BulbasaurusThe7th

Gave up at 50%.

I had a feeling I wasn't going to love this. Teen girls is the group I like LEAST as my protagonists and even if you call me names and judge my character based on that... meh. Such is life. I was a teenage girl once, I didn't like it, so I'm not really interested.

Now a huge part of me attempting to read this was actually Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, as that book and this sound the same, with the exception of this being about a religious warrior school for GIRLS, that one the same for BOYS. Hey, great time for comparing our stuff.
And I didn't like this. I'm not saying it's a bad book, if I didn't have an exam in mid-May I would probably finish it, but it gives me no joy and takes too much time, so I'm dropping it. My reasons? I don't like Nona, I find the prose to be over the top and not fluid enough to read, the nun's names are objects and I can't keep it all straight, I don't remember who is who and who does what.
Everyone seems to love it, but I just need to get something else or I'm going mad.
(Though I can't help feeling like their education is stupid in this book. Kids go from one step in their education to the next at their own pace. How can you teach anything to your class when kids constantly come and go? Do they repeat the same things over and over? HOW?)

Good night and find me a sister by another mister!

So I finished this series and I would like to talk about it as a whole for a bit, because I believe it totally deserves more attention than it has gotten. The thing about Jim Butcher is that I find he writes such approachable, human characters. In some circles he is treated like a literary criminal, who is lowly and offensive and just generally not okay whatsoever. At the same time... I love what he does. I love how during his works his characters become more than just paper thin things he moves for fun, because they are fun ans quirky, they have strong personalities, they have interesting connections and stories. Maybe they are not always the flattering specimens who will make you feel like you idealised fantasy self (which I see as a trend nowadays, especially with certain groups, where every character has to be the most idealised, positive example). I kind of love that. So Butcher, once again, wrote a series that felt welcoming and familiar, while still action-packed and fun. Because there is no shame in fun, you do not have to read books that are a struggle to get through, just for some sort of an intellectual bragging right. Unapproachable writing doesn't mean it's good writing. Here we had a story that is a perfect gateway drug for history lovers into fantasy, incorporating the idea of an ancient Roman society getting to a place with all kinds of nature spirits called furies, which they have learnt to work with and ultimately use to extend their own powers. After a few centuries of such life, they are being attacked by the vord, mind controlling, vicious bug monsters of a hivemind, lead by queens with crazy powers. The protagonist, Tavi is a boy who goes from a furiless nobody to become the first lord of their home, Alera and this is the end of his journey through becoming the leader of a country he needs to save as his first move to even have something or someone to lord over. So here is the elephant in the room; this is nothing like Mr. Butcher's Dresden Files. Tavi (or Gaius Octavian, because cool Roman names) is not at all like Harry. He has a completely different kind of strength, one he achieved through constant good decisions, always using his wits to achieve respect and to become an esteemed member of his society. He is not at all like the adorable bonehead with a tendency of powering through as his ass gets kicked in all kinds of ways again. Actually... Tavi kind of feels like the opposite of Harry. Hell, social interactions and human relationships come naturally to Tavi, which... we can't say about the chronic loner Mr. Dresden. It's also written in a completely different way. There is less humour, much less of the quirky crazy time of t-rexes running around and polka music and apprentices with coloured hair at horror conventions. Which is fine, because we are given more political intrigue. More subtle social workings, a completely different way of life, a whole different magic system. Aaaaand it's awesome. I would definitely recommend this to everyone who wants to read fantasy that has a bit of a different flavour, something extra. Of course most will still associate the name of Jim Butcher with the style of Dresden Files, but I find he is much more versatile than that, through this series and his new [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884].

This must be cool, like the Dresden Files, right? It must be, I swear it is going to be awesome like that.
Spoiler: it really isn't.

October Daye is a private detective and half-fae, she lives with her boyfriend and their young daughter, until she gets caught by the person she was following. She doesn't die, though, but gets turned into a koi fish in a park pond for 14 years, until she turns back. Her family doesn't know about magic, so they think she just left, so they want nothing with her. Then a fae boss lady she knows gets murdered and she needs to solve the crime.

You know, by that description Toby probably sounds tough, right? She sounds like a cool person, someone who can stand her ground and just do her shit. I have bad news, she isn't. Toby Daye is pretty much an idiot who doesn't even seem to have a defined personality. One moment she says she has a hard life and was forced to be super though, the next she makes mistakes that make me think she deserves it all for not learning from anything.
Pert of the story is about her ex-bf, who is basically a scary, evil Peter Pan for the half-breed children. Toby goes on long tangents about how he is totally abusive and their relationship was unhealthy and just wrong. What does she do then? Fucking goes to him and sleeps with him because he was nice for 5 minutes. She is not some victim here, she actively makes her own life miserable through sheer stupidity.
But now that we are talking about the men around October we have to discuss that they were all her lovers or flirt like crazy with her. No, honestly, in this one book she has her baby daddy, her evil ex-bf, her nice ex-bf and then also this cat guy who haaaates her, but he is hot and flirty. Do we really need more “I'm so nothing special” female characters who have a horde of male underwear models fighting for their attention? Do we?

The other thing undefined about Toby is her worth. We are told half-human fae types are considered lowly and crap, basically not really taken in by the fae and not suited for living as humans because of their abilities. On the other hand she is connected to all the freaking people. She has her liege, who is super cool, her ex-bf, the lady who got murdered, she is a knight, she solves supernatural cases, she has other friends and such. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like she is in such a bad position when she has extremely powerful people on her side.
She also looks down on said people. Except for the ones who do her bidding, of course.

It's all written in a weird way as well. So lets just imagine someone who is a mother figure to you gets kidnapped and you can't save her. How would you describe her? I have a feeling that “kind and the most egalitarian person ever” is not the way. Egalitarian is cool, but not the way you describe someone whose loss caused you such sorrow, eh? Or if someone around you gets murdered saying “they breached her privacy and murdered her” sounds stupid. Those two things ain't the same kind of heavy. Again, I don't understand why the author made the specific choices when she was writing the book in first person, this is not how a normal human being thinks.
Then again, she seems to have a lot of faux-poetic, melodramatic thoughts. Now of course this is a first novel, which explains a lot, but where Harry Dresden is kind of charmingly goofy in his own first few, kinda clunky books... Toby is more teenage fanfiction.

I'm not saying this can't be okay later on. Maybe it is, I've seen weirder things before, but this first book is not particularly convincing. I don't like the protagonist, the lore is about fae which aren't my favourite fantasy characters, the prose is not at all brilliant, the supporting characters act like Toby is some heavenly perfect creature.
I will most likely read more of it, though. Maybe I'm just not ready to accept that this series is so uninspired and sucky. I would like to like it, to have another fairly light series of fun action and urban fantasy. So I will give it another chance, maybe a few more. For now I'm not sold. But for that Toby needs to grow a freaking spine and stop being such a plain ass nobody who is treated like solid gold.

Good night and let me take a Daye off!

3,5/5 stars God, this took me so long. I mean it makes sense, life is stressful now for me, but still. I was being lazy with this book, partly because I am actually not really a horror fan. There is nothing wrong with horror, but... it's not particularly my thing, so for me it is kind of hard to judge them in any meaningful way. I guess that is what's happening with the newest installation in my series of nonsensical ramblings. Oh, yeah. Jack Sparks is a total dickhead. He is one of those egoistic journalists who keep trying to be special through writing about these predictably “shocking” topics, like drugs and gangs and shit, patting himself on the back constantly. Now he decides to write about... the supernatural, with his idea being that it's all bullcrap, so he can coke himself through it all. The first stop is in Italy, where an old priest is trying to exorcise a teen girl, how original. Jack laughs his ass off and the supernaturals are damn insulted by it, so our hero is in deep shit, which is not made any better by being a shitty person and addicted to all substances that can and will alter your mind. Now does our man sound like a trustworthy, reliable narrator? Didn't think so, so prepare yourself for “Oh, I lied” and “I kinda left this out to sound less like a horrible shithead”, which is something that gives it a bit of charm. Yeah, Jack is like that. As someone who had not particularly good experiences and opinions on many journalists... I can appreciate that. No, he isn't really our charming lad in pursuit of truth, which... makes him painfully realistic for a media personality, not gonna lie. I kind of liked that. On the other hand, this book is REALLY heavy on references to pop culture of the moment, which can REALLY date the thing. It is already happening, I mean I think he mentions Lemmy from Motöhead doing something and the guy is dead since then. I remember reading [b:War for the Oaks 70582 War for the Oaks Emma Bull https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1312059051s/70582.jpg 144029] by Emma Bull a couple of years back and the detailed descriptions of 80's outfits and gushing about Prince being the hottest dude ever. It wasn't too graceful. (Before you ask, I disliked that book.) To be honest, for a horror book, this didn't really freak me out. It wasn't bad, I didn't hate it, but something about it just didn't scare me. Maybe being a bit too much of a sceptic when it comes to genuinely being scared by something like this screwed with me. Oh, well. It was more entertaining than truly scary to me. Don't get me wrong, I am able to be weirded out by fiction (I'm watching Preacher now, Anatol Yusef makes me feel so uneasy, that bastard is good), but this didn't go that far into the uncanny, subtly disturbing and weird territory. Sorry. You emotionally don't get too close to the characters, so not even the shit hitting the fan had too much of an emotional impact on me. Probably part of Jack's detached dickheadery played a part in it; we don't really get to know the characters as human beings, they are more like tools and background items around the protagonist. The cover with the neon colours worked on me, though. It had a bit of some weird feel about it and find that attracts me. Dunno who designed it, but that person is good. It was worth a read. The change of pace for me was enough to make it a totally worthwhile read, even if life intervened and I couldn't just go through it fast. The thing is, I don't know what to expect from the author after this. I have never heard about him. Apparently he did (does?) Doctor Who stuff, which I am not a fan of, so I guess I am just being hindered by my particular tastes yet again. I would be open to read more from him, just not Doctor Who. The final verdict is that you should give it a shot. Short and pretty damn sweet, not at all a difficult read. Avoid if you are easily scared, even though I don't think it went too far. I like that in horror; just the right amount of gory stuff without becoming some parody with cringe-worthy, over the top, comic shock horror that makes me giggle. Have fun and don't let the Devil convince you he doesn't exist!