"The frost king will burn.
Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge."
Have you read any mainstream YA fantasy book over the past few years? If so, it is likely you have already experienced this book with different character names. Frostblood is just so... unremarkable. Everything about it is familiar and predictable, leading to a read that offered up no excitement, no need to keep turning the pages. It often feels as if YA fantasy publishers deliberately go looking for new authors to retell the same old recycled plots. Stick an attractive cover on the front and lets see if we can fool people into buying the same book over and over again.
This book follows the heroine - Ruby - who is a Fireblood in a world where Frostbloods are the ruling class. Once again, this world is split evenly into two societal groups - an overdone technique that I find particularly lazy. If only the world were that simple! If only there were just two groups of people with differences. There is just no depth or complexity to a "this vs. this" world.
Also, Ruby was uninteresting and bland. I feel like I have nothing to remember her by and it was really difficult to become invested in her story and troubles. The book opens with her mother being murdered and Ruby being captured by Frostblood soldiers; There's nothing here I haven't read before.
Then, of course, the plot takes a completely mindblowing turn when our standard heroine with elemental powers (easy way of adding some magic without having to think too much about a magic system) teams up with a hot guy (Arcus) to get revenge on the royals who wronged her. Is it just me or are you getting déjà vu as well?
I don't know why so many authors think there is anything interesting about pages and pages of training. It's mind-numbing.
But wait! Just when you thought this was all looking familiar, Arcus reveals his... dum, dum, dum, DARK PAST! Yes, that's right. Arcus is a very boring, very typical love interest, with very unoriginal secrets.
A lot of YA fantasy is tropey and contains all the same elements, that's true, so maybe you could say I'm being harsh, but this book's problem is not just a series of components that make it derivative - it also has a very lackluster style. The writing did nothing to draw me in; dramatic events came and went without being engaging. There can be slow parts in any book, but even the most dynamic chapters didn’t hold any fire for me.
To add a tiny bit of credit where it's due: by far the most interesting aspect of this book was the exploration of how one can be blamed for the actions of others they are grouped with. For example, the actions of a few radicals, whether they be Firebloods, Muslims or Feminists, can be used to make sweeping (and false) generalizations about all the others in said group. This is interesting and rather appropriate right now. Too bad it got lost under everything else.
Age Rating about 13+. Nothing inappropriate, a few tame kisses and a creepy king.
"The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.
'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'
When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.
Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late..."
Cuckoo Song is best described as a dark fairy tale. The main characters are young and there is nothing unsuitable for children, and yet this is far from your typical middle grade book. It is inventive and clever. The story is full of metaphor, genuinely creepy scenes and an underlying tale about family and war.
It's like a paranormal historical horror mystery and it is fantastic. The writing is gorgeous, full of lush but scary descriptions and the plot is so layered and thought-provoking. I would recommend this for children, teens and adults alike.
The story opens with Triss awakening after a mysterious accident. There are things she can't quite remember, and things that just don't seem right. Her sister refuses to believe she is really Triss. She begins to see and hear things that she shouldn't and she is unable to quench her insatiable hunger.
As Triss "recovers", she discovers more about her life, her family, and its secrets. Soon, it's unclear whether Triss is losing her mind or whether her accident triggered something horrific. It's a frightening supernatural tale on the surface, and a quiet, moving story about grief underneath.
This is my first Hardinge book because her books always sounded weird and oh, her books are weird, but in the best possible creative, original way. Sometimes I guess "I have never read anything like this" is the best kind of compliment.
Age rating as I said before nothing really unsuitable but creepy, so you really have to know how much it will effect you and how sensitive you are. I am usually sensitive to this kind of book but I had no problems with it at all.
"The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil."
This book is a middle grade "alternative" fairy tale which parodies and utilizes fairy tale tropes to excellent effect, and I constantly sniggered with laughter at its tongue-in-cheek hilarity.
It is a light book, a Harry Potter-style boarding school novel based around fairy tales. It was just adorable at points, let me tell you, but it is not too sweet at all. For a book aimed at primary school children, this story had a surprising amount of darkness and depth.
What makes someone good? what makes someone evil? - which is why I saw a lot of promise with Chainani’s premise, with the beautiful but vain Sophie ending up in the School for Evil while the ugly and loathed Agatha's in the School for Good. Made me wonder, why is Sophie evil? Her vanity? Is everyone wrong about Agatha because, besides Sophie, they don’t really know her? For a while actually, Chainani did seem to be going in that direction, with self professed goodie Sophie confronted with situations that brought out the evil inside her, and Agatha doubting whether she truly is a witch as everyone says. As an exploration of good and evil, not the subtlest thing ever, but for a younger audience, pretty good.
Unfortunately, it seems to me like Chainani really didn’t know where he was going after those initial few chapters, because even before the story of good and evil totally falls off a cliff, The School for Good and Evil is just horribly inconsistent. Sophie is, one moment, an incompetent villain, and the next, the most powerful and feared witch in both schools. Agatha spends most of the book holding Sophie’s hand as Sophie struggles as a villain, then all of a sudden discovers her inner princess and now can’t go toe to toe with Sophie even though she’s been better with magic through the entire book. Sophie’s fellow witches Hester and Anadil are one moment Sophie’s evil tormenters, the next her evil co-conspirators, and finally on Team Good. Things about the School Master and his mysterious agenda are revealed, but then they don’t go anywhere. There’s some talk of why Good succeeds in fairy tales while Evil doesn’t, but that doesn’t go anywhere either. After reading through all these twists and turns trying to figure out the point of the reveals, I’m sorry, but the plot just didn’t make any sense, none of the characters behaved with any rhyme or reason, and if there’s supposed to be a coherent message about good and evil, it’s completely lost to me.
However the mangled tropes did go a way to save this book. We have hideously warty creatures, we have snouty, socially awkward, innately evil villains in the School of Evil. We have gloriously charming and handsome boys and girls in the School of Good (who are just so full of themselves). I actually started to feel sorry for the villains when it was revealed they could never love.
Age rating 10+. Nothing to put of children but a few guard wolves and the disgustingness of the school of Evil.
"Reeling from their bloody encounter in New York City, Amber and Milo flee north. On their trail are the Hounds of Hell – five demonic bikers who will stop at nothing to drag their quarries back to their unholy master.
Amber and Milo’s only hope lies within Desolation Hill – a small town with a big secret; a town with a darkness to it, where evil seeps through the very floorboards. Until, on one night every year, it spills over onto the streets and all hell breaks loose.
And that night is coming."
The second book in the Demon Road trilogy is I won't lie, very confusing at some points as there is a bunch of new characters and it jumps from one person's POV to the next. It's like you are reading a completely different story and I never had a clue what was going on, did I get used to this? yes but only after more than half the book. I want to note that Demon Road was 100 percent Amber’s POV the entire way through, now we have 4 POV characters. This is really jarring - most of the time when books add another POV in the sequel, one additional character is added. If it was just Kelly, it’d be fine. As it starts even at the beginning of the book I was struggling to get through chapters about brand new characters who were brought in out of nowhere.
Some of the new characters were amazing and I found myself absolutely loving them! Only thing is the gang really reminded me of Scooby-Doo & Mystery Inc. There was a dog, a shaggy guy with a beard, a hot lesbian redhead, Linda who reminded me of Thelma and Ronnie who would just be Fred if Fred was African American. They go about kicking demon ass and solving mysteries... just like Scooby-Doo but not revealing that the scary man's really the creepy janitor at your school, they are actually real demons. Character development for these sub characters is minimal the only thing said about Linda is that she is Chinese and had large breasts, this doesn't really make a character.
Milo & Amber have grown their relationship into more of a friendship rather than traveling companions. I don't know when this happened but I did like it. However what if you are curious as how Amber and Milo finally became friends? What was the turning point between partners and genuine friends? What was their moment?
You don’t get one. Suddenly Milo and Amber are cozy enough to talk and tease each other about their (lack of) flirting abilities. Very friendly and cute and fun. Here’s the problem: it doesn’t feel earned. Just a couple scenes earlier Amber tries to engage in small talk with Milo and it fails completely because Milo doesn't know how to. It especially doesn’t feel earned because we get several scenes not long after this where Milo struggles to talk genuinely with Amber about things like her nightmares or other things she’s dealing with. Yet they have no problem gently teasing each other like old friends here?
Milo suggests Amber flirt with a boy in the restaurant and she says “not my type”. Which was the moment I figured out exactly what this book was trying to do. Amber is gay and Kelly is her love-interest. Now this was strange to me on a few levels.
1. Kelly is said to be about 19-20 and Amber is 16. Now 3-4 years is not a huge age gap however Kelly is far more confident in everyway while Amber is extremely insecure making the relationship feel quite manipulative.
2. At one point in the book Kelly and Amber nearly have sex however it takes 5 seconds to google the age of consent in Florida (where Amber is from) and California (where Kelly is from) and see that it’s 18 and see that this is not okay, even if there’s not an inherent sense of “wrong”.
3. I could talk about how much I hated the ending because Kelly is now apparently Amber’s moral compass despite knowing her for four days, because apparently their deep connection is enough to justify Kelly slapping Amber across the face, and because it was a great ending on paper ruined by the execution and the fact that the character who should have been the one lecturing Amber doesn’t say a single word in the entire last chapter.
I'm not going to complain about the tedious gore, and there a lot of it and I mean a lot, because that's what this series is about to a big extent but since I'm not a big fan, it didn't help. The book just felt very boring despite all the action. There was almost too much action making you anesthetized to it and getting very bored. The premise is intriguing enough that in spite of all my grumbling, I think I will want to see how this trilogy ends.
15+ age rating, so much graphic gore to a point it made me feel uncomfortable. Also quite a lot more sexual content then previous book.
"Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.
She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return."
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Had revision to do for my upcoming exam.
Epicness. That's the only word I can think of to describe Queen of Shadows in order to encompass its complexity and awesomeness. While I loved all the previous books neither of those instalments felt as grand as this one. Worlds collided, debts were paid and a queen rose to her glory.
You will be completely astonished with the unravelling of Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, because in reality you haven't exactly met her until now. You see, she's the same heroine we've come to love during these past books and yet a different persona. Every trait of Celaena Sardothien's is magnified and combined in such a masterful way to create a unique character. She's still an arrogant, stubborn, brave and sassy young woman, but she undergoes a spectacular character-development into a cunning, determined and fierce queen. Aelin is completely in control and she makes a statement in bold capital letters that she doesn't buy any bullshit and that she's ready to reclaim back everything that was taken from her and oh, boy, she does it in style. In addition to that, she has matured a long way and, for the first time, she shed her impulsiveness for being open-minded, calculating and often kind.
Now onto the next awesome woman and quite possibly my favourite character from this book: Manon Blackbeak. She was completely fabulous in a mind-boggling manner. I never would have expected her wonderful character-development: she is not all about discipline and obedience anymore. She starts wondering. She starts plotting. She starts taking a stand, slowly but surely. She's gloriously wicked, but she's not evil and I utterly loved her. I cannot wait for when her defiance will leave the witches kneeling at her feet.
The attention falls equally on some other ladies. Prepare to fall helplessly in love with Asterin. She's so strong and loyal and her story will move you to tears. We finally get reacquainted with Kaltain and she's not in a place full of flying unicorns and pink rainbows -- she's basically in her own hellhole. There were a few fascinating developments that transformed her into a worthy, lethal player. Nonetheless, her inner strength was awe-inspiring and I ended up regretting that we didn't get to know her better before. She was hands down amazing and she has my unwavering respect and admiration.
“She did it for herself. To free herself. And she was entitled to. After what they did, she was entitled to rip the entire damn world to shreds.”
This book allowed us to meet new kick-ass females: Lysandra, who was nothing short of amazing and surprising; Elide Lochan, who was determined and immensely brave; and Nesryn Faliq, who was simply awesome in every way. I loved and cheered for them all.
Now over to the boys. Firstly, Chaol. His reunion with Aelin was all sorts of shit, no, this-can't-be-happening, and I was mad at him for his demeanour. With that being said, I can assure you he remained true to his character throughout the whole book. Dorian, he killed me in this book. Killed me with his few and far between chapter POVs that had him in pure, unaltered agony and pain. Killed me with his loneliness, with his sense of being lost, with his acceptance that he'll drown in an ocean of misery and cold. Aedion's boundless love for his queen and his loyalty and sarcasm made him an instant hit.
But the best part about these characters is not even themselves.Their intricate relationships are the real deal. The BROMANCES ARE FLAWLESS - Dorian and Chaol redefine friendship, Aedion and Rowan set the backbone of a brotherhood for ages, Aelin and Manon bring a delicious and unpredictable frenemy dynamic to the table and the queen regains female companionship through Lysandra. Aelin and Aedion are even more amazing then I ever would've imagined and their reunion was all kinds of splendid. The Thirteen prove again just how much of a family they can be. Besides these, the original trio crawl their way to being once again a marvellous team -- Dorian and Aelin is possibly the best thing ever, maybe only topped by Dorian and Chaol. Banter and kinship and support and dedication are all etched deeply in every single relationship, giving them a magical quality.
All my talk about characters shows how incredibly balanced QoS is, because this book is very much plot orientated. The Valg plotline is an endless well of terrifying territory and it seems that we'll venture further into their scary world. The entire book is thrilling, jaw-dropping and fabulously written. Brilliantly woven with plot twists and thrilling from beginning till end, and also an absolutely beautiful journey sprinkled with countless gut-wrenching moments. Enthralling, action-packed and heart-warming (yes, you read that right), this book deserves praise.
Age rating should be 14+. It is dark, bloody and has generous sprinkles of romance.
"The frost king will burn.
