billyraymcevoy's reviews
98 reviews

"Does what it says on the tin." - some guy said that.
A simple and impressive bookwritten by a comic book fan who has been in the military. It is a respectful nod to characters who served their time and when reading you can really tell that Jason has a deeply personal love for the characters and the service they provided, like him.
I found out about this book because he spoke about it on his podcast 'Geek History Lesson', I can't recommend the podcast enough to any comic book reader and fan, and I look forward to more books from the man.

It was okay. I love detective stuff and some of the scenes were really graphic.
Bit slow paced though and I don't get why there was such an unfinished plot point with one of the characters.

Loved it. I don't read a lot of Sci-fi books but I would if they were all as exciting and gripping as this one (and surprisingly emotional with a sweet human/alien relationship).
Very solid for a debut novel and I can't wait to read more Linday Ellis books!

It was okay but the pacing was slow and it took me about a month to read because I just wasn't excited to keep coming back to it. It mainly gets good about half way in.
Although, it is probably the most original and creative zombie-esque book I've ever read. Stephen King does have a great imagination.

It wasn't bad but it felt mostly quite pointless. Although the idea of a prequel where a young President Snow starts out young and naive and falls to the dark side of morality to become the evil tyrant that he is in The Hunger Games is interesting, this book delivered it in only an adequate way.
This is especially disappointing as The Hunger Games book had an emotionally engaging story for young me, which probably fuelled the disconnect I felt towards reading this book set from a young privileged Coriolanus Snow's perspective (honestly, I hated Snow throughout this book and his decisions).
But overall it wasn't bad and was entertaining enough to keep me reading (except the hundred or so pages set during the military school, which were quite dull until the very end).
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UPDATE: I finished this book four days ago and even though the pacing had issues it was the character relationship and differences between Snow and Lucy Gray that stayed in my head.
Snow is ultimately the kind of privileged person where throughout the book, even though he has struggled in life, he truly believes that he DESERVES his privilege and the greatness that the Snow family is 'entitled' too. That's pretty much Snow in a nutshell really, entitled.
Lucy Gray represents the polar opposite to Snow's perspective, believing that humans really shouldn't be segregated and put into cages (wild theory there...), but becomes solely the object of Snow's desire. To the point where he literally sees her as property.
Snow's lack of empathy and emotional thought for other people is frustrating to read but makes sense from the perspective of someone conditioned so think this way. A citizen of the capital who believes in dynasty above almost everything else and comes to that nasty conclusion about his thoughts on the necessity of war and the hunger games.

This book isn't very interesting until the last third or so. It starts with the two main guys who fall in love VERY quickly (which is probably the most realistic look into gay characters I've ever seen), the story lulls on as the guys get to know each other, kiss and tell eachother they love them constantly, and travel to Florida for a bit.
Its not until things take a violent turn towards the end that the book actually gets interesting as the characters make questionable decisions and are BOTH thrown into unexpected situations.
It's just... nothing really happens for the first half. I read it because it sounded interesting and it's nice to actually read about gay characters but it seems to really struggle to grasp at a semblance of a story. But overall, not a terrible read. It's short enough to breeze through and sweet enough to root for the main guys (both relatable in their own way), if not a little boring in places with pacing slower than a snail on tranquilizers.

Interesting but dull to read and drawn out more than needed but to be honest that's probably just because it's from the 1800's and I'm not used to the writing style.
Still interesting enough to actually finish though.

Listened to the audio book today and loved it. A great book for children with an interesting plot that doesn't patronise the audience by dumbing it down. Quirky main characters too. Also loved the writing style and the repeated way the author would write a word and then write "which here means..."
Reminded me of reading this book when I was a child and it's still great to read/listen to as an adult.

Loved it

Important reading for these times! Full of facts and suggestions and eye opening.