noellesmagicallibrary's reviews
386 reviews

The Kingdom of Sweets was a roller coaster -- it started off fantastic, then I was a little less interested, and then something unexpected happened and I was all in again... and then I got bored.  And unfortunately I stayed relatively bored for the remainder of the story. 
I think there was too much trying to happen and it didn't fit in enough with the Nutcracker story. 

I didn't particularly like any of the characters.  Both Clara and Natasha were rather unbearable.  My favorite was probably Drosselmeyer

and even then I liked him more when he was a puppet

 

To be completely honest, I didn't understand most of the story. I mean, the big plot points sure, but what was the motivation? And what was going on at the end?

I don't understand why the Sugar Plum Fairy was so evil, or even what she was, cause she wasn't actually the SPF but some sort of dark  shadow figure. 
What was her deal with Drosselmeyer? If that was mentioned then I missed it, but I don't know why she wanted him and why he was scared of her or even how he evaded her all this time. I think we were told it had something to do with that mirror, but if so, how? 
I'm also left wondering why the bit about the Russian Revolution was added. The connections with the uprising poor were loose at best, and the ending with the Lenin reveal felt unnecessary. I think this book would have benefited from remaining a fantasy alone. It started to border on a historical fiction and it didn't work for me

I just really had too many unanswered questions by the end for me to enjoy it. 

Let me start by saying I am in love with Ichabod. Meredith Moriarty, how did you create a charming and sexy character with a pumpkin head?! (it's the suit, right?)

Volume Two is a collection of a few more subplots while we continue with the story of Alice's curse, Oberon's meddling and Ichabod's past. Loved these chapters and I'm so ready to read more and see how the whole series comes together. 

You are always in for a good time when it comes to the I Found… Series. 

Boogeyman is great because it’s something most of us already have/do fear. In this case, Rachel hears something in her baby brother’s room late at night and we she goes to investigate she sees an unnatural shape leaning over the crib. 

Her parents don’t believe her and she’s starting to doubt herself too, blaming it on sleep deprivation. (Side note— I really disliked those parents for forcing Rachel to limit her sleep like that.)

She confides in her neighbor Landon about the incident and he tells her how the previous inhabitants of that house saw the figure too. It’s the Boogeyman. 

I loved the imagery of the door and room under the crib. I was hoping Rachel would go into that otherworldly space. But instead it was just a reflection. Womp womp.

The ending is equal parts satisfying and surprising. And the description of the Boogeyman is truly horrifying: “I described how it looked in its tattered yellow raincoat, thick stiff arms but simple human hands, gray, rotting skin on its face, eyes that looked blurry like they were fading away, and that disturbing ring of scant teeth that pierced through the skin around its mouth.”

 

Wow, John Fram you really got me with this one. But I actually can’t decide if I loved it or just liked it. 

With the exception of Luca, I didn’t like these characters too much. We’re not meant to like the Wright family, so that makes sense, but even as the villains they weren’t enjoyable. 

I didn’t guess big picture where the story was going, and for that I loved this. But the bigotry was hard to read and I already don’t like televangelist IRL so reading about the Wright family gave me the ick. 

Queerness is at the center of this story and I love that, but with this being a thriller, I worry that it does more harm than good. Trans individuals experience hate, violence and danger every day — do we need to read about it in our fiction too? 

Drug use and addiction are also heavily discussed. I recommend reviewing triggers if you decide to read this one. 

* I listened to the audio and the narration was not my favorite. 

Reading Monster Movie was an absolute delight. It is funny, creepy, and sweet; an enjoyable book for readers of all ages. There's strong friendship, a cursed video tape, time travel (maybe??), and a lot of laughs. 

Ethan Pitowski is a VERY anxious kid so when the whole 6th grade class is invited to the rich kid's house to watch "the scariest movie ever" he doesn't want to go. But his best friends Harley and Olivia force him to get outside of his comfort zone and join the class. By the time Ethan arrives, everyone is quite literally hypnotized by the TV. Then, the monster appears. 

The book is broken up into 3 parts and each one almost reads like a different book -- it all comes together in the end but it did feel like a slightly different experience each time. What I mean is, each part opens up a new area of the plot. There's before the monster, the show down in the movie theater, and then the battle inside the monster. 


I loved these characters, especially our main three (Ethan, Harley and Olivia). 
I also listened to most of this on audiobook and the narrator hit it out of the park. 


For a book written for (mostly) 10 year olds, I think I’m over analyzing the story. If I was a younger reader I’d probably say “cool! This book is a lot of fun” but instead I’m trying to figure out how/why things happened.

I understand Ethan jumped into Screenhead to save everyone but where did he go?! How did Robby get stuck in that time loop? If that wasn’t Robby’s dad, was it just a manifestation of the curse? Where did the curse come from? And how did they even break it? If Robby’s movie wasn’t ever actually made then how did it become known to be the scariest movie ever?

Two things reading this as an adult. 
1. I really hope the middle school was named after THE incomparable Geena Davis.
2. The movie in the book being the scariest ever reminded me of the theater audience reactions to Terrifier a few years ago

A little scary and very funny, The Curse of the Dead Man's Diamond is a great book for young horror lovers.

Eleven year old Charlie is forced to move from NYC to a weird little town in Florida named Casaluna. She hates everything about this move, especially the fact that her new house is supposedly cursed and inhabited by three ghosts.

The ghosts need her help. They're trapped in the home, unable to directly communicate with the living, due to a curse involving a skull shaped diamond. In Casaluna there has been a long held tradition that one is buried at sea with a token to enter the afterlife. When Arthur Winklevoss found a diamond washed up on the shore he didn't believe in the warnings about a curse, that diamond was going to solve all his problems. WRONG! It caused nothing but trouble.

If Charlie can find that diamond nearly 100 years later and return it to the ocean then the ghosts will be free to leave the house and move on into the afterlife. But, she could also sell that diamond to get enough money to move back to NYC and afford the rent on her old apartment. What will she do??


I really liked these characters and I honestly laughed out loud a couple of times from the dialogue. This book is accessible to young readers who want a story about ghosts without having the pants scared off of them.

But I do have a question, either I missed read a section or I don't understand the author's intention --

What was that bit at the end about Madame Rayna?? Because she's either over 100 years old, or she's not human. How can she be the town medium in Charlie's day but also the fortune teller for Arthur and Ada. Is she actually a ghost herself? Or is my math wrong?

Seriously, if someone knows the answer please tell me!

I was given an advanced copy for review, all thoughts are entirely my own. Thank you Delacorte Press and TBR Beyond Tours for the opportunity

A little heavy handed and a bit predictable, but with the fast pacing and my need for a definite answer, I was able to read this vey quickly (it helped that I was in the car for 4 hours that day).

This part of the story felt out of place just for the sake of adding it

Stella's realization that she's attracted to women and the relationship with the female detective.. Cool, awesome, love seeing queer relationships but it really felt like a last minute addition to check off a box

There's also A LOT of side plots. It honestly started to feel like too much. 

Stella is a lawyer that specializes in deciding the best interest for custody of children. She's given a case where a wealthy family is going through a divorce and both parents want full custody of their daughter Rose. The family recently lost their live-in nanny after she fell out of the 3rd story window and died on the pavement. Since that moment Rose has stopped speaking; she has traumatic mutism. Stella is perfect for this case because she too experienced traumatic mutism at a young age after she found her mom dead from an overdose. (as I'm summarizing this story I'm really noticing how ridiculous this all is). 
There is NO glass in Rose's house. We're told this is because the mom developed a phobia of glass after the nanny died. (This actually makes the title a little confusing). 
Not only is Stella a best interest attorney, she's an amateur detective cause she's over here trying to figure out how the nanny died -- was it an accident or was she pushed? Everyone's a suspect and everyone is lying. 

I don't recall ever saying this before but I think this story would have actually been better if we had less backstory. All of the details and revelations in Stella's life took away from what was happening in the present with the family. I really only cared about what happened to the nanny and if Rose had a deeper issue. 

What did I just read? The only good thing I want to say about this book is that it made me want to hear the ending so I kept listening. 

I do wonder how the story is presented in the physical format. Initially the audio was difficult to follow with the change in timelines and between real and movie. The voice actors were great, but occasionally they would repeat a sentence -- I don't understand what the purpose of that was. I honestly thought my phone was buffering or something.

And that ending. Why?!

Think this story maybe be too meta for me, or maybe it wasn't me but the author was trying something that didn't work. But the narrator (The OG Thin kid, did we ever learn his name or did I already forget it?) basically takes method acting to the extreme and transforms himself into the monster-thin-kid and then literally eats the young actor playing The Thin Kid in the reboot. No. That ending scene was just not it for me. I got behind the narrator becoming The Thin Kid but murdering the actor was too much.

It's not that I didn't like this book exactly, but at 56% I still felt like there wasn't much happening. Once I realized this I decided it wasn't worth my time to listen to the (approximately) last 3 hours.
I wasn't invested in these characters and I had a very hard time following along with the names/places. That's specifically a "me problem", I would be able to follow along much easier if I was seeing those names. 

If I wanted to try this book again I would definitely try the physical book instead of the audio. The narrator is great, I just couldn't follow along well enough to enjoy the story. 

Lamar Giles, you got yourself a new fan. I loved this book so so so so much. Don't get me wrong, it is a HEAVY book but it's written incredibly well.

Ruin Road reminded me of a Stephen King novel in the best ways -- cursed objects, people acting badly, death of characters, sacrifice and a bit of an adventure. As a Black teen living in a low-income neighborhood, highschool football star Cade wishes people would stop being so afraid around him. He quickly learns that a little fear is actually a good thing. 

Thank you a million times over for the advanced copy, I'm now going to buy all of Giles' other books.