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katieg's review against another edition
5.0
Less of a sequel and more like a part two, I got teary-eyed at parts and the last two hundred pages flew by before being tied up beautifully.
antigonish's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
catz853's review
Got tangled in about the 7th layer of stories and just couldn’t pick up the threads again. Too bad because I really do like her writing…
missbookiverse's review
4.0
Ich kann eigentlich nur meine Schwärmerei über Band 1 ([b:In the Night Garden|202769|In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales, #1)|Catherynne M. Valente|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320548374s/202769.jpg|196179]) wiederholen: es ist unglaublich wie clever und vielschichtig Valente ihre Orphan's Tales aufgebaut hat. In der Manier von Tausendundeine Nacht stellt sie das berühmte Vorbild in den Schatten, denn so viele Ebenen und geschickte Verstrickungen gibt es dort lange nicht. Außerdem erweitert Valente das arabische Spektrum um Märchen, Mythen und Folklore aus diversen Kulturkreisen, denen sie neben dem feministischen Neuanstrich immer ihre eigene Note verpasst. Von einem Einhorn über einen manticore bis zu einem aus Teeblättern geformten Mädchen, sprechenden Leoparden und skrupellosen Dschinn gibt es unendlich viel zu entdecken (einer meiner Favoriten ist der Goldfisch, der ein Drache werden möchte). Manchmal beinahe zu viel. Da ich den Überblick behalten und möglichst viele Verknüpfungen unterhalb der Geschichten (auch zu Volume 1) erkennen wollte, war das Lesen mitunter ganz schön anstrengend und eine Art Glossar, Stammbaum oder Figurenverzeichnis hätte mir wirklich geholfen. Nichtsdestotrotz hege ich den größten Respekt für diese Meisterleistung der Verschachtelung.
theangrystackrat's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jhd016's review
3.0
In the Cities of Coin and Spice left me with complicated feelings. As a direct continuation of In the Night Garden, Valente's decadent prose and winding tales are kept intact. Like the first book, this one is essentially split into two overarching stories with one end at the halfway point and the other starting there. Overall that means you can split the books into quarters.
For me, the first half of In the Cities of Coin and Spice was a slog. I didn't connect with the characters from the start and my ability to connect the relations between the interwoven stories became tenuous as the plot dipped between stories and became more or less abstract. I had a nagging feeling that I was constantly missing some key plot point and it became frustrating to read. Valente's style here became a hindrance to me as it can become very plodding and plot threads can take a long time to resolve satisfactorily.
Thankfully due to the structure of the books, there is a refresh halfway through and the second half was much more manageable as it was told around a central location and had much clearer relations between the stories (to me at least). Characters do chance through from past parts of the books from time to time but it was hard to piece together any overall plot until the last thirty or so pages where most everything is finally wrapped up.
The Arabian Nights structure is interesting as a device but it leads to the world feeling fragmented to me. I can't quite piece together the overall puzzle of the world, it feels left unresolved, a partial mystery. There is an air of oral storytelling to this that leaves the reader to fill in the gaps where its outcomes are not directly told or elaborated upon. In a way, that style can be liberating but it can also make a book feel very claustrophobic.
For me, the first half of In the Cities of Coin and Spice was a slog. I didn't connect with the characters from the start and my ability to connect the relations between the interwoven stories became tenuous as the plot dipped between stories and became more or less abstract. I had a nagging feeling that I was constantly missing some key plot point and it became frustrating to read. Valente's style here became a hindrance to me as it can become very plodding and plot threads can take a long time to resolve satisfactorily.
Thankfully due to the structure of the books, there is a refresh halfway through and the second half was much more manageable as it was told around a central location and had much clearer relations between the stories (to me at least). Characters do chance through from past parts of the books from time to time but it was hard to piece together any overall plot until the last thirty or so pages where most everything is finally wrapped up.
The Arabian Nights structure is interesting as a device but it leads to the world feeling fragmented to me. I can't quite piece together the overall puzzle of the world, it feels left unresolved, a partial mystery. There is an air of oral storytelling to this that leaves the reader to fill in the gaps where its outcomes are not directly told or elaborated upon. In a way, that style can be liberating but it can also make a book feel very claustrophobic.
judaroo's review
5.0
An enchanting, satisfying end to the story of the girl in the garden. I always enjoy nested storytelling and these two books are an example of the form at its finest and most original. Steeped in richness and global inspiration, it was just the perfect, satisfying read to take me away from the stresses of the present.
moviebuffkt's review
3.0
For as much as I loved In The Night Garden, I could not get in to this book. The first few stories were intruiging, and Valente is such a skilled and imaginative writer, but I found myself skipping stories to get to the end.
starversed's review
5.0
This book is masterful, it spins you a tale that is a globe is a web is a river back to the ocean is your blood in your veins back to your heart. I couldn't put it down, I went to sleep thinking and dreaming of the stories that began in it and went on and on, like grass in a plain. Clearly, Valente has me waxing poetic, but I've been eating this and the sequel for two days straight, and nothing else. For fans of The Arabian Nights and other tales within tales, and fans of fairytales and folktales and mythology and scripture. And if you've read Deathless, it's not as sad or as harrowing, although it does have Sorrow (pun intended, you'll see if you read it), and is just as poetically written.