incipientdreamer's reviews
570 reviews

 4.25 stars

"What do you do if you’ve forgotten all you know?”
“You start again from the beginning.”

TJK books are full of fairy dust and magic; I can never get enough of them.

In The Lives of Puppets has to be TJ Klune's most human book as of yet. While his books always have dealt with how to live fully, Puppets asks what it means to live as a human. The emotions, the nagging thoughts, the anxieties and the head vs heart debates we have so often.

I have always loved how much heart and emotion Klune manages to pack into his books. His books are always so human, and it's part of the reason why they work so well as "cosy feel good stories". They tackle the ugly parts of humanity and tell the reader that it's okay, there are ways you can be better, ways you can still be kind in a world that tries to destroy every good thing ever.

In The Lives of Puppets is an amalgamation of humanity and what it means. It emphasizes the importance of being kind. Just kind. Giving each other the space to grow and make mistakes; acknowledging those mistakes and choosing to do better despite everything. Klune manages to balance the fine line between twee and comfy. The importance of second chances and free will. Having the free will to make choices that help others when it would be easier to hurt them. I also love the continuous-running theme of the importance of art and music that is ever present in his books. Klune's characters will often find themselves really considering their humanity while listening to some blues, or dancing to some jazz. As I write this review, I have Cheek to Cheek playing in the background because reading Klune's books really feels like one is in Heaven.

While Puppets might be darker than The House in the Cerulean Sea and more adult than Under the Whispering Door, it still has its own distinctive voice. Klune has clearly proved that he isn't a one-trick pony, and is capable of building intricate worlds and lovable characters while still retaining that damned humanness that sets his work apart. I do feel like the first half was tighter, and I kind of lost myself in the middle, but it all comes around beautifully by the end. There are a lot of thematic and narrative parallels to Pinocchio, but it's the best kind of "retelling" where it manages to stand on its own two feet without having to rely too much on the source. I loved the resonances with Pinocchio tbh. Gepetto had always been my favourite in the story, and to nobody's surprise, Giovanni was my favourite in this book (though Nurse Ratched) was a close second. You can read more of the author's thoughts on writing this book here.

Emotional and magical, In The Lives of Puppets is a beautiful story of love and kindness. TJ Klune has done it again folks! The book comes out 28/04/2023.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

 

This was such a crazy book. I loved the humour it was on point and had me laughing out loud. The narrator is not the best person but I loved the narratorial voice. There's a lot of theological philosophizing and theorizing. Something I feel like philosophy undergrads would love to stroke their chins over. I did love it a lot though, mostly due to comedic reasons. I will say that K. J. Parker can write! This was the first book I've read by them and I'd be down to read more if they are as fast-paced and snarky.
Absolutely bat shit crazy, Pulling the Wings Off Angels is something I will keep thinking of (and chuckling about) for a long while. The characters, though all pretty despicable are exceedingly fun to read about. 

 2.25 stars
Another case of brilliant ideas but shitty execution. The Mimicking of Known Successes, a mouthful title, sounded like everything I would like. It's supposed to be a "cosy, Holmsian murder mystery with two ex-lovers working together". I mean why wouldn't you pick that up? Plus it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have settled on platforms built in the atmosphere of Jupiter after they destroyed Earth.

I wanted to learn more about how the whole human settlement thing worked on such an inhospitable planet as Jupiter. Populating one of its moons seems like the more logical choice, so I was curious about why Jupiter itself was chosen as a setting. But all we get are descriptions of orange fog, and storms and very less about the world itself.

Apart from the flimsy worldbuilding, the characters were also extremely boring and I didn't care at all about them. They spoke in convoluted obtuse sentences that had me blanking out in the midst of reading. I didn't much care for the mystery because it was so deeply entwined with the mechanics of the world, but because the reader is told so little about that, most of the mystery just went above my head.

I did enjoy the soft pining from the mc, I feel like that was the only thing i did like about the book. Pleiti's yearning for her ex-lover, who is distant and cold didn't make much sense but was written in a relatable way so there's that. 

 DNF at 20%. I just can't into this book. It's very slow and I don't see what the plot is when everything has already happened in the first few chapters. Just not for me. I rarely mesh well with Literary Fiction, but I hoped the Speculative nature might tide me over. 

 4.75 stars

I feel enchanted. This was wonderful in every sense of the word!

I am filled to the brim with feelings. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was the right book at the right time. Absolutely magical, it felt like getting a warm hug. I'm so glad I picked this up because the hype was real for this one! My favourite thing about the book has to be Emily herself. Emily was SUCH a relatable character to me, I saw my own infuriating curiosity, my uneasiness in social situations, and my difficulty in opening up to others mirrored in her. She was very obviously neurodivergent and aroace spec coded (I think demisexual?). And it was rather brilliantly handled. Her brain was a delightful place to be in, and the epistolatory style of the novel really had us diving deep into her character which was multi-faceted and an all-around lovely place.

Going into the novel, I was expecting a cosy, cottage-core book with lots of fluff and a minimal plot. Encyclopaedia ended up being a bit more unsettling and plot-heavy than I was expecting it to be. The fairies in the book are a lot like faeries from old stories, malevolent and mischievous and sometimes pretty deadly. I was expecting the romance to play a bigger role as well, considering the biggest point of hype on social media about the book was about the pairing. I really liked that it was a slow burn, however. It was the perfect amount of romance, that didn't exactly distract from the main story but worked as a warm and fuzzy feeling threaded through the book. I liked the male lead, I appreciated that he wasn't presented as the typical fae, and the romance didn't feel cliched or trope-y. Though once again, Emily's character far outshone Wendell Bambleby's for me.

The writing is very dry and academic, and I like to believe that it grows warmer (tepid at best) by the end of the book, as Emily starts to open up, but I might just have gotten used to it lol. It's also rather formal, and though I had a hard time getting into it for the first 50 or so pages, it worked brilliantly in immersing the reader in the 20th-century setting. Too many historical fiction books sound so millennial that sometimes it's hard to remember that these people are living lives 100+ years before now. I appreciated that, and I also felt like the academic style suited Emily's character and led a distinctive voice to the character, which is something many experienced authors still fail to do. I adored the descriptive bits of writing though, got a lot of L. M. Montgomery vibes with the focus on nature and the wilderness. It contributed to the cosiness of the story and loved how atmospheric the story was because of it. The winter stuff and the winter fae king reminded me a lot of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, and if that isn't enough deterrent for you to immediately pick this up, idk what is.

Definitely, an author I will be trying more of, and a book I will for sure be rereading, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a delightful story that reminded me of the fairytales I loved to read as a child. If you are looking for a lighthearted magical story with a heartwarming romance and loveable characters, this is the book for you. 

 3.5 - 4 stars

Part family drama, part dark comedy, mixed in with some snazzy vultures and suspicious rose bushes, A House With Good Bones is a fast-paced thriller archetypal of Kingfisher's style. I was pretty excited about this after I read the author's horror novella What Moves the Dead last year. I love how likeable and readable her main characters are, blended in with some dry humour that pairs beautifully with her style of horror, which is more weird fucked up fantasy. I appreciate the lack of slasher and gore that many horror authors add for the shock factor and clickbait. Very very cheap and lazy writing and it's mainly why I have enjoyed her work so much. I've read a bit of her middle-grade stuff and that is also pretty good and comfy.

A House With Good Bones was a quick and fun read, the mystery and thriller elements kept me riveted, and the characters were all pretty great as well, and I couldn't help speeding through this one. Slightly milder on the scary/spooky side, and I'm also sad the house wasn't a character like I was hoping/expecting it to be. It served more as a setting and plot device which is fine, but I guess I have been spoiled by the influx of "house books" over the last couple of years. My only complaint would be that this ended up being a bit predictable with how the mystery folded out, hence the mid-rating.

Will be keeping an eye out for T. Kingfisher's upcoming horror adult work. 

 3.75 stars

With such a gripping first sentence, Moses Ose Utomi's The Lies of Ajungo begins one of the strongest openings I've read in a book. The story follows a boy as he ventures into the desert to bring water back to his land. The Lies of Ajungo is told in a fairy tale/fable type of way and that is the main charm of the book. Utomi's writing draws the reader in with the ruthless world the protagonist lives in. The plot is pretty straightforward and it is easy to guess the path the story will take, but the reason I liked this story so much was the themes and lessons it touched upon. On truth and dictatorship and control. What happens when you strip culture of its history and magic, and how hard it can be to realize the truth of living in a city built on lies. Definitely, a writer to keep an eye out for, I enjoyed Utomi's debut novella a lot! 

 3.5 stars
Natasha Pulley's debut novel, which I'm only reading after enjoying her newer stuff. This definitely is weaker than books like The Kingdoms or The Bedlam Stacks. It almost feels like that crazed manic Pulley fever that I was in after Kingdoms has worn off by now, and with that, there have been some clarity and notable patterns in her books that I have started to observe.

The reason why Puleey's books draw me in so much is the way she writes romance. It's nothing very explicit, a lot of slow burn and quiet yearning. and more importantly, that soulmate-y way her characters seem to come together. There is this very Big feeling as if the romance is something all-encompassing, and the reader cannot help but be swept off their feet along with the characters.

That said, the romance in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is precisely her trademark style, and while I enjoyed it, the rest of the book felt very weak to me, to the point that the romance was the only reason I was reading/enjoying it to an extent. My issue was with the flimsy plot, and the weird science/magic hybrid that was going on here. I typically enjoy Pulley's style of magical realism, but it feels like when she starts to dabble into the scifi aspects things turn wonky (my issue with Valery K as well). So one of the characters in Watchmaker is a physicist studying aether at Oxford. And it seems like Pulley had her carry out the Michelson-Morley interferometer experiment that basically proved the non-existence of aether and was a huge stepping stone to the development of the Special Theory of Relativity. But in the novel, even though Grace's experiment shows that there is no "aether drag" and the speed of light is the same in all directions, a lot of the "magical" aspect of the novel hinges on how every person's decisions or thoughts seem to affect aether. And Mori, the watchmaker, and his clairvoyance seem to "measure" those disturbances in aether??? But when the interferometer experiment failed then how is aether still a thing in this universe? And if aether exists, then what about the laws of physics in this universe? Why don't things occur differently? I wouldn't mind wonky science if it wasn't so half-assed and was so crucial to the entire plot of the novel!

Another issue that I had was the plot. Pretty early on (about 25% to be precise) I had figured out who the protagonist/bomber was and I was really hoping I would be wrong because it was SO FUCKING OBVIOUS my goddd. The way a lot of the stuff was forced just to cause 🌟drama🌟 was also very annoying. And I can't finish this review/rant without complaining about Grace. Dear god, her character was the most infuriating person I've ever read. I have already noticed that pattern Pulley's books follow regarding her female characters, and that sexist treatment is seriously starting to bother me A LOT. I guess she has improved since none of her other characters has been this annoying?? The internal misogyny, with the "not like other girls" trope, and the pettiness without any reason, except just to cause trouble and angst between the mlm couple is a very tired and oft-repeated tale that we need to move past in 2023. I also hate how her story arc was so conveniently solved all of a sudden at the end of the book. It was clumsy and bad writing. ANother pattern that I've noticed in Pulley's books is that the mlm couple always end up with a precocious child at the end of the book, and the women/mothers/sisters are pushed to the side or simply thrown away.

Honestly, at the end of it, the romance might be the only thing I enjoyed. The Pulley fever is fast wearing off. I might read the sequel to this, mainly because I'd only bought the book, but I hope for my sake and for Pulley's that it is a lot better. I still hope that she takes the criticism - about how her books fail to pass the Bechdel test and how women are treated shittily - seriously and works to improve on that aspect for her future novels.