"Netflix" for Books, huh?

This post was reblogged from Ani's Book Abyss.  (That's me! )
Originally posted at:  http://anitactruong.booklikes.com/post/932919/netflix-for-books-huh





I've been seeing a lot of these ads around in the past year.

Oyster -- $9.95 monthly for unlimited access to over 500,000 titles.
Scribd -- $8.99 monthly for unlimited access to over 400,000 titles.




And now Amazon (whose goal is world domination, I assume), is launching Kindle Unlimited with a $9.99 monthly subscription fee.  They're boasting unlimited access to over 600,000 titles as well as thousands of audio books!  (Source: The Verge)

Always needing to one up each other, aren't they, these kids?

Go here to check out their subscription trial as well as seek more information from Amazon.  There's even a nifty little video to go with it!

Now, I'm not a part of the "Amazon is the evil anti-Christ" group out there--I'm a happy consumer who is always grateful to spend less money on certain purchases.  Money is definitely limited, you see.  And I've bought my fair share of Kindle books which is really the only thing I use Amazon for aside from the occasional purchase of some cheap material goods I can't get cheaper in a local retail store.

However, I am also slightly frustrated that it's so hard to find a good bookstore around town anymore because the Big Dogs are edging out the Independents (yes, You've Got Mail was one of my favorite rom-coms).  And now Amazon's flexible pricing and convenient shopping is starting to edge out actual, physical book stores on their quest to take over the world.

But you still have to admit: they're pretty good at knowing how to win the hearts of consumers of all ages.  Pricing has a lot to do with it and ease of access as well as those "one-click" purchases allowing one to shop in the comfort of their own home...  I'm a hermit and a 3rd shift worker, so it's kind of nice not to have to wait around for store hours to do my browsing and shopping--my sleep schedule isn't exactly the kindest one.


But let's backtrack to the whole book subscription thing.

These sites might have been around longer than the past year I've been noticing them, but I'm not the most observant person around (for one); and also, I've never really thought to pay for a book subscription of "unlimited access to over x00,000 titles" for a specific monthly fee.  I mean, my city has 8 different branches in our public library system and a continuously growing e-book selection.  I've also discovered recently our statewide online libraries, though their selections are much skimpier than expected.  All of this is for free and the only thing you have to really do is wait in line.  Not all books are readily available and not all books you'd like to read are available through the local library--it's not a complaint, it's just a fact of life.

Even book stores won't always have what you want to read and the difference is that you don't have to spend any money at a library unless you forgot to turn something in on time.



Nonetheless, the library is still the first place I think about whenever I want to read a book, but I don't know if I should pay to own it.  Also, there's always this cozy, at-home feeling whenever I walk into a library (despite the kiddie crowds during the summer time reading programs) and it gives me a reason to be somewhere else aside from hiding in my house all day long.  And they DO have a fairly wide selection.  Aside from a rough percentage of titles, the library has always been quite satisfactory in appeasing my bookworm needs.

Waiting in a hold line to check out a book has never been a problem for me mainly because I have a long list on my TBR shelf anyway.  Just pick up a different book and wait for a desired title to become available.

And if they don't happen to have a title, I go to a used book store to see if I can't find the book for a cheap price, read it and then decide if I want to resell it or donate it to the library so that they DO have the title for future book nerds like myself or just keep it for my future private library.

So book subscription sites have always been noticeable, but continue to fly under the radar for me.  I'm in a "Currently Considering" mode, and this mode can last a couple years before I decide what I want to do.




Of course, now with these free 30 day trials being offered, I might think about giving these book subscriptions a shot.

I did my math--sort of.  Contrary to popular belief, Asians are not all good at math, so bear with me here as I round off numbers and make wide guesstimates.

If I were to subscribe to one of these book services, it looks like we'd be averaging about $9 a month depending on which one I wanted to subscribe to (see beginning of this post for pricing).  I read a calculated average of 14.33 books a month (yes, I've been keeping track this year; yes, I AM that OCD), and if I went by the cheapest title sold through Amazon at roughly $1.99 a book, I'd be spending around $27 a month on books if I only ever bought the books that I read.  Assuming that I continuously choose to read my books through one of these book subscriptions for a good part of the month, the deal isn't all too bad.  $9.99 versus $27 dollars monthly is no contest.

Don't even get me started on paperback books, because even the used ones in this city go for around $3 to $4, plus tax and that's assuming you find what you want.  New books are an average of $7.99 if you're lucky and it's not a new release.

Keep in mind, though--I don't buy all the books that I read.  More on this later.

I allot myself $25 a month to spend on books anyway (if I didn't budget myself, I'd go too crazy, as I discovered before I started keeping track of my book spending habits), totaling $300 a year with give or take for over or under spending.  (Last year I spent nearing $500 on books until I decided to put a leash on myself and track my spending more strictly.  This year I've spent about $150 so far, and most of that spending happened in June when I allowed for splurge to celebrate my birthday.)  I'm still a realist about my book spending habits, and so while I'm paying more attention to how much money I put into purchasing books, I know that spending a lot of money on books is inevitable.

Anyway, back to the rough math:  If I subscribed to, say, Kindle Unlimited for the $9.99 monthly, that's about $119.88 for the full year, minus the free 30 day trial (we'll also give or take for any time I decide to cancel my subscription and save a few payments during the year.

Still... it's not a bad deal.

Of course, then we have to factor in the fact that, if I liked the book enough, I might go out and buy it for full price.  And that's a guess as to how many books I'll love enough to want to own them permanently.  Will that end up being more or less added onto my book spending?

The main factor that gives me pause, however, is this:  How often will I actually be using these "unlimited access to x00,000 titles" services?


Ever since I spotted the first ad for Oyster, I'd been wondering whether or not these types of services were really worth it.

I have a Netflix account (one that I've barely been using lately, but my parents use it, so whatevs).  Netflix (the streaming part of it) gives you unlimited access to a wide selection of television series, movies, documentaries, concerts... etc.  My current fee is $7.99 a month, though I know that new users are now being charged $9.99 a month and that I get to continue enjoying my $7.99 a month for the next two years until Netflix decides that I need to start giving them more money.

I chose to subscribe to Netflix because RedBox requires getting out of my house and driving to the nearest retail store and standing in front of a box outside of said store while choosing a movie.  And to be totally honest, I'm not enough of a movie buff to spend my time browsing movie titles for my evening entertainment.

So Netflix was the way to go.  Of course, their selection of movie titles and television series is quite limited.  And their navigation sucks too.

And yet... I still have the account... just in case I ever want to watch anything.  Like paying for cable and just letting it sit there until I'm bored enough to watch something random, or interested enough to go searching for something to watch.

I'm contradictory in my consuming habits.  I know that.  I'm willing to drive all around town to find a book I want to read, or collect all four books to a series I'm interested in from three different libraries, or run across town to the chain used book store we have to find books not available at the library... but I'm sitting here contemplating whether or not it would be worth the money to spend a monthly fee on unlimited access to any book I might find interesting.

And that's the thing.  At least half of the titles I read each month are borrowed from the library rather than bought.  So would I technically be spending more money or less money since half the books I read don't cost me anything aside from the time it takes me to run to the library and the gas it requires to get me there?

This is where my conflict lies.  I could spend the $9.99 a month to be able to read any book at anytime for as long as I want.  But I could also not spend any money and still have access to that book, so long as I have a little bit of patience to wait my turn.

How desperate am I to "have that book and read it right now"?

My logic only really makes sense to me, to be honest.



You would think that I would be one of the first people to jump on these platforms and use it for all its worth.  And I don't know what's holding me back.  I have a Scribd account already, but not a paid subscription, so only certain books and documents are made available to me.  I have browsed through the selections on both Oyster and Scribd, and I did a cursory skim-through of Kindle Unlimited this evening, and decided that their selections are fairly varied and plenty.  (Well, except for Kindle Unlimited.  Their selections are kind of skimpy and I'm not sure I've found enough books I want to read to merit a "I must get this subscription now!" reaction.)

So, yes.  Still in contemplation mode.

Maybe it's just that change is something hard to jump-start on.  It took me a long time to even contemplate picking up an e-reader since I've always been in the "real books 4 teh win" type of reader.  Now I'm crazy about the ease of access and convenience that having an e-book library provides, despite still loving the feel of having a paper bound book in my hand.

And the more I talk about these book subscription services, the more I'm contemplating giving them a try.  It probably wouldn't hurt to take advantage of that 30 day free trial.
If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  Also, I only really did a cursory search through of these book subscriptions platforms, so it's not like I know much about them aside from what's being advertised.  If there's something I missed, by all means, let me know.  It'll at least help me make my decision.

Reading Challenges of 2014 -- Progress Report

I got too lazy to continue posting progress reports each month.  It happens.  So now that I'm in the mood for it, I'll post a somewhat update of my reading progress so far this year.  And yes, I'm very OCD about lists and keeping track of what books I've been reading.  It's a madness, really...





Anyway, as far as progress goes:


Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge -- My List
BookLikes 2014 Reading Challenge -- My List
Goal: 100 books
Progress:  96/100
See full list on my book shelf under 2014 Reading Challenge.

It's only a little over halfway through 2014 and I'm closing in on my general Reading Challenge goal.  Of course, I need to account for the number of manga and short novella's I've always included into the list, but that can be easily remedied by reading more books, of course!

I'm sure I'll have to bump my goal up after I officially reach 100 books, considering I haven't counted all of my books into other Reading Challenges (see below), which will require my general challenge to be bumped up to at least ~115 to 120 books.

I might still be reeling about that number because it seems so high, but I DO still have six months (including this month) left to read another 20 to 30 books if applicable.

We'll see how things end up.  I've no doubt I'll be at 100 books before July is over.  After all, I have seven library books lined up to be finished and returned by the time August rolls around.


***

 

100 Books in a Year hosted by Book Chick City
Progress:  81/100
See full list on my book shelf under 2014 100 Books in a Year Challenge.



2014 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen

Getting my heart rate up -- Read 1 - 5 more books -- This one
Out of breath -- Read 6 - 10 more books
Breaking a sweat -- Read 11 - 15 more books
I'm on fire! -- Read 16+ more books 

Goal:  Read 1 to 5 more books
(Last year's total: 101  -- Means I need to read 102 to 106 books)
Progress:  81/102
See full list on my book shelf under 2014 Outdo Yourself Challenge.


The above two challenges (100 Books in a Year and Outdo Yourself Challenge) are an extension of my general Reading Challenge.  Due to the fact that I haven't counted all of the books I've read into these two challenges, my goal is actually a lot higher than 100.  See above explanations.

Anyway, crossing my fingers that I don't suddenly lose my steam and stop reading steadily.  My pattern seems to be the same:  Few books read at the beginning of the year, more and more books read towards the middle of the year, number of books tapers off to an average of 1 to 5 books per month by the time the time October rolls around.

I wonder if I'll hold strong or if the same patter will come about.

***

 
2014 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader
Goal:  See Ani's 2014 TBR Pile Challenge -- includes full list of books in this challenge
Progress:  5/12
See also: 2014 TBR Pile Challenge (RBR) on my book shelf


I have made no progress on this particular reading list since May, I believe.  It makes me wonder if I should have chosen books I'd have had a better chance of wanting to read, though the whole point is to read the books you haven't been motivated to read that you've been wanting to read... right?  Unfortunately, there are at least 2 books on this list right now that I have no desire to actually read... which means that I'll have to use my alternatives.  And even THAT thought is kind of iffy.

This challenge may end up being incomplete this year.  And next year I'll really have to choose my books wisely.

***

 
2014 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by The Bookish Team

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - First Kiss
31-40 - Sweet Summer Fling
41-50 - Could this be love?
50+ - Married With Children

Goal:  Sweet Summer Fling (31 to 40 books) --  COMPLETED May 5, 2014
Next Goal:  Married With Children (50+ books) -- COMPLETED June 2, 2014
Progress:  75/50
See full list on my bookshelf under 2014 TBR Pile Challenge (Bookish).



This challenge is complete.  The goals looked overwhelming at first, but really, since my general goal was 100 books anyway, it's not like I wouldn't have been able to finish it.  So there you are!


***

 
2014 Series Challenge hosted by Read. Sleep. Repeat.

Ani's 2014 Series Challenge post -- includes full list of books read for this challenge.

Bronze Badge:  1 - 3 Series
Silver Badge:  4 - 6 Series
Gold Badge:  7 - 11 Series
Platinum Badge:  12 or more Series

(1/14/2014)
Goal:  Gold Badge (7 to 11 series) -- CHALLENGE COMPLETED --
6/3/2014 -- 11th series finished --> Black CATs by Leslie A. Kelly

(6/3/2014)
Updated Goal: Platinum Badge (12 or more Series) -- CHALLENGE COMPLETED -- 6/6/2014 -- 12th series finished --> Mindhunters by Kylie Brant

(6/14/2014)
Latest update:  12 or more COMPLETED series -- CHALLENGE COMPLETED -- 6/14/2014 -- 12th COMPLETED series finished --> Gamble Brothers by J. Lynn

(7/17/2014)
Latest update: Previously stated personal goal officially completed.
New Goal:  Read 12 or more completed series (first book to last)

Progress:  18 series completed/caught up with for 2014.
See 2014 Series Challenge on my bookshelf for a list of books completed for this challenge.


I just recently updated a progress report for this challenge.  See this post for details.

***


2014 1st In A Series Challenge hosted by Darlene's Book Nook

Ani's 2014 1st In A Series post -- includes full list of books read for this challenge.

There are four levels for the challenge:

a. Series Novice: Read 5 books that are first in a series.

b. Series Lover: Read 10 books that are first in a series.

c. Series Expert: Read 20 books that are first in a series.

d. Series Fanatic: Read 30 books that are first in a series.

My Goal: Series Fanatic -- 30 1sts -- CHALLENGE COMPLETED -- 7/17/2014

Completed:  30/30

See Also: 2014 1st in a Series Challenge shelf

***


2014 Romantic Suspense Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen
The Goal is to read 10 Romantic Suspense Novels.
Completed:  34/10

See also: 2014 Romantic Suspense Challenge Shelf

Ani's 2014 Romantic Suspense Challenge post -- includes list of books read for this challenge.

CHALLENGE COMPLETED!  As of May 9, 2014, I've finished reading 10 Romantic Suspense novels!

6/3/2014 -- Completed 20 Romantic Suspense novels.  See shelf for list of titles.

6/29/2014 -- Completed 30 Romantic Suspense novels. See shelf for list of titles.

***

I Love Library Books 2014 Reading Challenge hosted by Book Dragon's Lair

Ani's I Love Library Books 2014 Challenge post -- includes full list of books read for this challenge.

Levels:

• board book - 3
• picture book - 6
• early reader - 9
• chapter book - 12
• middle grades - 18
• Young adult - 24
• adult - 36
• just insert IV - 50

My Goal:  just insert IV - 50
Completed: 42/50
See Also: 2014 Library Books Challenge shelf

***


So there we have a cumulative update of all the challenges I'm participating in this year.  Four challenges are officially completed (Series Challenge, 1st in a Series Challenge, Romantic Suspense Challenge, and Bookish's TBR Pile Challenge).

I only need to read 8 more library books to finish the I Love Library Books Challenge, which won't be hard--I've currently got 5 books checked out from the library to be read.  It'll only be a matter of checking out 3 more and there are so many I want to check out right now it's not even funny.  After all, I'm still in the middle of one pile before I can start a new pile.  /sigh

Man... there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the world...

Review to Come: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There were so many different emotions going through me reading this book and it's hard to pinpoint what emotions happened when. Amazingly, for a while I thought I was unable to "feel" the right feelings at the right moments; this book is based in a very depressing, tragic time in history, and as well written as it was, there were a lot of moments where I felt detached from the book and its characters, but at the same time knowing the extent of the grief, tension, and darkness presented. And then there were moments where I DID feel the sadness.

It's hard to put into words at all how I personally felt about The Book Thief, so I'm going to try my best to go back through my notes and put my thoughts together. In the end, it might just be that I'll have some very simple opinions formulated.

On the aside, when my BFF finishes this book, we still need to have our Mini Book Club discussion. So I'll include some points from that discussion into my review as well.

Simply put, I really just really enjoyed reading The Book Thief. It was quite the pleasure.

Review to come. Soon, hopefully.



View all my reviews via Goodreads

Books, reviews and me...

This is a simple post.  I've created a new blog over at Booklikes to keep track of my book reviews and such.  And, to be honest, while I'm OCD about certain types of structure, I think I'm also too lazy to do too much work.  It used to be, I would try to keep tabs on book reviews I write at Goodreads automatically posting on this blog.  Now, I've got too many social networks and blog pages to keep tabs on and I'm (as repeated) a very lazy person.

So all my book reviews will now be posted at Book Abyss, my BookLikes page.  The link is also on my sidebar beneath the rest of my list of personal web pages.  I've also linked up my bookshelf from BookLikes under the Books page at the top of this blog.

I'm still going to try to update the Books page at the top of this blog, but all reviews listed from now on will link to the BookLikes pages rather than my own here at Blogger.

If a book review DOES find a way to sneak onto this blog somehow, I'm not going to fix it (cause that's how I am).  Otherwise, I'm just probably going to post a few updates every month about the books I've been reading and then redirect everyone with linkies to the proper page of each book review or progress report.

That is all.

Amateur Mini Book Club, Day One

Day One

Location -- Noisy Coffee Shop where I prove that I CAN be much noisier than the noise.

- Goodreads

- BookLikes

- Amazon

This is pretty much how it went down in a not so very brief-tastic summary with probable exaggerations and some paraphrased conversations because my memory sucks at exact details and maybe I should have been recording everything, but I didn't.  Anyway, long day aside, this is my best friend and my first attempt at committing to something like a book club.  But we tend to be more or less easy-going about books, so we agreed on simply discussing how we feel about the book thus far with no "high school style" deep analysis.

The session was overall pretty laid back, and as my best friend likes to remain anonymous within the online world (she doesn't even have a social networking account of any kind outside of her GR account that she rarely frequents), I shall refer to her as BFF.

Me: 

Shows up 15 minutes late and immediately starts talking about how life sucks and our table is in the middle of too much crowd.  Wonders what kind of fattening fancy coffee shop drink to get.

BFF:

"Yeah, it's really crowded tonight."  Proceeds to talk about book and how she had wanted to read more than our agreed upon ten chapters because she was enjoying it.  "I read all ten chapters in one whole sitting... then I sort of started on the next chapter a little bit..."

Me:

"Oh right.  The book."  Plops down onto the chair.  "Um... I'm enjoying it too.  But honestly, I liked Puck's portion of the narration more than the other guy."  Because Puck sounds wittier and livelier and I like wit and sarcasm and liveliness.  And I also like the relationship between Puck and her brothers.

Gives very brief "I can relate" segway with a roll of the eyes and wave of the hand about Puck's relationship with her brothers.  Continues to wonder what type of fancy drink to indulge in.

BFF: 

"I thought of that too!"  Proceeds to flip through book to end of Chapter 3 after Puck's elder brother, Gabe, announced that he's leaving the island... for good.  Puck feels abandoned, little brother Finn is semi-trying to keep the peace.  Puck tries to act nonchalant and brave.  

"I especially made the connection at this part," points to book, "here when Puck goes to her room and says something like, 'Jackass', or whatever.  I thought it sounded like you and your brother."

(Random tangent)

Well, the actual line is, "Selfish bastard," right before Puck sobs into her pillow after putting on a strong front and proclaiming that she's going to participate in the races that could get people killed because they'll need the money if she can win it.  But nonetheless, the sentiments and the feelings are there.  And yes, while I don't relate with Puck too much (she's pluckier and has more determination than I do), I can relate with her situation somewhat.  The difference is that her parents are gone and mine are still here, but between the "selfish bastard" big brother and the strange little brother with disjointed behavior and unpredictable color commentary, I think that's pretty similar in some ways.

(Random tangent end)

Me: 

Talks about the difference between Sean and Puck and why Puck is more easily related to than Sean.  Sean is too dark and broody -- dark and broody doesn't always work for main male characters.  

BFF:

Talks about some lines in certain chapters she has highlighted and why.

Me:

At some point during the discussion that I can't quite remember, points at a nearby taller table that just got vacated.  With a happy grin: "Window table."

And so the two of us scramble to the new table with our crap in tow as I finally decide that I need to get me one of those fancy coffee shop drinks before we get serious.  Moments later, when I return to the table, we start chatting about the book again, but there is a very distinct agreement between the two of us about certain things:

1)  The book is enjoyable and Puck is a nice, fun girl to follow.

2)  Sean is too broody and we both found his parts of the story too somber and too monotone so far.  We understand that he's broody for a reason (he'd recently lost his father to a water horse "accident" and watched his father die and he's stuck in this endless cycle of the Scorpio Races where everyone wants his opinion), but we believe that broodiness is just his way of being male and dramatic at the same time.  If he were a woman, people would be telling him to build a bridge.  

Also, we determined that Sean seems to have this complex where he seems to see himself on a different level than everyone else around him, in an arrogant, "I know more than you about these water horses" type of way which we think makes him feel superior to everyone else.

And the idea that Sean is drawn to the water the same way that the water horses are drawn to the sea... a little disturbing.

(Random personal tangent): When I first read the description of this book, I had pictured Sean as some gangly, young kid with a big-person ego too big for him to handle.  I was thinking of him as some stubborn child wanting to prove a point by racing in the Scorpio Races against professionals.  And now after reading the book, I realize that my pre-impression of him was quite wrong since he is obviously the Water Horse Yoda on the island.  Go figure.  (Random personal tangent end)

3)  BFF and I are both interested in seeing the first interaction between Sean and Puck with their differing personalities.  Puck lost her parents to water horses during one of the annual races as well in a "tragic accident", but she maintains a rather light view of life as seen here:

Setting them out on the table, three lonely plates where once there would've been five, depresses me, so I busy myself making some mint tea to go with them.  As I arrange and rearrange the teacups by our plates, it occurs to me, too late, that mint tea and apple cake might not go together.

The way in which Puck's mind operates is hard to grasp since these tiny little details also tells so much about how she feels, bringing a possible somber, melancholic moment into a more thoughtful, puzzling moment.  This is also setting aside the fact that the siblings are having apple cake for dinner.

4)  Water horses are super creepy.

5)  Maggie Stiefvater is awesome!

Okay, maybe that last one was all me, but there is no amount of words I can use to describe why I love Maggie's writing.

Moving along, we make other comments about the book.

My BFF seems to like big romantic ideals and gestures, so she points out that she highlighted the moment when Puck first sees Sean as he rides past on his red stallion... and then is known to her as "the rider on the red stallion" (BFF:  "That just sounded so hot!") until she learns his real name not long afterwards.  We both take note that Puck is attracted to Sean first (since he is obviously good looking as a main YA male character) and because he's "kinda hot" as the "rider on the red stallion". In hindsight, I agree that it was quite the description and rather grand; I take note and file the idea away for further blogging.

Surprisingly, despite my being a hopeless romantic, that moment that BFF mentions was completely overlooked by yours truly.  I seemed to have veered more towards the sibling relationship and enjoyed more moments between Puck and Finn:

- Puck and Finn racing in the first chapter.

- Puck and Finn having stilted conversation after Finn is shaken by the encounter with the water horse.

- Finn making hot chocolate in the morning for himself and Puck, but managing to botch it somehow and leaving the smell of burnt something on the stove as this exchange happens:

"You made this?"

Finn looks at me.  "No, Saint Anthony brought it to me in the night.  He was very put out I didn't give it to you right then."

[...]

I am shocked, both by the reappearance of Finn's humor and the gift of the hot chocolate.  I see now that the counter is an absolute mess of pots that Finn used to distill a single cup of cocoa, and I'm certain now that the odor hanging on the air is the smell of milk spilt on the hot burner, but it doesn't matter in the face of his intention.  It sort of makes my lower lip not quite sure of itself [...]

And basically the entirety of the whole hot chocolate scene makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, because despite the sarcastic bantering and jibes, you can tell that these are siblings who care about each other a lot.  And it reminds me of my own relationship with my younger brothers.  I'm curious about Puck's relationship with Gabe, pre-"Gabe-is-a-selfish-bastard-who-is-abandoning-us", because I want to see what it was like.

And then we go into another 45 minute segway, detouring back to the sibling relationship as relates to Puck, Gabe and Finn... until we segway completely into the relationship between myself and my brothers.  And then we talk about work and life in general and about how my mother is super human; and some guy nearby shoots me frustrated looks as he puts on his head set because I am getting too loud.  And then I need another scone.  But none of that is really too important, though I have a feeling we'll keep coming back to the sibling relations as relates to myself and my brothers...

By the end of the little mini book club meeting between me and my best friend, we've decided that maybe 10 chapters was a little short and we were unable to grasp completely what's going on in the book as of yet, but that we are extra excited to continue.  Although I have a feeling that the excitement is really reserved for the fact that we are book-clubbing more so than for reading the book itself, despite how enjoyable I find it so far (because while enjoyable, it hasn't quite hooked me yet).

Due to my extremely good fortune, I have a mini-weekend and so we've agreed to try to finish another ten chapters by the next day and meet up again for more discussion.  Maybe this time I'll try harder to record our conversation so that it may be transcribed into blog form a bit better than what I managed this time around.

Although, to be fair, I DID show up late and hadn't had a chance to set up my laptop for note-taking on this session.  And then I just got lazy.

Finally, BFF will be reading this blog and will be allowed to demand editing of said transcript if she so desires.  I'm sure she'll appreciate the liberties I took to spruce up our conversation a little bit with my own perceived version of our amateurish mini book club discussion.  In all honesty, we're not very exciting people, but I try to make it sound like we are if I can.

I wish we could include other, more experienced book-bloggers, but we are also a bit concerned about sounding stupid in front of other people rather than sounding stupid between ourselves.

Until next time... which won't be long.

This post originally posted at Book Abyss @ BookLikes.com

Continuing: The Diviners

by Libba Bray


Picking up where I left off about a month ago.  So this is sort of a first impression opinion post.

Anyway...

When I first read Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series, this phenomenon seemed to happen: I just could NOT get into the story at all.  A Great and Terrible Beauty had some beautiful writing and great attention to detail.  I don't know what it was, but I had started reading the book and put it on hold a total of three times before I finally hunkered down and got past that strange barrier.  And after that, I enjoyed the book alright -- it wasn't the best of reads, but it was enough to keep me hooked in and interested.

And now, with The Diviners, the same exact thing has happened.

Here is a brief rundown of my thoughts written by the chapter up to how far I'd gotten before I put it on hold due to one series marathon, new book releases, and other interests...


First Chapter: A Late-Summer Evening
I'm sure I skimmed over half of this chapter without really knowing what the significance of describing an entire city in intricate detail merits if we won't even be seeing it again.  As far as the summary depicts, our heroine is leaving the town anyway.  The scenes taking place with the Ouija board and then the very last paragraph of the entire chapter were the only parts I cared enough about to pay attention to... so, whatevs.

I've read this first chapter three times (due to that mental block that keeps drawing me away from this book), and it still doesn't get any better.  If anything, I'm starting to wonder if this is my blatant disinterest in historical fiction, or if Libba Bray's introductory style just turns me off since I had the same problem with A Great and Terrible Beauty.  While I love her writing style, her pacing just hits me as being kind of slow.


Second Chapter: Evie O'Neill, Zenith, Ohio
No big comments.

Not sure how I like Evie right now -- spoiled, snobbish, selfish, destructive trouble-maker...  Things I absolutely hate in main characters.  Then again, she's different and outlandish, so this might be fun and unconventional from typical YA females.  I certainly ended up liking Gemma Doyla in a neutral I-don't-outright-hate-you way by the time I finished the last book in that trilogy.  Not saying that I loved her or that I'll love Evie, but we'll see where this goes.

Dialogue and narration might be a bit tacky, but I'm not familiar enough with 1920s lingo to know whether or not this fits the time period.  As I've mentioned, my interest in historical fiction is a little on the meh side.  However, I might start up a counter for how many times someone says "pos-i-tute-ly" or ends their exclamations with a "-ski".  I feel like a teenager trying not to roll my eyes at the thought of lame parents trying to sound cool...


Third Chapter: Memphis Campbell, Harlem, New York City
Not much to go on.  Moving along now.


Fourth Chapter: The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies
I totally want to see a Museum of Creepy Crawlies (says the nerd in me).  Cause THAT is an interesting chapter title too.

Anyway... about the book itself:

"If God is an all-knowing, all-powerful deity, how can he allow evil to exist?  Either he is not the omnipotent god we've been told, or he is all-powerful and all-knowing, and also cruel, because he allows evil to exist and does nothing to stop it." 

"Well, that certainly explains Prohibition..." 

-- page 37, Nook edition

Yeah.  I can't believe it actually started getting a little exciting.  I should have seen it coming.  I wish I would have caught up with the museum and Uncle Will before I had decided to start a new book (nay, a completely new SERIES of four books I borrowed from the library that lasted me four weeks since THAT excursion flopped as well...)

Evie, Evie, Evie... maybe it's the nerd in me speaking.  While I like your penchant for sarcasm and wit... how could you NOT find interest in the free guided tour of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult?  I could spend hours in a place like that and never get bored.  And Jericho, the young history nerd buff?  I'm interested already!  :D


Setting that aside...We're jumping into the thick of the story now: The Diviners is finally coming to light.  I'm almost wondering if she couldn't have shortened the first three chapters into one prologue to show us the "troublesome Evie" stuff and introduce Memphis, then send her off to New York.  And then, Chapter Two, BANG! we get into the religious controversy speeches with a dash of Diviners talk laced into it.

Then again, I guess even if I didn't know how to appreciate the build-up from the first three chapters, others might find it good.

Looks like this is the chapter that finally did it for me and I choose not to drop the book for this reason.

***

Gemma Doyle hooked me with character development and writing style and story creation.  Hopefully The Diviners does the same.  As a first impression, I see a very solid 3 star rating in this book's future.  If reading a book feels like such a chore to me, it's hard to give it more than an average rating even if I end up enjoying it in the end.  Unless there's some surprisingly pleasant twist or whatever that truly catches me in awe.

So we'll leave it at that for now.

Review to Come: Cinder

by Marissa Meyer


- Goodreads -
- BookLikes -
- Amazon -


3.5 Stars out of 5 (leaning more towards 4)


Well... maybe a review to come.

I find that despite the fact that I feel like I really liked this book (I certainly read through the entire thing like I had a physical need to find out what happens next), I can't think of anything to say about it.

I take back what I said about the blocky Asian dialogue -- I had only read the first chapter and was a little concerned with the world building being based on a futuristic Asia (known in the book as the Eastern Commonwealth).  But everything turned out pleasantly awesome... in a way.

I'm going to take some time to think about this book before I finally decide whether or not I want actually write a review about it.  For the meantime, I really DID enjoy it a lot, though I can't exactly pinpoint what I liked about it and what didn't work for me.  The book just kind of... happened and I was satisfied with it as a whole.

I will say, there were some awesome feels going on during some points of the story.

For certain, I AM going to read the next book and have put the rest of the series on my To Read list.  I'm just going to pace myself since the third book won't be out until February and it seems there are talks of the ending of the second book being a suspenseful hanger.  Not fond of those...

And lately I've been contemplating just waiting for the entire series of certain books to be completed before starting them.  Cliff hangers are just going to be the death of me one of these days.  Especially if I've grown attached to the series and its characters.



Reblogged from BookLikes

Review: Never Fade

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



3.5 Stars

It had taken me a couple months to formulate more than one paragraph as an official review for the first book, The Darkest Minds, so I don't doubt that it'll take a while for me to write, re-write, and re-assess my thoughts on Never Fade.

For now, it's a pretty simple, straight-forward gush, mainly for the characters of this book that kept me going and will continue to keep me going onto the next book. I pretty much enjoyed the same things about this installment that I did from the first. Ruby is a nice development in progress, and I love her more than I did before. There are new characters introduced whom you ALSO come to love, and then there are the old characters you still love.

The conspiracy of this dystopian is revealed more and more, but it doesn't seem like anything we weren't expecting. This is definitely a character-driven story, which doesn't really bother me in the least.

Anyway, review to come, hopefully soon.



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Review: Froi of the Exiles

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I wasn't going to write a review for these Lumatere books (though I DID think about writing a review for the series overall), but the book took me so long to read that I actually started formulating thoughts... of the non-positive persuasion. And that's usually not so great.

Did I say in an earlier post that I loved the characters from Finnikin of the Rock? Honestly, I don't know where that came from, but the more I read Froi of the Exiles the more I believed that I must have been bewitched or something. I think I'm more neutral on these characters than in love or in hate with them.

In fact, I don't really have too many complaints about Froi of the Exiles or Finnikin of the Rock save for the characters. The book was adventurous and fun; and I love adventures!

I liked the way the book was written and I liked the whole big curse theme with it's supernatural/mystical/magical elements and I liked the background of the world created for Lumatere. And some of the dialogue isn't so bad either, witty and thoughtful.

But the characters make life so miserable (and yes, I DO understand that life is miserable for everyone in the story with power struggles and wars and fighting and killing and death and curses, but still...) because I get the feeling that everyone is going out of their ways to prove just how much suffering they all went through and who suffered more than so-and-so... It's a world of people trying to one-up each other on their stories of misery.

I know that there was more going on than what I mentioned above, but this is what I ended up focusing on.

The only bright spots of happy in the entire series so far... well, there's Lady Beatriss's daughter Vestie. And then there are Trippideaux (how to pronounce name...) and Grijio, De Lancey's children, who are actually kind of fun for their brief presence.

So, in the kingdom of Lumatere, instead of everyone playing nice and trying to work together to bring their kingdom back into a flourishing world... everyone's just being all prickly and mean and angry at each other. I mean, I also take note of those behind-the-scenes moments that mention how people are working together to rebuild their kingdom... but then we emphasize on all the more hideous attitudes and behaviors from a group of people who feel like they've been wronged the most by this entire power struggle of the kingdoms.

And then in Charyn... well, THAT kingdom is kind of... arrogant and angry in its own way? I don't know how to describe it. I mean, do people really have nothing better to do than to condemn a young princess who has no control over her own life, has been targeted for death since she was a child, and just so happened to be the baby born when the big curse came into effect throughout the kingdom? I mean, she was JUST a baby when the curse happened and it's NOT like she was the one who cast said curse. And when she seems to be the only person with an answer to the resolution of the curse, everyone continues to treat her like an insane person as they ridicule her and verbally demean her routinely?

I don't see anyone else trying to figure out how to break the curse.

It's kind of sad. Everyone's so pissed off. Can't we all just get along? Am I too naive, maybe?


And so, entertaining as this book/adventure was, it's pretty telling when I begin to put off reading the book at times. But then when I DO pick it up and start reading it, I seem to fall right into the darn thing.

So... yeah... I'm not even sure what to think about this book (or the first one, cause the same sort of ish happened while I was reading Finnikin). I DID like this one a little bit better than Finnikin... if only by a slight margin.

And yes, I'm already beginning Quintana of Charyn... it's just my stubborn way of saying: "I looked forward to this series, and gosh darn, I'm going to finish it!"

And darn it, looks like this post turned into an actual review after all...



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This is my 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign.

DON'T POKE THE BEAST!

Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Edited 10/03/2014 with official review




10/03/2013

I’m going to try to relate this review more with the actual book than my emotionally stimulated feelings of “OMG, this book is so freakin’ awesome, so let me tell you how awesome I think it is!” type of gushing. I’m sure I did enough of that in The Raven Boys to scare off hordes of the more emotionally stable population out there.

Anyway…

Aside from a typical introductory segue to make my posts look a little more structured and lengthy, honestly, I suck at structure. I’m not sure how I managed to make it through high school and college with my inability to format my essays properly, but I did and I must say, I’m not sure I ever really learned anything from any of my English classes about proper structure for a piece of written work.

So here I am with more random segways (yes, the above), and random thoughts on The Dream Thieves. Because, well, who cares about structure anyway?

Let’s start with the beginning though.

Before I started reading The Dream Thieves, I was worried about being overwhelmed. Sometimes, when I love a book so much that it hurts, and when I am in such high anticipation of the next book in a series that I can’t sleep, it’s a dangerous situation. Because as the time approached for the release date of The Dream Thieves, I began to have little panicky moments of the usual: “What if this book isn’t as good as the first one?” “What if this book is so good, but I don’t catch onto how good it is and I can’t do it any justice when I’m reading it?” “What if Book One had been the exception?” “What if I have too high expectations?” “What if I just don’t know what to do anymore?” “What if my dog eats my book review?”

“What if, what if, what if….?!!”

I’m ALWAYS like this with sequels to books that I personally loved and found fabulous (also for movies and Asian drama series as well; sequels can give me a heart attack easily with just BEING there). I’m always worried that the sequel or the second book won’t hold up to the first and that I’ll be disappointed.

So, I’m ecstatically delighted to announce (as many probably already have guessed) that this was definitely, absolutely NOT the case with The Dream Thieves. As I already mentioned: so many “AWESOME!”s to put out there.

I first realized one of the main reasons why I’d been loving The Raven Cycle series so much after about three chapters into this book. From the review of the first book, I had already mentioned how much I loved the characters, their interaction and their development. In this book, having paid more attention during my reading, I found another reason to love Maggie Stiefvater: her writing style is just so consistently witty and amazing. Let’s see, what did I call it in a note to myself?

Her writing borders on fantastical fairy tale meets whimsical, magical and mystical, with a side dish of natural sarcasm and dry humor to boot. And honestly, this is a type of dry humor I can appreciate because it’s not even in a laugh out loud, “you’ve gotta laugh at this particular scene” type of comedy. They are the little descriptors and analogies, one-liners and strange quips… They are strewn all over the place, every few sentences as a thought or an action or just as part of the ending of a paragraph. It’s like “serious, serious, snicker, emotional, serious, strange, serious” and then suddenly, all too smoothly and naturally, “insert O.o quip here” and it always makes me giggle or chuckle or backtrack just to reread it only to be impressed by how genius it was. And then we keep moving along the story like I hadn’t just been laughing at something snarky. They are very fine, little details that just fit into the writing effortlessly.

And I’m a sucker for attention to detail, that’s for sure. It’s one of those things where, if you aren’t really looking and you couldn’t really appreciate it; and if you’re looking at other parts of the story, you probably wouldn’t notice it at all and it won’t tickle you in the right ways.


The Dream Thieves is centered on Ronan Lynch -- a boy with a secret that we learn early on. He’s able to pull things from his dreams, tangible objects that just appear to him when he dreams about them. But aside from this little magic trick, there are even deeper, darker secrets about Ronan Lynch that he hides behind his anger and dark sarcasm.

I didn’t dislike any of the characters from the first book. Ronan had been a destructive bastard, a rich boy with a tendency to cause trouble and become antagonizing to everyone around him. But there had always been something about him that still drew me to like him for who he is -- dark, scathing humor and asshole personality all included. When I learned that the second book would be Ronan-centric, I was a little conflicted, because I’m sitting squarely in front of a Gansey pedestal. However, as I began to read The Dream Thieves, I realized that, despite being Ronan-centric, the telling of the book manages to capture so much more than just the base storyline.

Written in the third-person omniscient, we still get to see through the perspectives of each of the characters we fell in love with from the first book. In this, I believe is wherein lies a big success of this series. Because despite being a book about Ronan Lynch, it’s also a book that shows us the rest of the characters in varying degrees, smoothly tying everything up with Ronan’s journey.

So while we delve deeper into Ronan’s as well as the Lynch family’s secretive history, we’re also shown a lot of more reveals about the rest of the characters. Again, little moments that may not propel the main story, but manages to pick up significance in light of the surrounding actions.

It’s brilliant.

Characters continue to develop and their circumstances all continue to tug at heartstrings. There are so many moments in this book that make you smile and laugh, moments that make you churn those logical thinking wheels, and even a lot of gripping moments that have you at the edge of your seat waiting for the fall out. And then there are heartbreaking moments as well.

So much happens in this book that, if not handled properly, the story would have gotten out of hand and confusing. But The Dream Thieves manages to make it work, because even as more mysteries begin to occur and more side tangents present themselves, the story only manages to become more exciting.

On a final note, I feel like the characters are definitely the driving force of this series, and especially of this particular book. They’re all so intriguing that, even with an antagonist like The Gray Man, or the minor characters at 300 Fox Way or the Orphan Girl in Ronan’s dreams, I’m drawn to them and their significance -- no one seems to be “just a background character” with no rhyme or reason. I even enjoyed seeing the interaction between Ronan and his brothers, which draws upon so much more understanding of Ronan and his behavior. And it’s great! They all have their own stories if given the time.

I loved the interaction between the five friends -- the Aglionby boys and Blue -- and found that, despite my hopeless romantic love, I appreciate that the romance unfolds so subtly with such care. It’s the friendships that I love the most: between Blue and Gansey, between Gansey and Ronan, between Gansey and Adam, between Ronan and Adam, and especially between Blue and Noah. There’s a different air about each of these pairings in the friendship, and then the atmosphere is made all the different when they all come together.

I’m wholeheartedly and completely in Gansey’s boat. That boy has a charm to him that makes it hard NOT to love him. I’m particularly biased because I’ve let my love of Gansey get a little out of control. So, of course, I’d love to see Gansey and Blue complete their OTP pairing soon, and as the romance slowly unfolded itself in this book, it came to me that I loved how it was such a sweet, yet quiet occurrence. The fact that they started off as friends first and bonded through various interactions and sweet little moments made it all the better. Because I enjoyed the friendships in this book (and the series so far) that the romance is honestly the last of my priorities concerning The Raven Cycle series.

After the first book, it didn’t bother me at all that the romance seemed to be heading in a different direction with Blue and Adam starting a somewhat relationship. Because compared to Gansey, even though I loved all of the characters, I loved Gansey more and so it didn’t matter to me whether or not he paired up with the girl in the end.

I’m at least glad to say that I’ve grown to love Blue more in this book than I had from Book One. She has a strange and quirky personality, but in this book, she proved that she’s also feisty and fiery and doesn’t let anyone walk on her at all. It’s something I appreciate in a female character since, too often in a lot of books (especially YAs), the girl is painted in a demure, doormat fashion, written for readers to pity and sympathize with. No, I prefer the Blue Sargents of the world where, even if there are moments when she is scared or even when she doesn’t know how to act, she still doesn’t just lay there and let people walk all over her.

The Dream Thieves is a very magical, well written, fun and witty adventure (that’s not quite an adventure) with great characters and an intriguing story. There are times when you find that perfect book that you can’t help but to completely fall in love with.

Today, that book, for me, is this one.


***

08/28/2013

I just saw a rating of 4.5 stars pop up from one of the reviewers I follow.

Aaand.... so now we are counting down the days until the release of this book! September 17 seems like so MUCH longer than just the 20 days from this moment... well, 21 days, but I'm rounding down a little for my own benefit.

Oh man, I'm all fidgeting just waiting for the book release. I need this book so BADLY! RIGHT NOW!


09/19/2013

If I thought I loved the first book... I think I love this second book just as much and am not even quite sure which one I loved more. It's safe to say I've found another favorite series to add to my list, and officially declaring another favorite author I will be following.

So many thoughts, so many "AWESOME!"s to put out there. And I'm not even sure how this will go. But if I had to highlight every line of this book that I personally loved, my book would look like a striped lollipop.

Going to try to put my thoughts together in a more timely fashion this time, although I'm not sure how well that will serve my review since my review of the last book was simply a big ol' four page declaration of how much I loved The Raven Boys. I doubt there will be much different for The Dream Thieves -- though there may be a lot of added gushing over Maggie Stiefvater, my newest girl crush of an author.

She is so freakin' brilliant!

Review to come... maybe. If I can stop gushing. And after I get some sleep.



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Review: Inhuman

Inhuman by Kat Falls

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I looked forward to this book mainly due to the premise which sounded intriguing just by the summary alone. And while the basis for the story's concept was pretty strong, the set-up of the world (a desolated, post-apocalyptic place where a virus called Ferae has turned most humans into savage, mutated creatures) is pretty much standard YA dystopian fare. But I'm not complaining. There's a reason why I'm drawn to these types of books -- they're exciting, they're intense, adventurous, interesting... if written properly.

And ultimately, my love of a YA dystopia comes down to a simple factor: how this author depicts his or her post-apocalyptic dystopian society differently from others running on this same trend, and how well the author incorporates this idea using well-developed characters and a good plot to follow with.

Inhuman already had a good premise going for it, though a little vague. Delaney "Lane" Park McEvoy (she of whom I had been referring to as simply "Delaney Park" because I kept forgetting she has a last name) lives in a societal safe haven away from the rest of the American nation which has turned into a wilderness of life infected by the Ferae Naturae virus. Due to certain reasons (big corporate greed and the fascination of rich people's need to play god in this world), this virus broke out and life became chaotic. I'm sparing the details since I don't really remember all of it anyway -- something about the richest company during that time, called Titan, playing around with animal DNA because the CEO wanted to include a centaur or something like that into her amusement park-like mazes as entertainment. But Ferae broke out, people became infected, and apparently the virus spread like rabies (which isn't really a rabies-like virus) is turning all humans into savage animals when infected -- a blood-borne pathogen, if you will, that affects a human's mental faculties and turns them into wild animals. I was still trying to understand the nature of Ferae, but then the action started, so I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

In order to repent for this problem, Titan's CEO builds a wall, isolating the uninfected half of the population in a safe bubble from the rest of the population in the eastern part of the country now known as The Feral Zone. And this wall is safe guarded by Titan-employed line guards to keep each half in their designated sides on the wall. Familiar set-up, interesting concept, nonetheless.

Anyway, the rest of the story details how Lane must go into The Feral Zone in order to save her father's life. I like how, in the beginning, it was supposed to be a simple task for Lane. She was to find her father and tell him the situation so that he could perform a "fetch" (retrieving items in The Feral Zone for clients on the other side of the quarantine wall for money). When she couldn't find her father, eventually, she ends up having to do the fetch herself. Adventures ensue.

As I said, the premise of this book was good to begin with. The first half of the book was also quite intense and exciting as we got introduced to the The Feral Zone with Lane as our guide. She's got a good voice and tone and I actually enjoyed following along with her, as she also shows us that one can be a kickbutt heroine and take care of herself, without also being that annoyingly stupid type who tries too hard to be tough and gets herself into troublesome situations -- which eventually require a man to come to her rescue. There are various situations in which Lane manages to pull herself out of danger, or to stay out of danger all together, and this works for me.

Rafe was a boy I couldn't quite put my finger on. While at first I thought he was a douche for being rude, arrogant and seemingly dangerous, he surprises you by using that jerk of a personality to become charming at the same time. He kind of just sneaks up on you. But then, he kept reminding me of all the other douche main characters you loved to hate, and by then I couldn't figure out how I managed to stop disliking him. Rafe has an interesting history and an interesting lifestyle; and his survivalistic mode is understandable. It's really just HIM I have trouble understanding.

Everson is the typical good man, stoic, intelligent, lovely, heart of gold, Mr. Congeniality and... well, boring. I have little to say about him, mainly because he doesn't stray far from the standard descriptions. There was maybe once or twice in the book that he surprised me a little bit, but then it didn't seem too significant, so I didn't take much note of it.

The ideas that went into the effects of Ferae become quite fun and intriguing the more that Lane learns from others about it. There's a very great suspension of disbelief being tossed around the more scientific topics as well: the human/animal mutations (both feral and manimal), a specific number of virus strains being known to be in existence, the animal/animal mutations called "mongrels", the fact that second and third generation offspring of mongrels and manimals don't become feral and don't transfer the virus if they bite...

These are all really creative and interesting, but only if you don't really try to think about them or analyze them. Otherwise, you just end up continuously asking yourself: "Hmm... is that even possible?"

Anyway, story-wise, Inhuman had a lot of good going for it. But the second half of the book reminded me of the word "Deadline". Because that's how it felt -- the rest of the story seemed rushed and the climax and twists and conclusions felt underdeveloped. It was as if we got to a point where the story needed to find a proper ending, and well, there IS a properly thought out ending in outline form... but, how to write it? And then we run out of time and simply patch things up the best that we can with deux ex machina tricks and supposed surprising occurrences of the emotional kind that ended up going by so quickly that I didn't even have time to react to them. I wish I could point out a couple instances at the end of the book that caught me off-guard (and not in a good way), but then we'd get into spoilery territory, and I honestly don't really like including spoilers in my reviews if I can help it, even WITH tags.

Finally, the romance... I wasn't really too bothered by it, honestly, because it felt kind of underdeveloped and placed in the sidelines. So it's not that I didn't enjoy it, but I just didn't really think about it too much aside from, "Oh, we've got a triangle at hand now", but since it didn't really take off in a significant fashion, I've got no complaints about it despite how much I dislike triangles (or any kind of relationship polygon).


Final Conclusion: Great premise, good characters, decent writing, intact story, great imagery and creativeness... I enjoyed it even if it wasn't the best and even if it was just another one of your typical YA dystopian affairs. I'll keep an eye out for the second book since I'm intrigued to know where Lane, Rafe, and Everson go from here; most especially Lane since I overall liked her the most of all the characters.





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Review: The Iron Queen

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I've started this review three times now.

After finishing The Iron Queen, I thought about just giving it a rating and being done with it. After all, I had finally decided to stop thinking about the book and just reading it.

And honestly, while I managed to enjoy parts of the book, there were still too many factors keeping me from fulling liking the book as a whole. The Iron Fey world is still as magical and exhilarating as it had started off from The Iron King. The ideas, the creations, the obstacles... all of it in adventure form was lots of fun. Because, as I'd said before: I DO love me some adventure. And adventure there was plenty of in this third installment of The Iron Fey series. And so I couldn't drop the stars too much since the ratings kept sliding back and forth until I finally just settled on a rather neutral area.

I didn't entirely like this book, but I didn't entirely hate it either. But I DID get caught up in more parts than I got turned off by, so there you have it.

I've made my thoughts known about how I feel on two aspects from the second book, The Iron Daughter. Those thoughts have not gone away, even if they HAVE ebbed slightly. For one, Meghan's development was MUCH better in this book than it had been for the past two books -- she goes through so much more growth in this single book alone than she did in the two books prior. Or well, let's put it this way:

In the first book, Meghan had her chance at growth and she got to a good point where it was acceptable, even if not ideal by the end of the book. But in the second book, it was like she just completely back-tracked and then picked up about fifty other personality flaws while she was at it, only to end off the second book by developing back to square one where we'd left her at the end of the first book. If I could pretend that the entire second book didn't happen, then I might be a much happier reader. But I can't, and so that's why we've got the history of Meghan's journey hanging over our heads while reading the third book.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the development that Meghan finally goes through, and were this not the THIRD book in the series, I might have liked the book a whole lot more, merely for the fact that, everything that happened in this book, I sort of kind of wished that it had happened throughout the three books -- even a lot of the romance. Meghan's self-absorbed behavior gets set aside as more important things start to happen, although at the beginning of the book, I felt she was a little harsh on Puck. She still tended to get all loud and dramatic at the most insignificant things. And, honestly, sure she's a bit more badass with the fighting at the glamour and the finally picking up a backbone thing... But Meghan was still a bit stupid and still a bit slow on the uptake.

So... while she DID finally grow on me, I'm not quite going to be classifying her under my list of well-liked female characters any time soon.

Coming to the romance, if Ash and Meghan had had a stronger supportive relationship history, I would be a hundred percent behind their love. Because it was written rather well and kind of touching in this book. But it was hard for me to separate the feel of the romance's premature beginnings from the first two books (and the mopey, angsty, oh-my-god-stop-whining-and-crying-about-your-shallow-love relationship from book two), from the more emotional, more agreeable, and much more heart-warming love between Ash and Meghan displayed in this third book.

Anyway...

There's nothing left to say about this book. Adventures happen, magic happens, stuff happens... the characters were flatter than ever before, and I got through it.

It's as simple as that.

I realize that I am a minority in a sea of Iron Fey worshippers here. So maybe this series isn't really for me. I'm currently contemplating whether or not I want to start reading The Iron Knight since the synopsis seems pretty straight forward. I have about a week and half left before I have to return all these books to the library, so maybe I'll just see how far I get. Or, maybe I'll just have to come back to it another day after I've padded myself with some other books in between.



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