librovermo's reviews
158 reviews

I’d like to thank both NetGalley and Datura Books, from whom I received an ARC of Negative Girl.

I really liked the distinct neo-noir style of writing in this crime thriller. Every other chapter switches between the first-person POV of Martin and his assistant Valerie, and I like a good dual POV story, but these two characters are so alike that they don’t each feel like their own person. Their voices are too similar and I often found myself glancing back or checking the last page for a clue as to whose chapter I was reading.

Everyone in the book is either in a band, used to be in a band, plays an instrument, and/or is super into music, which is cool, but Martin and Valerie both talk about music and name drop a lot of bands and songs to the point that it felt like a bit too much.

The plot was a little predictable but enjoyable, and I loved the relationship between Martin and Valerie. As mentioned before, they’re very alike so they ultimately have a lot in common, including similar toxic situations with old friends. Their friendship, however, was lovely even when it was rocky. It was nice to read a book with a purely platonic male/female best friendship, where they loved and took care of each other but there were no underlying sexual motivations or tension.

I thought I wasn’t a fan of the found family trope but I’ve just read two books in a row where the main character finds a new home in their friendships and man, I think I may have changed my tune. Jes is just a lovely guy who’s been through so much heartache and I was so happy to read along as he found his people. 

Truly, The Circus Infinite is surprisingly wholesome for a book that includes a couple of horribly sadistic characters and scenes of murder and torture. Seriously, the villains in this book are the opposite of chill and then some. I kinda wonder who hurt them tbh. 

I thought the world-building was pretty cool. The book takes place wayyy in the future (like, Earth is super, super dead) on a couple different planets and there are several different species of people. Many of them have psychic abilities and the way some of them work is a little confusing, but it’s sci-fi. I always expect to be at least a bit confused by something even when it’s this light and it wasn’t bad!

I really liked the ace representation. I know about asexuality but because it’s a spectrum, reading about the experiences of an ace character is always a learning experience that I both enjoy and appreciate.

Also, I know that how cool an author is doesn’t necessarily matter in a book review but Khan Wong sounds so freaking rad. He was a hula hoop teacher, he played cello in a folk rock duo. He was involved in the underground circus scene? And he’s a great writer, obv. I want to be best friends with this guy. 

Osea starts off with some intense action that really sets the tone for the rest of the book. It’s a super action-packed fantasy novel with really wholesome vibes between the MC, Haevynne, and her friends, but not at all wholesome vibes between Haevynne and the super dangerous world of Isarine. I really like the magic system in the book, it doesn’t feel like traditional magic as it’s not something that comes from within or is conjured from thin air but drawn from the elements in the world around the characters, and if the fight is taking place in an area without much of a person’s specific element of expertise, they’re at a severe disadvantage. It’s very cool.

Hae has a sweeping character arc, and by the end of the book she’s grown so much. She’s super easy to love and watching her grow is as satisfying as watching a close friend come into their own. One of my favorite things about Hae is that even though she has a lot (A LOT) going on, her friends are incredibly important to her and they are major a motivation behind a lot of what she does. Her friends are great, too. My favorites are Selvi, a “social underdog” (a term I accidentally made up when I couldn’t remember the word “outcast” 😂) and Pahli, an eternal optimist.

Something I really liked about Osea is that everything isn’t spelled out perfectly right away, it’s not all laid out in front of you. There’s a lot of mystery and intrigue and a lot of room for developing your own theories as to why something has happened or what is motivating a certain character. Even by the end, you might not have answers to all your questions. Maybe they’ll be answered in the next book 😉

Not only will Hae return, but there are future books planned that take place within the world of Isarine but feature different characters and factions and I’m pretty excited to read and learn more about them!

I spent the last 30% of the book talking to and sending my reactions to the author, which is something I’ve never done, and it was such a fun experience. We’re not close friends or anything so she could have just, you know, not been super into it, but she was, and it was so cool to talk about a book with the person who wrote it!

*Quick note: There’s a note in the beginning of the book that suggests you check out sophieindustries.com/osea for some background info and supplementary materials (there’s a map!). I didn’t look before I started because I’m a dummy (I ended up checking it out before I finished the book though) but there’s a lot of really cool information and I highly suggest taking a look before reading!

I love the uniqueness of an Arthurian tale in which King Arthur is dead and the Round Table has been depleted down to just a few much lesser-known knights. It was so different and so fun to read. There were great action scenes with intense dueling or epic battles. The knights went on mysterious quests. There were extremely well-crafted twists. I loved every character, each one was so complex and oh, they had such interesting backstories! My favorites were the tales of Sirs Dinadan and Scipio but there were none I didn’t like.

I never wanted to put the book down and I didn’t want it to end, but when it did, I was happy with where it went and all that happened. 

There’s a note at the end of The Bright Sword in which Lev Grossman talks about the history of Arthurian tales. They started off simply and each retelling tacked on something new until it became the grand tale we’re familiar with now. Every author of a tale of King Author tweaks it to create their own special version, and while I’ve only read a few, Grossman’s version is by far my favorite.

I didn’t love Mr. Caesar in Mortal Follies but I was still happy for the chance to get to know him as the main character Confounding Oaths. Unfortunately I’m still not his biggest fan, but even he openly admits to being a shit, so perhaps I have the right idea. 

Mr. Caesar isn’t the only carryover from Mortal Follies. Several characters from the first book make an appearance, including my favorite: Miss Bickle. She’s just as ridiculous as ever, with the added bonus of having become an author of Jane Austen fanfic. Alexis Hall—excuse me, the fairy hobgoblin narrator—seems to only tell queer stories, which I both love and respect, but it really is a shame that Miss Bickle is decidedly straight because I’d really love to be told a story in which she is the main character. Fingers crossed she’s a part of the queer community after all!

As for the story, I liked that it wasn’t strictly about Mr. Caesar saving his sister Mary, but also about Mary herself. She has a full-fledged character arc that is extremely relatable and reads a bit like a fairytale. Meanwhile, unlike Mortal Follies, Mr. Caesar’s romantic relationship with the captain isn’t front and center as much as it is in the background. Saving Mary is more important and all the crazy magical hijinks are distracting. I think it works for this book because I really liked Mary and for me personally, the romance between Mr. Caesar and Captain James wasn’t as captivating as the romance in the first book. 

And so, my favorite hobgoblin narrator once again did a fantastic job of observing a great story, being 100% reliable, and making me laugh. I truly can’t believe Oberon hasn’t forgiven him yet, but I’m selfishly glad because he all but promised he has more stories for us and if he were to return to Oberon’s court, he would no longer have need to publish any more books. 

Confounding Oaths could probably be read as a standalone, but there are enough characters from and callbacks to Mortal Follies that I highly suggest reading it first. It’s also a fantastic book, so it’s worth it!

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Random House / Del Ray from whom I received an ARC of Confounding Oaths.

I’d like to thank both NetGalley and Hachette Audio, from whom I received an ALC of Long Live Evil.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first but once I gave in and embraced the camp, I had a really good time with Long Live Evil. I love the concept of the book and the idea that entering a story can change its plot. It’s a lot like the idea that if you travel to the past, you can’t change a single thing or the future will veer wildly off track. Rae’s presence in the book and the decisions she made changed the future of every character, and it was a lot of fun to see if those changes were for better or worse. 

This is Sarah Rees Brennan’s first adult novel but the writing and especially Rae’s dialogue read to me like YA. I actually struggled to like Rae very much. At first I thought it was because of her childish dialogue and obsession with her new body’s boobs, and while that didn’t help, I think my main issue was that her insistence that none of the characters were real made it hard for me to care about anything, including her. By reminding so many times that no one was real, she was also reminding me that she isn’t real. She was telling me not to care for her either, and I decided to go ahead and listen. 

Despite Rae’s best efforts, I found most characters interesting and each had a lot of depth. My favorite character, Key, is one of the first that Rae meets when she wakes up in the world of this story and he’s fascinating. I’m not much for book boyfriends but I might make an exception for Key. 

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Moira Quirk. That’s right, Mo from Nickelodeon GUTS narrated this audiobook. God, I’ve always wanted a piece of The Crag. Anyway, sometimes it seemed like she was reading parts of conversations too quickly, faster than the person speaking would actually say them, but for the most part I enjoyed her narration and I think she did the voices of the many characters very well. 

Despite the few issues I had, Long Live Evil was ultimately a satisfying read. The ending left me wanting more so I’ll definitely be reading the next book!

By the end of the first page, I was in love with Emily Austin’s writing. I’m never completely sure what people mean when they describe prose with fancy words like lyrical, poetic, etc., but as far as I’m concerned, Austin’s prose is something special. I don’t know how to choose the right fancy word, so I will call it *chef’s kiss* prose.

I enjoyed the plot but Gilda is really the shining star here. In many ways, she is me in my 20s. Some parts of her are still me in my 30s, but if I had read this book when I was 20 - 24, I would have been been stunned at how absolutely in my head this book was. Emily Austin describes the experience of panic attacks well, but it’s something I’ve seen and heard described many times. The thing that really impressed me was the way she captured the anxiety that comes with obsessing over irrational fears.

I’m gonna get personal here and share that I’ve dealt with a lot of irrational fear in my life. Sure, there’s plenty of actual danger out there I can freak myself out over if I think about it enough, but sometimes I spend too long obsessing over what I’ll do if a plane crashes into my house, I’m shot while walking by my front window at night, my house catches fire while I’m asleep, or I find a deranged man living in my basement. I’ve never seen that brand of anxiety represented in a book which made me feel like this one was written with me in mind. Finally, confirmation that I am special. 😌

I already have the rest of Austin’s books on my TBR but now that I’ve finished my first one, I’m in much more of a hurry to get to them. I’m excited to read more and see the other characters she’s come up with.

Oh no. I put it off reading this book for months because I was worried I wouldn’t like it despite wanting to love it and unfortunately, I was right.

It started off strong. I’m a big fan of books with messy FMCs and Greta couldn’t be much messier. She’s also super weird and everyone and everything around her is also weird so I was like hell yeah this is all my jam. I loved that I was privy to Greta’s every unhinged thought because that made the book even funnier.

But as the book progressed, it felt like Greta was incapable of having a thought that wasn’t look-at-me-I’m-out-of-control levels of wacky. If she was descending into madness, I’d give it a pass, but she wasn’t, so it just started to feel like a gimmick that had very quickly run its course. I wasn’t laughing at things I knew were supposed to be funny. I found myself rolling my eyes. In short: I got tired of Greta’s shit. 

Looking back on the book now, a few days later, I feel kind of… bored? Like, I knew I was bored while I was reading it but it wasn’t boring in the beginning so I kept going just in case it was a good bad sandwich, and sadly it was not.