Mini Book Reviews: Comeback the Third
Hello Dear Book Dragons,
Today I am bringing you the next set of Mini Book Reviews. Doing these is the only way I can stay up to date on my reading. I do not know how some people post on a blog every day. Granted, I do write long reviews. It’s just that I have a lot of thoughts. Also, it is not Thursday today, it’s Friday. Yeah… I have no excuse. I got distracted and fell behind. But at least it’s only a day right?
September has been a good reading month so far. I am knocking on wood as I type this. Because I will jinx myself knowing my luck. All the books listed below have been read in September. I have a mixture of Middle Grade, YA, thriller, and old man. This will make sense when you get to that specific book on the list. My reviews contain spoilers, especially the one for Frostbite and The Iron Knight. If you want to skip those please do. Especially Frostbite because I want people to read that series so badly. Without further ado: here are the Mini-Reviews.
“Embrace your strange, dear daughter. Where’s the fun in being normal?”
― Victoria Schwab, City of Ghosts
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab- Rating 8/10- This was so much fun. If you want a spooky fun Halloween read may I recommend this one? City of Ghosts is a middle grade, and it’s the first in the series. It follows a young girl named Cassidy who can see ghosts and has a ghost best friend. Her parents are offered a TV show about the most haunted places in the world. Much to Cassidy’s chagrin they agree to the job and take Cassidy, Ghost Jacob, and their cat along. The first stop on their haunted world tour? Edinburgh Scotland ladies and gentlemen and cats. Now I knew I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw the cover and where it takes place. Edinburgh is such an atmospheric city. You don’t even have to go on a haunted ghost tour to feel the past pressing in on you. I only got to spend three days there, and it was not enough. This book gave me ideas about places to see. Now I am not a fan of haunted scary places, much like Cassidy, but I love history and I will happily stand thee while they tell me all about the plague victims being walled in. Just don’t add the ghosts. Or if you add the ghosts I demand to be surrounded by living humans on all sides so no ghost can tap me on the shoulder. I am jumpy. I will scream. I will scream and thus ruin your tour. There I a lot still left to explore in this series. Cassidy had no idea there ere tother people who could see ghosts until she meets Lara. Lara goes about and banishes/releases ghosts into whatever afterlife they are destined for. Cassidy is shocked. Poor girl can’t believe anyone would banish a ghost. Soon enough the two are bonding over the story of how they died. Lara died of a fewer, while Cassidy drowned in a freezing river. It is this death that draws the Red Raven to Cassidy. I was legitimately freaked out. Anytime you involve creepy dead children I will be terrified. When you involve a creepy singing lady it is even worse. This book is perfect for Spooky Season, I plan on reading the second book in October as well. Sadly the third book got pushed back from September to March. They ruined the perfect release schedule. Oh well. Maybe we will get a book four in September? Victoria is a writing goddess and might be nice enough to provide for us.
“Every word we spoke here—each one of them was another pomegranate seed.”
― Stephenie Meyer, Midnight Sun
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Mayer- Rating I don’t want to say/10- I wanted to love this. If I couldn’t love it I at least wanted to have fun with it. I did neither. This book was a chore. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I considered giving up on it and making it a DNF but the bitterness kicked in. If I am going to hate a book I will hate the whole thing. I was going to do a full-length review for this one but I did not want to bring that much negativity into the world. It can’t be healthy for my karmic balance to be screaming for five pages. I already have seventeen pages of angry notes, that’s enough. Edward is a bitter, entitled, narcissistic hundred-year-old virgin who has a stick up his ass, and not the fun kind either. If he was anymore judgemental he would have to go on a killing spree to get rid of all humanity and their sinful ways. Frankly fuck you, Edward. Anytime anyone would have a thought about how hot he was, which nature designed him to be, he would judge them. Everyone was uninteresting. Everyone was dull. The most interesting relationship we had was between him and Rosalie and that’s because Rosalie was done with his shit. Alice told him something would happen and he would be like… no. you’re telling the girl who sees the future and is never wrong, she’s wrong. Dumbass. Sit down. He also ignored Bella’s wishes and desires. He might tell himself that he needs her permission but in the end, he would just do whatever he wanted. I legitimately could not handle the misogyny and the narcissism I had to go through being in Edward’s mind.
“Every house has a story. Ours is a ghost story. It’s also a lie. And now that yet another person has died within these walls, it’s finally time, to tell the truth.”
― Riley Sager, Home Before Dark
Home Before Dark by Riley Segar- Rating 7/10- I honestly had slightly higher expectations of this book. It was good. I loved the resolution. But I wanted to be more creeped out. I had a few moments but ost of the time I was doing just fine. Maggie the heroine drove me nuts. She was so close-minded. She enjoyed playing the victim. Yes, she was physically capable, as she kept telling everyone but emotionally she was playing the victim. Oh, woe is me. My parents ruined my life with the super successful book that made us all rich. How could they? People ask me if there were ghosts in the house! Meanwhile, I’m like... Get over yourself. People are interested in the supernatural and who are you to judge them. Instead of being a bitch you can just politely say that you don’t remember any of the things in the book and so cant; answer. Is that so hard? She wasn’t;t particularly clever either. I don’t know about you but if I inherited a creepy huge old house I would ask someone to stay with me because you never know! I would also let all my acquaintances know where I was in case I fell off the map. I am not just talking ghosts. I am talking about murder. I am a talking accident. I am talking act of god. Did her self pity kill her imagination? Besides the main character, I enjoyed the plot. The mystery was great. I also liked how we had parallel narratives. I enjoyed the narrative that her father put forward more, mostly because he wasn’t a whiny brat. Did he make a lot of it up? Sure. but that does not mean the story wasn’t good. One of the many questions I was left with after this book was: why do adult humans think it’s a good idea to sneak into a little girl’s room through a freaking wardrobe? Do they think they won’t scare them for life? Secondly, after this book, I had to go look up if it is possible to have snakes fall from the ceiling. It is possible. I don’t feel safe anywhere as is but this just added more paranoia to my long list. I actually would have been satisfied if Maggie did turn out to be the murderer, after all, that was a cool twist and it confirmed my belief that children can’t be trusted. But I was happy with it being the mother of the little girl who was murdered in the hose before Maggie’s family moved in. she already climbed in through a secret passage and terrified a five-year-old half out of her mind. What’s the murder of a teenage girl when added to that. That teenage girl was the only character I truly liked in this book and knowing some crazy lady thought it was okay to murder her and then not confess to it for years pisses me off. I can understand Maggie’s parents. It was not the best decision but they thought they were protecting their five years old. I’m not sure what from as she would probably only have gotten intensive therapy. If my child kills someone you bet whatever you want that I am turning them in. I am not raising a potential serial killer or potential antichrist. Have you seen American Horror Story? No thank you.
“Never try to out-drink a Swede, unless you happen to be a Finn or at least a Russian.”
― Jonas Jonasson, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson-rating 100/10- this book is a hidden gem. I need everyone to read it. It follows as the title might indicate, a hundred-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared. Well, he didn’t disappear. He went off and had adventures. There were a few dead bodies, an elephant, and lots of vodka. Allen Carlson is my kind of man. He goes with the flow and somehow ends up being okay. I wish I had that kind of luck. He also likes to blow stuff up. I wish I was talented like that. The story begins on his hundredth birthday, and he finds a suitcase full of money. Soon enough we are being chased by goons. One gets frozen to death as the two old men got drunk and forgot to turn off the freezer they lucked him in. another one gets sat on by an elephant. The elephant is my favorite part. Anyone who adopts an elephant is my friend. This group is fun and crazy. Allen goes through some things in his hundred years and influences the course of history more than probably anyone else alive. Sadly no one believes him until he finds his new friends. You all know how much I love found family stories. Please read this book. It is so much fun.
“Young girls? Young girls? Sure. Young and old at the same time. They've barely seen anything in life, yet they've already seen too much. One's marked with life, and one's marked with death…but they're the ones you're worried about? Worry about yourself, dhampir. Worry about you, and worry about me. We're the ones who are young."
― Richelle Mead, Frostbite
Frostbite by Richelle Mead- rating 8/10- oh second books. I feel like they are the hardest. You want to move the story forward but also you’re still doing set up for the rest of the books. This one was just as much fun as the first one. Rose goes through some heavy emotional lifting in this one. Her mother sows up and I hate to say it but I am grateful she’s not my mom. Janine Hathaway is not a terrible person I admire her but I do not want her to be my mom. Lissa is still on her meds which are blocking her magic. This is both good and bad. Good because she’s not having episodes of insanity and bad because as he says, it feels like something inside of her is broken when she can’t access her magic. At least she has a hot boyfriend to make up for it. Lissa and Christian are getting serious and poor rose gets stuck in Lissa’s head while they have sex. Talk about awkward. Rose, on the other hand, is still miserable and in love with Dimitri who in turn is miserable and in love with Rose. Poor kids are suffering for the greater good. They find evidence of a Strigoi attack on a protected property and everyone panics. The description of the scene was pretty grim. For once Rose is not the rashest person in her friend group. While on winter break at a magical ski lodge with all the vampires, news comes in of another massacre, and Rose’s friend Mason decides he’s the most badass thing on two legs and goes hunting Strigoi with just another apprentice and grief-stricken girl in the toe. Rose and Christian chase them down and deliver a beautiful lecture. It’s too late though and they all get captured. The captivity does not go well. Eddie, poor Eddie, becomes a chew toy. Mia and Christian are starved in hopes they cave and kill someone to become the undead. Rose and Mason are there as further bait. Than Rose remembers magic and she and Christian figure out a way to escape. They do. But Rose is stuck being last and Mason comes charging to her rescue. He gets killed in about two seconds. Mia is way more useful because of magic. Magic is so useful and I stand with Christian and Tasha, his hot aunt with the hots for Dimitri, about their frustration that the Morioi acting helpless when they have a build-in weapon at their disposal. Thanks to Mia Rose kills her first two Strigoi. No one can say she’s incapable now, and that makes me happy. She is many things, impulsive, rash, temperamental, but incapable she is not. Some other quick thoughts before I move on. Adrian stole the show per usual. His lines when under the influence of spirit scare me. Lissa didn’t scare me but the reality does. Also, dream walking is such a cool and terrifying skill. Rose and Dimitri are so perfect together it hurts me. They try to do everything for each other while at the same time staying away from any hint of romance. Forbidden love is so beautiful. The next book in the series will be read in October, and I have to mentally prepare myself for the trauma I know is coming. I read these books before. I know what’s next. Pray for me.
“Be careful, boy. In some tales, the hero gets eaten by the monster after all.”
― Julie Kagawa, The Iron Knight
The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa- Rating 7/10- I have one giant problem with this book. Mainly the lack of female characters. There is one, and her only purpose is to die so a male protagonist doesn’t have to. What is this? Julie Kagawa, you are better than this. Did you have a hard year that year? This was the book in the series I didn’t read, and apparently, my high school self had better senses than my adult self. I didn’t hate the book. I just have one huge issue with it. Well, the issue kind of extends to all the books in the series so far. Meghan was pretty much the only female character. The other females were all queens I grant you but they were either crazy or a bitch. Forgive me for having a problem with that. Meghan needed a best friend, not all the boys being whiney and oversensitive. Ahem, Ash is on a quest to gain a soul so he can be with Meghan. Noble and all. Along the way, we get Grim back (yay) and we also get the Big Bad Wolf (yay). These two were the best part of the story. Grim per usual was done with everyone’s shit. The Wolf was just there for the story. You and me buddy. We know what’s up. Ash was like “oh I lost one love of my life already I can’t lose another!” Psych. She wasn’t dead. She spent a couple of thousand years hiding out in a meadow being all sad. I liked her. She was great. Poor girl got handed a bad deal. Then she goes and sacrifices herself to what I imagined as Wraith Red Skull form Avengers Infinity War (the copyright is not mine please don’t sue me. I have no money). What is it with females sacrificing themselves for men? Why is this necessary? You know a good friendship sacrifice is just as meaningful, if not more so. I might be sobbing right now instead of screaming. The whole quest to gain a soul was fascinating. We got to see other, and creepier, parts of the Nevernever. We got to see the creepy Forgotten. This was all great. The writing was good. The constant action was good. I have one huge gripe and I can’t let it go. Oh and Robin, sorry I can’t take calling him Puck, finally shouts at ash about his asshole behavior. Someone had to. Meghan was too in love to ever try. Than Red Skull wannabe puts Ash through some serious soul searching. Frankly, he had that coming. I like my happy ending to be earned and served damn it. Ash deserves one in the end but not in the beginning. And I am still not over the sacrifice. Ugh. it was necessary but did it have to be the only female in the book? Well, one that was physically there. Also, the scary versions of Ash and Puck sound way cooler than they are in real book life. I am just saying.
Alright dragons, that is it for today. I did not expect to spend so much time ranting. I never do until I am into it and then it’s too late to stop. This is why I write reviews. I can realize my thoughts about these books and voice them. It’s a good strategy to increase critical thinking. I also just like thinking. I hope everyone had an amazing September. Oh and happy Fall! It officially falls and I forgot to bring it up in my previous post. I’m thinking of doing a list of Winter books that I publish on the first day of Winter but my thinking was not that advanced last week.
See you all next time,
Anna
