woodslesbian's reviews
70 reviews

I enjoyed the intro and I DO intend to finish this at some point! I just haven't had time or energy to read as much non-fiction as I'd like, but I'll come back to this eventually. 

I love wolves, so this was a fun read! It had some really good information, and I enjoyed the pretty close, detailed focus on the Rose Creek and Druid packs in their early days, especially wolves 8 and 21. It was really cool to see the pack dynamics change over time, and to hear about all the other research projects happening around Yellowstone as well! Just a fun read, and it DID make me cry at the end, but I cry easily when it comes to wolves. 

One aspect of this book that didn't really work for me was the integration of pop-culture references and personal anecdotes. I can see why the author did this as a way to make scientific topics more accessible and relatable to the general public, but it still felt a little clunky. In particular, there were times when the author would explain something pretty clearly for a layman in one paragraph and then spend an entire second paragraph then making comparisons to the human-world to even further explain it, even though the first paragraph got the job done just fine. At most, adding on a final sentence in that first comparison with some human comparison would be fine, but really slowing down like this felt like the author wasn't trusting the reader quite enough for topics that were still pretty accessible in the first place. There were just a lot of these little comparisons, and they didn't necessarily work for me as a reader--but I am biased by having an interest in the Yellowstone wolf introduction already! 

I have not had a single day since I finished reading She Who Became the Sun a full week ago where I have not thought about this book. This might be a bit incoherent because of that, honestly. This book has some of the best political intrigue and scheming and fights for power I've read, which is something I absolutely love. The plotting and the planning and the threat of the very people our characters must work with is soooo good. There's drawing-and-quartering, which is also a win in my book!

I think one of the strongest of many strong-points here is simply Shelley Parker-Chan's incredibly well-crafted characters. I am obsessed with all of them. They each have so much depth and nuance, and even when the characters were making frankly brutal decisions, I understand why and was still rooting for them in some capacity. Zhu's incredible drive and wits, combined with the humble-monk persona she puts out, makes her an absolute delight to read about. I especially enjoyed her interactions and friendships with those around her, especially Xu Da and Ma, were so authentic and really had me rooting for her so so much. I'm excited to keep following her on her battle for greatness! I am also deeply obsessed with Ouyang. I haven't had the chance to read about basically any eunuch characters before, and the exploration of his role in society and how deeply that's shaped him just absolutely fascinated me!!! It's such an interesting look at gender. Without spoiling anything , I am just so into his whole entire deal and I can't get enough of him. ALSO the theme of "like recognizes like" is so incredibly delightful and seeing it play out throughout the narrative in different ways is so interesting, especially with Zhu and Ouyang being character foils. It makes all of their interactions and the differences in their arcs and narratives all the more interesting and I just want to dig my teeth into it.

I loved the action, I loved the battles, I loved the scheming!!!! I loved all the moments where the characters can just sit and breathe. I just. I really adored this book, it's simply so well-constructed all the way throughout, and has such a natural, well-done progression of scope and stakes. I also love it when trans people and gay people plot and connive and backstab or just regular kill. On that note, the gender stuff within this book is so well-done (like everything else). It's done in such a way that it really feels natural for the actual time and place of the Yuan dynasty, while still being clear enough that it was recognizable. 

I might come back and add to this review because I know I have even more to say about this book because it's just that good, but in conclusion: I loved it. I will be rotating it in my mind for the foreseeable future, and I'm so excited He Who Drowned the World has been announced!!! I am so deeply invested in these characters and this world. 

The grip this book had on me was UNREAL. I had a hankering for this sort of elaborate, slow-burn fantasy romance, and boy does A Strange and Stubborn Endurance deliver!!! It had such a fantastic mix of this slowly-developing, really heartfelt romance I was very invested in, along with such good political intrigue and scheming to keep things moving along nicely! I loved both Velasin and Caethari as characters, and it was so fun to see their different perspectives throughout (a shift which was handled well enough to feel natural and not disrupt the flow!), though I have to say Velasin wins out as my favorite; I just loved to see him diving into all of the family politics around him and constantly analyzing everything going on around him.

Of course, I have to mention the world-building here! This world felt so natural and expansive, even though we as the audience see just a small part of it. There really was this sense of an inter-connected web of politics and economics and culture underlying the whole world and it was just so fascinating to dig into! I can see how this might not be someone's thing, but I personally LOVED pausing for a moment (in natural dialogue) to explore the ways that like, horse-care or body-magic or things like that worked, it was all so interesting! And obviously one of the most fascinating aspects of this worldbuilding are the differences between Tithena and Ralia, and how Velasin handles moving from one culture to another. Not only did I feel like the exploration of Ralia's more conservative, homophobic culture vs Tithena being much more open and accepting give Velasin a lot of interesting stuff to grapple with, but it always felt natural, rather than forced. It's just interesting!

I was quite literally on the edge of my seat for much of this book--I am not exaggerating that I had to stand up and pace laps around my room while reading the ending segment, that's how excited about this book I was. The scheming, the yearning, the rich fantasy world!!!! It really has it all. To be honest, this really sets the bar for me of what a five-star read feels like.

That being said, I strongly encourage reading the trigger warnings present before the start of the book! I missed them when I was buying it, so I only read them very briefly before diving in right away. The triggering content is very early on, so once I reached that point, I did have to put the book down and come back later when I was more ready to read it. I'm keeping the following spoiler-free so it's still readable, but I'll include trigger warnings in this review overall. The beginning, in particular, is very dark and does not pull any punches in its depiction of the triggering topics. As someone who has not personally struggled with any of these things, I don't really feel like I'm the one to weigh in on the nuances of how they are handled, just that they are at least not fetishized (the bar is on the floor), and that Velasin's struggles early on do create a powerful arc of healing and building trust that I appreciated. It feels like it's not just there for shock factor and genuinely affects the rest of his time in the book in a realistic way. Though I am always going to have complex feelings on choosing to depict certain things on-page, I feel like it was overall handled well, but DO take these warnings seriously.

Ultimately, A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is one of my favorite books from this year so far--and maybe one of my new favorites overall!  I was genuinely SO hyped just from reading it and had to tell everyone who'd listen about it, which is always a good sign for a book. If you're really wanting a rich, yearning fantasy romance with a good amount of plot that you can really dig into, not to mention tons of great LGBT+ representation that's handled super thoughtfully and an otherwise diverse cast of characters, I highly recommend this one! Once the sequel is out (I didn't even realize this was a series initially!) I WILL be flipping my lid. 

I loved this book and I'm so excited to read The Oleander Sword! I knew right from the beginning that this would be a new favorite--Tasha Suri crafts an incredible world with rich magic and such a powerful sense of depth, not to mention well-handled political turmoil. Her characters are written equally thoughtfully--even side characters come off as real, rounded people with inner lives and issues.  I found in particular even the antagonists, or even just foolish and unlikeable characters, were written so believably, which is no easy feat. I always appreciate when fantasy which incorporates and emphasizes the role maids and servants play and the ways they use the invisibility that their status grants them. I was definitely leaning forward in my seat or gasping at parts throughout. And the romance!!!! So well-crafted and tense.

Overall, i absolutely adored The Jasmine Throne, it really delivered on everything I want from an epic fantasy like this with unique worldbuilding and really strong characters. 

I thought this was a decent read! It had some good mystery elements, some really gnarly body horror, and an interesting concept. Still, it didn't really grab me enough for me to want to pick up the next issue, and that's something I would really hope for in a mystery-driven series like this. 

This was just a fun little manga! And hopefully the start of a romance, as I assume there's more volumes in the series. Overall, I adore food as a love-language, and I really appreciated that as the center focus here! I found both the characters really endearing as well, especially as I feel like I haven't gotten the chance to read much yuri about adult characters just yet, and that was really refreshing! It was definitely understated in terms of romance, but I do feel like we're getting there. I definitely also picked this one up because I felt like it had a more diverse set of body types than I usually see, and that was really nice! I will say that this manga is a lot of just watching the characters eat, and the art style isn't necessarily my favorite, but I definitely enjoyed it enough that I'll be picking up any future volumes that hopefully come out :^)

Overall, I found this to be a very compelling thriller, with a strong cast of characters, a good mystery, and a fascinating premise. Without spoiling how it goes, the climax of this book had such a hold on me that I kept having to put it down, walk a lap around the kitchen or holler at my mother about it, and then come back to get right back to reading. I especially liked our main characters: they were both fully fleshed-out with clear motivations and flaws that felt realistic for their age and experiences. I especially loved Carolina's experience with intrusive thoughts (the book never exactly names them as that, but I certainly interpreted them as such and really appreciated that representation and how it was handled!) and she was probably my favorite, though I absolutely loved Lucy, too. I also felt like it did a really good job of capturing the true-crime community and what draws people to that kind of thing, with balancing the understandable reasons people might enjoy it with Lucy''s well-earned hatred of the genre. The mystery felt satisfying and like it was well-resolved, and I ultimately really enjoyed this book and think of it often!

Still, one major spoilery thing brought the rating down for me:

the fact that we clearly have a trio of main characters in Lucy, Carolina, and Maggie, but the fact that we only get Lucy and Carolina's perspectives made me immediately suspicious of Maggie. While I do like a thriller or mystery to lay out plenty of clues to me, I feel like this pretty noticeable choice made me immediately suspicious of her from, like, just the first few chapters, which made it a little too easy to guess her as the primary culprit from just a little too early. I definitely would've liked to be kept wondering a bit more, but this choice just felt a little too conspicuous to me, since the girls form a trio pretty early on, so I instantly wondered why we didn't have Maggie's perspective. I know there's a lot going on with Lucy and Carolina's perspectives already, but I feel like having Maggie's (at least early on, I think it could successfully fade out as the plot continued without being too obvious) perspective would keep the reader guessing about her more, and would also offer a super interesting insight into her character and motivations! That just brought it down a bit for me, especially since I don't consider myself to be the best at solving mysteries. Not a negative point, but still as a spoiler, I loved the fact that the fog was actively malicious! I love a bit of supernatural stuff going on in my thriller/horror, especially if it's nature-based. This also made me realize that I'm definitely a bit more superstitious than the average person, because if someone mentioned evil fog and weird things started happening, I would literally just assume it was the fog, hands-down.

This is definitely worth a read! I was on the edge of my seat and definitely drawn into the atmosphere of this one. 

I don't even know what you want me to say. It's Howl's Moving Castle!!!! That's really all you need to know.

But more seriously, as a long-time fan of the movie (I'm getting close to memorizing it <3), this book was an absolute delight to read. I love Sophie so much!!!! She's an even more delightful character in the book, and I'm rooting for her so so so much all throughout and in full support of her antics. And of course Howl is 10x as pathetic and silly as he is in the movie which makes me love him all the more. I adore these characters in book form just as much or even more than I do in the movie. I was also absolutely enchanted by Diana Wynne Jones' writing style!!! It has the exact level of whimsy, humor, and straight-forwardness I want from a middle-grade fantasy like this, where every ounce of the world we see and the way it's written about are just full of fun and amusement and clever writing. She does an incredible job of bringing this world and Sophie to life, and slowly letting the plot and characters develop! It's Howl's Moving Castle. Like come on. Definitely on my re-read list for the near future. What a fun and heartfelt and clever book!!!! 

Overall, I enjoyed this book a decent amount! I was certainly drawn into the mystery, from the very premise of the apartment block being moved very early on, as well as the ongoing mysteries. I love the idea of looking into the apartments, lives, and minds of each of these women who live there, getting a sense of them as we also unravel the mystery. I definitely think the intrigue, setting, and device of the master key were the strongest points of this book, as well as the ending! It was all very exciting to read and I really didn't see it coming, but it felt foreshadowed at the same time. I also enjoyed the criticisms of America's interactions with Japan through the detail of the American Army Major. 

I do think I prefer books that are a bit more character-driven. Just through the length of this work and the fact that the perspective moves around so much, I often wasn't getting quite enough of the characters to become overly attached to them, as striking and distinctive as they were. I would've liked to see a bit more of each of them, but at the same time, I see how that would get in the way of the tightly-woven mystery of the story.