Tag: young adult

Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Beneath the Keep [review]

Sarah

Beneath the Keep (The Queen of the Tearling #0) by Erika Johansen
Published by Dutton on Febrary 2, 2021
my rating: 3.5 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.96 (as of 2022-07-27)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and may differ from the final publication.

3.5 ⭐️

I have to say I definitely enjoyed this and found it very compelling, but it was missing a little… something for me. Getting the backstory of the Mace was interesting but I found Christian a little boring at times. While I understood the inclusion of Aislinn, it didn’t feel like her story fully meshed with the rest. Following Elyssa was heartbreaking though. My biggest issue was that this felt like it was building toward something that never happened, but I guess that’s the problem with prequels. This did make me super excited to re-read the Tearling series! I’m hoping to pick up the Queen of the Tearling again asap.

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The Assassin’s Blade [review]

Sarah
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This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass #0) by Sarah J Maas
Published by Bloomsbury Childrens on March 4, 2014
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.34 (as of 2022-01-16)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

Where do men find it in themselves to do such monstrous things? How do they find it acceptable?

Part of me wishes I had read this prior to starting the ToG series, but it was also nice to read it after seeing more of Celaena’s character. To new readers I’d definitely recommend the novellas before Throne of Glass, though. These were a bit of a mixed bag for me, but overall I liked them! They each focus on a different story but move chronologically and build off of each other.

  1. The Assassin and the Pirate Lord – 4 stars
    This was a nice introduction to Celaena and her values as well as her relationship with Sam. I really enjoyed reading their interactions and seeing how they played off each other’s strengths even when they weren’t getting along.
  2. The Assassin and the Healer – 3 stars
    Easily the most forgettable of the five, I actually had completely wiped it from my memory until I went to write down my individual ratings. It’s nice, but not particularly strong.
  3. The Assassin and the Desert – 5 stars
    I loved this one! I could easily read a full-length novel about the Silent Assassins and hope that they possibly feature more in future books. I did not guess that twist, though!
  4. The Assassin and the Underworld – 4.5 stars
    This featured a lot of Celaena and Sam, which I loved! We get a better feel for how Celaena’s life with the assassins goes, and how she starts drifting from Arobynn.
  5. The Assassin and the Empire – 4 stars
    Heart-wrenching! Bits of it felt a little overdone to me, but this shows us how Celaena got to where we find her at the beginning of Throne of Glass, as well as her state of mind there.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

The Lost Girls [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl
Published by Page Street Kids on September 14, 2021
my rating: ★★ (2 stars)
Goodreads avg: 3.59 (as of 2022-01-04)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

I was a vampire. Undead, immortal, powerful. I would not be brought to my knees by a mortal girl with a gorgeous smile and terrible dance moves.

2 ⭐️

This was such a fun concept with so much promise, but unfortunately it fell quite short for me. Although this was a quick read, I found the writing really clunky, the characters flat, and the story itself boring. I kept waiting to feel something regarding the main romance but there was just no chemistry for me. Ida and Rose were truly interchangeable to me and I could never remember who was who. Elton just felt like an evil caricature. The worldbuilding was somewhat interesting – lots of new vampire “rules” – but that couldn’t carry the rest of the book for me. I ended up skimming the last quarter because I just didn’t care. So bummed this didn’t work out for me, but I didn’t find it enjoyable enough to overlook the poor writing.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Throne of Glass [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Published by Bloomsbury Children’s in September 2021 (originally 2012)
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.18 (as of 2021-11-23)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

This is certainly not SJM’s best writing, but since I read the entirety of acotar this year I needed something else to pick up. I went into this expecting something fun and that’s what I got! I actually really liked Celaena and loved watching her develop over the course of the book. I also loved her relationships with Chaol and Dorian (all I want is a triad here), and with Nehemia. While I found this incredibly readable, sometimes we would see other character POVs that completely pulled me out of the story. These felt a little lazy to me and were clearly just a way to quickly show something that Celaena couldn’t have known. It was like SJM was tipping her hand to show us everything rather than leaving us with some mystery. Regardless, I’m excited to continue the series!

content warnings

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Iron Widow [review]

Sarah

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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Published by Penguin Teen on September 21, 2021
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.37 (as of 2021-11-04)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

I probably wouldn’t have even picked this up if I hadn’t found out that this was a love triangle solved by polyamory plot. But boy howdy I am so glad I did. I liked having an anti-heroine in Zetian. She is fueled by nothing but vengeance and Zhao makes that very clear from the start. She’s selfish, she’s rude, and she will sacrifice anything to get the revenge she requires. She’s flawed beyond measure and I still loved reading about her.

This did lose me in a few places, hence the four stars. At points it felt really rushed to me; I felt like we blew through a lot of plot in just 400 pages and my head was kind of spinning at the end. The end in general felt like it went a little off the rails, although I had guessed the big final twist when I was still at the beginning of the book. I just hadn’t expected it to come up in this installment. I also couldn’t connect to the characters sometimes and struggled to get a real feel for their personalities.

I’m going to chalk all that up to this being Zhao’s debut novel, though, and will say that despite its flaws this is very much a book worth reading if you like YA sff. I’m devastated that I have to WAIT for the sequel but am really excited to see more of this world and its characters — particularly my sweet little triad. Seriously, if anyone has recs for polyamory rep like this PLEASE pass it on.

content warnings: Misogyny & femicide, Rape mentioned, Physical & emotional abuse, Suicidal ideation, Alcoholism, Blood & gore depiction, Murder, Torture (per the Trigger Warning Database).

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A House at the Bottom of a Lake [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
Published by This Is Horror on October 31, 2016
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 3.23 (as of 2021-10-26)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and are subject to change upon publication.

I was nervous to pick this up after seeing so many middling-to-low reviews of it, but am glad my curiosity won out! I thought Bird Box was fantastic and had to pick up more of Malerman’s work.

The concept itself is so interesting – a mysterious house at the bottom of a lake! It took me a few pages to gel with the writing (it’s a lot of teenagers being teenagers), but I was both literally and figuratively at the edge of my seat the whole time. The plot itself is relatively slow-moving, but the tension really got to me. It felt like I was holding my breath through half of this book and I had to put it down a few times to take a quick breather here and there. I kept texting people to be like, “this book is freaking me out!!”

I tore through this in just one sitting and have already recommended it to several other people. If the concept interests you, give this a shot!

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

The Dead and the Dark [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
Published by Wednesday Books on August 3, 2021
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.00 (as of 2021-10-24)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

this was so fun and spooky with a really nice sapphic romance! the small town energy was on point. i was really glad to see such an upfront portrayal of comphet and how easy it can be to lose yourself in others’ expectations. i didn’t realize this was a debut until i hit the acknowledgements and was really impressed with Gould’s writing. i think some things in the final act didn’t quite work for me, but this was still so compulsively readable that i tore through it in just a couple sittings. i’m so excited to see what Gould comes out with next (more lesbians, she’s promised) and have already decided that she’s an auto-buy author for me.

content warnings: Homomisia & homomisic slurs; Hate crimes; Death of a child; Murder & attempted murder; Gun violence; Attempted drowning; Vivisepulture (being buried alive) (per the Trigger Warning Database)

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The Last Graduate [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

The Last Graduate (The Scholomance #2) by Naomi Novik
Published by Del Rey Books on September 28, 2021
my rating: ★★★.5 (3.5 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.49 (as of 2021-10-06)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

I definitely didn’t like this quite as much as the first book. The info-dumping didn’t get any better and, honestly, I felt like I ended up unintentionally skimming a LOT because we would go into pages of detail on how exactly the magic system works. It also felt like there was a lot of day-to-day slogging, following the characters way more closely than necessary. I felt bored for a lot of the first half.

The second half was much better, and I found myself much more invested in the plot even though it also struggled with some of the points noted above. I truly wish Novik would have spent a little less time cramming every bit of info she had about the magic systems into this and a little more time showing us more character interactions. It made the story feel a lot more at arm’s length and harder to get invested in when having information beat into my brain instead of getting to know the characters more.

Anyway, I did like this! I blew through the last third of the book (even though I think the end is mildly ridiculous) and am looking forward to the sequel. And I’ll probably preorder it so I have pretty matching books on my shelves.

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House of Hollow [review]

Sarah

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House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers on April 6, 2021
my rating: ★★★★.5 (4.5 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.18 (as of 2021-06-07)
Spoiler-free review

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This is by far one of the most inventive and well-written YA horror novels I have ever read. I picked it up after seeing Sarah rave about it and am so glad I decided to prioritize it. It’s the story of three strange sisters who are plagued by strange circumstances. Emphasis on the strange. I loved how atmospheric this was and how I felt truly wrapped up in the story; I probably would have read it all in one sitting had I not started it so late. While I wondered for a bit how it would all wrap up, the ending was truly better than anything I could have expected. I highly recommend this if you’re a fan of horror — although I’d steer quite clear if body horror bothers you at all.

content warnings: body horror; sexual assault; kidnapping; child death.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Burn Our Bodies Down [review]

Sarah

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
To be published by Delacorte Press on July 7, 2020
my rating: ★★★★ (4)
Goodreads avg: 4.13 (as of 2020-06-22)
disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and are subject to change upon publication.

Spoiler-free Review

Goodreads | IndieBound | Author’s Website

It’s about time love left a mark on me.

Okay, I really liked this. While I enjoyed Power’s debut, Wilder Girls, I feel like she really hit her stride here. I found myself drawn into Burn Our Bodies Down almost immediately. Margot came to life for me right away and I was so invested in her story and where it would go. The mystery was soo twisted and I was constantly on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. And I was absolutely wrong at every turn. My only problem was really some inconsistencies I’m sure will be ironed out in the final copy.

I never got good at recognizing attraction in other girls–it took me long enough to recognize it in myself, and even longer to say “lesbian,” without blushing.

I also love the queer rep in this; the main character is a lesbian and while there is no romance she has that little “do I want to be friends with her or do I want to kiss her” struggle that I think most wlw experience when they meet another woman they’re drawn to. I’m glad a romance wasn’t shoehorned in here; I feel like it would have been out of place in the story considering what’s going on.

Overall, this book is soooo good and I’ll definitely be recommending it in the future!

content warnings: Fire. Emotional abuse by a parent, including gaslighting. Familial and generational abuse. Body horror, some gore, blood (lighter, relative to Wilder Girls). Death. On page character death. Child/infant death (takes place off page but implied violence – pages 301 and 308 in the print ARC). Off-page gun violence. Emesis (mention of vomiting). (I removed one cw that I felt was a spoiler, but you can click the link for a more comprehensive list from the author that she will be updating as she receives feedback!)

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