I have a void and I must scream.
Pages: 614
Purchased from: Kobo
Folks, this one was a real slog to get through. The author drags scenes and arcs for far too long which is a pity because there are some interesting characters and worldbuilding happening that just gets mired in these long arcs. This book would have been much more enjoyable if it was about 200 pages shorter.
Meh.
Pages: 391
Purchased from: Kobo
One of the review quotes for this book described it as a “powerfully disturbing space operas” and I agree with the disturbing bit but I don’t think I would describe it as powerful. To be quite honest I found most of it fairly tedious, especially the middle section of the book. The writer also seems obsessed with the concept of birthing in a way that felt just a tad bit weird (and not in a good way).
The premise/world of the book is interesting, the rest of it is…meh.
Pages: 398
Purchased from: Kobo
Definitely a very interesting look at contemporary Malaysian life. At times it felt a bit uncomfortably like I was reading from the depths of the author’s mind in a way that felt like I was intruding. But other than that I enjoyed the various aspects of the region’s mythology that were depicted in this. I will mention this, there is a scene in this book depicting sexual assault. It is not particularly graphic or long but it is present, just a heads up.
Pages: 450
Purchased from: Kobo
A lovely little queer love story which also happens to deal with the themes of death and mortality. The story is very well written with lovable characters and a narrative that will both make you laugh out loud and cry your eyes out. 10/10, I absolutely loved this one.
Pages: 378
Purchased from: Kobo
A nice YA fantasy with a very interesting world and magic system. Its filled with lots of intrigue and there is of course a romance subplot in here. The romance in this one was honestly one of the least interesting things about the narrative and I found myself more interested in all the rest of it. It is not a badly written romance but it does feel very by the numbers.
I am coming to the realization that while a lot of these YA fantasy novels have romance sub-plots in them, very few YA fantasy authors actually do romance well and I usually find myself uninterested in the romance plots as they feel superficial to the rest of the narrative.
Back to the book at hand, I don’t know if I’ll read the second book in the duology but I am glad I read this one at least. cari is now 4/4 for recommendations!