Started: 2/27/21
Gave up: 3/3/21
People LOVE Diana Wynne Jones, but it appears I am not people. I tried one a while back – it was okay. I tried this one about British witches saving the world in the early 1990s – what’s not to like? But I feel very meh about it, so I gave up. She wrote Howl’s Moving Castle, and it’s supposed to be amazing, so I will try that sometime, but if I don’t like that one, I think I might have to be done with her.
Started: 2/8/21
Finished: 2/12/21
T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon when she’s writing kids’ books) is one of the guests of honor at this convention I’m (virtually) attending this weekend, so I figured I’d read her next to most recent book before then. I’ve read three before this and loved them, and I love this. I love it when I find a new favorite.
Started: 1/30/21
Finished: 2/3/21
I love Sarah Gailey and everything they’ve written. This is their first YA book – it’s about friends with magic, and it starts dark. The main character is pretty insecure ways that feel real even though they’re not how any of my insecurities work. I’m not totally crazy about how the magic works. I mean, it’s not explained and I don’t think it has to be, but the friends seem to be so convinced that this one thing will work, and I don’t know why they would think that. Except it’s likely they are trying to convince themselves it’ll work. Anyway, I liked it, I enjoyed it, and a lot of things about it were really good. I’m just not sure it’s really good.
Started: 1/3/21
Finished: 1/11/21
Last in the Great Library series. It ends well, but there’s a magical element that feels…not shoehorned in exactly, but maybe not as well-developed as everything else. These books have a lot going on, and I think the series could have ended without it. BUT I liked them very much, and I’m planning to read some of the author’s other stuff.
Started: 12/27/20
Finished: 1/2/21
NOT what I expected. I mean, the book cover says straight out it’s a Victorian/Regency novel but with dragons, and it would be ridiculous to expect dragons to behave exactly like humans even with that premise, but a couple of things still took me by surprise. Good surprise, if these two genres are your thing (and they are mine).
Started: 12/19/20
Finished: 12/25/20
Book 4 in the Great Library series. The stakes keep getting higher. No, the stakes have always been the same. The tension is ratcheting up.
Started: 12/9/20
Finished: 12/14/20
Book 3 in the Great Library series. How will our rebels overcome evil in this installment? I’m not telling. You’ll have to read it.
Started: 12/2/20
Finished: 12/5/20
Second in the Great Library series, still good stuff.
Started: 11/14/20
Finished: 11/17/20
This is the first book in the Great Library series, and it came highly recommended. I’ve been burned (heh) by that before, so I didn’t have particularly high hopes, especially when I realized that our main characters were all teenagers (sigh), but what a wonderful surprise this one turned out to be! It starts out with one premise, immediately makes you rethink it, and then gradually gives you a whole different perspective, and I loved it.
Started: 11/14/20
Gave up: 11/14/20
I read the first short story in this collection and started the second, and no, thank you. These are not for me. A little too graphic, a little to uncomfortable, a little too “I’m not sure what happened here”, and I decided to move on.
Started: 11/1/20
Finished: 11/13/20
This book marks the first time I’ve been disappointed by an Ann Leckie book. The style is different, but interesting-different, not off-putting, so that was fine, but I finished this book over a month ago and I cannot remember the ending. I remember the reveal, but I don’t know what happens to the characters. So…I suppose that’s saying something about how I feel about this book.
Started: 10/29/20
Finished: 11/1/20
Third book in the Abhorsen series, combines all the characters and picks up immediately after the second book. Good ending to the first trilogy.
Started: 10/24/20
Finished: 10/29/20
Second book in the Abhorsen series, with a better main character than the first book and a companion who’s much more fun.
Started: 10/15/20
Finished: 10/24/20
I found this slow to start, but it eventually grabbed me, and when I finished it, I jumped straight into the second book.
Started: 9/18/20
Gave up: 9/19/20
I gave up on this one, but not through any fault of its own. I just wasn’t in the mood. It’s set in early 20th century Mexico, and maybe it’s fantasy and maybe it’s magical realism (which I generally do NOT like), but there are gods and bargains and LOTS of discussions of towns and their histories, and yeah. Not in the mood. It has really good reviews, so I feel bad about giving up, but not that bad.
Started: 9/9/20
Finished: 9/18/20
I was really looking forward to this one – it was nominated for a Hugo this year, I loved the short story she was nominated for last year, and I liked the short story she was nominated for this year. The book didn’t start well for me. It was interesting, and the premise is interesting, but the writing felt…amateurish. It got better (I think), but the book within a book thing took too long to pay off. I did eventually get hooked, but I found myself thinking about giving up on it a couple of times. If I had read it between the ages of 10 and 18, maybe, I probably would have loved it.
Started: 8/28/20
Gave up: 8/30/20
It feels familiar at the beginning, and I wasn’t in the mood for another same-old story, but I’d heard good things about it and the premise is fascinating, so I kept going. Then there were hints of something really dark and awful going on that the heroine is going to find out, and okay, I’m interested, but she doesn’t follow up! Or she’s more interested in the same-old! Are you kidding me? And then I found out that it’s the first in a series, so I’m not even going to find everything out by the end of the book, and you know, I’m making up my mind to quit reading as I’m typing this.
Yup, I just read a few more pages and then skimmed a few more and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Next!
Started: 8/15/20
Finished: 8/22/20
I wanted to love this book because I loved the one before it, but I was SO confused by it. It seemed to be rewriting the first book in flashback, with different characters and different events, and while that does get explained, it was confusing, not gripping. And then at around 70%, it got 1000 times more fun for me, for reasons I will not explain because spoilers, but that wasn’t enough. And then it ended, and what? I don’t know what happened. I don’t understand the world this series is set in. I love the character of Gideon from the first book, and I really feel for Harrow in both books, and I WILL read the third book because I just have to know, but I was disappointed not to love this one as much as the first.
Started: 8/9/20
Finished: 8/14/20
I don’t know how to talk about this one without spoilers. First, several authors and reviewers I trust LOVE this book. I know the story of Tam Lin because I’ve read two other adaptations of it (Rose and Rot by Kat Howard, which I really enjoyed, and Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, which, according to these same authors and reviewers, should also have been a life-changing experience – it was not). Since I knew the story already, I was looking for clues early and pretty sure I was seeing them, but OH MY GOD this story took forEVER to get to the point, and then it rushed through EVERYthing right at the end. And left a lot of questions. NOT lifechanging for me. Maybe if I’d read it at a younger age…or maybe not.
Started: 7/26/20
Finished: 7/29/20
SO DISAPPOINTING. I mean, it was enjoyable enough, but I was expecting a completely different story since this is supposed to be a sequel to the White Silence AND it picks up right after the other ended. It went in completely different directions (more than once!) and seemed to have nothing to do with the plot of the first book (which had not been resolved), and when it did pick up the plot of the first book (sort of), it resolved unsatisfactorily. Meh. Also, the writing felt more amateurish than the first book and both books felt like that compared to her other books. I don’t understand how that could be, but there it is.