Corbie

Edit for the new content 27/09/22. Was debating on dropping the score after a reread, but the added epilogue is exactly how I thought the end of the book should have ended in the first place. So maintaining 5 stars. B horror movie vibes, don't take the book too seriously it'll ruin it for you.

Previous review:
I really enjoyed it, but probably not for the right reasons. A lot of it was just downright hilarious to picture, the ‘creepy' parts were especially funny but even the romance parts had me asking how I was supposed to be taking any of this seriously. The book leans more on the romance than thriller aspects and honestly if you watch horror movies then the plot isn't much of anything new. So you're going into it just for the thriller you might be let down.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night starts out strong, however starting a few chapters in the book becomes very similar to a slew of other books on the market. The magic system is interesting and probably is the thing that helps this stand out most, but the characters fell a bit flat which made it a bit harder to read through.

If you can push through it it picks back up enough by the end to leave you wanting the sequel.

I went into this book blind and it became pretty clear in the first half of the book that it was originally a reylo fanfiction. Although I'm sure the name ‘Adam' and the cover illustration helped in clicking that link though.

Honestly though it vives better if you're thinking of it as a fanfiction. It's quite a clumsy read as actual novel, requires suspension of disbelief of quite a few scenes to make sense.

While I generally enjoy reading republican opinions the author of this book didn't provide much of that.

The solution to the ‘democratic plantation' does not lie in the republican party. The entire system is flawed and the entire system needs to take action to fix itself.

To keep this as short as possible: Owens acts as though the democrats are trying to make the US a socialist state. First of all, being an actor in a socialist country does not mean that you'll get the same amount of parts as an actor less talented than you. I can't imagine what kind of mental acrobats the author had to take to come to that conclusion. Secondly, many of the socialist programs in the US are backed by republicans. Any American reading this should be well aware of this fact after the mess that 2020 has been. Stimulus checks are a form socialism and they were backed by both parties. The bailouts for airlines? Socialism. Medicare? Socialism. All of which Trump had little issue signing. And even before 2020 that man was handing out money to our farmers as though it grows on trees. Don't want a socialist in the White House? Well they're all third party so you really don't have to worry about that happening any time soon.

There is an entire section dedicated to religion, and this countries ‘Judeo-Christian' values. We are a country founded on the belief of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. If you choose to vote for someone based on your religious beliefs that's your prerogative, but to act as though people are turning their back from God for voting blue when the top blue contenders are also Christians as well is laughable. The Bible is up for interpretation and the sheer number of competing churches in this country should be more than enough to show that while we may share a belief in God we do not all share the same views on what that means.

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum you have nothing to gain from reading this book, it's just a long rehash of the usual republican propaganda. You've likely heard it all before.

A group driving through a blizzard in an attempt to get home for Christmas come down with a case of cabin fever. Make a bunch of bad choices, commit some crimes, try to make everyone else into the bad guy. Its very slow building in the first half and then everyone starts pointing fingers based mostly on vibes.

It was a drag to get through and probably not going to be picked up again

(normal disclaimer: received free ARC, etc.)

We're still a year out from the anticipated release, so things may of course change between now and then so I don't want to go too deeply into this, but as of the current state:

The writing definitely gives both Sailor Moon and Cinder vibes without feeling like it was copying either story. We got magical girls, we got magical creatures, we got secret societies, we got several types of representation, we also got a group 7 boys who are definitely not inspired by any 7 real life boys and will hopefully hang around in the following books.

It's overall a promising start to the series. Here's to hoping that not too much changes between now and the final copy and that the cover art will do it justice when it is finally revealed.

In Penance you follow four girls as they try to live their lives after a finding the body of their friend murdered while out playing with them one day. Not only do they have to deal with survivors guilt they also have a threat from the girl's mother looming over their heads.

There are six chapters to this book, each chapter tells the story of one of the girls from the lead up to the murder and on to years later when the statute of limitations is about to run out, with the fifth chapter being dedicated to the dead girls mother and then finally the conclusion. You get to see how Emily's murder affected each of their lives and how each girl tries to fulfill the promise to Emily's mother to either find the murderer or complete an act of penance to her satisfaction.

Each girl offers a unique perspective to Emily and her murder and they all end up in drastically different situations, so it doesn't make the story feel repetitive even though they're technically all telling the same story.

The author writes as though he has created a groundbreaking new philosophy while just rehashing the works and stories of others. It's clear that he has lived quite a privileged life and doesn't understand why the average person might give a fuck about things such as their income or just not being an asshole to those they care about. While I generally agree that many people give too many fucks in life if his examples of the things he stopped giving a fuck about are true then the author could do with giving a few more fucks.

In this book we follow a stressed mother as she tries to navigate the chaos of evacuating ahead of a category 4 hurricane as her life seemingly comes crashing down around her. The writing in this book is chaotic, sometimes in a good way and sometimes not. The character growth is largely lacking, and many of the problems that Ramona stresses about have solutions that are so simple that it draws you out of the story. Put a diaper on your kid and go girl.

It's a short read with lots of humour added in, but it's not quite what was promised.

*Review copy via Netgalley

After all the hype about this book, it was actually rather disappointing. Though that might have been because of the hype.

Parts of this book were extremely frustrating. There are parts where the characters go against their established role for no good reason only to flip back again. Plot devices were a little too obvious and characters didn't even have to try to get to the information they weren't supposed to find. Also: “Oh, she didn't know that? Odd considering she was told three chapters ago!”

That being said, the story is one that is easy to get hooked onto. Roth didn't give away too much about any character too quickly. The calm bits are written in a way that lets you move through them quickly enough to get to the high moments without losing interest. And the ending was also written in such a way that if you were to decide not to continue reading the series you can still feel like there has been some resolution, even if the major conflict hasn't been settled.

I liked this a lot more than I honestly thought I would. It's quite dense, but to the benefit of understanding. The author gives you the poems, a background to the poets life and what events likely inspired the poems as well as a deep analysis to the contents of each poem. You can tell through the writing that this author is passionate about the topic which makes it a lot easier to read through.

*Review copy via Netgalley