ladyelfriede's reviews
154 reviews

  listened to this as an audiobook and I can only hope there is a sequel to this cause it was super entertaining.

Can't give a full review cause I was spaced out with social anxiety being near people (since I listened to this during errand runs), but still highly entertaining, perfect for fall

4/5 

 Like most books, I wanted to like this book. And I do...in some cases.

However, this review is a call out to ALL publishing houses.

Care about your debut authors more and maybe, I don't know, pay the editors or authors more.
What you have is a good ass author here that did not have a backing of either of an editor, publishing house, or resources for anyone else to care in the product besides the author themselves. And usually this shit stems to the editor being forced to get through a ton of manuscripts, their not getting paid enough to give a shit, or they are simply not interested. The whole entire logistic department of a publishing house psychologically, is a crap shot for debut authors.

Authors aren't very good at hog tying and killing their darlings, so the editors and the publishing houses need to step in and do their jobs. It's so evident in this book it's not funny. It's sloppy.
The author himself uses pretentious wording when you can just say "a spiky tower" instead of using an archaic word for it no one has heard of in the 21st century, thereby, breaking immersion and forcing the reader to look the word up.

The prattling of different rooms while I loved it, it can get a lot if you don't break the monotony of "see room. Go to another room. Go to another room." without any semblance of life to it.
As an art piece, I get what this book was trying to go for. An early medieval fantasy with French roots that reads more like a document than an actual book.
As a history book, good.

But y'all need to understand:

This is hell for a reader to go through.

Please, either I one day push my own publishing house or y'all need to step your game up.

The ball's in your court.

Prose: as stated above, the author couldn't hog tie and as such, the prose is monotonous and the author couldn't decide what to get rid of and kept way too many things that should have just been pared down. He also has a way of describing something that takes 5 lines, when a simple "the curtain is blue" type of shit could be used. I get he was trying to be archaic, and this can work for fans of Tolkien. But as a fan of Tolkien, it doesn't work here.

Use of a lot of pretentious words kept to the archaic theme, but even an avid reader as me, if I have to look up a word every other page, that breaks the immersion way too much.

VERY confusing what the author is trying to say sometimes which probably adds to this art piece as being a puzzling dream like palace. (Not often, but enough you notice)

One last thing, a lot of reactions were a hit and miss and it's hard to come to the conclusion that a character reacts appropriately or not.

Plot: Good actually. Not predictable, except the climax was predictable and so was the major plot twist.

Pace: Slow as molasses but tries to hype itself up a few times. Mileage will vary every now and then.

Characters: All morally gray in some aspects. Maybe except Frin cause we don't get much out of them. Other than that, the characters were solid.
You might not get some things about them however, most of it is explained as the story goes on. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, plot twists.

Vibe: Excellent. You really feel you're in abandoned city and it's medieval French vibes. The chapter pictures help cement the vibes outstandingly.

Worldbuilding: This carried the book SO HARD. You can tell the author put a lot of love into the world he created. Down to minute details of palace, characters, epigraphs, everything. The magic system isn't used by people. The palace IS the magic system.

As I said, I want to love this book and I love the worldbuilding and vibe so hard. So if you come this far and you still want to give this book a try, some recommendations:

Skim the wandering of rooms if it starts to get dull until a paragraph seems interesting. Your mileage will be way better.

2.5/5

(more points in WB, Vibe, Plot, and Chars. However, the prose tanks everything so hard that the magic of this book is broken thanks to lack of resources from publishing houses. Please do your jobs.) 

I have a hard time rating this high.

Let me start by saying, there is NOT MUCH wrong with this book. Though, I felt like it wasn't bad, it wasn't good either.
Reading fantasy books and writing them has turned me jaded and made me perdict every plot and worldbuilding point imaginable. Which is a shame, cause if I wasn't this jaded, I might have enjoyed this book to at least a 4.

For this review, it's going to be a bit different.
Since the blurb described this as GOT x Arabian Nights, I'm going to cross compare the two and explain why I rated this higher.

Let's just get the bad shit out of the way while we're at it:

1. Women take the L for the men. Nearly all the men in this book continued their plot based on a woman's death. Which is a bit of an ick that they're used as plot fodder and not much more. Yes there are important women in this book however a LOT of their sole purpose is dying to further a plot point. At the end of the book, not many women actually live through this. Sadie, her mom, and Celene live. That's about it. All the other women are just ANNHILATED. (Gods don't count).

HOWEVER, compared to GOT's treatment of women, I think this was at least a step in the right direction. At least Akhtar didn't make me hate every woman like in GOT and the rape was never described in vivid detail or was an important plot point. (I mean...there is one in this book and the man got raped though obviously doesn't make it better, just at least it was over in 1 line...Dude has immense PTSD over that shit btw, if it's any consoltation)


2. While the Worldbuilding is cool and horrific at the same time, it's not exactly creative. Magic is called forth by jinns, gods want to meddle in human affairs, etc. More will be explained down below.

3. Prose is just...fine. It's not anything exceptional, however, because war isn't always fast paced and action packed, there are stuff happening in between that didn't really interest me all that much. I think it's just cause I never cared about Sadie lol...I'm sorry girl, you had nothing going for me...Way better than GOT's prose by a long shot though.

4. OMG the plot is way too predictable and cliched. I mean so was GOT, but I also didn't like that book either so.

Now, that out of the way, here's what the book DID do good.

1. Characters were absolutely fire. Even if the women all died, they were good characters. Melodi fought tooth and nail until her last breath, Sadie's Mom had really got it going on, Nesrin didn't take a no. Ahriyya's plot line seems very interesting though I suspect it was just her rebelling against the Dreamer and not much more. Sadie was just...kinda there. Stereotypical "I'm not like the other girls and I want to escape my destiny but learn I have to accept said destiny" sorta thing. Her character design was interesting though. Going into Micah's mind was terrifying but entertaining as hell. Kevah was just kinda there...
Man, no wonder Sadie and Kevah hit it off.

Compared to GOT, while Micah is supposed to be religious fanatic and you're not inclined to like him, he's a LOT more understanding in his actions than Sansa and Catelyn from GOT

Tangent Time (tm): speaking of which, why were the asshat characters all women in GOT anyway. Maybe the toddler in that tall ass castle was a dick but that's sorta the mom's fault too. Viserys was a dick sure. Geoffrey was one too. Ok, I take that back, they weren't all women but holy hell, why did you make me read Sansa and Catelyn if not getting in the mind of Viserys or Geoffrey?!...I guess that's what "Prince of Thorns" is for

Anyways, you're not going to get a million POVs like in GOT, but you will get 2 solid POVs that aren't anything to scoff at. Better to specialize in 2 than a million and hating half of them.

2. Vibe. Holy shit Akhtar gave me a better vibe and was immensely better than GOT. GOT bored the shit out of me like I get winter was coming but why did every scenery have to be the same shit over and over. A tree, big castle, at least Danerys plot line had a desert and nomadic tribe (though they were a bit ick in their own way)

3. Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding is a hit and miss. It's stereoytpical and not THAT creative, however, the way Akhtar molds said stereotype into something fresh was creative. Bloodborne and Lovecraft probably would have approved with the alien-like tentacle gods that are "angels". I will give credit that this was more interesting than GOT's, even though things behind the Wall were creative, not all of the book was like that.

So all in all, why am I rating this 3.5 stars? Mainly because I like a good and creative worldbuilding in my story and there were a few legends and poets that were interesting, but the basis of the worldbuilding wasn't all that appealing. The way Akhtar MOLDED the stereotype was creative and probably why I MIGHT keep going in this series (if I have nothing else to read).

Oh yeah, I also didn't give two fucks about the rushed romance between Kevah and Sadie, if that wasn't clear.

-

So the 1.5 deduction is a mix of worldbuilding and women dying to further plot issues. I think I might not have been in the right mindset for this book so when I read the next, I think that should determine if I continue the series or not.

3.5/5

PS: Sorry if this was rambley, I was dreading doing this review on reddit and felt like I would get harrassed there, and bitch, I know my boundaries, and I don't want to get mass downvoted 

 

  don't like fiction books not necessarily because they're depressing, because they're too real.
Yes, this book is a bit too eerily accurate to rural life India (I know cause my parents came from this), yet it gives us an outsider looking in what women still face in the 21st century and our work is never done to change.

It might be over done in Western culture, though the feminist movement is all new to other countries and we need to keep fanning the flames to help get them out of an outdated caste system. Never stop helping BIPOC women, never stop encouraging them, they need the courage to keep going, just like we still need it in the west.

Content Warnings: There are mentions of graphic sexual assault, however, every mention is in the past and already done and doesn't milk it.
For animal deaths, there is one, but never died on screen and we don't know that animal at all.
Bandit lives, don't worry.

Prose: I listened to this on audiobook and I'm mad that I did. I think, while you'll get a good experience on audiobook, read it physically/ebook it so you have time to process wtf you just read. Still, the audio and voices were pretty good, If you're Indian, you can already substitute a lot of the voices so I think you don't have to audiobook it. If you're in the west, sure, audiobook it.

Plot: Solid and actually twisted and turned in a few directions I didn't expect!

Pace: Very rarily lulls, once it got going, it got GOING

Vibe: Rural India, you're not going to see high tech here, the technology we all rely on is slowly making its way to India yet it's a long way to go where everyone has basic appliances.

Characters: All the characters were great and you never know who may surprise you

Worldbuilding: Some background info since this isn't a fantasy.
You're going to see mentions of Poolan Devi.

The TLDR is, she fucked over men who were abusive pieces of shit though was sadly assassinated in 2001. She became a politcal activist and spoke out against the oppresive caste system in which she was forced into.
To say she was brave is understating things and the fact she got the title of being a devi, goddess, shows how badass she was.

This book doesn't exploit her name but honors it by raising up other women to become Bandit Queens in a fucked up society.

Caste system would take forever to explain so just wiki it. Think of a class society but taken to the far extreme of life.

-

There are so many books that uplift women that it's not even funny. What makes this book rise against the rest is how raw and realistic it was. Most are highly unlikely with magic or another man involving themselves to save the day. That didn't happen here. Women saved each other and that's how we can save ourselves.

5/5 

 I mostly read this for Hastjarjanto, she's a brilliant fantasy writer and her story did not disappoint. I could go in detail about the stories I didn't like but I will give them debut author syndrome to everyone and not bury them under the ash.

I'll just rate the stories I did like:

"The Last Flame" by Marisca Pichette: 5/5 - Simple, but oh so effective. Keep it up!

"Our Lady of Silence" by Christina Ladd: 4.9/5 - Where was this fairy tale when I was growing up!?

"Hunahpu" by Claudia Recinos: 5/5 - Write a book about this, pls

"Whispered Navajo" by Bernado Villela: 4/5 - I liked the concept, prose was a little confusing, but effective story all the same

"Bone Mother" by Daphne Fama: 3/5 - Some foreshadowing made it too predictable, however, I loved the concept of the story

"No Mother of Frankenstein" by Tessa Hastjarjanto: 4.5/5 - As usual, superb, not much to comment really, just loved the story!

Still, even though majority of the stories weren't for me, the ones I did like slayed hard. Good message behind all of them, some were too on the nose what they wanted to convey and why this is deducted a star. Other than that, it's pretty solid. Definitely pick this up if you're an anthology lover

4/5 

 A reminder that when we lose it all, we never really lose everything.

Thank you Woolever for bringing this book to life, even if we can't bring it all back.

For what this book really is:
Think of it as a travel guide for when you're thinking of going to a place, take a look in this book. See what Bourdain thought. 99% of these places he loved (I would know, I watched his shows almost religiously that my parents wanted me to use that passion in STEM....yeah that didn't happen).
This is not a biography or autobiography, more of, Bourdain, his brother, and colleagues remembering their times with him and Bourdain himself, recalling what he loved about each place.
It's VERY important to read the introduction before reading the rest to understand what you're getting into. Otherwise this book seems lazy and half ass, when it's anything but.

Prose:
Book is split between black text (Woolever's commentary) and blue text (Bourdain either excerpts from his shows or "off-air").
It's like we're seeing a window into the past of what Bourdain thought with the aftermath, in black. It's a bit haunting to realize, we're not HEARING Bourdain, but reading the past.
Either way, whether he realized it or not, Bourdain was up there as being a master in 1st POV. He can describe food and experiences so vividly, you feel like you were there with him.

Plot: Nonfiction, so technically no plot, but it's a sort of travel guide

Pace: It's a travel guide, what do you want me to say. The pace does slow down a little when colleague's essays are inserted, but once you get going, they are emotional and you hit yourself that you shouldn't have doubted them

Vibe: Because he's no longer with us...it's...melancholy, but hopeful.

Characters: Bourdain and Woolever imo

Worldbuilding: Some lore to this book.
I'm not going to details how he exited life, just who he was at least to me.

It's somewhere around 2005.

I entered the most toxic hostage/relationship that it easily gave me PTSD after I exited it in 2013.

I was bullied in high school.

I never ate lunch as I was picky with everything that came on my plate.

My mom was out in the workforce, dad took the job of rearing us being a stay at home stock trader, but it was a joy that was not a joy but one of misunderstandings and rage.

And then there was No Reservations to greet me everyday.
Imagine, you see a new side of the world you were never shown in media, much less high school, and Bourdain's eating delicious food ( and what are usually cheap). From that point on, I WISHED i could eat that food, or not be too scared to eat lunch with people, though it did teach me how to sneakily eat in the library. Sorry, ladies.
He was the best possible distraction of the hand my life shoved in my hands.

I'm not going as far to say he changed my life, but he saved it.
Multiple times.

And we couldn't save him.

Woolever, thanks again for making this book a reality. As a writer, I don't know where my journey leads, I only wish I save someone else with my work, just as he did with me.

Thank you, Bourdain.

4.5/5 

 have no words for this book.

I want to rate it 5 stars SO HARD....but there's a little tick that I can't remove. I won't feel good rating this 5 stars if I feel like it didn't deserve it. It didn't.

This is simultaenously close to being one of the most emotional books while also giving a big L to women but somehow, giving non-binary a rep.

Lemme explain:

The CTA of this book is the MC, Yarnspinner, inheriting a manuscript that was so profound that it was easily the best thing he read. He wants to go to Bookholm, where everything book related exists.
However, Yarnspinner is determined that the author of his manuscript was a guy, not a female.

There are no humans in this book. Everyone is anthropomorphic animal or alien-like creature.
That's fine, but not a single IMPACTFUL character was female. At most, they were non-binary and were Hermaphrodites.

It's hard....it's so progressive and a REALLY great book but at the same time...not really.

If you push that away, this is still a fucking fantastic book that it was almost nominated Book of the Year.
I want to give the benefit of the doubt that Moers doesn't write like this anymore and includes females more but only time will tell. I'll still get Castle of Dreaming Books whenever that comes out.

Prose: It's in 1st POV but don't let that sway you away. This is easily the best case study of first person. Yarnspinner writes like a Victorian Englishman but not a pretentious one like in "Letters from the Deep". It's digestable, albeit long, but approachable. It's complicated, I need to study more how Moers does his prose, it's absolutely genius. .5+

Pace: Slow and then during a point, it REALLY starts going

Plot: Simple, Yarnspinner wants to find the author of a manuscript he inherited from his godfather.

Characters: The characters...are not that deep. Yarnspinner himself is naive and sort of a sponge to self-insert yourself into. As I said above, the -.5 is from the lack of female rep. If you're wondering why I'm not talking about ethnicities well...everyone we meet is literally a different species that there is no ethnicity problem.

Vibe: Books

Worldbuilding: Here, is why the book has 4.5 stars and not a flat 3.
Yarnspinner writes this book hundreds of years in the future, so the worldbuilding we get will literally be explained in exposition. He writes like you the reader are walking in the past with him and we learn everything at the same time as young Yarnspinner did, but he adds OLD Yarnspinner lore alongside this so we don't leave wondering. You would think this is yikes but it works so, so, SO well.
It's like you're reading about, not just Bookholm, but about the world, how it works, authors around us that you feel like you're in there with Yarnspinner as he walks in this uncanny city. He explains it like we're also discovering things along with young 70 year old Yarnspinner.

Not everyone will like this worldbuilding and I was about to DNF this 10 pages in but trust me....give it at least 30% before deciding if this isn't for you.

Don't let my gripes sway you, this is still probably one of the best books I've read even if this is 4.5.

Also let me leave you with this warning if you're still unsure:

THIS IS NOT A YA BOOK. DO NOT LET KIDS UNDER 16 READ THIS. I REPEAT.
DO NOT LET GR TAGS SWAY YOU, IT IS NOT YA, NOT BY A LONG SHOT.

4.5/5 

 This may be one of the best books I've read this year and we may have another Golden Sticks (tm) Book of the Year contender.

Rushdie was attacked on August 2023 and, while attacks on authors has been unfortunately around, it was the first time an Indian writer, that was known in the Western world, was brutally attacked.

All for an idea in a novel and a corrupted vision of what their religion meant to them.

Freedom of speech and ideas has never been more censored than what it is today.
Booktok, or any book community, HATES if you talk about ANY trigger warnings, even if done respectfully, but even if it wasn't done respectfully, that is no reason to murder or attack an author.
Social media scrutinizes anything that doesn't form to their own beliefs. Rushdie leaving Twitter was probably one of the best thing he did in his career.

In an age where ideas can be so widespread, it's absolutely shameful that authors have to think twice what they publish. Would this book be controversial? What if communities flame me? None of these questions should be even a thought in the 21st century.

I'm a firm believer that all ideas, whether I agree with them or not, should be published.

When we stifle ideas and speech, we die as a civilization.

Prose: This is a man who spent his life writing and he knows how to control his prose. If you're a writer and don't know what good prose is: just read this book. A master in his craft is at home with the word.

Plot: The plot is hard to judge here as I'm not versed in nonfiction all that well. For being one of the few memoirs I have read, it never bored me and always wanted me to keep reading.

Pace: As I said in Prose, this is a master at work, and he understands his pace, he doesn't care so much of his audience and how they would perceive it, as he so much cares how the work looks. But by doing this approach, he can focus fully on what makes Rushdie's work shine.

Vibe: Yeah, uh...this is a murder attempt, I dunno what you want me to tell you.

Characters: Names were sorta thrown about, but he does consider that you may never know who a certain writer is and does give a light introduction who they are before resuming his speech. In this way, he is considerate to his audience who may never have read in his circle of literature (me). Eliza and Rushdie are probably the strongest people in this book, and maybe IRL, and let no one tell you differently

Worldbuilding: As this is a nonfiction and not a fantasy book, I can briefly tell you some backstory that might help a reader understand this book better:

On August 12 2023, Rushdie was attacked with a knife in a lecture hall by a religious terrorist that read 2 pages in his book, "Satanic Verses." In the assassin's eyes, the author should no longer be alive to spew his filth.

"Satanic Verses" gave Rushdie a fatwa, an Islamic ruling by a religious leader. What makes this fatwa horrible though, was that the ayatolla of the time, Ruhollah Khomeini, wanted Rushdie assassinated for his book being "blasphemous".
Fast forward to 2023, the assassin was radical in his views and sought to bring his own sense of "justice" toward Rushdie.

Most of the Muslim world supports Rushdie and wanted the removal of the fatwa, but by the time anyone would want to remove it, Khomeini had passed away. Only an ayatolla who issued the fatwa, can remove the ruling.

-

I know I mostly review fantasy books and such, but this book, if you care a lick about freedom of speech in writing, needs to be read. It's a warning of what is to come and what we need, as a society, need to do 110% better than letting freedom of speech die in our words.

5/5 

 een meaning to go through this artbook for awhile and finally did

This is a reflection of what made Tan into an artist, his outlook of his art, and what his muses are.

I don't really have anything too reflective to say about it (I took notes, ofc). I can talk for hours about prose composition but not art comp.
I took one course in art history in college and can proclaim:

You'll find similarities to Monokubo and Tan as they both represent the human in creatures and monsters and questions what it really means to be one and how humans are a little like them than we realize.
Maybe Monokubo was inspired by Tan at one point or vice versa, it's hard to say. Either way, Tan has a way of making you pause and think with his work.

Whether he's the OG inspiration of Monokubo or the new is up to the viewer.
RIP Monokubo

4/5