i really couldn't stop reading this, and the book has really impacted with me. it feels wrong to say i loved this, but i did. this is a very dark and i really couldn't stop reading this, and the book has really impacted with me. it feels wrong to say i loved this, but i did. this is a very dark and bleak story, but it is also filled with connection and hope. once in a lifetime story, without question, and i can't wait to read the next book in this series. but please use caution and look up tw/cw (or just know... every tw/cw you can imagine is in this book)
“She was so tired. Overwhelmed. There was something incredibly therapeutic about sitting, pulling a blanket around herself, and watching someone el
“She was so tired. Overwhelmed. There was something incredibly therapeutic about sitting, pulling a blanket around herself, and watching someone else’s problems for a while.”
this was such a love letter to stories, storytelling, art, creating, and the connections we make because of them. this book really emphasizes why we need stories, why we need books, and movies, and dramas, and video games, and our family to pass down the stories that were passed down to them. this is not only one of my favorite brandon sanderson books, but it is one of the most beautiful things ive ever read. i recommend this with my whole heart.
like all the books in this secret project series so far, i personally feel like you can read this without reading any other brandon sanderson book. but you will just appreciate more things if you are caught up with the cosmere, especially if you are a little knowledgeable about his stormlight series…. with roshar and spren and investiture!
this is a story about two people, from two very different worlds, who have made a connection against all odds. And when these two meet, via body swapping, they discover the lives of each other alongside the reader. This story is also very inspired from the stories of your name, final fantasy x, and hikaru no go.
☆ Yumi - from an ancient historical korean inspired world where spirits are summoned to help from rituals. yumi is a yoki-hijo who can control the spirits with her stone stacking, and since birth her life has been all honor and devotion to the people of her world who need help from the spirits.
“And more. Yumi was one of the Chosen, picked at birth, granted the ability to influence the hijo, the spirits. It was an enormous honor among her people. And they never let her forget it.”
☆ Painter - from a more modern day japanese inspired world that is set in darkness with neon lights being the light source. nightmares manifest into actual monsters in this world, and nikaro is someone who uses art to banish them and their violence away from the city
“Trauma doesn’t decrease with company, but it does grow easier to work through when you know someone else understands.”
i really loved both of these worlds and settings, but the noodle shop in painter’s world was everything. i mean, obviously the owner and the coatrack were perfection on their own, but just that setting was so cozy and warm and perfect to picture in my mind while reading. i really hope we get to see at least a glimpse of it again in the future.
okay okay, let’s talk about the romance. i feel like i am a little in the minority with this, but i always like brandon’s romances. (truly, vin and elend are the reason i love bodyguard romances!) but i really loved the relationship in this book - its very slow burn, and it really focuses on their friendship, and them being the people they want to be, not the expectations placed on them by their worlds and circumstances. but oh my gosh i was weeping, truly weeping, at the romance in this book. i loved it completely. and i truly believe the second to last chapter in this book (i am trying to be vague hehe) is one of the best things brandon sanderson has ever written.
i was also very moved with brandon really implementing discussions on ai generated art and creation throughout this book. Humans really put themselves, their experiences, the experiences passed down to them, their blood, sweat, tears, their entire existence into their art. Meanwhile, machines just take and take and take and erase and erase and erase. i feel like he incorporated this very loudly and very softly at the same time, throughout this entire novel, and it is an important conversation we all need to be having and actively trying to dismantle.
and speaking of artwork, aliya chen has created some of the most beautiful pieces of art throughout this book. these illustrations truly enhanced and elevated this story to a new level and, again, really emphasizes the importance of human’s creating art and forging connections that transcend words.
“Human beings are bundles of emotion puppeting muscles like a marionette. We emote not only with our bodies, but with our very souls.”
in conclusional gushing, you will see me holding this beautiful special edition up in my end of the year, favorite books of the year picture. i am very obsessed with this and it really was close to perfection for me. truly a reminder why i love art and reading and escaping into worlds with characters like this.
this is a story about a man who wakes up in medieval england with no memory, but a deep feeling of great loss, and a physical handbook to guide in thithis is a story about a man who wakes up in medieval england with no memory, but a deep feeling of great loss, and a physical handbook to guide in this new adventure. we get to learn about this world that is like ours, but with the technology to travel to multiple dimensions, while also having augments to strengthen your human body. but ultimately, this story made me realize that from this point on, i think i will only read sanderson's cosmere stories.
this was truly such a disappointment. i get what sanderson was trying to do, and trying to critique, but it is so surface level that it just ends up feeling extra bad and extra hollow (especially when cops and law enforcement are involved throughout). there are constant "jokes" and "funny" star ratings throughout this story as well, and they truly constantly made me feel like i was cringing out of my skin. on top of it all, our main character is so damn unlikeable, and i think he is meant to be, but he extra made this book so insufferable to read for 400 pages.
i am giving this two stars because steve argyle's art is so beautiful and was truly the shining star of this entire work.
trigger + content warnings: memory loss, battle, death, murder, violence, loss of a loved one in past, grief depiction, depression depiction, pandemic mention, brief mentions of loss of a child, kidnapping, self harm for proof of medical abilities, talk of colonization, gun violence, mention of cheating, suicide ideation
“If I ask what I'm asking only of people who agree with me at the outset, with whom I already share a dream and a language, then there's no point i
“If I ask what I'm asking only of people who agree with me at the outset, with whom I already share a dream and a language, then there's no point in asking at all.”
becky chambers really is just a once in a lifetime writer, and i truly am always so profoundly touched by everything she writes. in this novella, we follow four astronauts on a space mission to visit and research four exoplanets. and each visit, the crew uses their perfected somaforming to adapt their human bodies to the new uncharted land, instead of adapting the land to their human bodies. and each landing is quite a different research experience. but this book also focuses on the importance of love and relationships - all the different kinds - and the exploration of those relationships while traveling through the galaxies. and it was just wonderful, and i fell so easily in love with this crew (like i always do with becky chambers stories)!
this book will really make you think about the wondrous joy of discovery and all the beautiful things that can come from learning about new things and new ways, but also make you think about the ethical side of things and what is okay for us to discover and learn, and at what cost do we also deem that learning and discovery to be an okay price. there is a constant theme of community and how if we want to build greater things, we need so many individuals that also believe in greater things (and greater hope for better things… one day). also, how things change so vastly from decade to decade, but seeing how things change in a blink of an eye in this book is really haunting and, again, really thought provoking. and as always, her books make you think about how small we are in the grand scheme of the universe, but that doesn't make us less important, or less beautiful, or less destructive.
lastly, i dont really know how to put this in a more eloquent way - but i read the special edition with a little extra acknowledgement to her mom, and it was lovely and brought an extra tear to my eye. every part of this story is written thoughtfully, hopefully, and so very beautifully. i highly recommend this one for everyone.
trigger + content warnings: blood, talk of cancer briefly, vomit, a little talk of eating/eating habits, talk of war + famine, depression depictions, anxiety depictions, implied loss of loved ones, suicide ideation
“Pandemics don't approach like wars, with the distant thud of artillery growing louder every day and flashes of bombs on the horizon. They arrive i
“Pandemics don't approach like wars, with the distant thud of artillery growing louder every day and flashes of bombs on the horizon. They arrive in retrospect, essentially. It's disorienting. The pandemic is far away and then it's all around you with seemingly no intermediate step.”
i was a little apprehensive going into this story, because Station Eleven is one of my favorite books of all time, but i really didn’t enjoy The Glass Hotel. i was really on the fence about starting this, but i am so happy that i did because i ended up really loving, and being so very moved, by this story. Also, apparently i am really starting 2024 off with reading all the scifi books involving time and love.
sea of tranquility is a story that starts in 1912 and ends in 2401. we get to read from four characters throughout this timeline: edwin (1912), mirella (2020), olive (2203), gaspery-jacques (2401). and slowly (and oh so beautifully) see how they all connect because of a maple tree and a violin.
i feel like i really don’t want to say anything more about the plot, but i promise you these four people are woven together in a really lovely way. we get to see plagues and heartbreak and loss, but we also get to see love and hope and devotion. to me, this book was all about the connections we make, the ripples we all leave in the universe, and how even when humanity looks and feels so hopeless at times, more humans ultimately want to do good and want to help one another. And seeing this story unfold over 500 years was just a really heartfelt reminder that maybe 2024 melanie needed.
trigger + content warnings: colonization, vomit, suicide mentions, talk of a lot of loss of loved ones (partners, parents, siblings, friends), grief, gun violence, incarceration, brief prison setting, blood, and a lot of talk of pandemics and plagues and illness (this book heavily talks about pandemics in a way that i think could be very triggering. I’m not sure i was ready for that in 2024, but i just kept reading, but i do want to warn friends that this book feels very heavy a lot so please use caution!)
nk jemisin is so brilliant and such a gift to our world. i really recommend going into this one without reading reviews, just enjoy this wonderfully crafted story that is very clever and... ahhh, i just love jemisin so much.
also, personal to me, i love an unexpected colorado river mention :)
i keep putting off this review, because i know whatever i type will just not do this book justice. this really is a masterpiece in every way, and for i keep putting off this review, because i know whatever i type will just not do this book justice. this really is a masterpiece in every way, and for sure one of the best books i've ever read, but it also felt physically painful to read while being an american right now. (i mean, always, but just... extra heavy right now.) but, i will try my best.
“This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own.”
a memory called empire follows mahit dzmar, who is from a very small mining space station, and this story begins as soon as she lands in the center of the multi-system, the teixcalaanli empire, where she will be the newest ambassador. she has been raised learning everything about teixcalaan, in hopes of one day being able to work in the heart of the empire she has loved her whole life, but when the last ambassador goes missing, mahit is able to make that dream come true bigger than she ever imagined.
in this world, there is implant technology that manhit’s people have, called imagos. and basically, as long as the people are compatible, they can share a chain of actual human life memory, that they can keep passing down, essentially sharing a body, at least your current body when the years of memories of the person’s implant that is implanted in you. yskandr, the previous ambassador, has been missing for three months, and they do not have this implant of the last twenty years, but they have an out of date imago of his first five years in teixcalaan, and that is what mahit has with her while she is embarking on this new job and new journey.
when she arrives, she realizes really quickly that maybe this empire wasn’t very worthy of her dedication. the people of teixcalaan remind her that she never will truly be one of them throughout this book. she also is experiencing riots and uprising from resistance groups, while also seeing people in power using war as a source of profit for themselves. mahit getting very intertwined with the emperor and learns lot about what yskandr was doing during the fifteen years he was not checking in with lsel station.
there is also a sapphic situation going on with mahit’s cultural liaison, three seagrass, who she meets when arriving to the empire, and who is supposed to kind of bridge the two cultures more easily for mahit, and assist her with anything she needs or does not understand. And they really make a connection of poetry, which is a big part of this world and story, and i just really loved reading about them - even though i know there is a lot of layers to this and it’s really complicated (which is also probably why i enjoyed reading it).
this is a space opera, this is a murder mystery, this is a romance, this is about connecting and learning and loving other cultures that are not your own, this is about imperialism and the forever more and more and more colonization that comes from it. arkady martine really has created something powerful, and important, and real, yet also very beautiful and filled with empathy. this duology really deserves all the awards it has received, and a memory called empire really is one of the best books i’ve ever read. (also, it is my favorite book title of all time, i think, too!)
trigger + content warnings: colonization, colonialism, use of the word barbarians talking about people who are others, death, panic attacks, mention of consuming ashes of someone, blood, bombings / explosions, talk of child birth, assault (unwanted touching), poisoning, wound descriptions, surgery, needles, riots, fetishization, grief, war, seizures, violence, loss of a loved one (friend), self harm (to get blood for an oath), suicide / sacrifice, and a lot of xenophobia
i was a little scared when starting this, because i didn’t love the previous volume, but this one reminded me of all the reasons i love this series so very much. it has been six months since the heartbreaking ending of volume ten, and we see where hazel and her family have been hiding this time. new alliances with so many other beloved side characters are forging, while alana is just doing everything she can to protect her kids.
i really felt like the writing in this volume was just outstanding. so raw, and real, and made me feel so many different emotions. i have said this since the beginning, but hazel narrating this story is truly the reason i believe it is so beloved, but her voice really just made me feel everything in this one. and the back to back story pages were brilliantly, yet heartbreakingly, done. (that “lying” made me immediately weep like no other word could.) but i also loved the last chapter so much too, and i think the creators really left this at a point where volume 12 is really going to start a truly new era for the series.
trigger + content warnings: death, murder, gore, violence, war, loss of loved ones - partner, parent, child (and constantly discussed), grief, slavery mention, animal death (not lying cat), blood depiction, use of the r word (challenged + in a negative light), unhoused displaced family with children.
It’s really been three years since I read the last installment and saga took a little break. Man oh man, time feels so fake sometimes, truly. Sadly, I don't know if it's me, saga, or the break, but I really didn't love this one, but I am excited to see where the new start of this chapter goes.
I felt like there were so many shock value things in this, and I disliked each one. But I still adore Hazel and Alana, and I wish I could give them the whole universe that they deserve. And their depiction of trauma and grief was really heartbreaking but really powerful. But the end did break me, I am not gonna lie.
tw/cw: violence, war, threat of sexual assault to children, drugs, blood, gore, grief depiction, trauma depiction, a lot of nudity and some panels with sex.
i still really enjoyed this, and i still love the main characters with every ounce of my being, but it just didn➽ 1.) A Psalm for the Wild-Built ★★★★★
i still really enjoyed this, and i still love the main characters with every ounce of my being, but it just didn't hit the same as book one did for me, sadly! but i loved the discussions on community and building a community and showing for your communities - and it was all extra powerful. and i also loved the constant theme of boundaries and respecting others boundaries as well. truly a beautiful story, that feels like a warm and healing hug, and i hope becky chambers gives us more! but i also feel like they really ended this one with a beautiful sense of hope and wonder. there really can be so much beauty and power in allowing yourself to be vulnerable (and feeling safe enough with another to do so).
tw/cw: talk of bugs and insects and spiders, and talk and themes of death (and a... fish death!)
“...it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
this was just t“...it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
this was just the perfect book for the exact right time that i needed to read it in my life. we all know books and words and stories have healing powers that are immeasurable, but this book truly feels like you're putting on a band-aid immediately. i am so eternally thankful for becky chambers writing it, and i know it is going to help and comfort so many readers forever.
this felt like a love letter to communication, to finding comfort, and ultimately to just not feeling alone. it touches on how healing nature can be, and how we are all truly connected through it. yet, we have so much we still can learn from one another. but also how there is so much in this world none of us will ever understand, but knowing we are so linked and experiencing so many things together... it makes it not so scary, not so daunting, not so... alone. especially when we are allowing ourselves to feel experiences fully and wholeheartedly. because we were truly put on this earth to do so much more than produce. especially when we are creatures with the ability to feel so very deeply.
and this story really helps emphasize how powerful a cup of tea can be. :]
tw/cw: talk of spiders + insects, mention of animal death, blood + wound depiction.
“Not everyone gets to leave. The least I can do is give them some working lights to read by.”
i know this is a wild thing to say, but with o[image]
“Not everyone gets to leave. The least I can do is give them some working lights to read by.”
i know this is a wild thing to say, but with only two books, i think simon jimenez is a new all time favorite author for me. the spear cuts through water was my favorite book of 2023, and the vanished birds will, without question, make my best of 2024. no one, and i mean no one, stringing sentences, writing themes, and is crafting stories like him. (not to compare but to show you how serious i am about this) i actually truly believe with my whole heart that the two authors currently writing the best books in my world right now are nk jemisin and simon jimenez. what a sentence. you all, please, i am begging you, pick up his two books, and see the actual magic he is weaving to make these stories.
so what is this book about? how do i even begin to explain the galaxy brain that is this story. i guess i will say that this book is about a spaceship traveling the galaxy in a future world of our own. we get to see the crew members on different space missions, and we get to see some people on a 1000 year old space station. And, more importantly, we get to see how they change as people. the captain of this spaceship and the creator of this space station are very connected, and we get to see a glimpse of their life and what love can accomplish and what loneliness can also accomplish.
ultimately, this is a book about change and how everything will change despite anything and because of anything. but this is also a book about time and how that is the saddest and most beautiful thing we experience. this is a book about our ancestors, and the honor it is to know the people who came before us (both blood and/or found family) and who helped shape our very bones (metaphorically, but very physically as well). and this is a book all about love and how we really are never alone, despite how much the world will make us feel so, and how we as humans are willing to do anything in the name of that love and in the name of not being lonely.
this is simply a perfect book to me, and one that i recommend with everything that i am. and now when ube stains my hands, i will forever think of this story
trigger + content warnings: a baby losing a finger, loss of a loved one, loss of a parent, loss of sibling in past, grief, infidelity, blood, anxiety, depression, nightmares, panic attacks, a lot of trauma, needles, child abuse in past, one sentence cannibalism mention, measuring a child’s food/calorie counting, implied suicide, colonization, loss of memory, medical experimentation without consent, talk of climate crisis, gun violence, slavery, torture, surgery, captivity, insect mention.
this owlcrate edition is very beautiful and it really made me excited to pick this graphic novel up! but i thought this was going to be a new story withis owlcrate edition is very beautiful and it really made me excited to pick this graphic novel up! but i thought this was going to be a new story with all new characters set in the world of vicious, so imagine my surprise when eli shows up! vicious was just not the book for me, mostly because of the main characters, even though i loved the concept. but if you enjoyed that story and want a little more in a graphic medium - then i think you will enjoy this a lot more than i did! but i did enjoy meeting charlotte and seeing the new eos!
trigger and content warnings: death, blood depiction, self harm (for power activation), mention of close to attempted suicides in past (for power activation), hospitalization, panic attack depiction, captivity, violence, and gore.
“I wrote this for you, for only you, for you alone out of the millions.”
a very beautiful and powerful reminder to maybe not fear the unkno
“I wrote this for you, for only you, for you alone out of the millions.”
a very beautiful and powerful reminder to maybe not fear the unknown. and to always remember that we are never alone, and never unseen, and we always deserve to be heard (and loved).
oh, the last half of this truly cast a spell on me and i could not stop reading !! i am begging for boo[image] (yes, i brought a book to disney lmaooo)
oh, the last half of this truly cast a spell on me and i could not stop reading !! i am begging for book two immediately !! (and happy valentines day to you all) :]
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