Ricky Pine's Blog, page 86

Review: Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This Russian-inspired Leviathan-esque steampunk-fantasy is a fast read all the way. Although it's not until the last hundred pages that the pacing dials up into the stratosphere - I mean, wow. What a way to end it! - the earlier parts are loaded for bear (pun not intended) with plenty of world-class world-building on Bardugo's part.

Though I still prefer the Six of Crows duology because I feel like that series has better characters (a...

Review: Dividing Eden

Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Normally, I love me a good Joelle Charbonneau book, but this one - her first stab at the fantasy genre, as far as I know - left me a little wanting. The concept's a pretty good one - royal siblings forced to fight for the right to rule their land, reminding me of Three Dark Crowns even though I haven't read it yet - but the execution kinda fell flat for me. A major issue, of course, was the third-person POVs used - similarly to Thr...

Review: Tenth Grade Bleeds

Tenth Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Appropriately adorned with Pravus purple in its series title, series number, author name, and iconic fanged smiley, Tenth Grade Bleeds, the midpoint of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, proves to be one of the series' darkest, most emotionally damaging entries. Damaging not only for poor Vlad, but for we the readers as well, especially when we get firsthand glimpses of Vlad's tortured psyche. It gets to the point where he even commi...

Review: Masquerade

Masquerade by Laura Lam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Luckily, having discovered the first two books of Micah Grey's trilogy pretty late, I only wound up having to wait about a year and a half before finally getting around to the long-awaited conclusion - and thank the Lord and Lady that Laura Lam got to see the whole series through in the end, because I, for one, would've been extremely devastated if Micah and Drystan didn't get their shot at a happy ending. That said, though...haha, I almost sa...

Review: Hunting Prince Dracula

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now that I work at the Stanford University bookstore, they say I've now got access to any of quite a number of ARCs that the bookstore manages to get ahold of...and for my first ARC pick, could I have possibly done better than this unique blend of forensic science, the late Victorian era, and the Gothic?

I read Stalking Jack the Ripper not long after its initial release last year, and wasn't so impressed with it at the time,...

Review: Ninth Grade Slays

Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For introducing Joss McMillan to the world, this one gets five stars from me every time.

No, seriously. This second book of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod introduces the best character that Z Brewer ever gave us, ever, and don't you forget it!

But aside from Joss being around, this book also introduces a few elements that are more important to the remaining three books, like the crew of goths who hang around at Bathory High (and one...

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, The Bicon We Deserved

So tonight, this two-year-old article dredging up more sordid details about the Sony Pictures email hack resurfaced and made the rounds on YA Twitter, and you know what? Even though I gotta get up early in the morning to go to work, I have to speak up on this, because it's really too near and dear to my heart, the subject matter at hand. Not to worry, I shouldn't take up too much of your time.

As a Spidey-fan, it's easy for me to blame Sony for everything that goes wrong with that franchi...

Review: Miles Morales

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*enters the room in full-on Oliver Queen mode*

JASON REYNOLDS, YOU HAVE STOLEN THIS DREAM! IT WAS RICKY PINE WHO WOULD ONE DAY WRITE THE SPIDER-MAN BOOK THAT WOULD TAKE THE WORLD BY-

*bursts out laughing*

I'm sorry, I just had to go there...seriously, though, it was a dream of mine for years that I would be the first to write an official YA Spider-Man novel for Marvel. Though I had Peter Parker in mind, and clearly Marvel had other plans....

Review: A Torch Against the Night

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For whatever reason, my library is always A) really slow to acquire copies of Sabaa Tahir's books, and B) never picks up more than three or four of each, which means the waiting list can get super-duper long, super-duper fast. Hopefully they'll have finally learned their lesson by the time the forthcoming third novel comes out next year.

Like a few other fantasy sequels I've read in my time - Ice Like Fire, frex - A Torch Again...

Review: In The Afterlight

In The Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been almost three years since this trilogy ended, three years since I read this book...and while I really loved it the first time, looking back, I see that In The Afterlight still suffers from the big classic Alexandra Bracken flaw of excessive overlength. Like any of the previous entries in The Darkest Minds trilogy, I could really see a lot of times where, let's face it, Bracken could've striven to cut the whole thing dow...