Review - "Strange The Dreamer"

Strange the Dreamer, Strange the Dreamer #1
by Laini Taylor
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 28th March 2017
spoilers? some pretty major ones

Goodreads

"You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable," she pleaded. "Something beautiful and full of monsters." "Beautiful and full of monsters?" "All the best stories are."

There's really only one word to describe how I felt about this book. Disappointed. Because I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone when I read it, and this book started off like it could reach similar heights. Unfortunately, it did not.

For the first say, 40% of the book, I was in love. The writing was gorgeous, as usual, the characters mysterious and interesting enough that I was captivated, and the plot maybe going slowly, but still with enough happening that I was interested. And then the instalove happened.

In young adult lit, I find there's instalove, and then there's Instalove. The former, I can just about deal with (it's clearly there, but there's also enough of a connection between the characters that I can about forgive it). The latter is the real killer, and that's what happened here. There is quite honestly nothing between Lazlo and Sarai, and yet they meet each other in a dream and are shoved together, and within about two meetings, they're in love. And from that point on, I was just bored of the whole book. Because Sarai is also a manic pixie dream girl kind of character, and to top it off, gets killed, and then resurrected so that the evil character can control Lazlo by controlling Sarai. Because why not. It's honestly depressing that this is the main female character.

On top of all that, the plot twist, that Lazlo is the son of a god, is one that you can see coming a goddamn mile off. It wasn't even a surprise. And not just because of the (slightly shoddily employed) foreshadowing. Genuinely because of the fact that there was not going to be another outcome to the story. I mean, boy who doesn't know his own origins, but feels a visceral pull towards a mysterious city that no outsiders have visited for over 200 years? Um. Can we get more obvious?

Perhaps what disappointed me most though, was the sheer amount of potential there was for a hate-to-love relationship between Lazlo and Thyon. And if we're going to go with instalove between Sarai and someone else, why couldn't it have been Calixte, a confirmed wlw? (I say confirmed, but in true Laini Taylor fashion, we get a 2 second glimpse of her relationship with another woman and then she doesn't appear further in the story.) And yet, what we end up with, is yet another heterosexual instalove tale. But I honestly don't know what else I expected. I mean, after all, we all know LGBT characters are hardly ever central to mainstream YA authors' plots unless it's to kill them.

Review - "Battle Royale"

Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
rating: ☆
published: April 1999
spoilers? no

Goodreads

How to I explain how much I despised this book? Let's just say that if I could rate a book zero stars on this site, this book would be one I would give that honour to.

I started this book way back in June. I picked it up just before I headed back home from uni, but I only read one chapter before I realised that I just wasn't in the mood for a dystopia like this. It sat on my desk, unread, for a good month, before I packed it to go on holiday because I just really wanted to get it read finally.

Good Lord, do I wish I hadn't.

The writing in this is terrible, and I don't know if that's because this was a clunky translation or if the writing is genuinely that bad. Either way, it was so cringeworthy I just couldn't take any of it seriously. Every time I read a bit out to my parents (we were all stuck in a tent and it was raining), I got a round of groans or snorts of laughter, depending on whether the particular part I'd chosen was bad, or so-bad-you-really-have-to-laugh. And don't even get me started on the song lyrics that were thrown in at random, because the main character loves rock music. The goddamn book literally ended with the lyrics of 'Born to Run' by Bruce Springsteen! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Then there's the characters. There were so many of them, I genuinely lost track. And none of them seem to have any personality. You can sum each of them up using one, maybe two (if they're lucky), words and there, you're done. Not to mention I just wanted to slap the main character around a bit to, one, get rid of his naivety ("oh no, we all just want to work together," he says, as everyone starts killing everyone else), and two, to get him to shut up with that lowkey misogynism. He genuinely says at one point, that the girl would make a good wife. Miss me with that, thanks.

So yeah. Christ do I wish I hadn't bothered.

Review - "Pride and Prejudice"

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 28th January 1813
spoilers? some

Goodreads

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

I first read Pride and Prejudice in Year 9, aged 13, as one of that year's set texts for English Lit. I, quite frankly, despised English Lit, so it's honestly a surprise that I actually enjoyed reading and analysing this book. Especially since I never got an iota of the same enjoyment out of analysing any other book in my five years of classes. Jane Austen's novel also has the (lofty or dubious, you decide) honour of being the first classic I can ever remember liking (and still one of the few I do).

It took me another 7 years to actually get round to rereading Pride and Prejudice, at which point, I came to my senses and realised that my original four star rating was way too low. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I love every single aspect of this book (besides some of the adaptations it has, and will (fuck you, ITV), spawned).

If I'm really honest, Lizzie Bennet is second only to Anne Elliott in my list of favourite Austen heroines, but that's a really really marginal second. Lizzie Bennet is definitely one of my favourite characters in lit, and I'd forgotten how much I loved her until I reread this book. I had also forgotten just how much I love Mr. Darcy too. He may not be my favourite Austen love interest (Henry Tilney took that title just recently), but he has one of the best character developments I've read in Austen's work, if not the best.

Probably the best thing (or worst, depending how you look at it) about rereading this, was picking out all the parts that didn't foreshadow as such, but were precursors to the big events of the story. Wickham telling Lizzie his whole life story on their first meeting (Lizzie. Lizzie my girl. What trustworthy man tells you his whole life story the moment you meet him? No one, that's who), "Will the shades of Pemberley be thus polluted?", "You are the last man I could be prevailed upon to marry." Knowing what's going to happen later only enhanced my enjoyment of the novel.

Really, one of the reasons this, and other Austen novels, are among my favourite classics (when I will admit I rarely enjoy classics) is because of the writing. It's always lighthearted and vaguely mocking (Northanger Abbey more than most, I've found), and as far as classics go, it's very easy to read. And one of the major reasons I don't read a huge number of classics is because I have trouble with the writing (The Brothers Karamazov is case in point. It's taken me about 10 months to get 170 pages in). So it's really refreshing to read Austen's writing.

So, in case it wasn't already clear, I love Pride and Prejudice with all my heart. So much so that I'm currently trying to stave off the desire to reread right now, only two weeks after I read it last.

Review - "Permanent Ink"

Permanent Ink, Art & Soul #1
by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 7th August 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

You know those books which you liked, but you don't really have any clear-cut opinions on them? This is one of those for me. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but it's not one that's got me really hyped, or has me really angry. It's just. Good. I don't know how else to put it.

One great thing I did note was that there's no relationship based angst going on (the bane of my existence when it comes to new adult lit). I had three predictions for what the inevitable angst would be based on: "I'm your employer", "I'm 17 years older than you", or "I'm your dad's best friend". While these topics did come up, the true source of the angst was, in fact, none of these - which I am grateful for, because they're all overdone - and not only that, they didn't just sit and let misunderstandings fester. They talked them through like adults, and solved their problems that way. That happens in so few new adult books, and it was great to see.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of these characters (especially Blue *cough cough* book 2 maybe?), even though the daddy kink is... uh... definitely not my thing.

Review - "The Goblins of Bellwater"

The Goblins of Bellwater
by Molly Ringle
rating: ☆
published: 1st October 2017
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Not gonna lie, I was probably turned off this book from about 20 pages in, when I had to read the line She fell and never hit the ground. The goblins carried her crowd-surf style. because no one deserves to have to read a line that bad.

But I continued. And discovered just how much of a mess this book was. Firstly, for all that it was a fantasy book, there was actually not that much world-building in terms of the goblins. Later on, you found out how they got to be there, and the deal they had with Kit's family, but felt a little light. Come to think of it, most aspects of the book felt like that. There didn't feel to be too much in the way of characterisation or plot, and I was actually pretty bored for the most part.

Then I got to the mess that was Grady and Skye's relationship. First of all, Skye chooses Grady as her mate, so she doesn't have to choose a goblin. Does Grady get a say in this? No. Does Grady even know Skye before she comes up to him in the woods and snogs him? No. Does all this seem a dubiously consensual premise for a relationship? Absolutely.

Basically now, throughout their relationship, Grady is being influenced by the goblin's magic. Which means, what he might think he feels for Skye is actually a product of the magic. And Skye knows this. But does she try stay away from him, limit the damage, maybe stop him being involved? Nope. She instead takes him to a place where the magic is stronger, and has sex with him. In a situation in which he cannot give his consent because the magic is making him want to do it. Hence why I did not like their relationship. Kit and Livy's was somewhat better, although it did seem rushed, and to be quite frank, absolutely pointless. Do all the characters need to be paired up in relationships? Apparently yes.

What was good about the book was that it did have Grady and Skye have a discussion about all they'd done while under the goblins' spell. But I'd appreciate the attempt more if it had actually felt a serious one. They ended up deciding that they did genuinely have feelings for each other, although how they could have known that when they'd only known each other while under the spell defeats me. Maybe they should have tried to get to know each other anew, because that to me would make more sense. Either way, that relationship was the main reason I didn't like this book, despite the promise of the initial premise.

Review - "Heat Wave"

Heat Wave Seasons of Love #3
by Elyse Springer
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 31st July 2017
spoilers? a few

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

It's hard to find good mlm NA lit. It's harder still to find good wlw NA lit. This book is definitely in the category of good wlw NA lit, while never actually managing to be amazing.

Despite that, I did have some issues with the book. For one, there's very little actual relationship development. They start off as friends with benefits (or rather, exes of the same guy and then they become friends with benefits) and then they're having sex. And then supposedly they're in love. One problem I often have with NA lit, is that there seems to be an insistence on including a scene where the main characters say they love each other. A lot of the time, that appears forced, like in this case, and honestly I'd prefer if they maybe just decided to date or something. That feels more realistic almost. There are some cases where an "I love you" works, but this is not one of them.

I get that this is a friends with benefits to lovers scenario, too, but the speed with which they start to hook up (they get together for the first time a tenth of the way through, after what's supposed to be 2-3 weeks - timeskip included) felt a bit rushed. There could definitely have been more of a slowburn going on there.

Another problem I found was actually with Sara (the narrator) herself. Some of the things she complains about seem a little childish, and she's supposedly touching 30. There's a part early on where Nate, her ex-roommate who's since moved in with his boyfriend, was supposed to help her move out of her place but forgot and his boyfriend booked them a holiday. And Sara just has a more extreme reaction than that really warrants, in my opinion. He genuinely just forgets a prior engagement, it's not that big a deal, but she refers to it as "screwing her over" especially when "he was one of the main reasons she had to move" like. Just take a deep breath and move on. These things happen. And as for being one of the main reasons, so he met someone and moved in with them. Get over yourself. This happened pretty early on in the book, so you can imagine I was not Sara's biggest fan for most of the rest of it.

Not that I was Laura's biggest fan either, to be perfectly honest. She actually treats Sara pretty badly. There's this one scene, when they're still friends with benefits, where she spends the whole time with Sara pointing out hot girls. But when Sara points out some hot guys (they're both bisexual), she grows cold and blanks her. When they have sex after that, she essentially kicks her out of her flat, and subsequently doesn't contact her for a bit. And she doesn't apologise for that move. I wouldn't have minded so much if she'd admitted she overreacted, and messed up. But no. Not only that, she later blanks Sara completely again after not telling her that she's going to move away. Sara hears it from Laura's boss (after a messy moment which makes Laura think Sara and Tony are hooking up and ventures way too close to the cheating bisexual stereotype for my liking). Again, it's not something Laura apologises for.

I liked the attempt this book made to be at least sexually diverse, but at times it did feel a little like the characters were being shown off as diverse rather than just existing. There was a scene where Sara was talking to Jer, her kickboxing trainer, about how she's finding out new things about her body having had sex with Laura for the first time, and Jer, to reveal that he's trans, lifts his shirt to show her his top surgery scars to say he knows "exactly what it's like to redefine yourself". It just felt a bit of a crude way for him to come out, honestly.

Overall, actually, the book was kind of boring (I say, even as I rate it 3 stars). There wasn't really any plot besides the romance and it drifted a bit at times. Not to mention the part where it's made clear that Sara is ""not like other girls"". Thanks.