K.N. Salustro's Blog, page 13

Review – Circe

[image error]I liked this book a lot, though it does slow it’s pace the longer it goes.

Ive always been a sucker for myths, folklore, and legends, so a retelling of the myth of Circe leapt right to the top of my To Read list. I greatly enjoyed this, and think the author did a wonderful job bringing depth and personality to so many lofty Greek and Roman deities. The magical elements of this story were captivating, and I loved Circe’s interactions with the other gods as she grew over the course of her immor...

Review – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

[image error]I liked this book a lot. With a pretty sizeable, diverse, and memorable cast of characters, this is a very fun read. My single star shave off stems from the fact that a lot of the book read more as a series of vignettes rather than a novel, but I did enjoy them all.

Following a crew of aliens with four humans in the mix, this book excels at characterization. There’s so much to love about the core crew of the Wayfarer, from brazen but gold-hearted lizard-like Sissex to the mean human Corbin wh...

Review – The Thief

[image error]I have mixed feelings about this book. I swung between liking the characters a lot and feeling like there wasn’t enough depth to them throughout the entire book. The plot was good, but there is so much that’s kept from the readers that it’s difficult to appreciate anything that’s going on.

About halfway through, I started to wonder if this is one of those books that needs to be read twice. Having finished, I think that it is. So, someday, I will reread this book, and see what seemingly incons...

Wizard World Photos

Well, Wizard World is officially over, and I have the head cold to prove it. That’s expected after a big event but man, did this one knock me flat on Monday and Tuesday.

But you didn’t come here to read about my battle with germs. Nah, you’re here for the amazing costume pictures.

Well I’m going to make you wait a little while longer for those, since I do have an announcement to make:

Big arkin plush are now listed in my Etsy shop!

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I had a lot of inquiries about this at the convention, so it...

Wizard World Booth Number!!

I FINALLY have a booth assignment!

I will be in Booth #1503, which is in Hall F.

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It looks like I’m by the concessions for that hall, so if you grab food in that area, you should pass right by me. Come say hi if you’ll be at Wizard World Chicago this week!!

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Review – Rebel Genius

[image error]3 stars on Goodreads, 2.5 in my mind

I was decently excited about this one, given that the author was one of the co-creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. While reading, there were flashes of the things that I loved about those shows (maybe a little too much in some cases…), but ultimately, this book fell short for me.

I loved the concept of Geniuses manifesting and having the power to impact the world, and seeing the different forms that reflected the characters’ per...

Review – Dorothy Must Die

[image error]3 stars on Goodreads, 2.5 in my mind

This book was… okay. It tips either way when I think about it, swinging from too many cliches and tepid characterization and writing, to a fun twist on an old tale.

I think it would have been better as a standalone book instead of a series. There’s a lot of fluff here that could have been shaved, and a ton of spoken exposition coupled with internal monologues of uncertainty that were repeated a bit too often for my taste. At its heart, there was a lot of p...

Review – Down Among the Sticks and Bones

[image error]I actually liked this a lot more than Every Heart a Doorway. Maybe because it was more of a closed story, and maybe because it gave so much more context to the tragic characters of Jack and Jill from that first novel. Either way, it’s a dark, moving read.

This books offers a cautionary tale of what happens to children who are forced into molds they have no say in choosing. Jack manages to break free by finding the things and the people that make her feel whole, and she reaches a sense of bala...

Review – The Bear and the Nightingale

[image error]I did not expect to love this book so much. It turned out to be a captivating read, steeped in fairytales and dark magic. Written in a distant but striking way that manages to make you feel as though you’re listening to a fairytale without ever feeling detached from the characters, I thought this was brilliant.

I have basically no familiarity with Russian medieval culture, so if that’s you’re area of expertise, you may find things to pick apart. The author herself notes that she took some lib...

Review – The Hundredth Queen

[image error]I don’t often give one-star ratings, but when I do, it’s because there’s something bitterly empty about the book. This is one of those books.

I was drawn to this book initially by the thousands of reviewers offering it high praise. I thought the cover was gorgeous, and while the blurb left me a little uncertain, I did check out a sample on Amazon before purchasing, and liked what I read. I went in pretty confident that this would be good read.

I was wrong.

I actually really liked the beginnin...