aphrael's reviews
666 reviews

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

3.0

Honestly these kinds of books are my guilty pleasure.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book has a lot of lovely descriptions and character sketches, but overall it feels more as a vehicle for feminism 101 speeches than a character driven story. The world of the book (and the feminist speeches) don't feel as historically grounded as for instance The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Also, the main character(s) are impossibly good at pretty much everything. Because of this, it felt more like a sort of alternate history.

Lessons in Chemistry deals with some pretty serious stuff (

Spoiler

rape, death of a partner, gender discrimination, issues with parents

) in a book that felt to me very superficial. I do think the writer can write really well, I just wish she had written something where the tone of the book and the characters were more in line with the seriousness of the things that happen.

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

It just feels so wonderful to inhabit that world of the illiad and the odyssey again! I adore the chapters about the Trojan women, they're quite brutal but you really relate to them. Everything is quite tragic anyway but that's part and parcel of the source material. I love how these women are brought to life, and I kept having Natalie Haynes voice/energy in my head since I listened to her podcast before I knew she was a writer. 

I didn't quite connect to the Calliope chapters, but I can see what the author was going for, it just didn't work for me. Personally I think the Penelope chapters were the weakest, which was extra disappointing because I always loved her. The way she just retells Odysseus' story with only a few lines about herself just didn't really add much of interest and was temporally very out of step with the rest of the book. I would have loved to have a bit more of an exploration of how it was for Penelope to be on her own but instead her chapters mainly focused on a retelling of the Odyssey.

I still really enjoyed the book though, and will try to read more from this writer!

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I quite liked this book, but it was not a super easy read. There were a lot of details and moving pieces. A lot of characters emotions are very understated, which means that you do get to know them maybe better than in characters in other books, since there's so many nuances shown, but on the other hand I didn't feel like I really related to them a lot. The plot is interesting but has a very wide reach but also is very detailed. It just felt like there's a really good story there and really interesting dynamics between characters, but there's so much other stuff that as a whole it was more work than I wanted it to be.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

2.75

I quite enjoyed this book, it's a lot of normal stuff but still written in a fun and cute way. However, the ending quite annoyed me. I liked the premise of the book that the main character didn't want to be what people expected of her anymore. But in the end

Spoiler

she doesn't have to make that choice, she just lucked out that the main baddie likes her pastries.

. So the ending felt a bit of a cop out to me. That said, the whole building up of the word and characters was lovely.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

I quite liked this book. It has a strong every day life feel where it's normal people doing their things but also being extraordinary and caught up in huge goings on. Quite a bit of coincidence but the book was grounded enough for that not to matter. I liked the premise of the temple children and the religion, and the way you only find out about it all very late into the book. I also loved that apart from the king guy we never meet nobody is especially evil.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

adventurous funny informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As always the love of science and math is just amazing in Weir's books. I loved it. However, I don't think the main character made much sense emotionally, I couldn't relate much. The ending was absolute bullshit to me because of this reason. The science and mcgyvering was amazing as always, but the rest was meh. So far I still like Artemis the best of all his books <3 

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.0

A murder mystery on a space station, what's not to love? I liked the stories of all the individual people/aliens, and how everything is connected. However, I do think the solution to the mystery was a bit lame.

Spoiler

Mallory's aunt being a killer who gets bangles as trophies was quite fun in a sort of scooby doo kind of way, but then also her being stung buy the Sundry and being in a symbiotic relationship without realizing was a bit too much for me

. That said, I do think that if you're not as allergic to coincidence as I am, and you're more into murder mysteries than I am, this is well worth the read. I love how people are connected in many different ways, and how Mallory realizes that murder is more likely if there's many connections. I also like how it's also shown to be part of human nature to befriend the aliens and make the best of whatever situation you're in. 

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

adventurous dark funny inspiring slow-paced

I just love this series. The baddies were a bit farfetched, but the way the story is written is quite enchanting.

This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

I enjoyed this book, even though it has a bunch of tropes. The only thing I didn't like is that the male protagonist has anger issues and explicitly says he dislikes all women except the female protagonist. According to him she's the only intelligent woman in the world, that's really not a good look, those passages made him pretty unlikable to me.

Spoiler

However, I do like that in the romantic relationship between Alizeh and Kamran, her (emotional) safety is a priority. Also, I thought it was pretty interesting that the devil was an actual 'real' character in this, even though I was surprised at how literal the book takes everything to do with him.

.  That said, the main female lead seems pretty cool and  I like that even though she's overcompetent she cannot change the world/system single handedly (yet?) and makes a life for herself the best way she knows how. It ends on a huge cliffhanger, so I might pick up the next book at some point. It's a nice quick read if you have nothing better to do.