jrayereads's reviews
429 reviews

 

Comparing your book to the Chronicles of Narnia, both in the text and in marketing, is quite the choice. 

I love portal fantasies and I think the concept and intention of this book was pretty solid. The premise was excellent and immediately drew me in. There was lots of mystery and intrigue and tension between the characters in the first half and I was excited to see where things would go. 

I think the magic of Narnia works so well because, even though the human characters that entered into it often became kings, queens, or other powerful creatures (like when Eustace becomes a dragon), the world was so much bigger than them and contained mysteries they didn’t fully understand. Aslan and his role wasn’t explicitly explained and it didn’t need to be. Because Jeremy remembers everything from Shanandoah, the world lacked mystery and tension. And because we’re just told things from their previous time in that world without ever getting to experience it with them, it was hard to feel connected to the characters that live in Shanandoah. Part of the magic of portal fantasies is getting to know the world alongside our characters, and I just didn’t feel like I got to do that.

There were lots of dialogue choices that didn’t do a great job of walking the line between the whimsy of the fairy tale world and the maturity of the characters. The world building was just too sparse with way too much telling and not enough showing. I occasionally liked the little interludes with the Storyteller, but they didn’t always work. Those sections were at their weakest when they lacked subtlety and just beat you over the head with The Point. There were explicit references to Aslan, but no original characters memorable enough to compare to him. The consistent mention of Narnia kept reminding me how much Shanandoah did not live up to its influence. All of these issues just kept getting worse throughout and it got more grating over time. 

Overall this was kind of meh to me. . . really solid first half but I struggled to stay invested once they actually made it to the magical world. Meg Shaffer’s writing just may not be for me, but if you liked her first book it could be worth checking out.

 

ROB SHEFFIELD IS A HAYLOR?????? The whiplash I had when he said Daylight was about Harry Styles, oh my god. 

This book is basically just an opportunity for a long-time Swiftie fanboy to write about how much he likes Taylor Swift. I appreciate Sheffield’s respect and admiration for Taylor and her music, which seems necessary for a project like this where you’re discussing the good and the bad. I’m a big believer that you either get Taylor Swift or you don’t (which is not to say that ppl who don’t “get it” aren’t smart enough to, it's just whether or not her music resonates, which is subjective) - and Rob gets it.  

One thing this book does really well is portray how much of a nerd Taylor is. There are countless examples of her geeking out over music history and incorporating her favorite lyrics, films, and books into her own music. I also liked that early on in the book, the focus was on Taylor and he makes the excellent point that her music is not really about the men in her life but are actually about her own feelings and experiences. Focusing on Taylor as the main character in her music, rather than attributing that role to whatever man she happened to be dating at the time is something both the media and her fans should take note of.

Okay now for things that didn’t work for me. 

I’m not sure I understand who the target audience for this book was. If it was meant for outsiders, or “normal people”, as Sheffield calls non-fans, it doesn’t do a great job of painting a cohesive narrative since the book is broken into short snapshots of her career. It’s only chronological when brief album overviews are interspersed between these snapshots. It’s full of small lyrical references that might go over the heads of folks who are not familiar with her “lore”. There’s a point around a third of the way in where Sheffield references Olivia Rodrigo sending a copy of her album to Kim Kardashian, and then suddenly there’s a weird split between Taylor and Olivia. But up until this point, aside from the brief timeline at the beginning, the whole Kanye/Kim fiasco of 2016 has not been explained. Reputation, and the media controversy surrounding it, won’t be spoken about until much later. I’m sure many people who were online in 2016 heard about Snakegate, and of course diehard fans know what the mention of Kim is alluding to, but what about a normal person who isn’t familiar with Taylor at all who wants to pick this book up to learn about her legacy? Also, there’s a moment he refers to an older female singer as a “Marjorie figure”, but this happens several chapters before his discussion of evermore. The average person has no clue who Marjorie is and why she’s important to Taylor’s lore. He also makes a lil jab about Swifties explaining the “daisy symbolism” in You’re on Your Own, Kid to football players, but then DOESN’T explain that symbolism! Why are you referring to lyrical hints that you’re not even going to expand on? This makes me think that this book was meant FOR Swifties. But if that’s the case, I don’t think that Sheffield offers very much that is new in terms of lyrical analysis or insight into her career that the average Swiftie doesn’t already know. Much of the information comes from very public interviews that many fans have probably already seen or read. When the majority of your analysis of folklore pulls directly from what Taylor says explicitly about the album in the long pond studio session, which I can watch whenever, I feel like you’re not necessarily offering an unique insight into Taylor’s lyricism. 

This is also not a biography of Taylor Swift. There is lots of Sheffield’s life interjected into it. His personal connection to his favorite songs (All Too Well, New Romantics, and Enchanted get special shout outs), his brief interactions with Tay herself, and the emotional impact of Lover when his mom passed away. This didn’t necessarily bother me, because I feel like if I tried to write a similar book I would also have a hard time separating out the impact that certain albums and songs have had on my life and the memories I associate with them. I think that’s just built into the experience of loving Taylor’s work. What DID bother me was that, because this book was so short, it felt like a misuse of time to get these anecdotes in place of lyrical analysis or discussion about the topic of this book: Taylor’s career. Chapters at the end covering folklore, evermore, Midnights, and the Eras tour were especially rushed and underdeveloped. Having Sheffield’s personal insights was fine, but having those insights in place of content about Taylor made things feel unfocused, and that’s a problem that an editor should have caught. 

Overall, I thought this was fine, even though it didn’t have much new information for me and some elements fell pretty flat. I’m the kind of person that loves think pieces about Taylor and her music, so the premise of this book feels tailor made (no pun intended) for me. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably enjoy parts of this and I think it’s worth checking out. 

 

Such a cute and cozy little mystery story! This wasn’t mind-blowing or anything but it was entertaining with an adorable and lovable town and a solidly compelling murder mystery. The twists were a smidge predictable but I enjoyed the ride anyway. A perfect palette cleanser if you need something short and sweet. I will definitely continue with the rest of the series. 

Since the author doesn’t bother to give trigger warnings, here they are:

Sexual violence, sexual assault, child sexual assault, murder, child abuse, drug use, homophobia, sex trafficking, pedophilia, rape, forcing someone to commit rape

If these topics are triggering for you, please take care of yourself and proceed with caution.

This book was nauseating. I got what the author was going for but I didn’t appreciate the execution at all. The characters were irredeemably unlikable and the quality of the writing was inconsistent. I wish the majority of the book had been from Ola and Souraya’s POVs instead of wasting so much time with Ahmed, who I despised, and Aima, whose POV added almost nothing to the overall story because so little was done with her character and she got almost no resolution. 

Also, maybe it’s just me, but I think there’s a difference between being messy and being a literal felon. 

This is a great starting place to get an analysis of how fascism is showing up in modern U.S. politics. This book contains a flyover of a lot of topics like traditional values, misinformation, conspiracy theories, sexual panic, racism and class dynamics. So much is covered here so not many of these topics received very much depth. I would have really liked more of a history of fascism to provide a greater context for how things have developed so drastically in the U.S. Definitely worth reading as a starting point and I will be looking for books that go a bit deeper into some of the things that were covered, especially the historical aspect. 

I think people who love the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern will like this book a lot. Unfortunately for me, that book was one of my most disappointing reads of last year and the similarities between these two books means that the Last Tale of the Flower Bride ended up not being what I hoped it would be. 

There are definitely elements of this I enjoyed. First off, the writing was gorgeous. I definitely want to try Chokshi’s other works because she is obviously a very talented writer. I loved the atmosphere. I don’t know if the House of Dreams ever really felt gothic to me, but overall the writing and setting had an excellent fairy tale atmosphere. I also (as usual) swapped between the physical book and audiobook and thought the dual narration was excellent. Definitely worth reading in audio if you can. And, despite my issues, I was still very interested in the mystery and intrigue of it all. The book sets you up with some really big questions at the beginning and keeps you guessing the whole time.

The biggest issues I had were with structure, pacing, and characterization. The book swaps between the perspectives of an unnamed man called “the Bridegroom” who marries Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada in the early chapters, and Azure, Indigo’s childhood best friend. The first section of the Bridegroom and Indigo’s meeting and falling in love was RUSHED. I needed more about their romance to root for them and feel connected to their relationship. Azure’s chapters were the best parts of the story, but we get so much information and cover so much ground in them while the Bridegroom’s chapters are truly all vibes, no plot of him just wandering around the House of Dreams and never really interacting with Indigo. I wish that we didn’t rush past the early stages of his relationship with her and had gotten more of the development of him being entranced by her as we learned about her through Azure’s POV. The structure of the back and forth of their POV chapters really made the middle section drag for me and it’s my biggest beef with this book.

While Azure got a lot of good characterization and I really connected to her and understood her motivations and desires, Indigo and the Bridegroom were so underdeveloped. I really liked the small snippets of the Bridegroom’s past that we got in his chapters and wish that was fleshed out more. Those were the moments when I felt like I got what his deal was and otherwise he felt pretty boring as a character. I don’t even really know what to say about Indigo except that I wanted more. I wanted to understand more about her family dynamic and why she was the way she was. It felt like she had these quirks and fears and complexities just under the surface but the book didn’t let things go deep enough to really explore that. I definitely didn’t see the reveal at the end coming but, aside from it being surprising and pretty clever narrative-wise, it didn’t do much for me as far as the characters went.

There is definitely an audience for this book and I can see why people like it. If you like very vibes-heavy books with gorgeous prose but not too much substance with characters, this will probably work for you. It’s also pretty short and didn’t take me very long to get through, so that’s a bonus too. 

 There were a lot of things about this that I liked but I don’t think overall I “got” it. Isabella Hammad’s writing is beautiful and I loved reading about modern day Palestine. There were so many layers of tension as the characters were going about their lives, trying to do the most basic things and being impacted by Israeli surveillance along the way. The back and forth of if they would be able to put on the play and the underlying themes of art surviving under occupation were excellent. I loved the quiet, understated quality that the story had with how small the scope of the book was.

Ultimately, I just didn’t feel connected to the protagonist, Sonia. I found many of the characters that she interacted with fascinating, like Wael and Mariam and Haneen, but Sonia felt kind of dry to me for the majority of the book. I was only interested in her when she was contending with the inconsistencies she had in memories of her family, but otherwise found her internal monologue a bit tedious.

I think this book is necessary and I’m glad it exists. I’m sure it will work well for a lot of people, depending on how much you enjoy the protag. Definitely pick it up if the summary interests you.

Also, the audiobook narrator does a great job and her voice is GORGEOUS, but I would recommend reading a physical copy because there are parts of the book that have dialogue and action cues written like a play and listening to those parts lessened some of the impact for me. I flipped back and forth from the audio and physical (like I usually do, when I can) and went back to those parts to read them without the audio, which made those scenes work much better. 

 

Oof. The dialogue is really painful to read. Lots of telling-not-showing. The premise was okay and I'm always excited about queer POC romance but I couldn't get past the poor writing.

Review to come.