Supposedly YA but reads like MG, Emilie and the Hollow World was… not great. Not horrible, put it down never speak to me of it again bad. Just not great.
I’m pretty sure I won’t spend any time on the sequel. Unless I’m just super desperate for something to read. Or, unless I hear that the sequel is better than this one (which never happens with a second book.)
Ho hum.
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So. I read A Murder of Crows and I liked it a lot. As I did the first book in the Others series. I mean I really like the plot and the characters and the dialogue. And, for a second book — it was pretty good and not quite as let’s set up for the third book as second books can be.
So all good, right?
Except… I struggle with how blood prophets aka the teenage girl cutters, are portrayed in this series. There’s some glorification of cutting by teenage girls that bothers me. So while I’m enjoying the book, I’m also feeling creeped out and troubled by it at the same time.
I want to read the third book but at the same time, I don’t because it’s … wrong.
(And if you’re a cutter or have a history of self-harm, don’t read this series.)
I was afraid I wasn’t going to like Hollow City. I didn’t like the idea of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children being a series. But, turns out I actually liked this book better than the first one.
And, I especially liked the way it ended. I don’t much like Emma… which is too bad, right? I’m hoping I’ll like her more in the next book. I think I might.
A Box of Gargoyles is the secret to Cabinet of Earths — a quick fun read, though the beginning was a little sloggy. Maya talking to a pretend Maya (to try and give us background about what happened in Cabinet of Earths) was a little much. There are better ways to give background to those who are entering the story in part two.
I’m also not sure I like the way it ended. Did Maya just throw her unborn sister under the bus? Sort of? I dunno. It felt not quite right to me. Couldn’t she have chosen without chosen THAT WAY? Seemed a little over-wrought, to me.
I love the addition of Pauline and of course the gargoyle egg was wonderfully done. There should be more gargoyle eggs in stories…
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One Cybil, one not. The Lost Boy is from the Cybils shortlist and it was good. Though if creepy talking dolls scare you, then maybe this is not the graphic novel for you. I got a little confused at the end so I think I’m going to go back and re-read it to see if I can sort out the confusion. Though it might just be confusing as a set up for future books and not me reading while I was tired.
A Matter of Life is not a Cybils book and is also not YA and it’s not fiction. I just got tired of looking at it on the library shelf and decided to check it out so it would quit staring at me when I was looking for something new on the graphic novel shelves. It was… ok. The jumping around bugged me. Jeff as adult, Jeff as a young boy, Jeff as adult, Jeff as teen. All very confusing. In some cases the panels flowed well, in others the jumps were too jarring and I was left saying, “huh?” a lot.
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Remember when I said Planesrunner was really not my favorite kind of scifi? Yea, I should have remembered that when I reserved the second book in the series, Be My Enemy. It was so hard to get into. So confusing. Even after I settled into the two Everetts, I struggled and skimmed a lot of the confusing science mumbo jumbo. I need my science to feel at least a little like magic and not so much like impossible science.
But, I did like it. Really. I just didn’t love it. And I do want to know what happens next so I’ll probably slog through book three at some point.
Oddly enough, TW is struggling with it too. I told her it gets easier once you sort out the alters but still she’s struggling.
Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to Beautiful Creatures — I started off not liking it as much as Beautiful Creatures. I was also troubled by the addition of Summerville/Charleston references. She’s put Gatlin too close to my hometown (not that it was far from home in the first book re: Santee and Lake Moultrie, but I could hang onto the invisible fake town-ness of it before…)
Anyway, barring that hometown problem, I ended up liking this one a lot. It just took me awhile to get used to less Lena and more of the other supporting characters. I should have liked it right off the bat since I never loved Lena to start with.
I do love Ethan, Amma, Link, Marian, and Macon. Heck, I even like Ridley more than I like Lena. So yea, this was a good darn book once I settled in.
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Fire & Ash was a very satisfying conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series. Very, very satisfying though I’m a little surprised that we didn’t lose more major characters… (trying not to spoil things for those who haven’t read it.)
I’d be disappointed that it was over, being that it’s one of the BEST zombie SERIES EVER, but I’m gonna move to the adult series, featuring Joe Ledger and I’m sure I’ll feel almost like the series hasn’t ended.
BEST ZOMBIE SERIES people. Don’t let its YA label keep you from reading it! (Now if I could just get some zombie trading cards…)
#3 in the Rot & Ruin series (what I often call one of the BEST zombie series ever written), Flesh & Bone, was excellent. I really want a set of trading cards. I also wish library jackets weren’t taped down to prevent me from properly seeing the darn cards. And, it turns out Texasebeth is reading another zombie series by Jonathan Mayberry for adults that has one of the characters from Flesh & Bone as the lead. I’m gonna have to read that series … once I find out what happens to Benny, Nix, Chong (OMG, CHONG!), and Lilah.
Sanctuary seems really really creepy. And also, I will never look at dog whistles the same way again. DOG WHISTLES. Jonathan Mayberry is genius.
Richard Kadrey is brilliant and Dead Set isn’t even a Sandman Slim novel and I loved, loved, LOVED it.
I loved everything about it.
I loved Zoe and Valentine and Absynthe and Zoe’s mom and her dad. I loved her relationship with them both. And the albums that hold lives — brilliant. Totally brilliant.
Also — super creepy.