booknooknorth's reviews
149 reviews

This is like a cookie cutter on how to write a book. I'm just glad the the POC character was not a stereotype 

3.75/5

Murderer was obvious + Only because I got REALLY bothered that there's penguins in the North Pole. 

 Super dry.

First time being aware that I don't have to like every person's perspective I read about, including this guy, and that's ok!

But this book...was really dry, even for a diary confessions. Not much about his thoughts or even thoughts about other people. It's cut and dry.

Maybe it's hard for him to put thoughts about things, idk. Either way, can't say I'll get the rest. The novelty was fun for the first 1/3 of the book until you realize, yeah this dude's only likable quality is he hates Amazon. That's it.
I'm sure he's nice OUTSIDE the book though. Sorry, gotta be honest dude, didn't enjoy it.

1/5 

This guy has every potential to becoming a good indie writer!

...just he needs to address a few things.

1. We have a character drama focused book, but the villain is a little stereotypical which is a whoopsie poopsie. He's more stereotypical bad guy that has a morally gray reason but...he's still kinda twirling moustache kinda dude

2. Lack of diversity in main characters and that one incident he called a main side character "caramel" skin colored which was a little yikes (I've addressed this with the author via DM and he seems to understand to not do this in the future)

3. The worldbuilding, though good, is slightly lack luster because we only get mention of the magic systems which seem to be "an equivalent exchange" magic, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to saying it's "first novel in the series" things.

4. A minority dies first which is also yikes. (Also a whole topic on this online, my hands hurt too much to delve into that)

So, why is this still 3 stars?
Three things.

First, I still found myself having fun, I follow this guy on Tiktok and Insta and he's not a bad moustache twirling demon like the main villain, so a lot of things I stated I want to say that he just wasn't aware of said problems. If I see it in future books (outside of Page's Pyre since I literally talked to him about this a few days after that release, then it's a different story.) I still docked a star for the whole diversity issue because it does need to be addressed and I can't turn a blind eye because I follow him.

Second, I found myself ugly snorting in laughter at this book far too much than a Pratchett book. Short has a way of sneaking humor at odd times where you don't expect it and that makes it better. Pratchett sneaks humor nearly everywhere and the climax is huge and emotional. It's not like that with Short, hell, there was even good comedy scene near the climax. So if you're trying to find joy over this holiday season that is filled with passive aggression around the table, read this book while being told by your aunt "Writing is a shit career"

Third, Short has a rare gift of having a GOOD prose style that doesn't suck. There are so many traditional PUBLISHED author prose style that don't have any merit of substance unlike Short. And he's indie. He has some hiccups where the action scenes can get a little confusing but for the most part, it has a very strong potential to being honed into something truly great.

All in all, with all things I mentioned, it's still a decent KU read. It is still worth your time since the guy just published a sequel and he's a genuine treat on social media.

-

Prose: Good and be sharpened to something even better. Work on action scenes and what to fix in your prose and it'll be killer.

Pace: A bit slow in the beginning until you get around 10% in and that's when the hook comes around then

Plot: Wasn't really impressed by the plot but because this is a quasi dark comedy fantasy mashup, I can't say the plot would be the biggest draw to this book. You're here for the mashup, not for screaming "WHY DOES HE HAVE WINGS"

Character: This is a character drama and though we see what pitfalls they have, we don't see a huge amount of 3 dimensions to them. I think it's because it's first novel stuff so we won't see too much of it yet, but for a starter, it's not bad. 

Vibe: Germany with a side of "IT'S NOT A TUMOR"

Worldbuilding: As said above, it's not the best worldbuilding I've seen, but it has potential of being good. It got me interested, I want to see if these Wells would be literal "wells" and seeing more how this magic system gets set up.

This is a high 3 star book, if I had it in my shelf, I wouldn't resell it

3/5

 

I legit forgot this was a "cozy book".

It felt "cozy" but not really? It had the right amount of existential dread, depression, and thought provoking shit, all the while, not going into cliches.

Perfection. One of the perfect novellas I read this year.

Prose: Beginning clogs the magic of this book, get to the end of Ch 2 to understand if this book is right for you

Pace: Slow until Ch 3

Plot: You dont go into these books for the plot, its all about the journey, not the goal

Characters: Oddly, both are really deep. I wasn't expecting Mosscap, the robot, to be so deep as "it" was (the robot prefers the pronouns as it and they discuss the philosophy behind it, it makes sense). The MC is nonbinary and you understand that they're not a "John Doe" nor "Mary Sue" (idfk what the nonbinary equivalent of those are). They get frustrated, silly, weird, and angry and they become more human than we realize. Fuck, they even cry, ffs. Really loved the 3 dimensions to the characters

Vibe: Solarpunk bitches. I was one of those people who first discovered solar punk as "an art medium", not necessarily in books. But here it is in book form and I'm happy to discover it!

Worldbuilding: Oh my. The worldbuilding is surprisingly well thought out that I forgot this was a novella. A lot of novellas skirt over description and exposition to an alarming degree but Chambers strikes a good balance somehow. We talk of the gods, the past of this world, and what we might see in the future. It's so good, dude

I have a hard time putting into words that this book is literally a breath of fresh air and reminded me that books aren't rigid

They're fluid AF

5/5

 On average, a lot of POC female author books I'm interested in have romance and thus I don't read them. Which is a shame cause a lot of my books I read look like I'm a white trash when it's not like that. It's just, when I do seek out POC authors and the plot looks interesting, I see what it is...Either it turns out to be:

1. Romance

2. Smut

or

3. Romantasy

Now let me be clear, I do not care if you like these topics and I have nothing against anyone who does like them.
It's just when it's said and done, all romance is "Do they get together or not or partners with benefits" summed in a nutshell, with smut or fantasy shit.
That's it.

So as such, I veer away from these categories as much as I can because I'm actually interested in the PLOT, not just "plot" (which is fine). Now here's finally a POC book that the main topic of is NOT romance but hones in on being a sci fi/fantasy by being creative.

We're seeing a rise of environmental fantasy and Okorafor is heading that way (at least with this novella, didnt read her other works yet).
The fantasy here is a dead salt lake and the way she weaves around it is interesting AF. The scifi aspect is a post apocalyptic world on Africa where the environment changed drastically and a primary source of water became a salt lake that is now the main source of the mineral of it for surrounding villages and markets.

Top that off, there's a magic system that I won't spoil that was interesting when we encountered it and I'm curious to see how she works this in the next novella.

Still, READ this book, don't just listen to it. Let your brain have enough time to soak in what was said cause if you need a sci fi but don't like sci fi and are a fantasy nerd.

HERE, TAKE THIS NOW

CW: A cat is hit by a stone, but it doesn't die. There is brutality against women as well and the unfair justice of politics. That's all I can really think of here. Nothing is really graphic either way.
Edit: Spoiler here about a death(view spoiler)

Prose: It isn't clunky, it does the job and for the most part, doesn't bog you down with so much tech you're lost trying to figure out wtf is happening. It's neither flowery or functional but a good medium of both. Props, Okorafor

Plot: Don't read this for the plot necessarily. If I summed up the plot, it will just spoil the whole book. The plot is slowly unraveled in this book and you're here for the journey. Salt lake and there's a girl. There's feminine rage but it's a lot more (sadly) realistic. That's all you need to know.

Pace: It kinda just buzzes along. Like any good book, if the book didn't seal you within the first chapter or so, the pace will slog or run depending how much you like it. Either way, it's steady.

Characters: Our MC, Najeeba, is a 13 year old girl but this is not a YA book. I maintain this is still adult. I want to say she has a few facets but everyone else around her kinda is 2D. I would dock some points but I feel like this book is not really about the side characters but a mark in a memoir of Najeeba's life that you're only scratching the surface of it. Do not go in for the characters, go for the NaCl

Vibe: Salt bae, but post apocalyptic Africa

Worldbuilding: Very interesting environment and magic system we're presented. I'm not going to spoil much else by describing it, you'll have to find out yourself

-

I also need to note that this novella might make more sense if you read "Who Fears Death" as this novella is a prequel, however, you can still enjoy it as a standalone (as I did, didn't read the other book yet).

Still, I don't know how I slept on Okorafor, but no longer.

I'm awake, bitch

5/5 

 TW: Suicide, Depression, and A LOT OF SHIT.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

The last book this guy wrote was a foreshadowing of his own death. My god.
I don't care if this guy seemed overrated or the equivalent of hating a classic, but this book...If you have autism, depression, anxiety, social anxiety, fucking hate capitalism, this is...

...a truly mind fuck of a book. It needs to be read.
I can't begin to describe what this book means to me.
To feel seen of how much I dislike humanity, where I don't understand humanity and feeling like the world is just truly caving in on me.

Oh, but to even understand what Dazai went through you have to understand that back then, mental health wasn't even a fucking concept. You were seen as being dramatic, written off as a lunatic when all you want is a drop of solace. Of relief. To be understood.
Yet, he couldn't get any of that and ended up taking his and his lover's life. Leaving behind a widow and several children.

It took me so long after I read this book to come out of a suicidal spiral as I too have everything that Dazai probably had.
Because this is a classic, you might be tempted to not read this book because the prose might be clunky AF like a lot of writers of this time. For some reason, Dazai has an approachable and conversational prose that it's easy to digest.

...A little too easy to digest depression but hey-


The best thing about this book is the prose and dialogue.
This isn't a worldbuilding, plot, type of book. It's a deep dive into Dazai's semi-autobiographical book. His last spilling of his soul, through the ugliness of himself and the people around him.
To appreciate this book, you have to understand that Dazai, with his undiagnosed autism(?), did not understand people much and thus, he did not treat them properly at times because he did not understand how to treat himself correctly at all. This is not to excuse him of his shit, but this is one of the few people that actually spills his sins against himself and others, beautiful and ugly. He didn't discriminate what went into this work, he just told you what it was. You're not supposed to sympathize with everything he did but you get to understand the simple truth:

We are human.
Dazai couldn't understand people so he felt he was no longer human.
But in fact....he was one of the most human of us all.

5/5 

 Morgenstern made something to near perfection. I want to rate this 5 stars, however, the prose and some minor plot nuances dropped this down to a low 4. It's a good 4, just not 4.5 territory.

The problem with this book is more of that the magic of the book got lost because the dreamlike writing she was achieving bogged down a little with prose that wasn't relavent to said dream. Though this book, regardless, is apart of Honorguard Shelf for creating something that did manage to cast the spell it wanted.

Prose: Prose is either a hit or miss. If you read at least 30 pages for it and aren't liking it, just drop it, it doesn't get better. However, if it doesn't irk you, keep going.
She has a problem of not pacing her prose correctly where it starts to just blend in your brain a little TOO much. -.5

Plot: Solid

Pace: It maintains it's pace, it never increases or decreases all that much.

Characters: Not the most in depth, we got a cookie cutter DILF that was about as deep as ankle depth water. The MC is a self insert to be with said cookie cutter. The other characters are interesting, not deep, but do merit interest at least. -.2

Vibe: OH BOY. If you ever needed a vibe book, here. This book is mostly vibe. Keys, darkness, balls, book, coziness sometimes, a touch of darkness. I can see why Booktok ate this up. Appropriately so. +2

Worldbuilding: It's hard to seperate the vibe with the WB, the WB, while not too deep is VERY chaotic but as an art piece of a book, it was well executed. Did a lot of weaving and red herring scenarios that paid off. Some may not pay off but that's sorta the point with this book. 2+

Still, if you need a book to read while drinking whiskey, here ya go. You're not here for characters or any plot or "plot", just vibin' like a saxaphone seal

4.3/5 

4.5 MOOPS/5