Corinne Morier's Blog, page 4
June 1, 2020
Books I’ve Fallen In Love With During Quarantine
Since mid-March, I’ve been furloughed from both of my part-time jobs (one as a TA at a school, one a customer service position at a non-essential business), but have been lucky enough to have a stable living situation so I don’t need to stress about not being able to pay rent or buy groceries, etc.
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So I’ve had a lot of time to myself, and to prevent my anxiety flaring up, I’ve been losing myself in a lot of books. I’d like to recommend ten books today that I’ve fallen in love with since quarantine started. These will be books that I’ve rated four or five stars that I read after quarantine started. For obvious reasons, I’ve purposely limited myself to either standalones or first in a series so that you can pick these up without worrying about “needing to read the series in order” lol.
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All links in this post lead to Bookshop.org, an online indie retailer that supports local bookstores everywhere. Links are affiliate links and I receive a portion of the profit if a purchase is made. Always shop local rather than resorting to the mighty ‘Zon! 
May 18, 2020
Book Review: A Confusion of Princes
A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
HMMM YOU DESERVE ALL THE STARS
This was a book that was definitely out of my comfort zone. I probably would have never looked twice at it had it not been by my favorite author of all time. I am not a space-opera person (considering that a certain friend has tried for years to get me into Star Wars and has never managed to succeed) but wow, I can’t believe what a fun story this was! Maybe I just don’t want to try space operas because I don’t like trying new things…
Anyway, on to the review itself.
Prince Khemri has lived all his life in a sheltered temple, and on the day he comes of age, he learns that A) he has to leave his childhood temple forever, and B) Princes need to be hard to kill because his life is always going to be in danger. Luckily he has his loyal servant Haddad to help him find his way. They journey across the universe, and Khemri slowly realizes that he has a real chance to be the next Emperor, but that it comes at a high cost…
As always with my reviews, here are three good things about this book and three things I didn’t like as much, starting with something not-so-good so I can end on a positive note. Keep in mind that this is subjective, and it’s always hard to find things I don’t like in Nix’s works because he’s just that good of a writer. But here we go!
Not so good
Especially in the first half of this book, Prince Khemri, and everyone else around him, makes a huge fuss about how he’s such a special Prince candidate. Maybe I’m just not understanding something because of my Asperger’s, but I feel like I’m missing something. There’s never any explanation given about how he’s different from the other thousands of Prince candidates out there, not even at the end. For example, Khemri remarks on page 39 that “I was no ordinary Prince, so of course there would be an arch-priest waiting for me.” Yet there seems to be no logical reason for him to believe this.
Good
The voice is amazing! As expected of Garth Nix, the prose is fun and it really sounds as if a seventeen-year-old young man who has had his DNA altered to be stronger and more able to use the different technologies that exist in the world is recalling how he came to be in his situation. If Prince Khemri was a real person and telling me this story over a cup of coffee, I’d completely forget about my coffee and instead be absorbed into listening to him. If you like your stories voicey and fun to read, this is a book for you.
Not-so-good
In this book, we have two characters, one named Haddad, who is a loyal servant and friend of Khemri, and one named Huzand, who is an antagonist who tries to kill our main character at one point, which is one of my pet peeves–two characters, one a good character who helps the protagonist, one an antagonistic force, both named almost exactly the same thing. Of course, this is just a pet peeve of mine and doesn’t speak to the overall quality of this book.
Good
Garth Nix is the god of worldbuilding, with this book being one of his many examples of how skilled he is at this essential component of storytelling. With three different types of tek (Psitek, Bitek, and Mektek) that function sort of like this world’s version of magic, along with the thousands of planets, dozens of galaxies, and the in-universe logic that needs to be built for all of this to be believable, and yet Nix manages to do all this, plus the usual plot and character development that make this an entertaining read, in only 300 and some change pages. The three different teks introduced are well-explained right from the get-go, not to mention interesting and unique, and you get enough of a view of life in various galaxies and around the different planets to feel completely satisfied.
Not so good
Another personal pet peeve–this might not bother you so much, but I’m somewhat of a prude–but Khemri seems to be a slave to his hormones. He celebrates being reborn by having sex with his brainwashed courtesans, and then later on when he meets Raine, who is his love interest, he remarks that “what I wanted to do was grab her [Raine], kiss her, tumble to the floor with her, and have sex on the carpet that covered the downside emergency hatch.” Note that he’s know Raine for only a day or so. True, this is also due to his upbringing that he doesn’t desire a deeper emotional connection with another human, but up until this point, I’d pegged Raine as the love interest and was kind of shipping it, but this moment in chapter nineteen was an instant turn-off for me. Of course, as the chapter continued, we see Raine initiating the sexy time with him and he figures out what consent is, so I guess it isn’t too bad–gives him an opportunity for growth, I guess you could say.
Good
Nix is the master of plot twists! I’m still studying how to write a good plot twist myself, but I always know that when I pick up a Nix book, I’ll be able to study how to write one, because Nix is the master of dropping little teeny-tiny hints throughout the book without making them too obvious as to the eventual twist, that when the twist is revealed, it’s surprising, but also satisfying because then you’re like OH SO THAT’S WHAT THAT TEENY TINY THING WAS ABOUT BACK IN CHAPTER FIVE OH NIX YOU CLEVER SCOUNDREL YOU. And this book is no different; I don’t want to say anything specific so I don’t spoil it but the twist in this book is so good and the ending is so satisfying and I love it so much and it was just… a perfect ending, of sorts. If I were to make a list of “Top Ten Perfect Endings in Books” this would definitely rank very high on that list.
In conclusion
Aside from some little nitpicky bits that specifically irked me, this is a wonderful story and a solid standalone space opera that may very well be one of my new favorite books of all time. Definitely get your hands on this and give it a read!
If you’d like to grab a copy for yourself, you can buy A Confusion of Princes on Bookshop.org, add A Confusion of Princes on Goodreads, and follow Garth Nix on Twitter!
Thank you very much for tuning in, everyone. If you’d like to support my content, make sure to follow The Discerning Reader blog to get my newest posts direct to your inbox.
“Like” and share this post on your various social media platforms, and make sure to follow me on these other sites:
Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook
Happy reading everyone, and I’ll see you next time!
Corinne 乙女
For business requests, including book review and press inquiries, please see my contact information.
You might also enjoy these other posts from me:
Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns
May 4, 2020
Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sorcery of Thorns is a love letter to libraries and reading, filled with dark whimsy and elements reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle… so much so that you begin to wonder if it’s not just a carbon-copy of HMC. But luckily, it’s not!
Why I read this book:My favorite Booktuber of all time, Codie’s Book Corner, showed this in a TBR video and I looked it up and thought the concept was interesting. Later when I set out to write my own YA fantasy, I decided that I would use this one as a comp, but wanted to read it first for myself to make sure.
As always, I’ll discuss three parts of this book I enjoyed and three parts I didn’t like so much so that you can draw your own conclusions about whether or not to pick it up.
I really loved
All the interesting twists this book took. During the first 1/3 or so, this was reading like a precise carbon copy of Howl’s Moving Castle, right down to the demon making a contract with a wizard and the main female character needing to break that curse to save the wizard, in the process falling in love with him, and meanwhile the demon is kind of sassy and says unexpected things, and the heroine making a sacrifice of what she thought she valued the most in order to save the wizard. Except without the sister relationship between the heroine and her two younger sisters that made Howl’s Moving Castle so fun to read. But then it took a sharp left turn down OH YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW WHERE THIS WAS GOING street and did its own thing, for the most part. Except for a few echoes near the end, this feels like a book that both would appeal to Howl’s Moving Castle fans but also does enough of its own thing so that you don’t feel like you just read “the original, but worse.”
The worldbuilding in this book is lush and amazing. The magic system is interesting, and though I had quite a few internal logic questions during the first parts of this book, as I kept reading, my questions were answered and I learned more and more about the world. One thing I don’t like in books is having to stop and reread earlier parts because character motivations or internal logic doesn’t match up to what we were told earlier, but this one was a smooth read start to finish, and you get just enough explanation about things to be able to understand the story without being overwhelming.
The prose of this book is gorgeous, the sentences are beautiful, and it’s just so much fun to spend time in the pages of this book. If you’ve ever heard of the “sandwich test,” it’s basically “will the reader want to put this book down to go make a sandwich?” and “Once they’ve made the sandwich, will they want to come back and keep reading?” I just wanted to keep reading, and keep reading, the entire time, and at times when I was forced to stop reading (eg. my dog needing to go outside to relieve herself) I always found myself back at this book as soon as circumstances would allow so I could read “just one more chapter.”
I didn’t like
People praise this book for its “bisexual representation” but I beg to differ; the “bisexual representation” is not very good. Only one character in this book is revealed to be bisexual, mentioned once in a line that’s meant to be both a throwaway line and a joke. Like “Oh, yeah, I like boys and girls, don’tcha know? LOL okay let’s continue with the adventure!” It’s never explored properly, it’s never mentioned again, and it’s just a real missed opportunity.
Our main character, Elisabeth, irritated the h-e-double hockeysticks out of me. Despite being a lifelong bookworm, she is so stupid. She doesn’t realize that (view spoiler)[Silas (hide spoiler)] is Nathaniel’s demon, and also the identity of the big bad antagonist when (view spoiler)[he offers her shelter as soon as she arrives in the capital, acting way too suspicious and was obviously the villain trying to bring her under his control (hide spoiler)]. As a Ravenclaw, I found myself constantly sighing at her blatant stupidity.
Some parts of the story felt really rushed, and the ending also left off on a cliffhanger. I feel like this is actually two books in one and should have been split into a duology. Some aspects could have been expanded upon a little more, especially going into the ending, and I did not like the ending at all. Hence the “WTF ending” designation. I think if that ending hadn’t been so… abrupt and cliffhanger-y, this might have been a five star read for me, I’m sorry to say.
In conclusion
A lush fantasy with prose as beautiful as its cover, familiar elements to draw readers in, and new elements and dark whimsy to break away from its predecessors and make a name for itself, that would appeal to fans of Diana Wynne Jones or Patricia C. Wrede. Some references to sex and descriptions of gore may not be appropriate for younger readers; parents considering gifting this to their children should first read it for themselves and use their good judgement as to if their children are mature enough.
April 20, 2020
Year of Asian Stories Quarterly Review
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Now that we’ve hit April, my Year of Asian Stories reading challenge is 75% done. Nine months in, three months to go, and… I am failing miserably. Also I’m very behind on posting reviews, too. So I was hoping this could be an assortment of mini-reviews that I have yet to post, especially for ones that I didn’t enjoy or ended up DNFing.
I’ve read a fair amount of books from this challenge so far, and I wanted to let you guys know how I’m doing so far and set some goals for the last three months of this challenge.
Books I’ve Read: Fantasy
Of the original thirteen books on my YoAS reading list, I’ve so far read six of them. One got a four-star rating from me: Red Winter by Annette Marie.
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For my full thoughts on this book: Year of Asian Stories: Red Winter by Annette Marie
(No five star ratings in the fantasy section yet, but the ones I have left I have very high expectations for!)
The Twelve Kingdoms managed a solid 3.5 star rating.
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Here is my review for this one: Year of Asian Stories: The Twelve Kingdoms
Unfortunately, both Descendant of the Crane and We Hunt the Flame, which I had extremely high hopes for, ended up at a mere two stars each.
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In summary, Hesina (our protagonist, who is the princess of the kingdom and is investigating the death of her father), was incredibly stupid, made poor decisions, and despite her coronation being interrupted by a blood-soaked soldier bearing news that the rest of his battalion has been captured by the enemy, did nothing as queen to appease the public or protect her country. My notes from when I was reading this book say, in all caps because I was that angry at this book, “HESINA IS A STUPID SELFISH GIRL AND A TERRIBLE QUEEN.” And then the “twist” at the end was stupid and pointless and Hesina’s anger at her father was also stupid and pointless. You know whose anger wasn’t stupid and pointless? Mine when I read this book.
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It seems as if Faizal just took a bunch of concepts from other popular medias (eg. the Wastes from Howl’s Moving Castle, the “forest that is about to swallow us up” from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the mysterious lady dressed in all silvery-white who is called the White Silver Witch from Chronicles of Narnia, and the entire premise of the “girl who hunts in the forbidden part of the land to feed her family and has a brother-like friend who can’t tell her he loves her, a mother who has given up on life after the death of her father, and a little sister who needs to be protected and loved” from Hunger Games) coddled it together with some average writing (umber eyes, anyone?) and forgot to add in a plot that would entertain the reader (the entire purpose of a book) until the last page.
For my full thoughts on this book: Year of Asian Stories: We Hunt the Flame
Two books in this section were DNFs. Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox and Blood Ninja.
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Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox just failed to capture my interest or attention. I barely managed to make it to the 25% mark and then gave up on it in favor of Christmas (according to my Goodreads, I read it on Christmas Eve) and in favor of my very much anticipated reread of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I feel like, with a bit more editing and another revision, this could have been a great book, but so many things kept throwing me off as I read that I just didn’t want to spend any more time on it.
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It was pretty much the same with Blood Ninja: I kept finding so many “off” things during the first few chapters that I just couldn’t get into it, and so when I finally hit the 25% mark, I gave myself permission to stop reading it for a few days and see if it called me back. It never did, and I ended up giving my copy away to a friend who is a middle school teacher whose kids probably enjoy it now a lot more than I did when I read it.
Contemporary/Non-Fantasy
Of the books in the contemporary section of my original post, I’ve read only four of them: A Tale for the Time Being, I Love You So Mochi, Fukushima Dreams, and Norwegian Wood.
A Tale for the Time Being and Norwegian Wood both got two stars, while I Love You So Mochi got four. Fukushima Dreams, unfortunately, was a DNF. You can expect a review for I Love You So Mochi to come in the following months. I’ve already posted my review of A Tale for the Time Being, and I may or may not post a full review of Norwegian Wood.
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A cute contemporary with an interesting FMC that, unfortunately, had a few mini-WTF moments and some stuff that I wish had been expanded upon further.
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400 pages of absolute nonsense–a dual POV story that didn’t even need Ruth’s POV. This could have been a single-POV story with just Nao’s story and I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more, if not for the blatant disability slur this book tossed out like it was no big deal.
For my full thoughts: Year of Asian Stories: A Tale for the Time Being
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Nothing about this book was fun. Murakami got us to ship the main character with one of the girls, then all of a sudden took that girl out of the picture and got the main character to have instalove with the girl’s roommate, instead. There were a bunch of things wrong with this book, so if you’d like me to post a full, unabridged review of it, I will.
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I just couldn’t get into this one. I DNFed it at about chapter four. I feel like this could have used another editing pass to make the prose stronger. And I couldn’t connect to Sachiko, our main protagonist, either. By the time I got to the point where I ultimately stopped, I was just bored reading this and wanted to move on to something else.
Nonfiction
I have actually managed to read two of the four nonfiction books I set for myself: My Awesome Japan Adventure and Japanamerica.
Japanamerica got a 3-star rating from me, on account of it being quite outdated, boring to get through, and less of an examination of the history of anime that I thought it would be and more of a statement about ANIME WAS CAUSED BY THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA, which kind of got shoved down the reader’s throat every other sentence. My Awesome Japan Adventure was just a really adorable read that I loved to bits and gave five stars. As it’s a picture book, however, I don’t feel like there’s enough content there to discuss, so I don’t foresee this getting a full review. It is a really great book for an upper elementary kid to learn about Japanese culture, though, if you’re looking for something like that. Though if you would like a review of My Awesome Japan Adventure, please let me know and I will share my full thoughts on it. 
April 6, 2020
Year of Asian Stories: We Hunt the Flame
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book was a part of my Year of Asian Stories challenge. To view more information about the Year of Asian Stories, please visit the Year of Asian Stories Announcement blog post.
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal is about… gosh, I don’t even know. Prepare for some tea to be spilled on this book, so you are fairly warned. Also I take no responsibility for spoilers that follow.
The beginning was really slow, but if a book has a good slow beginning, I don’t mind, because that gives us a chance to learn about the world and get to know Zafira. This beginning was just your typical Every Other YA Book Ever because it Steals All The Fantasy Concepts From All The Other Stuff And Doesn’t Do Anything New.
True, I was excited at the concept of Arabic Elves. But the safin (these elves) are EXACTLY THE SAME as Tolkien’s elves. There is NOTHING different. Immortal? Well, they wouldn’t be Elves otherwise. Beautiful? Oh, you bet. Magical? Well, yeah, that’s also a requirement. Mysterious? What else would elves be?
At least Paolini put his own spin on this trope! I was hoping for a new spin on this familiar concept.
My “Oh, I guess we’re just mashing a bunch of other fantasy novels together and calling it a day!” radar went off when in one of the early chapters, the characters talked about living near the Wastes, which is a term you might recognize from Howl’s Moving Castle (granted, it’s called The Waste, singular, in HMC, but it’s still a penalty against this book)
Then you have the Teenage Girl Who Hunts In the Forbidden Part of the Land To Feed Her People, Supported By the Brother-Like Male Friend Who Loves Her But Can’t Say So Because She Don’t Need No Man, And She Also Has the Mother Who Is Unable to Cope After Her Father’s Death and The Little Sister Who Needs Protecting. Wonder where that came from…?
Oh, and speaking of things stolen from Hunger Games, there’s also the girl who had her tongue cut out by the dictator as a punishment, both for her and the main characters.
And then there was also a mysterious magical lady called the Silver Witch, which sounded way too much like the White Witch from Chronicles of Narnia for my liking.
The real kicker was when Zafira started talking about the Arz (the magical mysterious forest) that was threatening to swallow up their village and was the ticking time bomb for the plot to happen. Hmm, where have I heard that before?
(for those who are unaware, this is the toxic jungle from the postapocalyptic animated film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which is an amazing film and you should watch it instead of reading this book)
The writing is beautiful, although there were some parts that irked me. Like how Faizal decided that
Paragraphs
written in
this format
were a good
idea.
And “umber.” Guys, if I ever hear the word “umber” again, I’m going to claw my ears off my head and then gouge my eyes out with a rusted fork because literally EVERYTHING in this book was “umber.” Umber eyes, umber skin, even at one point, an umber sky! Oprah, tell it like it is please.
I kept having to backtrack and reread things because nothing was explained enough for me to be able to understand this convoluted mess of a plot. But then even after I reread something, I still didn’t understand it because NOTHING GOT EXPLAINED EVER.
I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND reading this and just DIDN’T CARE AT ALL. The writing is beautiful, sure, but beautiful writing does not equal a good book. The sentences you string together, however beautifully, have to MEAN SOMETHING and these pretty sentences describing food and umber eyes didn’t MEAN anything. I read to page 410 and I literally do not care about finishing it. Apparently Nasir is seeing the ghost of his mother or something at that point in the book but GOD THIS BOOK IS SO BORING.
My favorite GIF can tell it better than me…
DNFed at page 410, but I read very thoroughly up until that point so I’m counting it as “read.” Tell me what happens during the last sixty pages in the comments of this review. Or don’t, I don’t really care.
Thank you very much for tuning in, everyone. If you’d like to support my content, make sure to follow The Discerning Reader blog to get my newest posts direct to your inbox.
“Like” and share this post on your various social media platforms, and make sure to follow me on these other sites:
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Happy reading everyone, and I’ll see you next Sunday!
Corinne 乙女
For business requests, including book review and press inquiries, please see my contact information.
You might also enjoy these other posts from me:
Year of Asian Stories Announcement
Year of Asian Stories: A Tale for the Time Being
February 27, 2020
The Goblets Immortal: Giveaway!
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Today I have partnered with Flame Tree Press and Random Things Blog Tours to bring you AN AWESOME GIVEAWAY OF A THING AND I AM SO EXCITE TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT
*hyperventilates*
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Okay, I think I’m calm again. I just get SO EXCITED ABOUT SHINY BOOK-THINGS!!
May I present to you… THE GOBLETS IMMORTAL by Beth Overmyer!
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In a land where magic’s feared, a rare magical kind exists: the Blest, products of the Goblets Immortal. Aidan’s a Blest on the run, forced to return home. He made his family vanish decades ago, but believes there’s a way to bring them back.
Whispers of a new fear take shape in Meraude, a mage who hates all magic-kind. When she appears in Aidan’s dreams offering a bargain for the return of his family, Aidan’s desires battle with his self-preservation.
Is it wise for Aidan to seek the Goblets Immortal for Meraude’s unknown purposes? Friend and foe blur the magical lines, and Aidan must discern who will shake his hand or slit his throat.
OHMYGOD THAT COVER YOU GUYS IT IS SO SHINY AND GIVES ME CHILLS
And for all you awesome people today, I have a very special thing to give to you…
Flame Tree Press wants to give one of you lucky ducks a free paperback copy of this shiny epic fantasy novel! And guess what? THIS BOOK GOES EVERYWHERE! You can receive this book no matter where in the world you live. So even if you live in the middle of the Arctic Circle, or at the edge of the Sahara Desert, or on a remote island in Japan, THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN TO YOU, TOO!
So how does one win this awesome, shiny book?
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Well, first, you’ve gotta be at least eighteen years of age. No offense to you younger folks, but legal requirements and all that. We can’t legally give it to you if you’re under eighteen. However, as I’ve stated above, as long as you’re at least eighteen, you can live anywhere in the world and still be able to enter!
To enter, you have to be subscribed to me on Youtube. If you already are, GREAT! You are automatically entered to win.
If you’re not, what are you waiting for? Click here to visit my Youtube channel The Discerning Reader! I post reviews and book discussions talking about the books you should be reading, focusing on how having Asperger’s Syndrome (a disorder on the autism spectrum) affects my reading experience. All subscribers to my Youtube channel will be automatically entered to win. Winner will be chosen March 9th and will need to provide a valid shipping address upon request. The announcement will be made on all my social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and here on my blog, of course!
And for a bonus entry, go ahead and follow me on Instagram, too!
Anyone following me on Instagram or subscribed to me on Youtube will be automatically entered to win this shiny paperback, so don’t wait and get your entries in! It only takes a second!
If you don’t end up winning this paperback, don’t worry! The Goblets Immortal is available for purchase on Amazon or wherever books are sold! Might I suggest supporting a local independent bookstore, as well?
Thank you very much for tuning in, everyone. If you’d like to support my content, make sure to follow The Discerning Reader blog to get my newest posts direct to your inbox.
“Like” and share this post on your various social media platforms, and make sure to follow me on these other sites:
Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook
Happy reading everyone, and I’ll see you next time!
Corinne 乙女
For business requests, including book review and press inquiries, please see my contact information.
You might also enjoy these other posts from me:
Book Review: To Court a Queen by HL Burke
Book Review: Whispers from the Depths
The Goblets Immortal cover and blurb provided courtesy of Flame Tree Press publishing. Blog tour poster courtesy of Anne Cater at Anne Cater, Random Things Blog Tours.
January 27, 2020
2019 Bookish Survey
It’s the end of another year, and here I come at you again with another end-of-year overview.
2019 was another big year for me book-wise. Last year, I reflected on the start of my blog/Youtube channel and my obvious preference for paperbacks and hardcovers over ebooks and audiobooks. This year, I also discovered a lot of bookish things about myself, and did a lot of bookish things.
First, I learned that I need to read in absolute silence. I can’t be watching TV or listening to music (sometimes instrumental music is okay as long as it fits the mood of the story, but lyrics are definitely distracting).
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I also learned that it’s okay if I don’t write a detailed review of EVERY SINGLE BOOK. I can just write a few sentences, or even just rate it without saying anything, especially if I’m not planning to review it here on my blog.
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2019 was also the year I started my “Lord of the TBR” game–each month, I play the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Adventure Board Game and choose my TBR based off that. Want to know more about my game? Click here to watch it in action!
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And 2019 was also the year my Rainbow Bookshelf came into being. This thing took a good five or six hours to sort all the books by color, and then figure out whether or not this dark blue book was darker than this other dark blue book, and whether or not this red book was darker than that red book… ugh. But because it took me so much time and energy, I now can look at it and feel proud of my handiwork!
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I also learned that it’s okay to not like a book even if everyone else around you loves it. Even if it’s written by a favorite author, or a friend, or a friend helped write it, or a favorite author blurbed it, or it’s been compared to a favorite author of yours. No matter what the hype is around it, if you don’t like it, it’s okay. In a similar vein, it’s okay to like a book even if most people are saying it’s not good. The only exception to this would be a book that is damaging in some way; see the “bury your gays” trope for an example. [image error]
Without further ado, here are my 2019 bookish stats, along with some 2020 bookish goals!
Original survey taken from Perpetual Page Turner.
Let’s start with 2019 Book Statistics.
This year, I read 120 books. That’s more than double what I read last year! (last year, I read 50 books!) It’s also the number of books I’d set myself as a reading goal: ten books every month, for a total of 120. But I was reading up until the very last minute of December 30th (the 31st was reserved for house cleaning and cooking, because we were hosting a New Year’s party at our place). I had wanted to read The Silmarillion as my final book of the year, but only got about 25 pages in. I was thinking that I’d just finish reading it after the holiday season ended and stay at 119 books for the year, until I picked up a copy of The Cellar by Natasha Preston at the thrift store.
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This was such an interesting read that I ended up tearing through it in one day just before the year ended. This year, I’d like to read the same number of books–120–but because the end of the year is always so busy with all the holidays one after another: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, then my dad’s birthday in early January, I’d like to read as many books as possible during the spring and summer months so I’m not as pressed for time once the holidays hit.
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The most popular book I read this year was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling. This was, of course, a reread for me. It remained at a solid four stars, which is the rating it’s always gotten from me.
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The least popular book I read this year was Disney The Little Mermaid Jr. Actor’s Script, which only two other people have read. This was a fun little read I picked up at the thrift store that I felt really expanded on the Disney adaptation, like Ursula’s motivations for revenge against Triton and why Ariel would trade her voice for legs, that I ended up giving four stars.
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My average rating for books in 2018 was 4.0. Not surprising, considering that, as I look at the list of every book I’ve read this year, 95% of them were 4- and 5-star reads.
I reread a ton of books this year, including:
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And now, for 2019’s Best in Books!
Best Book of 2019
WHY MUST I CHOOSE THIS ISN’T FAIR THERE ARE SO MANY
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But I think if I had to absolutely choose, it’d be Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones.
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This is the sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, which I read for the first time in 2016. I recently reread it this year, but though I had hoped that it would go up from my original rating of four stars to a shiny five, it remained at a solid four stars upon reread. But this one got an undeniable five-star rating–it’s cute, it adds so much to the worldbuilding of the first book, and though it feels weird to have a sequel follow an entirely different character in an entirely different city with no mention of any places or people we met in Book One, we soon travel back to Howl and Sophie, who are now expecting a baby together!
Also can we just take a minute to look at this cover? This is the UK edition of this book, and I LOVE THIS COVER SO MUCH MORE THAN THE US EDITIONS. I happened upon the UK edition at the used bookstore, so now I have the US editions of Book One and Book Three (still TBR), and the UK edition of Book Two. Maybe I’ll splurge someday and get the UK editions of the other two books and the US edition of Book Two so I have two complete sets of this amazing series!
Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Would Love More But Didn’t
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That would be a tie between Norwegian Wood and Don’t Read the Comments. Both of these have the honor of being a “hyped and well-loved romantic contemporary that has taken the Internet by storm,” Don’t Read the Comments being a YA contemporary and Norwegian Wood being an adult contemporary, that I was sure would be at least a solid four-star read that both ended up getting two stars from me. You can expect a review for Norwegian Wood to be featured in the coming months here on my blog, but hop on over to my Goodreads to see my thoughts on Don’t Read the Comments! Because I want to keep my blog mostly positive and only review books I’ve enjoyed, I never posted my review for Don’t Read the Comments, but I will have to be negative at some point and talk about Norwegian Wood, since it was a part of my Year of Asian Stories challenge and you guys have really responded well to my blog posts about that, even when I’ve done nothing but complain about the book.
Most Surprising Book You Read (either for good or bad reasons)
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This honor goes to Now and Zen by Linda Gerber. This was a book I’d been super excited to read and specifically asked for Christmas last year (2018). At the time, I was wanting to read ALL the YA books set in Japan, especially when it centered around a study abroad situation like the one here! I originally gave it one star and DNFed (Did Not Finish) it, but then I felt like I was too harsh. This was in January 2019. Then in August of this past year, I decided to get rid of some books that I didn’t want anymore, but upon picking it up again, I felt like I’d been too harsh with it. So in November, I picked it back up and gave it another try and… I was surprised. I liked it much more than I originally thought, though the romance was still cringeworthy and made me want to barf. But I managed to push through until the end, and ended up raising my rating from one to three stars.
Book You Pushed the Most People to Read (and they did)
This year, that honor goes to Shade’s Children.
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Nix is my most favorite author of all time, hands down, and I always shove his books in everyone’s faces, unashamedly. This year, I reread Shade’s Children (twice!) and I used Goodreads’ “recommend” feature to recommend it to everyone I know. Only a few days after that, I saw that a friend of mine had added it to her Goodreads and rated it five stars.
Of course, since I am a book reviewer, this honor could belong to any number of books, especially since my page views have almost doubled what they were last year, but I can’t confirm precisely how many people picked up a certain book because of my review, so I’m going with the one I have the most data for.
Best Series You Started in 2019/Best Sequel/Best Ender
For this question, I’m going with “starting a series” as being I read both Book One and at least one subsequent book for the first time in 2019, because there are a lot of series where I’ve read Book One for the first time this year but despite my best efforts, I haven’t gotten to read the other books in the series yet. There are three specific series I’d like to highlight for this question, so the best series I started where I read at least two books in the series for the first time is…
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The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis! I happened upon this box set at the thrift store (I think I paid like, $7 for the whole thing, since they were selling books for $1 each at the time, best purchase I’ve ever made) and though I watched all three movies as soon as they came out in theaters, I never actually picked up the books. Not even The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I’ve so far read The Magician’s Nephew, along with the three books that became movies: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I also read The Horse and His Boy, too, but we don’t ever talk about that one because it’s not actually canon and it’s incredibly racist). LWW is my absolute favorite of the series so far, mainly because I feel like Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader were both better as movies. I haven’t yet had a chance to read the last two books in the series (but that is definitely on my list for 2020!)
But in the meantime, the best sequel I’ve read this year…
would have to be Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. I’ve had all three of the books in this trilogy for as long as I could remember, but I only ever remember reading the first book, Inkheart. And I barely remembered anything that happened in Inkheart except for the names of the two main characters (Meggie and her father Mo) and that he was a bookbinder and could read characters out of storybooks and that Dustfinger, a character who was the victim of Mo’s talent, wanted Mo to read him back in. So I gave Book One a reread earlier this year (five stars, up from my original rating of four!) and Book Two I read just before Christmas. And OHMYGOD it did not at all disappoint. The two main leads are thirteen (Meggie and a young man named Farid) and have a romantic plotline developed, which feels both forced and rushed, but the prose is even more beautiful than Book One and I couldn’t put this one down until I reached the very last page.
As for the best series ender, there are two contenders, as I finished two series this year. The first was The Courageous Princess.
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I’m pretty sure some of you remember me talking about this in last year’s end-of-year wrapup. This is a trilogy of MG fantasy graphic novels with some fairy tale elements. I read Book One in 2018, loved it to bits, and then picked up Book Two and didn’t love it as much. In January of this year, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Book Three and finish off this series. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped–I was thinking that maybe Book Two was just suffering from middle book syndrome and Book Three would wrap things up nicely, but Book One remains my favorite of this series, at a solid four stars, while Books 2 and 3 both ended up at three stars each. I do intend to go back to this series someday and give it one more try–sometimes on reread, I end up liking something a lot more than I did the first time.
However, The Courageous Princess doesn’t earn the designation of best series ender because there was an even better one I read:
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By virtue of it being a four-star read rather than three, the “best series ender” title this year goes to Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I picked up The Hunger Games trilogy for the first time this year and devoured it. I cheated a bit and watched the movies first, then read the books. Books One and Two were amazing and awesome and totally got me into dystopian, which was a genre I’d never been interested in before. Book 3 was a rather disappointing wrap up to the series, but as a fellow author myself, I think it still holds up because it reads as if this is how Collins intended for this series to end; sometimes you read a series and it feels fake, like the author intended for it to be different but the publishers/editor forced them to write it that way. I think Collins remained true to how she intended for Mockingjay to end up, so I can at least respect that.
Also, I’d like to offer some honorable mentions to books I’ve read that were Book One in a series and I want to continue/finish them in 2020!
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Favorite New Author You Discovered in 2019
It’s a tie between Maggie Stiefvater and Natasha Ngan.
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Both of these books are extremely similar in my mind–YA fantasy, super-hyped authors, first in a series, both books I expected to get only a three-star rating from me but both of which I enjoyed more than I expected and gave four stars instead. Both of which I intend to obtain the sequels to in 2020 and read the heck out of.
Best Book From a Genre You Don’t Typically Read
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This would probably be A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Before this year, I’d only read a few classics, and only then because of school, and not enjoyed very many of them (though I did enjoy Wuthering Heights when we read it in high school and Journey to the West when I read it in college). But then I discovered children’s classics, and OH BOY DID MY LIFE CHANGE. I picked up Peter Pan in early March, and it was the first classic I’d read since my school days. I loved it and gave it four stars. After that, I decided to try picking up even more classics, and I found that children’s classics, particularly ones that focused on fantasy-based storylines, such as Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, and The Little Broomstick, were very different from War and Peace and Lolita. In my exploration into children’s classics, I discovered A Little Princess, and I LOVED IT. The father-daughter relationship in this book, particularly, was what got me in the feelz.
Book You Read in 2019 That You Would Be Most Likely to Re-Read
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But seriously, I’d like to reread all of them. How long it would take me to get to rereading them (because I suffer from the common syndrome of Wanting To Reread All the Books But Feeling Guilty Because You Have So Many Unread Books) is the main problem, but definitely rereading any of my 2019 reads (well, the four- and five-star ones) is going to happen at some point.
But let’s go ahead and do a LIGHTNING ROUND of Top Ten Books I’d Be Most Likely to Reread in 2020!
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
American Panda by Gloria Chao
The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix
The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
Howl’s Moving Castle series by Diana Wynne Jones
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Whispers from the Depths by CW Briar
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Favorite Cover of a Book You Read in 2018
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Just gonna leave this here. Really, though, the image doesn’t do it justice. The actual book has one of those holographic covers that shines slightly when you tilt it. Then the spine of the book is this gorgeous red that’s also holographic, and then when you take off the dust jacket, it’s got this gorgeous naked hardback…
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Most Memorable Character of 2019
That is most definitely Ginny Moon.
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Ginny Moon is a thirteen-year-old girl with autism who is in foster care with her fourth “Forever Family.” Each time she’s placed in a new foster home, she tries to escape and make it back to her birth mother, who was neglectful and dating an abusive boyfriend at the time. It’s been four years and her caseworker is pretty tired of her always running away from foster parents as soon as they were found.
But Ginny has a reason she wants to go back to her birth mother, even though her foster parents take good care of her and want her to stay. That is to rescue her “baby doll,” who she took care of in lieu of her scatterbrained mother and who she wants to protect from her mother’s abusive boyfriend.
As a girl with autism, I relate so much to Ginny and her voice–it was like looking back at who I used to be (though I didn’t go through foster care after being taken away from an abusive situation.) The entire book is told from her perspective, and I was just blown completely away by the plot twist, and by Ginny’s perspective on the situation.
Most Beautifully Written Book of 2019
This is a tie between
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke and
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Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan.
Girls of Paper and Fire is a contender because though I don’t usually like reading first-person present tense POV, especially in fantasy, However, Inkspell has to get the award for this. Funke’s work always manages to remind me why I love to read: great characters, immersive worlds, and beautiful words.
Favorite Passage/Quote From a Book You Read in 2019
As I said last year, I don’t remember many individual quotes or passages. Last year, I had James Rallison’s How to Be Cool and Other Things I Learned From Growing Up, which reminded me of his sage advice to “Always wear your seatbelt.” But this year, I don’t think I have a favorite quote.
Shortest/Longest Book You Read in 2019
The shortest book I read this year was Laced by HL Burke, at 23 pages (this was a new read for me, but Burke is definitely not a new author to me, and she’s definitely a favorite author of mine).
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The longest book I read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, at 870 pages (a reread).
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Best Debut You Read in 2020
I think this honor should go to Meet Me in Outer Space by Melinda Grace.
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This was a YA contemporary that had been on my “I have to read this book sometime” for some time. The reason being is that this is an #ownvoices disability contemporary about a girl with central auditory processing disorder. I was planning to use it as a comp book (in publishing, a “comp book” is a book that has either been recently published or is a classic, well-known one that can be used to say “if you are a fan of this story, you will enjoy this other book!”) for my WIP, which I’m thinking is going to be an #ownvoices contemporary about a girl with Asperger Syndrome (a disorder on the autism spectrum). I still have yet to even finish the first draft, but I ended up reading this one because of that. It was a very enjoyable read, and I gave it a solid four stars.
Best Worldbuilding
This year, that honor goes to
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I hate to be repetitive, but again, this book is fantastic. Come for the beautiful cover, stay for the worldbuilding, fall in love with the unique characters. You feel as if you’re actually in the Inkworld with these characters as you’re reading.
And that’s a wrap for 2019! Here’s hoping 2020 is as good reading-wise! I’ve set my goal for another 120 books in 2020, and if I know myself, I know I’m not a quitter. I’ve only read two books so far this year, but that’s because I’ve been focusing on writing my own novels rather than reading other peoples’. My current project? PIRATES!!! Yargh, mateys!
Finally, allow me to close with a bit of housekeeping. I am changing my upload schedule a bit, from Sunday mornings to Monday mornings. And rather than every week, for the next few months, I will be uploading only ever other week. I hope you understand. The once-a-week requirement means that occasionally I feel as if I’m rushing to put out my content and it’s not as high-quality as I’d like it to be. Having extra time in between each review will mean that I can give you guys the highest quality content and the best recommendations, because after all, that’s what you come here for, right?
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Corinne 乙女
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December 15, 2019
Year of Asian Stories: The Twelve Kingdoms
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It took me a while to figure out my rating for this one, but I think I’m putting it at 3.5 stars.
Why I Read This Book: I am trash for books set in, or that talk about, Japan. I used this one as my “Year of Asian Stories” prompt during my Lord of the TBR game in October, 2019
TROPES THAT NEED TO DIE: I should make a whole video about TROPES THAT NEED TO DIE because here, we start off with one of the worst ones ever… THE DREAM SEQUENCE! We get an awesome action-y sequence that could be a great lead-in to learning how she came to this new world and what’s going on, only for her to wake up in a cold sweat in her own bed, while she’s still a normal Japanese high school student. Dream sequences suck because they’re fake-outs. You’re leading the reader to expect one thing, and then all of a sudden it’s like “JUST KIDDING! IT WAS ALL A DREAM!” You can literally put ANYTHING in a dream sequence and then just cancel it out. And the stupidest place to put a dream sequence is in the FIRST CHAPTER OF THE BOOK WHEN THE READER HAS NO IDEA WHAT TO EXPECT.
And not ten pages later, we have a second dream sequence, this time when she’s sleeping in class. Here’s an idea: rather than having her dream things all the time, why not have her be in class and get the willies that something is coming to get her? But then she looks out the window and everything is normal, and yet for some reason, she’s really restless and can’t shake her sense of foreboding.
Yoko also spends half the book “nodding” and “smiling.” This is such weak writing because if your characters just nod all the time, they’re going to be bobbleheads. Why not instead give her a unique tic that she does instead of nodding, like sucking on her braid or something? All I know about Yoko from spending 475 pages with her is that she is “the girl who nods.”
While we’re on the subject of weak writing, this book really suffers from repeating headword syndrome. “Yoko did this. Yoko’s head hurt. Yoko did that. Yoko walked over there.” Every other sentence started with “Yoko” and it got really annoying and repetitive.
And on the subject of the writing aspect, if you are someone like me who likes their books to be free of typos and errors, you might not enjoy this book as much because there are several typos. Then there’s a scene later in the book that takes place on a terrace. Page 444, Yoko is standing on a terrace with Rakushun, a half-beast who is her traveling companion. His “slight figure droop”s, then he starts pacing around a bit, all while Yoko can still see him. He raises an eyebrow at her. Obviously he can see her. But then in the VERY NEXT LINE, she “turned around to see Rakushun standing on his own shadow.” The “standing on his own shadow” part makes NO sense, but I don’t even care about that because she wouldn’t need to turn around in the first place if SHE COULD ALREADY SEE HIM!
To this book’s credit, once I hit chapter two, the reading experience really improved and I breezed through an entire two hundred pages. Except for one part that tripped me up at page 125, when another character writes what Yoko describes as “the characters for good and elder sister”: 達姐
which, to me, who has studied Japanese and knows how to read it, I wouldn’t really translate the first character as “good.” Its meaning is more along the lines of “to arrive at, to attain,” I breezed through a whole 200 page section. From pages 55 to 288, I was just dashing through, loving everything that was happening–Yoko arrives in a new world but Keiki, the strange man who brought her here in the first place, is gone. So now she has to find a way to survive in this new world. Her foreign origins make her a fugitive, and every time she meets someone who might be her friend, she is betrayed, to the point of becoming disillusioned when she meets someone who is kind to her out of the goodness of his own heart. It was just a very pleasant reading experience.
Then we hit page 288. Oh, boy. It would have been one thing to have Yoko hold this belief but then be proven wrong later in the story. Apparently this is nihilism, but it reads less like that to me and more like the author is trying to suggest that atheists don’t have any morality because they don’t believe in a god or deity.
There was no such thing as a godsend in this world, no such thing as luck, no good fortune to hope for. That was why the people took any chance they could to make money, even if it meant selling out a friend.
The one who thinks this is our main character, Yoko Nakajima. But these incorrect beliefs of hers never get questioned. She never meets someone (aside from Rakushun, but even his existence doesn’t make her think that she was wrong) who doesn’t believe in a higher power but still has moral values and does nice things just for the heck of it. As an atheist myself, I got pretty offended after this point and put the book down for a good 24 or 48 hours before coming back and finishing it.
(BTW, atheists DO have morality, and lots of it. If you’re curious as to where we get our morality, my favorite Youtuber BionicDance has a few good videos talking about it.)
Only about forty pages later, we get another sh*tty trope, and that is, THE RESURRECTION TROPE.
Going to remain vague here to avoid spoilers. A certain character is dead. Like, 100%. There’s no question about it. Yoko examines their body very closely and notes “there’s too much blood just to have come from the kochou (attacking demons).” Vaguely she realizes that they could still be alive and snitch on her, but they’re dead. No question about it. They’re dead.
Forty pages later, we see this character again. They’re alive, with no visible scars to show that only a month ago, they suffered grave injuries that nearly killed them. Plus Yoko has just spent about a month on a ship traveling to the next place, only to find this character has beat her to this place, having not only traveled the entire way on foot, but they’ve been there for several days already just waiting for her ship to arrive. (also note that her ship is a fairly advanced passenger vessel with talented crewmembers who could still sail even with no wind, so “the winds were against her” doesn’t get to be an excuse.)
A few pages later, another character tells Yoko to make sure to meet with the taiho, explaining that this is a term for a minister to the king. It takes Yoko FOREVER in book time to remember where she heard this. Meanwhile I’m sitting there yelling at her, “KEIKI USED THIS PHRASE WHEN YOU FIRST MET HIM!! HE SAID IT LIKE A BILLION TIMES!! WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO REMEMBER WHERE YOU HEARD THAT WHEN YOU SHOULD ALREADY RECOGNIZE THAT????”
Damn, Yoko is one of the stupidest protagonists I’ve met.
Oh, and speaking of contrivances, Yoko meets (view spoiler)[the Ever-King (hide spoiler)] THE VERY DAY SHE WRITES A LETTER ASKING FOR AN OFFICIAL AUDIENCE. How contrived is that?
First off, how did he even get her letter? He wasn’t even the one who had received it. The letter was addressed to his taiho, not him. According to the narrative, he wasn’t even in the area when the letter arrived. Second, how did he get there so fast to be able to meet with her? Even though he’s mentioned to be essentially (view spoiler)[a god (hide spoiler)], he still wouldn’t be able to use any sort of magic teleportation power. And yet mere hours after she sends her letter, her problem is solved for her! He just believes her entire story without ever questioning it!
The whole last twenty or so pages of the book made pretty much no sense. They’re off to battle the king of the neighboring country, but the reasons for them needing to fight in the first place aren’t well-explained. The (view spoiler)[Ever-King (hide spoiler)] reminds Yoko that the only advantage they have will be the element of surprise; the odds are against them. The army travels to Iryu, but we don’t know how Iryu is important in terms of the overall story (eg. why would capturing Iryu give them a political advantage? I thought they were heading for Sei).
It seems as if the author just wrote the scenes she thought were interesting and skipped over the “boring battle” scenes. An early example of this is when Yoko is traveling alone through the mountains and spends months on the road. She apparently fights demons daily, but she “fought, jwiped her sword and moved on.” Which, I could technically understand. We’ve seen her fight demons before, so there would be no point showing us another demon battle unless it was plot relevant. But then the author just CUTS THE ENTIRE FINAL BATTLE SCENE. For ten or so pages, Yoko and her friends are gearing up for a huge battle, but there’s not much book left, so you wonder if the book is going to end just before the battle begins and Book Two will start with the battle.
Nope. The entire battle scene itself was skipped, even though Yoko (our POV character) would have witnessed and participated in it. Her main role in the battle was to storm the castle, sneak inside, and free the imprisoned Keiki. This entire major plot point was simply written off in one sentence: “Deep within the castle, past all the battlements, Yoko reached Keiki’s cell.”
Um, I thought the odds were against them? And how did Yoko manage to sneak through an entire castle, where ostensibly every corridor is full of demons fighting each other? And how did she know where Keiki was being held? The final ten or so pages are just a complete head-scratcher, earning this book its designation as a “WTF ending.”
To its credit, I still did enjoy most of the story, and would be willing to reread it, even though that reread is sometime far off in the future probably. And I might pick up Book Two and see where it’s going, though it’s not really a priority for me at this point and there’s so many other books I want to read.
This book was a part of my Year of Asian Stories challenge. You can view my full Asian Stories TBR blog post using the link below:
Year of Asian Stories Announcement
December 8, 2019
Book Review: Angel Mage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Good, but not as good as Nix’s other works, I feel.
I think this one suffers from a time crunch issue, and that maybe one or two more editing passes on certain elements would have helped to improve the overall story, where it’s obvious that Nix might have been pressured to meet publishing deadlines and didn’t have time to do one more final tweak.
The kingdom of Ystara is falling, and in the final battle, Liliath sneaks away and enters a deathlike sleep in the tomb of Saint Marguerite, emerging over a century later to put her carefully-laid plans into action: to resurrect Palleniel, her lover and the Archangel over Ystara, and restore her kingdom to its former glory. At the center of her plans are four very different people: Agnez, the dedicated warrior, Simeon, the skillful doctor, Henri the mathematician and clerk, and Dorotea, a woman skilled in the creation of angelic icons. All four of these young people hold a piece of Palleniel within them, and Liliath will stop at nothing to bring them under her control and restore her lover to his former glory.
As always with my reviews, I’ll alternate between discussing three good things about the book and three bad things, starting with a bad so I can finish on something good.
Not so good
Some parts have rather confusing ways that they were written, and the writing was clunkier and less polished than his other work. In the first half, especially, Nix abuses the h*ll out of the word “said.”
“Said Henri. Said Agnez. Said Dorotea. Said Lilliath. Said Beci. Said Rotheford. Said Simeon.”
Also he abuses the h*ll out of “nod.” My personal pet peeve. It just reads like amateur writing when a character does nothing else but “nod.”
In terms of the confusing writing aspect, at one point (near the end) a certain character dies, but that’s not clear, so we don’t know if he’s dead or not, so when he suddenly reappears in the next chapter without any explanation, you’re not sure if he died and was somehow resurrected (which technically would be plausible in that scene despite my hate for the resurrection trope) but it’s ambiguous as to whether or not he did actually die.
Ironically, though Nix abuses the h*ll ot of the “said” dialogue tag in the first half of the book, in the second half of the book, there’s a very plot-relevant conversation that seems to take place between three different people with no dialogue tags whatsoever. I still don’t know who said what in that scene even though I’ve reread it twenty times.
And now, something good about this book!
FRIENDSHIP!
Y’all know I am trash for stories about friendship. Two girl BFFs, two guy BFFs, platonic boy/girl BFFs, groups of good friends… This story is no exception. Over the course of the novel, the four characters, Henri, Simeon, Agnez, and Dorotea, form a strong bond despite being total strangers when they first meet. And at the end, when the four of them promise to be friends forever, I just… FEELZ!!!
Another not-so-good aspect
A very important group of people appears in this book, and they call themselves the Night Crew because they are thieves and beggars who work at night. But this term also appears in Nix’s Old Kingdom series, used to describe a group of undead workers to a young man who doesn’t believe in magic. It made me very confused, like he was trying to link the two stories together somehow. I wish that Nix had given them a different name to avoid this confusion, ex. “the Midnight Thieves” or “the Darkness Whisperers.”
But something else that was really good about this book
Really good representation for multiple marginalized communities! This has multiple people who identify on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, multiple POC people in all forms of professions, women doing everything that men are able to do, and a matriarchal society in that the Queen is in charge, and the King is just the guy who hangs out on the side and comes when he’s called.
Along with that, the main LGBTQ+ relationship in this story (and the main romance in the story in general) is the hinted romance between Dorotea, one of our main female protagonists, and Rochefort, a female guard captain, and… I kinda ship it. They just need to go off and live happily ever after together. xD
The final not so good part
This was kind of my main pet peeve with this story, and that was the extremely large cast, with characters who just kinda felt one-dimensional, or worse, didn’t have a presence at all. It felt like sometimes they were doing something because the plot demanded they do it, rather than out of any personal motivation. I might have actually been able to remember and care about some of these characters if they didn’t ALL HAVE THE EXACT SAME NAME.
Here follows an abridged dramatis personae of some of the characters who appear in this novel, in alphabetical order:
Dangenne
Dartagnan
Debuil
Decastries
Dehiems
Delamapan
Delazan
Delisieux
(Lord) Demaselle
Demaugiron
Demesnil
Depernon
Depuisne
Derambouillet
Deramillies
Deranagh
Derangue
Derossignol
Deruyter
Descaray
Desouscarn
Devan Derangue
Dorotea
Dramhiel
Dubois
Dufresne
Dumauron
Dupalladin
Duplessis
Dutremblay
I mean, if you need to have a large cast of characters for your story because you’re doing a Game of Thrones style epic story, that’s one thing. But at least vary your alphabet a little! And many times, multiple of the above named characters would share a scene, or be mentioned in the same sentence, or be mentioned once and never again! There is such a thing as alphabet fatigue, you know. If you need a random guy in a scene to react with shock and horror but he’s not actually important to the scene, but the characters do technically know his name, at least give him a name different from all the other characters in the story! When Dufresne and Dupalladin appear in the same scene as Dubois and are talking to Descaray and Devan Derangue, it really starts to give you a headache! >.<
And finally, to end on a good note
The worldbuilding in this novel is amazing, as expected of Nix. You quickly get absorbed into the story, and it’s hard to stop reading. And the ending is FEELZ, though it does wrap up a little too conveniently, and Henri, Simeon, and Agnez are essentially irrelevant despite all being main characters…
In conclusion
Another page-turner from Garth Nix that would appeal to fans of traditional epic fantasy in the vein of Tolkien, Sanderson, and George RR Martin, and would be a good bridge into the epic fantasy genre for older teenagers who want something new.
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Corinne 乙女
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October 6, 2019
Book Review: Whispers from the Depths
Whispers From The Depths by C.W. Briar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Happy October, everyone! Here’s a dark, gritty read to get you in the mood for Halloween.
Disclaimer: I received a free paperback copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, and all thoughts and opinions I give are my own.
Whispers from the Depths is a standalone epic fantasy that I think would appeal to fans of Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan: political court intrigue, interesting magic system, etc. I think if someone was just starting out with the epic fantasy genre, this would be a good introduction, as it’s not too long or overwhelming. Though you will see later that I think its short length works against it somewhat.
Betka is a Whisperer, gifted with a heavenly power to use her voice to control water in various forms. She’s the palace water-bender Whisperer and is enslaved by the king and his army with physical, mental, and magical chains. When she hears that the castle Kysavar where her sister Tosna is being held is being attacked by the water demon Ylvalas, she goes with the rescue party to find her sister and in the meantime, maybe find a path to freedom.
It did not take me very long to become absorbed in the unique magic system of this world. I loved the world building in this book and though I kept questioning whether or not a 292-page book would be enough to satisfy my need for Tolkien-level worldbuilding, it did not disappoint in that aspect.
One aspect that suffered greatly from the small page count was the pacing. Stuff always felt rather rushed, and there would be huge time jumps in between chapters where it would just mention offhand that “Betka figured out the prayers needed to repel the water to get them to the roof,” or something like that, but such a big deal had been made out of the issue of how is Betka going to learn this or there’s not enough time for her to do any studying before Ylvalas destroys them, that you feel rather cheated. Some examples of this include in Chapter Three, when Betka frets about needing to go on the ship. We’re led to believe that there’s a chance she won’t be allowed. So in Chapter Four when she’s on the ship and they’ve already been sailing a few days, it feels like an entire chapter is missing, one where Betka had to convince her masters that she NEEDS to be on that ship no matter what. Or in Chapter Thirteen, when Betka almost dies trying to get the group into the castle, and it seems impossible to get in. Then in chapter fourteen, it’s just mentioned offhand that “Betka’s prayers had gotten them inside” when you kind of wanted to see her work through that problem, since it seemed like such a huge obstacle for them. Or in a similar vein, the timeline in the past that is shown to us how the current regime came into power. In one chapter, Eder, a young Whisperer, is taken captive and is going to be sold as a slave to a local lord. This is a problem for him, because the sacred treasures his master entrusted him with are at the temple and he’ll no longer be there to guard them. So he resolves to sneak into the treasure room that night and try and save them, however possible. Then, the next time we see Eder, it’s twenty years later, he’s married to the lord’s widow, and there’s only an offhand comment of “He never had been able to get the treasures.” Well, we wanted to see him fail to get the treasures and barely escape with his life, thank you very much.
The writing in this book isn’t the greatest—lots of characters “nodding” (my pet peeve, and at one point, a character nods then immediately answers “yes,” making that nod redundant) the same word (eg. “dropped”) being used two sentences right next to each other, giant infodumps of completely redundant and irrelevant information at various places, pieces of dialogue not having a clear attribution as to who is saying them or who is being addressed by the speaker, passages where seemingly everyone in the vicinity got swept away by the demon but all of a sudden the main group of guards is still there, etc.
The characterization in this book really needed some work. Sure, we got to know Betka, and you could say we got to know Eder in the five or so chapters we see of him, and Betka spends a lot of her time either with Asi or reminiscing about the good old days with her sister Tosna, so we also get to know Asi and Tosna. But Bren, Rorlen, Denogrid, Purvos, Vydan, and pretty much any man who came from either Tosna’s or Betka’s castles just faded into the background unless they were mentioned again. Rorlen and Denogrid literally read as the exact same person until (view spoiler)[Denogrid’s death (hide spoiler)] about halfway through the book. During the second half of the book, we got a POV chapter from a guard working at the Kysavar palace and one from Rorlen, but why did we need either of those chapters? Rorlen’s chapter served no purpose, and the chapter from the guard working at Kysavar certainly got us to feel sympathy when we learned about the hundreds of deaths that happened there, but that’s just it. We’re told that innocents, women, children, elderly folks, all died. Any normal person would be horrified to learn about the slaughter of a single child, much less hundreds. Instead, we should have had chapters characterizing one or two of the men in Betka’s group. For example, Betka is helped by Kuro and bonds further with him, and then Rorlen makes fun of him. Or someone tells Betka a story about Bren’s past, giving us a good idea of who Bren is besides “a random guy who came with the group and who is close to death.”
In summary: An enjoyable read with amazing worldbuilding that would appeal to fans of classic fantasy stories in the vein of Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan.
Thank you to Uncommon Universes Press for sending me a free copy of this book. You can learn more about them by following Uncommon Universe Press on Twitter and visiting their website! Don’t forget to also follow CW Briar on Twitter and purchase a copy of Whispers from the Depths on Amazon!
You might also enjoy these other posts from me:
Book Review: Girls of Paper and Fire
Book Review: To Court a Queen by HL Burke
Year of Asian Stories: Red Winter by Annette Marie
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Corinne 乙女
