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| 0063021420
| 9780063021426
| 0063021420
| 4.17
| 290,978
| Aug 23, 2022
| Aug 23, 2022
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I read the beginning part of the novel (the Chinese translated version) for free-- and I would only read this book when it's for free, and here are a
I read the beginning part of the novel (the Chinese translated version) for free-- and I would only read this book when it's for free, and here are a few things that I noticed. (1) The white-skinned evil professor guy, he was so mean-spirited and evil that when he entered a district in a Cantonese town where most of the residents had already died due to plague, the professor still didn’t bother to even cover his nose and mouth with a mere handkerchief. I don’t know, maybe his super-evil-superior-whiteness and the sliver magic were protecting him from the disease, but it hasn’t been made clear. (2) This same white-skinned evil professor guy, he was so mean-spirited and evil that instead of faking kindness to win the orphaned Robin over, he must act like a jerk around the boy ever since Day 1. Sometimes people can be smart at the same time when they are being evil, right? Right? (3) And Robin, we never know his Cantonese/Chinese name because the author never bothered to show it in the narrative. It is mentioned in passing that his mother gave him a Cantonese/Chinese name, but it’s ridiculous that Robin didn’t even refer himself by that name even in his own head. (4) Then, let’s talk about Robin’s family, shall we? First, we are told that Robin and his mother lived in a town somewhere in Canton, his family was not wealthy, but they had a white woman as a nanny and the nanny taught him English. Robin also improved his English by visiting the foreign sailors and talking to them around the port. There are already some holes in this backstory: Robin, as a mixed-blooded boy living in the Victorian era/Qing Dystnasy, who had no father as a protector, would have been singled out as a bastard by his neighbors throughout his childhood. Historically, mix-raced children were discriminated even during and after WWII, so don't tell me racist discrimination was not an issue among the Chinese community back then. Robin’s mother, as a Cantonese woman raising a mixed-blood child on her own without a husband, would have been labeled by the community as a whore. The household of Robin’s mother, which was made up of a single mother and a white nanny and with not a single man/husband as a protector and no family wealth to sheath them from the malice and gossip from the local community, the entire household would probably have been labeled as a whore house already. Plus, it really doesn’t help that Robin was chatting with the sailors on the port to learn English, because in the view of the then-Chinese/Cantonese society, sailors (both the foreign and the local ones) were not so much better than criminals. Does all this discrimination and classism sound ugly and awful to you? Yes, they do to me too. However, it is the harsh reality of the world from 200-300 years ago, in which most countries are racist, sexist, classist and discriminative to the boots. Other empires like China and India etc had done their fair share of enslaving other weaker groups at the height of their power. But I found none of those historical realities in R.F. Kuang’s writing. So, if Ms. Kuang is aiming to create a historical fantasy world where racism and discrimination are solely a white man’s problem, then I will get myself the hell out of here now. More to come, or maybe not, because life is too short. ...more |
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not set
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not set
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Mar 30, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 0316342084
| 9780316342087
| B09PL5XDJW
| 3.86
| 123,310
| Sep 27, 2022
| Sep 27, 2022
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did not like it
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Rating: 1.5 stars is me being generous and I have no patience for trashy romance pretending to be a paranormal adventure novel. If you have no time to Rating: 1.5 stars is me being generous and I have no patience for trashy romance pretending to be a paranormal adventure novel. If you have no time to read my rant, you can just read the tags I gave this book! My review for book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... My review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... **Slight plot spolier for book 1 and 2** (1) Alright, I have been warned about, again, a horny adult fantasy book being marketed and sold to teenagers as YA fantasy by the 1 to 2 stars reviews...Personally, I skipped all those NC-17 scenes because life is too short for this BS...*sighs* ......and....What is this book doing in the Young Adult corner of the public library anyway!? (2) My problem with the story so far: Emilia gets to marry the Devil and become the Queen of Hell/Queen of the Wickeds, with barely any drawback! Does it sound like much of a hardship to you? A heroine who doesn't go through hardship to get their HEA is so boring! (3) As for the question about the death of Emilia's twin and the curse of the First Witch.......I am at page 12, so far I still cannot see there is much development with these issues. Haven't we been dealing with the same two issues for two whole books already? (4) The world-building in this book is the most boring and unimaginative thing I have seen in recent years. (5) So there is barely anything going on between Emilia and Wrath in this book, no conflict and issue for the couple to overcome, no misunderstanding or miscommunication to resolve, zero effort in building any understanding and meaningful relationship which isn't related to their ridiculous sex drive and fuckings. Don't get me wrong, a healthy sex life is good for any romantic relationship, but shouldn't they have more things going on in said relationship than just mind-blowing sex!? (4) Then...the conflict...or THE TOTAL LACK OF IT: The curse is dealt with rather easily because clues just dropped onto Emilia's lap whenever she opened her mouth and asked some questions! Everyone just handed the answers to her willingly! The conflict between the witches and the demons is still there but in front of Emilia and Wrath's all-mighty power and tru luv the witches just don't stand a chance! Emilia seemingly gave up nothing to get her man and a HEA! I am so pissed. (5) The thing with (view spoiler)[ Emilia's twin, (hide spoiler)] again it becomes a non-issue by the end of this book. Supposedly this character should be raining down revenge and mayhem on both the demons and the witches but in the end she did barely a thing! (6) And the witches........don't make me laugh, I can't even believe such useless creatures have been going toe-to-toe with the demons in their supernatural battles. (7) The demons are not any better than the witches because as a bunch of supposedly ageless, merciless demonic nobles, I barely see any of them doing anything remotely scary, wicked and heartless. And their demonic kingdom so goddamn boring, 3 books went by and it still hasn't improved! (8) Some of the demonic princes are actually halfway interesting but as a whole, they are too mild I cannot believe these are a group of immortal creatures with tons of knowledge, experience, and power to do evil. (9) Some of the plot twists aren't bad at all, in fact those twists can be quite impressive and clever if only the author could have managed and delivered them better. (10) To sum up, one HELL of a disappointment! ...more |
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Feb 04, 2024
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Mar 24, 2024
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Nov 09, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 4.59
| 684,858
| Sep 27, 2016
| Sep 27, 2016
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it was ok
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Review for book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Melissa Stacy's review for Six Of Crows which points out plenty of things which I failed to Review for book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Melissa Stacy's review for Six Of Crows which points out plenty of things which I failed to notice before. Rating: 2 stars. Again I think this story would have worked out great as a TV series, but as a novel, the story falls increasingly flat and the plot just drags on and on and on.
That, has to be worst thing I've seen in a YA book in the recent years. @page 307: Is something wrong with me for finding this Migos' music video about some rappers dressing up as gangsters to be more entertaining than this book? With the most badass line ever: Time to go to sleep! Watch out! [image] (Link: https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/glossy...) Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI-mX... Full on rant starts here, don't like don't read: One day, I looked back at Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels, then I suddenly remembered why I got so annoyed by Leigh Bardugo so called 'high fantasy novels' and 'amazing plot twits'; because comparing to what Sanderson can write within 450 pages, this 500+ pages Crooked Kingdom feels hopelessly long-winded and tiring, and its characters flat, shapeless and damn boring. Let's do a breakdown! ********Warning: both marked and unmarked plot spoilers below!******** (1) Too fucking much flashbacks and backstories that weighen the whole story down: Now, this one is the biggest flaw of this book in my eyes. As much as I like learning about characters' backstories and where they came from, still as with Six of Crows, the flashbacks and backstories in Crooked Kingdom are all so very 'in-your-face' that whatever subtly of characterization is lost entirely. Everyone has a sob story, even Jesper's mom and dad get one too so it is simply getting ridiculous; plus these sob stories are badly inserted into the storyline and Bardugo seems to have a thing about inserting backstories when important events are about to go down or in the middle of an action scene, I don't know why she would think it's a good idea. I had seen on Youtube a booktuber talks about what she thinks about the flashbacks in Six of Crows: "Well, I don't know you that well, we are not that close, I don't need to know it yet" and I feel the same. (2) The heist is not as exciting nor clever as everyone and their mothers had been telling you: Basically they just (view spoiler)[make up a false plague panic and pretend to shoot a character to death then everything is good again. Plus the bad guys didn't even check the boy's corpse personally to make sure he is really deader than dead, how pathetic. I mean, I do like the false plague alarm but the rest of the heist...not so much. (hide spoiler)] Some of you probably want to know how Kaz managed to defeat Pekka Rollins, right? Let me tell you what went down: (view spoiler)[Kaz threatened Rollins with his son's life, which would have been fine and clever enough, but the problem is, Kaz had never ever kidnapped Rollins' son before he made this threat, in fact he had never laid eyes on Rollins' son in his life! Kaz simply fished out a toy lion and waved it in front of Rollins then the older man instantly believed Kaz had really kidnapped his son and is ready to go down on his knees to beg for his son's life! (hide spoiler)] How pathetic! Bottom line: I would have respect it if Kaz actually (view spoiler)[kidnapped Rollins' son and threatened the latter with the boy's life, but Kaz managing to threaten Rollins without even having to kidnap the boy first and Rollins actually buying his shit? (hide spoiler)] That's just down right insulting. Not to mention, no matter how difficult and impossible the situations had turned out to be, Kaz always had a way to work things out nicely! Nothing could ever go wrong! It would have been okay if only thing like this only happen a few times, but a whole 500+ pages book with this same shit being repeated over and over again? That's too much. (3) Shitty justification of 'the bad things done by the villains are bad, but the bad things done by the main characters are excusable': 55 pages into the story, I've already gotten tired of the shitty justification that 'the bad things done by the bad guys are bad, but the bad things done by the main characters are excusable'. Killing someone just because he is in your way and then justifying the murder with some lame excuse about (view spoiler)[ the murdered victim being a blackmailer (hide spoiler)]? That sucks, that is so uncool. (4) Poor explanation for way too many things in the story: @page 176: 'Per Haskell was still the leader of the Dregs'? You said, Kaz? Come on, that setting about the internal power structure of the Dregs makes no sense to me, what kind of gang leader (in this case, Per Haskell) would allow his 'lieutenant' to take a major job (The Ice Court job from SoC) without letting him know any of the significant details, without keeping track of his minors' where about, without any other noticeable lieutenants to balance the power within the gang, and even without one single bodyguard to watch his back? In a realistic world, this kind of gang leader won't last even a year. @page 224: we are also supposed to believe an evil father would hire some killers to do away his unwanted teenage son even before said evil father's pregnant wife could safely deliver a healthy baby to him first. Does this guy know women and babies tend to die at childbirth in the era this story is supposed to take place? Hahaha! Plus, for a story so filled with gangsters and lower class labors and residents from a slum, hardly anyone has ever sworn, the most I can see is a 'bastard' or two here and there. By the way, I call bullshit when in one scene, Kaz throws acid to form a circle around himself in order to collapse the wooden floor so he and Wylan (I'm not 100% sure it is Wylan in this scene) can make an instant escape through the hole. Well...I think the MythBusters had already busted this myth with the first Underworld movie, right? (5) The characters: Where should I ever start? Kaz: With this book, we are in this 'All hail Kaz and his awesomeness' circus all over again. Then I was gasping in shock and anger when Kaz simply allowed someone who had betrayed him to live which makes no sense to me (what kind of self-respecting gangster would allow someone who had betrayed him to live, without some good reason!?) Plus the more I read, the more I realized he is a sorry excuse for a representative of disable people when his disability is only mentioned whenever his creator remembered to put it in the story like adding a footnote. To add insult to injury, Kaz managed to carry an injured woman in book 1 and a character with two healthy legs has to walk faster to catch up with him and he successfully faces down a bunch of gangsters with nothing but his cane in book 2. I know, I know disable people can do amazing things and doing all kind of sports when they are well trained for that, but running long distance while carrying a woman (no matter how smallish and light she is supposed to be) is really getting unrealistic. Inej: First thing, I like Inej but sadly she is getting lame and undeveloped in this book, I don't learn one single new thing about her throughout this book. In book 1, I was told over, and over, and over again how Inej is the greatest and most feared assassin in town, but in this book she just......simply isn't anymore? Suddenly she is just some girl learning how to fight from Kaz and from some street fights within the length of one full year? Are you kidding me? Then there comes Dunyasha, the white, merciless, deadly mirror image to Inej's Wraith persona. The hostility between Inej and Dunyasha could have been awesome but unluckily Dunyasha comes into the picture way too late so she never gets a chance to become a worthy and full-formed foe to Inej, instead Dunyasha seems to be used by Bardugo as an excuse for Inej to do soul-searching and think about which direction her life is taking her. Character doing soul-searching is great, but in Inej's case, I don't like how it is done. Also, considering all the abuse Inej had suffered and the long line of men who had used her as an object in the whore house, I have no idea why would Inej develop any romantic feeling toward Kaz and how can she manage to see the supposed 'hidden kindness' within Kaz? I can understand she respects him for his capability, or she feels obligated to him because he had bothered to save her from the whore house and gave her a place to stay , but...LOVE? I just don't understand! Wylan: It is great that Special Education Needs/learning disorder and how ignorance and prejudice makes SEN children's lives miserable is addressed in the story. I truly appreciate that but I'm a bit letdown by the cliche that whilst Wylan can't read, he turns out to be a genius on chemistry, that really makes me feel like Wylan is getting a consolation award for having learning disorder. Then in the end, Kaz manages to make Wylan (view spoiler)[read from a document by the help of music and tunes? What is that? I know music can very much help you memorize things and words, but I am still skeptical. According to my highly limited knowledge, it most likely can't help you magically becoming able to read when you happen to have reading disorder. (hide spoiler)] Jesper: In this book, the major point about his character is the fact that he is gay and his relationship with some other boys (sorry to say that, but I have zero interest with this guy's love life). Even the appearance of his father and the revelation that (view spoiler)[he is in fact a Grisha (hide spoiler)] can't redeem his flat characterization, how sad. Plus, just what kind of fool would think of gambling in the middle of a mission!? Nina: Okay, she is an okay character in this book, her reasoning, her attitude and her romance with Matthias actually makes sense. Matthias: He barely has any new development since he pretty much had made peace with his past and his romantic relationship with Nina is settled already, but because of Nina he also appearing to be an okay character to me. Kuwei Yul-Bo: For the first half of the book he is barely in the story---because he pretty much got replaced by another character in the first half---therefore I rarely see anything which can reveal his personality, then for the rest of the story he is just this trophy person who is fought over by everyone like a prized object, just like this Asian Keymaker guy in Matrix Reloaded. That's it. The villains: When supposedly there are three nations in total all going after our MCs, and the city's own armed guards are looking up and down for those MCs, the main villains in the story seem utterly underwhelming, (view spoiler)[the Shu Han people and their mutant soldiers barely have any feature to be spoken of, Pekka Rollins is barely in the story and his final defeat is kind of pathetic. Van Eck, Wylan's father, seems scary enough when he kidnapped Inej and toyed with her but soon after even Van Eck looks kind of lame. Plus a lot of things we learnt about these villains are revealed in a 'Tell, not Show' manner. Featureless villains like this really makes Kaz's victory look kind of...too easy? (hide spoiler)] (6) The romance: Ever since the first book, I have no interest in the 'will they, won't they?' thingy between Kaz and Inej, For most of the 2 books Kaz constantly puts Inej down with his words and making her believe her only worth is her ability to finish her tasks and I found this kind of attitude truly hateful and I was actually glad Inej eventually decided she had done waiting for Kaz and wanting to leave and chase her dreams by the end of book 1. So imagine my disappointment when I found like every other YA girl, Inej (view spoiler)[ decided to wait for Kaz to come around once more by the end of book 2? I just can't deal with it. Even when Kaz really did make up with Inej in the very end but it's already too late. (hide spoiler)] The only saving grace about the romance between Kaz and Inej is that they didn't just simply fall into each other's arms by the end, because...given all the shits these two had been endured, these two damaged persons just couldn't be healed magically by the almighty power of true love, plus they seem to both realize they actually have better things to do with their lives than pinning after each other; I view it as a somewhat good message for the teenage readers. Not to mention it is rather annoying to have ever main characters to be paired off when most of these pairings are just as romantic as a piece of wood (Nina's relationship with Matthias being the exculsion). Talking about romance, I have to move on to Point #7.... (7) Uninteresting gay romances and trophy LGTB/People of Colors characters make me yawn: Perhaps I have been spoiled by too many yaoi manga/novels and fictions which always have boy/boy romance or yaoi relationships front and center therefore I have zero interest in the awkwardly written, bland and flavorless gay romance in both SoC or CK. I know gay romance getting mentioned in YA novels is a good thing, still I had read LGTB romances from a few other YA novels which are far hotter than this one so......sorry to be harsh, this whole Jesper/Wylan business is bloodless at best, embarrassing at worst. Plus people just won't shut up about how there are many People of Colors (e.g. Inej, Jesper, etc) in the story, but whenever I think more closely about this, the presence of those POC characters feel more like trophies than anything. (8) It literally takes forever to get to the exciting parts: The same thing happened in SoC, and thanks again to the endless flashbacks and romances, I had to crawl through a lot of dull chapters and paragraphs before anything exciting can takes place. The final words:The ending of this book seems to be hinting at further developments for some of the characters or even upcoming sequels, but at this point I would like to say: 'Thanks, but no thanks.' ...more |
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2
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Jan 19, 2018
not set
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Mar 30, 2018
not set
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Jan 19, 2018
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Kindle Edition
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| 0385738315
| 9780385738316
| 0385738315
| 3.67
| 1,505
| Feb 14, 2012
| Feb 14, 2012
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did not like it
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1.5 stars. I so desperately want to like this book, I want so desperately for the story to improve, but what I get from Caitlin Kittredge is a big fat
1.5 stars. I so desperately want to like this book, I want so desperately for the story to improve, but what I get from Caitlin Kittredge is a big fat 'Screw You!' and a middle finger. How sad, how frustrating. Oh, I'm always willing to give any Lovecraftian novels/movies/anime/manga the benefit of doubt, I'm more than willing to be patient with any Lovecraft-related material, but sometime, enough is enough. [image] Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book, so I don't know how good/how bad the original writing is, things can get lost in translation and I would be none the wiser. The Good: (1) the Lovecraftian references: but there are fewer and fewer of them in the narration of the story. (2) the idea that a girl with super awesome power for destruction, and she uses it for her own reason, and (for most parts) not feeling guilty about it. (3) the adventure: not among the best, but it's agreeable. The Bad: (1) The romance: glad to know the love triangle is now broken off, but the main couple..........they are just...........meh at best, annoying and shallow at worst. (2) The poorly written characters: the only emotion they can show seems to be anger, said emotion being expressed through yelling at each other, being impatient to one and other, characters losing their temper at the drop of a hat, etc. (3) The poorly written heroine: (i) Throughout two books, mysterious figures show up here and there and tell her to do this thing and that thing, and she just listens to what those mysterious figures/creatures says and does what they want her to do anyway? (ii) Did I mention the heroine has awesome destructive power and she uses it? So did I also mention she used it with all the wrong and poorly constructed reasons? (view spoiler)[e.g. a fae told her to open the Gate between human world and the world of faes! She did it, and at least half of a city had been destructed! A mysterious figure in her dream told her to look for a Nightmare Clock, she looked for it and as a result she released the Older Ones, enabling them to return and fuck up both the human world and world of faes some more. She lets the Older Ones in to fuck up the worlds, just in order to get her mother back. What a selfish cow. I mean, I don't mind a heroine who sets out to destroy the world, but I want her to have a better, more thoughtfully constructed reason to do this! I have a strong feeling she will do something equally senseless and foolish in exchange for her dead boyfriend to come back to life, in the third book. (hide spoiler)] (4) Lovecraftian monsters and evil deities and the myths of fae don't really merge together well. I am getting sick of all these faes in the story, I want more Lovecraftian monsters and evil deities, who won't bother reason with humans or play games but only drop right in TO DESTROY YOUR SOULS AND SANITY AND THE WORLD. (5) The few new characters: I don't care for any of them. I could have gone on, but I've decided this book doesn't worth my effort. Will I read the third book? Sadly, yes. Just to see how the ending will turn out. My review for the 1st book: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... In the very end....anyone...? [image] ...more |
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1
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Apr 12, 2017
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Jun 20, 2017
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Mar 30, 2017
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Hardcover
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| 4.06
| 71,338
| May 12, 2015
| May 12, 2015
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it was ok
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Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (1) The final battle is the only thing that saves this book from being a one star disaster. Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (1) The final battle is the only thing that saves this book from being a one star disaster. (2) Though the final battle is decent, still the ending is rather on the piss poor side. (3) To my outrage, nothing...nothing about the angel's society, how said society works, whether there are female angels or not and why they are invading Earth NOW is ever explained. (4) Mark my words, those angels in this book are just a bunch of self-righteous bullies with wings and fearsome power. Plus they are just so fucking stupid, (view spoiler)[Their former leader Gabriel was killed under suspicious consequence! None of them knows why they are invading Earth now! Still no one is asking question! (hide spoiler)] To be frank, for a race of ageless angelic warriors, these angels have no deeper thoughts, no deeper motivation nor insight beneath their handsome appearance. No nothing. (5) Young Penryn, why must you go from a survivor with her common sense intact to a love-sick little girl? Now you aren't must better than Bella Swan. (6) And of course Young Penryn has to be Too Stupid To Live when facing an evil angel who has every reason to want harming her. (7) Yes, I keep calling the heroine 'Young Penryn' because since she is an Asian character, then that's exactly how her name is pronounced. Deal with it. (8) Young Penryn's mother and younger sister are the only characters whom I care about. The rest of them, I don't care if they live or die. Strangely enough, in this book I know more about Belial (one of the arch villains), his backstory and his reason more than I know about anyone else's. (9) Young Penryn *finally* shows some awareness on responsibility and teamwork by the end of this book, but all has came too little, too late for me. (10) I cannot forgive Young Penryn for molesting Raffe *in his sleep*. Listen up, folks: I don't want a guy to touch me in my sleep, therefore I won't forgive a girl for molesting a guy when he is out cold. (11) Of course, Young Penryn's mother, despite her coolness, is never dignified by being given a name in the story (or at least I don't remember ever learning her name). Plus her seemingly psychic ability is never explained. (12) In book 2, Young Penryn's mother is blaming Young Penryn for not keeping Paige safe and condemning her for being 'demon's bride', but in this book she shows concern over Young Penryn's safety, out of the blue? And we are all expected to accept her change because 'she is crazy and unpredictable'? (13) Mother. Fucking. Romance. Angst. Happens. When. Young Penryn. And. Rafee. Are. On. The. Run. And. The. World. Is. Falling. Apart. Around. Them. (14) After suffering an angel's invasion and the entire world turned into a war zone, Young Penryn still has the time and strength to go angst about not being able to be with Raffe? I had thought after seeing all the suffering, she would have been cool with accepting both she and Raffe have their own different responsibilities and have to do the necessaries! (15) God, you fucking asshole! How can you throw your own angels to Hell and let them suffer just because those angels got married with humans?! (view spoiler)[ But does God really ever exist in this fictional world? (hide spoiler)] Again, it is unexplained! (16) I am more than willing to admit Susan Ee has creative, nontraditional ideas for her story, but damn..........she sucks so much at excising these ideas and doing some planning for her books. (17) Due to the lack of planning, explanation and world building in this series, now I think it's reasonable to believe Susan Ee had never thought about how her story should go after finishing Angelfall. (18) To be honest, I manged to read to the end after I stopped caring about logic and explanation of many things (e.g. how the final battle is prepared and the twin's many outlandish actions and decisions). (19) Last but not least, to put insult to injuries, (view spoiler)[Raffe gets his wing fixed and Paige is miraculously cured out of the blue (hide spoiler)], here Susan Ee is just down right insulting her readers. The Final Words: I am not going to read any more book by Susan Ee, blacklisted. PS: Ferdy's review listed out all the things which I found off-putting/stupid/ridiculous in this book. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 14, 2017
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Mar 17, 2017
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Mar 13, 2017
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Kindle Edition
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| 4.65
| 2,398,456
| May 03, 2016
| May 03, 2016
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did not like it
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Pre-review: I'm positive that there will be a love triangle in this sequel. And here we are, a very spot-on review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/sh Pre-review: I'm positive that there will be a love triangle in this sequel. And here we are, a very spot-on review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 44 pages into the story, and I found this review to be far more entertaining than the book itself. Note: in the upcoming review, I will continue to use photos from Jean Cocteau's movies, not because Sarah J. Maas' creation deserves to be put in the same place with Cocteau's grand works of art, but because Cocteau's movies deserve more viewing. Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Co... Edited@15/01/2017 Important Note 1: Be alerted Cassandra Clare! Your position as the mighty Queen of Inconsistency and Creator of Terrible Romance and Unlikable Mary Sues is now threatened by a worthy challenger! And the name of this worthy challenger is Sarah J. Maas! Important Note 2: I don't have many good things to say about Leigh Bardugo's YA novels and her writing, but I feel bad for her book Crooked Kingdom for losing the 2016 Best YA Fantasy Award to A Court of Mist and Fury, because I honestly can't see how Bardugo can do a worse job than SJM here. Important Note 3: Okay guys. The [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-Ss...) Important Note 4: Be alerted that this review contents unmarked spoilers for the ending of the first book and this book itself! Important Note 5: I felt my hope to humanity DYING after Wilde reminded me of THIS:
There really is no righteousness in this world and I really, really hate to see Catwoman having a go with Batman and all the other hot guys in the Batman comic series. I will definitely hate it. [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/search/le-pote) Edited@08/01/2017: I can hardly believe it. In my review for the previous book of this series, I'd mentioned the last 100+ pages of ACOTAR is the good part of the story (the first 290 pages are bad), but now........within the first 130 pages of ACOMAF, Ms. Maas has already managed to undo the good things she created in those last 100+ pages in the prequel: [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/maudit-maudit-j...) Remember Beauty and the Beast? In this fable, the Beauty got to look beyond the Beast's ugly and frightening appearance, and saw the man within who is still wroth redeeming and loving. Turns out, THIS does not happen in Feyre's relationship with Tamlin. Turns out Feyre doesn't know Tamlin very well, she hasn't seen anything outside of the High Lord's masked face and his beautiful male flesh. Talking about beautiful male flesh, we actually have some here: [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-fn...) Turns out there isn't much in their relationship outside of raging sex drive and lust. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast finally puts his selfishness aside, becomes willing to sacrifice himself in exchange for the Beauty's happiness. Turns out, THIS does not happen to Tamlin, because Ms. Maas decided to give him a 180 degree personality shift, undoing the sacrifice he made at the end of ACOTAR, leaving his choice of letting Feyre go to be accounted for nothing. Turns out, Tamlin also doesn't know much about Feyre, he never acknowledges or respects her strength and personality, and it sucks. It sucks so much. Oh, so you think now I'm Team Rhysand? No, because Rhys has become so much of a boring, 'can-do-no-wrong' saint in this book that I can't stand him. Not to mention, it's okay for Rhys to drug Feyre, having her dancing half naked in front of everyone, unable to resist anything that was done to her or control her body in the previous book. No big deal, really, because Rhys is hot. And no, in Ms. Maas's mind, there is no such thing as 'the heroine staying single and getting on with her life independently'. No, nap. Nada. I have a feeling this novel will be such a feast of Fuck-ery. My review for the prequel Actual review starts here: Let's do a quick breakdown, first let's start with the characters : Feyre: Who the hell are you? This MC we get to see in ACOMAF isn't the same person whom I got to know in ACOTAR. First, the Feyre from ACOTAR wouldn't have spent so much time to whine about herself being 'bad' and 'broken', she also wouldn't have tolerated half of the craps she had been subjected to, nor would she have allowed Tamlin to tell her what to do. Secondly, it really is off-putting to see the MC becoming such a massive Mary Sue that now she has the power of seven courts, she becomes desirable by two powerful High Lords, and she also has become so, so flawlessly beautiful. [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-JN...) I want to puke. Rhysand: Again, who the hell are you? Gone is the mysterious, half-villainous, interesting High Lord of the Night Court from the first book, in his place we get this boring, love-sicked, 'can-do-no-wrong' Perfect Boyfriend who is so loving, so selfless, so open-minded, so 'feminist' that he literally is a saint reincarnated. Plus his awesomeness is never explained. I mean, why would all the High Lords be narrowed minded and stupid but only Rhys alone is the wisest and the most powerful of them all? Oh really? [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-WD...) Tamlin: I have never been a fan of Tamlin and I HATE to defend him and his behaviors in this book. However, I also truly HATE how SJM had treated him here. Tamlin barely gets any chance to explain himself whilst Rhys can explain himself in great length and his every mistakes and errors in the past are pardoned. It is just so unfair and manipulative. For example: On Tamlin and Feyre's wedding day, Tamlin just acts (view spoiler)["okay you can take her" to Rhys IN FRONT OF EVERYONE? Without even trying to beat Rhys into a bloody mess first for trying to take his bride away from him? (hide spoiler)] It goes against everything I know about Tamlin from book 1! Talking about Out Of Character (OOC-ness for short), it takes the cake! Also, according to Feyre/SJM--it is difficult to tell them apart because the more I read, the more I feel they are one and the same, Tamlin doing bad things out of jealousy is bad and unforgivable, but Rhysand doing bad things out of jealousy (e.g. drugging Feyre and parading her around, threatening both Tamlin and Feyre in ACOTAR) is...excusable? The double standards of this simply leave me gagging. And don't you tell me Rhys had done all these with good intention, Tamlin's behaviors in ACOMAF can also be justified in the same way! Lucien: Once again, who the hell are you? Gone is the loyal Fae warrior with a leveled head and quick wits, who used to be my favorite character. Now he is only a ghost of himself, now he is a wimp who doesn't dare to do anything against Tamlin's order. In fact, in this book, this guy has done NOTHING. Rhysand's Inner Circle: Oh, they are the fun, exciting 'cool' kids whom Feyre befriended. I have absolutely no interest in them. Like Rhys, their open-mindedness and awesomeness is unexplained. Plus I also have a hard time believing 500+ years old, supposedly seasoned Fae warriors like them failed to foresee or at least guess at The King of Hybern's scheme and the betrayal of some certain people. Feyre's sisters: Actually their scenes are the more interesting parts of the story! Almost makes me wish that this story is about them instead of Feyre and Rhys! The King of Hybern and his army: Who cares about them, who!? The plots about the King and his evil scheme to invade the human world and the land of faeries are so vague that they are entirely overshadowed by Feyre's romantic dramas and the entire mate business. As to the romance ...oh the romance... [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/maudit-maudit-j...) Can any one tell me had this 'bonding' and 'mate' business ever been mentioned in ACOTAR? What is the point of the romance in ACOTAR if everything could be easily canceled out and excused in the name of 'he/she is my mate'!? I need to remind you once more I have never been a fan of Tamlin/Feyre, but if they needed a change of heart then I at least had expected this change of heart and change of partner to be done in a somewhat realistic and meaningful way! Not this SJM's 'but he/she is my mate' treatment! Did I mention there isn't even a love triangle in this story? What SJM had done is simply shoving the old boyfriend (Tamlin) aside to make way for the new love interest (Rhysand). And it's so, so cheap. Later, Feyre finds out Rhys has every reason to hate Tamlin and his people ((view spoiler)[Tamlin seemingly has a hand in the murder of Rhys' mother and sister (hide spoiler)]), but she still doesn't second guess Rhys' motive of being nice to her?! Instead she decides within the next heartbeat that Tamlin must be the bad guy while Rhys is the noble one. I must admit I can't quite see her logic. Remember by the end of ACOTAR, Feyre had made a bargain with Rhys so she must stay in the Night Court for a whole week in each month for the rest of her life? Originally I was very curious to see how this bargain will play out, I want to see Feyre making new discoveries at the infamous, nightmarish Night Court and getting to know the Court and its people, I want to see how she balances her separated lives in both the Spring Court and the Night Court. But no, SJM cheated me of all these by getting Feyre to (view spoiler)[to stay in the Night Court full time within the first 100 pages! (hide spoiler)] So what is the point of this bargain!? What is the point? As to Rhys/Feyre, if Ryhsand constantly saying lame one-liners and Feyre constantly calling Rhys 'Pig' or other names is supposed to be a romantic development. I'm out of here. Last but not least, it isn't like Feyre is such a mature person when relationship is concerned, in the first book her relationship with Tamlin is clearly based more on lust than understanding; then when Tamlin starts showing flaws in personality and behaviors, it doesn't take long for Feyre to dumb him (and she only write a crappy letter to inform the guy she isn't going back MONTHS after disappearing, she can't even do a face-to-face break up like a grown up). In this book, Feyre seems to lust after Rhys because HE IS PERFECT, but when Rhys so much as keeping *one* secret from her, then she blew up right in his face. Some other reviewers had already pointed out Feyre doesn't love neither Tamlin nor Rhys despite their flaws, she is attracted to them only when they are seemingly perfect to her and giving her everything (e.g. sense of security, material comforts, freedom, etc) she wants. That's it. And the world building ...there isn't much logic beyond the world building, a lot of things just simply are, because of magic. You know? MAGIC. Magic can do so much wonder and explain away so many things that like for example, (view spoiler)[Rhys could conveniently hide an entire city and its people from Amarantha and The King's notice, and wiped everyone's memories about this city. I'm talking about an entire city here! (hide spoiler)] Comparing Brandon Sanderson with SJM feels like a huge insult to Mr. Sanderson. Because honestly, when authors such as Mr. Sanderson, N. K. Jemisin and Robin Hobb working their fingers into bones to create their complicated high fantasy worlds, SJM wasn't even trying when world building is concerned! For example, there isn't much religion and mythology in her faerie society aside from a few mentions about a Mother goddess, some priestesses and that...magical thing which supposedly created the world. Just as convenient is that Rhys (view spoiler)[has two Courts instead of just one, and all the bad things he and the Court of Nightmare had done are only a cover for the noble, good-natural Court of Dreams. (hide spoiler)] Talking about blenching Rhys to make him look like a good guy and canceling out all his bad reputation! To put insult to injure, all of the characters talk like they live in the modern world instead of some mythical faerie realm, these faeries even swear the same way we modern readers do with 'Fuck' and other swear words. It's quite worth mentioning that although there is no love lost among me, Karen Marie Moning and her Fever series (I gave her books mostly 1 or 2 stars), yet I honestly think KMM has a better imagination and world building than SJM. Plus is it just me, or is it Feyre being able to sense The Book of Breathing looks very similar to how Mac can sense the evil Book in Fever series? Also, let me talk about the lack of logic and common sense in this story in general: In ACOMAF, Rhysand reveals that he has a (view spoiler)[hidden city within the Night Court, which has stayed hidden for thousands of years. Not only this, Amarantha also failed to catch wind about this city for a long 50 years because of magic, of course. Yet, said hidden city has always been wealthy and awesome when everyone else were suffering under Amarantha's thumb. Why are they wealthy, you ask? SJM tells us they are rich because the city has been doing TRADES with other people. What other people, you ask? We never know. Because even when there are magic and wands to wipe travelers' memories about this hidden city, they have still managed to find their way back to said city and do trades with them and keep them rich. (hide spoiler)] Don't ask me where is the logic of all these, just don't. By around page 40 or 50, Rhys reveals that he wants Tamlin's association so they can join force to face down The King of Hybern's upcoming invasion. OMFG this sounds like a joke coming from Ryhs' mouth! Seriously, who would threat the person who is an potential ally with his girlfriend's life? Who would order said potential ally to kneel and bow? Who would (view spoiler)[spirit his potential ally's bride away from him, right in front of everyone (hide spoiler)] ? What is the logic of all these? *kills self* [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-kZ...) Plus The King of Hybern---this guy is so evil that he doesn't even have a name, not to mention he is also one of the few unpretty characters in the book because, you know, evil people must be bad looking! Anyway, The King, who rules his smaller island kingdom, still plans to conquer the seven faerie Courts AND the mortal realm which are larger in size and theoretically have more manpower at their dispose. Somehow, The King's scheme reminds me so much of how the Japanese Empire trying to conquer China back in World War II, and we all know where the Japanese's ambitious plan had led them to. Okay...China had endured eight years of bloody battles against the Japanese invaders before they were eventually driven off but...I think you get my message here, right? Now, let's talk about the sex : First thing: I'm disgusted to see so much *in detail* sex within in this book which is marketed as a Young Adult novel, it sickens me not because I think teenagers shouldn't read about sex in a YA book, but because the sex in this book is highly romanticized, unrealistic and there is no concern over protection or the real consequences of sex. Basically, SJM has just penned down some crappy sex scenes you can find in badly written romance novels (for adults) and sold it to sexually curious teenagers (namely 12 years old and above teens, mind you) without a care. I mean, even Kresley Cole, who tends to write a few CHAPTERS of sex scenes for each of her adult paranormal romance novels, has the decency to tone down the sex in her YA paranormal books! I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out 'selling smuts to teenagers=money' is such a 'sure win' formula, and I'm sure SJM and her publisher are no fools. Therefore I'm really shocked to see some reviewers actually think what SJM is doing here is about 'sexual freedom' and/or 'feminism'! My ass! If SJM cared one bit about feminism, she wouldn't have put that crappy 'a woman invited a man to have sex = she is an evil woman' (this slut-shaming things happens around pg. 236, check this out yourself) shit in her own book! I have read my share of paranormal novel/paranormal romance novels too, but the sex description in this book is so crappy that I needed to roll my eyes at this:
[image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/filmlinc-queer-...) That is garbage. Plain and simple. Further more: do I want to see the MC having a man's fingers inside of her or she stroking the male lead's rock hard cock in a YA? The answer to this question is 'No', and I'm sick to my stomach. Last but not least, our heroine's vagina has been described as 'glowing' during one of the sex scenes. Don't laugh, guys. So after the glowing vampires from Twilight....we now have...glowing vaginas. Don't laugh. Finally...let's talk about the ending ... Well...there isn't much to be said about the ending, because nothing but crappy romance/love triangle has taken place during the first 500 pages of the book, the threat of the Evil King only resurfaces in the last 100 or so pages, and the Evil King just..........(view spoiler)[lets everyone escape in the last minute? He doesn't even kill Feyre's sisters off on the spot just to hurt Feyre? (hide spoiler)] OMFG! That Evil King is just so very, very scary! I mean it! [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/jean-cocteau-l4...) The Final Words: I desperately need more Jean Cocteau related 'people shooting themselves in the heads' gifs for this review because that's how I feel about this book. But since there aren't enough gifs, let's make do with this one: [image] (Link: http://giphy.com/gifs/black-and-white...) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2017
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Jan 27, 2017
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Nov 13, 2016
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Kindle Edition
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| 986344250X
| 9789863442509
| 986344250X
| 4.06
| 62,746
| Nov 04, 2014
| Aug 01, 2015
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did not like it
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My thoughts after reading The Retribution of Mara Dyer@06/12/2016:
Fxxk you, Mara Dyer. Fxxk your special snowflake romance with this jerk Noah and My thoughts after reading The Retribution of Mara Dyer@06/12/2016: Fxxk you, Mara Dyer. Fxxk your special snowflake romance with this jerk Noah and your bullshit story. Fxxk you for bullshiting me throughout three whole books and wasting my time. Michelle Hodkin, for the sake of literature and saving some innocent trees from dying to provide paper to print your ridiculous books, I hope you will never get published again. This trilogy has so much potential, but all is lost because of the poorly written romance, the Mary Sue heroine and the confusing story lines. At this point I'm beyond being polite and respectful toward this trilogy and its creator. Rating: one of the worst books I've ever read in my life 20 negative stars. Theoretically, the Mara Dyer trilogy comes with a nice package which I'd usually adore and praise to no end, such as: (1) Psychological thriller. (2) Spooky events and happenings. (3) People dying left and right, with hardly any reason. (4) A heroine with destructive power to harm and kill people, and she uses it. (5) Shadowy, evil scientists and human experiments! (6) The heroine mentioned above at the verge of losing her sanity, and she keeps seeing crazy delusion of all sorts. Seriously, for a person who loves to read dark fantasy and other crazy stuff as much as I do, what is not to love here? Newsflashes: I'm wrong, I am so wrong; and Ms. Hodkin has done absolutely nothing to change my view throughout three whole books. Let's do a breakdown: The good stuff: Mara's escape with Jamie and Stella, and the scenes with them together. And Noah is nowhere in sight in those Mara/Jamie/Stella scenes! The bad stuff: (1) Mara Dyer is a Mary Sue Well....when Mara is with Jaime and Stella, she really isn't so bad........but I swear I did throw up a little in my mouth when Ms. Hodkin spends the last 30 or so pages to praise Mara, through the mouths of Noah, his daddy and Mara's grandmother, for being a super special snowflake that she is! Well.........one of the biggest sign of her being a Mary Sue is that she has done bad things, killed or harmed people, but as readers, we are not supposed to blame her for what had happened, because (view spoiler)[it is the human experiment which is responsible for what she had become (hide spoiler)], oh really? To be fair, in this book Mara does show tiny signs of her owning up to her action, but her attempts still look more on the 'woe is me' side. Mara wants you to believe she is a badass, unapologetic heroine; but the sad thing is, she isn't. At the end of the day, she is only a boy-crazed teenage girl. (2) The awful YA romance A flawed character or a Mary Sue, that much I can deal with, but a romance as awful as Mara and Noah's, that I can't tolerate. Other reviewers had pointed out how selfish they are in their love, like (view spoiler)[how Noah can heal people and do other great good, but he gives it all up to be with Mara anyway. (hide spoiler)] I also want to point out, Mara doesn't seem to have much purpose or desire outside of Noah......okay, the girl cares for her family too, but outside of Noah and her family, she doesn't seem to have anything in her mind. Even Jamie and Stella do not look like they have much importance to her, and from time to time she doesn't seem all that interest in finding out the truth about her and her friends' ordeals, or the truth of her power. (3) The total lack of logic and realism in the story So, Mara and Co. escaped from the mysterious group which kept them as prisoners, lied to their parents and did horrible experiments on them! The teenagers are now on the run and Mara tells us there are people chasing them! So you think you are going to see some action scenes or breathtaking chasing scenes? Well, you are wrong! Throughout the whole book, we see the total of three villains (there are some nameless, faceless guards here and there, but they play little to no role in the story), and I have a hard time believing such a massive evil scheme that needs so much manpower and wealth to support would only involve so little people! Also, by the end of the story, we have two corpses in the room and one teenager being soaked with blood also in the same room, but the next thing we know the cops just let said teenager go!? What the actual fuck? And in the end the super evil bad guy (view spoiler)[Noah's daddy (hide spoiler)] just disappears into the thin air and everyone is off enjoying their happy ever after. No kidding, that really is what happens in the ending part. I swear, I was going to give this book 2 stars because the opening part isn't all that bad, but the last 20 or so pages of this book totally ruin everything for me. (4) The Most Ridiculous Sex Scene Ever, by the end of the story Please don't get me started with this, just don't. Basically it is just super special Mara and super special Noah having their super special first time sex. ARGH! [image] (Link: http://www.deviantart.com/art/DO-NOT-...) The Final Words: This trilogy is so full of bullshits, so it is only logical for me to blacklist its author, end of the story. Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 04, 2016
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Dec 07, 2016
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Nov 04, 2016
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Paperback
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| 1250095255
| 9781250095251
| 1250095255
| 3.98
| 632,897
| Sep 29, 2016
| Jan 31, 2017
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did not like it
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I picked up Caraval by Stephanie Garber from the library merely because the pretty book cover and the hype on GR and free copy from library! Nothing t
I picked up Caraval by Stephanie Garber from the library merely because the pretty book cover and the hype on GR and free copy from library! Nothing too bad can happen, right? Right? Then around page 140, this happens: Imagine: you are a teenage girl, you are desperately searching for your missing younger sister, and here is a fortune teller, who offers to answer a few questions from you. What will you do? (1) First and foremost, ask said fortune teller where to find your sister. (2) Putting the issue of your missing sister aside, you ask the fortune teller about your future husband and how he is as a person. If you chose (1), good for you! You are a normal and sensible person. So, guess which option had our heroine Scarlett chosen? [image] (Link: https://giphy.com/gifs/hyde-kkOlWc0gH...) DNF-ed at page 208 I feel sad that this book ever manages to become a best seller and getting praised by all those other up-and-coming YA authors (e.g. authors of Shatter Me and An Ember in the Ashes, etc) Shit....these people are some big fat lairs. Well, this book promises MAGIC and DANGER with its premise, and so many characters from within the story had beat me over the head with how DANGEROUS and ENCHANTING this Caraval is supposed to be. But......just where the hell are these promised danger and wonders and magic? After crawling my way through 200+ pages, I still can't find them! Forgive me for being harsh, but I really feel the existence of this book is an offense toward qualified writing and Young Adult Fantasy as a genre. Therefore I would like to talk about some of the most offensive things in this book: No, I'm not saying this book has obvious racism or sexism in it, but the lack of quality itself is offensive enough! My reaction... [image] (Link: https://giphy.com/gifs/90s-s-cEhEHOlx...) (1.) the total toneless-ness of the story: I know Stephanie Garber is a newbie author, but must she write her stuff with zero style, zero significant tone and zero special fragrant? (2.) the total shapelessness in world building: Here we go again: tell, not show, and in a story which is supposed to be filled with magical locations and shocking wonders, I found the author's imaginary to be highly limited and unimpressive. (3.) the total absence of mystery and sense of urgency: The heroine's younger sister is missing! Her father is an asshole who wants to trap her in an unwanted marriage! Said heroine also needs to decide where her life should be going! Tension should be building up, right? We should be worried for the heroine, right? Sadly, thanks to the author's flat writing, we never feel the urgency of the situation. (4.) the author's very poor attempt at character building: The heroine is as interesting as a piece of rock, she also has hardly any insight to offer because she is just so freaking stupid and unfortunately we are doomed to read this story mostly through her POV. (5.) the annoying insta-love and the repeated mention of the male love interest's hotness: I was beat over the head repeatedly by the male lead's hotness and to make matter worse, I can't get over the fact that the heroine is mooning over a guy who had just put his hands up beneath her younger sister's skirt mere days ago. Gross. [image] (Link: https://giphy.com/gifs/marilyn-manson...) Plus, not only the romance is an insta-love, it is also one of the most flat, lifeless, meaningless relationships I'd read in a YA novel. To be very honest, if you wanted to experience magic and wonders through YA books, please try Daughter of Smoke and Bones or The Raven Cycle instead. ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Dec 09, 2017
not set
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Jan 25, 2018
not set
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Jul 14, 2016
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Hardcover
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| 153308954X
| 9781533089540
| 153308954X
| 3.82
| 30,073
| Mar 17, 2010
| May 03, 2016
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did not like it
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20 'one of the worst books ever' Negative-Stars. For starter, now I can confidentially say I've finally encountered a book which can make Cassandra Cla 20 'one of the worst books ever' Negative-Stars. For starter, now I can confidentially say I've finally encountered a book which can make Cassandra Clare's, Stephenie Meyer and Marie Lu's novels look like decent literature, and this book is My Blood Approves, by Amanda Hocking. So you ask what has gone wrong in this book...? Oh let's me think about it.......just where should I begin? Warning: F-words here and there, don't like don't read. (1) The story is a Twilight's doppelganger Plain Jane main girl meets mysterious handsome boy who saves her from danger? Checks. Endless details of the boring daily life of the Plain Jane main girl? Checks. Vampire boy finds the girl irresistible because her blood is 'special'? Checks. Vampire boy has a rich adoptive family of attractive older vampires? Checks. All of the vampires in the boy's family are sexy and hot-as-fuck? Checks. Plain Jane main girl eagerly wants to ditch being human and embrace vampirism without a backward glance at her mortal family? Checks. Need I go on? (2) Meets Alice, an irredeemable spoiled brat and a Mary Sue who can put Bella Swan into total shame Before I started reading this book, I just couldn't believe how irritating and hateful our Plain Jane main girl, namely Alice, can get. Now it's official: comparing with Alice, Bella Swan from Twilight suddenly looks like a decent and thoughtful character. Plus only Clarissa Fray from City of Bones can outdo Alice at being a completely hateful spoiled brat. Oh boy, how sad. For example, Alice and her younger brother Milo are raised by a single mother. Said mother has been working 12 hours per-day, 70-plus hours per-week to make ends meet,but has the 17 years old Alice ever thought about getting a part time job to help her family? No. Never. The thought has never crossed her mind. Plus, instead of looking after her 14 years old younger brother Milo when their mother is absent, Alice allows Milo to take charge of housekeeping duties. So Milo has to cook and wash FOR BOTH OF THEM whilst Alice is out wandering around streets and clubs at night, hanging out with her BFF and hooking up the hot guy Jack, whom she had just met. To make things even better, Alice doesn't care about her own education, she refuses to do homework even when her brother Milo has to step in to remind her. Look, see. Alice even thinks (view spoiler)[immortality and being a vampire is far more important than continuing her education. (hide spoiler)] *sighs* Because we all understand making out with your hot, perfect undead boyfriend is far more important than learning and going to school. Totally makes sense. By the end of the book, Alice's mother is mad with her for being away from home *all night* without even one phone call, and instead of apologizing Alice runs away from home and goes stay with her rich, hot vampire boyfriend. Not to mention, Alice is...to be frank, stupid. Even though I fully understand we can't expect every single 17 years old kid to be mature and smart, still how stupid must you be to step into the car of a total stranger in the middle of the night, especially right after you had just narrowly escaped being harmed/gang-raped? How stupid must you be to trust a guy who messed with your phone when you passed out? How stupid and thoughtless must you be to throw perfectly fine vegetables away just because you accidentally cut your finger (especially when your family isn't so well-off)? Just how stupid must you be to remain entirely carefree when hanging out with...blood-drinking VAMPIRES who are struggling not to eat you for dinner? I truly have no word. (3) Creepy relationships gets disguised as romance, creepy guys get disguised as sexy love interests Since the story is a photocopy of Twilight, so I am not the one bit surprised that Jack, the vampire, is attracted to Alice because her blood is special and irresistible. 'I want you, I love you because you smell so good I want to EAT you!' How romantic. Trust me, I'm a huge vampire fan but all the talks about the vampire guys get excited by the sound of the girl's pulsing and the smell of her blood is just so fucking goddamn creepy, and gross. If a guy talked like this to me I swear I will tear him apart. Plus, Jack also inserted his own phone number into Alice's cell *without consent* while the girl passed out. I have no word. As to love interest number 2, we get Peter, who is a even bigger creeper than Jack, his 'younger brother' (alright, alright, so instead of a werewolf as the third wheel, we get a vampire one). I don't have many things to say about him aside from the fact he toys with Alice in a 'hot and cold' way, like a cat would toy with a mice it is about to kill. And at the very end the guy finally (view spoiler)[drinks Alice half to death (hide spoiler)], but Alice still lusts after him anyway! Again, just how fucking romantic. (4) Alice is the most annoying narrator ever. It is not easy to hear the thoughts of a 17 years old kid for an entire book, it is nearly unbearable to hear Alice's monologues (which make her sound like a dull eight years old) and her endless complaints about...well, everything and everyone. (5) Many things in the story are just ridiculous. Jack is a 20-something man who is jobless and out of school, he also lives off his older brother, but he is still considered by everyone (especially Alice) as a dreamboat. Everyone--- and I do mean everyone, wants to jump Jack's bones. Alice wants him, her brother Milo wants him, their mother wants to push him to the floor and do him then and there. To tell the truth it really is embarrassing. [image] (Link: http://maidendawn.deviantart.com/art/...) Just as embarrassing is the fact that 100 pages into the story, we get two hot male vampires interest with our Plain Jane main girl Alice already. Since this book is a photocopy of Twilight, therefore all of the vampires that show up have to be unbelievably hot and attractive. The story and the writing itself is so immature that it reminds me of an eight years old little girl playing Princess Game with her Barbie dolls while daydreaming about hot undead boyfriends. And you are telling me books like this get printed and people actually pay to read them? How sad. (6)Where is the plot? Where is the story? 200 pages into the story, I realize this book is one big fat fucking piece of NOTHINGNESS. Things happens but there is barely a story, there is no development, no character's growth, no revelation, no plot twist, no moral lesson, no climax, NOTHING. All we get is a Mary Sue drooling over hot guys. Reading this book felt like a fucking chore, I nearly gave up for many times before I crawled my way to the ending...which mocks me and laughs at me right in my face with its absolute POINTLESSNESS. So here is the final insult: I'd wasted my time for NOTHING. Final words: with this fucking piece of crap (which I decline to call it a 'novel'), Amanda Hocking successfully wins the honor of being a worse author than Stephenie Meyer and Cassandra Clare. Good job, Ms. Hocking. Good job. Pre-review below: 09/07/2016: Today I found the simplified Chinese translation of this book sitting in the library's shelf. So, free book! Free badly written romance! Free jokes! Here I go! PS: and I honestly have no idea whether this simplified Chinese translation got any permission from the original publisher or not... Edited@17/07/2016: 70 pages into the story, I am told that everyone loves the male lead, namely Jack, and I do mean everyone: the Main Girl Alice loves him, her younger brother has a crush on him, their mother wants to jump the guy's bones since the first time she meets him. That is getting ridiculous, and embarrassing. Edited@24/07/2016: Thoughts before finish reading the whole book: I've read 150+ pages into My Blood Approves but absolutely nothing has happened, all I've gotten so far is the Plain Jane main girl Alice's monologues which bored me into tear (who wants to read a teenager girl's monologues when the thoughts in her mind makes her sound like a dull 8 years old?) and the long, useless description of the irresistible male vampires and their irresistible perfection. So far I can tell you this book is even worse than the infamous Twilight, but I shouldn't be so surprised because bad writing like this can also be found in the Trylle series by the same author. The story and the writing is so immature that it reminds me of an 8 years old girl playing Princess Game with her Barbie dolls while day-dreaming about a handful of hot guys drooling over her. And you are telling me books like this got printed and people have been actually paying their hard earned money to read them? How sad. This review and this particular paragraph concludes my feeling to this book so beautifully: ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 09, 2016
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Jul 29, 2016
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Jul 09, 2016
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Paperback
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| 4.25
| 309,888
| Apr 28, 2015
| Apr 28, 2015
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it was ok
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Note: the only reason I read this book is I've kept seeing it popping up everywhere on Goodreads.com for over a year. So when I saw it on the library'
Note: the only reason I read this book is I've kept seeing it popping up everywhere on Goodreads.com for over a year. So when I saw it on the library's bookshelf, I picked it up and borrowed it, I read it with zero expectation, I can see potentials in the story but in the end, I'm underwhelmed. I'm utterly underwhelmed. What I like: (1) the author's willingness to expose readers to violence and the harsh reality of a Rome-inspired slaves-and-masters society. Rape? Murder? Raid? lower casted citizens being suppressed and mercilessly crushed down by their overlords? The author mentioned them all. (2) the world building isn't so bad. I mean, it is far from being good, but at least it isn't eye-poppingly bad. (3) the story is okay-ish enough and entirely readable for me to read to the end in a relatively short time. (4) the idea of masked deadly warriors is kind of good. What I don't like: (1) the story as a whole is a big fat case of 'been there, done before' to me. Some other reviewers pointed out the all too familiar sister-saving-her-sibling scenario, teenagers-being-ordered-to-fight-to-the-death, boarding school setting, the Main Characters' fates being tied to some foretelling (You are the Chosen One, blah blah blah), rebellion and the suppressing society, and the all too familiar The Hunger Games vibe. To tell the truth I'm not so bothered by these similarities, but honestly An Ember in the Ashes brings nothing new to the table. (2) the all evil teenage love-square. Come on! There's an rebellion and a deadly contest going on! Ain't nobody got time for teenage romance angst! [image] (3) the wooden characters Now, here is the real deal-breaker. Elias: our male lead is a supposedly awesomely skilled young masked warrior who had been set to join a deadly contest in order to win the position of Emperor. But for most of the time, I can only see him moaning and ranting about his mommy issues and his love troubles. Plus Elias is an asshole to his best friend, and it bothers me Elias didn't act, think and talk like someone who had been through hard training and had to be on guard for nearly his entire life. Laia: a young girl who lost her entire family to the Empire and its soldiers. In order to save her brother, she accepted a mission to go to the training school for the Empire's masked warriors (who killed her family) and spied on the most dangerous person in the Empire. You think Laia would take her mission seriously, use her wit and pretend to be an obedient slave to get her mission done? You had guessed wrongly! Despite of the dangerous situation she was in, Laia still managed to act out in front of her overlords, she just opened her mouth and talked without caring about whether there might be spies among the slaves, she snaked out to meet with the rebels without seemingly cared about being followed, she danced with a stranger and enjoyed a Festival when a slave supposedly shouldn't take part in said Festival. She makes her mission looks like it is a cakewalk. Even a rebel told her: "You don't know the first thing about spying." Good grief, how true. I don't like heroines who have special power which they did nothing to earn, but a useless heroine like Laia is no better; for too long she just kept telling herself she is weak and useless, and I'm like: "Girl, get over it already! Tough up! Your life and your brother's life depend on it!" Last but not lest, for most of the book Laia's life mostly revolves around saving her brother and Elias, the hot guy. Helene: probably the only female character whom I like to a degree, but sadly her existence still revolves around Elias. (4) women can only be victims, obedient bystanders or evil bitches in this world. Although I'm actually glad that the author didn't shy away from mentioning rape and rape in slavery, but in this case rape has been repeatedly mentioned for too many times and somehow Laia, our heroine is saved from the threat of it, because Elias swung in and saved her from being raped. I don't know about you, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. (5) Talking about evil bitches, the only woman in this book who is in power is an abusive evil bitch. And it is nothing new. Because in the realm of YA, if you were a woman and you also happened to want power and/or in the position of having power, then you must be a bad woman. (6) the characters talk like they live in the modern America. I'm not kidding, the characters talk like they are citizens of the modern United States of America, not some Rome-inspired fantasy world. (7) the world building is thin and far in between. After reading this 400+ book, I still don't know much about this fictional Empire and why said Empire became what it now is. (8) (view spoiler)[the rebels turn out not the good guys (hide spoiler)] It looks like the same-old, same-old The Hunger Games cliche. (9) the ending is quite stupid. To be fair, it is not the worst ending ever, but I rolled my eyes at how convenient many things had turned out. I'd forgotten to mention, I also can't take the idea that people would just select four teenagers and let them fight to the death in a contest so the winner would become the new Emperor seriously. It may sound like I hate this book, I don't. This book just sort of bored me. Still, I'm going to read the sequel if I could get it for free. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 29, 2016
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Mar 20, 2016
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Feb 29, 2016
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Hardcover
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| 1416509879
| 9781416509875
| 1416509879
| 4.09
| 87,172
| Mar 28, 2006
| Apr 01, 2006
|
it was ok
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Did I mention that many of Kresley Cole's PNR books can be viewed as rape fantasy? This time I think she went too far with that rape fantasy thingy. Th Did I mention that many of Kresley Cole's PNR books can be viewed as rape fantasy? This time I think she went too far with that rape fantasy thingy. This time...the male lead is a fucking rapist, because what else would you call a guy who tears a woman's clothes off her body and has his way with her when she is unconscious? Believe me, the male lead did more than just these... And here's my reaction to this asshole: [image] (Link: http://becuo.com/john-travolta-shooti...) In my past reviews for other Cole's books, I stated for at least a few times that I want to kick her male leads' balls into next week...this time, I change it into I want to cut out his balls, once and for all. Still...the story itself is a lot of fun and eventful, and one of my favorite characters shows up in the book too. Thoughts After Reading: I have to be crazy to root for this couple. But I'm not crazy so I hate the romance in the book with all my heart, what I like is Emma's interaction with her supernatural family and how she grows a backbone in the end, the mention of the other Lorekinds and their stories, I'm not much of a fan of the ending either. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 2015
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Dec 14, 2015
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Dec 01, 2015
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 4.48
| 1,018,046
| Sep 29, 2015
| Sep 29, 2015
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it was ok
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Rating: 2.5 'this book has been dragging on for too long', not-able-to-give-too-much-of-a-damn, unimpressive stars. Six of Crows as a whole: story soak Rating: 2.5 'this book has been dragging on for too long', not-able-to-give-too-much-of-a-damn, unimpressive stars. Six of Crows as a whole: story soaked too thoroughly in boredom, too much half baked romance, too many forced sassy dialogues, decent writing but with hardly any emotion beyond it, too much European-sounding words that make little to no sense, nonexistent tension, the sparkles and excitement has been stretched too far and few in between throughout the story. Between this book and The Lies of Locke Lamora, I can't tell which one of them annoys me more. Honestly, I think this story would work out great as a TV series, but as a novel.......it doesn't work out........it falls short. Let's do a breakdown: (1) The book design is gorgeous: big clapping for the designer! Like many other YA books out there, the one good thing about Six of Crows is its cover, and damn it is indeed gorgeous and tasteful. (2) Leigh Bardugo's improvement in writing and plots are obvious: thanks God so we don't have to suffer the same disaster like we did with the Grisha trilogy. Bardugo's writing has indeed improved and matured.........however, there isn't much emotion beyond her writing, she also has yet to master the skill of holding her readers captive and breathless when reading her story. And despite all her improvement, Bardugo still managed to dish out the worst prologue (with little to none introduction or world building in it) I'd ever read in the recent years and some of the most boring first 100 pages. (3) Most of the characters aren't very fleshed out: perhaps except Inej or maybe Kaz? To say the least, I agree most of the characters are reasonable and their motivations are logical and realistic enough, and that alone is making them better than many other Yong Adult characters, still.... Nina: she is an okay character, her conflicted feelings toward her duties to her country and her need to rescue Mattias is interesting enough to read, but after a while she becomes kind of boring. PLUS I rolled my eyes when Nina reveals her reason of (view spoiler)[framing Matthias as a slave trader is that she cannot expose the local Rakva's spy network? (hide spoiler)] She has to do this to Matthias instead of finding another way? My reaction to this is a loud and clear "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?" Matthias: This guy is walking German-stereotypes: No sense of humor, care too much about being punctual, care too much about keeping everything and every details in order, tall, well built body, blond haired, outstandingly handsome. How can anyone from Germany stand this kind of BS? Jesper: I don't see much of anything about him outside of his sassy speeches and his great passion for gambling. Plus it's rather embarrassing to see Jesper--a skilled sharpshooter no less--crying out for a medic when one of his fellow gangsters gets shot. I mean, a hardened criminal just wouldn't react like this! Kaz: for most of the time I can't take him seriously. He has been called a monster but has he done a monstrous thing or two to justify this title? Nada. "When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing." How......monstrous! Not to mention as a gangster, you utter a death threat, then you must carry it out no matter what! You don't just *pretend* you are going to kill your enemy's beloved when said enemy is holding a fucking gun at you! You threaten them, and you threaten them for real! Oh yes, Kaz later cut out the eye of one of his enemies, that I have no complaint against. Inej: I'm actually glad People of Colors like her are included in the story, I do think she is a better written characters than the rest and I like the moment of revaluation she has in the story, but very sadly....an asskicking girl still has to be stereotyped into having a cliched traumatic past like enslavement and prostitution. Wylan: Okay, the setting he has isn't bad at all, but for most of the time I simply forget he is here. The bad guy: he is called (view spoiler)[Pekka Rollins (hide spoiler)] and he is also supposed to be the most infamous crime boss in the fictional Ketterdam, but thanks to his name and his nearly nonexistent action, I can't take him very seriously. (4) Kaz Brekker--the MC whom everyone is hypering about---is the male version of Alina Starkov (from the Grisha trilogy)---a better constructed and less useless male version of her, but the same like Alina is a super special Mary Sue, Kaz is a super special Gray Stu, no kidding. Inej mentioned Kaz built a myth around himself and I feel Kaz's supposed awesomeness is just this: a myth. Through out the story I have problems buying into the other characters' constant praising for Kaz, nor can I accept the claim that he is 'a criminal prodigy' like Bardugo and *every character in the book* are spoon-feeding me. Not to mention, a level-headed criminal just wouldn't abandon his mission in the middle of the action in order to go after an enemy! And Kaz basically does just that in the middle of the book! He does it to a group of acquaintances who are counting on him to get them to safety! There is just no excuse for this sort of impulsive behavior. Sorry to say this, guys; but Kaz Brekker ruins at least half of this book for me. (5) Bardugo's writing fails to radiate the tension, excitement and emotion to me. Throughout the whole book I care for none of those characters, nor can I share their emotions. I never feel I am right there with the characters when they are running their supposedly dangerous operations. (6) And you just have to suppress your disbelief a bit quite often. For example: Inej, the Suli girl who came from a family of acrobats, was kidnapped when she was 14 years old, then she was sold to be a prostitute and trapped in a whore house for a year, then Kaz bought her freedom and then..................he trained her into the most feared assassin/thief/spy in the city, all within the length of ONE WHOLE YEAR!? So, in this Ketterdam, the most feared assassin is a 16 years old girl. Huh, totally believable. If you wondered, how could a 17 years old teenager (Kaz) manage to run a gang, gather up supporters and took control of a district worth of underground economy in the city? To a point that older, more experienced gangsters have to fear him and a bigshot merchant also turns to him for help? Don't ask, we are only supposed to swallow it down and accept whatever make-believe Bardugo has dished out for us. Don't ask, be ready to suppress your disbelief, throw your common sense away. You ask: why would the main characters' age be a problem? Allow me to use Batman as an example here. Can you believe Bruce Wayne is able to take on Batman's full crime-fighting duties at the tender age of 17? Are you willing to buy the idea that a 16 years old Selina Kyle being the top thief Catwoman of the Gotham city? Can you convince yourself The Joker can establish himself as The Clown Prince of Crime at age 18? Color me unconvinced. Okay, okay. I know in a harsh environment, children would grow up and harden up fast and (sadly) there are teenagers who actually are skillful thieves, spies and assassins (child soldiers do exist, after all), but a group of teens who act as crime bosses who can run their own underground enterprise, their influence and importance is acknowledged by not only by other older, more experienced criminals, but also a bigshot-merchant in the city? It feels like a joke. Plus, if people kept insisting a 16 years old girl can become the most feared and most deadly assassin/spy in the city after one full year of training, I would simply start laughing, right in this second. To add insult to injury, this supposedly fearsome assassin simply leaves her boss (Kaz) in the middle of the night on an empty street *alone* when she should be protecting him? Wow, some assassin. Therefore, if you can't talk yourself into buying the concept of a bunch of 17 or so years old top-game criminals, then I suggest you not to bother yourself with this book. Not to mention it's stupid for Kaz to let Nina walk into a prison break *blind*, not knowing what to expect only to have her wasting precious time arguing instead of getting her job done. Kaz, communication is a key to success. Why you act like you don't know it? To think about it more carefully, the bigshot merchant just has to wear his large ruby and wave it in front of a criminal when making a deal with him! How very clever! Also, am I really supposed to believe the authority would allow paid guests to enter a high level prison to watch the prisoners fighting? On a regular basis? What about the security measure? And excuse me? What kind of top-game crime boss (view spoiler)[namely, Pekka Rollins (hide spoiler)] in the city would leave his home base for a dangerous operation *in a foreign country* instead of ORDERING HIS MEN TO DO IT FOR HIM? And excuse me? What kind of top-game crime boss (view spoiler)[namely, Pekka Rollins (hide spoiler)] in the city would *personally* go up and trick an insignificant piece of land out of two farm boys' hands INSTEAD OF LETTING HIS MEN DO IT FOR HIM? Doesn't he have eviler and more important things to handle? (7) The book drags on and on. The premise of this book and all the glowing reviews are promising this: [image] Or at least this: [image] Not to mention this: [image] But in the end, I got this: [image] (LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasan...) The first exciting event/plot twist takes place at around page 108, the first truly awesome turn of event takes place nearly the end of the story, my patience is wearing thin. And why would anyone think it's a good idea to INSERT FLASHBACKS IN THE MIDDLE OF ACTION SCENES?! (8) The ending is decent enough but I'd been expecting more. Book, too many flashbacks and people walking right into obvious traps are your downfall. Plus I haven't seen anything other authors hadn't done before and done better, when the ending is concerned. (9) Honestly, Bardugo needs to make up her mind about whether her story takes place in an old-fashioned-Europe-lookalike-fantasy-world, or in the modern days America, otherwise how can we explain why her characters are talking like some airhead American teenagers? It is really off putting to see words like "you guys", "Well," and "kid" keep showing up in a supposedly 'high fantasy' novel. (10) You just have to deal with a lot of nationality-stereotypes which isn't funny. The Ravka kingdom: Oh mostly they are magic users but so what? At least they don't get bashed like the other kingdoms! The people of The people of Fjera: the Fjerans seem like a freakish, witch-hunting, backward and stereotyped version of the Germans, they seem to have a kink on details and time-keeping and have no sense of humor! The Shu Han kingdom: I don't know whether this kingdom is supposed to be Mongolia or China. But the Shu people are barbaric! Warlike! Violent! They can't speak foreign language without thick accent! They also seem to be drug users too! And a name like 'Kuwei Yul Bo'? Seriously? (11) Too many failed attempts at letting the characters talk tough.
I'm sorry to say this, but it doesn't sound very badass to me.
Hey, is that one ripped from Point Break? (12) Last but not least, the old problem of made up words and misused languages: It is now confirmed: Leigh Bardugo simply isn't able to rid herself of throwing badly-put-together 'foreign' (here I mean non-American and British) languages into her writing, nor can she put more effort on her researches on 'foreign' (here I mean non-American and non-British) cultures. Therefore, aside of your willingness to suppress disbelief, the levels of your enjoyment with Bardugo's books also pretty much depends on your willingness and ability to turn a blind eye at poor research on 'foreign' (I mean, non-American and non-British) countries, badly used and/or misused European-sounding words & made up words (e.g. Stadwatch, the Dregs, jurda) and ridiculous sounding 'foreign' (I mean, non-American and non-British) names and/or made up names. I know not one single Dutch word, but thankfully Yasmin gave her permission for me to quote her reading progress in this pre-review of mine:
People with modern sounding names in a 'high fantasy' novel? Okay...
Okay...sound just like all Bardugo's Russian languages mistakes (including but not limited to naming a character 'why the fuck') from Shadow and Bones all over again. Recently Yasmin finished her own review, and it's splendid. I know, not everyone is familiar with Russian or Dutch and obviously a lot of people do not care about cultural inaccuracy or language mistakes as long as the novel is labeled as 'high fantasy' and a lot of people actually think authors can do whatever the freak they want with actually existing cultures and languages, but I still want to point this out when no one else other than Yasmin seems to notice it. Later, I had learnt from Jen's review that the setting/city in this book is actually named 'Ketterdam', which, is an obvious, dead giveaway ripoff of Amsterdam, a city I had once visited and admired. I suggest you to read Jen's review, she listed out the many details of Bardugo's cultural inaccuracy and the reasons why it is annoying and off putting. Now it's official: Leigh Bardugo, you and your playing around with actually existing cultures, names and languages leave a back taste in my mouth. PS: I'm really puzzled by why Bardugo (an established author with a bestseller series under her belt no less) can't get herself an editor who actually know Dutch to edit the 'Dutch words' in her novel. Suggestion: Borrow this book, don't buy. Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 27, 2016
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Oct 18, 2016
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Oct 27, 2015
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Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1845023706
| 9781845023706
| 1845023706
| 3.67
| 987
| Apr 27, 2012
| Apr 18, 2012
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it was ok
|
The world setting and some of the ideas about magic and demons in this book are somewhat decent and interesting (that's the only reason I finished rea
The world setting and some of the ideas about magic and demons in this book are somewhat decent and interesting (that's the only reason I finished reading the book), however I really can't stand the Mary Sue Special Snowflake Heroine (barely a chapter can go by without the author telling me how beautiful and special the heroine is) and the love triangle. Plus, despite having supernatural powers, the heroine is goddamn useless, she needs her love interests to pull her out of danger *for an entire freaking book*. Last but not least, the heroine's parents did nothing to prepare her to fight demons or at least protect herself even though *it is what their family has always been doing for generations*; and the heroine's cousin Harry (view spoiler)[never explained to her he isn't her cousin/the real Harry but a friend who took the real Harry's place after the latter's death, in order to protect her (hide spoiler)], why wouldn't he do that? Because of REASONS! Somehow this book reads like a bad mixture of Twilight and Hush, Hush. *groans* ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 09, 2015
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Dec 13, 2015
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Oct 09, 2015
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 3.98
| 549,102
| Jun 17, 2014
| Jun 17, 2014
|
it was ok
|
review for book 2 of the trilogy
Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book. Rating: 'mediocre' is the word to describe this final book 2 sta review for book 2 of the trilogy Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book. Rating: 'mediocre' is the word to describe this final book 2 stars. More importantly, I decided to blacklist Leigh Bardugo, if she doesn't bother to do sound research for her books and she has nothing outstanding to offer in the departments of plots and character development, then I can't see why should I bother with her creations. Ruin and Rising isn't terrible, but it isn't remarkable neither, this book is among the thousand YA books with little creativity, mediocre fantasy setting, mediocre characters, mediocre plots and mediocre writing. Entirely forgettable and 'Meh'. The saddest thing about this book is, it actually has a tiny bit of potential to be outstanding and awesome, but it doesn't live up to any of its promise. actual review starts here: The beginning part of this book can easily win 4 stars, because for the first time, our MCs and their friends seem to know what they're doing and they are doing things with a plan. Our heroine, Alina shows a bit of a backbone and manages to keep the shadowy Apparat at check; the supporting characters are doing great, even Mal, Love Interest No.1, proves himself to be a capable fighter and a loyal, supportive friend instead a jealous little boy who stomps his feet when his favorite toy gets stolen by this other boy. (Yes, that's how I see his reaction toward Alina after she gets the attention of Love Interest No.3, Nikolai) You might ask, what can go wrong with this book? Well, a handful of things have managed to go wrong after this promising beginning: (1) Alina: We have already established that Alina isn't all that smart, she doesn't have much of a backbone to be spoken of neither, to make things worse she has a strange determination to be as unimportant and invisible as she can get and of course she is uncomfortable with her power because you know, a *normal* girl can't enjoy or at least be comfortable with having power, a *normal* girl can't dream of having anything outside of a boyfriend/husband and a bunch of kids. Dear Lord, I'm so sick of YA girls who are afraid of being powerful/using their power. It's like the authors are telling us: normal girls cannot have power, if you happened to have power and/or enjoyed being powerful, then you are a freak, or a bad woman, or a crazy woman, or all of the above. Plus. Alina also has the gut to whine about how difficult her life has become when the Kingdom is in some deep shit and everyone else is also suffering and/or having their own problems. Girl, get over yourself. To be fair, Alina isn't as awful as she had been in book 1 and book 2 (finally the girl is making some decisions for herself!) But all in all, she isn't a terribly interesting character, I'm more interested in what David, Genya and Zoya are up to than I'm with Alina. (2) Everyone is none the wiser The characters fail to (view spoiler)[figure out one of their 'friends' is a traitor (hide spoiler)] when it's just so obvious, no wonder The Darkling, a.k.a Love Interest No. 2, manages to outsmart them for so many times. Talking about The Darkling, a.k.a Love Interest No. 2, in my opinion he isn't all that great even since book 1, but in this book he is as anticlimactic as an arch villain as he can get. (3) Author wrapped everything up with a pretty ribbon and then called it a day In the end everything has been wrapped up *too nicely*, so it loses whatever bittersweet effect it might have on the readers. I mean, (view spoiler)[Mal is dead for a second, but then barely 2 pages latter he's alive and well again. *groans* In my opinion, it would have been better if Mal winded up dead and left Alina to deal with the aftermath alone. (hide spoiler)] (4) The 'final plot twist' is not convincing. I mean, really? Really? (view spoiler)[The author doesn't even have the gut to kill Mal off and instead she let him 'die' for two pages and then be revived shortly afterward? (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 08, 2015
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Aug 17, 2015
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Aug 08, 2015
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Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1442426675
| 9781442426672
| 1442426675
| 4.12
| 179,775
| Oct 01, 2012
| Oct 23, 2012
|
did not like it
|
If you had read the first three books of the Hush, Hush series, you will know the author, Becca Fitzpatrick, has nothing new to offer; she did nothing
If you had read the first three books of the Hush, Hush series, you will know the author, Becca Fitzpatrick, has nothing new to offer; she did nothing to redeem her creation, she made no attempt to make anything in her story better. review for book 3 here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... In short, it's one hell of an uninspiring, boring, dull book, stuffed with bad YA romance, Mary Sue heroine, cardboard cutout sexy bad boy love interest, villains who are as badly written as the good guys, charmless and toneless *utterly boring* writing, and nonexistent tension and suspense. In fact this book is just so dull, its characters so utterly stupid and unrealistic (but they think they're all so smart and complicated!) to a point I find it difficult to write a proper review about it. In other news, this final book demonstrates Ms. Fitzpatrick knows not a damn thing about world building, about writing battle scenes, writing characters with personalities and depth. Plus it also demonstrates she cannot handle writing anything with a slightly more complicated angles than a simple cliched love triangle and stupid teenage dramas, that's it. One more thing, I find it really stupid for the male lead (an angel who has been around for unmemorable time) to act like a horny teenager all the time. It's also stupid for fallen angels to travel from one place to another by *driving in cars*. And it's super stupid for the heroine, Nora Grey to care more about whether her boyfriend is cheating on her or not than about a war which is going on around her and her people. *sighs* ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 23, 2015
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Aug 07, 2015
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Jul 23, 2015
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0385341679
| 9780385341677
| 0385341679
| 4.39
| 110,552
| Jan 18, 2011
| Jan 18, 2011
|
it was ok
|
I am finished with this book and this series, and here're the major things that pissed me off: (1) By the end of this book, half of the human populatio I am finished with this book and this series, and here're the major things that pissed me off: (1) By the end of this book, half of the human population is killed by the Unseelie Faes, but have we managed to feel the future of human race is grim? Have we seen humans being slaughtered on the streets or in their homes left and right? Have we seen refugees running for their lives? Have we seen riots breaking out and people killing one another for food? No. Instead humans are still going to club and doing Fae drugs. (2) Dani, a 14 years old girl, is envious of Mac, the MC, for getting the attention from one rapist after another. (3) The nonstop romance melodramas between Mac and What's His Name. You think these two would have better and more meaningful things to discus when they're in such a grave situation? No, you're wrong. (4) What's His Name and his crews (a bunch of supposedly ageless, powerful immortals) talk like they are a bunch of feeble, complaining old bitches. To spice things up, What's His Name has been bitching nonstop about Mac making out/flirting with other guys. Hey, What's His Name! So what if Mac (view spoiler)['betrayed' you (hide spoiler)] and kissed another guy? As an immortal I thought you would be a less of a drama queen about these things. In short, you're one of the most annoying and uncool supposedly Dangerous Powerful Alpha Males I have ever seen. (5) The death of Mac's sister doesn't break her, the death of billion innocent people doesn't break her, but (view spoiler)[What's His Name's death (hide spoiler)] breaks her!? I can't even... (6) Must every single man in this story be 'dangerous sexy'? Even Christian's uncles have to be dangerous sexy middle age men too! Just...what's so wrong with ordinary guys? (7) Mac found out (view spoiler)[What's His Name has been watching her every move ever since their first meeting, (hide spoiler)]and that makes she think it means he loves her? Oh, please. [image] (LINK: http://memegenerator.net/instance/534...) I'm very sick of all these typical bullshits you can find in every single cheap romance novel, I actually rolled my eyes when Mac kids herself about how her sister's true love and a freaking baby might have changed an ageless immortal for the better. Great, go try change your grandfather's behaviors and see how many months, if not years will it take before you start with a hundreds thousands years old immortal. (8) Characters being forgotten for the longest of time, then being brought back to the storyline in a hurry to drive the plots onward. (9) The ending is as anticlimactic as you can imagine. Great battle between the Unseelie Faes and humans? Final showdown between the MCs and the villains? Shocking revealing of hidden truth? Mac finally womans-up and saves the day? No, we get none. (view spoiler)[Instead the (10) The pacing of this book is truly awful. It feels like the author had to tie up too many loosed ends within the space of one book---well in my opinion she should have long started tying up some of those ends in the previous books instead of rushing things in the final book, and she messed this up. (11) If Dani said 'feck' and 'dude' one more fucking time, I'm fucking ready to destroy her. (12) But still...I'm going to read Iced, because...guess what...KMM is still leaving some more loosed ends out in the open for the sequel. In the end, Shadowfever is worthy of 2.5 stars and I'm not going to give it anything more. At least it isn't as awful as some of the prequels before it, Mac is a few shades less stupid and annoying and selfish, the concepts and the setting about Fae are both great, still...the entire book comes off feeling very ill-handled to me. If only KMM had made up her mind about whether she wanted her book to be a typical romance or a badass-ed, all-out paranormal urban fantasy novel, this final book of the Fever series would have done so, so much better. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 27, 2015
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Jul 15, 2015
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Jun 27, 2015
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Hardcover
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| 3.81
| 4,518
| Jun 01, 2013
| Jun 09, 2015
|
did not like it
|
I almost never rate a book without reading it first, but this time I feel obliged to do so after reading Khanh's review and learnt that Ana Huang ripp
I almost never rate a book without reading it first, but this time I feel obliged to do so after reading Khanh's review and learnt that Ana Huang ripped off the Japanese manga series Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers. Ana Huang claimed she based her novel, All I've Never Wanted on Hana Yori Dango. However, I must remind you excuses such as 'based on', 'retelling' and 'adaptation' cannot cover up the ugly truth of plagiarism. And even if it is an 'adaptation', you still need to get permission from the author and/or the publisher before you can touch the original material, for Goodness's sake! If Ana Huang's book is a fanfic and she's sharing it for free, I wouldn't have said anything against her, but ripping off someone else's creation and sell it as a profitable novel? There's no excuse. It's writers such as Huang give fanfictions such a bad name. *sighs* Here I would be frank and say this: Dear Miss Ana Huang, I don't know you, but I still hope you get sued for what you had done. ...more |
Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Jun 13, 2015
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Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0399256768
| 9780399256769
| 0399256768
| 4.23
| 269,666
| Jan 29, 2013
| Jan 29, 2013
|
it was ok
|
Things you need to know before reading my review: (1) I'd read Legend last year, it's my first ever Marie Lu's book, and right after reading I've decid Things you need to know before reading my review: (1) I'd read Legend last year, it's my first ever Marie Lu's book, and right after reading I've decided to blacklist this author and her books. However, after finding a copy of the Chinese translation of Prodigy in the library, I'd decided, despite of my lack of enjoyment with the first book, to give this series a second chance, hoping Marie Lu would prove me wrong. (2) I can appreciate Marie Lu for trying to deliver some political messages and trying to work her way up to decent writing and decent plots. I can at least appreciate her effort, if not the ending result. (3) I read from the Author's Introduction that Legend is supposed to be inspired by Les Misérables (the relationship between the police official and the criminal) and one of my GR friends informed me about Marie Lu supposedly mentioned Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 as an inspiration/reference. Well, all I can say is I'm glad authors are actually still giving a damn about real-life tragedies around the world, but I still hope authors can write better books when they got their inspiration from/based their books on real-life tragedies. Then, actual review here: 1.5 'I'm not impressed' stars. In the end, I found I don't care enough about this book to do a full review, so let me do it in points-form: (1) I notice the writing (or at least the translated version of it) and the attempt at world building are actually decent, still it probably doesn't say much. (2) The Main Characters, Day and June, they are supposed to be prodigies, but in the story not only they acted stupid and I simply cannot find one single reason to root for them. (3) I can always appreciate a story about teenagers rebelling against a suppressing evil government, but not when the supposedly heroic Main Characters are so shallow and poorly written. (4) I simply cannot believe people from over the entire nation are fangirling/fanboying over Day and June and are looking up to them as heroes. (5) I see no reason for the citizens to give a damn about Day and June when for most of the time they only care about their own families and loved ones, and they hardly lift a finger to help the people who're in need. (6) Politicians and rebel leaders (Think: V from V For Vendetta, Che Guevara) have to give speeches and send out tons of propaganda to gain support from the citizens (aside from actual fighting that is...), neither Day and June have to do any of these but already the citizens are all over them. It's unrealistic. Goodness, why would anyone care about these two? Especially when they're plagued by wars and virus? (7) The speech given by Day at the end of the story is a joke, (view spoiler)[ you just can't stand in front of a bunch of angry citizens and tell them they should put their anger aside and trust the new Elector? (hide spoiler)] It is not how things are done, it isn't. (8) Marie Lu fails to write a charismatic rebel even when Day is supposed to be one (I don't even want to be bothered by June, she is as charismatic as a piece of wood), according to Lu, you would believe a sexy body, a handsome face, a bad boy attitude are all it takes to make a charismatic rebel. (9) The love triangle among Day, June and Tess is annoying. (10) Not to mention, the handsome new Elector, the most powerful man in the country, is hand over heels for June. *roll eyes* (11) Not to mention, I am very sick of Day's “ I am poor, but she is a rich girl, I'm not good enough for her...” BS. (12) (view spoiler)[Day suddenly decided he didn't want to follow through the rebels' plan to assassinate the Elector because he chose to trust June, instead of seeking revenge for his family and saving his brother?! (hide spoiler)] Fucking Bullshit! (13) In the end, the war between the Republic and the colonies is just the matter of State Dictatorship vs State Capitalism? huh....I honestly am not that impressed. (14) (view spoiler)[In the end, it's the same-old, same-old "both the government and the rebels are bad" unoriginal plot twist all over again, (hide spoiler)] just like The Hunger Games. (15) As a whole this book isn't as awful as I'd feared, but it still can't message up to be a good book. (16) But at least the author admits gay people exist... (17) Had I mentioned that both MCs are supposed to be superhumans or some unrealistic Mary Sue characters from badly written Japanese manga? Oh yes, and they are both drop dead gorgeous too, it's just like manga! (18) Finally, I'm not impressed by the notion that "As citizens, we should unify...and trust the 'good' politicians to do the right things." Miss Lu, if it's the insight you want to share with us, I'm out of here. (19) The one word which can sum up this book is 'mediocre'. It is not awful enough to hate but not good enough to leave much impression in my mind. Review for book 3: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 04, 2015
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Jun 06, 2015
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Jun 04, 2015
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0758280033
| 9780758280039
| 0758280033
| 4.09
| 20,730
| May 29, 2012
| May 29, 2012
|
it was ok
|
Now we have the third book, the old problems we had seen in the previous two books are still there, let's see: (1) Gwen keeps labeling people (even her Now we have the third book, the old problems we had seen in the previous two books are still there, let's see: (1) Gwen keeps labeling people (even her friends) as ' band geek' and other stereotypes. (2) Gwen continues to be stupid, acts alone without informing anyone else and walks into obvious trap *rolls eyes*, it doesn't change even when she and her family and friends are facing the threat from the evil god Loki and his followers. (3) Gwen needs to be rescued instead of standing her ground, until the very end. (4) Teenagers who are supposed to be trained since birth to become warriors just let the bad guys jump them without much of a fight. Some warriors. *rolls eyes* Guess what did a warrior girl (who had been trained to fight for her entire life) do after seeing her boyfriend wounded by the evildoers? She cried. Yes, she cried. *sighs* (5) I realize until Gwen got eaten by a monster, we still have at least three books left to endure her judgmental attitude and stupidity. (Goodness, kill me now!) (6) The Goddess Nick doesn't act and sound much like a goddess. (7) The adults are still not doing well with their duty as warriors and teachers. Still, this book isn't as awful as the second book and Gwen is a tiny bit less annoying, so I'm giving it two stars. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 30, 2015
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Jun 09, 2015
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May 30, 2015
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ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 0765376458
| 9780765376459
| 0765376458
| 4.05
| 385,495
| Feb 24, 2015
| Feb 24, 2015
|
liked it
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Rating: 2.75 stars to 3 stars. Honestly, A Darker Shade of Magic is a well written novel Honestly, A Darker Shade of Magic is a well written novel Edited@31/05/2018: Okay...I had just noticed this book is supposed to be a fantasy for adult audience instead of a YA, but no matter, the MCs are as juvenile as those we can find in YA novels (to be fair, these characters look like they are in a New Adult novel, at best). The only thing I found to be 'adult' about the story is the violence scenes and the F bombs. If you were looking for mature characters and complicated, fully developed fantasy world building, please look somewhere else. I think most of the problem begins with the main characters: Kell Maresh: he is the male lead and goodness! I don't care about him. He seems to be kind and with good intentions which is fine with me, but his angst issue really doesn't endear him to me. I mean...poor Kell it is so bad he is different from other people! Plus he got adapted by the royal family of the Red London and the king and queen are, you know, actually nice to him and Prince Rhy actually looks on him as a brother! Plus when the city is under attack, Kell does nothing to warn the royal family, OMG what is he doing? Delilah "Lila" Bard: Lila is a thief surviving on the streets of Grey London (which doesn't have magic) and she has a reward on her head! But guess what? She tells her full name to two complete strangers within the same day, plus for most of the time she sounds like an annoying poser who is trying too damn hard to sound tough and badass which she isn't. Prince Rhy: he seems to be a nice and loving enough fellow but OMG what is he doing accepting a 'gift' from a foreign 'ambassador' who he should have no particular reason to trust!? Hey! Just because the guy is handsome and he is flirting with you isn't an excuse! Holland Vosijk: the bad guy, and he is actually more interesting than the two MCs. Astrid Dane and Athos Dane: the evil twin who rule White London, and it is a shame that they only show up for a few chapters because they are so damn cooooooool....(view spoiler)[plus it is a damn shame these two wind up dead so easily in the ending part. I can't take this!!! (hide spoiler)] Natalie actually wrote an awesome 'fake blurb' for the twin and Holland and it's totally mind-blowing! Aside from the characters, the problem also rests on how a lot of things just...conveniently happen in the story: I mean...Lila, an untrained and uninformed girl from the 'magicless' Grey London, who had only heard about the existence of magic and the other Londons just yesterday, can manage to conveniently travel between different worlds with ease, when supposedly only Kell and Holland (the only two surviving blood magicians) can travel between worlds whilst everyone else simply can't. Plus...supposedly the magical stone from Black London is deadly and dangerous to people (we witness someone getting possessed and eventually killed just because he came near the stone), but......Lila, as untrained and uninformed as she is, still manages to hold the stone for a long time and wield its magic without once getting affected. *sighs* Thirdly, Kell, as someone who is chosen to be the Red London's ambassador to travel between worlds under the order of his king and queen, still has it in him to ignore and break the rule of NOT taking anything from the other worlds from time to time. Actually, Kell has made it his past-time job to smuggle items from one world to another. Why would he do it when he is a member of the royal family and wants for nothing? Well...because angst , get it? Furthermore, after a while even the excitement of four different Londons starts to fade: Come on, although four Londons and four different magical worlds is highly attractive in theory, but after a while when we only gets to see Red London for most of the time, and some tiny bits and pieces of the other Londons here and there with no further information being added, the excitement fades away quite fast. Thankfully, the ending is nice, that is why this book gets a 3 stars rating and I'm going to read the next book. Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 12, 2018
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Jun 2018
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May 29, 2015
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Hardcover
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.17
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not set
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Mar 30, 2024
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| 3.86
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did not like it
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Mar 24, 2024
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Nov 09, 2022
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| 4.59
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it was ok
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Mar 30, 2018
not set
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Jan 19, 2018
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| 3.67
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did not like it
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Jun 20, 2017
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Mar 30, 2017
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| 4.06
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it was ok
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Mar 17, 2017
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Mar 13, 2017
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| 4.65
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did not like it
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Jan 27, 2017
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Nov 13, 2016
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| 4.06
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did not like it
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Dec 07, 2016
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Nov 04, 2016
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| 3.98
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did not like it
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Jan 25, 2018
not set
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Jul 14, 2016
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| 3.82
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did not like it
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Jul 29, 2016
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Jul 09, 2016
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| 4.25
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it was ok
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Mar 20, 2016
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Feb 29, 2016
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| 4.09
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it was ok
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Dec 14, 2015
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Dec 01, 2015
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| 4.48
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it was ok
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Oct 18, 2016
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Oct 27, 2015
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|||||
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| 3.67
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it was ok
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Dec 13, 2015
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Oct 09, 2015
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|||||
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| 3.98
|
it was ok
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Aug 17, 2015
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Aug 08, 2015
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| 4.12
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did not like it
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Aug 07, 2015
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Jul 23, 2015
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|||||
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| 4.39
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it was ok
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Jul 15, 2015
|
Jun 27, 2015
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|||||
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| 3.81
|
did not like it
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not set
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Jun 13, 2015
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|||||
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| 4.23
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it was ok
|
Jun 06, 2015
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Jun 04, 2015
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|||||
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| 4.09
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it was ok
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Jun 09, 2015
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May 30, 2015
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|||||
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| 4.05
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liked it
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Jun 2018
|
May 29, 2015
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