Liz 's Updates

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:01:12 -0700

Liz added 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil'

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 02:39:13 -0700

Liz gave 5 stars to Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (Hardcover) by Victoria E. Schwab
4.5 stars - I think I've read half a dozen Carmilla retellings and this is actually what I wanted from them. A dark sapphic vampiric war cry of story screamed into hundreds of years of patriarchy. Vampirism as freedom from expectation, judgment, and the shackles society loves to place on women. You follow 3 women over 400 years whose journey into vampirism has them measuring the cost of freedom, madness, and life. To delve any deeper into the plot would be a crime.

I get the comps to Addie but respectfully this book feels a little more engaging with a plot that ramps to a heck of a finale. Schwab uses a writing device I heartily enjoy by applying heavy foreshadowing but still pummeling you with emotion when you finally learn some important truths for one of the main characters. An excellent balance of a multi-layered plot and truly intriguing characters.

Do I think you should preorder this book (including all the gorgeous special editions)? Yes, yes I do. I haven't read a story about vampires that I've liked this much since "A Dowry of Blood".

Liz is currently reading 'A Sorceress Comes to Call'

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 02:33:54 -0700

Liz is currently reading A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

Liz added 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter'

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 18:37:25 -0700

Liz gave 5 stars to The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Hardcover) by Stephen Graham Jones
4.5 stars - Places this on solidly on the list of books that made cry my face off this year. Sigh.

Liz added 'Legendborn'

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 02:44:34 -0700

Liz gave 5 stars to Legendborn (Legendborn, #1) by Tracy Deonn
bookshelves: owned
4.5 stars - I feel kind of ridiculous writing a review. Everyone told me it was great and it was in fact great. Honestly, I just gobbled this book up. I could not put it down.

Liz added 'Gifted & Talented'

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 20:27:12 -0700

Liz gave 4 stars to Gifted & Talented (Hardcover) by Olivie Blake
bookshelves: owned
I genuinely enjoyed this book, but I need to make the distinction that this book is 3.75 stars for me. Because while it had some very good things going for it (prose, humor, character development) it was a slog. It took me almost an entire week to read it and felt like 1,000 pages instead of being about half that. Honestly it felt like the author actually forgot about the plot at times (in her eagerness to delve deeper into each character). Ironically, it's when she had to bring us back to the present to push the plot forward that the best moments with each character occurred. We see them the most clearly when they were in the present with each other. That's when they were at their funniest and most heartfelt. This was not my favorite Olivie Blake book, but it was a good book. As usual, with Blake's writing, it had some of the most amazing pull quotes. I think these characters will stay with me for awhile.

Liz is on page 244 of 512 of Gifted & Talented

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:12:17 -0700

Liz is on page 244 of 512 of Gifted & Talented.
Liz wrote: Omg, Meredith is one of the most unintentionally funny characters I’ve ever read. Her feminine rage at the apocalypse bit killed me. KILLED ME.