Ricky Pine's Blog, page 33

Review: Fevered Star

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse returns to the Meridian and picks up pretty quickly after where Black Sun fell off, with Serapio and Naranpa now extra pitted against each other as rival godly avatars, Xiala rather heartbroken by the loss (and naturally, losing herself in a new lover for a few nights - I'm really starting to wonder whether or not Roanhorse took inspiration from Clarke Griffin for Xiala's characterization, and as a ...

Review: Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlie Jane Anders returns with the second of her admittedly weird YA sci-fi trilogy, and as she promised in a recent series of tweets about the ways that middle entries of trilogies tend too often to be More of the Same (I'll forgive her for naming one of my favorite middle entries, Catching Fire, as an example), this second book is pretty well different from its predecessor. For one thing, Tina ...

Review: Youngbloods

Youngbloods by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I...guess that this fourth and final novel of Westerfeld's second cycle of the Uglies world is taking things full circle back to the original? After all, it gets its name from original protagonist Tally, who makes a return as the leader of an ongoing rebel faction roping Frey into the mission to eliminate the last vestiges of the old families...or something like that. One thing I thought was sad about the first book of...

Review: Crimson Reign

Crimson Reign by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three years ago, it seemed like, thanks to one of the most ludicrous cancellation campaigns in YA Twitter history, this book would never even be published, and neither would its two predecessors. Ironic, then, that Zhao has gotten the glorious chance to finish her debut trilogy, while I've noticed a few of those who spoke out against her and her first novel have had their own careers sidelined in recent years. No new ...

Review: Gallant

Gallant by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

V.E. Schwab returns, and this time, with her initialism previously used only for adult novels, this time for YA. Well, partly because she's looking to unify her brand under that one umbrella. But also because didn't she re-release The Near Witch as V.E. Schwab? But still, though, this latest book of hers, her latest haunting piece and most gothic one yet by far, is technically YA but really feels like it can cross over into the...

Review: All My Rage

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's Sabaa Tahir.

Auto.

BUY.

And I'm very glad I did, but as you and I and any other Sabaa Tahir fan can imagine, this one isn't for the faint of heart, not least of all because of Tahir's shift from fantasy to contemporary. Tons of trigger warnings preface this book - Islamophobia, racism, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic and sexual and child abuse, PTSD - and they're all to be taken seriously as Tahir explores the tria...

Review: The Iron Sword

The Iron Sword by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Julie Kagawa likes to stick to a few certain patterns in her storytelling, I've found, and this latest book in the world of the Iron Fey breaks a few of those patterns. While previous series in this 'verse stuck to the same POV throughout, here Kagawa shifts away from Puck's POV (as was in this book's predecessor) in favor of Ash's, with a great deal of emphasis on him confronting his past failures and how they haunt hi...

Review: This Woven Kingdom

This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's not the first time Tahereh Mafi's done a fantasy book, but it's the first time she's done one for the YA audience she's worked with for the vast majority of her career, and it's also pretty well steeped in the legends of a long gone by Persia as she's been hinting she'll write about for many, many years. So here we have it, the first of a promised trilogy focusing on a young woman of secret djinn heritage and a...

Review: House of Sky and Breath

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, you know, this latest book of SJM's modern urban fantasy would've maybe been a 3.5 rounded up to a 4...if not for a few key points against it. As much as I enjoyed the first book for getting my ship right, and I liked that there was some natural progression to that ship's course, I still found that SJM really leaned a little too much on a lot of her biggest and worst tropes that are such pet peeves of me...

Review: Leviathan Falls

Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, this is it...after nine novels (and a collection of stories which I still haven't read because the print compilation is still forthcoming), the book universe of The Expanse finally comes to an end. While it's a shame that the TV/web series ended first after tackling Book 3, then Book 6, is it too much to hope that this book and its two immediate predecessors eventually get adapted too? I'd sure hope so, becau...