asterope's reviews
320 reviews

I liked it, didn't fully get it though. I'll give this one a re-read at some point. 

This book explores the experiences of Japanese women in an intelligent and empathetic way. I enjoyed its insights, the compelling style and most of all, the lush descriptions of food and cooking. However it is far too long and meandering. Some subplots fall away without true resolution. It should have been tighter.

It's hard to review this without spoilers. All I'll say is that I'm impressed with this. Absolution has its own distinct vibe from the previous three books. It's the creepiest by far, but with more wonderful characters to keep it grounded. I savoured all the delicious lore. Don't I just love a good time loop! The ending is somewhat open-ended with interesting implications for certain people. I really hope VanderMeer adds more to this series because I am dying for more.

This is a YA book pretending to be adult. None of these people acted their ages. It's a shame because the setting is fairly interesting - German-inspired with lots of folklore. The fairytales peppered throughout the book felt organic and enhanced the narrative. But ultimately I felt this was a missed opportunity to do something different. 

The main character Lorelei is truly unlikeable. She has such an unpleasant personality and always jumps to the worst conclusions about people. Why does her love interest fall for her? Lorelei is so cruel to her. The author tried to write enemies/rivals to lovers but couldn't pull it off. There's no chemistry.

All of her relationships were underdeveloped really. Ziegler as the mentor, the rivalry with Sylvia, Lorelei's family. All thin and not convincing. There's lots of interpersonal drama but not enough backstory to back it up, so it falls flat. 

When Lorelei decides to betray Sylvia, my attention perked up again. Maybe this book will surprise me. I would have respected the author for making a bold choice. But of course, she backs out and it all works out somehow. Boo, how boring! The romance was already on thin ice for me, but I can't believe Sylvia forgave her so easily.

The book's lore concerning magic and politics was all over the place too. I couldn't get a grasp on how I was supposed to feel about Lorelei's magic or the king and his empire. Cool concepts, but lots of wasted potential and poor development.

I gave this a good go. The concept is interesting, but the writing lets it down. I was hooked by the opening and introduction to the Choir. There's a lot to take in here, but I kept at it hoping the book would expand after all this set up. But it didn't, it kept going in the same style. 

It's such a dense stream of Marney's thoughts. She explains tonnes of exposition and worldbuilding, paragraphs of rambling that get preachy at times. It doesn't come through organically, so I didn't take much in. There's too many names and cultures to remember, and it's all told to us instead of being portrayed in the book. 

From what I read (about 45%), the plot is basically non-existent. I don't mind lack of plot sometimes, but only if the characters are well-written. The author tries too hard to make them seem Cool and Badass, but the end result is that they're not fleshed out enough. I can't imagine the characters as real people, nor do I feel much when things happens to them.

The book's structure is so heavy, there's not enough actual moments between the characters. Just Marney's overwritten thoughts, which are too descriptive and detailed. The scenes are difficult to visualise. It got too tiring to read without any change in the pace. 

In writing terms, this is another quality banger from Vo. Gorgeous and filled with raw emotions. But it took a long time for this book to kick off for me. I didn't feel connected to the main character until about 70% of the way in. Looking back on it, I did enjoy the experience of a demon rebuilding her beloved city over the course of centuries. But I didn't truly Get it for too long. I suspect I'll enjoy this more on a reread. 3.75 stars. 

It really pains me to do this, especially after waiting so long to get hold of this book (not published in the UK - the fuck? It shouldn't be this hard to support an author). But I can't get into a book that is this opaque.

The synopsis doesn't really match what this book is trying to do. The author's style is undeniably beautiful as always, but the narrative choices are baffling. I can't understand what's going on. I can tell what the themes are, and how Chandrasekera feels about them. But reading this book is like getting hit in the face with those themes, instead of actually experiencing a book with characters, plot, etc. It's written with such a big chunk of context missing that it feels like I was supposed to do prior research before reading it. And that frustrates me.

I'm so sad because I loved The Saint of Bright Doors very much, but Rakesfall is not for me.