Here I go again with ‘25’s review.

 Although I’m not who I was last year (let alone four years ago) this excellent, brilliant, magnificent piece of art is STILL 5 STARS. If I could give it 95 more stars I would. Something has happened to my brain since I reread it a few months ago that had me itching, crying, and damn near having a mental break at 1:30 in the morning. I’d finished it an hour before and for some reason, I couldn’t function enough to sleep. I always thought this first book was the tame one. Turns out I was wrong. I read this book thrice before, knew what was coming, but SOMEHOW all of it hit me HARDER. 

People ask what the purpose of annotating books is. Why mark it up? This was my first time with the paperback and I decided I wanted to go in on it, line for line. I wrote down my thoughts, made connections, and my mind ran a mile a minute with epiphanies (without my consent). A pen and some tabs forced me to slow down; to sit with my love, joy, anger, sadness, and so many other feelings, until it was all bubbling under my skin with nowhere to go. I felt these words so deeply, watched some of my favorite episodes (scenes if you will) over and over again, and caught innumerable details I’d skimmed over before. “Two hours left in book” turned into five; I spent half an hour reading five pages because I was having essential critical conversations with myself. The second book kept butting in and I’d sit there for another five minutes making connections and staring off into nothing. Am I painting the picture? 

There are only two books I’ve bestowed the title of ‘perfection’ upon and this is one of them. There’s nothing to critique. Nothing I would change (not that I can anyway). And nothing that could’ve put this book higher than it already was. I ended this with tears in my eyes, because yeah it was amazing but now I have to reread Bloodmarked and that’s the one that scares me. If Legendborn did that to me all of a sudden, Bloodmarked plans to fuck me over ten times worse… 

Let’s lock in people.