nataliestorozhenko's reviews
169 reviews

“Maybe we are broken. But we put ourselves back together. We survived. That’s what makes us so powerful. And as for family—well, blood is always family, but family doesn’t always have to be blood.”

Well, that really, really hurt. And once again, I have mistaken this for duology and have to wait an uncertain period of time to get some closure, hopefully with "Victorious". But God, this was good. I had to restrain myself from reading the whole book immediately out of my respect and desire to savor the author's skill. We follow multiple complicated characters at the same time. We jump from one time to another. But it’s written so well and digestible that you do not miss any beat of the story.

“Eli had made a mistake. He wasn't prone to making mistakes, except where Victor Vale was concerned. Victor had always possessed the unnerving ability to get under Eli's skin, interrupt his focus.”

Of course, my main concern was mostly around Victor. And I absolutely devoured the chapters about Eli's past. And damn, do I feel miserable for both of them. And Eli's visions of Victor? I was sobbing. The tension in the end... Run. Chase me. Speachless.

“Victor stared at the wall as if it were still a window. “He doesn’t know how patient you are,” he said. “Doesn’t know you like I do.” Eli cleaned the blood from his hand. “No,” he said softly. “No one ever has.”

I was certain I wouldn't be interested in new characters, but I was so wrong. Marcella's story was laid out so gradually and perfectly, that I sincerely felt that betrayal by Marcus. I felt that bond between them in the past and it hurt when it ended like that. The female rage in this is *chef's kiss*.

“The life I had is gone. There’s no getting it back. I’d rather make a new one. A better one. One where I don’t have to pretend to be weak to survive.”

June is one more intriguing character, and I honestly hope we get to see her more. It was nice to see Sydney to have someone to talk to. But still, the ending though? However, I do hope that when we are presented with the found family trope, it should play out in the end. And also, I believe in Sydney's power, both as EO and as someone who is very attached to her physical embodiment of "home".

“She met his eyes. Those eyes that after everything still felt like family, like safety, like home.”

Meanwhile, I see Victoria Schwab publishing another book, and I am really excited for her, but I can only pray and hope that she's working on "Victorious" too.

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”

This book was very comforting for me in a weird way. Not because of the disturbing things that were happening on its pages. But because this book contains well-executed elements of everything I love about books. Complicated and multidimensional characters with a lot of issues, subtle magical system heavily intertwined with academia, found family and friends-to-rivals/enemies plot.

“If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain?

He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that.”

See how great is that? I had a great time with this book and I expect "Vengeful" to be just as good because it's evident that Victoria Schwab is a legend.

The craft and greatness of this book for its time is immeasurable. The idea of a portrait taking all of your sins, your evil, your age, and your experience instead of you is very interesting indeed.

There are a lot of progressive ideas that seemed incredulous for the peers of that time. And being a book created on the brink of centuries, it carries that «old versus new» conflict. But some of the thoughts didn’t age well.

It was somehow a little painful to listen to all of Lord Henry’s thoughts and the «progressive» challenges he threw at people. Even though he tried to break free from all the rights and wrongs defined by society, he still could not leave behind misogyny, sexism, classism, and a lot of other issues. Yes, the book depicts him kind of a villain who plays with the concept of influence and morality using real people’s lives. But he wasn’t the genius he wanted to seem. Just an insufferable bastard with a god complex. Although, it was a nice exercise to read his statements and answer in my head why I disagree.

I loathe Dorian Grey. He’s not too strong of a villain and quite a flat character. He was a clean slate to fall like a fool to such a terrible influence. I like morally grey characters and I enjoy exploring multiple complicated qualities that make them as such. But this… I don’t have even a drop of sympathy for this spineless man, and I didn’t see much dimension to his portrayal. So the ending was a relief.

The only characters I feel a little sympathy for are James Vane and Basil. However, it is hard to believe how Basil was so strongly enamored with just a pretty shell of a man.

I love classics, but this one went very slow for me. Whenever I picked it up, I read two chapters and let them marinate. The pace is languid. Some descriptions took much more space than needed and made me suffer through them to get to the next important point of the plot. And honestly, I was bored. As for Chapter 11, I thought it was killing me.

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

It was refreshing to read about such a badass fmc. Even though I never thought I would enjoy reading about faeries, I did because they were so cunning and violent. I loved how dark the story was, and although I became overfed with stories about the throne rivalry, it was a nice spin that in this story, the main character acquired the throne not for herself but with other motives.

“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?” Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question into something like a compliment.
“No” I say, glad to be annoyed back into the present. “Tell me.”
"I can't.” (Because you know... faeries can't lie)

Moreover, I loved that this is a true enemies-to-lovers story and a true slow-burn. Jude and Cardan's dynamic is amazing. I rated this book 5 stars because I couldn't stop reading it and enjoyed every single page. Although there may be some faults in the world-building and the plot, it was pure entertainment for me.

“Nice things don’t happen in storybooks,” Taryn says. “Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.”

The only thing I personally lacked was that I wish the book had some helpful illustrations of each creature besides people and faeries in the story. I know that the author intended this story to be more than just a fairytale and adjusted the image of each creature accordingly. We do have some descriptions, but not enough of them, and I blanked a little with mentions of pixies, goblins, ogres, nixies, selkies, etc.

“Faeries make up for their inability to lie with a panoply of deceptions and cruelties. Twisted words, pranks, omissions, riddles, scandals, not to mention their revenges upon one another for ancient, half-remembered slights. Storms are less fickle than they are, seas less capricious.”

Overall, I'm super satisfied and eager to start the next book right away.

“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.”

Gosh, if I had not spoiled the ending, it would hurt so much more than it already does. But wow, I loved all the action and how Jude is even more savage. And dear poor Cardan laying all the hints about his obsession. I just can't.

“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”

This is specifically what I enjoy about this series and I understand that it's a bit concerning, but anyway:
“The three of you have one solution to every problem. Murder. No key fits every lock.” Cardan gives us all a stern look, holding up a long-fingered hand with my stolen ruby ring still on one finger. “Someone tries to betray the High King, murder. Someone gives you a harsh look, murder. Someone disrespects you, murder. Someone ruins your laundry, murder.”

Starting the next book right away or I wouldn't sleep.

“By you, I am forever undone.”

Aaaaaaand, the list of unrealistic expectations from men grows strong with this one.

“And yet my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the undersea. It was yours before I could ever admit it, and yours it shall ever remain.”

This journey was amazing, I can finally get a hype with faeries and how interestingly the story could unfold. I have no issues with tails and horns either, iykyk. And that's one more reading ick demolished. The author did an excellent job of making things that I usually don't like, seem interesting and even flattering. The story was magical, whimsical, fierce, and gruesome all at the same time. The character development was great, and Jude is now one of my favorite female main characters ever. Her slow-burn romance with Cardan was angsty and passionate, but lovely, and her relationship with Madoc as both a father figure and a rival was fascinating. I'm definitely going to continue following this story and this author.

“That's what mortal means," I say with a sigh that I don't have to fake. "We die. Think of us like shooting stars, brief but bright.”

I found this book to be pretentious crap and difficult to relate to, which led me to skip through it as fast as possible.

The characters were incredibly annoying and unrelatable, with shallow thoughts that attempted to appear deep. The condescending writing style was unbearable, especially when the main character constantly thrashed her only best friend throughout the entire book.

Also, I have questions for the author. Poo? Seriously?

This book was meant to address grief and depression, and how to overcome them. However, I did not see any healing take place. Instead, I followed the actions of a spoiled and disgusting human being. I do not believe that the behaviors depicted in this book could be helpful for someone experiencing depression.

At first, I assumed that I simply did not enjoy books that were too realistic and grounded in reality. However, when I picked up Kuang's "Yellowface", I was able to appreciate the story while still being captivated by the expert craft of the writing, although such a premise usually is not to my liking. In contrast, this book was poorly written and incredibly dull. And it just did nothing.

I’m still processing the ending of this book. I have not formed an opinion on whether I like this story or not as a whole. But what I do know, is that I love R. F. Kuang’s writing. You just can’t tear your eyes off the text and just wish that you keep reading, to get a glimpse of where it’s leading…

Also, I like that this topic gives us a feeling of how the book publishing game works. I have not read anything similar to this, so the whole view of the process is quite interesting and actually sort of enlightening.

The whole weight of issues being raised here is quite overwhelming, it makes you conflicted about many questions at the same time.
Yes, each author has a right to write about anything, but at the same time if an author decides to write about some issue regarding race, minority, other nation’s history, and culture, etc. - it may become a whole disaster of cultural appropriation, wrong narrative, twisting truth and a lot of popular terms nowadays. I mean, I get it. I personally want to scream when I hear Russians name stolen Ukrainian authors, artists, and their work as their heritage.

The whole industry makes you scream. Instead of providing equal ground for absolutely everyone, they just make it seem that they’re diverse enough, that they embrace equality. They go all the way out and pull out the best marketing to highlight that they support this and that author and their cause to look good. But is this industry truly thrive in equality? Would there be a place where everyone will feel accepted and valued no matter their background? I feel sad because now this idea seems like a utopia. In the end, I believe that June can pull off some counterattack for Candice’s work… because we are shown how the whole narrative can be easily manipulated with the right words, tweets, etc.

It is stated as well that this book is about loneliness. And it’s not only about this industry. It feels like this generation’s tragedy. We can easily cut off people just for one wrong step, we care too much about a public image for the appraisal that’s mostly fake and artificial. The real and human part is dismissed too quickly because we have to maintain some mirage.

By the end of the book, I feel quite liberated. I want to be free of this social media bubble and this whole cancel culture. I don’t ever want to rely on somebody’s reviews. I don’t want to pick books that are fed to us by genius marketing. I want my critical thinking to be open to reading any book and looking at it like art from different angles and perspectives. I want to hear out what it has to say. It might be ugly and might be faulty, but maybe there’s a hidden gem somewhere out there?