chaptersofmads's reviews
823 reviews

“I’ve only ever known myself in song, between notes, in that place where language won’t suffice but the drums might, might speak for us, might speak for what is on our hearts.”

I liked this quite a bit less than Open Water but that definitely doesn't mean it was bad.

The writing style felt a bit more redundant and convoluted in this book, though I still found myself completely affected by so many of the sentences in here. Caleb Azumah Nelson has a way of writing emotions in an almost stream-of-conscious way that is incredibly poignant.

It's a beautiful, raw look at the relationships between family members, ourselves, and our homes - as well as a celebration of the cycles that life can tend to move through. It's a story with a heart of forgiveness, forgiveness offered to others as well as to ourselves.

Even with my criticisms, I still believe this was a beautiful book and I continue to be impressed by Caleb Azumah Nelson's writing style.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

I wanted to love this, but I just felt very bored while reading it? Which is a bit sad in a book that's this short.

Despite the fact I didn't care for it, I get why people like it so much. Murderbot is funny and relatable to people with social anxiety, but their personality wasn't enough to keep me invested in the story, unfortunately. I kept having to force myself to pay attention and I'm not even entirely sure why.

Maybe this is a situation where the book just wasn't for me. I'm glad people like it as much as they do and I wish I'd enjoyed it more than I did.

“If you must fight someday, allow me to advise you about one thing: do not fight in anger.”

Easily my favorite in the series so far!!

This was a great example of what middle grade fantasy can /should be. This book focuses a lot on Aru Shah's changing emotions as she's getting older, with a particular focus on anger. The discussions around it were so poignant for the intended audience, but still managed to be impactful for people not in the target age-range.

I also felt that quest elements were extremely creative in this one and the plot itself was coherent, while also never feeling boring. The humor was a bit cartoonish, which is expected in a middle grade, but there were moments where even I (in my cranky book-humor state) found the jokes funny.

All in all, this was a great installment and I look forward to finishing the series. 

“People make gods, and, for better or worse, gods make people.”

A solid four star read!!

This wasn't perfect by any means, but I had a great time with it and loved the nostalgic (but inclusive) fantasy vibes. I think this would be a great read for fantasy beginners or for people that want a very familiar fantasy that still manages to bring something new to the genre.

Also, I will always be a sucker for anything having to do with the struggle between humans and gods/the thin line between faith and fanaticism. This was a bit of a basic view of those topics, but I still had a great time with it.

And the found family had such a warm vibe to it. This is a cozy quest book that has a very... not cozy plot lol.

I didn't really care for the romance (it felt rushed, but they were still sweet) and some of the dialogue was a bit on the... cringey side, but it was usually pretty easy to avoid. And I've seen other people suggesting this based off of some of the lines of dialogue I didn't like, so that's incredibly subjective.

Overall, this was exactly what I wanted it to be and I definitely recommend it. I'm cautious about book 2 after hearing some conflicted things, but I still plan to pick it up soon (especially after that ending.) 

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely hate dnf-ing ARCs, but I was having a really difficult time making it through this and had a gut feeling that my reading experience wasn't going to change as the story progressed - so it seemed unfair to continue knowing that I was most likely not the target audience.

I can tell the amount of work the author put into this, the magic system is very unique (storm magic but with actual development!), and I truly believe this is a story that would work for so many people. Unfortunately, I'm just not one of them. I think I was expecting Dark of the West meets Caraval and that's not really the case.

The circus is very much a minor part (so far, at least; that might have changed as the story went on) and the politics felt very... 2010s dystopian fantasy, to me at least. Which is fine, but not what I'm looking for. I feel like if you liked Lauren Oliver's writing style and wanted something much more developed, with magic - you'd probably love this.

Grateful for the chance to read this, even if it didn't work for me. I hope the right audience finds this book and gives it the love it deserves.

"An army of competitors can be wielded; an army of comrades can overtake."

A very conflicted three stars?

Before I get into my conflicted feelings, I want to say: like the previous installments, this is an incredibly readable book. I read it in two sittings and flew through it, which seems rather surprising considering how repetitive I found the first 60-ish% of the book. This is still a series I've enjoyed, even if I have no clue how I feel about this one.

I also want to say that I appreciated the focus on Keera's relapse, even if I felt like it led to some incredibly monotonous scenes at the beginning. She's remained a complex, imperfect character - which is something I've loved about her from book 1. I did feel like the very end of her dealing with it was rushed, but I still appreciate how it was included.

Carrying on.

The longer I sit with this, the more disappointed I become. It feels like every five seconds since I finished this book last night, I realize a new plot-hole or get more upset over how something was handled. Since book 1, I've had overall issues with parts of the plot that I felt would fall apart if you looked at them too closely - this particular book said, "hold my beer."

So much of this plot hinges on aspects that don't hold up if someone thinks about them for too long. Damian's character? Just evil for the point of being incredibly evil, I guess? Despite the fact he's more prevalent in this book, it's more to hold up as the villain than as an actual person. Why is he so evil? Why does he hate Keera specifically this much? Is it just because

he's still pissed Brenna didn't choose him

? How does his magic even work?

There's more I could talk about it but I want to spend the rest of the review on that plot-point.

What the fuck.

Here's the thing, I questioned it alllll the way back in book 1. It seemed absurdly obvious and then I let it go once it seemed a.) impossible and b.) an idiotic decision. So imagine my surprise when it actually came to pass.

Beyond my personal irritation (I'll get to that), it. doesn't. work. Do you know how much of the plot falls apart with this reveal? How many times Killian/Riven has done incredibly harmful things to keep up this charade? Not to mention how manipulative and pointless this seems, or how little it actually gets explained. Particularly if we go back to book 1, all the way back to the first moment Riven pissed me off - that gets even fucking weirder.

More on the personal irritation front now, if you've read my previous reviews you will know that I don't like Riven. At all. In fact, I think I kinda hate the guy? He waffles between the world's worst asshole and a whiny child that can't do anything on his own. Since book 1 he was made out to be this traumatizing shadow figure, then we meet him and he can't even kill people, really? And that's only gotten worse as his personality has melded to keeping Keera safe above all else -removing any agency.

What upsets me even more, is that I liked Killian. He was nice. Thoughtful. Had a brain. And instead of this reveal making me feel like Riven actually had some of those good qualities all along, I just feel like someone scooped Killian's soul out with a melon baller and dumped Riven in so that we could have Keera not have guilt for being attracted to both of them.

I'm also incredibly pissed at how Keera handled it. That was so out of character and not in a way that made me feel like she'd grown, but in the way that romance heavy books do sometimes where the romance matters more than anything else. Someone incredibly important to her just died because he'd lied and manipulated her for a very long time. The implications of what he had been doing/saying/thinking all this time and the fact he only told her the truth because he was left with no choice, should have been massive. They should have made her (righteously) angry.

And saying, "Wait, Damian wants me to hate him - and he hasn't actually done anything wrong - so I forgive him." was so irritating.

Then! While everyone else is grieving and preparing a funeral, they decide to have make-up sex. All night long. Yay.

All of this to say, I'm terribly conflicted. I've enjoyed this series, this was a quick and easy read, it still maintained some of what I love from the previous installments; it also leaned very heavily into the aspects I haven't liked and even made some of them a million times worse.

I will definitely read the last book when it comes out and I will still recommend this series, but I don't know where I stand with it personally right now.

“Powerful men never did like to be shown up by women.”

This was so good??

I didn't go into this with many expectations (or knowledge of the plot, actually), but was pleasantly surprised when every single aspect of the story worked for me. From the political intrigue, Irish mythology, the impact of religious alliances shifting, two incredibly different but equally interesting narrators, discussions of the reality of womanhood in this time period, and a fantastically evocative (yet accessible) writing style.

Even as someone with a strong interest in history, I was concerned that picking up a historical fiction right now could send me back into the reading slump of hell. Funnily enough, this was the most entertaining, engaging, and infuriating book I've read in what feels like an insanely long time.

So much happens in this book that even though the magic is minimal, it felt just as intense as an epic, high fantasy novel. The politics were particularly interesting to me, but I also loved reading from the two narrators and how different their perspectives were. It's been awhile since characters felt quite this vivid to me.

I can't believe how much I enjoyed this or how much I want to carry on with the series already. Highly, highly recommend. 

Loved the vibes and overall message of this, just feel like the execution was a bit messy.

I wanted a bit more from the story, in terms of depth and development (as well as resolution). It's a really fast-paced, short book which meant it was incredibly easy to breeze through but also a bit rushed - particularly when it came to the romance and the ending.

Still though, I enjoyed this and I look forward to reading more of Kyrie McCauley's books in the future.

“Which came first, being treated as unworthy or being unworthy? In the end, it didn't matter. If others believed she was evil, or beautiful, or guilty, they made that true.”

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I have a lot to say, but I'm going to attempt to only hit on the most important aspects that formed my rating.

I had initial misgivings about this book, but a reviewer I trusted really loved it and made me excited for it. While I can see what would draw people to this, my reading experience did not have the same outcome. The humor in this book reads like a 2014 tumblr post collection used to shame past generations, something that only exists now for people to be confused on how they ever found that funny. Only, this is the actual humor of the book.

Many things about this novel actually seemed to be better suited to 2014 - which a lot of readers might be really happy with. But even the way feminism was discussed or the meta fandom/fantasy conversations were all so incredibly recycled that it was eye-roll inducing.

(There's also a lot of internet references, such as "You sweet cinnamon roll. Too good, too precious for this world." which is something to note if that kind of thing irritates you.)


Next, this is pitched as a book lover gets sent into her favorite world. That's not entirely the case. The fmc's sister loves the books and introduced the fmc/Rae to them. Rae skimmed the first book and didn't complete the series, but her sister was reading them to her. The books are her favorite stories and she loves the musical (more on that later), but I wouldn't pitch this as a reader gets the chance to live out her favorite book when she never even finished it.

I think the point of this was meant to communicate that there's no right way to consume a story/be a reader, which is completely true. However, in this instance, it feels a bit insincere to say that the book lover gets sent into her favorite book.


This is not beginning on the amount of references to Lady Rahela's monstrously gigantic bosom (and there were a lot) or the scene where they attend a fantasy ball and distract everyone by performing the book's musical equivalent from the real world, complete with the most... interesting lyrics I have ever seen lol.


As for the characters themselves... I didn't connect with any of them. This disappointed me, because I was hoping for the kind of story that humanized the 'evil' characters and made you connect with them - even if they remained evil. There was an attempt for that, but it never felt fully realized.

Rae was a pain to read from. Before the story starts she had been through some terrible things that both jaded her and stunted her maturity, so it makes sense that she reads like a whiny, childish ass for the majority of the book. The problem here is that knowing why she's that way didn't make it any easier to be in her brain.

The romances were very stilted and (to me) felt like nothing more than the fulfillment of tropes, with a romantic scene having one of the worst lines of dialogue I've ever read. Ever.


Here's where my thoughts get conflicted. Everything about this book was clearly purposeful. Even the "anatomically impossible" breasts were supposed to prove a point (namely, curvaceous women are not evil seductresses). However, that point feels undermined when your own story falls into the same patterns as what you're attempting to critique.
There was the discussion of agency and purity/virginity and how a woman's sexual actions shouldn't have any hold on her worth (all good discussions) but it still felt empty.

There's also the fact it really is obvious how much this story means to the author. How much fantasy as a genre means to the author. That's perhaps the thing that is keeping this from being a one star read, is that I felt the amount of heart put into this and how important it was to Brennan.

I'll even say that there was a lot of work put into the world-building of the fantasy novel. It wasn't always coherent and oftentimes meant to be satirical, but I know this must have been a pain to write and even with the confusing moments, I was impressed on how the story was formed.


Overall, this may not have worked out for me but I don't think it's a terrible book. It has a lot of flaws and cringeworthy moments, but it also had a meaning that I'm sure will touch a lot of readers.

I'm grateful for the chance to read it and I hope it finds its perfect audience. 

"In the dreaming twilight, he knew nothing but her."

Easily one of my favorite covers of the year.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the interior.

If I was basing this entirely off of preference, this would be rated much lower. But I went into it without the knowledge that this was meant to be more... light-hearted and quirky (almost to the point of being satirical) and I won't lower the rating just because I had different expectations.

So for what it was trying to be, I don't think this was a bad book. There's a lot of humor and magical birds and hijinks that may appeal to the target audience - one I'm not a part of.

However, even once I removed my expectations and accepted that this wasn't meant for me, I believe this book fell short in quite a few ways. It is repeated a million times how intelligent our two main characters are, but to prove this, every other character is the biggest idiot you've ever seen in your entire life. It wasn't funny how stupid they were, it was irritating.

The closest comparison I can think of is that this read like an adult, steamy version of a middle grade fantasy novel - complete with over the top humor, ridiculous situations, and garishly stupid bad guys.

Overall, I really disliked this but I don't think it was terrible and I do think it (mostly) succeeded at being what it intended to be.
If this sounds interesting to you and you're someone that doesn't mind your books being heavy on the silliness, with hints of the most cardboard feminism you've ever seen in your life - I think you could really enjoy this.

I truly wish I could have enjoyed it more.