Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Review: Pandora by Susan Stoke-Chapman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, however I opted to listen to the final production version of the audiobook. This book was published in January 2023, so I'm a bit late with my review. As always all opinions expressed are my own.
This was a bit different that I expected. Many of the retellings I've been reading have been set in ancient times and told from the female perspective. Pandora is told from Dora Blake's perspective but it is set in London just as Napoleon is threatening to invade. I really like what the author did with the Pandora myth here by not setting it in ancient Greece, but using the original myth to inspire a completely new story with new characters in a different time period. The original myth is referred to often in the story so you can easily make
Dora as she is known, has grown up surrounded by antiquities, as her parents ran a shop filled with them and after their death's her uncle took over the shop and her care. When an ancient yet pristine vase show up at the shop, Dora can't help but be curious at the vase's origins and her uncle's strange behavior. She is also hoping that the vase might inspire her to sketch some new and interesting jewelry designs in the hopes of supporting herself and moving out from under her uncle's care. With the help of aspiring antiquarian Edward, Dora begins to uncover more information about the vase and with it information about her past that she was not expecting to find.
This was a fun retelling of the Pandora myth. I like the creativity that was used and the social commentary woven throughout. There was a good discussion regarding those with station (aka money) and those without. There was also good commentary regarding women like Dora and Lottie and their reliance on men to keep them fed and housed as there weren't many options for women's employment at the time. While I am of the mindset that artifacts should be returned to the countries of their origin, the book is accurate that black market trade and shops like the Blake's did exist for the sale of antiquities to be used as decoration for anyone with the means to purchase them. I also liked that Pandora struggled between the so called cursed vase causing all of the bad things happening around them and their being a completely logic explanation for every event.
I think this book would be perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper and Anatomy: A Love Story. There is a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, some historical fiction, a hint of magic, and it is perfect for readers of all ages.
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Monday, February 27, 2023
Review: Missing Clarissa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. This book will be publised on March 7, 2023.
I was initially called to this book because I loved Sadie. This unfortunately did not live up to the expectations of being anything like Sadie other than there was a podcast. There was no suspense, the plot was predictable, and the characters were very immature even for teenagers. I had a lot of problems with this book, but it seems I'm in the minority.
This follows two best friends, Cameron aka Cam and Blair as they work on a project for their high school journalism class. Cam is genius level smart and decides they are going to do a podcast focusing on their small town unsolved case of Clarissa Campbell. Clarissa disappeared 20 years ago during a party without a trace, and Cam has decided that she and Blair can blow the case wide open with their investigative prowess and rudimentary podcasting skills. Despite their teacher reminding them to do their research and take care with the investigation they push ahead without abandon. This makes them both look impulsive, irresponsible, and unintelligent. Young women don't need that type of representation in literature. Cam being really smart and Blair being a good athlete and people person was a great combination for them to be a wonderful investigative team. Blair's constant self-depreciation. lack of confidence, and need for validation from her boyfriend that she's pretty because she is all made up got on my nerves. Both characters lacked development and I feel that was a missed opportunity. Maybe this was the author's attempt at satire, metaphor, or allegory. I feel like the author was trying to make a political or social justice statement but I'm not sure what it was. The social commentary aspect needed a bit more well commentary. The author mentions white people alot in this book, but again I'm not sure what message the author was trying to convey by mentioning skin color for every character. I think it was a clumsy attempt at representation and diversity. I love good world building and that includes developing your descriptions of your characters into more than tan and white. There are other political mentions but none of them were well developed. If you are going to make a statement and have an agenda, I feel like I should know what you are trying to tell me. Again I think the author was trying to call out inequality and marginalization but I don't feel it was well developed into the main storyline.
The author does a decent job trying to throw you off the trail of who the actual culprit is while the girls are investigating if you can get past their over the top teenage impulsive behavior. There are enough red herrings to keep you interested, but I did figure out who did it very early on. I thought the plot was pretty predictable.
I'm hoping that the abrupt transition from novel to inserts of podcast script will be fixed in the final edits. In other mixed media you clearly know when you've transitioned from novel to podcast, email, text message, etc. Here there are some excerpts of the podcast between Cam and Blair and those are obvious by the formatting. Later in the book we switch to a different format mostly at the end of each chapter more in a script or blog format that isn't always obvious that is part of their podcast. A quick format in the final version will hopefully fix that, but you never know how that is going to go. I actually thought the podcast script pieces were well written and really enjoyed those sections alot. I needed more of what we got in Blair's final post.
I feel like I was really harsh in this review. I was really hoping to love this book. I think alot of people are going to enjoy this, but this particular style is not my cup of tea. I think this is perfect for readers new to the mystery/thriller genre and those who want something without gore and violence. This is also going to be perfect for the young adult reader. I'd let my middle schooler read this.
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Thursday, February 23, 2023
Review: Only You by Samantha Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Review: The Black Queen by Jumata Emill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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Monday, February 20, 2023
Review: Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Review: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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Sunday, February 19, 2023
Review: Weyward by Emilia Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Review: The Cradle of Ice by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was provided an audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me an opportunity to review this book. As always, all opinions expressed in my review are my own. This book was published on February 7, 2023 and is available now in ebook, print, and audio.
After reading The Starless Crown last year, I couldn't wait for the next installment. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023 and it did not disappoint. While this doesn't end on a what I would consider a cliffhanger, it is very clear that the series is not complete. I'm not sure how many books will be in the series, but I want the next book ASAP. This is a great epic fantasy with some sci-fi elements as well. It is a mix of all of the things I really enjoy about the genre and while it is a bit on the long side, I'm here for ever minute of the journey.
I will say that this book and series has alot going on. If you have trouble keeping track of lots of plot lines and characters, you may not enjoy this book. When I read book 1 I had both the print book and the audiobook going and I found that much easier to keep track of everyone and everything that was going on. This book is long, the audio is just over 26 hours, so if you can't keep track of what is going on it makes things really difficult and hard to stay invested in the story and characters. This time I only had the audio and it was a little harder to keep track of everything. After a few chapters, I was able to settle in and remember who everyone was and stay invested in the story. Speaking of the audiobook the narrator, Nicola Barber was really enjoyable. She did a good job giving a voice to the many characters in the book so you knew who was present in each chapter and who was speaking during dialogue.
As I mentioned this is a tad on the long side, there are times when I felt like the pace and the plot dragged a bit. I find this often occurs in epic fantasy/sci-fi when there are so many plotlines and characters and the author often switches between them from chapter to chapter. You will just start to get invested in one plotline, then you will jump to what is going on somewhere else. The transitions can be a bit jarring and the reader has to remember what was going on a few chapters ago with that part of the story. This also contains many of the tropes that you tend to find in epic fantasy novels and is not devoid of action. This has all of the things I love about a long fantasy/sci-fi novel to keep me interested until the end, it has political intrigue, fight scenes, cool science elements, an interesting magic system, and interesting characters.
Overall, I'm loving this series and I can't wait to find out what happens next.
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Monday, February 13, 2023
Review: The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book vi Netgalley, all opinions are my own. This book was published on February 7, 2023. Thank you to Gallery / Saga Press / Simon & Schuster for providing me an early copy to review.
Let me first start this review by saying, I haven't seen or heard of many of the movies that were mentioned in this book. I tend to consume my horror via book instead of movie because it tends to follow many of the formulas mentioned some with and some without the racial issues brought up within this book. I have seen a few of the book to movie adaptations that were mentioned in this study of horror movies, and often they are poorly done. I did discover a few movies I'd like to check out after reading this book.
This book does a good job portraying and explaining the lack of people of color in movies, horror specifically, and the racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that do have people of color in them. In more recent years Hollywood has seen more diversity behind the camera in the writers, directors, and producers which has changed the casting and portrayal of people of color in movies and the roles they are cast in. There is still work to do, but there has been change in the right direction.
This book has a lot of great points to make about the lack of representation in the movie industry especially when it comes to the horror genre. The authors did a good job with the one liners to add humor to the book. You can tell that the authors are well versed in the horror genre and they did their research. They gave lots of examples of different stereotypes and tropes portrayed by the Black actors in horror movies throughout history. They also went into the various racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that hurt how people of color are seen in movies and in life and how the on screen portrayal is hurtful. People of color have often been portrayed as violent, promiscuous, and savage in horror movies or they are killed off early and often.
I did find that the repetitive nature of the format and the long lists of synopses that are repeated in each chapter take away from the message that the authors are trying to convey. I found that after about chapter 3 I started to lose interest because the same information on the same list of movies was listed multiple times. Given that the authors felt this information was important for the reader to have perhaps an appendix would have worked nicely instead of adding bulk to each chapter. I felt more like I was reading an academic research paper.
Overall, this was a very informative book. If you are a horror movie buff and interested in behind the scenes history, this is a great option.
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Monday, February 6, 2023
Review: Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.
This book started out really strong, the premise of the Wildbloods and blood science is really interesting as is the sentient jungle, however I'm left with alot of unanswered questions at the end. The concept of the Wildbloods is really unique but we never get any explanation as to how they came to be or why they exist. You are just supposed to accept them and their abilities and therefore accept their poor treatment in the touring company. We never really come to understand where each of the characters come from other than they were kidnapped to become part of the touring company and to work for the abusive boss. I love a unique magic system or ability, but I need a little bit of an explanation as to how it works, and we don't get any explanation or tie to the local folklore. I believe the entities encountered in the jungle are tied to Jamaican folklore, but we don't get much background on this either. I don't mind doing my own research on myth and lore, but I feel like the author could have given us a bit more to go on here. I kept hoping that it would come up as the tour proceeded through the jungle, but those details never came to light.
The world building was great. The descriptions of the jungle and the entities that the tour group encounter are well done. After about the first half of the book, the focus of the plot shifts to the strange insta-love romance between Thorn and Victoria, and her trauma filled relationship with Dean. This created what felt like a love triangle, and I feel that the social commentary and character development aspect of the book was overshadowed by the romance tropes. I will say that I enjoyed the ending, and how the author brought things full circle.
This is a pretty brutal book, with lots of trigger warnings. The story is filled with symbolism and trauma. I believe this is YA, so the descriptions of events aren't overly graphic, but the situations and topics lean a bit more on the mature side. There is SA, physical and mental abuse, violence, blood magic, blood in general, slavery, death, and probably some others. The author is trying to address some pretty complex topics within a SFF setting. While I think the execution suffered bit by tackling too many tropes, it was an interesting story overall.
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023
2023 Alphabet Soup – Author Edition Reading Challenge
You can sign up and find all of the info on Dollycas' blog post here. This one sounds really fun and encourages using books you are reading for other challenges for the
I'll be posting updates as I finish titles. I always try to plan out my books in advance, but if the Popsugar and Book Riot reading challenges have taught me anything, it is that I almost never read what is on the plan. Anything with a link has a review posted, so feel free to check out my thoughts.
Link to my google spreadsheet
A - Ryka Aoki - Light from Uncommon Stars
B - Lauren Blackwood - Wildblood
C - Rin Chupeco - Silver Under Nightfall
D - Sarah Daniels - The Stranded
E - Jumata Emill - The Black Queen
F - Francesca Flores - The Witch and the Vampire
G - These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong
H - Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris - The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar
I - Hajime Isayama - Attack on Titan Volume 1
J - Ripley Jones - Missing Clarissa
K - Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky - Rise and Run: Recipes, Rituals and Runs to Fuel your Day: A Cookbook
L - Adrianna Locke - Sacrifice
M - Liz Maverick - Eight Winter Nights
N - Ari North - Always Human
O - K. O'Neill - The Moth Keeper
P - Christopher Paolini - Fractal Noise
Q - Kate Quinn - The Diamond Eye
R - James Rollins - The Cradle of Ice
S - Sukeikha Snyder - Tikka Chance on Me
T - Tijan - The Revenge
U - June Eric-Udorie - Can We All Be Feminists?
V - Sarah Vaughn - Sleepless Vol 1 & 2
W - Martha Wells - Network Effect
X - Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow
Y Adrienne Young - Spells for Forgetting
Z - Gabrielle Zevin - The Storied Life of AJ Fikry
Review: Hex You
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
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