horror retelling of snow white focusing on the impossible beauty standards of today as unwillingly passed down from the women that came before us...
thhorror retelling of snow white focusing on the impossible beauty standards of today as unwillingly passed down from the women that came before us...
this was brilliant before i even started reading it.
i wish i hadn't read all's well before this, because the two are sadly very similar (with nearly identical protagonists, writing styles, and meltdown arcs) and this one is much more interesting to me.
instead, i felt pretty irritated by the middle of this book, which was not only a bit repetitive in and of itself but far too reminiscent of that one.
do i feel like it was necessary to make tom cruise and a surfer bro window-washer and a cop character with a romance hero's name major characters? no. but who am i to question whatever was going on here?
mona awad's writing is so, so weird. and if the beauty industry was any less freakish, it wouldn't work. but thankfully we don't have that problem, and the two fit well!
bottom line: in a weird-off, mona wins every time.
hard to imagine a book that sounds better to me than a literary retelling of hades and persephone.
oh MAN this was a ride.
sure, it brought up a lot ofhard to imagine a book that sounds better to me than a literary retelling of hades and persephone.
oh MAN this was a ride.
sure, it brought up a lot of conversations it wasn't ready to finish or even have—big pharma, the opioid epidemic, race in america.
sure, it ended just when it had to prove the mother/daughter point it had been scurrying around for several hundred pages.
sure, our persephone (cory) was annoying and insecure and our demeter (emer) was selfish and obsessive and i pitied and despised our hades (rolo).
and yes, it's so goofy that we have to act like this pharmaceutical executive and total creep is someone we can take seriously and not named after a chocolate caramel candy only good for throwing in movie theater popcorn.
but i was consumed by it!
i read this on one of spring's perfect, balmy days, and it was heady and immersive. i felt that august feeling of hot days, cool nights, climbing exhausted into bed with dirty feet and bedraggled hair. i loved our terrible normal characters and this writing. in spite of its flaws.
bottom line: i want summer and more books from this author.
well. i thought i was back in my magical realism era.
i have been having a lot of success lately with Experimental Literary Fiction About Mothers And Dwell. i thought i was back in my magical realism era.
i have been having a lot of success lately with Experimental Literary Fiction About Mothers And Daughters, and since the synopsis implies that this book is literally exactly that, i thought we had a success on our hands.
also, look at that cover.
but spoiler alert, we did not! this book had 900 half-baked side plots, from stray dogs to greek retellings to lexicography to weird made up language words to Alzheimer's to OH MY GOD NO WAY PLEASE TELL ME THAT ISN'T WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT, and then also just about no time spent on that.
this started off frustrating and ultimately became annoying! and over the course of my life, i have been an eldest sibling, a teacher's pet, an introvert, and a hater.
i don't do well with being annoyed.
bottom line: weird! and not in the way i'm a fan of....more
honestly the only reason i wanted to read this book is because it was included in a really pretty edition of Mrs. Dalloway.
also, because i read this ihonestly the only reason i wanted to read this book is because it was included in a really pretty edition of Mrs. Dalloway.
also, because i read this immediately after reading Mrs. Dalloway, and in fact in the exact same book as i had read Mrs. Dalloway in, i feel pretty confident in saying that just about everything good about this is pretty much Mrs. Dalloway.
have i said Mrs. Dalloway enough yet?
bottom line: the tragedy of retellings. the best bits are always just the source material....more
one of my favorite books...retold as one of my favorite genres...
this was made for me, obviously.
...OR NOT.
dun dun dun!
whether you like it or not, gatone of my favorite books...retold as one of my favorite genres...
this was made for me, obviously.
...OR NOT.
dun dun dun!
whether you like it or not, gatsby (and my original 10-page-long now-deleted-by-the-capitalist-overlords-at-goodreads review of it) are wildly thematically rich.
it's one of the most precise and thoughtful books of all time - that's why it makes such a great high school required read. every light color and word choice can be analyzed. every character is complex and ultimately unredeemable. money and greed and the downfall they cause are crucial.
this book is gatsby without any of that.
in other words, gatsby without anything that makes it good.
the bones of this story weren't built to hold up everything anna-marie mclemore wants it to. to make gatsby and nick and jordan and daisy redeemed characters who care about things makes every theme in the book fall flat. to make a gatsby retelling a story of finding yourself and where you belong just doesn't work.
also...lol @ nick predicting the great depression. ridiculous.
similarly the ending feels silly, if nice.
generally this book nails the language and vibe, and it has a lot of non-gatsby things going for it, and it's often fun.
overall it's a technically skilled retelling, but in the end without its core themes it's as shallow and lovely as one of gatsby's parties.
brb, mom. heading to the goblin market. going to fall in love with a girl with like, corduroy skin and a spine made of thorns and have a chunk torn oubrb, mom. heading to the goblin market. going to fall in love with a girl with like, corduroy skin and a spine made of thorns and have a chunk torn out of my shoulder via teeth. see ya later
anyway.
i was obsessed with this and read like 200 pages in a sitting and it took me 2 days to get through the next third.
the pacing was weird!!! and not in the goofy weird mythical creature way i expected and/or would have been delighted by. it flashed back and forth between the past and the present, one of those books that's half flashback, and while normally i hate the flashbacks this time i preferred em!the stakes just...never felt very high in the current day.
like...if your guardian is letting you get bit by a goblin how unsafe is it.
but overall i thought this was a huge improvement over the author's debut stylistically and in content and i love feeling optimistic!
it's like a tropical for my dark twisted nihilistic brain.
bottom line: goblins!!!!!!!
3.5
---------------- tbr review
sapphic star-crossed lovers in a horror-fantasy spooky goblin market?? am i dreaming
I know they say if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
But I've been doing this review-every-book-I-read thing for too longI know they say if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
But I've been doing this review-every-book-I-read thing for too long to give up now, so...
This book has tacos in it. Tacos are good. Yum.
This concludes the nice section of this review.
I have said this before (but then, I have said most things before. It feels like I have lived a hundred lifetimes on this website), but the thing about straight romance is that it depends entirely on the author's ability to get us all to suspend our disbelief and buy into the concept of a Perfect Man.
Or even a worthwhile one.
Tough stuff, no? I've never experienced one in real life. They're like unicorns, or a full and natural understanding of physics - at this point I have to assume they're made up, unfortunately. Nice as they sound.
That only gets truer in an enemies to lovers scenario. I love enemies to lovers, and, as always, when I say I love something that means I love the idea of it, read every example of it I can find, and enjoy approx 10% of it.
Say it with me: enemies to lovers does not mean assholes to lovers!
Take the love interest in this book, for example: A multimillionaire who has, by his own admission, sold out his own culture and community. He owns multiple $100,000 cars, he buys buildings for cheap to sell them for more and gentrify neighborhoods.
None of that works for me.
But emma, you may be saying. Ever heard of a little thing called character development?
To that I say: currently my memories of well-done character development feel like the memories of the dad character in A Little Princess (film adaptation, sorry bookworms) (insert PAPA, PAPA! here). In other words, they are foggy, distant, all but gone - baby, that is the kind of reading year I am having thus far.
But even when I dust off the definition via good ol' Googling, it appears that the characters are supposed to become more tolerable, even BETTER as the book goes on.
That doesn't happen here.
Ramón and Julieta is a Romeo and Juliet retelling in which Julieta is a hot chef with an indie taco shop and Ramón is a property developer / venture capitalist / owner of a Taco Bell-esque franchise that was founded upon the stolen recipe of Julieta's mother.
Cool guy, no?
It gets better. The way that Ramón undertakes his quest to become a person I, personally, can stand reading about (otherwise known as his character arc) is by hiring Julieta to be the chef of the restaurant he's opening.
Which is - get this - taking the place of a half-dozen working and lower middle class businesses in the historically Mexican neighborhood Julieta lives in.
But it gets EVEN BETTER THAN THAT. Not only does Ramón destroy Julieta's sense of community by making her the enemy of all of them, he appears to have hired her to be (checks notes) the victim of sexual harassment.
Check out this passage, which is supposed to be the kind of steamy swoony content that gets us shipping these two from now until we have mercifully forgotten this read.
"'Would you like to discuss my ideas for the menu?' 'Not exactly.' Ramón's eyes raked over her, dropping to her breasts. He gave her a mischievous smile. Julieta's nerves tingled. But she hated her body for betraying the way she felt toward him. After he finally looked away, he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a leather folder. He then took out a super expensive-looking pen and began to write notes. 'Then what?' Ramón finally focused his attention back on Julieta. 'Well, first, I'm going to watch you.' Julieta instinctively clasped her hand to her chest. Ramón made those words seem dirty."
I read an e-ARC and quotes are subject to change, so I will just say I am far closer to calling in an anonymous complaint on a fictional character than I am to rooting for these two.
Skin crawling.
Another quote (subject to change) to file under Ramón Finding New And Creative Ways To Get Worse: this interaction with the woman who brought him into this world.
"His mom huffed. 'You aren't still serious about that chef, are you? I looked her up. She has tattoos, Ramón. All over her arms. She's trash.' "Rage boiled through Ramón. 'No, Mom. She's not trash. You are.'"
This boy called his own mommy trash!
I don't care how much my mom talks sh*t about tattoos, I am never looking her in the eyes - IN PUBLIC IN FRONT OF HER FRIENDS - and calling that woman garbage.
I'm supposed to want happiness for this bozo!? I want to enroll him in court-mandated therapy!
On top of all this, here are a few pesky loose end complaints: - I tried to get into this so many times and I just couldn't. I just had to force myself through, like I was doing math homework, or eating vegetables - Every thought these two have about each other is sexual. I've complained before about romance novels in which the love story is only conducted through smut, but this is...wow, yes, the results are in: EVEN WORSE! - Ramón's dad and Julieta's mom also had a bunch of sex in the past, and there is something about that that is just simply puke emoji to me. - Finally, this did the really hilarious retelling thing in which the characters are constantly referencing the original? It is so funny to me to imagine these two, who are quoting R&J to each other constantly, failing to be like "Hey wait a second...our families hate each other...we're star crossed...wait, our names are their names? Just what is going on here..."
Well, the main difference is no one dies in this one.
Except my hopes and dreams.
Bottom line: I wish I never read this book? And also that I had a taco.
--------------- currently-reading updates
"When fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together..."
rumpelstiltskin is the best fairytale ever. a tiny man with an insane name who sings it to himself but gets so mad when you guess it he tears himself rumpelstiltskin is the best fairytale ever. a tiny man with an insane name who sings it to himself but gets so mad when you guess it he tears himself in half? good stuff.
so before reading this, i was all, if marissa meyer can write a retelling half as good as that...we're in business.
unfortunately that is a hard order to fill. a tough nut to crack. the difficulty-level equivalent of eating just half a candy bar, or those inexplicably impossible barbie game boy games i used to have to ask my mom to play for me. (why did i think my mom was the early 2000s equivalent of a twitch streamer? i have no idea.)
anyway, enough goofing off, i have a new hot take:
no book should ever have a romance. especially YA fantasy.
i'll make exceptions for the romcoms i can't stop trying even though i have clearly unmeetable expectations. i'll make the OCCASIONAL exception for lit fic, but only if it involves a very complicated (read: unlikable) woman destroying herself in a toxic relationship.
but i am retired from YA fantasy romance. the love story in this book did nothing but detract from what good there was!
because here's the thing: i knew there'd be some form of romance here. i expected it. because the thing about the original iconic fairytale is that even the brothers grimm didn't know what the people (me) wanted (as much content as possible about some gobliny freak), and the main character was actually the gold-spinning lady who marries the king's son.
but the romance in this book is...not with the king's son?
it is, to the best of my recollection, with some weird little ghost boy.
do i feel this swap made sense? no. do i feel it made even less sense when she was (view spoiler)[SUDDENLY PREGNANT (hide spoiler)]?!?!? yep i sure do!
A fun fact about me is that I've now (without intending to) read all three of K. Ancrum's releases, devoured all of them, and given them all approximaA fun fact about me is that I've now (without intending to) read all three of K. Ancrum's releases, devoured all of them, and given them all approximately 4 stars.
And I didn't even notice until right now.
I love to organically find a new auto-buy author.
This is a very wild but believable but almost guilty-pleasure-level dramatic and crazy but real gritty young-adult magic-less contemporary retelling of Peter Pan.
(I feel out of breath after just typing that.)
And it is as fun (and kind of ridiculous) as it sounds.
And also kind of takes a turn to the realistic even as it fully leans into the wackadoodle.
I don't even know. Just read it already I guess?
Bottom line: Thank you K. Ancrum!!! Sorry it took me so long!
I love to have an unpopular opinion. Nothing brings me more joy than the anger and fear of others in my comment sectiI am, as everyone knows, a hater.
I love to have an unpopular opinion. Nothing brings me more joy than the anger and fear of others in my comment section. My sole purpose in this life is to upset the people around me via literary takedowns and nothing else.
However.
I will never, ever, ever, EVER!!! DNF.
And this book is why.
I started out this book residing in Snooze City. I took a train to Sleepville with a one-way ticket, making stops in Boring Town, Dry Island, and Dull Junction. But I kept reading, because I'm stubborn.
And GUESS WHAT. It worked!
While this started out as a retelling that somehow managed to feel both too true to the original and not true enough, it turned into a crazy demonfest of magic and evil and Daisy and beautiful writing and more importantly, Daisy.
Another win for team refusing to learn from mistakes.
Bottom line: And another win for team Gatsby!
As in, team the book. Not team that bozo character.
------------------ pre-review
i've read many books that started out as a 4 star read and slowly became a 2 star, but this is my first time experiencing the inverse.
feels weird.
review to come / 4ish stars
------------------ tbr review
i am a person who is made up of 75% water, 25% strong opinions, and some of my very strongest are on the great gatsby. let's see how reading a retelling goes...more
i owned this book for...i want to say about 99.74 years, but it was probably more like 7. which is still insane.
for that entire time, i wanted to readi owned this book for...i want to say about 99.74 years, but it was probably more like 7. which is still insane.
for that entire time, i wanted to read this just enough to not actively get rid of it, without ever wanting to read it enough to, you know. actually read it.
and then after somewhere between a handful and an incalculable amount of time later, i did read it. and i felt entirely meh about it even still.
to be expected, i guess.
bottom line: life is full of surprises! except for sometimes it's not....more
I can't even say I'm disappointed, because if you asked me aggressively two months ago what I expected to rate this book, I would have said "2.5,Well.
I can't even say I'm disappointed, because if you asked me aggressively two months ago what I expected to rate this book, I would have said "2.5, and also that's why I've had an advance copy of this for over a year and didn't even touch it until I was forced to by an equally aggressive readathon."
I am, at this moment, and also for most of the last couple of years, not interested in young adult fantasy.
You may want to say, "Emma, that's because you're officially in your mid-twenties, and you've probably outgrown it. It's not for you."
And while you would be right, you would fill me with so much rage and confusing sadness that I would probably cry, which would make me embarrassed, which would make me even angrier.
So let's avoid that.
This is fine. This is the kind of YA fantasy that I didn't love even when I was in my YA fantasy heyday, which is written in vaguely old-timey fancy language and centers around a romance between two teenagers who don't know each other well.
It didn't work for me, but if the genre works for you, this probably will! Who can say anything anymore.
Bottom line: A meh book that managed to bring about a quarter-life crisis.
--------------- pre-review
how many times am i allowed to say i think i'm outgrowing YA fantasy before i have to accept that i've outgrown it?
I'm dreaming of a good fantasy... Just like the ones I used to know... Without the tryhard writing... And silly love interest fighting... And a plot I canI'm dreaming of a good fantasy... Just like the ones I used to know... Without the tryhard writing... And silly love interest fighting... And a plot I can only say is slow...
(insert pause for applause, standing ovation, loud WOO's, the whole arena to do the wave, people chanting my name, etc. here)
Anyway. Clearly this whole "reading" thing isn't working out, as I continue to get disappointed by my most anticipated reads as if it is my job, so I might try my hand at songwriting.
"White Christmas" is the best Christmas song, in my opinion, but I think my These Violent Delights version is even better.
Instead of a review, this is going to be like one of those "behind the lyrics" things that comes up inexplicably on 1% of songs on Spotify. The rough equivalent of some random 17 year old popstar attempting to explain very basic words they spent very little energy on writing, if any.
The same as that in more ways than one.
First up.
I'm dreaming of a good fantasy... Just like the ones I used to know...
This lyric is because I'm getting old. Okay, maybe not OLD old (although I can no longer reasonably say I'm in my early twenties, sob), but old for YA. And when you get old, you think everything was better when you were young, back in the days of a body that functioned and an ability to avoid hangovers and probably took long walks to school, since that comes up a lot for elderly people.
In my heart of hearts, I know that YA is better now than it was in 2015, when I was 17. There's more of it, from more diverse authors, on more diverse subjects.
But I'm aging out of it, and it would be boring if I were calm and rational about this. Let's be serious: you all saw my low rating of a popular book and knew you were coming to witness me yelling.
Next line!
Without the tryhard writing...
This is not my biggest problem with this book, but it is the most pernicious.
I know a lot of people like this style of writing, but to me it feels like Adjective Town, where every noun needs a descriptor and every verb needs a thesaurus and every gathering of frustrated individuals has me in attendance, and I am the loudest.
In other words, I found this to be an example of the kind of unnatural attempt at purple prose that YA sometimes indulges in, and that is not my scene.
We're trudging along! Next line!
And silly love interest fighting...
I often believe the world revolves around me, and to be fair, the world does very little to counter this opinion. For example: My two favorite romance tropes are enemies to lovers and fake dating, and those seem to be everywhere fast lately. Anecdotally speaking.
But in this case, I'm meh about it.
In the original Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet aren't actually, like, fueling the war between the families. They actually have nothing to do with it. In this retelling, Roma and Juliette are THERE, baby. No one is being more of a cruel, violent asshole than these two.
(Also, these names are very silly. Roma. Juliette. Marshall for Mercutio. Benedikt for Benvolio. Tyler for Tybalt. Keep in mind we're in 1920s Shanghai and let me know what you think.)
Juliette in particular is just a nightmare - she mistreats the service staff in her employment, she kills people willy-nilly, she's mean all the time.
But anyway. Their leading of the gangs that symbolize the Montague and Capulet family not only involves them being extremely cavalier with human life, but also bickering with each other all the time.
And not in the cute way. Keep in mind I said bicker, not banter.
A classic lose / lose.
These characters are just impossible to root for, not only because they are awful to each other and to those around them, and because they are annoying, and because they are having the same useless exchanges constantly, but because this book is morally all over the place.
The colonization aspect was well done, but the force the gangs are kind of teaming up to fight against is communism, and I found that connection to be sloppy.
I am pro revolution more than I am pro...gang? So when factory workers rose up to fight against inequality, I didn't sympathize at all with our 17 year old extremely wealthy protagonists, the same people who yell at waitresses for not wiping surfaces well enough while they sit and brood and do nothing.
The theory isn't the problem, the appropriation of it is. Depicting overworked child laborers as the bad guys is just ridiculous.
Last one!
And a plot I can only say is slow...
From the very beginning the plot of this has felt the same: People sneak around. People see something gruesome. People look for answers. Repeat. The stakes are not rising, the action is not packing, and snooze city has a population of me.
Yes, the idea of two gangs (both inexplicably with teenagers in authority) fighting each other in 1920s Shanghai while a monster rages in the background seems like fun, but...it isn't.
Which is kind of impressive.
That is the end of my song! The only other thing I have to say (and the only nice thing) is that the dialogue was fun.
The end.
Bottom line: A book I disliked so much it made me switch fake career paths.
--------------- pre-review
me when a protagonist kills people: :)
me when a protagonist is mean to service workers: :(
this book is all over the board, morally speaking.
review to come / 1.5 stars
--------------- currently-reading updates
yes, i barely read YA fantasy anymore.
yes, i have a hard time getting into it when i do pick it up.
and yes, i am starting this 500 page book at 4 a.m.
i live my life on the edge.
--------------- tbr review
so this author is a junior in college...this is blatantly against one of my major life policies (pretending that anyone younger than me is not cooler than me)
but this book sounds so good i might have to break the rules ...more
I wish I read an encyclopedia instead of this book.
Well, okay, not any encyclopedia. A fantastical one. A magic-y fairytale-y encyclopedia documentingI wish I read an encyclopedia instead of this book.
Well, okay, not any encyclopedia. A fantastical one. A magic-y fairytale-y encyclopedia documenting the crazy cool little things of a made-up world. Written by April Genevieve Tucholke. It can even be about the universe of this book, for all I care.
This author is a complete full-on genius at making up worlds. The world-building here is legitimately stellar.
It’s the everything else that I’m not a fan of.
This author is so good at creating worlds populated with fantastical peoples and cultures and places and foods...but she is just the worst at blending all of those into an exciting plot.
Seriously, please, I’m begging: Someone tell April Genevieve Tucholke that Walking for 200 pages does not count as an exciting narrative. And also that if we spend 200 pages walking towards something, that conflict should not be over in a fraction of the pages spent making eye contact.
I can’t stand the pacing!! At one point our ragtag group of wanderers encounters a GHOST WITCH made of DUST AND MAGIC in an OLD ABANDONED TOWER they had to FLY INTO and she TEARS THEIR SKIN INTO PIECES. Guess how much coverage this insane huge rad event gets? One page. The encounter itself, the aftermath, the discussion of it: all together, one page. KILL ME.
I want to read about evil creepy magic witches of yore. Is that so wrong?
And it’s not like the characters are much to write home about either. They’re flat as hell.
Or maybe just boring. It’s hard to say.
Regardless, that does not stop everyone from becoming obsessed with each other immediately upon meeting, like a fanfiction in which a 16-year-old with a messy bun experiences two teen pop sensations falling in love-at-first-sight with her within ten minutes. (Will she fall for the bad boy or the goofy lovable one?!?! Who knows?) (I do. The answer is both.)
When our main character Torvi and her sister Morgunn meet a girl named Gyda, they call her their “sister” after literally one (1) day of acquaintance. When Torvi and Gyda join a ragtag group of wanderers and one of the group leaves a few hours later, Torvi does everything short of dressing in black for two months and laying in the street to mourn. Not to mention the departer, Stefan, straight up makes out with Gyda upon his exit and she reacts to it as if they are life partners.
Every one night stand and bedtime conversation results in a deeper relationship than I have with some of my family members.
The second half of this was much better than the first, but more because I adjusted to the state of things than through any actual improvement.
Although at one point in the second half, a nation called “Finnmark” is referenced, which is easily the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
Bottom line: Probably done with April Genevieve Tucholke at this point! (Unless she takes my advice and begins writing reference tomes.)
-----------
my favorite part of this book was something called the black apple, which is just an apple except the peel is black.
pretty hardcore.
review to come / 3 stars
-----------
thought i'd finish this book in a day...it's day 3 and i just hit the halfway point. HELP
-----------
someone tell me to stop reading books set in the same world as books i did not like
Well, except the fact that my reading it single-handedly doubled the global use of the Audible “back 30 I have next to nothing to say about this book.
Well, except the fact that my reading it single-handedly doubled the global use of the Audible “back 30 seconds” button. I was so bored while listening to it that even though I was doing other things - playing Sims, cleaning, revising my world domination plans - my mind STILL wandered.
It’s that boring.
There’s no plot to be spoken of, unless you count “girl who we are supposed to think is strong and powerful and cool wandering around doing f*ck-all and being a total idiot, and also said girl has magic but she may as well be cursed into being an oak tree for all the fun we get to have seeing her use it” as a plot.
I don’t, personally.
Here’s the best comparison I can make: the majority of this book feels like when you’re playing a video game and you can’t figure out what your next step is supposed to be, so you just walk around the same places and talk to the same people over and over.
In this retelling, Guinevere is actually a magic-person sent by Merlin for the unbelievably abstract purpose of “protecting Arthur,” and until the very end we have no idea from what. Also, neither does Guinevere.
To be blunt, it is the dumbest thing in the world.
We’re supposed to buy good ol’ Guin as a badass, but considering she spends 99% of the story being scared of water and inexplicably building two sides of a love triangle, it makes no sense.
And all the characters are so charmless and FLAT.
Even thinking about this book is making me mad, so I’m going to wrap things up here.
Bottom line: A hard no from me.
-------
let it be known that i am interested in EVERY fairytale-y retelling that includes magic and darkness and women being the ones who actually got sh*t done....more
Considering: giving up on historical fiction forever.
There is just something about the way that old-timey-but-actually-it's-new-timey-it's-just-pretenConsidering: giving up on historical fiction forever.
There is just something about the way that old-timey-but-actually-it's-new-timey-it's-just-pretend stuff is written that I cannot cope with.
This is only 50% set in forever ago times, but that fifty percent was so snooze worthy that it actually permeated throughout the wonders of modern life.
This was only my second Anna-Marie McLemore, but the other one was so much more magicky and lovely and fun.
This was none of that. But then maybe I'm just cursed to dislike every ARC I receive until I'm blackballed by the publishing industry. (Speaking of...thanks, publisher...also sorry.)
Bottom line: Honestly I don't even know why I 3 starred this!
-------------- pre-review
currently: yawning very hard.
both because i keep forgetting to drink my coffee and because this was kind of a snooze?
review to come / 3ish stars
-------------- currently-reading updates
reading my second anna-marie mclemore book just days after my first. that's pride, baby
also this is an ARC i'm reading a year and a half late.
--------------
reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
I have been known to have unpopular opinions, from time to time. In fact, I have a whole shelf of them. Most of the historically most popular posts onI have been known to have unpopular opinions, from time to time. In fact, I have a whole shelf of them. Most of the historically most popular posts on my blog (and all posts on my blog are historical because that site is so outdated it could be an archaeological dig site) are unpopular opinion-related.
But the thing is, all of that probably only represents a small selection of my actual unpopular opinions. Because sometimes I just don't know.
Here's one example: Is it an unpopular opinion to think all fantasy kind of...is the same in hindsight?
Don't get me wrong - I thought, in the moment, that a lot of this book was unique. I mean yes, there's the outcast, the person whose immense magical power turned her evil, the revolutionary group acting against a monarchy that our protagonist is realizing veryyyy slowwwwly may be corrupt, the twist, the who-can-you-trust, the love triangle made up of The Boy Who Represents Your Past versus The Boy Who Represents Your Future.
But while I was reading it, that wasn't the overwhelming sense I was getting from it.
Now, all this has faded in my memory into not just the hero's journey, but all of these very overdone modern YA clichés that occur so frequently it feels like another, newer hero's journey.
Still. For being the same as everything else, this isn't a bad entry.
Bottom line: Maybe I just don't like fantasy?
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love to not realize a book is a retelling until i'm finished it.
really gives you the full experience.
review to come / 3.5 stars
--------------- tbr review
as far as made-up magical powers go, "night spinning" is a pretty cool-sounding one
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challenging myself to read as many review copies as possible this month because i'm addicted to projects!
I’m not going to lie: If you had not told me this was a Pride & Prejudice retelling and instead I was operating under the dreamy assumption that this I’m not going to lie: If you had not told me this was a Pride & Prejudice retelling and instead I was operating under the dreamy assumption that this was an enemies-to-lovers literary fiction-y romance set in a largely Muslim neighborhood in Canada, this review might be a different story.
But only slightly. Three stars is still, by definition, a positive rating.
But this didn’t feel very Pride & Prejudice-y at all.
There was fun stuff in spite of that heartbreaking fact, like how I really like both our main characters (even though I, uh, didn’t love their romance), and the fact that this made me realize I really, really, reallyreallyreally need to read more books with Muslim representation.
But then there’s also The Villains Are So Flat (shoutout to Sheila and Tarek) and Character Arcs Don’t Exist So Our Lydia-Type Annoying Cousin Character Simply Does Two Spur-Of-The-Moment-180s And We Call It A Day.
Which I guess means that even the few parts that did line up with the Pride & Prejudice storyline didn’t #do it for me.
I am a bitter shell of a person.
Bottom line: In spite of this review’s moroseness, this book isn’t bad! Just not what I was told it would be.
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give me pride and prejudice retellings or give me death
(thanks to the publisher for the arc) (sorry it's been a year and a half)...more
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