I like this way more that I thought I would! I picked this up expecting another of those 2010's teen supernatural novels that I've read so many of butI like this way more that I thought I would! I picked this up expecting another of those 2010's teen supernatural novels that I've read so many of but this was actually well written and compelling. The teens felt like REAL people, not whiny caricatures, they were making believable bad choices, they were fleshed out with real motivations and lives. The supernatural element was intriguingly subtle as well, a lot of these books drop the supernatural into the world of the books like a brick from a helicopter but this was more like a gentle snow gaining pace - scattering slowly at first but growing more intense as events progressed. I'm going to be reading the next one. ...more
Very descriptive, great sense of place but I still don't really understand anyone's motivations. WHY kidnap people and keep them in these halls full oVery descriptive, great sense of place but I still don't really understand anyone's motivations. WHY kidnap people and keep them in these halls full of statues? Why did this ritual make it possible to travel between worlds? What was the point of any of it? Feels like one those books that I would like more if I 'got' it. But I just don't. ...more
I like these books - and they seem to whizz by - I read for what I think is just a couple of pages and somehow it was 20. I do love a good supernaturaI like these books - and they seem to whizz by - I read for what I think is just a couple of pages and somehow it was 20. I do love a good supernatural detective type story and this fits in. He's a university lecturer and he's a police consultant, he can do magic and he's got a bunch of mysteries in his life. I'm invested. I want to know more about what happened to Croft's mother and what's going to happen in the city if they try to purge it of magic. But also I'm not that interested in his love life - I don't care if he ends up with Vega or Caroline. I hated the way Caroline's entire backstory was dropped from the sky in one conversation. Especially as getting there had already amassed a body count - what was the point in that? That was an entire book's worth of discovery that was dropped on us from nowhere. ...more
This was just boring. I was told this was going to be a sexy, edgy, high fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It starts out more Cinderella thanThis was just boring. I was told this was going to be a sexy, edgy, high fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It starts out more Cinderella than Beauty and the Beast. Feyre's family have been in poverty for years but are somehow refusing to accept that reality and are refusing to do basic household tasks like chop wood. Which really makes me wonder how they've survived this long. Feyre seems to be keeping them afloat with her hunting but they still seem surprised when she comes back with a deer. It can't be the first time she's brought a kill home from the hunt - why do they react like she's done something strange? If the sisters are refusing to even get out of bed to chop wood then who's doing all the housework? Is Feyre doing all that too? When would she have time?
When the beast bursts through the door and takes Feyre away I thought we're finally getting some of that old fashioned fairytale I was looking for - but it felt like the author kind of ran out of steam once the character was actually in the fairy world. She just sort of fannies about - little bit of hunting, some encounters with magical creatures, lots of sexual tension for no reason. Feyre is pretty aimless at this point, even her attempts to get home are very half hearted. Presented with the option of doing anything at all any time she wants she doesn't do much of anything. It's ages before she even starts painting. It's not much fun to follow a character who's not doing anything. Feels like she only starts to fall in love with Tamlin out of boredom. Anyway we have the barely explained conflict that leads to Feyre having to go back to her family. Where she finds them rich and healthy again cos of Tamlin. I liked that Nesta had been too strong minded for the glamour to affect her and had been the one to go looking for her sister. I wish that had actually affected the plot at all rather than just being something we are told when she goes back. Nesta seems more interesting than Feyre at this point. Suddenly Nesta is independent and loyal in a way Feyre hasn't appreciated up til now. Feyre flip flops again and decides to go back to the faerie realm after realising Tamlin's mysterious enemies are trying to kill her. Which leads to her an empty house. Where she coincidentally runs into the servant who can tell her everything. If you have to have a minor character explain the entire plot to you mid way through the book it's probably a sign that the writing has gone wrong somewhere. Anyway we find out that there's a whole bunch of stuff Tamlin couldn't tell her and it's related to a curse which would have been broken if she'd said she loved him. But Tamlin, faced with the last chance to end the curse decided not to pursue her or have her fall in love with him - instead CHOSE to be grumpy around her and doom himself and his entire castle of servants. The servant is pissed at Feyre for not figuring all this out - not at her lord for being a selfish asshole.
Feyre goes to rescue her faeirie prince. There's some confusing stuff with a different faerie she has made a commitment to and a bunch of trials but anyway Feyre defeats this powerful faerie queen and the day is saved. But probably not cos there's more books in this series.
I just think there were too many stupid decisions made here. Feyre's family being utterly incapable in day to day life without money despite them being poor for like 10 years - makes no sense. Especially as Feyre was like 9 when they went broke. This 9 year old was not taking charge of the family and keeping them fed. So how did they get to this point? I also didn't like how Tamlin went so over the top with his glamour to the point where it doesn't make sense - he could have just had the family find some money, receive some somehow but instead the guy who wants their dad to make investments? No one is concerned about that? And the ships which reappear? Did he bring their crews back from the dead? Surely all he's done is dump a bunch of jewels on them and glamour them to believe that story? But it's never really explained.
Tamlin going through all that, sacrificing his friend etc to find Feyre, getting her to the Manor etc and then deciding he wasn't going to do anything to cause her to fall in love with him - makes no sense.
Was there a ritual/party thing where everyone was shagging to 'create magic'? Or did I dream that? Cos wtf?
Nesta is a strong minded, independent woman who doesn't tolerate being lied to or glamoured - but she also has spent 10 years of her life sulking cos she's broke. She's let her younger sister do all the work while refusing to even get up in the morning to chop wood. She goes looking for Feyre, she gives her permission to leave again cos they don't need her. She's a snob, she doesn't even bother to teach her sister to read. She's so protective of Elain but mostly acts like she doesn't care about Feyre. She comes across so inconsistent.
Alis dumps an entire books worth of world building and plot/motivation explanations all while rummaging through the kitchen and is annoyed at Feyre for not figuring out what was going on. Which makes no sense because how would Feyre have guessed any of this? And why did we need the entire backstory of Amaranthe etc now when she hadn't even been mentioned by name before this?
Everything under the Mountain makes no sense to me. She has to pass some trials/riddle sure - that's a good old fashioned plot. But what's with the relationship between Rhys and Amaranthe? And whatever's going on between Rhys and Feyre? It all seems really gross.
I don't think the current crop of popular fantasy is for me. ...more
How many different types of vampires are there supposed to be? And are some of them supposed to be zomAm I dim or does this book just not make sense?
How many different types of vampires are there supposed to be? And are some of them supposed to be zombies? I'm so so confused. And why did she spend her whole life veiled, chaperoned and banned from socialising only to then be sent into the woods without a veil or chaperone with a bunch of soldiers? What was the Rite? Did we miss it? There was so much talk about rites and ascending and then we get to the day of the rite and she's out in the corridor and then in the garden but I feel like we never really see what the Rite actually is. There were these huge blocks of world building just dropped in but they never seemed to add information - more like the new information would just confuse the information we already had. Also did this book really pull the 'trusted guardian who's like a member of her family dies tragically protecting her' thing twice in one book? ...more
This book is....odd..... It's beautifully written but I think I got so lost in its turns of phrases that the plot got away from me. This is a story of This book is....odd..... It's beautifully written but I think I got so lost in its turns of phrases that the plot got away from me. This is a story of revenge, magic, homoeroticism and plague all wrapped up in the kind of descriptive language that will have you smelling the poisoned sea for hours afterwards. I just don't entirely understand what HAPPENED. ...more
Let's start with the obvious - Evie is incredibly annoying. Even more unbearable in the audiobook. Her slang is grating, her tantrum throwing frustratLet's start with the obvious - Evie is incredibly annoying. Even more unbearable in the audiobook. Her slang is grating, her tantrum throwing frustrating, she is manipulative and bratty and her only goal in life seems to be to stay in New York and go to parties. She never really matures through the book, even after everything she goes through and everything she discovers she stays unbearable right at the end. The story itself is much better than she deserves to be involved in - ghostly serial killer, religious cult, spooky museum, plenty of details to fill out 1920's New York and all building towards a properly dramatic climax.
I'm going to continue reading the series in the hopes Evie's friends get more developed roles - Theta and Mabel rather vanished in the middle of this and I rather missed them. Hopefully the next books give Theta more to do than call Evie 'Evil' and Mabel comes out from under everyone's shadow.
It surprised me that this book has actually been out since 2012 as I'd never seen it anywhere and when I picked it up this month I thought it was a new release. Apparently the film/tv rights have been picked up and everyone's looking for 1920's themed properties right now so there's a good chance this series's time has come. It certainly reads like a book that was written with the intent of becoming visual media at some point and it will probably translate onto screen quite well. ...more
**spoiler alert** This was not a good use of my time.
The plot of these books has been utterly nonsensical. Three books where America vacillates wildly**spoiler alert** This was not a good use of my time.
The plot of these books has been utterly nonsensical. Three books where America vacillates wildly between Maxon and Aspen with 'maybe neither' apparently never being an option that crosses her mind even once. Maxon is a prince with an abusive father who is wildly in love with America and determined to wait til she realises she's in love with him - though that doesn't stop him from 'fairly considering' the other girls. Cos fairly considering someone often DOES mean snogging their faces off in a corridor in the middle of the night while the woman you actually love watches secretly. (I am making none of this up - that is an actual thing that happens in this book) Aspen is the first love who dumped her before all this started and is now some kind of super-soldier (hey what's the story with the 'injections' the soldiers are being given? Oh we're never going to explain or consider that? Okay!) he is repeatedly given the task of guarding his ex girlfriends bedroom door. Cos literally NO ONE is like 'hey you two are from the same place! Do you know each other?'!
The other girls are Celeste - who has a whole book load of plans, manipulations and issues that would have made her a much more interesting main character than America. She is the stereotypical bitch for the first two books and then starts admitting what she's up to in the final book - though I'm never sure why. Then she's shot in the head. Cos character development must be punished!
Kriss - who is the kind, sweet, born to be royal main rival of America. She is also suddenly revealed to have been a rebel the whole time. There is no follow up to this. It's never mentioned again. There is no explanation of who she really is. Was anything she said about herself up til then really true? What exactly was her plan? Who was helping her? What was her involvement with the other rebel plans? Is this connected to America's father and his rebel connections?? (which are also never mentioned again after America reads his letter) We never find out. It just never comes up again. She claims she started the selection as part of a plan and then fell in love with the prince for real. So....wtf? Again - she would have been a much more interesting main character for the series to have followed than America.
Elise - This characterisation was just straight up racist. It was repeatedly made clear she was only in the competition cos of her family connections in 'New Asia'. She was from a lower caste than most of the other girls - but that didn't matter cos her family made so much money from hotels? She also turns up to a halloween costume party in her country's traditional dress? The prince found her so meek and submissive that she was infuriating. She was always going on about how she was there to bring honour to her family and she was expecting an arranged marriage anyway. She was a Mulan background character given half a personality.
There was a whole mess where America's father dies and in his last letter reveals himself to have been a rebel the whole time. But that doesn't seem to fit into the story anywhere. It certainly affects nothing. There's her shitty brother - who seems to know a lot of things that he shouldn't and is willing to blackmail his sister - but again this goes nowhere.
There are so many problems with this series - it seems more like a draft of something that wasn't ready than an actual published series of books. So many plotholes, characters with mysterious motivations that aren't revealed until it's too late to do anything, an entire second book of nothing but America zig zagging between loving Aspen and loving Maxon, misunderstandings and assumptions based on a look in someone's eyes across a ballroom, idiots in sumptous ball gowns (all hand sewn by maids to order in a matter of hours) trying to convince themselves they love a prince whose main personality trait seems to be his obsessive love for a girl named America. It's The Bachelor but even more poorly written. ...more
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