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amelianotthepilot's reviews
741 reviews
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
3.5
Similar to the first book of this series, although I love the cover of these books I find the cover and title a marketing nightmare-for years I saw these and assumed they was actual little kids encyclopedias and did not understand why the book girlies were hyped about it. After reading it i’m still eh. However I liked this one better than the first and presume i’ll like the third better yet.
The story is written as academic Emily Wilde’s field journal as she goes on a new expedition to discover fairies in the Austrian mountains. In this world fairies are known about and avidly studied in universities but still largely regarded as mischievous tricksters that the general populace leave alone. Emily is an academic from Cambridge and is attempting to discover a faerie door while working on her latest book. She and her colleague Wendell Brambley end up entangled in a small wintery mountain town’s fae community drama and an adventure ensues with vague romance. Mostly same as the first.
My opinions on the series remain the same after reading this one. I think the characters are interesting and the world building fascinating however the dedication to writing the whole story from the perspective of a scholar’s field journal left it extremelyyyyy boring and bland and very young sounding. This limited perspective made the romance mostly left to the readers imagination. I found the plot twists particularly boring as our main character is very clever and would often just state things as they are. Although I do appreciate this dedication to writing an erudite character who actually is smart and useful and not just supposed to be smart. I often found Emily’s character sorta boring since she solely focuses on her research and rarely mentions emotions, romance, or social interactions. There was an allusion to her perhaps being aromantic which would be nice rep and make more sense. It could also be argued this lack of romance is because it’s supposed to be academic notes but that is ridiculous since she often mentions things that are not academic related.
I also disliked the one chapter we get from Wendell’s perspective. I found it quite lazy. It’s exciting to get the love interests perspective but I think that should either be a consistent choice to have every other chapter from a different POV or do it as a seperate novella or just tumblr release.
Although the story was fun I found the climax events escalated entirely too fast and resolved too quickly and easily. However I do think it was better than the first book’s. There is also virtually no character development. But I did enjoy when the human characters experienced fae lands. It had a very visceral feeling to the descriptions and woozy character actions. I also absolutely love the fae world building it’s fascinating.
The story is written as academic Emily Wilde’s field journal as she goes on a new expedition to discover fairies in the Austrian mountains. In this world fairies are known about and avidly studied in universities but still largely regarded as mischievous tricksters that the general populace leave alone. Emily is an academic from Cambridge and is attempting to discover a faerie door while working on her latest book. She and her colleague Wendell Brambley end up entangled in a small wintery mountain town’s fae community drama and an adventure ensues with vague romance. Mostly same as the first.
My opinions on the series remain the same after reading this one. I think the characters are interesting and the world building fascinating however the dedication to writing the whole story from the perspective of a scholar’s field journal left it extremelyyyyy boring and bland and very young sounding. This limited perspective made the romance mostly left to the readers imagination. I found the plot twists particularly boring as our main character is very clever and would often just state things as they are. Although I do appreciate this dedication to writing an erudite character who actually is smart and useful and not just supposed to be smart. I often found Emily’s character sorta boring since she solely focuses on her research and rarely mentions emotions, romance, or social interactions. There was an allusion to her perhaps being aromantic which would be nice rep and make more sense. It could also be argued this lack of romance is because it’s supposed to be academic notes but that is ridiculous since she often mentions things that are not academic related.
I also disliked the one chapter we get from Wendell’s perspective. I found it quite lazy. It’s exciting to get the love interests perspective but I think that should either be a consistent choice to have every other chapter from a different POV or do it as a seperate novella or just tumblr release.
Although the story was fun I found the climax events escalated entirely too fast and resolved too quickly and easily. However I do think it was better than the first book’s. There is also virtually no character development. But I did enjoy when the human characters experienced fae lands. It had a very visceral feeling to the descriptions and woozy character actions. I also absolutely love the fae world building it’s fascinating.
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
3.0
Although I love the cover of this book I find the title a marketing nightmare-for years I saw this and assumed it was an actual little kids encyclopedia and did not understand why the book girlies were hyped about it. After reading it i’m still eh.
The story is written as academic Emily Wilde’s field journal as she goes on a new expedition to discover fairies in Scandinavia. In this world fairies are known about and avidly studied in universities but still largely regarded as mischievous tricksters that the general populace leave alone. Emily is an academic from Cambridge and is attempting to discover proof of a new species while working on her latest book. She and her colleague Wendell Brambley end up entangled in a small wintery town’s fae community drama and an adventure ensues with vague romance.
I think the characters are interesting and the world building fascinating however the dedication to writing the whole story from the perspective of a scholar’s field journal left it extremelyyyyy boring and bland and very young sounding. This limited perspective made the romance mostly left to the readers imagination. I found the plot twists particularly boring as our main character is very clever and would often just state things as they are. Although I do appreciate this dedication to writing an erudite character who’s actually is smart and useful and not just supposed to be smart, I often found Emily’s character sorta boring since she solely focuses on her research and rarely mentions emotions, romance, or social interactions. It could be argued this is because it’s supposed to be academic notes but that is ridiculous since she often mentions things that are not academic related.
I also disliked the one chapter we get from Wendell’s perspective. I found it quite lazy. It’s exciting to get the love interests perspective but I think that should either be a consistent choice to have every other chapter from a different POV or do it as a seperate novella or just tumblr release.
Although the story was fun I found the climax events escalated entirely to fast and honestly resulted in the first dumb choices of our “smart” main character. The climax events also were resolved entirely too quickly and easily.
There is also virtually no character development.
I did however enjoy when the human characters experienced fae lands. It had a very visceral feeling to the descriptions and woozy character actions. I also absolutely love the fae world building it’s fascinating.
The story is written as academic Emily Wilde’s field journal as she goes on a new expedition to discover fairies in Scandinavia. In this world fairies are known about and avidly studied in universities but still largely regarded as mischievous tricksters that the general populace leave alone. Emily is an academic from Cambridge and is attempting to discover proof of a new species while working on her latest book. She and her colleague Wendell Brambley end up entangled in a small wintery town’s fae community drama and an adventure ensues with vague romance.
I think the characters are interesting and the world building fascinating however the dedication to writing the whole story from the perspective of a scholar’s field journal left it extremelyyyyy boring and bland and very young sounding. This limited perspective made the romance mostly left to the readers imagination. I found the plot twists particularly boring as our main character is very clever and would often just state things as they are. Although I do appreciate this dedication to writing an erudite character who’s actually is smart and useful and not just supposed to be smart, I often found Emily’s character sorta boring since she solely focuses on her research and rarely mentions emotions, romance, or social interactions. It could be argued this is because it’s supposed to be academic notes but that is ridiculous since she often mentions things that are not academic related.
I also disliked the one chapter we get from Wendell’s perspective. I found it quite lazy. It’s exciting to get the love interests perspective but I think that should either be a consistent choice to have every other chapter from a different POV or do it as a seperate novella or just tumblr release.
Although the story was fun I found the climax events escalated entirely to fast and honestly resulted in the first dumb choices of our “smart” main character. The climax events also were resolved entirely too quickly and easily.
There is also virtually no character development.
I did however enjoy when the human characters experienced fae lands. It had a very visceral feeling to the descriptions and woozy character actions. I also absolutely love the fae world building it’s fascinating.
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport
informative
something ironic about listening to this book about slowing down at 2.5x speed
honestly not as interesting as i thought it’d be. mostly talks about how i’m genera our work style is bad but there’s not much we can do about it as workers, it’s the employers that need to realize that time does not equal quality and that our work should not be the 9-5 anymore
honestly not as interesting as i thought it’d be. mostly talks about how i’m genera our work style is bad but there’s not much we can do about it as workers, it’s the employers that need to realize that time does not equal quality and that our work should not be the 9-5 anymore
All the Devils by Catelyn Wilson
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
*Thank you to the author and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
I would’ve eaten this up in 2012. That being said I still really enjoyed it, it was dark academia, egyptian myths, gothic horror, a hot mysterious man. However there were a lot of loose plot threads.
The book follows Andromeda who decides to attend a spooky private school to solve her older sisters death. She believes her sister’s not actually dead and there’s more to it. When she gets to school she immediately realizes she’s right as there’s lots of weird things going on with a school club cult for the elite and student disappearances.
I thought the plot was overall very fun but very tropey and no super new ideas. Elite school occult activity is a classic, dead things appearing in her personal affects to scare her off also a classic but never returned to or explained later on, a corrupt school, mild magic to pursue immortality. None of these aspects were very new or exciting but the fast paced action and looming romance kept the story interesting.
The main character was quite a basic unknowledgeable headstrong hero blundering her way through and I think that was my main problem. The lore was all delivered to her at convenient moments by Jae, another student who also ✨happens✨ to have a similar cult death in his family and ✨happens✨ to know absolutely everything about everything. Our main character trusts him far too easily and willingly even after he betrays her trust. She almost immediately forgives him every time and her trust and forgiveness all seem to be based on the fact that he’s hot and attractive. Their romance isn’t built on much besides physical attraction and the guys protective nature. Meanwhile some other important lore regarding the sister is randomly dropped midway through the book.
I found a lot of details to be randomly added such as cancer and the constant random mentions of Scottish places. I still find it absurd that when mentioning this occult society it was said to be “all over the world” but then only Scotland and this school were ever mentioned. Truly random.
Despite these flaws I still found the book very fun and fast paced with lots of fun drama and despite the relationship not really having a base it was still fun.
I would’ve eaten this up in 2012. That being said I still really enjoyed it, it was dark academia, egyptian myths, gothic horror, a hot mysterious man. However there were a lot of loose plot threads.
The book follows Andromeda who decides to attend a spooky private school to solve her older sisters death. She believes her sister’s not actually dead and there’s more to it. When she gets to school she immediately realizes she’s right as there’s lots of weird things going on with a school club cult for the elite and student disappearances.
I thought the plot was overall very fun but very tropey and no super new ideas. Elite school occult activity is a classic, dead things appearing in her personal affects to scare her off also a classic but never returned to or explained later on, a corrupt school, mild magic to pursue immortality. None of these aspects were very new or exciting but the fast paced action and looming romance kept the story interesting.
The main character was quite a basic unknowledgeable headstrong hero blundering her way through and I think that was my main problem. The lore was all delivered to her at convenient moments by Jae, another student who also ✨happens✨ to have a similar cult death in his family and ✨happens✨ to know absolutely everything about everything. Our main character trusts him far too easily and willingly even after he betrays her trust. She almost immediately forgives him every time and her trust and forgiveness all seem to be based on the fact that he’s hot and attractive. Their romance isn’t built on much besides physical attraction and the guys protective nature. Meanwhile some other important lore regarding the sister is randomly dropped midway through the book.
I found a lot of details to be randomly added such as cancer and the constant random mentions of Scottish places. I still find it absurd that when mentioning this occult society it was said to be “all over the world” but then only Scotland and this school were ever mentioned. Truly random.
Despite these flaws I still found the book very fun and fast paced with lots of fun drama and despite the relationship not really having a base it was still fun.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
slow-paced
4.0
sorta a horror story?
a creepy woman in a house taunts people in her life for her enjoyment due to her misfortunes.
Pip an orphan raised with a blacksmith is introduced to a rich woman. Through this his expectations for life become tainted and “great” and he now strives to succeed above his situation in life and become a gentleman. Randomly he comes into a large sun of money which does transcend him to this status however he has no idea who gave him the money or why and has many “great expectations” as to who it is and why. Even with the money and education he is still largely unaccepted by his new society and isn’t able to make a name for himself.
Meanwhile there’s a whole mystery plot happening around his sister’s injury and also another with the convicts from the beginning of the story.
a creepy woman in a house taunts people in her life for her enjoyment due to her misfortunes.
Pip an orphan raised with a blacksmith is introduced to a rich woman. Through this his expectations for life become tainted and “great” and he now strives to succeed above his situation in life and become a gentleman. Randomly he comes into a large sun of money which does transcend him to this status however he has no idea who gave him the money or why and has many “great expectations” as to who it is and why. Even with the money and education he is still largely unaccepted by his new society and isn’t able to make a name for himself.
Meanwhile there’s a whole mystery plot happening around his sister’s injury and also another with the convicts from the beginning of the story.
When Shadows Grow Tall by Maressa Voss
adventurous
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
*Thank you to the author and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
First off the world was very cool and it has all the things I like in a fantasy novel: an adventure, interesting magic, beautiful and otherworldly world descriptions.
However, there were a lot of problems with this book and I think a lot of them could be solved with some editing. The writing itself was good but the plot wasn’t exactly cohesive and I didn’t love the characters. It follows Kylene, a 16 year old girl who is a self taught herbalist, and Lovelace, an adult man wizard. Who’s paths eventually cross as they both run from a rogue evil wizard and his peacekeepers.
I thought these were a bizarre choice of characters to follow as they are two demographics of readers and so I related to one and was utterly bored by the other. I found the fantasy names to be a bit cliche and also a bit of a pain. There were so many world building dumps that I just plowed through without really remembering who’s who and what silly fantasy words they’re talking about.
I think the main problem was the structure of the plot. The inciting incident sorta doesn’t happen until 100 pages in. The book itself is quite short for all of the world building it does. It’s only 200+ pages with all for the action happening in the later 100.
I thought the opening chapter about a random boy was very catchy and interesting but then bouncing between too seemingly unrelated characters plots didn’t really make sense.
The book ending ends up making the whole story feel like a setup for the actual plot (which would be book 2). It all felt like backstory.
I think the setup for the story is interesting but then it’s unclear what all the characters goals are until 100 pages in. I don’t know what Kylene is attempting to do really besides find her dad but she doesn’t seem to have a real plan or goal. Lovelace and Co’s goals are also unclear. We’re getting lots of wizard lore and then for some reason they stop in 1 town to recruit help but only 1 town and then give up and continue on their journey????? As a result there’s 0 character growth.
The two kids that Lovelace ends up picking up felt more like pets and plot devices than people.
Overall J thought it was a very mid fantasy book which was disappointing since the world building was cool and the synopsis sounded really promising.
SPOILERS FOLLOWING:
I don’t understand why Kylene goes by a different name at the end it was utterly ridiculous.
Also I don’t believe Lovelace and Gunner would have defeated Alev, he was far too powerful and the fact that they all died but then somehow they came back to life was ridiculous.
The Kylene pools bit at the end with the trippy death/transcendent montage was ridiculous.
First off the world was very cool and it has all the things I like in a fantasy novel: an adventure, interesting magic, beautiful and otherworldly world descriptions.
However, there were a lot of problems with this book and I think a lot of them could be solved with some editing. The writing itself was good but the plot wasn’t exactly cohesive and I didn’t love the characters. It follows Kylene, a 16 year old girl who is a self taught herbalist, and Lovelace, an adult man wizard. Who’s paths eventually cross as they both run from a rogue evil wizard and his peacekeepers.
I thought these were a bizarre choice of characters to follow as they are two demographics of readers and so I related to one and was utterly bored by the other. I found the fantasy names to be a bit cliche and also a bit of a pain. There were so many world building dumps that I just plowed through without really remembering who’s who and what silly fantasy words they’re talking about.
I think the main problem was the structure of the plot. The inciting incident sorta doesn’t happen until 100 pages in. The book itself is quite short for all of the world building it does. It’s only 200+ pages with all for the action happening in the later 100.
I thought the opening chapter about a random boy was very catchy and interesting but then bouncing between too seemingly unrelated characters plots didn’t really make sense.
The book ending ends up making the whole story feel like a setup for the actual plot (which would be book 2). It all felt like backstory.
I think the setup for the story is interesting but then it’s unclear what all the characters goals are until 100 pages in. I don’t know what Kylene is attempting to do really besides find her dad but she doesn’t seem to have a real plan or goal. Lovelace and Co’s goals are also unclear. We’re getting lots of wizard lore and then for some reason they stop in 1 town to recruit help but only 1 town and then give up and continue on their journey????? As a result there’s 0 character growth.
The two kids that Lovelace ends up picking up felt more like pets and plot devices than people.
Overall J thought it was a very mid fantasy book which was disappointing since the world building was cool and the synopsis sounded really promising.
SPOILERS FOLLOWING:
Also I don’t believe Lovelace and Gunner would have defeated Alev, he was far too powerful and the fact that they all died but then somehow they came back to life was ridiculous.
The Kylene pools bit at the end with the trippy death/transcendent montage was ridiculous.
Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A Six of Crows-esque gang on an impossible mission with a Korean vibe.
I thought this was a fun read! Not particularly great writing, it felt a little childish and the plot wasn’t all that unpredictable but I think this was the author’s first delve into adult fiction.
The cast of characters includes Royo the hired bodyguard tough man who’s secretly a softy with a tragic past, Aeri the nimble fingered and childish thief with a twisted backstory, Mikail the king’s spymaster with a tragic past, Euyn the exiled supposed to be dead prince with a tragic past, Sora the poison maiden with a tragic past, and Tiyung the rich noble. Are you catching a theme? All characters are extremely trope-y with their own tragic pasts and traumas coming together to form the ultimate unlikely heist team against all odds and perhaps come to like each other along the way.
Where this was definitely Six of Crows-esque with its cast of traumatized characters and heist against all odds it certainly wasn’t as good as it. I don’t like to compare books like this but it seems inevitable when that’s what this genre and vibes so clearly are mimicking. i didn’t feel as connected to these characters as Crows nor did I find the romances all that interesting. They were enemies to lovers or exes to lovers or bodyguard trope romances but it all seemed to obvious and set up from the start without the real angst or will they won’t they. They were clearly written as pairs from the start and so it wasn’t surprising at all when the characters eventually give in to their desires. I also found the plot a bit slow and the different POVs al seemed sort of similar. There wasn’t a lot of action and I felt the scenes weren’t as descriptive as I would’ve liked.
Overall I enjoyed it but it really felt like a setup/prequel for the main plot Book 2.
Note about content tags: None of the content tags in the front were particularly graphic in this as it was largely a YA novel in my opinion. Mentions of assault, genocide, murder, and sex but in my opinion no particularly graphic descriptions of any of the above.
Recommended by CariCakes
I thought this was a fun read! Not particularly great writing, it felt a little childish and the plot wasn’t all that unpredictable but I think this was the author’s first delve into adult fiction.
The cast of characters includes Royo the hired bodyguard tough man who’s secretly a softy with a tragic past, Aeri the nimble fingered and childish thief with a twisted backstory, Mikail the king’s spymaster with a tragic past, Euyn the exiled supposed to be dead prince with a tragic past, Sora the poison maiden with a tragic past, and Tiyung the rich noble. Are you catching a theme? All characters are extremely trope-y with their own tragic pasts and traumas coming together to form the ultimate unlikely heist team against all odds and perhaps come to like each other along the way.
Where this was definitely Six of Crows-esque with its cast of traumatized characters and heist against all odds it certainly wasn’t as good as it. I don’t like to compare books like this but it seems inevitable when that’s what this genre and vibes so clearly are mimicking. i didn’t feel as connected to these characters as Crows nor did I find the romances all that interesting. They were enemies to lovers or exes to lovers or bodyguard trope romances but it all seemed to obvious and set up from the start without the real angst or will they won’t they. They were clearly written as pairs from the start and so it wasn’t surprising at all when the characters eventually give in to their desires. I also found the plot a bit slow and the different POVs al seemed sort of similar. There wasn’t a lot of action and I felt the scenes weren’t as descriptive as I would’ve liked.
Overall I enjoyed it but it really felt like a setup/prequel for the main plot Book 2.
Note about content tags: None of the content tags in the front were particularly graphic in this as it was largely a YA novel in my opinion. Mentions of assault, genocide, murder, and sex but in my opinion no particularly graphic descriptions of any of the above.
Recommended by CariCakes