bibliorama's reviews
162 reviews

Technically finished this back in March, but final projects and move out from college really kept me from doing any reading. I'm still going to write a short review even though everyone and their mother has already read this. (This is more for me to look back on this book in the future)

When I first read this series I was in middle school, now I'm a junior in college. So, the difference in perspective really got to me during the reread because when I first read it I was younger than Katniss, and now I'm older than her. When I was younger, I looked up to her because she was a badass and she felt like that older cooler sibling. But now, rereading this, she felt so young. It really added to the whole messed up nature of the situations she was forced into.

As far as how I liked the book itself, Mockingjay is my favorite of the series (though I like all three). I like how the war effort mimicked the pageantry of the games with the propos and also the games themselves. I didn't realize that when I was younger, which also shows that I appreciated everything Collins was doing with the writing a lot more now that I am older. But, what I really enjoyed about this book was the focus on Katniss's mental state rather than all of the action. I feel like her reactions to everything in this book were how it would go down in real life. Plus, I've always been a character driven reader rather than action driven, so since I was invested in her character I didn't mind being taken through the different spirals of her thoughts. I will say she didn't have as much agency in this book as she did in the others, but I feel like truthfully that makes sense she was a prisoner in 13 like with the Capitol.

I do like how at the end she does take back her agency with killing Coin.

Anyway, I was in such a mood to read this series after I finished the books I binged the movies. I don't know what that says about my psyche for this semester, but the nostalgia was real and so was my satisfaction with this story.

You ever feel like there's something going over your head, or you're just not seeing the full picture? That's how I felt during the majority of this book. I'm not sure if it's because I don't know much about the setting as far the history is concerned, or if it's because this was my first Hemingway novel and maybe I should have started with something else.
I started this book because I really loved "In Another Country" and I really like the whole modernist era, but I feel like I just wasn't seeing what I was supposed to be seeing. However the ending of this book did feel very modernist and reminded me why I was interested in the first place. So, I don't quite know how to feel about this because I liked the ending, but felt lost during a good portion of it.

I enjoyed this book. It was fast pace and a good winter pick me up from all of finals. I haven't been able to read much because of college, so I was really looking for something that would be entertaining. I found that this book did the trick, ya know it had dragons and that's good enough me!

I would say that I probably won't be in any hurry to pick up the other books in this world, mostly because I was satisfied with how this one ended. It wrapped up the plot, not too tidy, but enough to consider it a whole story. I'm also not sure if the next books are going to start a series or be stand alones. All-in-all it feels good to actually finish a book after like months XD

I found this book really interesting especially since this is an alternate reality from the view that the Axis powers had won WWII. What really made me enjoy this book was that it was not only presenting a different world than ours, but using the setting as a way to view our world from an outside stance. There are a lot of connections throughout I felt that Philip K. Dick was trying to weave between the two.

I will say that I had an extremely slow start to this book. Mostly in part because I was really busy when I started this book, but also because it takes a minute for all the characters' lives to be introduced. And, each individual story can feel somewhat disjointed from each other. But, once I made it to the last third of the book the ways that each character impact each other and their connections start to be known. This is really what renewed my interest and in turn the pace I read at picked up.

After taking a couple of days to think about this novella, it's just not a story that's going to stick with me. This book follows more of Feyre and Rhysand doing what they do, and that's not the story I was interested in. I wanted to see more of the side characters and less of the main, but that's just not what happened. Personally, I didn't feel that a "bridge" between acowar and the novellas was needed because the issues that the other characters would face in the future were set up well enough in acowar for me to get what would be going on in the novellas. And that's kind of how I feel about this book, that I could have completely skipped it and would have been able to pick up what would be happening in the other novellas and they would still make sense.
I think it's safe to say though that this was just how I felt, if you enjoyed Feyre and Rhysand in the original trilogy and want to see them in an everyday setting then you could still enjoy this. But for me, Feyre and Rhysand's story ended in acowar and I am fully ready to move on to other characters.
Read it as an audiobook.

"It Devours!? Oh yeah, I've read that book."

This book was written like anything else within the Night Vale world. It's strange, but oddly satisfying to see the connections that the writers make. This story centers around the clash between science and religion when people start disappearing from what seems to be random events. One of the few complaints with the writing that I had was the writers weren't always subtle with the points they were making with the theme. Sometimes the message felt a little forced, but I enjoy the style of Night Vale enough that I was able to forgive that.

I really enjoyed the character development that Nilanjana went through. Her perspective as an outsider longing to be a part of the community was really interesting to see, and it's something I haven't seen much in the books that I've read. Also, I liked how her feelings as an interloper affected her relationship with others, especially Carlos. To me, the strongest part of this book was how the story looked out the way people long for acceptance in their communities and how their actions can revolve around that. I also thought it was a nice touch that the writers would write Nilanjana's thoughts as hypotheses because, ya know, she's a scientist and all.

The part that I felt lacked was how Carlos reacted to the desert otherworld. In the podcast, he didn't seemed unhappy in the otherworld but more curious about it. But, in the book he treats it as if it's some horrible place. And this discrepancy was a bit of a downer for me. So was Nilanjana and Darryl's relationship. I felt like at the end, though it was realistic, they hadn't really learned anything from each other. At least it felt like Darryl didn't learn much from Nilanjana (she probably learned some about the importance of community from the Congregation at least). But, the impact of their relationship on each other just didn't feel as important as it should have. Overall though, I still really liked what this story was going for.

Reread: still needed it

Yup, needed that.

3.5 Lots of feelings and will review when I get around to reviewing all my reads in 2020

Ultimate challenge with this book - Get through the first 100 pages then decide if you like it or not. But, man that was a challenge for me. It took me over 6 months to finish this book, and the majority of that time was spent trying to force myself to read the first 100 pages. Just a tip since I didn't know this going into the book, Mia doesn't get to the assassin school until around that 100 page mark. I think another reason it took me so long to get through was there was an overabundance of footnotes in that front half that really dragged the pacing. I mean there were footnotes that took up half a page and it kept pulling me out of Mia's head for too long. I think if some of those were trimmed better without as much flourish in the writing we would have gotten to the school a lot sooner and I wouldn't have had the thought of dnf-ing. I will say those first footnotes left such a bad taste in my mouth (in the sense that every time I saw one that was more than of few sentences long I would interally say here we go again) that I basically skipped or skimmed them towards the end of the book.

Now that was a lot of me ranting, however I still gave this book 4 stars (maybe against my better judgement) because I really did like Mia as a character. I felt she was solid and I liked the supporting cast around her. Really once we got to the school setting I was set and ready to go. I think my favorite part of this book was the world-building put into the school. The images it created in my mind were beautiful and I have a whole list of environments, like the hall of assassins, that I can't wait to paint. My biggest advice when it comes to this book is to give it the chance to get to that promise on the premise because it really does deliver there.