OYENTE

Dustin Street

  • 9
  • opiniones
  • 0
  • votos útiles
  • 10
  • calificaciones

An Incredible Odyssey and Insightful Journey

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-21-20

I’ve had this masterpiece on my TBR pile for way too long. I’m so happy to have finally gotten to it. This book was an exciting, adventurous odyssey from start to finish. The author moved the plot and her characters in a way that felt so fresh and subversive and unexpected. It was refreshing to read a story so well crafted that the crafting itself was undetectable.

Ireland created real characters that did not need a reader’s permission to waver and be messy and be authentic. There was such a genuine sense of grounded-ness to this alternate-history world, and I think it was the compelling characters that truly made it come alive. This book felt like it could have been written decades, or even a century ago, while still maintaining a fresh perspective and having something to say to a modern audience.

I alternated reading the physical copy and listening to Bahni Turpin’s stunning narration in the audiobook, and I plan to continue that for the sequel, Deathless Divide (which I cannot wait to dive into). This story is one that will stay with me for a long time. Visual, visceral, and just all-around an exciting, unforgettable adventure, with great heart and a great moral at its core.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

WHAT EVEN IS MY LIFE NOW

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-26-20

This is the only one of Adam Silvera’s books to date that I hadn’t read. And boy, was it EXACTLY the Adam book I wanted and needed in my life.

God, where to even begin?!

This book is such a beautiful commentary on the idea of a life well lived, and the idea that it’s never to late to live it. There’s such a big world out there, and so many wonderful things and people to experience in it.

What if we knew the day we were going to die?

I thought about this at such a personal level while I was reading that it almost made me uncomfortable. God, what if I DID get a call saying I had less than twenty-four hours?

Mateo as a character really spoke to me. I saw a lot of myself in him, and I thought about every time I’ve shied away from something or said no or refused to do something because it might embarrass me.

This book really made an impression on me...GO FOR IT. LIVE. DO. BE.

Especially during this pandemic, when so much of life has involved sitting at home, just wondering and wishing about the world outside.

When the world gets back to a state of semi-normalcy, I know I’m going to be deeply examining my life, and my love of the world and people around me.

Thank you, Adam, for such a beautiful, heartbreaking, emotional gut-punch of a read.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A near-perfect storytelling experience

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-20-20

I have been told countless times since this book released that I needed to read it. At last, I have.

I am so very glad I opted for the audiobook experience for this one, because I think it is, quite possibly, the most well-produced audiobook I’ve ever listened to.

This book is not a happy read. It is heavy. It is intense. It’s not here to coddle you and make you feel good about the world, and there is nothing at all to give you the impression that any of it is going to
end happily.

Summers explores dark, but necessary, subject matter in this book, and the plot is woven together in such a masterful way—juxtaposing Sadie’s personally odyssey together with the podcasting journalist’s journey to trace her footsteps and track her down. But these elements are string together in a way that doesn’t feel contrived or cheap. Summers didn’t use shock and bleakness as selling point for her plot. She simply created a character who held a lot of pain, and who existed of her own accord.

Sadie’s voice—brought breathtakingly to life in the audiobook—is haunted and haunting and paints a picture of a girl dealing with REAL trauma, with real situations that feel not like they were plucked from headlines, but directly from someone’s diary.

Deep, dark thoughts about what vengeance is, about what it means to confront a monster and confront what that monster did to you, and—importantly—what the bond between two sisters looks like when they’re all each other has.

This book will take you on a harrowing journey across rural Colorado, in a literary way that almost feels reminiscent of pieces written during America’s naturalist movement. And the podcast sections will bring a jolt of freshness to the story, making it feel current, as it’s produced by an outside voice coming into Sadie’s tragic life.

I can’t rate this book highly enough. It’s my favorite read of 2020 so far.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Oh Ardan...

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-11-20

Ardan is my dark, Unseelie teddy bear. That’s all.

Okay, fine, I’ll write more than that. Because, truly, Bekah’s fourth entry in the IRON CROWN FAERIE TALES series is worth all the good words I can say!

A lot of authors stumble through managing large casts of characters, but Bekah does a spectacular job of giving us just enough of each of them to keep us invested in their stories and wellbeing.

Y’all, I started this series convinced there was no way I’d feel anything but loathing and disgust for some of these characters, and nothing but earn adoration for others, and in four books, Bekah has manage to subvert and completely flip those expectations.

The last book, GAME OF SHADOWS, was the beginning of the second act in this story, and this book rounded out that middle section so very nicely. This book almost felt like a conclusion to the series, save for the final chapter, when Bekah introduces a new voice (albeit a familiar character, just one whose head we’ve never been inside) to the narrative.

This book really focuses on Ivy’s conflicted emotions about her life as the heir of winter, how she will go about reclaiming what’s hers from her evil aunt, Alena, and how she will continue finding agency in a world where it has all been stripped from her.

There’s a frustrating amount of injustice facing Ivy in these books, and what I love about her is that she is growing in her power and learning how to take control of her own destiny and beat back that injustice.

The surprising thing is that, throughout the course of that struggle, some of the things that were forced upon her in the beginning become things she has come to rely on in her forward momentum through the story.

I can’t say much without spoiling, but suffice it to say that Ivy’s path takes some unexpected turns on the road to the inevitable in this book, and while Bekah laid some excellent hints in the previous book about what would happen in this one, she crafted a very entertaining adventure on the way to achieving that end.

Cannot wait to move on to the final two books in this awesome series!

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Desperate Times, Desperate Defeat

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-04-20

The Winter Court stares down the barrel of upheaval in this third installment in Bekah Harris’s IRON CROWN FAERIE TALES saga.

Harris weaves narrative magic in an entry of this story that culminates in a dire endgame hatched by Ivy Hawthorne’s wicked aunt, who stands to gain the winter throne if she wins a deadly contest with her sister, and Ivy’s mother, Queen Lyric.

Simultaneously, Ivy’s desperate attempt to save Barrett Forbes generates even more conflict within Ivy’s betrothed—the Unseelie Prince, Ardan.

GAME OF SHADOWS is a winding tale of alternating victory and defeat—one that lands Ivy in a difficult position, where her duty and her personal convictions continue to be at odds with one another, and where her decisions will continue to play a role in deciding the fate of the kingdom she is destined to inherit.

Nikki Delgado continues to mesmerize with a voice that has become as tied to this story in my mind as its own characters. I can’t get enough of this intriguing world Bekah Harris has imagined!

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Stifling and Hopeful

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-15-20

This book was SO GOOD. Court Stevens is such a gifted author who injects such a powerful pathos into her prose and pulls out every imaginable emotion from her readers. This story was so gripping and suspenseful and kept me guessing until the last few chapters. I loved the themes of hope and perseverance that weaved their way through the narrative, and I found myself really rooting for Thea and Aulus and their friends. Such a powerful concluding message about truth and perception. Always excited for Court’s work, and this was no exception! (Strongly recommend those on audiobook, so you can listen to Court have a conversation about the book with Ruta Septys!)

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Evolution in Reading

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-08-20

This book was a roller coaster for me. I have been curious about it since it came out a couple years ago. I think the subject matter here is very important. Sex positivity carries a certain stigma, and it fails to adequately address the very real fact that teenagers ARE HAVING SEX. There’s nothing we can do to stop that.

But what we can do is equip them with the proper tools to engage safely and with as little risk as possible. It’s sad, though, that they’d have to turn to a book like this in order to get key educational points about it, rather than that information being readily available to them elsewhere.

It’s especially concerning that LGBT+ teens have even less access to important information. This book definitely addresses that, as well as other problematic issues, including the weird trend of straight girls fetishizing gay boys and men and their behaviors, relationships, etc. This book shone a light on that issue in a very nuanced way that I definitely appreciated.

My big problem with this book was Jack himself. I found it really difficult to relate to him as a character, in spite of all the good he was doing in the story in writing his sex column for Jenna’s website. I found him to be obnoxiously privileged, and seemingly proud of that fact (constantly referring to himself as rich). I also found some of his personal decisions difficult. Like...why would he really not go to the police over the stalking? It just seemed contrary to his character.

Jack admits several times to being a stereotype of what people think gay guys are by default. And I guess that bothered me a little bit, because my experiences with the LGBT+ community have been different. Where there was nuance in other issues, the portrayal of a gay male in this story seemed to lack any nuance whatsoever. Jack was just straight up unlikable for me throughout most of the book.

But by the end I realized something important, and it’s what drove me to give the book 4 stars.

Maybe it was the author’s intention to present Jack this way in order to make a very important point: it doesn’t matter what someone looks like, acts like, dresses like, etc. No one deserves to be bullied or stalked or made to feel uncomfortable in their own skin. Not even someone with whom it’s hard to identify or with whose actions we don’t always agree. Even if Jack is rich, privileged, bitchy, rebellious, shallow, a self-proclaimed slut...none of that matters. He didn’t deserve what he was put through.

The other big message of this book is that there’s no right or wrong way to be gay or different. Everyone has their own experience. Everyone has to blaze their own trail and figure things out in their own time. And that’s not just true of gay people...and in that way, anyone could learn something from this story.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

More wonder and whim in the world of Winter...and beyond!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-15-20

The continuing adventures of Ivy Hawthorne—the newly-crowned Thorn Princess—continue in this second entry to the Iron Crown Faerie Tales.

Bekah Harris’s prose sings as she weaves even more threads into this rich tale of magic, betrayal, and fantastical intrigue.

Nikki Delgado’s voice is back for another audiobook adventure in Harris’s Faerie, and her smooth, sultry tones will carry you off through portals, to faraway realms you’ve only ever dreamed of.

A fantastic follow-up that has me craving more from this wonderfully realized world!

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Bekah’s a master storyteller

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-23-19

Bekah Harris has done it again! Her prose has taken us into many different Appalachian settings, and this series opener is no exception! The Thorn Princess is immersive and refreshingly relevant. Delgado’s narration also lends a sense of wonder to the story. I can’t wait to listen to the follow-up!

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro805_stickypopup