"Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first."
I was scared to start Six of Crows. The hype surrounding it has been huge, the blurb sounded intriguing, I've been eagerly anticipating it, but I didn't like Shadow and Bone. Honestly, though? I needn't have worried. This book is fantastic and I don't say that lightly.
Shadow and Bone has been called fantasy-lite, but there is absolutely nothing about Six of Crows that warrants such a label. It's a sweeping epic tale with six main characters, five perspectives, complex and detailed world-building that is seamlessly integrated into the story, flashbacks to the characters' histories, and a wonderful blend of darkness, magic, action, humour and romance.
In the hands of a less skilled author, this could have been a mess but Bardugo crafts each of her characters with love and sensitivity, allowing them to be extremely badass, wicked sometimes, and unlikable in that multi-layered way that actually makes them completely likable. Each one is a different race, different background, and has so many layers. Each one has a handful of amazing different aspects, and things about them that will constantly surprise you. I loved and connected with Nina so much.
It's set in the same Grisha universe as her other books. This time in an alternate Netherlands instead of Russia but it's much darker and more adult. These characters are thieves, convicts and runaways. Street gangs compete for territory and power. The author takes all these dark "real world" factors and infuses them with the supernatural.
I want to be clear that the romance never takes over the story; it feels natural and welcome when it surfaces, which isn't too often. In fact, I'd say Bardugo is a bit of a tease for most of the novel.
I honestly cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it as this review would then be about as long as the book.
Age Rating 14+. Gritty and dark, taking inspiration from real-life underworld.
"For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies. Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself.
Mack's testament - a compelling blend of memoir, legend, history, and, quite probably, madness - recounts one man's emotional crisis, disappearance, resurrection and death. It also transports you into an utterly mesmerising exploration of the very nature of belief."
A book which I kept reading because something interesting always seemed to be around the next page, but never sadly materialising.
Was Gideon Mack really mentally ill, or is that what any character (or reader) must think when confronted with his story of death and resurrection? Was he tricked by the devil to "stop playing games" and in so doing ruin his life? Was he really drinking as much as everyone thought, or is that another example of how people want to quarantine and water down those things that happen outside of the regular world?
Getting pulled into the Scots atmosphere of chill and resignation was interesting, but not everyone's cup of tea and I found myself skimming a lot of the book.
The most intriguing characters were unexplored, whilst the mundane ones were examined in tedious depth. The most exciting and anticipated section of the book, meeting the devil, was a let down. The moral of the story was rather insultingly spelt out in flashing lights by the author at the end without any lead up in the story.
The MC Gideon is in short a bit of a non-person, a man who carefully crafts a façade that hides the hollow place within. That does not make him fun to be around. Gideon Mack is a tedious, boring psychopath, not a scary one.
On the whole, the book is a deflating anti-climax. Even the devil is not the charismatic force that one might expect, and the entire story does not so much end as fizzle out into further tediousness.
"This is a world divided by blood - red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. To Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart."
After all the hype around this book I gave it a try. Bad idea. One of the many typical YA fiction novels that follows an unfortunately predictable plot.
The main part of the book was soooo slow. Painfully slow. We're introduced to a world that had some amazing potential but remained incredibly basic, bringing nothing particularly new to the table. There are two kinds of people in this world - Silvers and Reds. The former are the ruling class, have silver blood, and sometimes possess special abilities like mind control and elemental manipulation. The Reds are a slave class who are ruled over by the Silvers and live in poverty.
A nuclear apocalyptic event is implied but never explored deeper only hinted at through tantalizing references. Also the origin of the Silver's abilities or strange blood colour is happily skipped over. Are they a genetic anomaly from radiation? Are they genetically enhanced humans? Do they rely on futuristic nanobots that they have forgotten exist due to a nuclear apocalypse, which would account for their silver blood colour.
Mare is a Red who, in unexpected circumstances, discovers that she has powers of her own. In order to keep an eye on her and learn more about the powers she possesses, she is disguised as a Silver and trained within the Silver palace. All the other women in the novel instantly hate her, usually for no good reason, and all the men see sunshine radiating out of the pores of her skin(metaphor for cue love triangle/square. Seriously though don't mess around with brothers, its weird and not cool).
There was so little action in that first 60% that I literally had to force myself through pages and pages of Mare flirting with the Silver prince Cal, and the prince's betrothed Evangeline hating Mare as soon as she set eyes on her. This book was a constant showdown between the innocent MC and the bitchy mean girl and her gang. I'm pretty sure Evangeline's meanness is going to be used as an excuse for Mare to run off with Cal and not lose any sleep over it. Maybe not... but probably.
I haven't previously given much thought to why I typically crave bloodthirstiness from my heroines but Mare just killed me. She made some tough decisions but was so wishy washy about them.
"Children." The words rip out of me. "He's a father."
Damn right he is, and a husband, and a son, and a grandson, and maybe an uncle and a nephew, too. They all are, you daft women.
Then she goes and sticks her head in the sand like a freaking ostrich after the decision is carried out:
All together, twelve died last night, but I refuse to learn their names. I can't have them weighing on me . . .
If you're going to kill someone for the "greater good," you need to be decisive about it and truly I couldn't understand why she would have any qualms about killing Silvers. She goes into detail about how much she hates Silver and how dreadfully they treat her people. Only two Silvers are nice to her through out the entire book!!
The main problem for me was that the revolution and the bigger war going on between the Silvers and Reds wasn't given enough attention. I felt like the plot relied on the romantic aspect and the angst to propel it along. Neither of which I cared about. I must say that I absolutely loved the cover, I think it was understated and macabre.
Age Rating 13+. One, two kisses I think and no gore just some fantasy violence.
"Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world-- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever..."
The premise of Uglies is that in the future when kids reach 16, they all have mandatory plastic surgery to turn their bodies into a perfect standard of beauty based on human brain's reaction to visual stimulus. Unfortunately (and this is a slight spoiler, so my apologies, but it really is an element that is pretty obvious from page one, though not clearly stated until later), when the teenagers are having the surgeries to make them pretty, the surgeons change their brains, too, to determine their decision-making capabilities. Taking away their capacity for independent thought, questioning and even sense. Basically, the pretty surgery makes most people stupid, unless the occupation that the government determines for them requires intelligence. So far so good, a really interesting concept with the ability to explore stereotyping, body image and self worth.
However Westerfeld wasted the concept and his moral arguments are a little dubious and not well fleshed out. While on one level he mildly criticizes the idea of basing a society on a hierarchy of physical looks, the characters repeatedly interact within that hierarchy, calling each other "pretty" and "ugly" at every turn and defining "pretty" people very specifically.
Ultimately, the arguments of why the government requires the pretty surgeries make a lot of (horrific) sense in the stories. The surgeries solve anorexia, heath problem, bring world peace, and save the environment. Plastic surgery is made to sound fun and Westerfeld literally makes no compelling arguments against body alteration and doesn't even dip a toe into the idea of self worth, or lack of, these characters must have. At the same time, I'm left feeling that Westerfeld thinks it is a bad idea, though he is not convincing.
Unfortunately, some parts of this story where actually engaging and for a while I wanted to find out what happened. But his characters never develop deep self-respect or intelligent motivation for their actions, and even when their decisions seem healthy, Westerfeld makes a better argument for the unhealthy decisions. Now I realize that I didn't even talk about the uber-annoying slang language he develops for the Pretties and Specials. I'll just say "bubbly" and leave it at that.
Age Rating 12+. Nothing at all untoward.
“Happy birthday, Stanly. We hope you like your present…Cynical, solitary Stanly Bird is a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend is a talking beagle named Daryl, and that he gained the powers of flight and telekinesis when he turned sixteen. Unfortunately, his rural Welsh home town is not exactly crying out for its very own superhero. London is calling – but what Stanly finds there is a good deal weirder and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined. Perhaps he should have stayed in Wales …"
This is one of the most original and funny books I’ve read in a while. Stanly is immensely entertaining with such a clear and distinct voice that it’s hard not to become best friends with him.
The premise of ‘Bitter Sixteen’ sounds unbelievable, and you’d be right, as even in the realms of sci-fi and fantasy, a boy waking up on his sixteenth birthday with superpowers, who already is the owner of a talking beagle called Daryl, sounds daft in the extreme. Here’s where the big ol’ ‘but’ comes in. Stefan Mohamed has created a fantastical situation in a such a realistic environment, that the events that unfold feel plausible and uncontrived.
Counting down to the exact moment he turns sixteen, reflecting on life as a modern teen, (while coping with an enormous migraine) Stanly evaluates his life as extremely…ordinary. Then, as the seconds tick past, he experiences a bolt of white-hot pain, leaving him with an all-over tingle that he can’t explain. Oh yeah…and he’s floating off the ground. From that moment on, ‘ordinary’ flies out the window. As does Stanly on a regular basis.
This is a funny, off-kilter take on the super-hero genre that, for most part, did not take itself too seriously. It has everything; superpowers, a talking dog and as many geek references as I could ever wish for. Stanly’s argumentative internal monologues are hysterical. Age Rating 13+ The main monster is very scary, slenderman with side doses of spider thing.
"Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. There's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. And it was this decision, made by her parents, to give Rosemary a sister like no other, that began all of Rosemary's trouble."
This is a novel that is best read with as little pre-knowledge as possible. It starts out as a seemingly emotionally troubled college-age woman is telling a story involving her apparently dysfunctional family. Around 1/4 of the way through there is a "reveal" that totally changes the way you look at the novel.Although the change made the book a bit awkward and a little too fantastical at first, Fowler develops it.
A book definitely out of the mainstream that starts out as a conventional rite of passage told by an adult looking back on her childhood in the typical American family, with siblings, parents and grandparents. One is jerked out of this narrative by the 'twist' which has been highlighted as the main feature of the book, and which cannot be revealed as it acts as a significant spoiler. From this point onwards, the story proceeds in a more and more disturbing fashion, with the loss of siblings and the fragmentation of the family.
The author has created several memorable characters including the narrator, Rosemary, who is both endearing and irritating at the same time; her brother Lowell, idealistic and very driven; her self- introduced friend Harlow, certainly flaky; her mother, who struggles with depression; and her father, whose truly unpleasant character is revealed very early in the story.
I found this very disturbing book, and not just in its references to the way human beings have treated our primate brothers and sisters as merely experimental animals. It says much about modern family relationships.
So psychologically smart and sophisticated.I loved all the literary and psychology/science references. So entertaining. Though the ending wasn’t perfect for me, it was okay and mimicked real life in its inability to have a fairy tale happy ending.
Unfortunately I could not relate to the characters and the choppy writing style! I wanted to like this book, and there were very interesting elements, but I couldn't connect to the way the story was told.
Age Rating 13+. Some brutal descriptions of animal cruelty within many industries that would be disturbing for younger readers.
'On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?'
Defender by G X Todd is an imaginative thriller that draws on influences from Stephen King, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman to create a new world - where the biggest threat mankind faces is from the voices inside your own head. If you loved The Stand, you'll love Defender, the first in a four part series.
In a world where long drinks are in short supply, a stranger listens to the voice in his head telling him to buy a lemonade from the girl sitting on a dusty road.
The moment locks them together.
Here and now it's dangerous to listen to your inner voice. Those who do, keep it quiet.
These voices have purpose.
And when Pilgrim meets Lacey, there is a reason. He just doesn't know it yet.
Defender pulls you on a wild ride to a place where the voices in your head will save or slaughter you."
I've read quite a lot of dystopia, but none quite as smart as this: the apocalypse has come not from external forces (disease, climate change, etc) but internal. Have you ever heard such a fantastic hook? The human race has been mostly decimated because people have started to hear voices (of varying degrees - from benign to sinister) in their minds.
I found them to be a really interesting aspect adding a touch of uniqueness to the genre. Not everyone hears the voices but those that do are told by them to do evil things, to commit crime, murder, suicide and if your voice doesn’t tell you to kill yourself, well, you end up descending into madness. But are the voices all bad? Should they all be feared? We are tantalised with some snippets and understanding about them but Todd still leaves plenty left unanswered and there is far more to be discovered about their origins.
At the heart of Defender are its characters Lacey, Pilgrim, Voice and Alex and the dynamics and relationships between them. It’s a very character driven read and luckily they are all stellar characters (Voice is particularly awesome with his occasional sardonic musings) that you can get behind and root for.
I liked Todd’s writing, with her words she easily manages to convey emotion and brutality. However I did feel like the plot was basic and lacking. Looking forward to the next instalment, which hopefully comes more into its own.
Age Rating 15+. Brutal, violent and gruesome.
"Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…
