I’m #currentlyreading Fallout, the third book in the Crank series by Ellen Hopkins. This book is from the perspectives of three of Kristina Snow’s five children, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer. They all have different fathers and live with different guardians.
I’m also reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Pippa (Pip) Fitza-Amobi is working on her senior capstone project. Her topic of choice? To research the roles of print, televised, and social media in police investigations using the case of Andie Bell as a case study.
Five years ago, Andie Bell went missing and then was presumed to be dead when her body was not located. Her boyfriend, Sal Singh, is believed to be the murderer but this could not be confirmed because he was found dead in the woods, presumably from suicide. The police and practically the whole town believe he murdered Andie. Pip does not.
Now that Spotify offers audiobooks to premium subscribers, I can listen to audiobooks without having to wait for them to be available on Libby. I remember when Spotify first added audiobooks and you were required to purchase them. I thought it was absurd. I already pay for premium services, and you want me to pay extra to listen to some books? No thanks.
“You don’t even care about her!” he shouted. “All that matters is you and your precious fucking fantasy that you and Alaska had this goddamned secret love affair and she was going to leave Jake for you and you'd live happily ever after. But she kissed a lot of guys, Pudge. And if she were here, we both know that she would still be Jake's girlfriend and that there'd be nothing but drama between the two of you—not love, not sex, just you pining after her and her like, ‘You're cute, Pudge, but I love Jake.' If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why'd you help her go? I was drunk. What's your excuse?"
The Colonel let go of my sweater, and I reached down and picked up the cigarettes. Not screaming, not through clenched teeth, not with the veins pulsing in my forehead, but calmly. Calmly. I looked down at the Colonel and said, "Fuck you."
"You can't just make me different and then leave," I said out loud to her. "Because I was fine before, Alaska. I was fine with just me and last words and school friends, and you can't just make me different and then die." For she had embodied the Great Perhaps—she had proved to me that it was worth it to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes, and now she was gone and with her my faith in perhaps. I could call everything the Colonel said and did "fine." I could try to pretend that I didn't care anymore, but it could never be true again. You can't just make yourself matter and then die, Alaska, because now I am irretrievably different, and I'm sorry I let you go, yes, but you made the choice. You left me Perhapsless, stuck in your goddamned labyrinth. And now I don't even know if you chose the straight and fast way out, if you left me like this on purpose. And so I never knew you, did I? I can’t remember, because I never knew.
I still think that, sometimes, think that maybe "the afterlife" is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable. Maybe she was just matter, and matter gets recycled.
But ultimately I do not believe that she was only matter. The rest of her must be recycled, too. I believe now that we are greater than the sum of our parts. If you take Alaska's genetic code and you add her life experiences and the relationships she had with people, and then you take the size and shape of her body, you do not get her. There is something else entirely. There is a part of her greater than the sum of her knowable parts. And that part has to go somewhere, because it cannot be destroyed.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Heir of Fire
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 3/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 3, 2023 @ 8:00 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
Let's start of by saying that this book didn't have to be 500 pages long. The amount of pages added to this compared to the first two book is absolutely wild and one of the main reasons as to why, in my opinion, is the constant repetition. It was present in the former books but it went nuts in this one, almost in every scene there'd be one. I understand that it's supposed to be an author's way to add emphasis but it only made the story such a slog. It even sounded weird at times, there was one part where the book is trying to describe the temperature of the water that Celeana was in and it goes “It was warm. Not boiling, but warm.” I could say it might have been funny if it weren't for the fact that it made the book unnecessarily lengthy. “The darkness was this and that, and that and this with like those and these.” “The hurt was this and that, and that and this with like those and these.” 😭
This would most likely come off as a personal thing but first part of this book did not need to exist. Celeana meeting Rowan, a fae with ice magic and training with him while they try to make the most out of their toxicity that they throw to each other back and forth could have easily saved this book a good 300 pages or so. Also there are a bunch of new characters which, I never really cared about because I never saw their appeal besides Manon Blackbeak, the last remaining witch. They even added in Sorscha a healer and Dorian's lover only to have her killed in the very end of the book because we got to give the men character development. Fridging of all time.
Chaol was thrown to the side by Celeana because even after their last scene from the second book, even after she told him that she would still choose him no matter what happens, the story keeps on giving these weird implications between her and Rowan. Like, I understand that the feelings we have for people change overtime but the way that Celeana suddenly thought about what she might actually feel about Chaol sounded more like the story will force her to be with Rowan; a man who did everything to break her. We can all have our asshole characters, that I agree with, but he never apologized for his actions. Never once did he try to talk to Celeana about their past b̶l̶o̶o̶d̶y̶ indifferences. Him taking care of her as she was healing doesn't immediately sweep his wrongdoings under a rug. I hope that the series never continues down the path where I fear it's taking, because Heaven forbid another white man releasing all his anger on a woman and then have those atrocities immediately redeemed because he has a sad backstory.
Meanwhile Chaol had one of the best developments so far b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶ C̶e̶l̶e̶a̶n̶a̶ o̶f̶ c̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶ he started to question all of what surrounds him, the throne and the kingdom when everything that he had ever done was for it. He pretty much gives off golden retriever vibes, I will absolutely lose it if Celeana ends up with Rowan than Chaol. I also like the way that Celeana is written to have hardships regarding her emotional and mental baggage, it doesn't just go away or gets resolved in an instant where most of the time in Y/A fiction books, the trauma inflicted to a character never seems to have this effort to understand and confront it. At worst, they're just forgotten. So I appreciate Celeana having to deal with the struggles of hurt that she kept locked inside her and having to deal with them in a more natural way, in a way that shows process.
Hopefully, the fourth book won't hurt that much. 🙏🏼 See you then.
ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ
@itobiasgray@bookstodon Maybe try Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Groan It's dystopian but not in the usual way. The book is the first of a trilogy although you can safely ignore the following two volumes without missing anything.
Nie spodziewałem się za wiele rozpoczynając lekturę i może dlatego ta książka kopnęła mnie między oczy - to topka powieści, które czytałem w tym roku (a przeczytałem więcej niż jedną).
Co prawda, im dalej w las, tym bardziej czuć, że to jednak "młodzieżówka", ale tutaj nie należy tym się kierować - to futurystyczna fantastyka, lekko cyberpunkowa, która nie tylko dostarcza fajną historię, ale też pokazuje, do czego ludzkość może doprowadzić eliminując choroby, wprowadzając wszechwładne AI (które jest tutaj pokazane nawet w pozytywny sposób) i mając pełnię władzy. Polecam gorąco, bo zaskoczeń też jest tutaj sporo.
@SceNtriC straszną kobyła i droga jak na ebooki ale w związku z tym że dużo czytam i dużo słucham audiobooków podczas biegania zdecydowałem się na abonament w Legimi Jakieś 70% książek które chcę przeczytać mam teraz w subskrypcji na pozostałe w tym akurat Kosoarzy, poluje na porównywarce @swiatczytnikow 😉 @ksiazki
Can't wait for the release of SUNBOLT by Intisar Khanani? Fill the void with an all-new prequel novella! SHADOW THIEF (The Sunbolt Chronicles, Book 0.5) is releasing on August 29. It will also be included in the print edition of SUNBOLT, releasing on September 19!
A graphic novel about a boy who struggles at school but then meets a girl who helps him gets his grades up, and in turn he helps her get into her dream school despite her family believing that her disability might make that impossible.
The artwork was absolutely beautiful and the colours were lovely. I also really liked main character Victor, who struggled to remember the right facts and who often blurted out things in class. I got the impression that Victor might have ADHD, but the story never mentions this. Instead, he simply overcomes his struggles by studying hard with the aid of Marie-Jo. This solution seems a bit too easy, but as this story is based on the novel A Friend in the Dark, this is probably not the graphic novel's fault. I also felt like Marie-Jo's struggles became Victor's whole identity, which didn't seem very healthy. However, in the beginning the two of them were very cute together.
Today's review! Barnabas Bopwright Saves the City by J. Marshall Freeman:
"Excellent writing, believable, relatable characters, a delightful coming-of-age story... Filled with adventure and angst, and a lovely cast of characters who were relatable, believable, and very charming."
Today's release: AJ White's queer YA fantasy Shard de Voor.
Their queen missing, the allied kingdoms of Sanquous have forged an uneasy alliance with the Ilfannde as war rages across the land. Far away, in another realm, a young woman awakens to find her memory gone, along with her freedom. Who is her mysterious saviour...
I recently finished "All hell breaks loose" the prequel book about Skullduggery Pleasant. A Y/A supernatural mystery series of books.
It started a bit slow but towards the end I started to it's potential. I always prefer a series that gets better and better the deeper I get into it.
A wickedly comic feminist mystery about the dark side of a hopeless romantic’s seemingly perfect love story—for readers of Jessica Goodman and Kara Thomas.
The trilogy of Ferryman is now complete : Ferryman, Trespassers and Outcasts. I only read the first book for the moment, but I really loved this ya novel. The characters are very deep and touching and their backstories are explored along the way. Claire Mc Fall’s novel is extremely poetic and introspective. It is a spiritual and paranormal romance, a very unique mixture that kept me hooked.