Ricky Pine's Blog, page 62

Review: The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A pretty good little piece of epic fantasy, this Sanderson book - which so many at my work have been reading lately, and I'm very glad I picked it up again for the first time in almost four years because, frankly, I'd forgotten most of the details up to now. Rereading this first book of Sanderson's magnum opus, though, it's easy to see just how well-thought-out his work really is. Maybe there's a lot of stuff that's a little hard...

Review: The Supervillain and Me

The Supervillain and Me by Danielle Banas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Was it SwoonReads where I first read this manuscript in its original form, or Wattpad? Either way, I'm very happy to see it finally published formally. Though I'm not happy to admit that it took me this long to finally pick it up again after its publication. Probably owing to the fact that my library, for whatever reason, never picked up this book and I had to special order from Sacramento like so many others.

I remember a lot...

Review: Someday

Someday by David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As the official follow-up to Every Day - notwithstanding the semi-concurrent companion piece Another Day - Someday continues the story of A and Rhiannon and especially of Nathan, with a few new additions - namely, some random POVs of a very diverse group of people scattered here and there throughout the narrative. And also, X. Dear God, X. This guy was such a piece of work, taking A's unique body-surfing abilities and gaining a certain measure...

Review: An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason

An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason by Virginia Boecker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel like there's been a bit of an uptick in books rooted in the historical conflicts of Protestants and Catholics in Elizabethan England lately. Earlier this year, Nadine Brandes gave it a magical twist in Fawkes, and now, Virginia Boecker makes her return to alternate-historical YA with a less magical but still pretty fun read. Though Assassin's Guide is a little more slow than I'd like at times, and the...

Review: Archenemies

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*sees the cover*

*SCREAMS IN FANBOY*

My favorite cover of 2018. Hands down. No question. Period.
As for the book behind the cover, it's a bit of a comedown from the first book of the Renegades trilogy. Don't you just find it annoying when Middle Book Syndrome happens? It's a shame, because there's a lot of good material to go around here in Archenemies. The continuing saga of Nova and Adrian and their star-crossed secret villain, secret hero l...

Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a very different kind of book from Tahereh Mafi, being a contemporary romance - well, not exactly contemporary. It's set in 2002 and very steeped in its time period, with computers that felt like dinosaurs even back then, only one Harry Potter movie in theaters - and how was Shirin to know it was almost three hours long? - and costly cell phone minutes and texts, and no fancy touch screen models either.
But of course, Maf...

Review: Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Adib Khorram debuts strongly in this story of a biracial Persian boy coming to understand his own identity a bit better - not only as a Persian, but also as a depressed young man. There's a lot of talk in this book about what's passed down genetically, and in addition to certain deep aspects of Persian culture - Nowruz festivities, the game of Rook, daddy issues rooted in certain legends of warrior fathers accidentally kil...

Review: Villain

Villain by Michael Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who else thinks this cobra-head guy on the cover looks like he stepped out of the Stargate to lay waste to us all? Kinda like this or something.



So effectively noticeable he is, in fact, that he completely manages to overshadow the other big detail on the front cover of this book, a detail I failed to notice until after devouring the whole thing in one sitting - the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

As the follow-up to last year's Monster, Vil...

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Oh My Disney, This Movie Is Awe And Some!

***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***

"Hello hello
Let me tell you what it's like to be a zero, zero
Let me show you what it's like to always feel, feel
Like I'm empty and there's nothing really real, real
I'm looking for a way out!"
-Imagine Dragons

Let me also tell you that I'm very glad Imagine Dragons made "Zero" part of their brand-new album the way Fall Out Boy did for "Immortals" and Big Hero 6 roughly this time four years ago, because it totally deserves album inclusion for greater expos...

Review: Dry

Dry by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While we wait for Neal Shusterman to bring us the third and final Arc of a Scythe novel, here he collaborates with Jarrod Shusterman on a more contemporary, and yet more terrifying, dystopian kind of novel. Twenty Minutes In The Future, the California drought - particularly in the more arid Southland - has grown so bad that now all the taps have run dry, and in a period of two weeks or so, pure apocalyptic chaos erupts in and around Los Angeles...