her own narrative?

"I feel like female characters in general, people will be a little harsher on them and sometimes way harsher on them, and I used to be like.. before I started writing the story and like making a story I was like yeah, sexism is not that bad, and [now] I was like oh it's bad. It's quite bad [laughs], so like, I don't know, I feel like the female characters in the story don't get so much of a pass. But this isn't consistent across the board, it's not all the time" - Rachel Smythe, in an interview with Girl Wonder Webtoon Podcast

If Lore Olympus truly was just a series meant to be for fun "no thoughts head empty" drama and spice, that would be fine. I've said it time and time before on this blog and I'll say it again: I wouldn't have an issue if Rachel was just writing a story exclusively revolving around heterocis men and women. I'm just frustrated and tired and annoyed that she keeps lying about it, and doubly so that this comic and its creator who claim to be "feminist" have inspired other people in the same headspace to continue to perpetuate that cycle through works that are clearly inspired by LO and never challenged the things LO promoted - violence towards "unconventional" women, violence towards POC, and erasure of queer people. And worst of all, for writers like Cait Corrain, it's more than just writing a really bad book with really bad messaging, it's going so far as intentionally targeting those same groups of people that are regularly vilified in works like LO - people who are just existing, who don't pose a threat to anyone, but had the misfortune of becoming the target of a white woman's insecurity.

I don't know what the answer to this problem is. I don't know what form the solution will come in, if any, to address the ongoing issues with Greek myth adaptions that are being sorely written through an "America as the default" point of view and praised for "rewriting the script of Greek mythology", quite literally cultural appropriation happening live right before our eyes all for the sake of cheap entertainment. Maybe it'll take the failings of works like Crown of Starlight to really get people talking about it. But so long as the roots of these works - such as Lore Olympus - are still being protected and marketed en masse by the same kinds of people who don't see the issue in Americanizing other cultures and their stories, then Lore Olympus and Crown of Starlight will not be the last ones to cause harm to the source material - and the cultures that source material is born from and a part of - they're taking from.

I opened this post with a question, and I'm going to close it with another to really leave it as food for thought. That question comes from another video that I'll link here for you to watch at your convenience that spends even more time diving into and discussing the nature of works like this that have seemingly attempted to "deconstruct" the very dogmas that they still wind up reinforcing all the same.

Does the romance genre have a white supremacy problem?

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(yes. yes, it does.)

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #cait corrain #a touch of darkness #crown of starlight #scarlett st claire #Youtube

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rachaelreadsposts · 1 year

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A Touch of Darkness Review

Author: Scarlett St. Clair

Release Date: May 23, 2019

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★.5 (out of 5 stars)

The only reason it’s a 4.5/5 is because the beginning was a bit slow but the build of the tension between Hades and Persephone was so needed; so I’ll let it slide :)

Book Synopsis:

"Persephone is the Goddess of Spring by title only. The truth is, since she was a little girl, flowers have shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hopes to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible.

After a chance encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead and the terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever.

The bet does more than expose Persephone’s failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows—and it’s forbidden." (Goodreads)

My annotations and highlights:

"The narcissus was the flower and symbol of Hades, the God of the Dead."

"Dionysus' line of wines sold out in seconds and were rumored to contain ambrosia." - I am a huge wine head and I would LOVE to try a wine by the God of Wine! Who wouldn't honestly???

"The word darling slid across her skin."

Hades calls Persephone darling in this quote. And the tension in this book between them makes you feel this quote. Personally, this quote slid across my skin.

"If you belong to him (Hades), he will tear the world apart to save you."

Someone pls. Where can I find someone who would do this for me???

" "Hmm. I think you are the Goddess of Sexual Frustration." Persephone barked laughter. "I think that's Aphrodite." "Did I say sexual frustration? I meant Hades' sexual frustration." "

Girl I my jaw dropped. Hermes read miss girl.

"She always thought of death as a sort of aimless existence-- a time when souls occupied space but had no purpose."

In this book, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Persephone gains this perspective when she travels to the Underworld and sees that there is a village where the souls live.

"It was destiny woven by the Fates."

GIRL THE CHILLS. Hades and Persephone were meant to be together!! You go into the book knowing this but it's just confirmed right here and you really get the warm fuzzies.

" "No soul has ever healed by dwelling on the past," Thanatos answered."

"I'm not interested in romanticizing Hades for doing something all men should be doing."

SLAYYY PERSEPHONE!!!

" "Tell me how I feel." "Like life," he answered."

This is a spicy scene! My jaw dropped. I had to pause for a moment before continuing to read.

"I am Persephone, Goddess of Spring."

Miss girl slayed I fear.

I really look forward to continuing this series!! I love Greek Mythology. I think this book is similar to Lore Olympus but obviously, it's not a graphic novel. To be honest, I feel that this book gives more detail and allows to me imagine the story better than actual pictures. With that said, if you like Lore Olympus, you'll love this book!

#books #books and reading #kindle books #booktok #book blog #hades x persephone #greek mythology #a touch of darkness #book review #annotations #quotes

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haruka-teno · 3 months

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2023 Reading Wrap-Up

01. How many books did you read this year?

I read 72, with about 12 of those being graphic novels/manga/something fairly short, BUT I read easily 2,000 pages of fic (probably much more lol) so I figure that counts as like 5 or 6 books too!

02. Did you reread anything? What?

I think I did a full re-read of Saga? I didn't log it, but I think I did lol. If not I at least reread the equivalent of the last few volumes to refresh my memory. I reread all of Captive Prince and the short stories because that's an absolute must. I reread Dark Rise to prepare for Dark Heir. And then I also kind of "reconnected" with a book from college that I had previously thought lost to time. It's called Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives and I had never read the whole thing but my friends and I always remembered a couple of the stories we'd read from it 15 years ago. Sadly those stories we remembered were actually pretty much the only memorable ones.

03. What were your top five books of the year?

It's hard to narrow it down to just five because I would say there were at least 10 to 12 that I really loved, but if I had to make a list I would say:

1) The Secret History - a polarizing book to say the least but it was exactly my brand

2) Six of Crows - by far the best Grishaverse book and probably one of the best YA books of all time in general

3) The Fifth Season - the way that people's minds work is just incredible. Like I think to have written this is such an achievement

4) Dark Heir - this series should have been adult and I don't think I'll ever feel NOT robbed by that, but this so far exceeded book 1 that I can't be too mad. Had me losing my mind

5) A Power Unbound - Ross on top 🫡

04. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Technically Leigh Bardugo was new to me this year lmao so obviously I plan to read basically all of her books going forward. And Mother Donna Tartt. We will as always continue being loyal to Freya Marske, CS Pacat, and Mona Awad as well.

05. What genre did you read the most of?

Fantasy, romance, and literary with LGBT and YA as overlapping subgenres. No one is surprised.

06. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

lol.

07. What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

I have no idea how to find this on goodreads but my average on storygraph is 3.74 which is probably accurate. I rarely give books 5 stars, but I give plenty of 3s and 4s. I kind of want to have a higher score next year though because it'll mean I'll have been more discerning with what I choose and finish.

08. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

I did and I didn't haha. I wanted to get to 75 and that didn't happen, and I also went through multiple slumps where I read next to nothing. The number doesn't matter so much as consistency so I want to try to work on that more. Pushing myself to read more and scroll less.

09. Did you get into any new genres?

I guess kind of? I read some non-fiction and a weird amount of short story collections, but none of it really stood out as being more enjoyable to me than just... the typical fiction that I like to read. I do have a few more short story collections I want to read this year as well as maybe trying to do a bit more non-fiction but I'm not going to be that pressed if I mainly stick with novels.

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

Unlike certain among us I liked Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo!! But the obvious answer is Dark Heir, followed closely by A Power Unbound.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Definitely The Secret History which has been out for like 30 years haha. To me this is the absolute peak and definition of "dark academia." Don't start calling some book """"dark academia"""" if some TSH shit isn't happening! But anyway, yeah, it's just so good: gorgeous prose, mostly vibes, characters who need to be studied extensively in a laboratory. I related too much to Richard Papen, it's actually sad!

12. Any books that disappointed you?

I genuinely hate to say this but the first book that came to mind as being disappointing while also not being actively disliked is Good Omens. I like the show a lot! And I know we like to jape and jest about British people. But my god, this was too British for me. It was so frustrating because the core idea is SO GOOD and so wildly imaginative, and at times it's really funny, and obviously Crowley and Aziraphale are the gems of it all, but so much of it WASN'T funny, like to the point of being aggressively UNfunny, even, and those sections would drag and drag. Way too little Crowley and Aziraphale, WAY too much of the little boy and his friends who I absolutely hated. I guess call me a rube or whatever but I vastly prefer the TV show 😔 Unrelated, but I was also wildly disappointed in the last Simon Snow book! I was also underwhelmed by Holly Black's The Stolen Heir and Tomie by Junji Ito.

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

Grab a snack because I'm about to go off.

1) The Vegetarian by Han Kang - translated fiction is hit or miss with me. This is the year I realized I mostly do NOT fuck with Korean fiction, sadly. This book is touted as one of those kind of sad girl feminist novels but omggg from what I remember it was just really boring (I only finished because it was like 200 pages), repetitive, weird but not delightfully weird just like weird where the actions of the main character are nonsensical as is the behavior of the people around them, ZERO payoff at the end where one might feel a salient point had been made... If this is one of those "the girls that get it get it and the girls that don't don't" books then mark me down as not getting it

2) The Westing Game - genuinely why did I read this

3) Cursed Bunny - more translated Korean fiction, this time short stories. Again, just so gross at times but not Sayaka Murata gross, just like WHY?? gross. And when it wasn't gross it was boring and pointless!

4) Any Way the Wind Blows - I literally deserve financial compensation for completing this book. What the fuck was that ending? Why is Agatha tending goats after one of the worst lesbian romances ever put on paper. Why did Simon and Baz almost have sex 14 times and then stop all 14 times for the same reason and make virtually no progress with their relationship because of Simon's immaturity. Why was the Penelope plotline even happening. I'm kind of astounded by this one actually

5) My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness - this is an autobiographical manga and my reaction was all the worse because I thought this was going to be a total banger. It's a bestseller, I've been hearing about it for like 10 years, I've seen some relatable screencaps, it sounds perfect..... And then I read it and the writing itself kind of lost me/bored me at times, and it's actually not relatable in the slightest because the MC/author (I guess?) is sooo off-putting and the bulk of the book is about her visiting prostitutes. Color me naive but I thought this would be about like, meeting another woman and the tentative first steps taken with her, not GENUINELY diving into the sex industry, which I am absolutely repulsed by. Woof!

Honorable mention to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance for being Like That and having one of the most annoying protags I can remember in recent history.

14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Well this ship has sailed and my goal was to finish all the books I had started so I could begin 2024 with a clean slate and it didn't happen 😔 But time is also an illusion.

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

None that I actively sought out. I believe The Fifth Season won the Hugo which is well-deserved but I don't know anything else off the top of my head.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Oh man, I can actually kind of go off on this one too lol. I read all of Heartstopper this year, and I'm sorry, it's just okay. I think if it had been on the shelves for me to read in like 2005 I would think more highly of it, both because I would have been reading it as a young teen and because then it might have been revolutionary for the time. In 2023 though it's far, far from the best piece of gay teen media (that would be Skam) and it's WILDLY overhyped. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn was so massively hyped up on booktok as being like THE BEST YA NOVEL EVER PUBLISHED and I'm kind of mystified, honestly. It was alright! And I could say even more but I'll leave off with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. She constantly has her ass licked by basically everyone and I genuinely, genuinely don't get it. Yellowface is miles above Babel as far as enjoyability and I even thought it was quite funny at times, and got through it quickly, but this author writes flattttttt-ass characters and can't see past her own nose. Absolutely obsessed with the audience knowing how smart she is and hand-holding them to the very obvious points she's making. She's another one like Otessa Moshfegh where I kind of just hate read her stuff at this point lol.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I think most of the books that I thought were good I had expected to be good, but two things come to mind. Early in the year I read a duology called Heated Rivalry and The Long Game and it's literally just highly sexual gay hockey fiction but it genuinely surprised me by how sweet it was and how much I loved the story. I actually bought physical copies even though they have horrible covers with Sexy Shirtless Guys on them lol. The other book is called A Touch of Jen which I was drawn to only because of the cover, I thought the description seemed kind of lame, and it doesn't have a very good goodreads rating either, but I loved reading it and thought it was hilarious.

18. How many books did you buy?

I couldn't even venture a guess to be honest. I have been much better of late about book buying (because now my money is going to dolls 😭), but I'd say during the year I probably accumulated at least 40.

19. Did you use your library?

Yes. I don't physically go into the library even though I'd like to, but in this house we do stan Libby, Hoopla, CloudLibrary etc.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

The usual suspects: Dark Heir and A Power Unbound, both of which met/exceeded expectations. I was begging for more Will/James, and it delivered, and I was hoping for more sexiness from Freya Marske as well as some good Edwin/Robin content and I was also very pleased with that :)

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

I don't participate in drama but I definitely watch drama unfold, predominantly on tiktok. There were definitely plenty of stupid takes and notable events!

22. What’s the longest book you read?

Technically the longest page count was the complete Tomie comics at 742 pages but as far as regular books, it was Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo at 608 pages.

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Technically I'm sure my shortest book was a volume of comics in like 20 minutes or whatever, but I'm going to say my record is reading Captive Prince, Prince's Gambit, Kings Rising, and the short story collection back to back over the course of about 3 or 4 days.

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

I DNF'd one piece of nonfiction (Killers of the Flower Moon) and one novel (The Atlas Six) that I just wasn't in the mood to read when I started them but I'm going to give them both another chance at some point, or at least I'm planning to so far. There were definitely other books I sort-of started and then the library hold lapsed and they'll ostensibly be gotten to at some point, but I don't really count those as DNFs. The only notable DNF was this essay collection about horror movies from a queer perspective called It Came From the Closet. I was expecting this to be good even though I'm not a big fan of essay collections as a general rule, but omg....... Ahhhhhhhh!!!! Unsurprisingly Carmen Maria Machado's essay about Jennifer's Body was well-written (even if I personally love a lesbian Jennifer interpretation more than a bi one), but hers is the only one I really remember other than the Horrible One. I read about half of this book and a lot of the essays were just very mid (I know it's these people's real lives they were writing about! But yeah!) and almost all seemed only tangentially related to the specific horror movie they'd picked. There were also plenty of movies I'd never seen so even if there'd been appropriate context I wouldn't know it. The absolute last straw though was the essay that was supposedly about Hereditary. I could not tell you how the author connected all of this shit to Hereditary because AGAIN, none of the authors did a good job actually fitting their life within the context of the movies, but the story of his personal life was bad enough. He had married a girl I think while knowing he was gay? Which was definitely more acceptable historically than it is in like, a world where Hereditary exists?? I'm pretty sure this dude kissed a guy on his wedding day! and then proceeded to write about how he was secretly talking to men online SPECIFICALLY in the context of like fat fetish/weight gaining fetish communities, he himself was purposefully gaining weight because of this fetish and became enmeshed in online communities about it, I think was making fetish videos of himself and uploading them???? And then in the end he meets up with some guy he met online and I think we were supposed to think it was cute but I was 10000% on the wife's side, and as a fat woman and lesbian, I hope that guy kills himself. Anyway lol.

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

I think my officially set goal is 75 books/25k pages. I'd like to meet that or exceed it. I very recently got into audiobooks after being a staunch hater (I still think they're very much a cheat code, and different from ACTUALLY reading!) so I think the goal is easily attainable, and my lowkeyyy goal is 100 books. My main goal though is to read every day and to not get into so many slumps: like just make reading a habit that I keep up with. More reading, less mindless scrolling and tiktok. And maybe DNFing more instead of forcing myself to finish a book I'm not liking just because it's short or I want "credit" for my time spent with it. Like reading more quality books. I'd also vaguely like to read some classics and more nonfiction.

#personal #text

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heloisedaphnebrightmore · 2 years

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uhhhhh i love the sensation of impending doom when you know a plot twist will be there at the end of the road specially in fantasy!!

i’m into two povs when it’s like Julia Quinn and other period authors do it or two first person povs in contemporary romances but the latter can trigger some self deprecating thoughts so i tend to avoid them when i know it’s gonna be too passionate

uhhh but like on the whole did you enjoy throne of glass?? i read the first one but…. i don’t know…. it felt too fanfic-esque for me which is terrible to say because there’s so much astonishing prose in here but i can’t think of any other way to describe it so i didn’t think it was worth my time but maybe you’ll change my mind? (i mean the 7-9 povs makes me wanna run for the hills haha)

yeah it’s all about the tension, steamy, snarky, funny pining count me in, whining, teenage pining nah-ah not gonna happen. since we’re talking pining and i just saw your summer book recs i wanna suggest you to read people we meet on vacation instead of book lovers, if i could pick any topic to do an hour ted talk about would be “how disappointing was book lovers” 🤷🏼‍♀️ but i also wanna know what you think about tessa bailey (from your last post i get that you like her hehe), im thinking about giving her books a try but i don’t know…… something in me is holding me back

~goodreads anon

Yes, but only if the plot twist is executed well. I've seen too many bad ones, I'm very sceptical at this point :D

"The latter can trigger some self deprecating thoughts"... wait... hold on, what do you mean? If you don't mind, can you explain that? You don't have to, of course, if it makes you uncomfortable, I'm just curious.

Oh dear, here we go, you should not have asked me that question. TOG is a sensitive topic here xD You see, you are asking the wrong person and now I'm gong to have a word vomit. You opened a can of worms! The following is completely my personal opinion and doesn't represent others. (I hope noone will bash me)

You see, I loved Acotar. I fell in love with it. I'm still obsessing over it. So, I had high hopes for TOG. But it was a complete and utter disappointment. I rated the Throne of Glass series 2 and 3 stars out of 5. I suffered and suffered through books after books. I usually read 700 pages on a good day. These 8 books took me 1.5 months to finish.

I kind liked book one, because I love Dorian, I adore my princeling, but then Chaol was meh and I couldn't stand Celaena whilst Rowan didn't do it for me either. The only reason I kept going with this series, even though the characters were meh and the story was mild, was because Dorian and Manon were brilliant. Even Lorcan was intriguing. But if those three weren't in the books, I would have DNFed the very first book in my life.

I know why people like it, I can see why they would like it and I respect that, but for me it was a freaking struggle. So all in all, does it get better after the first two books? Yes, because new interesting characters come along. But the plot is still mild, most of the characters are boring or arrogant and the way it's written, jumping between multiple povs as if you were travelling between events like when you accidentally flip 5 pages at a time, made me physically (I'm not lying) pull my hair. So, do with that information what you will.

Yes, I get you, but then those teenage, whining, pinning books are usually targeted for teenagers. So obviously they will be slightly more cringey. I don't think it's bad though, it's just different. As an adult, I do prefer the snarky, steamy pinning, but when I was a teenager, I could melt at those cringey teenage pinning scenes xD

I do plan to read 'People we meet on vacation', but I'm on a book buying ban until August so I have to read what's on my shelf :D I'm glad you actually said "how disappointing was Book Lovers" because I can go into it with a bit more scepticism and I won't be as disappointed if it's bad. But then I heard so much good about it (BookTok) that at this point I just have to decide for myself. I will read it after I finish my current read and can I ask you to rant to me about it once I finished? :D

Okay, I'm going to be very transparent with you about Tessa Bailey. Is she my favourite author? Nope! Are her stories excellent? Nope! But she is good and her stories have some sort of an edge. I personally have a love hate relationship with her books. I don't like them like I'm intrigued by the characters or they have amazing plot lines. They don't. But at the same time, I can't put them down. I can't explain to you what it is. They piss me off, but I love them. Do I even make sense? Anyway, I always recommend her because of my ambivalent feelings about her books xD

‘Heloise the book addict’ masterlist | Heloise’s map

#Heloise's inbox #goodreads anon #heloise reads #heloise the book addict #throne of glass #sarah j maas #a court of thorns and roses #booktok #bookish #bookblr #bookstagram #books #reading #people we meet on vacation #emily henry #book lovers #tessa bailey

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bookaddict24-7 · 2 years

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I said at the beginning of the year that I would share my reviews more on my blog instead of just on Instagram and Goodreads. I’ve been reading a lot so far this year, so my reviews will be delayed on here. I upped it to 10 reviews per post so I can do most of the reviews before the end of the year!

Friend me on Goodreads here to read my reviews in real-time!

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227. Hunt for Jade Dragon by Richard Paul Evans--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read in 2021! Michael had some out of character moments in this book, but it only served to remind me how young he is. There were some touching moments and also some moments where I couldn’t wait for the villain to be taken down. It’s interesting how they approached the setting for this one, but there were some slightly problematic comments made.

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228. Insomnia by Stephen King--⭐️⭐️

Okay, here's the thing: The audiobook didn't help the experience. The music was random and awful, but I'll admit it added to the creepy atmosphere. The story, however, was super weird. I know this is not saying much because King can really get creative with the weirdness, but this was like...so weird that I would zone out because I just wanted it to end. Of the few books I've read by him, this is my least favourite. I did appreciate the commentary on some of the topics explored, but the main story was just so odd. I did like the epilogue, though. I think it tied it all up nicely. I also loved the easter eggs for his other books, especially since the book is set in a town he's often used in his stories. If you're reading his stuff, know that this one is super random and chaotic. But it could still be someone else's favourite!

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229. Small Favor by Jim Butcher--⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one was just OK. It wasn't my least favourite so far, but it was down there. I think I was just bored for a bit and it lacked that connecting factor I've felt while listening to the other books. Hopefully I'll like book 11 more!

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230. The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really liked this one! I've been seeing these kids grow up over the last few books and as the story gets closer to the ending, I can see where the changes are coming in. The three siblings have been through a lot, but they've also all grown together! I think this one also showed the importance of learning that there is a grey area when it comes to some people. There is obviously good and bad, but there's always the in between that makes you question that black and white mentality. Also, it's jarring seeing the two older siblings get old enough to start to have quasi-love interests (which is another reminder that these kids are growing up.)

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231. The Guncle by Steven Rowley--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went into this one with a mix of excitement and trepidation. One of my friends had read it and said that it was just OKAY. So, zero expectations? Yeah, that was me. But I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed this one! The little kids completely stole my heart and the MC's character growth and emotional journal really pulled at my heartstrings. I just wanted to give them all a hug, especially after everything they had gone through. He also sounded like such a fun uncle who had a lot of wise, although quirky, advice to give. I think I am taking one star off because there were certain things that were a little too convenient, and also it felt like there wasn't a very big...momentous event. I will be the first to admit that the climax or the approaching climax of a story usually gives me a ton of anxiety (which I felt whenever the MC's horrible sister came in), but I was expecting a bit...more? I'm happy with what I got, but I felt it was too easy. Overall, this gave me Raising Helen vibes but with a Guncle, and I really, really enjoyed it! I'd definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a heartfelt story about love, grief, family, and some surprisingly sage advice about life.

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232. It Had to be You by Gergia Clark--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

TW: Cheating, Transphobia This book called me single in so many ways...and I was okay with that. I was really close to DNFing this book because of how the two main characters connected. I was wary and disliked that they were essentially thrust together after unfortunate circumstances, so I was really close to pulling the DNF trigger. BUT I am so glad I didn't. I'm glad I went in with low expectations and just gave it a try. I read a few reviews when I was trying to make my decision and saw a lot of comparisons to films like Love Actually and Valentine's Day and I agree, especially the end where all of the climaxes were happening in the story (Not a pun). I found myself rooting for these couples and hoping that each of them had their happy ever afters. I also felt anger for those who were wronged, and I'll admit, I cried a couple of times. I listened to the audiobook and it was a full cast, so that helped with the unique narrative style, but I can totally understand why it might feel overwhelming if you're reading a physical copy! This book was an experience and it was just so...wholesome. I smiled, I laughed, I giggled, and felt all sorts of emotions. I'm a hopeless romantic, so I'm really happy that I gave it a shot!

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233. Klara & the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this one as part of a book club! One of the things I've been loving about being a part of a book club is how I'm being challenged to read books outside of the genres I usually pick up. This book, in particular, is something I might have never picked up if not for the book club! I really enjoyed Klara's story and while I had a feeling that it would break my heart, I continued on knowing that this story had so much more to offer than just tragedy. I like to think that this story was giving me an allegory regarding pollution--both physical and metaphorical; both natural and sociological. There is a scene (early in the story) where we are introduced to a machine that pollutes the sky (as it is described), but then we are introduced to the concept of children being "lifted" and I like to believe that this is society's pollution of wanting to better themselves, even if it means either destroying the host or the futures of the children who aren't changed (lifted). Of course, this is all me theorizing because even if I'm completely off base, I think there was too much importance placed on the sun and pollution for them not to mean more than what is on the page. There's a certain innocence to Klara that was both endearing and frustrating. Some of the characters were just complete jerks to her and I think it can easily be attributed to that fear of something different. To be honest, I also read this shortly after Elon Musk made his announcement about his self-learning chipped AIs, so that knowledge added a whole new layer to this experience (for me). I think knowing that Klara's world may not be that different from ours ten years from now makes this book both even sadder and more terrifying. Overall, it was interesting to see what the world looked like through the eyes of a relatively innocent AI. We get to see unbiased looks into the lives of the people around Klara's owners and we also get to observe with her. Although as a human, I can't help but feel strong emotions towards those who treated Klara badly, I got to also see things from her naive and non-judgmental perspective. For example, I disliked the child who owned Klara for how she was with those who mattered to her and Klara herself, but Klara was so dedicated and built to show her dedication that she would look at a situation logically and read what was happening rather than using judgment and emotions. I'd recommend this for those who want a story that features a surprisingly calming narrative (despite the sometimes chaotic emotions of those around Klara), and a story that follows an AI who is simply there to add company to her owners' lives.

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234. Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The beginning took me a bit to get into, but once the two characters reconnected, I was gone. That tension, those spicy scenes, and the classic Bowen touch made this book impossible to put down. The enemies to lovers trope was also great, because I am complete trash for that trope. One of the things I love about this book, also, is the lack of prolonged miscommunication tropes--characters actually communicate and if something goes wrong, they talk it out--like adults! No anxiety needed here while I read, thanks. Anyway, this was great and sexy and so, so good. Also, *cough*, have you seen that cover? ___

235. Summoned to Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm giving this one my highest rating both because it's the last one (oh my gosh, I made it!), and because it had some seriously heartwarming moments! But also, whoa to the revelations that happened!! I wasn't expecting those, which shows me that even after 13 books, this author still kept the series fun and fresh!

I'm going to start Jones' next series hopefully soon (depending on the library wait time), and I have my theories about that series...especially since a big part of this series was left completely wide open.👀👀👀 I can't wait to read more of the same humour and the quirky but fun characters! This series was a ride and I'm sad to see it end. On to the next one! ____

236. What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this as an audiobook. I will say that this is the kind of audiobook that you have to go back at certain points and re-listen because it's so easy to miss some of the smaller details. I'm glad I went back the few times I did because this story is completely worth it! We are introduced to two narratives and timelines--the present, where our MCs meet and begin their escape from the soldiers and officers hunting them down, and the doomed past where you already know what the fate of the people are based on the beginning of the book. The fact that we already have an idea of what is going to happen is not only absolutely heartbreaking, but it also piques one's morbid curiosity because you still have that small hope that this story will end differently. And that ending. Wow. That ending had me thinking and questioning a lot of what I'd just read--but it could also be an example of how unfortunately common the situation is. One thing I noticed in other reviews that I want to mention here (because I HAD to look it up after that conclusion) is the importance of seeing how both narratives follow the possible experiences a refugee might encounter. The fear and hope that might envelope them on their way to a new life, and the constant fear and hope of actually getting to stay in the new country they've arrived at. There's also this concept of how the new foreign world is put on a pedestal in comparison to how it actually is. How well you speak english and the way one's skin looks also is shown to be a big topic--as it should be. I remember hearing about family friends who left Cuba with the idea that living in North America would give them a better life, until they find themselves working multiple jobs because their degrees or past work experience sometimes doesn't apply in their new countries. My mother often comments on her own English and how people might not understand her when she talks, but refuses to believe me when I tell her that she's fine. I love that this book touches on these topics because they're often limited to the communities who actively live as either refugees or immigrants. If you want a story that explores the refugee crisis and how certain people are when faced with it, you might want to pick this one up. I've been trying to read more books about immigration and refugee stories and this one was definitely one of the more unforgettable ones. You might also want to end up punching some characters, but also admiring how others truly are when facing certain situations. Highly, highly recommend!

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237. Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I will admit I liked this one a lot more than the past ones! I've contemplated not finishing this series, but I've had these books on my shelf for forever and well, the library has the audiobooks! SO, yeah.

Anyway, I liked this one more because Shane isn't a raging asshole and I liked the idea that things are changing and becoming more exciting in this town. Also, that ending has me asking questions! Most important of them all: imagine when these books were first coming out and each book finished in a way that made you think the next book was coming out the following week. ___

Have you read any of these? Would you recommend them?

___

Happy reading!

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quoteablebooks · 3 years

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Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Retelling, Adult

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Summary:

'Reader, I murdered him.' JANE STEELE is a brilliant Gothic retelling of JANE EYRE from Edgar-nominated Lyndsay Faye, for fans of LONGBOURN and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES. 'I loved it' - Elly Griffiths.

Like the heroine of the novel she adores, Jane Steele suffers cruelly at the hands of her aunt and schoolmaster. And like Jane Eyre, they call her wicked - but in her case, she fears the accusation is true. When she flees, she leaves behind the corpses of her tormentors.

A fugitive navigating London's underbelly, Jane rights wrongs on behalf of the have-nots whilst avoiding the noose. Until an advertisement catches her eye. Her aunt has died and the new master at Highgate House, Mr Thornfield, seeks a governess. Anxious to know if she is Highgate's true heir, Jane takes the position and is soon caught up in the household's strange spell. When she falls in love with the mysterious Charles Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him - body, soul and secrets - and what if he discovers her murderous past?

*Opinions*

This book has been sitting in my “to read” list on Goodreads for a couple of years easily, so when the next books in the series I am currently binging didn’t show up on time, I figured it was time to give it a try. Jane Steele is set in a universe where Jane Eyre is a novel and our main character, Jane Steele, reflects on her life is similar and different from her favorite literary character. Given that setup, it is not hard to guess some of the beats of the novel, but Jane Steele is a very different character than the sometimes meek Jane Eyre and how she faces a world that is not gentle or caring for anyone, but especially young women. Now it had been a while since I’ve read Jane Eyre, and it took me a while to truly enjoy the literary classic, but I believe Jane Steele is a retelling that masterfully pulls on the reader’s memories of the classic, for better or worse, while weaving a story that is truly its own. As I mentioned above, I don’t remember the finer details of Jane Eyre as it’s been a couple of years since I’ve read it. That being said, much like the source material, I found the time at the school to drag a little pace-wise, but it is important to understanding both Janes. When Jane got back to Highgate House I had a hard time putting the book down, but it took me a good couple of days to get to that point. Still, this retelling really dives into the darker areas of England during this time period, of the schools, girls were forced into, and the English interests abroad. Jane Eyre does not make the world seem easy for young women without means by any means, but Jane Steele delves into the dirt and darkness because she believes she belongs there and that gives the reader a look into the lives of women we don’t see in Jane Eyre.

As for English interest abroad, the novel does not pull any punches in regards to the East Indian Trading Company and what they did in India, though this novel was focused on Punjab. The information about Sikhism and those that follow that religion was enlightening and I’m happy that Faye included reference books to look into the history of the region and religion further. That being said, so many novels of the time (that I’ve read) completely ignore what is happening in India and what the British presence, either as the East India Trading Company, military, or missionaries is rarely addressed. Faye had the benefit of hindsight and no concern of dealing with being accused of treason, but I found Jane Steele’s London more well-rounded and real than Jane Eyre’s, even with all its ugliness. I love how Faye handles Jane’s character arc and what it says about how childhood events and traumas shape how we see ourselves. If Jane hadn’t felt as if she killed Edwin (who deserved it and would have been a beast of a person like Jane Eyre’s cousin ended up being) then she would have never run to Lowan Bridge School and none of the other deaths would have followed. Jane believed herself wicked due to how those around her treated her so wicked she became. While it is easy to excuse all of Jane’s murders, as Mr. Thornfield does in the end, it is clear to see why Jane has such a low opinion of herself but also why she trust her out abilities, maybe too much confidence in her own abilities. When someone reframes her childhood and her relationship with Clarke, it changes everything about the Jane way sees herself. Obviously, it doesn’t absolve all her sins, but it makes her feel as if she is worth something and that can change a lot about the way someone moves through the world. The secondary characters are also vibrant and well-rounded. From the enigmatic new residents of Highgate House to the girls that suffered in Lowan Bridge School and even Jane’s mother and Agatha. No matter how much page time they received, every character felt real and that they had a life outside of their interaction with Jane. The villains are horrible but in ways that make sense and the heroic characters are far from perfect. Mr. Thornfield has his own trauma to deal with, but that makes him a good fit for a romantic partner as Jane’s whole life has been made up of traumas. It is a match that makes much more sense than Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester honestly. There is also the representation of non-straight and non-white characters, in a positive light, which is always nice to see in a historical novel. While it took me a while to become invested in the novel and Jane’s story, much like Jane Eyre, I came to love just about everything about the book. I will probably pick up a physical copy at some point just so I can reread it because I admit that I read through the last couple of chapters so quickly because I was anxious about what would happen next. It’s been a long time since that happened. Jane Steele is a four-and-a-half-star book that I am rounding up to a five-star. The half star was the slow start and the distance between Jane and the reader at the start, which I know emulates the original text but I wasn’t a fan of it there either. While I expected Jane to be a little more wicked, I truly enjoyed my time with this novel.

#review #book review #booklr #Jane Steele #Lyndsay Faye #4.5 out of 5

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realife-mermaid · 2 years

Text

Reading Update: Winter Books

Alriiiiiiiiight we're getting to the ending of this year so I'm just trying to meet my genre reading goals since I already met the number/goodreads goal. Also, I’m doing a bingo thing so that’s gonna be another post!

Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley - 3.5 stars. I waffled a lot on the rating. In the one hand, I loved the magic in the world and the romance was very well built up. On the other hand, the last third was not very well done IMO. Too many big speeches and villain exposition and not enough action.

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochran - 4.5 stars. This was sooooo much fun. I liked the central romance a lot and I liked all the supporting characters. It was a Little weird about bisexuals in a way I personally find annoying - they just don’t exist in this world except to be the butt if biphobic jokes that let you know the villain is Super Totally Evil - but otherwise I loved it a lot. There’s been some criticism wrt the south Asian rep that I also think is very true but I’d rather just point you in the direction of a review from a South Asian person instead of trying to explain that myself.

The Tea Dragon Society - 5 stars. Cute art style, vibrant colors, whimsical character design, and an adorable story. I loved this a whole lot, so adorable.

The Old Guard: Force Multiplies by Greg Rucka - 3 stars. Wasn’t long enough, and left me with a lot of questions. Also not enough character focus on anyone but Andy. I did like the twist with Copley and the scenes with Nicky/Joe talking to him but otherwise it felt very unfinished.

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rhashid Khalidi - 5 stars. This was a little work of genius tbh. It was easy to understand (dense obviously, but well written) and I thought well balanced in its argument between laying out historical fact, anecdotes, and personal history. There was also a decent amount of criticism of Palestinian leadership which I wasn’t expected bc some of the reviews made it seem like there was no criticism of Palestine whatsoever. But that’s the thing - there’s NOT criticism of Palestine because it’s not them that are the problem as a people. Blame is placed at the feet of leaders who their people feel have let them down, and of course on their oppressors. It was illuminating and terrifying, giving a human face to a lot of academics and history being thrown at you.

The Hellion’s Waltz by Olivia Wilde - 2.5 stars feels too harsh but 3 feels too high. I just could not get into this book at all. The characters didn’t feel real, the chemistry was nonexistent, and it just dragged. I couldn’t even get invested in the music aspect and I love music plots. Eh. Disappointing.

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay - 4.5 stars. I bought this FOREVER AGO bc I’ve loved her spoken word poetry since I was like, 15 I think and I finally goddamn read it and I adored it. Sarah just has a way with imagery; her poems are always so pretty and flow so beautifully even when she’s talking about something serious. And the way the poems were organized is very good as well.

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado - 3.5 stars. Very mixed feelings. On the one hand, the story was well written and I liked most of the plot. On the other hand, the Puerto Rican rep sort of sucked? Charlie mentions being white “technically” but then says she’s a brown Latina. Maybe it was a clumsy attempt at talking about Latino identity, but no boricua I’ve ever met who isn’t white has ever called themselves “technically” white. She also gets weird about not being able to speak Spanish and that exhausted me. Why is this the only rep Latinos ever get surrounding identity? This “not a real Latino” thing is just not a problem that happens in any meaningful way in real life for Brown Latinos*. Plus, it had the dreaded Shitty YA Bestie trope and that annoyed the Crap out of me.

Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth by Warsaw Shire - 5 stars. It’s not just that she knows how to hit you with a line right where it’s meant to. It’s that she knows how to build up to it. She crafts a story, short and brutal, with her words before she delivers the perfect guy punch ending. I’m definitely going to buy everything she’s written that I can get my hands on.

*Im talking about specifically Brown Latinos, or Mixed-With-White Latinos. Obviously this is a more complicated and different conversation for Asian Latinos, Indigenous Latinos, and Black Latinos. But someone who has the same skin tone and background as Eva Longoria, Raquel Castro, etc is just not going to run into this issue from the Latino community. From gringos I would say this is an actual issue but from the Community?? You’d think it was the most pressing issue if you went by the amount of times it happens in fiction.*

Rereads: 0

New Books: 8

Goodreads Goal: 81/49

#the charm offensive #warsan shire #Sarah Kay #the old guard #greg rucka #the tea dragon society #booklr #screaming into the void #adrienne tooley #fat chance charlie vega #Crystal maldonado #olivia waite #rhashid khalidi #reading update

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lemoncupcake · 3 years

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Whom are your favorite authors? And are there any other authors that you want to try out soon?

I meant fanfic, but you could do both😄

and so i shall!! under the cut bc it's a little long

ok, so, starting with books. i actually don't have favourite authors, i don't keep track of that and i have an unfortunate tendency to read a book/series and then just not check out an author's other books so it's hard to have a lot of favourites 😂 i don't have a particular reason why i do this, most of the time it just happens 🤷‍♀️ to give you an idea, one of my favourite books of all time is howl's moving castle. i still have not read the sequels or any of diana wynne jones' other books. with that said, here are some people whose books i seem to enjoy a lot, according to my goodreads:

elizabeth acevedo - i've read 3 of her books, 1 was 4 stars, the other 2 were 5. i read them all in audiobook form, she was the narrator for all 3 of them and she did a fantastic job!! 2 of the books are written in poetry form, the other one is in prose but it's, like, very lyrical. just, very, very good!

megan whalen turner - i mean, technically, i've only read one of her series, but she's only published one book outside of the series and said series is phenomenal, so i feel like it counts!

n. k. jemisin - only read the broken earth trilogy and then one of her short stories but the trilogy is amazing so, again, i feel like it counts!

kay o'neill - love their graphic novels, pretty sure i've read all of them at this point. you should check them out if you wanna overload on tooth-rotting fluff with a fantasy twist!

becky chambers - i've read all the books of the wayfarers series that are out and the to be taught, if fortunate novella. absolutely phenomenal! i love the writing, love the characters, love the themes she explores. to be taught, if fortunate made me almost wanna change my masters to astrobiology. like... just, 5 stars all around!!

and that's it, i think! i obviously also love other books not written by these authors, but those authors aren't included here because i either a) only read a solo book and haven't checked out anything else yet or b) loved one of their series when i was younger and know i won't really enjoy their other work now.

as for authors i wanna try: i have around 400 books on my tbr so... it's a lot 😂

now, for fanfics. i'll just say right off the bat that i don't think there's many beth x rio authors in this fandom whose writing i haven't read yet, if any. i check the good girls tag, like, every day, so there's not a lot i miss. so, yeah, i'm pretty sure i've given every beth x rio author a try at some point. i feel like my favourite writers list is very boring, but you asked for them, so here they are (in no particular order):

@foxmagpie

@septiembrre

@mego42

@bethsuglywigs

@querenaxx

@inyoursheets

@fairhairedkings

@emilykolburn

@riosnecktattoo

@pynkhues

ty for the ask, anon!! i learned some things about myself 😂

#anon #ask #txt #obviously i also love a plethora of fics not written by these authors #but for this i went by highest number of fics on my bookmarks haha

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svtshuastruck · 2 years

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Octorber wrap up!

october was a wonderful reading month for me. with 23 books (i did read for 24h straight on halloween) and over 6,000 pages read, it would be an understatement to say that i'm pleased. i'll try to keep this as short and to the point as i can. thank you for stopping by to read this!

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1. the silent voice (koe no katachi) vol 4-7 by Yoshitoki Ōima

ratings:⭐⭐⭐ (4th volume) ⭐⭐⭐ (5th volume) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6th volume) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (7th volume)

i've written a separate post about the entire volumes of this manga and you can find it here. really enjoyed them!

2. spy x family vol 1 and 2 by Tatsuya Endo

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (both 1 and 2)

absolutely loved these two! it was a buddy read in a discord server and boy was this good. it is a dramatic comedy of a family which follows a tsundere spy father, a hitman mother and an esper kid and the kid is basically the only one knowing about the other two's occupation. hilarious manga and i can't wait to continue reading this!!

3. komi can't communicate vol 1 and 2 by Tomohito Oda

rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (vol 1) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (vol 2)

rhbdnepifk 8 books here are mangas rbjdskwe but this was also a buddy read and i really enjoyed this. the chapters were a little too long for my liking but overall, a sweet and cute read!

4. ace of spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

this was the book club pick for sept for the crusty book club! you can find the review here. i will never be able to put all my thoughts into coherent sentences rjfsdnlc. 5 stars it was!

5. with the fire on high by elizabeth acevedo

rating: ⭐⭐⭐.75

so this book follows a teen mom in high school who has a passion for cooking and aspires to be a chef. the audiobook is fantastic ! it is narrated by the author herself and it's just *chef's kiss* this was my first book from this author and i will be checking out the others soon! (also i heard that the author narrates almost all her books so 👀)

6. the black veins by ashia monet

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

this was the book club pick for the vintage books and wine book club. i, for one, DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS BOOK ISN'T TALKED ABOUT MORE. this book, is so good. like so gooooooodd !!

i need everyone to pick this up asap and fall in love with the found family aspect like 🛐 please.

this is book is about blythe, a sixteen year old guardian out of the 7 guardians. it is magical realism, found family trope, absolutely fucking loveable characters. i am adopting caspian and antonio (yes wylan, you're getting sibs). i cannot wait to discuss this book and omg pls just read it okay?

7. how we fall apart by katie zhao

rating: ⭐⭐

sigh this book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021. the premise sounded so good. but it, unfortunately, did not work out for me. listen, it started off great-- the setting is slightly disturbing like you know something is off but you can't put your finger on it sorta vibes but as it continued it was-- no.

the "plot twist" at the end? i like to predict while reading mystery/thrillers and this was the kinda plot twist with like the culprit being the twin we never know existed and stuff (not a spoiler, just an example) like there was no freaking way the reader could have even thought that that person was the culprit. the characters were just flat.

i wish this book had been longer and the motives of the 4 were explored more but to conclude: this book wasn't it for me but if it intrigues you, maybe give it a try!

8. the atlas six by olivie blake

rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5

im just going to paste my goodreads review here cause it's past 12am and im tired ---

this was a buddy read (•ᴗ•) woohooo !! i have mixed feelings about this book. i definitely think i would like it more if i were to reread it. the very last portion of the book, i did not understand very well. there was so many things told to the reader that i was just like "huh" all the characters were fascinating to read about. i, obviously, had a fav and a least fav within the povs and characters. Libby and reina were my favs and Callum (oh Callum) was my least favorite the pacing was odd-- it did get better towards the end but still... odd. the philosophical theories and thoughts got pretty repetitive and it kinda made everything weird...? when i was reading it, it was kinda annoying how many times i would think about how much i would have enjoyed this book more if it had an editor. there were some things that didn't make sense. minor spoilers ahead for ex: there's a chapter in libby's pov and it ends with "tristan didn't move until after she was gone". how? how do we know that? that tristan didn't move after she was gone if we're reading from libby's pov? i really liked how the romance wasn't obvious. i was shipping two characters in the beginning and towards the end, i was shipping the same two characters with different people? if that makes any sense. the magic system.... is vague. i was--still am confused about how it works? i wish stuff had been described better. that brings me to: i heard this author's books are going to be published through v.e schwab's publishing company(?) and i'm looking forward to the edited version of her books. the book tries to be intelligent. and i can't say it actually ends up being intelligent. again, i wish stuff was described better. haha now i'm being repetitive--ironic.

im just gonna leave this here and might come back in the morning to edit this haha.

meme break: (more like pun break but oh well xD)

8. everything i never told you by celeste ng

this was a dnf so pretty bummed about that :/ i just wish tws and cws were properly mentioned. dnf at 50% please read all the tws before starting this here i started this on a whim just because i had heard a lot of things about it and while i did check the tws, the website i used did not mention one that i'm often bothered by and... that did not end well.

9. everyone's an aliebn when ur an aliebn too by jomny sun

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

this is such a cute read!! i don't have a lot of things to say but i enjoyed it a lot [><]b

10. if we were villains by m.l rio

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

this was the book club pick for the late night book club! this is eerie atmosphere + shakespeare + complicated relationships + murder. a perfect read for 2 am (i totally did not read it all through the night). this book follows our main character right after he is out of the prison and is met with the police officer who is super curious to know who exactly committed the murder and claims to know that our mc covered it up. and so, our theatre actor of an mc narrates the story in the form of a play. there are acts and scenes and a shit ton of shakespeare references.

an absolute classic, i'd argue, which fits perfectly into the dark academia category. i devoured this book in 7 or so hours and yes, it was read during the readathon xD. the pacing was a bit odd at times and i wish all the characters were shed light on equally but other than that, this book is amazing. i did figure out who would be killed and who killed them but the ride was so enjoyable, i had to give it a 4 star.

11. fangs by sarah andersen

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

my god this is such a cute graphic novel?! i read on tapas and you can find that here. it is about a vampire who falls in love with a werewolf and just follows bits and pieces of their lives and it was the cutest things i've ever read.

12. a house in the cerulean sea by t.j clune

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

this was supposed to be the book club read for the late night book club for the month of may but then the controversy happened and the liveshow was cancelled and the very bored, stuck on page 160 self put it down. i picked it up again in oct because i needed a physical book to read in school and because i read most of my books in their digital form, this was literally my only hope erdbg. i started enjoying it a lot more and sorta realised that i wasn't really in the mood for fantasy read back then haha. it was cute and fun while it lasted and maybe i'll pick up his other book. idk

13. a dowry of blood by s.t. gibson

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

LOVED THIS!! this is a retelling of dracula's wives and polyamorous and queer and just a-may-zing. our main character is unnamed and is referred to by the name her love interest aka dracula gave her and it is like addressed? in a way? to dracula himself. i read the audiobook. highly recommend. ALSO IT IS A NOVELLA SO HOW THE FUCK WAS SO MUCH FIT IN THERE IDK.

14. sheets by Brenna Thummler

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

it was cute. might pick up the next one but idk. art style is stunning tho.

15. the love hypothesis by ali hazelwood

rating: A WHOPPING 5 STARS WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT ME TO RATE THIS SHIT??

IM NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO PUT THE SYNOPSIS INTO COHERENT WORDS BUT JUST READ THIS SHIT OH MY FUCKING GOD IT MADE ME SCREAM OUT LOUD LIKE A CRAZY PERSON AT 11:30 PM CAUSE I HAD TO FINISH THIS FOR A READATHON.

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there we go. it's 1:30 am idk if i'm making sense but do i care: maybe. but do i ? :) oct was a pretty good reading month and i'll catch y'all in my next post okay? okay, bye i'm going to sleep now. and no there are no book pics cause i'm tired okay? bye now oh wait tags. right okay bye.

#books #book review #books & libraries #reading #bookworm #serenity's bookstore cafe #the atlas six #the love hypothesis #what else did i read this month omg #if we were villains #ace of spades #a house in the cerulean sea?#alr das it im tired #if you find this post you are very very lucky okay?#okay now ima go

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kayliemusing · 3 years

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42: top 3s

1: Top 3 ice cream flavors - classic vanilla, birthday cake/birthday batter, bubblegum

2: Top 3 Disney Movies - Mulan, Onward, Soul (but this changes frequently lol)

3: Top 3 vacation destinations - I've never been outside of my home country so I'll say my top 3 DREAM destinations: NYC, Hawaii, a random countryside in either France or the UK

4: Top 3 places to shop - Dynamite, Sephora, Winners/Homesense

5: Top 3 subjects of study/classes to take - English/anything creative writing related, Interior Decorating/Design, Communications?

6: Top 3 make up products - YSL Touche Eclat Foundation, literally any Mac Lipstick but it has to be matte, & Fenty Beauty contour stick

7: Top 3 music artists - Taylor Swift - Of Monsters and Men - The Lumineers

8: Top 3 spices/herbs - Cinnamon - Nutmeg (literally tastes like autumn) - Paprika

9: Top 3 drinks - Diet Coke - Hot Chocolate - Vanilla Bean Frappe

10: Top 3 apps to use - Instagram - Pinterest -iBooks

11: Top 3 months of the year - May, October, December

12: Top 3 clothing items - My black/white turtle neck, high waisted jeans, plaid blazer

13: Top 3 binge perfect tv shows - Bones, Supernatural, Brooklyn Nine Nine

14: Top 3 romantic dates - (I've never been on a date but if I had, it would be this) Evening walk, late night drive, late night coffee date (tbh anything at night feels romantic)

15: Top 3 kinds of flower - Water lilies, cherry blossoms, roses

16: Top 3 christmas movies - A Christmas Carol (2009), Home Alone, The Polar Express

17: Top 3 OTPs - Nesta and Cassian from ACOTAR series by SJM, Manon and Dorian from Throne of Glass series by SJM, Casteel and Poppy from From Blood and Ash series by JLM.

18: Top 3 quotes to describe your life - "I write not to find, but to leave" by Scherezade Siobhan - "I want to be myself again. I want to be six. I want to stop knowing everything I know" by Catherynne M. Valente - "The truth is, I pretend to be a cynic, but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get" by Joanna Hoffman.

19: Top 3 characteristics you love about yourself - my kindness bc it's not surface level kindness, but actually something deeply rooted within me - my resilience even tho sometimes it doesn't feel like resilience - my loyalty bc it is a hard as steel kind of loyalty

20: Top 3 kinds of candy - Maltesers, Kit kats, smarties

21: Top 3 ways to exercise/ be active - Walking, dancing, mowing the lawn/shoveling the sidewalk

22: Top 3 spirit animals - wolf, hummingbird, tiger (i googled it bc i didn't know and i was scared it was a joke but)

23: Top 3 petnames - I like 'lovebug', 'love', 'sweetheart'

24: Top 3 books read outside of school - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas but viewers discretion is advised, Crush by Richard Siken

25: Top 3 most used websites - Youtube, Tumblr, Pinterest

26: Top 3 people you last texted - my mom, my bestie megan, and my sister bc they're the only people i text...

27: Top 3 hashtags you use - the only time i use hashtags is if i'm trying to promote some of my writing so I'll usually use writingcommunity, writersonig, poetryonig lol

28: Top 3 instagram accounts you follow - Trista Mateer, Griefmother, obviously taylor swift

29: Top 3 guilty pleasures - buzzfeed quizzes, early 2000s music, romance novels

30: Top 3 summer activities - Going to the zoo, long evening walks, campfires and s'mores

31: Top 3 things to draw/doodle - hearts, flowers, random swirls bc it's the only thing i can doodle...

32: Top 3 aesthetics - cityscape aesthetic, autumn aesthetic, rustic aesthetic

33: Top 3 things you'd buy if you gained three million dollars - a new car, a condo, another cat

34: Top 3 ways to treat yourself - facial, a large bag of maltesers, buying the makeup i really want but have been putting off

35: Top 3 celebrity crushes - Evan Peters, Matthew Daddario, henry cavill

36: Top 3 books from your childhood - Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl, and Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmens

37: Top 3 accents to hear - Australian, super poshy british accent, new zealand accent

38: Top 3 scents - Fresh rain, vanilla, sweet cinnamon pumpkin from bath and body works

39: Top 3 "Friends" quotes - "WE WERE ON A BREAK" -Ross, "Guess things were just going too well for me" -also ross, and "it's so exhausting waiting for death" - phoebe

40: Top 3 cupcake flavors - tbh I haven't tried that many cupcakes so your typical vanilla, chocolate, and Pink Lady Cupcake from Babycakes Cupcakery

41: Top 3 fruits - Pomegranates, Strawberries, Raspberries

42: Top 3 places you've had amazing pizza from - Pizzahut, Dominos, Pizza73

43: Top 3 sports teams to watch - i don't

44: Top 3 crayola colors - uh, i guess red, purple, and pink??

45: Top 3 things you hope to accomplish in college - Certificates/Degrees in Copyediting and Creative Writing, and I think simply just deeper critical thinking skills when it comes to writing and books

46: Top 3 fanfictions you've read - I read more books than fanfics, I've read a couple on tumblr but don't remember the names sorry :/

47: Top 3 people you miss right now - my dad, my best friend bc she's in vancouver, taylor swift bc she's not on tumblr anymore rip

48: Top 3 fears - Failure, Loss, not achieving anything in life/not reaching my full potential

49: Top 3 favorite literary devices - Foreshadowing is always god tier, cliffhangers although evil i love those too, symbolism

50: Top 3 pet peeves - People dragging their shoes on the floor when they walk, when you tell someone your fav hobby/music artist/interest and they immediately go 'oh I hate X!', and people who go 'you're so quiet!!!' but in a way that draws in more attention and/or makes me feel more uncomfortable like i would literally rather die

51: Top 3 physical things you find attractive - Hands, nice hair, defined jawlines

52: Top 3 bad habits - Nailbiting, picking at my blemishes oops, lip biting

53: Top 3 pets you've had/wish to have - Cats bc they complete me, I've always wanted a Samoyed, and I've always wanted a turtle

54: Top 3 types of foreign food - Chicken Chow Mein, deep fried shrimp, japanese chicken wings

55: Top 3 things you want to say to someone in your lifetime - 'I quit', 'I love you', 'you changed my life'

56: Top 3 dog breeds - Samoyed, german shepherds, collies

57: Top 3 cheesy romance movies - You've Got Mail, How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days, 10 Things I Hate About You

58: Top 3 languages you speak/wish to speak - French, Sign, and maybe Japanese?

59: Top 3 series (book, movie, television) - The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (but literally only for Cassian and Nesta), From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout

60: Top 3 pizza toppings - Mushrooms, alfredo sauce, pineapple

61: Top 3 youtubers you're subscribed to - Game Grumps, Charlotte Dobre, Megan Batoon

62: Top 3 tattoo / piercing ideas - I want to get a tattoo on my wrist of the last thing my dad ever wrote me, a hummingbird tattoo right next to it, and then a cross on my index finger

63: Top 3 awards you want to win - National Book Awards, Nobel Prize, and maybe even Goodreads Choice Awards lol

64: Top 3 emojis - Laugh/Crying emoji, the please sir emoji that kinda gives off those puss n boots eyes, and the stars emoji

65: Top 3 cars you dream of owning - 1970s Chev Impala, tbh a cute little Hyundai Venue, and maaaaybe the 1964 ferarri 250 gt luso (idk if that name was totally right but i had to do tons of googling to find it. i don't know a lot about cars and i don't really have a top 3 lol)

66: Top 3 authors - Right now I'm really into Sarah J Maas, Sally Thorne, and Holly Black maybe?

67: Top 3 historical figures - Jesus, Anne Frank, Vincent Van Gogh

68: Top 3 baby names - Ryder, Leila, Gracie

69: Top 3 DIYs - Candles, refurnishing old furniture (i.e. my mom and i painted our wooden garbage can), and really just any type of autumn diy

70: Top 3 smoothie combos/flavors - Strawberry/Banana, Mango, Strawberry-Mango

71: Top 3 songs of this month - Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish, Biblical by Calum Scott, and Visiting Hours by Ed Sheeran

72: Top 3 questions of this post you want to be asked - I did them all bc I made it a survey instead of an ask meme ;)

73: Top 3 villains - Regina/The Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time, Cruella De Vil, and Moriarty from Sherlock

74: Top 3 Cities you want to see - Montreal, NYC, Vancouver (honorable mention: LA)

75: Top 3 recipes you want to try - different kind of salad and/or burger bowls, Stuffed bell peppers, and homemade lemon loaf

76: Top 3 dream jobs - Bestselling author, the person who runs a companies social media accounts, youtuber/blogger

77: Top 3 lucky items - tbh don't have one

78: Top 3 traditions you have - Christmas Eve Service and if I don't go to that at least incorporating reading the christmas story on christmas day or eve, idk if this counts as tradition but going to the corn maze every fall, and whenever it's easter/christmas/thanksgiving we always have a big meal w/ family

79: Top 3 things you miss about being a kid - reckless abandon, dreaming about growing up with hopefulness and no dashed hopes, experiencing holidays like halloween and christmas as a kid

80: Top 3 harry potter characters - I've never read or watched Harry Potter rip (ok well i saw the first and second (and maybe third?) movie in the sixth grade I think) but I think I really liked Hermoine, Harry obviously and Dobby

81: Top 3 lies you were told - i don't have 3, but this one has a story but basically when my sister and i were in elementary school my sister got hit by a car and so the insurance thing was that she would recieve 10k when she was 18 and as a child i thought that was unfair so my dad told me that my sister had to split it with me when we were 18 lmao obviously that didn't happen (i think i realized that wasn't true in middle school)

82: Top 3 pictures in your camera roll right now - Pictures of my cat, one of my sister in a hilarious filter, and a picture of my rocking my TS merch

83: Top 3 turn ons - Kindness, defined jawline, easy going

84: Top 3 turn offs - arrogance, unkempt, super loud and obnoxious

85: Top 3 magazines/news papers/ journals to read - I don't read much of those so I'll tell you some sites I love for writing purpose's: there's Wellstoried, justwriterlythings, springhole.net (which is filled with generators if you're stuck and also tons of infomation and advice)

86: Top 3 things you wish you had known earlier - that toad in Mario Party was wearing a mushroom hat and that it is actually not his head, that immaculate means 'clean' before i misused that word like several times over the years, and that the one turn i always take on my way to work where i thought everyone didn't know how to drive was actually bc i didn't have the right of way rip me

87: Top 3 spongebob episodes - the one episode where spongebob and patrick find a ghost ship, that one episode where they form a bikini bottom band and perform it at a football game in a little fish tank, and the one episode where squidward has his first snowball fight

88: Top 3 places to be in the world - I'd love to be in NYC, Montreal, or Hawaii

89: Top 3 things you'd do differently - I would not have applied for RDC, similarly I should have just paid the 500 dollars to the one certificate program I wanted to do instead of overthinking it, and I wish I wouldn't have ended a friendship the way I did

90: Top 3 TV shows from your childhood - Spongebob Squarepants, That's So Raven, and Hannah Montana

91: Top 3 meals you love - Turkey Burgers, Chilli, and Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

92: Top 3 kinds of tea - i don't drink tea

93: Top 3 embarrassing moments - one time in sixth grade I tripped and fell right on my face in front of my crush, this other time like a couple years ago i opened the door to my car and only realized much too late while i was staring at this random family that it was not my car, and when i went to the gas station to get gas and couldn't get my gas lid on my car opened and this guy had to help me which was already embarrassing enough but then the gas pump wouldn't work so i had to go inside to pay just to realize i forgot my wallet and had to shamefully walk back to my car and then run back inside the convenience store and then pay and then walk back to my car and finally fill my tank.

94: Top 3 holidays to celebrate - Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving

95: Top 3 things to do in the rain - have an existential crisis, pretend you're in a music video, walk through puddles like you're six again

96: Top 3 things to do in the snow - Sledding, Build a snowman, shovel it even tho you don't want to

97: Top 3 items you can't leave the house w/o - phone, keys, wallet

98: Top 3 movies you'd like to see - Jurassic World 3, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania bc i'm a child, and the animation of the addams family

99: Top 3 art mediums - Writing fiction/poetry, painting, music

100: Top 3 museums you've been to - Royal Tyrell Museum, Canadian History one in edmonton lol, and heritage park in calgary

101: Top 3 school memories - Middle school dances when the popular kids would grind to the song "Low" which was always an interesting experience, in the twelfth grade at winter formal when we all shouted "SHUT UP AND DANCE!" at the same time when they played Shut Up and Dance, and the day i left

102: Top 3 things you don't/Won't miss - School, my sisters ex, 2016 bc she was a rough year yikes

103: Top 3 pick up lines - "My name is Will. God's Will.", "I'd like to take you to the movies but they don't like you bring your own snacks", "are you from tennessee bc you're the only 10 i see"

104: Top 3 sports to watch - none of them

105: Top 3 taylor swift songs - all too well - exile - coney island

#survey

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dimigex · 3 years

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30 Question Tag Game

Tagged by: @cinlat (thanks!)

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag blogs you are contractually obligated to know better.

Name/Nickname: Dimigex or Dimi typically

Gender: Female

Star sign: Leo

Height: 5′ 7”

Birthday: July 26

Time: 2:47 pm

Favorite bands: I literally don’t have favorites. I listen to just about any thing as long as the music is good. I guess I’m partial to Marianas Trench, Adelitas Way, Fitz and the Tantrums. Honestly, it’s all over the place lol

Favorite solo artists: Again, I listen to everything so I don’t have favorites. I like Beth Crowley a lot. Honestly, whatever Spotify suggests, I give it a try and listen to a wide rang of stuff

Song stuck in my head: honestly, the Paw Patrol theme song haha

Last movie: I attempted to watch the Clone Wars animated film a while back. We ended up not finishing because marriage is dumb lol

Last show: I’ve been watching 13 Reasons Why, and before that it was Lucifer

When did I create this blog: 2016 I think

What do I post: Everything? Mostly it’s Naruto, but there’s a smattering of other fandoms that I’ve fallen into (mostly overwatch), and really just anything that catches my eye. A lot of writing stuff too

What do I refuse to post: I don’t get into to the bashing posts about real world stuff whether politics or religion. This is a place for art, writing, and shit posts lol at least for me

Last thing I googled: The name of the clone wars movie which is apparently just clone wars. I swear I pay attention haha

Other blogs: I don’t have the energy to keep up with multiples that’s why you get everything in one

Do I get asks: Sometimes, but I absolutely love them so please feel free to send me all the things. I love to flail over stories, hash out ideas that I’ll probably never write, complain about all the things. Honestly, I’m not as intimidating as I seem?

Why I chose my url: So my name is combination of two old nicknames from my character on WoW and a Tolkien fansite that I smushed together into Dimigex

Following: 255

Followers: 372 and I love each and every one of you. Come into my ask box and say hi, let me write you a drabble of the micro variety (because that’s the only thing I ever finish lol), flail about things with me.

Average hours of sleep: Somewhere between five and seven I think

Lucky number: 18

Instruments: I played clarinet for a while, and piano as a kid. Nothing now

What am I wearing: An akatsuki t-shirt and purple leggings

Dream job: Author, obviously. Though, I’ve taken a few commissions and being paid to write isn’t as fun as it sounds. Deadlines are hard haha

Dream trip: I want to go to Japan so badly, it’s on my bucket list!

Favorite food: Pizza is my favorite, hands down. Just cheese and lots of sauce

Nationality: American and no idea beyond that lol

Favorite song: I can’t pick a favorite but I’m currently digging the song Empire by Beth Crowley because it’s seriously inspiring a Reaper fanfic that I’m desperately trying not to write (send help, please)

Last book read: Okay, so I’m a big reader. I’m reading a few at the moment. The last I completed was Street Freaks by Terry Brooks. I’m currently reading these (I had to go to goodreads to check haha) -It’s Not Supposed to be This Way: - The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time) - Ships of Magic (Liveship Traders) - The Left Hand of Darkness -I Though it was just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

Top three fictional universes I’d like to live in: Naruto, Lord of the Rings, or Mistborn was a pretty cool world. Honestly, I’d like to experience most of hte ones I’ve read lol

I’m going to tag @birkastan2018 @vibgyoroygbiv @bouncyirwin if you guys want to do this! Plus anyone else who wants to. I love learning about my followers, just tag me.

#Tagged #Dimi answers #Get to know me

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italkaboutbooks · 4 years

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An in depth review of Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman//Part 1

So...I usually don’t do this kind of thing. Normally on this blog I just give simple, non-spoiler reviews. And then I give that certain book a stared rating out of five. And then I move on with my life.

But I’m starting to realize, that I may not be able to do that. At least, not for the YA sci-fi novel Aurora Rising, written by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman.

I have a lot of thoughts on this book. I have read many reviews by other people about this book. The reviews I read were very mixed. Some people loved it and gave it 4-5 stars, and others hated it giving it 1 star. But for me, I cannot sum up my thoughts on this book with a rating out of 5, or any number for that matter. No, I have to get into the nitty gritty of this book, and explain every thought I ever had about this book.

So this is very obvious, but this will be an extremely spoilery post. I am not holding back on the spoilers, you have been warned.

Intentions

I feel like when analyzing everything Aurora Rising did, you have to understand what the authors intended it to be. Because I personally believe that Aurora Rising is just meant to be a fun time. It’s not meant to be profound, or deep, or revolutionary. I think Kristoff and Kaufman just wanted to write a light-hearted sci-fic novel about teenagers in a space academy. When I read the synopsis of this book, I could easily tell just by the tone that this wasn’t a book to take seriously, and it was just supposed to be a fun time.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If you like reading stories that are just fun, good for you. I understood that when I read this book, and I think that’s why I gave it 4-stars on goodreads. Because I enjoyed it. But a part of me has to ask, does writing stories solely for fun, take away something from the story? It’s a debate that has no end, and I understand that, but here’s what I think.

Stories intended for fun? Totally cool. Sometimes we just want something fun without any messages that challenge us, even though those are extremely important. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder, especially in reading this book, what if you changed this or improved on this? Because that would make the story have more meaning.

One could argue that the most profound stories are the ones that are also fun and light-hearted. Take Disney and Pixar for example. Ignoring the questionable stuff that they as a corporation are, they have movies that are fun and light-hearted, and yet are still meaningful and can withstand time. Basically, stories can do both. Be fun and meaningful at the same time. And this might be the main problem with Aurora Rising.

Personally, I think Aurora Rising is a fun story, with little sprinkles, tiny sprinkles of meaningfulness. However some reviews said that the authors didn’t really care about making the readers care, and a part of me agrees with them. Because Aurora Rising is intended to be fun, and while that is enough for most people, and myself. I can’t help but wonder, how much better it could’ve been.

Plot

The plot of Aurora Rising is pretty basic in my opinion. However, I saw a reviewer say that it completely ripped off Firefly so...that’s disappointing to hear. Especially since these authors are apparently big names. Tyler Jones goes to a space academy, and misses the draft, a.k.a the event where graduates choose their coworkers for the job they’ve been working for years to get. Tyler misses the draft, because he received a distress call from a ship that’s about to explode, but there’s a sleeping girl there.

So Tyler gets grouped with the “worst of the worst” reputation wise and there’s also a poor girl who is trying to cope with the fact that literally everyone she knows is dead, and that she’s been sleeping for centuries.

So this girl does some creepy things and it turns out she has a bigger role to play in the fate of the world and Tyler and this gang of misfits get themselves wrapped up in it.

Pretty simple, really. There’s not much I can say on the plot. It’s not bad, it’s pretty basic. I don’t really care for basic plots. As long as the characters are great, whether they’re likeable or intriguing, I’m fine. However, I have one huge problem with the plot. And that is the ending of part 2.

The novel is separated into three parts.

Specifically, chapters 18-24. Let me try to explain to you what happens, because it had left me so confused.

So, Aurora (the girl who was asleep) keeps having strange visions. It had led the group to a black market planet essentially. The person who runs this “planet” is a criminal, I believe, who has the strongest security in the universe. The main gang is trying to break into the “criminal’s” place to steal a statue from him. There’s also a murder hungry beast that guards the place. Basically, it’s a suicide mission.

Cat, one of the characters, does not agree on following through with the plan, and for good reason to. They get into a fight about it, and Cat storms off to a bar to drink her feelings away.

While she’s at this bar, getting drunk (not a good state to be making decisions btw) the GIA comes to her. All you need to know about the GIA, is that they are looking for Aurora, and they are not going to be nice to her when they get her. They are here, because they want Aurora, and they tell Cat that. They also tell her that if she just gives them Auri, then her other crewmates, will be fine. Off the hook.

So, this girl is leading the people you care about into a dangerous situation, and people come up to you and say that if you tell them where that girl is, everything will be okay. Oh, and you’re currently drunk, and not thinking straight. What would you probably do? In this situation, I would say that you would sell Auri out.

When I read this scene, it seemed pretty simple to me. Cat was going to reveal Auri’s location, and the GIA would take her, and everyone would be pissed at Cat. But that’s not what happened.

We don’t get a scene of Cat actually selling Auri out.

The chapter ends, and in the next chapter, Cat is back with the others, going through with the plan. So I was thinking, “okay, she sold them out, but she obviously hasn’t said that, but then the GIA is going to come, and the plan would fail.”

But here’s what happens.

Cat, Tyler and Auri get super close to their goal. And the the person who ran the place caught up to them. He isn’t happy because they were breaking and entering. Then, the GIA comes, and I’m thinking that it’s game over. Cat betrayed them. They’re like, “we just need Auri but it’s okay you can beat the others up.”

Cat goes, “That wasn’t the deal.” And Tyler goes, “what deal?”

Cat basically confessed that she sold the squad out, and Tyler is rightfully upset about that. They get into an argument which turns into a fight. The GIA takes Auri away, and now I’m thinking, “Cats mistake caused Auri to fall into the wrong hands. The third part is going to be them saving her. Maybe Cat will have an arc surrounding this.”

You wanna know what happens next? The GIA agents take out the “bad guys,” and take off their masks to reveal that they were actually members of the squad all along.

What? What??

How did this happen? Does this make any sense to you? If you have read the entire book, did you understand what happened? Because I don’t have a clue how any of that made any logical sense.

Listen, I know what an unreliable narrator is, and I’m not saying it’s bad. However, if your story is so confusing that I don’t even believe that an event could’ve happened, you did something wrong.

I literally skimmed through the book again to remember what happened and I’m still confused and upset.

I think what happens is that Cat does sell Auri out, but she tells the squad what she did. And they’re apparently cool with it, and don’t get mad at her. None of these scenes are shown, so two of the members go to get GIA disguises, and it turns out that everything went according to plan all along, even though the readers are lead to believe the opposite.

I hate it. I hate it so much. I hate it because it just leaves you asking what was genuine characterization and what was just “acting” to go along with the plan. Like, did Cat actually get upset at the plan originally? Was that fight when Tyler finds out Cat sold them out a genuine fight of betrayal and anger? I don’t know. A part of it may be because I’m dumb, but I think this part in general was also way too confusing for its own good.

Not to mention that it throws out an opportunity for a character arc in Cat, that was thrown out of the window and replaced with something much cheaper in my opinion.

Personally, I wished that Cat did betray the squad and Auri does get taken by the GIA. But during the heist, Auri saves Cat (that’s an actual event btw,) from a monster. This could make Cat regret selling Auri out. Then, Cat could go and personally save Auri, as a way to amend her actions and give her an arc. I think that would’ve been much better.

But we didn’t get that. And it’s what I hate the most about the plot. I have more complaints about chapters 18-24, but we’ll get to those later.

So I’m now looking over what I just wrote, and I’m realizing that I need to split this up into more than one part. So this is part one of my deep dive thoughts on Aurora Rising. If you want to see part two, I recommend following me. Hopefully, I don’t make you regret that choice.

Part 2// Part 3

#bookblr #book reader #book review #ya book review #books on tumblr #books #bookblogger #aurora rising

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an-avid-reader · 4 years

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Legend (#1) - Marie Lu

my rating: 4/5 stars

In a world where the Patriots/Colonies and the Republic are at odds and there’s a plague in the poorer parts of the US, Day is an unstoppable street criminal with good intentions. When his family’s house gets marked by Republic soldiers, Day’s only thought is to steal a cure before his family member dies. June is a top student at Drake University—a prodigy. When her brother, Metias, gets caught in a cross-fire during a mission, June is fast-tracked to becoming a soldier. Her first mission: track down Day. As Day and June come from such opposite backgrounds, is it possible that their paths would’ve crossed otherwise?

Link to Goodreads // Spoiler-free review below

It felt so weird to switch this book from “to-read” to “reading” and now to “read” on Goodreads—this was the first book I placed on my virtual tbr and now, 6 years later I’ve read Legend! Honestly, I didn’t know much about this story going in, besides the fact that it’s a dystopian trilogy...and that, after reading a bunch of those stories, I was skeptical going into this book however I was still really excited to pick it up and I’m glad that I did!

Legend alternates between Day and June’s perspectives and we get to see how drastically their lives are; when their worlds collide it was super fascinating, even though they put A LOT of trust from nowhere into each other. I sort of wish we got a few chapters from other characters, such as Commander Jameson, Thomas, and Tess, but of course without ruining the story. The other reason I didn’t give a full 5/5 was because I was able to guess bits of the twist pretty early on, albeit I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out until we came to that part of the story. (We also gotta leave some room for improvement for the subsequent books!)

So the main premise of the story is that there is a war between the Colonies/Republic and the Patriots. To be completely honest, I still can’t really explain why this war occurred, nor what either’s agenda is (except for maybe power, but in terms of politics I’m ???). One reason why I wish we got more POVs is to explore this issue a bit more, and what their motivation is—if two Patriots were in the same room, would there be a way for them to connect with each other (assuming that this is a large society), for example. There were some details that were slowly brought out, such as the coin found by Day’s father (which is incorporated into a very clever manner). To be completely honest, the one thing I took away from the political scene is how cult-like the US in this book (but also irl—I’ve never seen another country where pretty much everyone has their country’s flag on their front lawn or uhhh worship? their flag).

The other minor but also major detail is the virus (or the plague, but it has to be treated with a vaccine, therefore it’s a virus). We know that there’s a plague, and of course, the poorer parts of the rEpBuLiC, such as Day’s neighbourhood, are affected heavily, but that’s pretty much the extent that we know. I wonder if Legend was written/published today (or next year, let’s say), would the plague be different—would people be wearing masks, for instance? What are the symptoms of the plague (I think there was some coughing and fever)—how do you know for sure it’s the plague and not a common cold or the chicken pox, for example o.O I definitely felt like I was over analyzing details at times because I was able to pick up on Lu’s foreshadowing pretty early on.

Brief comment on Lu’s foreshadowing—she is clever in the sense that sometimes the details are right in your face, but you don’t realize it until a significant event happens. Sometimes it’s a really important part of the story, other times it’s just a subtle detail, like the coin. You can tell that Lu most likely planned Legend meticulously, and I’m sure that the next two books are crafted with this precise manner. I’m sure this is the type of book that when you reread it, you can pick out all the details that were planted along the way (or maybe I’m over analyzing again).

Something else that I appreciated in this book is that, although this is dystopian, it doesn’t feel like those typical dystopian tropes are there, if that makes sense. Yes, there’s a romance (and maybe a tad of insta love), but it’s not the driving factor of the plot. And there’s no love triangle (*throws confetti*). Besides the war and thus, the division of the population, the most obvious dystopian feature is the Trial—this is when you turn 10, you must take a test (physical, mental, and an interview). Based on your score, you either get placed into highschool, university, or you’re sent to labour camps if you fail. Honestly, as messed up as the Trial is, it’s almost like a reality today. I feel like people who are just entering middle school are already set on studying medicine or law, when at that age, you should be idk enjoying life and maybe start putting effort into what you enjoy, not choosing a career. Anyways, those are my 2 cents.

Although Legend is written from our two main characters, I love how different their dynamic was, which made the story much more interesting. From Day’s point of view, I liked that we got to see the pain he feels for his family. I also appreciated Day’s relationship with Tess, who I feel like they’re more like brother and sister (and I’m glad there isn’t a love triangle...at this point of the trilogy anyways). While Day is a criminal, he’s such a softie when it comes to the people he cares about, whereas when he’s on a ‘mission’ he’s very sly. From June’s point of view, we are introduced to Thomas (which I thought he was like a butler but oop that’s not right), Metias (her brother), and Ollie (their doggo (yes?)). At first, it seems that June is like this kick ass girl, who is super young (ish, she’s 16) and she’s a trouble-maker, but I feel like her peers respect her. One thing I noticed is that June is such a compassionate person—I’m not sure how to explain it, but she’s more “human” than Commander Jameson, for example. Her element of humanity and being able to analyze a situation/emotions within a few minutes, it was super impressive—I feel like she makes working for the Republic very easy. We only get a few glimpses of her and Metias together, but what we see is so wholesome—you can tell that Metias is scared/deeply cares for his younger sister. And there’s Thomas...from the gecko he gave me weird vibes but man he is such an icky man. Also, seeing as June is a prodigy, it’s almost like her uh ‘bosses’ (?) treat her as a prized possession, which 100% made me feel like (more on that in the spoiler section below). For once, I didn’t really mind the insta love between June and Day, though whilst I was reading the book, I was a bit frustrated because I could see exactly where the story was going (I see you, Lu, I see you).

Finally, I appreciate that Lu’s characters are people of colour, specifically Asian/asian-mixed. I obviously can’t speak on her behalf, but I’m glad that she didn’t conform to the “norm” or “default” as she is Asian-american herself. Furthermore, I think it gives younger people the encouragement that yes, you can be an author, you don’t need to be a heterosexual, cis, white male. (I’m sorry for the crappy explanation, I guess what kinda sucks is that she had to explicitly mention it in the book). ANYWAYS moving on, I appreciated this book, though I didn’t really know what to expect from it. To be completely honest, I was also scared to read it because it had been on my TBR since 2014 (oops), but I think that in the end, it’s good thing I waited to start this trilogy; I think that otherwise, this would’ve been same-old-same-old vibes to other dystopian books/trilogies I’ve read in the past. I’m excited to see where the trilogy takes us and I’m excited to see how Lu will further develop our main characters, as well as see how her writing style changes over time!

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to know what your thoughts are, did you like this book or not? (and if you’ve read the other two books, did you find that overall, the series gets better/what book is your favourite from this series?).

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you are having a legendary day (sorry, I had to), wherever you are in the world!

~ Cassandra / an-avid-reader

I’ve decided to include a spoiler section of my reviews; continue reading for some spoiler-y content (you have been warned)

SPOILER SECTION BELOW

While I could see it coming that June was going to betray Day, she felt so bad when she called the cops on his family. Again, this goes back to the humanity thing. The fact that she actually listened to Day (and I guess respected him?) as opposed to merely judging him for “failing” his Trial and being poor is commendable. To be honest, I’d like to think that they had mutual respect for each other, Day has his reputation, and June unexpectedly kicked Kaede’s butt in the ring. I feel like there’s so much to uncover, there’s something so fishy with their government, and I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. It makes me think of what other contraband exists, besides the pendent/coin. Also, side note, isn’t one presidential term = 4 years, and the Elector has been the leader/uh President for 11 terms? I don’t remember it being mentioned, but I feel like the next Elector would be his son, sort of like a dictatorship…

Speaking of the fight scene, I’m honestly surprised that June didn’t put the pieces together. When she met Day for the first time (for the cure deal), she noted his dialect/the fact that he used the cousin. We’re not told how many other people use the same slang, nor do we encounter another character (such as the older man who helped Tess and Day early on in the story), using that slang. Thus, when Day said cousin in front of June, I’m surprised that she didn’t question whether that was Day or not. Then again, I feel like she needed more hints to corroborate her hypothesis—I’m just surprised that it didn’t even cross her mind, I guess.

June = prized possession? Aka Thomas kissing her *vomits* I assumed that Thomas was an older guy, again, like he was her butler/guardian because her parents are dead. (LIGHTBULB MOMENT - we know that the Republic just kills people, so is it possible that Day’s father is still alive? We know for sure his mom is dead because she got shot in the head by none other than T h o m a s, but maybe there’s a chance that Day’s father was still alive). I feel like June was just even more ruplused when she found out that Thomas was actually the killer of her brother; I wonder if that’s what made him so “cold”, as June referred to later on in the story. Was he brainwashed or something? Commander Jameson gives me these weird vibes, like she has a bigger role in this story, but we don’t know yet. And then during the ceremony after June caught Day, there was Chian, Metias’ mentor (most likely also a snake) who was kinda hitting on her, and then there was the Elector’s son! I’m just speechless, can these people not force themselves onto June?? If she didn’t meet Day, would she fall for one of them, or would she just live her best life (part of me hopes for the latter, all those guys are creeps).

I also find it convenient that June knew exactly what to do with the computer/with Metias’ message? Albeit, she is clever (when her judgement isn’t clouded lmao). I knew that the letters were going to be a scramble, but I would’ve never thought it would lead to a website. Also, how was Metias sure that June would read through his stuff? If he were still alive, would he have told June about what he found (ever)? And how did he get wrapped up in all of this? So many questions!! Anyways, I guess that the two of them had a similar way of going about things/thinking similar enough so that they could find clues like that without raising too much suspicion (even though June did end up getting caught towards the end).

One of the ways that Lu was able to sneak in some foreshadowing is when we’re in Day’s POV and we learn about his older brother, John. I remember that there was something along the lines of “oh we look so similar, it would be easy to mistake one for the other” and that sort of raised suspicion for me, which was confirmed when John sacrificed himself to let June and Day (and the others) escape. I didn’t catch that Day’s pendant was a coin, however, that was really clever. I wouldn’t say that being able to spot these things early on made me dislike the book, but it did take away the element of surprise.

Onto book #2!

#just one more ~ queue #book review #legend #marie lu #dystopian #triology #reading #read #booklr #books #reader #bookworm #review #ya novel #ya

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