Fiction
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Red Rising
I’m kind of disappointed that I don’t like this book. The fan-based behind this series all seem so fun. To preface, I’m not a sci-fan fan nor do I care much for dystopian literature. I really was bored for most of the novel, and I wasn’t a fan of Brown’s writing style—short, almost harsh sentences…
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Alchemized
I was really enjoying this book… until I realized there was no real substance to it beyond the extremely flawed and problematic relationship between the main characters. Synopsis: Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities…
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I Who Have Never Known Men
An unnamed narrator grows up in a cage with 39 other women, of whom she remains the youngest by a large degree. There are few rules— Do not touch each otherDo not show distress or intense emotionDo not harm yourselves or each other —and crossing them leads to… well, we don’t really know because the…
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The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is classically Rushdie: hilarious, insightful, and a complete uphill battle to parse through. The novel follows the lives of two men, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha (formerly Salahuddin Chamchawala to be more digestible to Western audiences), who are traveling from India to London. En route, they are held hostage by terrorists who…
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The Island of Missing Trees
I’m midway through a new book and still, I can’t stop thinking about this novel. The Island of Missing Trees toggles between two primary settings: London in the 2010s and Cyprus in the 1970s/2000s, and three main points of views: Ada, Kostas, and the Fig Tree. In the first chapters, we’re introduced to Ada Kazantzakis…
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The Wolf and his King
Cursed with lycanthropy since he was a child, Bisclavret is doomed to shift into a wolf against his will. The transformation is as unwelcome as it is sporadic. There is neither time nor place that will predict when he will shift next and no pattern to identify that might ease the anxiety of his painful…
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The Hurricane Wars and A Monsoon Rising
Note: This is a review on the first two novels in the Hurricane Wars trilogy. On the Continent, the Sardovian Allfold and the Night Empire are at constant war, and in the midst of the never-ending battle lies Talasyn, a headstrong soldier who is fighting for Sardovia’s freedom against the Kesathese. But Tala has a…
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The Spear Cuts Through Water
In the early days of the Old Country, an emperor frees the Moon by cutting her out of the sky so that she may escape death by hiding out on Earth. In exchange, she bears him three sons so that he may continue his legacy. Soon thereafter, the emperor betrays her and locks her away…
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Angel Down
and so let me leave you with this: if you’re a fan of experimental styles, and the complexity of human design, and if you hold on to a bit of hope even in the midst of pervading despair, few books deliver a more haunting picture of survival, and in the cacophony of explosions and the…
Via Justine De fant 