freesien's review against another edition
3.0
Not quite sure... Definitely an original idea and I liked the characters and the overall plot. But I still don't really get this whole world and how it works and what's up with those ghosts?! No clue.
ninetyninecats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25
kimreadsthings's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
This is the story of a girl lost in a lonely, desolate, and bare world; and a girl lost in herself. Wasp is an Archivist, one of a handful of girls selected from a young age to serve in a religious order where she must capture ghosts, learn what she can from them about their lives in the world Before and then dispatch them. It is a good thing to finish them eternally, or so she has been trained to think. Wasp must also battle to the death for her title every year. There is a line of upstarts looking to become Archivist themselves, and it is also how she herself took the title. She wears the braids of the Archivist before her and of all the upstarts who have challenged her in her own hair. It’s a fierce and brutal world our Wasp inhabits.
This is a girl who is kick-ass, both inside and out. She’s a survivor in a world designed to tear her down (literally, though). Wasp has had to fight many battles, but she also battles internally to keep the core sense of herself as a good and decent person. And there is a sense of the potential of epicness that echoes through the landscape of this empty world. It is a world that is haunting and spare and practically yearning to be filled with its lost details.
The vast majority of ghosts barely have any form and most can’t muster more than a handful of words. The futility of Wasp’s endless endeavors is a massive burden. When she discovers a ghost both fully formed and fully sentient it is a chance unlike any presented to her before. The ghost is on a centuries-long search to find his missing combat partner. If Wasp will lend her ghost tracking abilities, this ghost will trade her a valuable piece of technology that would allow Wasp to escape her cultish captors. And so Wasp leaves her body behind and descends into the underworld.
The rest of this review can be found at The Midnight Garden
This is the story of a girl lost in a lonely, desolate, and bare world; and a girl lost in herself. Wasp is an Archivist, one of a handful of girls selected from a young age to serve in a religious order where she must capture ghosts, learn what she can from them about their lives in the world Before and then dispatch them. It is a good thing to finish them eternally, or so she has been trained to think. Wasp must also battle to the death for her title every year. There is a line of upstarts looking to become Archivist themselves, and it is also how she herself took the title. She wears the braids of the Archivist before her and of all the upstarts who have challenged her in her own hair. It’s a fierce and brutal world our Wasp inhabits.
This is a girl who is kick-ass, both inside and out. She’s a survivor in a world designed to tear her down (literally, though). Wasp has had to fight many battles, but she also battles internally to keep the core sense of herself as a good and decent person. And there is a sense of the potential of epicness that echoes through the landscape of this empty world. It is a world that is haunting and spare and practically yearning to be filled with its lost details.
The vast majority of ghosts barely have any form and most can’t muster more than a handful of words. The futility of Wasp’s endless endeavors is a massive burden. When she discovers a ghost both fully formed and fully sentient it is a chance unlike any presented to her before. The ghost is on a centuries-long search to find his missing combat partner. If Wasp will lend her ghost tracking abilities, this ghost will trade her a valuable piece of technology that would allow Wasp to escape her cultish captors. And so Wasp leaves her body behind and descends into the underworld.
The rest of this review can be found at The Midnight Garden
panthalassa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sammy234's review against another edition
3.0
actual rating 3.5
This book was such an all around good book. Nothing enraged me or made me feel apathetic and at the end I was left with that painful bittersweet feeling in my chest that one gets on occasion.
You know , like someone's squeezing your heart and you want to cry tears of blood but at the same time you are so happy ?
I love that.
It has to be the most introspective post- apocalyptic story I've ever read. Don't expect non stop action. That's not what this story is about.
The world that Nicole Kornher - Stace creates is rich in detail but unexplained. You won't really figure out why there are ghosts or what happened to destroy the world.
The focus is entirely on Wasp and the one question that defines the way her life will go :
Would you rather live on someone else's terms or die by your own ?
It's very interesting how this question unfolds. Wasp's character growth is subtle but emotionally touching.
I found her to be extremely endearing and though I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Ghost's character and the awesome dynamic between him and Wasp I kind of wanted to slap him for being so mean to her.
I mean , Geez dude , I get that you're dead but that's no reason to crap all over Wasp's parade.
The villain in this book was extremely menacing. I find that when a wicked person hides behind a veneer of kindness they usually creep me out even more than if they are blatant about their deeds.
The only reasons I can't give this book five stars are
1) As much as I adored Wasp I was hoping for more of an emotional connection to form between her the Ghost. That happened ... and it didn't. I don't know , it just wasn't enough to satisfy me.
2) The flash backs in this book were so interesting and impacting but it almost feels like they belong in another novel. There was just so much going on in Ghost's world ( it kind of reminded me of Never Let Me Go to be honest) and I feel like there should be a book dedicated just to that world.
( with a Wasp cameo , of course :))
Overall , this was fantastic. I didn't even mind that there was no romance. It was that good.
In fact , I'm glad there wasn't. It would have taken away from the message of the story .
Plus , I got a vibe that the Ghost was smitten with his super soldier BFF Foster. OMIGOSH PLEASE I NEED A BOOK WITH THEM OKAYTHANKSBYE
This book was such an all around good book. Nothing enraged me or made me feel apathetic and at the end I was left with that painful bittersweet feeling in my chest that one gets on occasion.
You know , like someone's squeezing your heart and you want to cry tears of blood but at the same time you are so happy ?
I love that.
It has to be the most introspective post- apocalyptic story I've ever read. Don't expect non stop action. That's not what this story is about.
The world that Nicole Kornher - Stace creates is rich in detail but unexplained. You won't really figure out why there are ghosts or what happened to destroy the world.
The focus is entirely on Wasp and the one question that defines the way her life will go :
Would you rather live on someone else's terms or die by your own ?
It's very interesting how this question unfolds. Wasp's character growth is subtle but emotionally touching.
I found her to be extremely endearing and though I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Ghost's character and the awesome dynamic between him and Wasp I kind of wanted to slap him for being so mean to her.
I mean , Geez dude , I get that you're dead but that's no reason to crap all over Wasp's parade.
The villain in this book was extremely menacing. I find that when a wicked person hides behind a veneer of kindness they usually creep me out even more than if they are blatant about their deeds.
The only reasons I can't give this book five stars are
1) As much as I adored Wasp I was hoping for more of an emotional connection to form between her the Ghost. That happened ... and it didn't. I don't know , it just wasn't enough to satisfy me.
2) The flash backs in this book were so interesting and impacting but it almost feels like they belong in another novel. There was just so much going on in Ghost's world ( it kind of reminded me of Never Let Me Go to be honest) and I feel like there should be a book dedicated just to that world.
( with a Wasp cameo , of course :))
Overall , this was fantastic. I didn't even mind that there was no romance. It was that good.
In fact , I'm glad there wasn't. It would have taken away from the message of the story .
Plus , I got a vibe that the Ghost was smitten with his super soldier BFF Foster. OMIGOSH PLEASE I NEED A BOOK WITH THEM OKAYTHANKSBYE
ouroborosfan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
kblincoln's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars actually.
This is a bloody, gritty, battered post-apocalyptic world. There is a small village where the people live in fear of ghosts, and offer their meager food to the one girl who can capture ghosts: Archivist.
Archivist Wasp is a veteran. She's killed the upstarts who would take her lonely, pathetic life more or less enslaved by her main deity (Catchkeep's) priest and his giant shrine dogs. She has no friends nor anyone to give her a kind word. All she has is curiosity and the field notes from generations of Archivists.
So when she encounters a powerful ghost-- on that against all evidence can actually talk to her-- she agrees to help it with a mission in defiance of her life, traditions, and the priests' dogs.
This is really juicy, detailed, gritty alternate-world fantasy with memory-walking and ghosts and myths, that uncovers a layer of post-apocalyptic science fantasy world underneath. Wasp gets battered. The history she uncovers doesn't really answer all the questions. I took off half a star despite Wasp's really, deep, intense characterization because at times the memory-walking vs the underworld is a tad confusing.
It's definitely a book that requires your attention and your emotions to read. But the pay off is high, I promise.
This is a bloody, gritty, battered post-apocalyptic world. There is a small village where the people live in fear of ghosts, and offer their meager food to the one girl who can capture ghosts: Archivist.
Archivist Wasp is a veteran. She's killed the upstarts who would take her lonely, pathetic life more or less enslaved by her main deity (Catchkeep's) priest and his giant shrine dogs. She has no friends nor anyone to give her a kind word. All she has is curiosity and the field notes from generations of Archivists.
So when she encounters a powerful ghost-- on that against all evidence can actually talk to her-- she agrees to help it with a mission in defiance of her life, traditions, and the priests' dogs.
This is really juicy, detailed, gritty alternate-world fantasy with memory-walking and ghosts and myths, that uncovers a layer of post-apocalyptic science fantasy world underneath. Wasp gets battered. The history she uncovers doesn't really answer all the questions. I took off half a star despite Wasp's really, deep, intense characterization because at times the memory-walking vs the underworld is a tad confusing.
It's definitely a book that requires your attention and your emotions to read. But the pay off is high, I promise.
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
3.0
Reaction to Page 1: Why do authors feel like they have to have teenage protagonists murdering other teenagers? I know Hunger Games is wildly popular, but it doesn't mean everyone has to be forced into murder.
Reaction to Page 3: This is not the Hunger Games. This is something completely different. I'm intrigued.
Reaction to Page 30: This book is brilliant.
Reaction to Page 100: This book is getting repetitive.
Reaction to Ending: Ok, huge props to the author for creating a wholly original novel. I would have edited it some, but this is an enormous accomplishment.
Reaction to Page 3: This is not the Hunger Games. This is something completely different. I'm intrigued.
Reaction to Page 30: This book is brilliant.
Reaction to Page 100: This book is getting repetitive.
Reaction to Ending: Ok, huge props to the author for creating a wholly original novel. I would have edited it some, but this is an enormous accomplishment.
erndixon's review against another edition
3.0
This book presented an incredibly interesting agrarian future removed from a technologically advanced past. I liked the character of Wasp very much and her desire to break from the expected traditions of her society were very understandable. The book lost steam when it spent too long in the ghost landscape, even though it was beautifully detailed and very odd to behold. While it was fun to read, it took away from the story of Wasp which I was much more invested in than the story of the ghost and his missing friend. The beginning and end of the book I especially enjoyed, and I just wish the middle hadn't been so distracting.
malglories's review against another edition
3.0
It's wonderfully weird and dark, but the narrative voice isn't very immersive. I want to finish it more than I want to read it. Maybe I'll revisit it another day.