“The world can’t hurt you if you just ignore it; well, not until it kills you anyway.”
This book shouldn’t make any sense at all but I swear it makes more sense than any other fantasy I’ve read before. This is one of the best books, the ones where you can just sit back and let them take you for a ride because you have no idea what’s even going to happen in the next sentence.
also September 2021
Wait this is gonna be a TRILOGY??? What a thing to drop in your Acknowledgements holy sh*t
Anyway, I’m ready for book two! More cities that are alive and have human avatars, please!...more
Thomas Jefferson had always been interested in fossils. He was interested in one skeleton in particular: the wooly mammoth. That’s right, Thomas JeffeThomas Jefferson had always been interested in fossils. He was interested in one skeleton in particular: the wooly mammoth. That’s right, Thomas Jefferson was a connoisseur of fossils from the Ice Age. Eventually he even had fossils moved to the the White House.
The cover reminded me of Blue Is the W CWs: abuse, anti-LGBTQ+ violence, bullying, depression, homophobia, homophobic slur, nonconsensual operations
The cover reminded me of Blue Is the Warmest Color, so of course I had to pick it up. It turns out that this is, in fact, illustrated by the one and only Julie Maroh! I will never cease to be amazed by the expressiveness of their characters. I felt every emotion on the page, no small feat because there was such a large range of emotions to convey.
This could be your generic coming-out-romance story, but there’s something that sets it apart from the crowd. I think it boils down to the beautiful relationships these characters share and how those relationships evolve. Everyone has a lesson to learn; everyone has something to teach. And I think that’s beautiful. ...more
CWs: abuse, anxiety, attempted rape, cannibalism, choking, colorism, death, death of parents, deflection, deY’all ready for these content warnings?!?
CWs: abuse, anxiety, attempted rape, cannibalism, choking, colorism, death, death of parents, deflection, depression, epidemic, eugenics, familicide, forced marriage, gaslighting, hallucinations, incest, infanticide, live burial, manipulation, mass murder, mental illness, mistreatment of workers, racism, self-blame, self-doubt, self-harm, seizure, sexual assault, suicide, trauma
Whew! I think I covered most of them.
This book is my ideal kind of horror: slow-burn spooks with increasingly disturbing imagery + bits of full-blown horror that are easy enough to skim through. Noemí is an excellent protagonist. I never lost interest in this book because her character brings so much lightness to the dark atmosphere she finds herself in. It makes it even more heartbreaking when she inevitably gets sucked into that same darkness and has to fight tooth and nail to escape it.
I’ve been excited for this book since it was first announced! I’m a longtime fan of the Yoda and Luke training sequence in TESB. But then again, who I’ve been excited for this book since it was first announced! I’m a longtime fan of the Yoda and Luke training sequence in TESB. But then again, who isn’t a longtime fan? Cuckoo senior-citizen Yoda is the best Yoda.
There are some bits in this book that I found to be really inspiring, like this quote:
“You will know the good from the bad when you are at peace.”
A lot of things have felt really confusing for me lately, and I have had a difficult time telling the right path from the wrong path. This quote is the answer to the question I’ve been asking myself over and over: when I find peace, I will find the way.
“Before you your path lies. Hard choices there will be. Off to face his greatest challenge Skywalker is... But wiser he will emerge. As will you, in whatever you may face. As long as you mind what you have learned... a Jedi you will be.”
This would’ve been five stars, but the ending wasn’t as epic as it should’ve been. Seriously. I wish Doescher would’ve given those last few scenes theThis would’ve been five stars, but the ending wasn’t as epic as it should’ve been. Seriously. I wish Doescher would’ve given those last few scenes the attention they deserve instead of summarizing them all in a couple of pages. The Hug deserves at least two pages. Okay, fine, I’m exaggerating about the hug, but it’s still jarring how quickly everything got wrapped up.
Nevertheless, I want to express gratitude for the love and care Doescher has given this trilogy and its characters. While many of us had to suffer through the near-constant male dismissal of the sequel trilogy (including dismissal and open hatred for Rey and Rose), it means a lot that he saw the value in the sequels and the depth they have to offer. For that I will always be grateful. So thank you, Ian Doescher. I will always be proud to love Star Wars alongside people like you. ...more
TWs: sexual assault, drug abuse, depression, suicide attempt, bigotry
I have a lot of mixed feelings on this one. Being a queer person, this b2.5 stars
TWs: sexual assault, drug abuse, depression, suicide attempt, bigotry
I have a lot of mixed feelings on this one. Being a queer person, this book just doesn’t have a lot to offer me. It doesn’t have #ownvoices representation and the main character is a straight ally, someone I have a tough time connecting with. Because, as Jonah (her gay best friend) points out, Georgia will never know what it feels like to endure the kind of discrimination and dehumanization that LGBTQ+ people face on a large scale.
But I do think Georgia’s perspective has value for straight allies. I think Georgia messing up and learning from the LGBTQ+ people she is trying to support is very important for straight allies to see.
I would’ve felt more comfortable with it overall if Jonah wasn’t so much the Gay Best Friend whose social life almost entirely revolves around Georgia. There were a few attempts to subvert this trope, but all the attempts felt half-hearted to me. I needed more from Jonah to round it all out. Alternating POV chapters between Georgia and Jonah would have been ideal....more