unlikelyplaces's reviews
267 reviews

Dreams Lie Beneath - Rebecca Ross

I really enjoyed this! 

Obviously, Rebecca Ross' other book, Divine Rivals, has been all over Bookstagram recently. I haven't read that one yet but I had this on my tbr for a while so I thought I'd give it a go and it was so fun.

Dreams Lie Beneath is a YA Fantasy about a land where every new moon people's nightmares come to life and we follow Clementine who, along with her father, is trained to fight the nightmares to protect the townspeople. The story begins when someone comes to challenge Clem and her father as the local magicians in their town. 

This was filled with a lot of popular tropes, including a rivals to lovers romance and the concept was similar to other things I'd heard of before but I had a lot of fun with it. It felt very fairytale-like and whimsical. I think that if you like the Cruel Prince series, this would work really well for you, it had that same feeling to me. 

If I was being really nitpicky there were some plot elements that didn't fully make sense to me but I went into this with the expectation that I'd have a good time with it and I did so I'm happy.

Definitely worth it you want a fun, YA, whimsical read!

This was cute 🥰

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my thing and it’s not like a new favourite for me but I did really enjoy it! This basically reminded me of like a Hallmark Christmas movie but a fantasy version and worked well for the beginning of the Christmas season (not that it’s anything to do with Christmas but it’s the vibe)

The way that people talk about this book made me think this would have literally no plot at all but there was definitely enough of a story to keep me interested. I think I might have struggled if it had been any longer but as it was, it worked for me.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of the author reading the audiobook and had to listen to it on 1x speed because if I had it any faster I found it quite grating. And if I was going to be nitpicky, it for some reason really bothered me that they kept referring to Tandri as “the woman”… I don’t know why but it just felt weird and unnatural.

But overall this was a good pallet cleanser to read alongside Oathbringer for me, definitely not the kind of thing I want to read all the time but it was a good time.

The Atlas Paradox - Olivie Blake

⭐️- 2.25

If you love this book you probably won’t want to read this

I don’t have too much to say about this honestly. I was a bit on the fence about the first one but where the first one was a bit predictable but fun and addictive, this one was predictable and also boring and tedious 😬 There was nothing about this book that I like hated but I was just so bored throughout. I think it’s unlikely I’ll be finishing this series… sorry to everyone who loves this series…

Ahhh ok I loved this so much!

The pitch of this book is basically “what happens to the d&d party 20 years after the final battle?” and it definitely wears its influences on its sleeve. 

We follow Alf who was a part of the group who defeated the dark lord years ago and is now charged with holding an extremely powerful, sentient sword, as he sets off on a quest to defeat a new evil.

We also follow Olva as she sets off from her home town in search of someone she loves.

I always love seeing the classics fantasy races (Elves, dwarves etc) and little nods to Lord of the Rings. This felt familiar but still fresh and unique to me. The world building is really interesting and I feel like there’s so much more to uncover in this world.

Alf was a great character to follow, I loved the way he views the world and his interactions with the sword. He’s definitely joined my list of favourite fantasy characters!

This book had a dry wit to it which I think will work for you if you like Ambercrombie’s humour. There’s a lot of commentary on growing older and how the way we view things changes with age which was really interesting.

There was also basically no romance at all in this which is a plus for me but if that’s something you look for just be aware of that.

So yeah I think this book is super underrated and you should definitely go check it out ❤️

I’m not really sure how to review this book tbh…

On one hand it was super addictive and interesting and I got through it way quicker than most audiobooks even though it was long. It sort of reminded me of X-men which is a plus and it was a lot more fantasy-heavy than I was expecting. I liked the dynamics between the characters and the magic.

However, I predicted a lot of the plot and found the characters to be a bit lacking in depth. I also felt that the ending was a bit abrupt. I know it’s a series but it didn’t really feel like there was any sense of completion at the end of this book for me.

So I will probably listen to the 2nd one but I still don’t know what to make of this book 😂

I’m not overly sure how to talk about this one. It’s really not my usual genre but I picked it up because I wanted to try this author’s work and I’ll read anything set in the 70s but I did really enjoy it.

This is a noir/mystery/thriller novel set in Mexico in the 70s during a time of extreme political control known as the “Dirty War”. The story itself follows a woman called Maite and a man called Elvis as they investigate the disappearance of a missing woman.

I loved the way the characters lives sort of circle around each other and interweave throughout the novel. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and am definitely interested in picking up more of their work. 

My main issue with this was that I really couldn’t stand Maite. I don’t think she’s meant to be particularly likeable but I just found her a very irritating pov, especially early on in the novel. Once the story got going through I was hooked.

As I say, this is really not my usual genre so I don’t know how much I can say about how good it really is but I had a good time and learned about a period of history that I didn’t know about before so that’s a win for me.

How shocking, Frankenstein is good, what a surprise 😮

Sarcasm aside, I haven’t read this since I was in school and I definitely have a better appreciation for it now. I think that learning a bit about Mary Shelley’s life really made it come to life for me this time around. The things that she went through and her feelings are so prevalent on page (would highly recommend listening to the Mary Shelley episode of “You’re Dead to Me” before reading). 

I did struggle at times with the pacing (as someone who is used to slower paced classics) because I felt as though there were long stretches that I spent the whole time wondering how they were relevant. However, this didn’t ruin the story for me.

I started off listening to the audio for this and ended up switching to the physical because I wanted to annotate, I definitely already plan on picking this up again at some point to annotate the first half. It definitely deserves its classic status.

 “I [am] the shadows cast by the sunbeam, dark and twisting”

Medea - Rosie Hewlett (Arc)

⭐️ - 4.75

(This review may contain some very mild spoilers but the story is like 2000 years old so I’ve decided it’s ok)

Euripides’ “Medea” is probably my favourite of the Greek tragedies so Rosie Hewlett had a high bar to meet and definitely succeeded for me. This was a beautiful retelling of Medea’s story.

If you are unfamiliar with the myth, Medea is the witch who helps the hero Jason win the Golden Fleece and goes on to become his wife and then some wild stuff happens from there.

Hewlett really leaned in to the fantasy, magical aspects of Medea’s power which I think really helped the story feel grand in scale and for those of you who like witchy books I think you’ll love this.

I also loved the way that Hewlett used the story to explore different forms of abuse and gaslighting and the way that it affects a person in a really poignant way. I thought it was handled really well and actually made me quite emotional.

For me the story was both helped and hindered by the fact that I knew the mythology so well. The first half felt a tad slow to me but I think that was because I was so looking forward to see what Hewlett did with the ending and it definitely paid off. I also enjoyed the little nods to the source material with things like the “gaggle of women” outside the house, for those who have read the original it was nice to see those links.

My main criticism is that at times I felt that, by trying to create justifications for some of Medea’s more questionable actions early on in the book, it sometimes felt as though some of the character’s agency was taken away. However, I can see where Hewlett was going with it and it did work overall for me.

If you like myth retellings, villain origin stories, or Madeline Miller’s “Circe”, you will love this book. Definitely recommend.

Release date: 21 March 2024 

No job is worth this hun, just leave…

Seriously though, I can’t deal with this main character. She just keeps inventing wild justifications for things that really should be a red flag. Ridiculous things keep happening that I think are meant to be like tense, everyone talks stupid and it’s like 40% through and I don’t care at all. I really don’t understand the comparisons to Du Maurier. 

Honestly, the best part is the interludes about mythology. Sorryyyy

I really liked the first book in this series but I felt like the middle book syndrome was real in this one, unfortunately.

There was just way too much going on here for me and I found it really difficult to keep up with everything. And there was almost constant action happening which might work for some people but I really like to take time to sit with things and reflect with the characters but we were just jumping from one thing to the next. 

It was also so long! Despite all the action it still felt like it was dragging a bit because of the length.

I still think that the world is interesting and the magic and I do love the characters in this so if I hear good things about the next book I might carry on but we will have to see…

Content warnings: just some language and a bit of violence