Writing this for myself, ignore lol been under a lot of stress these last two weeks (work + family), and this helps me relax.

Since half a year passed, I thought I’d write down some things regarding everything I’ve read so far this year (novels + manga, no fanfics sorry). Nothing deep / thoughtful since I’m not that good at it. Going by authors if it’s a series / read more than one book from that author this year, if not, then just the series/book/manga name.

This blog post reflects my personal opinion only. I don’t really care if you agree or not. Also, I’m not saying I could do better, because obviously not, but I’m treating everything I read as a reader, not an author – please remember there’s a difference between the two. Photos taken from tumblr (I own nothing). Excuse the grammar mistakes and my jumbled thoughts, this is not edited.

[!!!] S P O I L E R S – you’ve been warned

Thank you.

* Marissa Meyer – The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Fairest)

Okay, actually, I’ve started Cinder (the first book of the series) somewhere around December last year, but I couldn’t get myself to finish it no matter how much you’d paid me (sorry for abandoning you for other titles during that period my precious /rubs hands all over the series). So I picked Cinder again somewhere in January (Goodreads says January 1^st – January 2^nd) and ended up reading the entire series (4 books + 1 side-story/prequel, still have to read the short stories but /lazy).

Cinder is basically a re-telling of Cinderella in a future world. The action takes place in New Beijing, where Cinder, a cyborg, works as a mechanic (dubbed the best mechanic). She meets Prince Kaito, future Emperor (Kai for short – I’m still not sure why Kai for short, Kaito is perfectly fine but whatever Meyer, whatever, I’ll allow it) when he comes in with his broken droid. Since it’s a re-telling, Cinder has an evil stepmother, one evil stepsister and one not evil stepsister that later becomes a sacrifice for the plot when she catches the plague that also affected the royal family and the stepmother “volunteers” Cinder to “donate” her body for research, playing the guilt card here because Cinder might or might not be at fault for her sister catching the plague.

There’s also an on-going power struggle between the nations of Earth (mostly Commonwealth, where New Beijing is – why the Hell “Commonwealth”?) and Luna, a former human colony turned country on the Moon. Well, mostly between Queen Levana, the Lunar leader, and Kai not wanting to have her as a bride.

Lunars are humans that suffered mutations during their stay on the Moon and now are able to manipulate the bioelectricity of another human. Levana for e.g. uses this to make herself appear pristine perfect or force one of the servants to kill herself, but you need to physically be in range for this to function (so you can’t control someone through a video chat). The only people not affected by this are Lunars that were born without this particular skill aka shells and, surprise surprise, Cinder, whose mysterious cyborg elements somehow help her see through the illusions.

/eyes rolling

It’s not that very hard to guess where this is going. It’s not exactly as good as it could be and I’m not the only one that felt there was something lacking with the book. If you’ve read as much fantasy/sci-fi as I have, you’d probably get bored fast too.

Meyer comes from Sailor Moon fanfiction (go figure) and you can tell from the writing. It’s light and easy to go through, but I still barely dragged my to finish it.

Then, Scarlet happened, a re-telling of Red Riding Hood.

Much better.

We get introduced to Scarlet (yes, the titles aren’t very original) in France, whose grandmother goes missing. She teams up with Wolf, a street fighter (for like, a couple of pages) in search of her grandmother and ends up with a lot more than she bargained for.

Meanwhile, Cinder, who ended up in prison after the last book, teams up with Thorne, sorry, meant Captain Thorne, a rogue spaceship cadet that fled the American Republic with one of their ships (who is also ing hilarious, I love that idiot) to escape and find a way to prevent Levana from getting married with Kai and start a war between Earth and Luna.

Not only do Cinder and Kai mature in Cress, but the new settings and characters make it less boring and connect some threads left without answers in the first book.

I won’t talk about Cress, Fairest and Winter because there’s not use, so I’ll just say what really made me love this series, because honestly, it’s not the best writing in the world and it’s not the most original thing out there.

The female friendship is amazing. I’m so sick of novels, especially YA, that make every main character be a special snowflake that all the other girls pick on / hate just because she’s the main character and . Not only does The Lunar Chronicles shatter this annoying trend, it also underlines female x male friendship. YES GUYS IT’S POSSIBLE, ALRIGHT? Also, the pairings are pretty clear and while the romance doesn’t overpower the books (thank God), at least there’s no annoying triangles or relationships drama that make no damn sense either too. Characters actually talk, ok? They actually acknowledge if they’re scared and they don’t whine around without doing anything.

I need more books like these. I need books that tell girls that other girls aren’t the enemy. I need more books where characters mature and also don’t put their need to get laid before their mission. I’m not against it if that’s your thing, go for it, but the market’s saturated of the same plot points and I personally was happy to read something a bit different, relationship-wise.

And don’t get me started on the craziness of Fairest where Levana is so damn obsessed with a guy that she ends up him while taking on his dead wife’s face.

Talk about ed up characters.

…alright, maybe there were some things that bothered me and it wasn’t Levana’s past or some clichés that helped move the entire action (Winter is full of them). The whole Wolf obsessed with Scarlet thing and how forced Cress x Thorne feels at times, but I guess that needs to be analyzed deeper, which I’ve already said I’m not going to do.

/end rant

I also bought Heartless from Marissa Meyer, but I haven’t touched it yet. One of these days, I guess (never was a big Alice in Wonderland fan).

* Leigh Bardugo – The Grishaverse (The Grisha Trilogy + Six of Crows duology)

The Grisha Trilogy is about Alina that suddenly learns she’s a Grisha, a human with abilities to manipulate certain elements to her will, and gets dragged to the Grisha “school” to harness her newfound powers. Unlike others Grisha, she’s a Sun Summoner, meaning she can bring light anywhere, which might be the key to closing the shadow rift filled with monsters that spliced the country in two. Said nation where the action takes place in is modeled after Russia, so you get some interesting cultural aspects that upset some people who knew more about Russian culture.

Ugh.

I’ve wanted to love The Grisha Trilogy because the Grisha themselves reminded me so much about something I made up as a kid, that it was impossible for me not to enjoy it.

I felt like I learned more about Russian cuisine than whatever the trilogy was supposed to be about.

Of course the main character had to be that special snowflake and of course she had to be stuck in a stupid- triangle between her best friend (that everybody apparently thinks is hot) and the equally hot bad guy because why not? And later with the hot prince slash privateer that actually treated her with respect in the end and was the only better character of the books. I wanted to read fantasy, not romantic drama disguised as fantasy – please just give me a warning next time.

Shadow and Bone was alright. Could have been much worse. You get the regular introductions and the whole “let’s see how I get to control my powers”. Siege and Storm introduces us to Nikolai and the Shu Han twins. Look, I’m not saying Nikolai would make a better main character than Alina but he totally would, okay? He oddly reminded me of Thorne, just not as dumb and damn you Nikolai ok when are you getting your own book? Nothing much happened in this book because middle-book crisis that most trilogies suffer from.

Ruin and Rising made me want to toss the goddamn book out the window. Not only does Nikolai’s character suffer from the most wtf moment in the entire trilogy, the plot makes no freakin sense anymore, the Darkling became some kind of stock character not the villain that we deserved and Alina ends up choosing her best friend to marry, despite him being a complete throughout the trilogy – might be the first time I had second thoughts about the whole ending up with your best friend as your lover.

Again, wanted to love this series, but I can’t bring myself to do it when you have great ideas and poor execution.

Alina got white hair tho.

I dig that.

I also learned with this series that I should never ever read all the books in a series one after another, regardless how good or bad they are, because I got tired quickly. With The Lunar Chronicles I took short breaks between books by picking other titles (well, was also waiting for the books to be delivered, so it was impossible to read everything in one go in the first place while I got all 3 books of the Grisha trilogy at the same time).

Surprising were the three fairytales that accompany and are mentioned in the trilogy. Those were actually great reads and reminded me a lot of the fairytales I grew up with, so kudos to the author.

And then there’s Six of Crows that takes place in the same universe as the Grisha Trilogy, a couple of years (don’t remember how much, but it wasn’t a lot – maybe one? Two? Three?) after the last Grisha book, just in a different country.

Here, you have a crew of outcasts infiltrating a military stronghold in order to save a hostage that invented a drug which greatly improves a Grisha’s abilities, to the point that it opens new possibilities – but with terrible consequences, that includes dependency on the drug (because… drug) or death. Either way, if the drug formula were to get in the wrong hands, it could turn bad.

And while I don’t want to say that the first book is merely the setting up the scene for the second one, it totally is. Six of Crows is fun and reads fast and it’s hard not to fall for at least one character, but, again, felt like it was the opening act to the second book in the series, Crooked Kingdom.

Honestly, I’m not very sure what to say about this series since there are some things that bugged me, like how Kaz has been called cruel / monstrous several times but rarely acted in a way that showed that cruelty or how the gang slipping inside a seemingly impenetrable stronghold seemed far easier than it should have been.

It’s one of those series where it’s more about the characters than the plot, so if you enjoy a bit of both, this one’s a bit hard to swallow – unless you’re easily satisfied like yours truly. Heck, if you were to really stop for a second and analyze the plot, you’d see the focus goes back on the characters, not the action, and there are too many instances in which the characters escape desperate moments just because the author writes it so, but the characters are what makes this duology.

Liked the first, loved the second and I’m happy to have spent every evening inside these character’s heads.

I’m curious what else the author is going to release (she wrote a Wonder Woman novel that should be out this summer, so I’m excited).

* Joe Abercrombie – Shattered Sea and The Blade Itself (The First Law)

I’ve randomly bought Half a King because the plot sounded fun and it felt like a quick read. Then I found out Koemi loves Joe Abercrombie and this is how we ended up reading the Shattered Sea together.

And I became a Joe fan too.

I don’t even care what people think of him or his books, I freakin love Joe Abercrombie. I haven’t felt this much love for an author in years.

Half a King is about Yarvi, a prince betrayed by his uncle and left to die, who ends up a slave on a ship, forms a bond with the other slaves on the ship and eventually returns to reclaim his throne. Yarvi has a crippled hand, can’t fight to save his and was preparing to become a priest at the beginning of the book. He uses his wits rather than his brawls to get his way around and while his plans aren’t always successful, he eventually returns home to take his revenge.

There are no villains or heroes in the story and I guess this is why I fell in love with everything. Yarvi has to make some tough choices at times and that ending was brilliant.

Half the World is interesting because the POV suddenly changes to two different characters, namely, Thorn – a girl born to fight but looked down upon just because she doesn’t have something dangling from between her legs, and Brand – a warrior that isn’t that keen on killing and only becomes a fighter in order to bring home money and support his little sister. Yarvi appears again too, this time as Father Yarvi, who is seen as a cunning man, but the focus is no longer on him. The three embark on a journey across half the world in order to find allies.

This story is Thorn and Brand’s, not Yarvi’s. And it’s fun, okay? It’s amazing how a series that completely changed the main characters can still be fun.

And it happens again in Half a War, where the focus changes to two new characters and one from the second book: Princess Skara – that will sacrifice everything to save her people, Raith – the bloodthirsty fighter that only wants to find his place in the world and Koll – that struggles to stand in the light in a world consumed by darkness. We also get to meet some characters from the other books and, again, Yarvi plays a central role, but the book, again, is not about him. The third book focuses a lot more on politics than the other two and the stakes are higher than never before.

I love this series. I love the different characters and how everything ties together, the politics and the battles and just everything. It’s not perfect and has a lot of plot holes that should have been fixed, but it reads well and ends well and I can’t ask for more from a series.

Then I got my hands on The Blade Itself from Joe’s first series.

This book splits into three (well, four) POVs – Logen, a barbarian that can speak “with” spirits, Jezal – a selfish officer that is preparing for the fencing event that might bring him and his family glory, and Glokta – a former swordsman turned an inquisitor, left crippled after falling into the enemy’s hands and who has a thing for torturing his prisoners (4^th and other shorter POVs belong to other characters but the mains are Logen, Jezal and Glokta).

All three somehow are connected with Bayaz the wizard’s plans. I still don’t know what he plans though… yeah, I need to read the second book.

Koemi told me to forgive Joe because it’s his first book after I moaned about how hard it was for me to get into it as compared to the Shattered Sea. It’s a tedious read and the only parts I flew through were Glokta’s because he reminded me a lot of Yarvi, both cunning and using their wits rather than their fists. Also, he’s sarcastic and I can’t help but snort alongside him whenever he comments about something.

Actually, I might love Joe because he also adds humor in everything he writes, just enough so the atmosphere doesn’t stay as gloomy every time, but not enough to turn it into a joke.

Not really sure what to say about this one since it introduces characters and the world, so there isn’t really a lot going on… yes, I really need to read the next book.

Conclusion: I love Joe Abercrombie.

* V.E. Schwab (Victoria Schwab) – A Darker Shade of Magic and Vicious

Okay, let me start by saying that Victoria Schwab is an amazing writer that I too wish I could choose and place words the way she does, and she comes up with some awesome ideas, but I cannot for the love of me get into her characters or believe some scenes. If all the other authors I’ve mentioned before had no trouble making me fall for their characters, it’s a lot harder with Schwab and it’s frustrating.

I have all three books of the Shades of Magic trilogy and after reading A Darker Shade of Magic, I was afraid of getting into the next book right away so I wouldn’t exhaust myself like I had with the Grisha trilogy.

I’ll c/p the description from Goodreads since it sums up everything well:

“Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.”

I didn’t care about Kell.

At all.

I cared even less after his grand confrontation with the twins that dominated White London. I didn’t care much about Lila either (and I questioned her sanity a couple of times).

I’m hoping the next books will be better. Will see.

Then, I found out my local library had a copy of Vicious, the novel everyone praised Schwab for, so of course I had to borrow it.

“Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?”

I cared a bit more here. I cared about Victor and Eli (ok I ship them, throw tomatoes at me) and the sisters and even the dog, but, again there was something off. I’m not sure if it’s because I never got some of my answers regarding Eli or because I really hoped that there were less Deus ex machina moments (Mr. Word, it’s machina, not machine, stop correcting me). I could forgive everything else but the deus ex machina (MACHINA MR. WORD, IT’S MACHINA) that made me take the story less seriously.

Don’t get me wrong – those aforementioned authors used the same tactic several times too, but it didn’t feel as bad as it felt with Vicious or Kell’s Londons.

But, I have faith. Will just have to read more (I have This Savage Song too – couldn’t help myself – which is apparently lighter, so it can’t go wrong), mostly because I truly, madly, deeply fell in love with her writing.

* N. K. Jemisin - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Killing Moon

I just finished The Killing Moon this week and it became an instant favorite because 1. Ancient Egypt inspired, 2. Dream magic, 3. Complex characters.

But will start with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms aka what the happened.

“Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is into a vicious power struggle.”

(yes, I’m c/p-ing summaries, deal with it)

I don’t get it. Good ideas, bad execution. I was damn excited to finally read something from N. K. Jemisin and this one left me feeling empty and bitter because I don’t understand what happened. The story’s so fragmented that I’m still not sure what have I read or what happened or just anything and I really want to blame the translation for it, but I believe it’s just how the books ended up being, y gods – sighs – and all. There are some interesting themes going on, like slavery, race, class status and religion, but it fails to deliver.

I ended up reading some of Jemisin’s thesis on the characters, risking myself to spoilers from the other books of the series, just so I could understand better what happened (one of the characters was actually inspired by Rain, which made me happy because Rain – ignore me), but I still had my doubts.

Then, I swallowed my pride and said alright, maybe it’s the book at fault.

The Killing Moon is completely different, has a fresh take on magic using an Ancient Egyptian inspired background and everything runs smoothly with no sudden interruptions between chapters that ruins the flow of the story.

“In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe - and kill those judged corrupt.”

Race and religion again play a major role in the overall theme of the book and I couldn’t help fall in love with Ehiru, one of the most experienced Gatherer that slowly doubts the path he’s taken after he makes a mistake during a gathering session, his protégée, Nijiri (who is also mad in love with Ehiru) and the spy-ambassador Sunandi that challenges everything Ehiru believes in. The villain doesn’t appear often but leaves a great impact and I understood him.

There’s a lot of discussion about faith throughout the book, in what one might believe and what happens when you shake the belief, and, while slow, it’s one of those books where the journey and the lessons matter more than the destination. I love the level of detail the author put in the world building and while confusing in the beginning, it all naturally unravels as you go on.

Also, Ancient Egypt.

A+

* Shinichi Sakamoto – Innocent

I haven’t read any manga or watched any anime in a while because I can’t find anything to hold my attention (though I do need to finish Magi but uhhh maybe later).

Then I found Innocent.

Innocent follows the story of “Charles-Henri Sanson, the Royal Executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI and High Executioner of the First French Republic”. The art is gorgeous and the story has an almost poetic flair. Most chapters are bloody (thank you black & white drawings for saving my ), but there's something romantic about it? It’s hard to explain it without sound like a psycho, but I swear that the way everything’s laid out makes the executions look beautiful and I found myself stopping several times and thinking about life as a whole.

I didn’t get a chance to read the continuation, Innocent Rouge, which switches the focus (from my understanding) to Charles-Henri’s sister, Marie (that girl’s one sadistic and I love it), but I hope I can fix that soon.

* Standalones /  Random

Kenzaburō Ōe – 17 – thought I’ll get a political view of Japan after WWII and ended up with a dense description of a guy ing… not sure this is what I signed up for. Maybe I need to study up the culture a bit more to understand, so I shall blame myself for not enjoying this one.

Hiromi Kawakami – The Briefcase – lots of food, enjoyed that. Woman ending up with her teacher? Not so much. While there’s a 30 years difference between them and it’s not like the woman was in her 20s (she was nearing her 40s), I wish the teacher – student relationship lasted longer.

Lavinia Călina – Copiii întunericului (loosely translated as The Children of Darkness) – Needs a better editor (like way better) and lacked the world building such a book needed (anything with witches should take more than one page to explain things). The first part of the book went fast and was fun and I had hopes for it, but the second part seems like a completely different author took over. I got the second book out of curiosity and hoping the author improved… I’m not a big fan of contemporary Romanian fiction, it’s just… bad.

Sara Shepard – The Lying Game – So!!! Many!!! Exclamation!!! Points!!! …Jesus Christ, stop.

Roald Dahl – Matilda – I finally read Matilda after years since I’ve first seen the movie. Fun stuff, it’s Roald Dahl, what more do you want me to say? This type of humor is where I feel good.

Jeff VanderMeer – Annihilation – I want whoever decided to create those awful covers on the Romanian version of the Southern Reach to never design again in their whole life, holy even I can design a better cover. They don’t even relate to the plot of the book like how the hell can anyone even approve that design??? …that aside, will write more about this series when I finish it. Just wanted to say that the first book feels detached and I love it for it. The narrative fits the main character spot on.

Jeaniene Frost – Halfway to the Grave – Hehehehehheheheheeh… shhh, Me likey some vampires and dirty . Buffy rip-off, guilty pleasure. The only regret I have is that I can’t find the next books anywhere (and I’m not that desperate yet to buy the ebooks).

Natsuo Kirino - The Goddess Chronicle – mythical like story with feminist undertones. Enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) – Blaze – It’s Stephen King, again, what more can I say? I ended up feeling bad for Blaze, Hell, I even rooted for him. Started slow and a bit confusing (I actually blame the translation for this because I dislike the translator but didn’t notice his name when I picked the book).

Becky Albertalli - Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – light read… maybe a bit too light for my taste. I ended up craving a fantasy book while trying to finish this one. Some positive vibes here, so good read if you want a story with a gay character that isn’t all gloom and doom.

I guess that’s it? I have a feeling I might have missed some titles, but will probably get back to it at the end of the year.

It’s 1 AM and I barely got enough sleep these last two weeks, so excuse any mistakes I might have made (and my lack of enthusiasm towards the end). I haven’t read that much this year, but it’s a lot more than usual because money lol

Finally, I want to thank Koemi for letting me rant whenever I’m reading a book and for not pushing me off a cliff for it.

Night!