Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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This review ended up way more angry than I thought it would.

King of Scars (Nikolai Duology, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

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I thought this was miles in quality above the original Grisha trilogy, but I’m still a little conflicted in my reaction to it. In terms of the actual writing and my engagement with the characters, I enjoyed this book so much more than the original trilogy, though not nearly as much as the Six of Crows duology. You can tell she’s improved as a writer, but for my personal taste, this book relied too heavily on older storylines and characters, and I wish she wouldn’t […]

This could have been so much better.

Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns, #1) by Kendare Blake

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As many reviewers have pointed out before me, this book has a great premise, but a lot of that is wasted on the execution of it. The degree to which you think it’s wasted varies in most of my friends’ reviews, but there does seem to be a consensus that wasted premise is the main problem. It also falls into several YA cliché-traps that I really wish it hadn’t, and just goes far enough in pushing the boundaries of the genre for it to be […]

Bardugo can do so much better than this entire debut trilogy.

Siege and Storm (The Grisha Trilogy, #2) by Leigh Bardugo

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Sometimes a good author just gets stuck telling a mediocre story, and that’s what you have here. I know she can do so much better than this. So, let’s go over the good thing before I get to the bad: Nikolai. The second son of the King of Ravka, aka SPOILERS the privateer Sturmhond END SPOILERS. That character stole every scene he was in, and breathed life into the pretty much dead on arrival story. He was the lone bright spot in what was otherwise a […]

Just a real bummer here, as this first trilogy sputters to a close.

Fire Study (Study, #3) by Maria V. Snyder

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What a bummer of a book. In more than one way! It’s a bummer in that I didn’t like it and it didn’t live up to how good the first one was, and the second to an extent as well. And a bummer because seemingly nothing good ever happens to these characters, only bad things, horrible things, and everyone spends the whole book arguing basically. The plot was also messy as hell. It supposedly focuses on Yelena and Leif, along with Marrok, Moon Man and […]

Great author forcing herself into the confines of a genre=middling book.

Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

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Two things: 1. Not really sure why this is called Shadow and Bone? Sounds very dramatic, but not super relevant to actual plot or theme. Things with “bone” in the title were very in in 2012, I guess? 2. Very glad this series wasn’t my first exposure to Bardugo’s writing. I said this in a Goodreads status update, but although it’s not badly written, it’s nothing special either. Pretty standard YA fantasy with attending tropes and such, with flairs here and there of interesting worldbuilding. […]



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