Seashellmnb

Did we need a follow up?

Revisado: 04-01-21

I cannot help but wonder why this follow-up was written. "The Bigamist" was entertaining but this is repetitive, lacks insight (Mary is retelling the experiences of others for huge chunks) and it takes on a clinical diagnosis feel that really became dull. The writing just does not have the spark the first book did. Mary Turner Thomson is quite a good narrator. However, I did not need separate narrators for Will and Michelle's dialog. It was not necessary and distracted a bit from the story. (imho)

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The romance has grown on me, and there's magic

Revisado: 03-23-21

Ceony and Emery are back. This time, an evil magician is after Ceony because she burned his face and harmed the woman he was into (you know, Emery's ex. Sigh.). Ceony, of course, cannot just sit idly by and ends up enfolded in this twisted tale. This puts everyone she loves at risk because everyone else is a pawn in this world. Then there's the Ceony and Emery love connection. He's her teacher, he continues to say he's only a teacher, but he's also willing to risk his own life in order to protect her... yep, he's into her too. They share a cute moment at a train station. Some people die. It is a novel with magic, death, and romance. I actually enjoyed it more than the first book in the series. Will continue on with the series. The narration with Audible is great and I very much enjoyed the performance as a whole. The audio may have actually made the novel more enjoyable.

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Definitely a great choice for Audible!

Revisado: 03-23-21

A serial killer is getting inside of the head's of his victim, causing them to live their worst fears/memories and then die/kill themselves. A detective, a kind of shady female shrink, and a young girl who just witnessed the suicide of her best friend are all in a race to track down "The Night Bird" before he can strike again. Definitely worth an audio listen if you want to hear some creepy, eeerie sounds.

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Ceony falls in love rather quickly, no?

Revisado: 03-23-21

Ceony Twill has spent her entire stint at 'magic school' thinking she was going to be a metal wielder. Instead, the academy and those around her decide she is going to be a paper magician--she will warp paper and create magic by making seriously cool origami. Obviously, Ceony is devastated, as this is not what she planned for. She ends up living with Magician Emery Thane (that's right, Magician is a proper noun here) and she's supposed to be apprenticing with him. Suddenly, an evil magician who uses blood magic (this is bad people!) appears and rips Emery's heart out. Everyone writes him off but Ceony decides she is going to save him using the bare basics she has been taught. Next thing you know, she's 'inside' of Emery's heart learning all of his secrets. And it is in his heart that she is going to save him. That's right... somewhere we rounded a corner and this became a 'hint of romance' novel when I showed up for a magic novel. I'm not opposed to characters falling in love. However, I am having trouble deciding why we took this route. Ceony has known this man for less than a month and suddenly she's in love with him and is going to save his heart by convincing him he's a good person who is worthy of love again. I don't know... seems a little fast. It was a 'fun' novel and I will say that I would read a second installment. That being said, I do wish that they backed off the 'instant love story' and maybe built that in over time. NOTE: There is some paper dog abuse in this book. You know, ripping a paper dog up when convenient. I was not a fan. Kind of reminded me when Tom Hanks let Wilson float away without trying to save him.

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This town should get condemned

Revisado: 11-03-20

Sawyer Brooks left a terrible town after some significant childhood trauma. There's no chance that she should have ever returned but of course, she goes back to attend a funeral. While there she begins investigating old cases because hey, why not? Thus she uncovers all of the things that should have remained buried. Without giving too much away, there's a secondary plot that follows a vigilante group of women who are going around attacking/seeking vengeance on men that have raped and tortured women. If you need a book to give you a women's empowerment anthem this group is your group. While we cannot condone their actions (publicly) I must say when someone loses his member I applauded. Girl Power.

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Helen whines, and whines, and then whines more

Revisado: 02-25-20

Helen whines a lot and waits for a man (man can vary) to save her from her fate and, hopefully, ignore her beauty.

I feel bad for Helen and definitely understand that as a woman living in a time where she's barely more than property, her options are limited. At the same time, her desperation and whiny pleas can be a little over the top. She continues to put duty to her people over her own well being... But I wish she were a tad stronger. The Audible acting in this is pretty good though, and the voice actress is making me feel Helen's whiny narrative.

3 stars means I liked this but didn't love it.

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If you love Trojan War fiction this is THE ONE

Revisado: 02-25-20

Cries uncontrollably. Utter meltdown. Immediately begins to think to self:I wish someone loved me as much as Patroclus loves Achilles.

A wonderful retelling that explores Patroclus' time with Achilles and their travels to the Trojan War. As you can imagine, this is a love story that involved homosexual relationships. I'm absolutely in love with this, however, other readers should be forewarned.

Captivating, a unique perspective (even though we've all heard this story before), and there is actually great character development throughout. The standard cast of characters appear: Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, Odysseus, Briseis, etc. The minor details changed largely surround the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles (sigh, Achilles just didn't appreciate Patroclus enough in the end), deepening that connection so that Miller can later rip your heart out and stomp on it--you may know how the story ends going into this novel, but it still hurts.

I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook version--which I highly recommend if you have the opportunity. Great listening!

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Performance overshadows the actual story

Revisado: 02-25-20

I absolutely planned (and wanted) to love this novel. It was on a list floating around titled "the highest rated books of 2018" as well as a list called the "28-most-read books of 2018" and I figured that with this kind of attention, the book would be thrilling. At a simple glance, I was also very excited to see a novel that represented diversity alongside young adult fiction. In theory, this book works and is amazing (I dare say, the Black Panther of literature for 2018).

Yet, I found that throughout the novel, the book suffers from a lot of the same issues that a majority of recent young adult fiction has received: cringe-worthy pitfalls, if you will. The first is, unfortunately, a pretty predictable plot. I do understand that I'm not a teen, and that I consume voracious amounts of novels, but I also still expect that newly published work should be less-predictable than perhaps this novel was. The reader is presented with a lot of typical cliches: A king has two children, clearly one is going to defy him, one is a bit more under his rule. Two young teens from different backgrounds meet, there is going to be that instant romantic connection. The repressed individuals in the novel must band together to wage a war, often over a relic, and many innocent lives will be lost along the way.

Please understand... I'm okay with these images in novels because they are, at this point, unavoidable. However, there is a lot of cliche imagery and standard archetypes throughout and at some point they got very frustrating for me as a reader. While the larger context (misrepresented peoples must fight the colonizer) is a general theme I can easily follow and love, there still needs to be "newness" to the rest of the story.

The setting is new, the cultural ties to Africa are new, naming conventions are new, magic is perhaps new (or also not new?), but aside from this a lot of the story falls into cliched quicksand. The "evil" king, for example, is perchance so predictable it hurts.

In many ways, there were also several characters that I found myself detached from. I'm a big fan of strong female protagonists, but at least one of our strong female protagonists is somewhat swayed by her feelings for a boy. I definitely get that, and understand it, but there were so many moments where I just wanted to yell "snap out of it" because it was clear to see some of that trust was misplaced.

Also... if there are two females and two males (main characters) that doesn't mean that by the end of the novel we should have two couples. Not required. Love story not needed to be a good story. And here I felt like there were moments where relationships were being forced in order to achieve balances in relationships (everyone must be paired off!).

However.... I still give this book 3-stars for the following reasons:
1) There are some unique elements scattered throughout that, though they may not rise out of the rest of the story as much as I would have liked, were enjoyable.

2) Perhaps moments of this story are cliche, but it still ended up getting a lot of people talking about literature, which is a great thing.

3) Diversity is needed in YAL. While this isn't the "greatest" story I have read, the diversity here is nice and refreshing.

4) I listened to a significant portion of this book on audible and the narration was fantastic and I feel like that was enough to convince me that 3-stars was an honest review.

Despite all of the issues I may have had with this book, I continued to keep reading it. And that's something that should be commended. Will I read the second installment? I'm not sure. Perhaps. This isn't like some novels where I finish the first part and am pre-ordering the next installment so that I can read it the moment it comes out. But I also haven't written the series entirely off, either.

And Tomi Adeyemi will remain on my radar as an author. Let's see what she does next.

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