Unwind is a tale of post-war dystopian America, where the dusts of the Heartland war have finally settled and abortion has been outlawed. To replace it, parents can retroactively “abort” a child between the ages of 13-18, by unwinding them. This process allows the child to technically go on living, but in a divided state and so they’re basically dead if you want to get the gist. There are three main characters: Connor, Risa and Lev. They are each to be unwound, but for separate […]
Poison First, Ask Questions Later, or Maybe Not
Grave Mercy takes place in medieval Brittany, while France is threatening to take over and Brittany’s independence is hanging in the balance. Their duchess can’t be crowned without the consent of the French regent and she is entrenched in slimy marriage deals from multiple suitors. That’s the abridged version of the complex historical background that sets the scene for this story. The story is about Ismae, a girl who was fathered by Mortain, an ancient God of Death. She is mistreated by her father and […]
Mirror mirror on the wall, why is Mira so unbelievably naive?
Mirabelle has been raised by her extremely overprotective guardians, knowing that her parents died in a fire on the night of her christening. She desperately wants answers about her parents and her background, but her two guardians are none too forthcoming, and so Mira feels she has no choice but to run away. To make sure that the women who raised her don’t immediately track her to Beau Rivage, the place where she was born, she spends the six months before her 16th birthday creating […]
Bad Harry Potter goes to Narnia Hell Makes for Creepy Dirty Bad Reading
I was intrigued by the first third of The Magicians, hated the second third, and the final third was weird and I’m not sure it was enough to redeem the book from the middle part. The first part is dark Harry Potter, the second is existential and dirty in a creepy-bad way, and the last is Narnia gone to hell. Overall, The Magicians reminded me of The Secret History (which I liked parts of but overall didn’t like for many of the same reasons I […]
I’m super digging this series.
So you know how you’re reading one book and you think you know all about it and then BAM IT’S ANOTHER BOOK AND WHAT IS HAPPENING EVEN? And then you’re like, ohhhhh shiiiiiit. This book. This one right here. Honestly, I should know better by now. After I finish up Bands of Mourning, I’m sure in rather short order, the only books of Brandon Sanderson’s I won’t have read will be the Alcatraz books. I’m used to his tricks. And still. I thought I had this […]
Apparently I’m too old for this book.
I did not read this when I was in my teens, and I’m afraid my reading experience suffered for that. I hated everything about this book, from the plodding storyline to the writing to the cardboard characters. Nothing worked. The Sword of Shannara is often written off as a Lord of the Rings copy, and while I didn’t like the book I don’t think that’s especially fair. It absolutely has similarities and I can see where that criticism is coming from, but I don’t think […]