All posts tagged book reviews

The Thousandth Floor

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The Thousandth Floor cover

I recently read The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, and I liked it quite a lot. This book is not without its controversy, however. In interest of fairness, I’m going to talk about what I liked about the book, as well as the more controversial elements of this book. That way you can make a more informed decision about whether this book is for you or not.

The Thousandth Floor takes place in 2118, in a giant tower that soars 1000 stories in the air. It deals with the über-wealthy, the poor, and the places where their lives intersect. Not one of the characters in this book is a saint. I feel a sympathy for most of these people, but at the same time… wow, they really mess up. It makes for an interesting story that climaxes at a party that ends in tragedy.

What I Liked

This story was fun. The characters on the upper floors live lives where money isn’t a concern and morality is quite loosely defined. Most of the parents aren’t very involved in their children’s lives, sometimes even drinking alcohol with them. On the lower floors, the characters are just trying to survive, and their descent into illegality has more to do with survival than just trying to have a good time.

Still, they all have their secrets. Some of these secrets are deadlier than others. As I read this book, sometimes I’d be afraid to read on, afraid that one of them would get caught. Of course, if you read the prologue, you know something bad is going to happen. You just don’t know who. I didn’t know until the end.

In many ways, this seems to be an escapist read. These aren’t really problems that I have to deal with, and there can be something satisfying about wealthy people with problems.

The Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book, which may make you decide not to read it.

The “incest” storyline – from nearly the first chapter, you find out that Avery, a girl that was genetically designed to be as “perfect” as possible, is in love with her adoptive brother. They’re not genetically related, but if you find this sort of thing creepy, then you’re probably better off not reading this series.

Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers – there is one character who is bi. None of the characters seem to think that it’s a big deal or anything. However, the character does die. I can see how this might be troublesome.

Other Social Issues – The Thousandth Floor seems to have some social difficulties. The white girl is perfect. The brown girl seems to be the villain. The Indian guy is the computer genius. Drugs are used to take advantage of a boy. There’s some sexual harassment. This seems to be a pattern.

Conclusion

The Thousandth Floor is fun to read. It drew me in from the prologue (and I don’t care for most prologues). However, this book isn’t without its controversy, and there are issues you should be aware of before you should decide to read this book or not.

Nottingham

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Nottingham cover

How well do you know the story of Robin Hood? To be honest, I really didn’t know the story well before reading Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk. Of course, this is just one interpretation of the tale (and I’m pretty sure the legend’s traditional ending is a little different) but after reading the story, I feel like I know Robin Hood a little better.

I recently read this book after receiving an Advanced Reader Copy (thank you Bookish first and Tor Books). Overall, I enjoyed the book, although the ending wasn’t really my thing.

In Nottingham, Robin is the son of a nobleman who went off to fight the crusades. They’re having difficulty arming the soldiers, and when a shipment of weapons doesn’t show up, King Richard sends them back to England to investigate. They find out what happened to the weapons, but in the process, are drawn into the really ugly (and bloody) feud between the nobility and peasants, both of whom are suffering from the burdensome taxes.

The Rent is Too Damn High!

The Rent is too Damn High

It seems that Jimmy McMillan (the guy pictured above and founder of the Rent is Too Damn High party) brought up a timeless truth: the rent is too damn high! People feel that today (I recently saw an article about people paying $1200 a month to rent a bunk bed), and they felt that way in the 12th century. The legend of Robin Hood came from a time when historically, the ordinary people were having a really difficult time making ends meet. Nottingham captures that feeling quite well, and really doesn’t put the blame on anyone. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and this book gives even the “villains” reasons for their actions.

That doesn’t mean I liked all the characters. I despised some of them (as people, they weren’t supposed to be likeable). Even the unlikeable characters here had good motivations for doing what they did.

This story has a lot of parallels to our own time (beyond the rent being too damn high). As someone who has friends whose political opinions range from very conservative to very liberal, I know that most people want to do the right thing. Most people aren’t the bad people the other side makes them out to be. They just have fundamental differences in worldviews that make it hard to agree on the solution. This happens all throughout this story as well. There are good people and villains on both the Robin Hood side of the story, as well as the Sheriff’s side of the story.

Writing

The descriptions in Nottingham were well-done. Sometimes authors have difficulty with fight scenes, but I think Mr. Makaryk did a good job with those. I ended up writing a page and a half of quotes from this book into my book journal.

While I enjoyed the writing, this book may or may not be a little on the long side, depending on your mood. There are a lot of different points of view in this book. Each character had their own unique voice, but with so many different characters, there’s a lot of story here. Don’t let the fact that this book is only shortly over 490 pages fool you: the type is fairly small, so the word count is a lot higher than most books of this length. Read this book when you’re looking more for a Game of Thrones style read than something you can quickly devour during a day or two at the beach.

The End and Last Thoughts

The end was really the one thing I can say I didn’t like about this book. I don’t really want to give away spoilers, but this not a book that ends well (that is, happily). There were good guys and bad guys on both sides of the struggle here, and there could have been multiple ways for Nottingham to come to a satisfying conclusion, but it didn’t really do that. Throughout the book, it seemed like some of the problems were insurmountable, and evidently, they were (at least for the immediate future).

Although I wouldn’t recommend this story if you’re in the mood for a happily-ever-after, if you’re looking for a story with complex characters, a lot of struggle, and an intricate world, you might want to check out Nottingham. It doesn’t go on sale until August 6th, but you can pre-order it now.

The Poppy War

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
The Poppy War cover

Last year, everybody was talking about The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. When I saw it on sale last year, I had to pick it up. I didn’t get around to reading it until this year though. It was an enjoyable, but fairly dense, book.

In a land resembling medieval China, Rin is struggling to make a tolerable life for herself. Being a poor orphan girl, she only has one shot: she needs to ace the Keju exams, or she’ll be forced into a marriage she doesn’t want. Getting a scholarship into the prestigious Sinegard academy may be her ticket out of marriage, but it won’t be the end of her struggles. Not only is the academy more difficult than anything she’s ever experienced, war is on the horizon.

What I Liked

There was a lot that I liked about this book. I liked Rin, the protagonist, and her determination. The supporting characters were interesting and unique. I also loved the Medieval China-ish setting. This is still a world we don’t see a lot of.

This is a very dense book with some heavy themes and philosophizing. I copied down several quotes into my book journal, like “the creation of empire requires conformity and uniform obedience” and “It was, simply, what happened when one race decided that the other was insignificant.” When war comes to this land, there is a race of people that wants to wipe out the other. The war is quite brutal.

Things to Note

There is magic in this book, but the magic doesn’t seem to be the central focus of The Poppy War. Rin doesn’t really start to develop her powers until later in the book, so later books in this trilogy might be different.

Like I said earlier, the war in this book is quite brutal. The Poppy War is a pretty heavy book. If you’re in the mood for a light contemporary, you might want to wait on this one. Some people might find the brutality in this book to be triggering. War is hell, especially when one of the parties doesn’t see the other side as worthy of humanity.

While I’m typically not a mood reader — I stick to my seasonal TBR pretty well, like to create monthly TBRs, and generally read my ARCs when they’re scheduled — I definitely want to read the sequel, The Dragon Republic, when I’m in the mood for something dark.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

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It’s books like This Is How You Lose the Time War that make me glad that I don’t give books a star rating on my blog. This is a book that is unique and kinda defies a rating. It may be a book that you either love or hate. Or, you could be in the middle and appreciate it’s brilliance, but the story didn’t have you at the edge of your seat. That is where I am on this book.

I have to thank Bookish First and Saga Press for providing me with an ARC!

Red and Blue are time travelers, fighting on two different sides of the same time war. They start to write letters to each other. First, the letters are taunting. Then, they start to develop a mutual respect for each other. That respect grows into love. Of course, since they are on opposite sides of the war, so their bosses cannot find out. If they do, that would be a mess. I can’t say much more of the plot without giving away spoilers.

Its Brilliance

First, the good: This Is How You Lose the Time War is a brilliant book. As Red and Blue travel through time, you get to see snippets of history which the time travelers sometimes change, sometimes keep the same. We see the Mongols, Atlantis, ancient Rome… as someone who loves history, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. I think my favorite line in this whole book is the tongue-twister about the Mongols found on page 35 of the ARC.

This book is smart in several other ways. Red and Blue are constantly trying to find new things to call each other, such as “My careful Cardinal” for Red, and “Dearest 0000FF” for Blue. It was fun to see the new words they’d call each other. There were several words I ended up looking up in the dictionary. Also, the way the plot resolves itself was lovely. I think there would be a lot of things you’d catch if you reread this book.

The Downsides to this Book

Yes, this book is brilliant. That in itself is a pro and a con. The book can be confusing, especially in the beginning. It took me a while to really start to understand what was going on. Even then, the book didn’t have me hanging at the edge of my seat, needing to know what was going to happen next, until close to the very end.

Conclusion

This Is How You Lose the Time War may be a book that you love, or it could be a book that you hate. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but it really is that type of book. While it is brilliantly executed, it’s also a book that won’t be for everyone, or for every mood. If you’re looking for a beach read that you can just enjoy and wash over you, this won’t be it; however, if you’re looking for an intelligent book that will get you thinking, you might enjoy this one.

City of Brass

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
The City of Brass cover

I recently finished reading City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. I started reading it for a readalong last December and… then I got distracted by a shiny — ooh, a book! — and I kept forgetting to get back to it. Don’t let the fact that I got distracted while reading this book deter you. I did like it.

Nahri is a young woman just trying to survive in old-timey Cairo. This isn’t an easy task, as you can imagine. She doesn’t have a family to fall back on, and she has become skilled as a con-artist in the process. Until she accidentally summons a djinn. Whoops.

From that point, her life will never be the same. The next thing you know, Nahri and the djinn are running away from monsters. They end up taking shelter in Daevabad, which seems like a good idea at first, but happens to be ruled by a monster of a different kind.

There’s a lot to this book, which makes the book both intriguing and… perhaps a little overwhelming.

First, City of Brass has quite an array of supernatural beings. Some of them I’m familiar with, like the djinn, but then there are many other tribes and cultures with different affinities, and it’s all really hard to keep track of. Then each culture has a rich history and… I certainly can’t remember it all. Never mind that I got distracted and went off and read a bunch of other books before finishing this one, I had trouble keeping this all in my head while I was reading it.

Then, there’s the court of Daevabad itself. There are rebels and the ruling family has its history and everybody is fighting against each other. It might not have been as difficult if I hadn’t already been trying to keep track of all the supernatural beings.

There is a bit of a love triangle with Nahri and the djinn that she ends up summoning and the younger prince. It’s not resolved in this book. I have my personal favorite that I’m rooting for, but I’ll have to read the next book to see what happens.

My guess is that this book is one that would be better upon a reread. While I enjoyed the book, I’m not sure if I liked it enough to reread it. The characters were interesting enough, but I didn’t feel a connection to them like I do in some of the books that I can reread over and over and over again.

So, while City of Brass is well-written and has an amazingly complex and intricate world, it didn’t end up being one that I’ll gush over for years to come. That’s mostly on me, not the book. If I would have felt more connection to the characters or been more familiar with the culture, I probably would have liked it more.

Obsidian

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Obsidian cover

It’s summer now, which means it’s time to get started on my Summer TBR! One of the books on that list was Obsidian. I’ve been meaning to try out Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux books since I received an ARC of The Darkest Star last fall (just to be clear, I recieved it from a blogger after the pub date, not the publisher, so I wasn’t obligated to review it right away). I accidentally read Storm and Fury, and I really liked it, so I figured it was time to read the rest of her books.

Katy is the new girl in this fairly small town where everybody seems to know each other. Her mom wants her to get to know her neighbors, while she’d rather stay home and blog (she even mentions Waiting on Wednesday!). The boy next door, Daemon, happens to be hot… but for some reason he seems to have this immediate hatred for her. His sister seems to like her though. Over the course of this story, Katy and Daemon seem to develop this enemies to… enemies that are attracted to each other relationship. Oh, and the neighbors happen to be aliens too.

What I Liked

So what book blogger can’t identify with another book blogger? I’ve never written a Waiting on Wednesday post, but I’ve certainly read them. I thought it was a great touch that Katy actually seemed like a pretty normal blogger. I also really liked Katy’s voice. She had enough of an attitude to be interesting.

Then there was the whole relationship aspect in Obsidian. There’s a good friendship portrayed here between Katy and Dee. Once high school starts, Katy makes some other friends as well. Then there’s Daemon; their relationship is kinda hawt.

What I Didn’t Like Quite as Much

Daemon is a world-class jerk. Katy doesn’t do anything to him the day they meet, and he insults her pretty much immediately. Then they end up having to spend time with each other, and he’s kinda nice, and then he’s a jerk again…

Katy, you deserve better than this!

She’s not a stupid girl. She puts all the clues together and figures out what’s going on. Yet… she still hangs out with Daemon even after he’s been an ass, and he really doesn’t make amends and give a good apology for his behavior. Yes, the book was fun and I enjoyed reading it, but I really had to set this particular aspect of the book aside.

I guess the other thing I didn’t like quite as much about this book was Ash. She’s one of the other students in the school and was formerly in a relationship with Daemon. There’s something of an explanation to her behavior as it relates to the situation and Daemon (which I won’t mention here) but she again was a jerk to her for no reason, and Daemon was again an ass about it.

Conclusion

I know I wrote more about what I didn’t like than what I did like here, but I really did like Obsidian. I’m looking forward to clearing some room in my reading schedule to continue this series. Katy was a great character and I really liked her, and I want to find out what happens to her. But yes, there were some problems with Daemon. I’m willing to overlook it, and there are reasons to explain his behavior, but this isn’t a good example of a healthy beginning to a relationship.

So I would recommend Obsidian, but if you’ve had problems with verbally abusive boyfriends in the past, perhaps this might not be the book for you. If you didn’t like Jude and Cardan in The Cruel Prince series, this probably wouldn’t be a series you’d like either.

Killing Kennedy

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Killing Kennedy cover

Recently, I’ve started to put more audiobooks into my life. I haven’t been reading as many non-fiction books as I would like, so I decided to read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy as an audiobook. It was really good and I learned a lot.

If you’re not familiar with O’Reilly’s Killing series, he takes a topic and writes all about the events that lead to the person’s death. The books are written in a narrative style, so they’re fairly entertaining. In the past, I’ve read Killing Lincoln, Killing Reagan, and Killing the Rising Sun.

Killing Kennedy starts off during World War II, where Kennedy is first tested as a leader. After his boat sinks, he saves the people on his crew through quick thinking, a lot of swimming, and a little bit of luck. If it wasn’t for this incident (and the death of his older brother), we might not have ever heard much from the Kennedys.

Most of the book focuses on the time when Kennedy was president. O’Reilly discusses some of the major events of his time in office, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis. The book also discusses Kennedy’s personal life, including his dalliances outside of his marriage to Jackie, the loss of his child Patrick, and his love for his children. It also covers some of the major social movements of the time, such as the civil rights movement.

Of course, since this is a Killing book, Kennedy has to die sometime. We’re introduced to the character of Lee Harvey Oswald long before he makes his fateful shots. Killing Kennedy follows Oswald from his days in the Soviet Union, where he meets his wife Marina, all the way through his death at the hands of Jack Ruby.

Although there are conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s death, O’Reilly makes no judgement about them one way or another. Just as he does in Killing Lincoln, O’Reilly states the facts and lets you come to your own conclusions. He goes into a lot of detail about what happened that morning, including Jackie’s reaction and what some people noticed prior to the shooting.

If you’ve ever wondered about Kennedy’s time in office or about his assassination, Killing Kennedy is a great book. I highly recommend it and will be reading more books in the Killing series in the future.

The Storm Crow

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The Storm Crow cover

I recently had the opportunity to read The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire). I enjoyed it a lot, and plan on reading the sequel sometime after that one comes out.

Things are going badly for Thia, the princess of Rhodaire. One day, she’s a mischievous teen about to become a crow rider; the next day, all her dreams fall apart. Worse yet, her sister expects her to marry Prince Ericen from the enemy’s kingdom! All Thia wants to do right now is lay in bed all day. The situation looks hopeless, but if that was the case, this wouldn’t be a very good story.

What I Liked

Thia becomes depressed in this story. She doesn’t have chronic suicidality (I know someone with this problem), but she has a situational depression that can occur after a traumatic event. After our house fire years ago, I felt pretty upset and anxious, although not to the point where I was in bed all day. Still, I can see where she was coming from. I liked how Thia was able to rise above her depression and become the heroine that her kingdom needed her to be.

I like how things aren’t always as they seem to be. The characters that are portrayed as bad guys might not actually be that bad. In addition, there was a revelation that happened towards the end of The Storm Crow that surprised me. I won’t say what it is because… spoilers.

The Storm Crow also had some pretty good friend rep. Thia has a best friend, Kiva, who gets to stay with her, even when Thia is forced to travel into the enemy’s kingdom. Yes, Kiva does work as Thia’s guard, so she’s kind of a subordinate, but they both have a friendship kind of respect for each other, and Kiva isn’t afraid to kick her friend in the butt every now and then shen she needs it.

What Was Not Quite As Good

Although I really liked the story, it did kinda get off to a slow start. The really exciting parts happened towards the end of the book. The last part of the book flew by for me, while I wasn’t as excited about the book during the first part of the story.

Conclusion

I enjoyed The Storm Crow enough that I plan on reading the sequel at some point whenever it comes out. Although the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are several unanswered questions that I’d like to know the answer to. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but I added it to my TBR.

This book doesn’t come out until July 9th, but you can pre-order it now.

Kingdom of Ash

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Kingdom of Ash Cover

The final installment of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series is Kingdom of Ash. At 980 pages, this is an epic book. To be honest, it was a little bit too long. But it was a fitting end to a great series.

Because this is a review of the last book of a series, there are spoilers for the first six books.

At the beginning of the book, things look hopeless. Aelin is in an iron box trapped by Maeve (whom we now know is Valg), all of our protagonists are separated, and the forces of evil have their armies everywhere. How are they going to find Aelin and fight off all these forces? I don’t think I’m really spoiling much to say that they’re going to eventually win. An ending where Maeve and Erawan win and everyone dies would have everybody shaking their fists, vowing to never read another Sarah J. Maas book again.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see the twists and turns, and find out how Ms. Maas was going to pull the characters out of all the messes they got themselves into. There were several situations where things looked really bleak. Sadly, not everybody will survive. In the end, there was no irrational “oh the gods came down and saved everyone” end either. The way the conflict was resolved was quite satisfying.

A Really Long Book

I like big books as well as the next person, but Kingdom of Ash might have been a little bit too long. There were too many long, detailed battle scenes. While I enjoy history, I don’t particularly care for reading a lot of battle scenes. They can easily become too much for me. I gave this book four stars on Goodreads – pretty much the reason it lost a star was the length. Partly due to the battle scenes.

Kingdom of Ash is very detailed. I found myself referring to the map several times while reading this book. There were characters that show up in this book that we haven’t seen since Throne of Glass. There is so much going on in this book that someday I may have to binge-read this series again just to remember everything that happened.

To give an example of how long this book is, there’s about 100 pages of this book where stuff happens after the climax of the book: coronations, wedding talk, that sort of thing. Yes, I want to find out what happens to the characters afterwards, but for 100 pages? After already reading nearly 900 pages? It was a little bit much.

Conclusion

I liked this book. There were a lot of great characters and subplots, but the length was just a bit too much, even for someone that reads a lot of long books. If you’re going to make your fiction book nearly 1000 pages, make sure they’re all necessary.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Ghosts of the Shado Market cover

Cassandra Clare’s Ghosts of the Shadow Market came out on Tuesday, and I was so excited to read it! While I know a lot of the novellas came out earlier, I didn’t buy them and decided to wait until this week to read them. I loved this book, and am now excited to try to find time to reread some of these books!

This book assumes you are familiar with The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices. My review may contain spoilers for these books.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market contains ten short stories (some of which are novella length). Jem/Brother Zechariah is a constant presence in these. They should probably be read in order (at least for the first read-through). There is a common thread running through these stories: Jem is looking for the Lost Heir. The stories take place between 1901 (with the children of The Infernal Devices characters) and 2013 (which occurs after The Dark Artifices).

What I Loved

The Characters. Because this book takes place over a long period of time, there are a ton of characters in this book. Some you’ll be familiar with, but there are others that will appear in The Last Hours trilogy. I never realized that Lily (the head of the New York vampires) was so smitten with James Carstairs! It was fun to see little Jace and the little Lightwoods years before The Mortal Instruments, along with the other characters.

The Worldbuilding. This is one of the things that I love about Cassandra Clare’s books. The world and lore is so intertwined and full.

The Historical Background. I’m a student of history, so I’m familiar with The Great Depression, World War II, etc. The book was well-researched, and I even learned something. When London was bombed, the shops tried to stay open. Some of them that had been bombed were still open, hanging out signs saying they were “more open than usual.” I thought that was funny (I checked, and they actually did have these signs out).

The Humor. I laughed out loud in several places in this book. “Isabelle is the love of my life, but her seven-layer dip is like the nine circles of Hell,” Lily’s constant nicknames for Jem, and several other places in the book were quite funny.

The Story. In Ghosts of the Shadow Market, you get to find out things that happened after Queen of Air and Darkness, and how Alec and Magnus ended up adopting Rafael. While it won’t be necessary to read this book to enjoy The Last Hours or The Wicked Powers, this book enriches the Shadowhunter universe.

What Could Be Better

Because The Last Hours won’t be released until next March, it took me a while to figure out who was whose kid (and don’t quiz me even now, I’m still a little fuzzy on these). I still enjoyed the stories that took place in 1901, but I think I will like them better once I’m more familiar with these characters and who is who.

One of the stories takes place in 1989 and one of the characters refers to Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. The song came out in 1983 and was mostly popular in that year and 1984. I really couldn’t imagine someone referring to the song in 1989 unless they were hopelessly behind the times. Which perhaps the character is.

Conclusion

If you enjoyed The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices, I recommend this book. If you haven’t read all twelve of those books yet, I recommend you read those first. Ghosts of the Shadow Market adds to the Shadowhunter world and advances the story. It’s made me more excited for Chain of Gold, which is coming out next March!