theinquisitxor's reviews
805 reviews

Reread: January 2022. Still really enjoyable, and sets up the rest of the series nicely. Love the ending of this book a lot


4.5 stars/ Wow Wow Okay, Holy Shit. I was not expecting this book to be this good. I literally read 95% of it today, which was nice because it was rainy and I didn't have work or anything else that needed to get done. I even ordered the next two books from B&N before I finished this one. I don't really even know where to get started with this book... the characters were much better developed and more likable than in the first book, and the plot was much better. I was a little on edge with Celaena in Throne of Glass but she completely won me over in this book.

This book is also less romance driven and focuses more on world building, character development, running around underground tunnels and tombs, finding clues and figuring out riddles. But it's still totally action packed and unexpected and just so good . The big end scene was awesome and the reveal at the end was equally jaw dropping. B&N can't ship my books to me fast enough, and I don't know what I'm going to do until they get here. (well, I do have stuff going on the next few days so I should survive lol)

Reread: January 2022. Rereading this series means rereading this book. Which isn’t my favorite book of the series by far. Although, I did notice little things SJM already planted and hinted at so early on, that come into play later in the series


3.5 stars. Ok, well, this was interesting. I have been recommended this book by several of my friends and seeing all the hype over the last book in the series being released, I finally caved and read it. Overall, I thought it was decent. I recognize this as SJ Maas's first book, so I can't hold it up to the same level as her A Court Series. And it definitely feels like a first book, but it's still solid in my opinion. The world building was good, the pretense of the plot was good, most of the characters were generally well written and formed. It definitely held my attention as I read it in about 2 days (granted, it is also a very easy read), so what didn't I like about it?

First off, there were too many cliches. Wayyy too many. Mary Sueish character? check. Love Triangle? check. Evil king? check. Mary Sue falls in love/lust with the prince? check. This all honestly got a little tiring and I was able to easily predict the events of the book, which is something that tends to crop up a lot in this genre. Celaena, despite being the 'world's best assassin' acted kinda dumb. Not realizing that there was a secret passage way in her room for weeks? Eaten some random candy left for her on her bed? People walking in on her sleeping all the time? People generally sneaking up on her? Whenever these things happened I was like “???” But whatever, despite these flaws I found, this book kept my attention and gave a good foundation to a series that has become extremely popular. I look forward to reading the next book, with the understanding that the writing and story will improve even more.

Reread: January 2022. The second book, Beyond the End of the World comes out in a few days, and I didn’t remember a whole lot from the first book, so: reread time.
I reread this quickly, just enough to refresh myself with the world and characters. I stand by my initial review and am looking forward to the sequel!


I have not seen a whole lot of people talking about this book, and I don't really know why. Amie Kaufman and Meghan Spooner are two big enough names in the ya world that I'm surprised there wasn't more hype around this book. This book has been on my radar since before there was a title, and just a vague description of: "for fans of Miyazaki and the 100". Which had me completely sold from that point.

This book is good! It's about a living goddess named Nimh who is trying to save her people and her world, and a prince, North who lives in the Cloudlands (a floating city) who accidentally crashes down to the ground. A prophecy pulls them together and they have the power to either save or destroy the world.

The world-building is the best part of this book. The Cloudlands and Below are some of the best blend of fantasy and sci-fi I've seen in a while. The cultures and myth and atmosphere of this book are also very detailed and unique. I never felt that the world-building was bland or reused. Everything was fresh and interesting and somewhat whimsical.

The characters (Nimh and North) were decent- but their somewhat insta-love was annoying. The pacing was a little off too, because the beginning was slow and the second half the the book was very fast paced and quick. I wasn't sure if I would like the ending (because of the rapid unveiling of events) but it worked well and left for a big cliffhanger. I'm looking forward to the second book of this duology, and I'm very interested in how Amie Kaufman and Meghan Spooner conclude and wrap things up.

Reread: January 2022. I think I enjoyed this more as a reread than when I read it the first time. I think it’s because I’m already familiar with the story and world-building. Super entertaining and I can’t wait for the second book next month!!

4.5/5 stars

This was... a lot. I definitely enjoyed it and found it hard to put down, but at 800 pages there is so much that happens. It took me about the first 200 pages to get into the story, to start really understanding the world and what was going on. After that, this book played out as 3/4 murder mystery or urban detective story and 1/4 insane battle/magic/craziness plot.

Should this book have been 800 pages? Probably not, it probably should have been about 600 pages. First and foremost, I enjoyed the murder mystery element. Maas is quite good as twists and turns and this talent really shines through in this part of the story. From the very beginning of this plot to the 'big reveal' I was hooked and very engaged. Totally not suspecting of the big reveal and I thought it was well done.

Second, I enjoyed the world building. World building can be a weaker area of Maas's but even though we are confined to one city, and we don't get a formal map or in-depth knowledge of the rest of the world, it still felt solid. The structure of society was cool, the conflicts and 'ancient lore' pieces of information were great. In this, I can see how this story ties into the two other book series, and I honestly can't wait to see what Maas does this multiverse. There is a subtle element of portals/portal fantasy in the two other series, and it gets much further developed in this book. Which I am very excited to see. The society is loosely based off of the Roman Empire and there were a lot of cool little things that Maas included (history major here), which I was a little hesitant about at first, but I think she pulled it off decently enough.

Thirdly, the characters. They took a little while to grow on me, but by the end of the book I was attached. I like Bryce quite a bit now, even though I was quite indifferent to her at the beginning. As for Hunt and the other characters, I thought they were also well done, but I am always suspicious of Maas's first books in series. She is quite prone to shake things up. There are a few characters who were very minor in this book that I think will become major characters later on.

Overall, I enjoyed this and found it hard to put down. The pacing was a bit off at some points, and the book could have been about 200 pages shorter, but I liked it. It's certainly adult, and I can see how much Maas's writing and crafting as evolved since Throne of Glass. It's gotten much better and I look forward to reading the next installment of this series.

Any enjoyable book on the history of libraries, from the ancient age up to our modern day. A lot of time spent on medieval and Renaissance libraries, which I enjoyed. Although I would’ve liked this to be less Euro-centric and include libraries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

I can see why people love this book so much. It was such a fun story set in a more optimistic world full of millennial/gen-z references and a wonderful romance. I loved the first half the the book, and it was a 5 star read for me then. The White House trio was great and the enemies-friends-lovers trope was spot on.
I didn't enjoy the second half of the book as much, as I didn't enjoy how politically heavy the book got. But I still really enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it!

Uh oh, I rarely dnf books but I just had to dnf this one. Not that it's bad, I just wasn't invested in any aspect of the book and did not care to keep reading at all. I can see why so many people like this book, but I just found myself very indifferent to it. I didn't connect to any of the characters, the plot is mostly the main character wandering around various mysterious rooms, and it feels like the author was trying to fit in so many different elements of mythologies and lore into one book that it just didn't work.

I picked it up because I liked Hunted by Meagan Spooner so much, and I thought this book would be similar. And it does have the same basic premise, but then it is quite different. I got about 50% into the book before I just couldn't anymore. I read the last couple of chapters just to find out what happened.

It seems a bit of bad luck that my second book of the year is a dnf (considering I don't dnf very often) but it is what it is, and I'll find better books!

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, and I can gladly add it to my favorite fairy tale retellings list!

I stand by everything I've said in my reviews of The Bone Ships and Call of the Bone Ships: this series is fantastic and one of the best trilogies I've read in a while. Between this and the Greenbone Saga, my expectations for fantasy are much higher.

I stand by saying that this series has some of the best world building and character work I have encountered and I wish these books got as much attention as they deserve! This was a satisfying conclusion, and it lives up the the stakes that the first two books set. I can't say too much in this review without having spoilers, but if you are at all interested in detailed worldbuilding, nautical settings, sea dragons, and politics, definitely pick this series up!