chantaal's reviews
2275 reviews

Loved the resolution of the plot arc dealing with the demon Aura and how it explored more of Frieren's past. Everything else afterward felt a little too slice of life - and I typically LOVE slice of life - and meandering. I liked the growth of the characters and learning more of their past, but I wish the last few chapters had a little more to them. 

I thought I would be done with the Psy-Changeling universe when I finished the first "season", but here I am eating it all up again.

Trinity pretty much takes up immediately after the end of the first season, but with a focus on other parts of the world and other types of shifter packs. Here, it's bears. Russian bears. And I loved them all.

I really enjoyed Silver and Valentin's romance and dynamic here! Though it is still playing up the super possessive alpha male changeling making a Psy female undo her silence, it didn't bother me so much here because the story gave Silver a lot more agency than other past romances. Silver chose to figure out what life without silence would be like, and chose to move forward in a relationship with Valentin. Yes, he was pursuing her, but I liked that we came into it with him pursuing her because he was smitten, and not really pushing so much as constantly being there. It felt different from past male characters. Also, I cried in the last third of the book. I'll admit it.

The story of Valentin's pack dynamics was REALLY good. While learning about all his pack mates felt a bit repetitive and like the same way we've learned about every other pack we get to know in this world, I still enjoyed it all.

Also, one of the main issues I had with the series in the first season is that for a series that is SO diverse and dynamic, it was SO fucking straight. Here, we FINALLY get queer inclusion - and it seems like Singh is writing the world as queer normative, which is fantastic and long overdue.

The only reason this got docked 1 star is because of one thing, and it was so fucking annoying that yes, it did dock a WHOLE STAR from my rating: characters constantly saying Silver Fucking Mercant in the last third of the book. 

Anyway, this was a fun start, and now I have 7 more books to eat up with delight.

This gave me everything and more that I wanted out of Babel. 

Yeesh, this is not good. The mystery is not great, the character work is almost non-existent, the murderer was pretty obvious from the very start, and the entire motive reveal was honestly so bad and quite cringeworthy. 

The art was not good either, which made all the shock factor Hannibal wannabe murder scenes have no punch whatsoever. Oh, is that a dude flayed and holding his own skin? Oh, a dude with his lungs on the outside of his body? Meh. At some point the artist kinda gives up and the last two issues seem to take place in colorful voids with no real sense of place. 

I didn't expect much from this, and it was still disappointing. I normally enjoy Gailey's writing, but they are yet another prose author whose writing did not translate to comics. 

DNF @ 56%. I deeply dislike both these characters and the setup and I'm not interested in whatever semblance of a plot this is moving into. 

Now this was a great read, and I think features something I was missing from The Mercy of Gods, but didn't know I was missing when I was reading that first book. 

Livesuit follows a completely different faction of humans fighting the alien war, and they've developed a suit of technology that molds to the wearer semi-permanently. This novella follows one such livesuit soldier, detailing his life before and during his military service, and as he realizes the true cost of the war. 

It seems like a very typical, tropey premise, but I really enjoyed it. Corey have a way with words and storytelling that I appreciate, and they drew out a LOT of surprising emotion in the last quarter of this novella. 

I wonder if writing this novella that is much more action and military forward compared to The Mercy of Gods was a way to whet the appetites of those looking for more of it in that book. This does make me look back at The Mercy of Gods and wonder at what the greater plan is, considering we follow very research heavy characters in that one. I'm so CURIOUS now and appreciating The Mercy of Gods a bit more.

Jefferson Mays continues to be one of my absolute favorite audiobook narrators. 

This book annoyed me so goddamn much, mostly because it could have been SO MUCH MORE.

This started as an interesting premise, and I liked how much the characters frustrated and annoyed each other in turns. It seemed like an actual rivals/enemies/hate to lovers situation vs the typical lukewarm "I hate you because of a misunderstanding 3 years ago" version of the trope. But then it kept going and going and the WAY these two annoyed each other started to annoy ME. I hated the way they talked to each other, I hated that they both smirked and scowled and had wicked gleams in their eyes and they sneered and snickered and were mischievous 100% of the time. I hated how these millennia old creatures acted like absolute dumbass idiot teenagers. And then they were horny for each other and falling in love.

Don't get me started on the fucking coffee running joke. IT STOPPED BEING FUNNY REAL FAST.

There was so much promise here, and I'm so upset that a book that could have done so much interesting stuff with this premise only wanted to do the romantasy bit and ignore everything else. It could have been so cool to expand a lot more on the gods and demons aspect, to really dig into what the world is like with demons running around and how they have to hide from humans. This felt like a romantasy taking place on a stage with a cardboard painted backdrop of urban fantasy. 

I keep thinking about how childish this was. How many times did Hani stick her tongue out at Seokga? How many times did she fuck up his coffee on purpose? How many times did Seokga speak with an icy calm or snarl at someone? Why did this just feel like a Loki/Reader grumpy/sunshine fanfic? Why did they have a literal staring contest seeing who could keep their eyes open the longest like a pair of 10 year olds?? WE COULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH MORE.

The way they went from completely annoyed at each other to absolutely horny for each other in .5 seconds was WILD.

All it took was for a fairy to make them kiss and for Hani to see Seokga shirtless and boom, horny romance???

The worst part was that the story WAS seeding moments where they were starting to break through the annoyance and seeing more in each other, but then it seemed like the story felt it was taking too long, so BOOM, now they're horny for each other and falling in love. IT COULD HAVE DEVELOPED THE ROMANCE SO MUCH BETTER.

There were some good red herring setups and lampshading and swerving, but then the actual reveal of who they're tracking down in the end was meant to be a big reveal but...it wasn't? It was as obvious as the first red herring. The journey that the side plot takes with Hani's gumiho friend was incredibly obvious as well. At least the very final moments were a bit of a surprise, but I didn't feel a thing by then. 

Finally, the audio. All I'll say is that neither of these two narrators know how to act/emote. There are great audiobook narrators who read books and bring them to life. Then there are these two, who say a line of someone growling with the exact same cadence and tone as someone crying. Hell, I wouldn't even know what emotion a character was supposed to be feeling in a line of dialogue until the dialogue tag was read out. Go girl, give us nothing!

Anyway. What a fucking let down. We could have had a much more interesting in depth story with the mythology. The romance could have gone down a different, much more interesting path if it wasn't so interested in being a "spicy" romantasy. 

My first disappointing read of 2025, woo hoo. 

I just really enjoy this series a lot, especially Aresh and Kondou being dumb dumbs in looooove