4.25/5 stars
Unraveling Oliver is my second book by Liz Nugent, the first one was Lying in Wait, which I absolutely loved. Unraveling Oliver was also good, but I will be honest - I expected things to be more shocking than they were. Maybe I'm just heartless, I don't know, but it could have been darker, you know. The book definitely started out with a punch - that first sentence lets you know right then and there how the book was going to go. And it did deliver throughout, it did. Things fizzled out a bit by the end, which was a tad disappointing, but not in any capacity to ruin the story for me. I enjoyed the book pretty much from cover to cover.
I do want to mention that while Unraveling Oliver is advertised as a thriller, it's not really. Sure it's dark and twisty, and indeed thrilling, but it's more of a portrait study of Oliver. He talks about himself, then other people talk about him - different opinions and events forming the clearer and clearer picture.
There is a sub plot for one of the side characters that is also very good, while it is still greatly connected to Oliver, it brings a lot of depth to the story, and especially the times in which this story was set. The pacing of the story was perfect - I never once felt bored or distracted. Granted the book is only 260 pages, but somehow that is a perfect length. I wouldn't wish this book to be any longer, or shorter. I am proud to say that I did figure out Oliver's "dark secret", but I was also wrong to whom the secret applied. It's hard to review Unraveling Oliver without giving anything away, but I will just say this - there are some monsters in this book, and there are no happy endings in Liz Nugent books. And I need more from her. I'm addicted.
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3.75/5 stars
“She cried for the girl who had never belonged. A girl who tried so hard, harder than anyone else, and still never had anything to show for it.” Marissa Meyer is a nice person, right? Where did she get all that spite and ruthlessness in her to write this story I will never know! Because this was brutal! I wasn't sure how well I would like this novella in audio form, as I had just recovered from Steelheart, and I didn't think that any narrator could come close to making me feel as invested in the story as McLeod Andrews did, BUT Rebecca Soler came pretty close. She's got a perfect speed of reading, a very pleasant and malleable voice, and at the emotional parts, boy was she phenomenal!
Levana is...a piece of work. Molded by her egoistic parents, by her unhinged and outright evil sister, by the trials of a lonely youth and the errors of first love. I did feel for her. In the first part of the book. But by the end of the book only the monster was left.
Fairest actually made me want to re-read The Lunar Chronicles, although I will be honest - reading a story from a villain's point of view is so much more interesting. I only wished for more, but alas this novella is quite short. I wanted more of political intrigue especially, and more of lunar's powers being explored. Because as of right now they seem very silly. Yes, the mind control is handy. But glamour? Only good for making oneself look ridiculously attractive, I guess. surely, there are much better ways to use it! The first 35% of the book are spent on Levana pining over Sir Everett. Sure, it was detrimental to her progress as a character, but it was the time in which I rolled my eyes the most. And in which Levana was at her stupidest. It did pick up later on and I really enjoyed all of the small glimpses at the other books and plot lines that were explained just a tiny bit more. I don't understand why it was labeled as Lunar Chronicles 3.5, it should have been 0.5 in my opinion, but oh well. My biggest trifle with this book was the diversity, or the way it's written really. Sure, the Lunar Chronicles includes a wide array of characters with different background, ailments and skin colors. But the problem is that Meyer writes white skinned characters just as she writes olive, black and any other possible skin tone characters. They are literally the same. If it wasn't explicitly told to me in the book that the character isn't white, I wouldn't have known. They sound the same, they act the same. When I read Marissa Meyer I know that it's a white person writing people of color. Overall this was quite enjoyable, and I'd really recommend the audio book. I do wish that the world was a little bit more explained. Because even after reading all of the series (some short stories included) I still feel like there could have been much more depth to it. Too much time was spent on juvenile and ya thrones, and not enough time world building. But in the world of ya retellings, this is pretty good. “Levana had not seen the bodies, but she had seen the bedrooms the next morning, and her first thought was that all that blood would make for a very pretty rouge on her lips.” 
5/5 stars
Read Steelheart they said. It will be fun they said. Sure it was fun. So much fun! But it was also very, very heart wrenching. This was an absolutely phenomenal novel to audio book. Until the time I was listening to it while driving to pick up some Indian food for dinner and crying uncontrollably because of things that were happening. I must have looked very distressed to passerby's. “We were like deaf people trying to dance to a beat we couldn't hear, long after the music actually stopped.”
The opening of the book was in the best fashion of Sanderson - straight into the action, straight into the story. And boy, that worked. I was invested from the get go. I was aghast from the get go. I loved it right away. And I am not a person who is very much into super heroes. I'd much rather epic fantasy and magic systems, not super powers. But this resonated.
And the reason for that I think is because our main characters aren't heroes. They don't have any super powers. they are just people. People ridden by doubts and guilt of what they are doing, of how their doings are affecting other people. And I loved that. Many times in stories main characters don't pay any heed to the "little people", aka people who are just background of stories. So it felt nice to see characters wrestle with the "power" they were given to change things. “It’s good for you to think of this, son. Ponder. Worry. Stay up nights, frightened for the casualties of your ideology. It will do you good to realize the price of fighting.” Steelheart was promised to be a funny and action packed book. And it was action packed. But funny? It wasn't just funny - it was absolutely hilarious. Yes, there were sad moments, and moments that made my cry. But I don't think I've ever laughed as hard reading a book as I did listening to this one. “But even a ninety-year-old blind priest would stop and stare at this woman. If he weren’t blind, that is. Dumb metaphor, I thought. I’ll have to work on that one. I have trouble with metaphors.” David is charming, sure. In a boyish kind of way, with his metaphors that don't work. But Cody? Cody is a hoot. My absolute favorite side character, probably ever. I liked all of the side characters, except really, one. I won't say which one because I don't want to impose bias, and even though there was a good reason for that character's behavior - the hopes of connection were lost to me. As I listened to the audio book I feel the need to mention McLeod Andrews. He's phenomenal. Genius. Sure, the book was good on its own. Good. But he made it great. All of the accents, the reenactments, the emotions portrayed - each of them spot on and straight to the listeners heart. An amazing experience. 
5/5 stars
“It was gorgeous and claustrophobic. I loved it and I always wanted to escape.” I am so happy that I started taking notes while reading books (something I'm experimenting with and really benefitting from) because otherwise I'd have no words left for the review. Because I'm speechless. Because this was amazing. Station Eleven is unlike anything I've ever read. The premise and the world building isn't new of course, it's dystopian, but with a soul - that's the only way I can think of how to describe it. The writing is what makes the book. Emily Mandel has a way with words. Words that are atmospheric and transportive and somehow magical in their mundanity.
“She had never entirely let go of the notion that if she reached far enough with her thoughts she might find someone waiting, that if two people were to cast their thoughts outward at the same moment they might somehow meet in the middle.”
I will be honest, the story did feel disjointed for a bit to me - we had views of one person, then the moment we get attached to that person it would switch to the next, and then next one and the next one. But then - it all clicked. Seemingly random people intertwined in the most impossible ways, making me see just how small the world is, and just how deep human connections can really go. There were moments when things were coming together when I just had to close the book and go "wow. I see now. I see what you did there." The structure of the novel is something that impressed me the most. The smallest of details would show up in the most unexpected of moments to make a very well placed emotional punch. I'd love to take a peak into Emily Mandel's mind, because this - is quite a masterpiece. Beautifully woven, achingly human and haunting at times with the snippets of plot that just took my breath away - a new favorite and a definite re-read for the future times. “The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?” 
2.75/5 stars
One of the stars from this rating is actually for me. For finishing this sucker. Also, if the fantasy books that I'm excited to read in 2019 keep disappointing me like this I will run out of books to read pretty quickly. This book also made me help realize something about myself. Something I've been noticing lately, but couldn't put my finger on it. I don't like adult fantasy books that have a child as a main character. Coming of age if you will. I'm just tired of this way of story telling. I'd rather have an adult cast in an adult fantasy. If I must know the character's tragic (and it's always so tragic) childhood, tell it to me in flashbacks. Also, the girl on the cover looks like she's in her 20's at least. Nona is 10 in this book! What even.
Speaking of age, Nona is supposed to be 10 in the beginning and 12 by the end the book is over. Why then, she sounds and thinks like a 30 year old all throughout the book?
Yes, she has been through a lot and yes that matured her quickly. Yes, she's smarter and more cunning that most kids her age. No, it still doesn't feel right. When I'm reading Nona I know that I'm actually reading words of a 40 year old man (I'm not actually sure how old the author actually is, sorry). This fact was probably the biggest contributor to me not having any connection whatsoever to the main character. Zero. Was I supposed to feel bad for her? Sure, I could tell from all the events that were happening to her. But I didn't care about Nona, I didn't care about the plot, I just didn't care. I did like some of the side characters, but they weren't as nearly developed as I would have wanted them to be. Plus they are dead now (not a spoiler, there's tons of side characters and I didn't tell you which ones I liked). For a book that's over 500 pages long nothing much happens. And when it does it's very repetitive. We have series of ring fights, sparring as part of training, practicing a thing called blade-path (which I still couldn't envision in my mind space even if you pay me money). Add a lot of everyday things like eating and sleeping and getting places - and you will understand why it took me 8 days to read the whole thing. The overly flowery language did not help either. It wasn't bad, it was quite pretty and luscious, but sometimes it would ramble on so much that I would forget what I was reading about. There were things that I enjoy, I think. I liked the bond connection ability. I hated the constant need to abuse and beat up the main character and I hated the animal cruelty scene (it's forever burned into my mind eye, so thanks for that (NOT!). As of right now my desire to read book 2 is about at 4 percent. So not very high, but I still might. Just not soon. I'm just hoping that book 2 would expand more on the politics that were underlaying the story, but didn't get explored or explained nearly enough. That it would explain ALL of the abilities, because as of right now there are so many and just kept popping up at random. Oh look, I have "claws" now. Oh look I can predict things before they happen, and now I can also barrel through rock with my bare hands. And so on. Things felt disorganized and scattered and not completed. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I guess. 
5/5 stars
Welcome to the family, new favorite trilogy and first favorite series of 2019. So far I've been having a wonderful reading year, and it's largely because of The Themis Files. I also want to quickly mention The Humans by Matt Haig, which got me into the hugest sci-fi mood at the beginning of December last year - and I'm still riding that wave. Thank you. Only Human got me a little bit worried because of its unusually (and so undeserved) low ratings, but I'm happy that I didn't let that scare or influence me. I can see people maybe wanting a bit more action out of this one, but Only Human delivers so much more than that.
All of the events in this book hit much too close to home (minus the giant robot of course), but racism, discrimination based on pettiest reasons, bigotry, governmental manipulations - if you aren't careful you might think that you are reading a very non-fiction book about events around the world. Because this is our reality. And it's scary.
Now imagine if you could only have a do-over. If you could have all the power in the world to fix it - what would you do? Our main characters hold that power in their own hands (feet too), but instead they choose to fight each other over personal reasons. They fight while the world watches and crumbles under their feet. Because this is who we are - we are selfish and ignorant humans. We are children in need of guidance - if this book does anything, is that it open your eyes to things you already knew, but tried so hard to ignore. Only Human is absolutely brilliant. It pulls on emotional strings, it's believable and so easily connectable. It manages to focus on personal relationships and small things that matter on a scale of the world ending. Because the world ending is a very big deal, but what each and every one of us does on personal level while the world is ending, is also a very big deal. 
5/5 stars
You know when you read a first book in the series and you like it so much that you pray the second book is at least half that good? Waking Gods blows Sleeping Giants out of the water. It's funny, but as with the first book it took me a little bit to get completely sucked into it. About thirty pages. I feel like Neuvel eases the reader in slowly at the beginning of every book. Because when the things start happening - they don't stop until the very last page. So I hope you're good at holding your breath for the long amounts of time, because you will be doing that a lot here.
It's a specialty of mine to not being able to write a proper and coherent review for books that I really, really, really enjoyed. I just can't find words.
In terms of writing, in terms of plotting, in terms of characters - this book improved so much from the first one. And I already thought that the first one was perfect. So, we're breaking physics over here, really. Waking Gods gave me a lot of feelings. I still can't believe that the author did what he did. And he did it so off handedly too! What I loved the most is how brutally honest everything is - this book highlights everything that is wrong with humanity and everything that could be right, but because of our humongous egos and selfish nature, just can't be. This book has so much food for thought that you will need a to-go box! 
5 stars
You know when you read a book that makes all the other books out there obsolete? THIS IS THAT BOOK I gave it 5 stars, but really I wish I could have given it 6 stars, 7 stars, 8 million stars. Also, can we talk about how aesthetically pleasing the cover is? It's all green and trees and it just radiates warmths - totally my jam! Orange deals with a topic that I am usually not comfortable reading about. Mostly because it's almost never handled well in books (at least the ones I read). But this, this is BEAUTIFUL. I am still at a loss for words. Which is curious, because this being manga, it also didn't have that many words in it (relative to its 500+ page count), but it relayed emotions and feelings in the strongest, most heart wrenching and best possible way. It is true what they say - a picture is worth a thousand words. The cast of characters is amazing. They all have very unique personalities, and the way they come together is absolutely beautiful. Hands down the best portrayal of a large group friendship in a book. And while at times the main character Naho, was a bit hard to read because of her extreme timidness and indecisiveness - in the end I realized that she couldn't have been any other way. She was shy to start with, but the burden which was put on her, made all of her decisions that much harder for her. There were many small details in the book which would resurface later and hit you right in the feels. Orange is a masterpiece. 
5 stars
Will I ever love anything as much as I love this? Probably not. Orange volume 2 not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded them. I don't know how, but it managed to be sad, sweet, heartbreaking and uplifting all at once. This cast of characters will stay with me for a very long time. Naho, who's sweet and timid, but possesses quiet strength and kind heart. Suwa, who is the most selfless character I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Kakeru, who is so sad and troubled, but also loving and gentle. Azu, who is loud and cheerful, and loved expressing herself. Hagita, who's always grumbling and complaining, but a wonderful friend. Takako, who is quiet, independent and strong, and will always have your back. I love each and every one of them with all my heart. What I loved the most was how the group of friends was willing to do everything they absolutely could to save their friend. Not once they thought that maybe it was his choice, that they should leave him to it and respect his wishes. No. They gripped him with all they could, they loved him, they hugged him when he needed it, they made him smile, they cheered him on. They always had his back. They fought for him and they showed him that life was worth living. Never think that leaving a depressed and suicidal person to their own devices is a good idea. Never think that they know better what they want and what's best for them. They hurt. They hurt so much that they don't see any future beyond a fleeting moment. The can't see or know what's good for them, because they don't see good in anything. If you have that friend - be their light, be their goodness, be their reason to live. No matter what it takes. Always save your friend. 
4.5/5 stars
*If you feel confused by jumpy timelines - follow Suwa's necklace! If he's wearing it - it's a throwback. If he's not - it's a present time.* It felt so good being back in Orange world. Being with these characters. Seeing them cry, seeing them smile. I love all of them with my whole heart. They are all precious little dandelions and they need to be protected at all costs. This volume wasn't as strong as the previous ones for one reason - the whole gang wasn't in it enough. I missed their dynamic, I missed the jokes and their interactions and Yuza's cutesy outfits. There was some of it here, but not nearly enough. I loved seeing Suwa's perspective. He was always my favorite and he still is. Behind his cheerfulness there is so much sadness, so much insecurity and regrets. He's so beautiful inside and out, even if he himself doesn't believe that. While Orange Future doesn't add anything new plot wise to the story, it adds another dimension. It adds another set of emotions. This is definitely a series that I will re-read a lot in the future. So much love. 
5/5 stars
You know what's great? Picking up a book that you had decent expectations for and having that book blow your mind by exceeding those expectations tenfold. Also, beautiful minimalistic covers are also pretty darn great. It took me about two chapters to get into this. After prologue I was maybe intrigued. After chapter one I was definitely intrigued, but due to the format I didn't think that I'd relate or feel any feelings towards the characters. Somewhere in the middle of chapter two I was suddenly invested, intrigued and feeling all the feels! So, Sylvain Neuvel, bravo.
The format is fascinating. It's told in interviews, journal entries, news recordings and scientific reports. Sounds boring? You're wrong! It makes the story so multidimensional that you might feel like you're in the middle of it. You might want to check the view from your window, to make sure that there are no aliens invading earth. Just in case.
Also, I don't believe in aliens. So, for me to love a book about that topic so much, is definitely saying something. The characters! Ohh, the characters. Kara Resnik is.... quite a character! Pardon my word repetition. But she really is. She is also my favorite female character. Like probably ever. I don't even have to describe her, if you read the book you will understand Kara from the very first page of her chapters. She doesn't waste any time on petty introductions. Then there's Mister Fun and Fluffy. That isn't his name, but he doesn't have one. So calling him whatever Kara calls him seems sufficient to me. He's quite a mystery. There's Rose. Rose is a driving force of this story. She started it, forgetter or for worse. And there's the Canadian. He's cocky and arrogant and doesn't spend much time with you in the beginning, but maybe he will warm up to you. And you to him. There's more people involved, but I'm not here to give everything away. I'm here to tell you that this was impossible to put down. This felt like a movie, but also very life like. This is also one of my new favorites. And I'm about to binge the rest of the series. That's all I'm saying.
Well, this is going to be a short blog post! In my 2019 reading goals and resolutions I mentioned that "if I don't read a single ya book in 2019, I'd be perfectly okay." And it still stands. However. I recently became a patron of the library again, so I wouldn't have to spend money on those books and there are few I had my eyes on for a while. Kind of. 
The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1)by
S.A. Chakraborty So, I started this book in 2018. Like, ummm, October of. And got stuck at 16%. It may partially be because I was reading an e-book of it, and it just wasn't cutting it. Or maybe because the book is so boring, and quite generic. I don't know. I want to check out a physical copy, to see if I will finish this, or if I will finally DNF it. 
Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer #2) by Laini Taylor
I wasn't the biggest fan of Strange the Dreamer. But, I am kind of curious where Laini Taylor is going to take this story. Plus, it's only a duo-logy, so it's not like I am investing in large series or anything. Hopefully it will be over quickly and painlessly. Maybe I will even enjoy it. 
King of Scars (Nikolai Duology #1)by Leigh Bardugo
I don't have high hopes for this anymore. It's way too hyped. Also, the book is over 500 pages long - what for? When I read Grisha Trilogy I LOVED Nikolai. But, it was 3 years ago, and I also loved Grisha Trilogy, and now when I think about how generic and annoying it actually is, I cringe. Hard. But, I made my library order this, so hopefully it's worth it at least a bit. 
The Bear and the Nightingale(Winternight Trilogy #1)by Katherine Arden
Now, my library has this shelved as adult fantasy, but Goodreads has it as young adult. So I'm not sure? But it's better to have low expectations and shelve it as ya, so when I'm disappointed I have something to blame it on. And that's it, folks. 
3/5 stars
This book was ... disappointment. I was very excited to read this trilogy (I own all the books too!), but alas, let down I was once again. It's not even the hype that Im blaming this time. No. This time I'm blaming Foundryside. “Scars are windows to bitterness—it is best to leave them untouched.” Foundryside is Bennett's most recent fantasy book and it is amazing. And I've read it and I've loved it. So I guess what I'm saying is that going from Foundryside to City of Stairs was like going backwards in time. Back when plots weren't really cohesive, characters not very engaging and writing very, very unpolished.
“Forgetting... is a beautiful thing. When you forget, you remake yourself... For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must forget it was a caterpillar at all. Then it will be as if the caterpillar never was & there was only ever a butterfly.”
Shara could have been my favorite character. When I started reading her I thought "this girl drinks just as much tea as I do. I love her!". But I didn't, not really. Something was missing for me. I just couldn't connect. But I did enjoy her machinations at the end of the book ,and am interested where she could take book 2. Or where the book 2 could take her, I suppose. Sigrud was a singular saving grace of this book. Sigrud is great. Sigrud is amazing. he's got character, he's got back story - yes! If book 2 has a lot of Sigrud I will read it! The cover of the book promised that readers would love Sigrud, and hey, at least it delivered that! The fighting scenes were a bit too unpolished. I could definitely see a lot of Mistborn and even Elantris influences. So I think that Sanderson was a big inspiration, and I love Sanderson, but it still wasn't enough for me to enjoy the book. I felt disconnected, and bored at times. I'm not even going to get into religion and politics this book builds upon, because this is Internet and we would be here for days just talking about it. It's definitely up to the reader how they want to interpret those musings, but I did feel that they were quite one sided and even biased at times. I think the highlight of this book (besides Sigrud, of course) was Oslos, for me. That was a great turn of events and a great scene. Very calm, after the storm. That said, I decided to continue on with the series, but not right away, as I originally planned (I thought I'd binge read the whole thing). But hopefully book 2 picks things up to the next level. “Historians, I think, should be keepers of truth. We must tell things as they are - honestly, and without subversion. That is the greatest good one can do.” 
3.5/5 stars
Ahhh, Blake Crouch and his time/mind bending games. He's very good at it! If you pick up Dark Matter, or Recursion (when it comes out) I suggest you clear your schedule, because his books demand to be finished in one siting. Two at the most. My feelings for this book can be broken down into two parts. First part of the book- when I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. When I wanted to highlight every sentence because it contained profound wisdom. And the second part of the book, when I lost the character connections. When the plot blew up too big, tried to be too much. And what with that ending? Inception much? I say Inception (the movie) because this book has the same vibes. Bending time, traveling through time, trying to fix time, and trying to fix things that would fix time, while holding onto your human feelings that are the only things tethering you to this earth by that point. I enjoyed Recursion. It certainly wasn't as strong, or as engaging as Dark Matter was to me, but it was still page turning good. Dark Matter, besides having fantastic plot, had a lot of feelings. And that's where Recursion fell short for me. It definitely tried, and while it really worked at some instances, at others I just didn't feel it. I can pinpoint the exact point in the book when I lost all emotional connection to the characters. I gained it back by the end, but it wasn't nearly strong enough. In conclusion, the two halves of the book felt like completely different books to me. The objective was different at the beginning. The story was going one way, but then it went completely opposite way. It's clever, but it didn't exactly work for me. I still very much recommend it though. It's definitely a ride worth riding. Big thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an electronic arc of this book. All opinions are my own, honest and come from the heart. Recursion comes out on June 11,2019. 
4/5 stars
“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.” It's 2019, and that quote is more true than it's ever been. It's truly terrifying to read a book in which some things are so real, that for a moment you don't know which reality is yours. Sure, our food isn't rationed and we have enough razors for shaving, but the collective mindset is very much the same. If only Orwell knew how prophetic his book turned out to be. He meant it as a warning, but it tuned out to be more of a manual. The idea of Newspeak is especially funny to me, because although it isn't called that - English language nowadays is definitely at a stage that is more slang than an actual language. and it's only getting worse with years. I mean if we already add words such as "selfie" "derp" and most embarrassingly "twerk" into the Oxford dictionary, what is next? No, no, don't tell me, it's too horrible even to imagine.
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
With the social media being the monster it currently is, we long forgotten any right or even need for privacy. People catalog everything about themselves on the web - engagements, weddings, births, divorces. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred anymore. And the worst part? We enjoy doing it. We enjoy sharing. We tell ourselves we share, so our relatives in other states, or countries, can see it, but in reality we all pine for likes. For some stranger to adore our lives, to think that we have it so good. “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” I never had to read 1984 in high school, I didn't grow up in the United States, but I know many of you did. I am surprised that this book was only only allowed, but required for reading. This book is a mirror for many current political and economical tactics and machinations. But maybe we are too comfortable to listen. Maybe the horrible things that happened to Winston are too bizarre for our pampered and spoiled minds? If not for the many info-dumps, this book unfortunately (writing wise) subjects the reader to, I'd have given it 5 stars. 1984 is brilliant. Scary so. It also doesn't read like a classic. For being written in 1949, it's very modern (albeit boring at times) in its language and execution of ideas on paper. Having never read this book before, I didn't know what to expect from the plot, but there was no happy ending. And if we aren't careful, we might end up just like Winston, drinking bad alcohol, starting mutely at a tv screen and believing everything the "big brother" tells us. “Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” 
3.75/5 stars
“The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.” I read this months and months ago, yet somehow I forgot to write a review on it. Not that this book needs another review. So here is a very short one. The Return of the King is personally my least favorite one of the trilogy. It's not a weak book per say, but the pacing is all over the place, and it really dampened the mood of the story for me. I wanted more depth to the things that were glossed over, and some things that were overly explained I wanted way less of.
“And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.”
I was very grateful for book's version of the love story between Eowyn and Faramir. They both are my absolute favorite side characters, and obviously my absolute favorite couple to ever walk the Middle Earth. Faramir is the purest soul ever created, and Eowyn is the embodiment of female grace and strength. I absolutely love how their love story wasn't instant. How it took Eowyn a long time to realize that what she wanted wasn't at all what she needed. That she was able to admit her first love for another person and then grow as a character and turn around to find her true love. I don't know any other character in any other book who does that. On the battle field and in her heart, Eowun is a true warrior, and I adore her. And Faramir is a precious dandelion and I love him. On the other hand I wish Aragorn and Arwen's love story wasn't fitted into two sentences. Literally. The movie expanded it beautifully though (at the price of cutting back on Faramir and Eowyn, so I guess you can't have both, ever?). I found the ending chapter tedious and unnecessary. It felt like the story was over about two chapters ago and yet it kept going. I understood the resigning behind it, but I just wanted to be done at that point. In all honesty I skimmed on the chapter where the hobbits take back the Shire. I know they had to prove themselves, without the company and magic, and all the help, but did it have to be so tedious? “But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” On the whole, Lord of the Rings trilogy holds a special place in my heart. It is the standing stone of classic fantasy, and it's also the epitome of it. The writing, the setting, the ultimate battle between good and evil - it has it all. And despite there only being a very few female characters, they are all very important to the story. I am still surprised that in the midst of all this male dominance here, Eowyn managed to get such a good story arc. You go, Tolkien! Also, Sam is the true hero of the whole story. I mean, how could he not be? “Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.” 
5/5 OR more accurately all the stars in the world!
“To live is to have worries and uncertainties. Keep them inside, and they will destroy you for certain--leaving behind a person so callused that emotion can find no root in his heart.” I will be honest. I expected to like this. I knew I would. I just didn't expect to love it so, so much. Elantris might just have jumped to be my #1 favorite Sanderson book. Sure, I adore the first Mistborn trilogy (I'm not comparing them, but I think Mistborn is the first thing people think of when they hear Sanderson's name). It's breathtaking. I love Kell, and Vin, and Sazed and all of the gang with all of my heart. They are my favorite, they are irreplaceable. But I spent three books with them. Three very hefty books at that. Raoden and Sarene stole my heart completely and unabashedly in just one book.
“Is human nature to believe that other places and other times are better than the here and now.”
Elantris is a story of a city, yes, but first it's a story of three amazingly different characters. Raoden, who is the most pure and beautiful soul in probably all of the universe. And not just Cosmere. Sarene who is so headstrong and stubborn, she would probably move a wall with just her will if she had to. And Hrathen, who seems intimidating and scary, but in reality is lost and scared. Their stories are so different, but they intertwine in the best of ways. Elantris also has a very cool magic system, but it isn't explored much until about the last third of the book - which plot wise makes the perfect sense, but also leaves the reader hungry to know more. Which now we can, because Elantris 2 is a thing that will happen. One day. I loved that it was inspired by Chinese lettering, something that has always fascinated me. Did I mention that a lot of dialog is positively hilarious? “So, using his pride like a shield against despair, dejection, and-most important—self-pity, Raoden raised his head to stare damnation in the eyes.” I can see how Elantris can be a bit hard to get into in the beginning, because of the extensive terminology that is thrown at the reader. All of it is of either religious or political nature - two forces that drive the book. But it isn't confusing, it's just a lot to take in, but once you do - you will feel as if you are yourself are a part of all of the schemes. Elantris made me cry, and it made me laugh. A lot. It's a story about how our parentage doesn't define us. It's a story about being lost without a purpose, and finding it in the most unexpected places. It's abut coming together and building a better community. It's about embracing who you are and believing that people who truly love you, will love you no matter what. And as weird as it feels for me to say - the romance in here will make your heart turn to goo, because it's so beautiful. “One cannot seperate truth from actions...Physically inevitable or not, truth stands above all things. It is independant of who has the best army, who can deliver the longest sermons, or even who has the most priests. It can be pushed down, but it will always surface. Truth is the one thing you can never intimidate.” |
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