Browsed by
Category: Magical

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare

Comments 0 comment

Chain of Thorns is the fifteenth Shadowhunters novel by Cassandra Clare and the final novel of The Last Hours series, and I think it is time for me to say farewell to the Shadowhunters while I still have fond memories of them. I have reviewed all the previous Shadowhunters novels here, and my comments on the series from that review still stand. But my biggest complaint about Chain of Thorns is how bloody thick the book is (it is the second longest Shadowhunters novel at 778 pages). It is cumbersome to hold, and cumbersome to read. I cannot believe I am writing this, but there are too many main characters and too many subplots. And the problem with the subplots is that they are all very similar. There is just too much relationship drama in The Last Hours series, and I am too old for this shit now.

WARNING: There be spoilers ahead if you have not read the first two The Last Hours novels.

…

Read More Read More

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Comments 0 comment

I re-read Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo just before reading its sequel, Hell Bent. I still love it, and you can read my review of it here. I have been waiting over two years to read Hell Bent; unfortunately, I am on the fence over whether it was worth the wait. I did enjoy reading it, but certain elements have been introduced into the series (the way that Hell Bent ends, I am sure Bardugo is turning it into a series) that I could do without.

WARNING: There be spoilers ahead if you have not read Ninth House.

…

Read More Read More

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater

Comments 0 comment

Greywaren is the third and final volume of The Dreamer Trilogy. I love Maggie Stiefvater’s novels, I enjoyed the first two books of The Dreamer Trilogy, but unfortunately, I found Greywaren to be an underwhelming conclusion. SPOILER ALERT: do not read further if you plan on reading The Dreamer Trilogy. Even though Greywaren is the weakest link, I still think the trilogy as a whole is worth reading if you enjoy YA novels.

…

Read More Read More

Babel by R. F. Kuang

Babel by R. F. Kuang

Comments 0 comment

Well, my 2023 reading is off to a good start. I was not sure what to expect of Babel, but it was one of Indigo’s picks for best books of 2022, which intrigued me enough to read it. I enjoyed every second of reading this novel. The novel’s full title is Babel or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution. If you do not mind a bit of magic mixed into your historical fiction, I highly recommend that you give this novel a shot.

…

Read More Read More

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

Comments 0 comment

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is the sequel to Katherine Howe’s first novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which I will admit I did not realize until I started reading it. I read Deliverance Dane over ten years ago, so I kind of wish I had re-read it before reading Temperance Hobbs, but there were enough details in Temperance Hobbs to remind me of what happened in Deliverance Dane. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is an okay book. It is not as interesting as The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and I think I prefer Brunonia Barry’s Salem-set novels over Katherine Howe’s (as a side note, I have also read Howe’s The House of Velvet and Glass, which was an interesting novel, but it depressed the hell out of me and so I donated it because I never want to read it again).

…

Read More Read More

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

Comments 0 comment

The Death of Jane Lawrence is one of those books that sounds like it should be good, but then it turns out not to be. Very disappointing, as I love me a gothic novel. The Death of Jane Lawrence definitely is gothic, and there were definitely creepy moments that I read through very quickly because I did not want to scare myself before going to be bed, but in the end, The Death of Jane Lawrence gets bogged down in the science of magic, and I am not entirely sure what I was that I just read.

…

Read More Read More

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Series by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Series by Ransom Riggs

Comments 0 comment

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children is a YA series consisting of six novels based on an intriguing concept: a fantasy story designed around vintage photographs. Ransom Riggs uses 19th and early 20th century photographs that he collected to bring his characters to life and to create evocative settings. The first three novels in the series, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City and Library of Souls, were quite fascinating to read. The photographs that appear throughout the novels are eerie and some are just downright creepy; they compliment the story very well.

…

Read More Read More

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Comments 0 comment

I watched Lovecraft Country the TV show on HBO back in 2020 and thought it was pretty good. It is too bad the TV show was cancelled before it got a second season. I have had Lovecraft Country the novel on which the TV show is based sitting in my TBR pile for a long time and finally got around to reading it. It is too bad I took so long to read it because I really enjoyed the novel and was disappointed that it had to end. As is usually the case, I thought the novel was better than the TV show.

…

Read More Read More

Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

Comments 0 comment

I spent the past week reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, books one and two of Eden Robinson’s Trickster trilogy (book three is already out, I just have not bought a copy yet). Last year, I read Robinson’s Monkey Beach, which is serious and melancholy compared to the Trickster books. The Trickster books are surreal and somewhat bizarre (not in a derogatory way), and they are also humorous despite the tragic circumstances of the protagonist’s life. I really enjoyed reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, and now Robinson is on my list of writers whose novels I will look out for.

…

Read More Read More