Reviews

A Tale of Seashells & Shenanigans by Alex Nonymous

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mi040409's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

This was such a fun read with really awesome characters and relationships. The main relationship was developed super well. The world was such a cute cozy fantasy setting and I would honestly love to see spin-offs about pretty much any of the minor characters.

evilplants's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

As is often true with Alex’s books, this absolutely sucked me in. Nico and Tillie are both such well-written characters and the way their relationship develops is so lovely.

Also I am obsessed with Radclyffe and would read a million spinoffs about him and his crew.

Content Warnings

lizanneyoung's review

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4.0

⭐⭐⭐⭐

TROPES

🃏 Found Family

This is a cozy fantasy that has such a fun premise. From the first page, I was hooked. The main character works at a thrift store and then gets challenged to a duel that ends up taking them across seas and into unknown places, and the reader gets to be along for the ride.

Nico is a great character to follow. At times, you really question who they are as a person and why they are acting out at times, but as time goes along and we get more insight, Nico’s reactions to situations make sense. You can’t help but empathize with them and what they’ve been through. And while you initially might agree with their reactions to Tillie, their traveling partner, that changes too.

While a cozy fantasy, there are times when things get incredibly real for the pair and you wonder if they’ll complete their quest or even make it back home. Watching Nico and Tillie try to work through their differences while achieving the same end goal is wonderful to watch, mostly because of how much they both change and open up to each other by the end. Even when their plans fail, they somehow manage to find the better side of the coin, and it’s nice to see how they do it.

spiffyname's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

It's a very cute book

i was just so sad with the selkie reveal

. Characters and world felt very modern, loved the friend group.

himalaya's review

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3.0

Hm, I like the idea of this but it was a bit all over the place and I feel like the relationship development wasn’t great.

The MC spends most of the book being pretty horrible to a very timid well-meaning autistic girl who isn’t mean back. (like, mutual antagonism can feel more even yknow?)

Like yes this is the focus of their character development - we know why they’re like this, the fact that they’re mean to her is very much addressed, they apologise eventually, the author is autistic and making intentional choices here but…….

they apologise but then are mean again. it keeps happening and it’s just not fun to read when it’s 80% of the book? them being nice to her is a way smaller part and I just don’t really buy the love at the end.

I think the author’s strength is definitely in real world settings where it can just focus on the characters - I feel like this kind of silly anachronistic fantasy world needs to be leaned into a bit more?

I also felt like Tillie was quite self hating (or at least: only focusing on the negatives) about being autistic and aroace, and then the MC is there to tell her that no, that’s okay actually! end scene. Of course that’s a realistic experience but I find when it’s so succinct like that it feels really….reductive, idk. I want hating-my-identity narratives to be more complex and seeing in the mind of the person, not just them being told by another character that actually it’s a good thing:) and they’re suddenly not self hating anymore. a pet peeve of mine lmao. (second book I’ve read with this this month…)

I did kinda enjoy the detail of ‘I’m ace, sirens won’t affect me’ *immediately flings self overboard after hearing them* lmao