andat's reviews
363 reviews

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am not a fan of cozy anything. There are a precious few exceptions and this is one of them. Cozy space adventure was not on my radar. Becky Chambers introduces us the crew of the Wayfarer and spends time with each very unique individual. Sure there’s some adventures, but reading this in the way it’s written lets us see how the characters begin to weave together and truly form a crew. It’s not about the destination. It’s the friends you make along the way. 
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’d give this 6 starts if I could. 

“We can live for more. We can live for justice. Change. Vengeance. Power.”

Absolute. Chills. 

A screaming tribute to righteous feminist rage drives the plot of Iron Widow. Feminism isn’t passive or non-violent. It’s cold, calculating, and fighting for your right to live in a society that desperately needs you and holds you down to ensure you don’t ever find out you are stronger than they are. The theme of shaking off the expectations of the past that may have formed you to build a different future makes this book a must read. 

That ending though. Fuck. That’s how you end on a cliffhanger. 
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I was promised space horror. This was not space horror. Yes there’s a ghost ship, in both senses of the word, but this wasn’t “scary” in the way that horror is typically described. The only truly gory moment (for me) was the whole eyeball situation that happened towards the end of the novel. 

That said, if this were dubbed as space adventure, or even just space mystery, I’d be 100% supportive. It’s a solid read, with plenty of twists and turns. Even a smidge of social commentary around corporation mindsets. But if you’re looking for horror, this ain’t it.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I just…

And then…

Did she…

What the…

That can’t be the end, right? Right!?!?

Damn you, Rebecca Yarros, you know what you did. 
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Look. When you decide to sit down and read the Locked Tomb series, just accept that you won’t have a clue as to what’s going on until you’re halfway through the book. Sit down, enjoy the ride, and wait for it to all come together with an incredible speed and beauty that will astound you. Will you wonder what the fuck you just read? Yes. Will you feel like you’re reading a fever dream? Also yes. Will you immediately want to read the next one? Yes. 

Nona the Ninth starts out much the same as Harrow the Ninth. With wondering what the fuck is happening. By the time you hit the halfway point the pieces are starting to pull together and we are getting a glimpse into the other side of the war. So much happens in the last quarter that I won’t spoil any plot lines, just know that Tamsyn Muir ends with her typical cliffhanger, and we don’t have a date for the final book of the Locked Tomb series.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
Just couldn’t get off the ground with this one. It felt too scattered at the start for me to follow. 
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 16%.
I think I’d like to revisit this one but right before a current change of power in the US was the wrong time and mindset. 
Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

OMG! WE GET TO SEE THE OTHER SCHOOL!

Oh. Oh it’s… No. Cora, please don’t. 

A different adventure for the Wayward Children awaits and it might cost them their doors forever. We pick up again with Cora still being haunted by the Drowned Gods and looking for anything and everything to banish them from her nightmares. That brings us and her to Whitethorn Institute. Everything Eleanor’s home is, Whitethorn is not. Cora has to navigate a very different kind of existence here, including closing herself off to the Trenches forever. There’s something darker and stranger at the Institute than anyone realizes. Cora and friends will have to make a choice. I won’t spoil the main plot line, but it’s easy to see parallels in her story to current events here in the US. It’s a bittersweet read with the barest of hopes hanging on to the end. I can only hope that our doors appear for us soon, too. 
Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

In this installment of the Wayward Children series Seanan McGuire introduces a brand new character, Regan and a brand new world. After receiving life-changing news about why she’s different from her peers, Regan finds a door along a creek near her house. She steps through and finds…well, I won’t spoil it for you. A beautiful story about found family, belonging, and acceptance of something not unlike destiny. Regan is a reluctant hero that changes two worlds, her found one and her own. 
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I started this I was fully expecting this book to suffer the fate of dragging along the plot. You can tell its primary objective is to move things in place; sometimes too fast, and sometimes spending a little too slow and long on Mal and Alina’s communication issues. But you can also see the breadcrumbs she drops for the later duologies that make reading this series out of order a bittersweet experience. 

In many ways this book is an obvious sophomore, outside of one particular trait Bardugo has honed into mastery. She does a fantastic job of lulling you into complacency, and then hits you over the head until you’re reading with your jaw hanging open. Which is 100% what she did in the last freaking 30 pages of Siege and Storm. I’ll leave you with this…

And Genya, sweet Genya. The horror that was done to you, my heart is broken. 

“He left me in the dark.”