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hibaxx's reviews
402 reviews
Elektra by Jennifer Saint
1.0
i'm so serious when i say i'd rather read a book about only men than read about a woman like elektra ever again.
this book was a complete waste of my time, a waste of space on bookshelves, a waste of the trees sacrificed to make the pages for its useless words.
(full spoilers ahead).
elektra is by far one of the worst characters i've ever had the displeasure of coming across. a one-dimensional, infuriatingly single-minded, naive, hypocritical, delusional mess. her brain is a vast, empty, echoing chamber with a single brain cell dedicated to her vile father, agamemnon. her motivations made ZERO sense, her train of thought was absolutely baffling to me, her decisions and actions were so stupid that i was almost in awe. the way she alienated all the women around her to dedicate her entire existence to her disgusting father who murdered her sister was beyond my comprehension. the way she was wholly, utterly unmoved at hearing of her sister's murder, that she actually DEFENDED her father for it and VILIFIED her mother clytemnestra for taking her rightful revenge against agamemnon???? i was unfortunately stuck in this girl's head the whole time but i have no fucking idea what she was thinking. why didn't she care about her sister's murder? why couldn't she sympathize with her mother? why was she so completely obsessed with her father that it never occurred to her that he might throw her away too like he did her sister??? why was she SO OBSESSED with her father that she wanted to exchange places with the women he enslaved and raped just so she could be near him???? and i'm expected to feel an ounce of sympathy while reading pages upon pages of her grieving this revolting man.
and the nail in the coffin for me is that the narrative treated all of this in a pretty neutral way. sure, the story highlights elektra's hypocrisy and she herself recognizes it but ultimately the narrative rewards her for it so what was the point??? the book ends with her feeling at peace with herself and her life. i was truly bamboozled.
honestly, clytemnestra is the real protagonist of this story and elektra is, at best, the antagonistic side character. i genuinely don't understand the choice to title this book 'elektra'. she isn't even a well-written antagonist - she's so unsympathetic and her motivations are absolutely unfathomable, plus she's never confronted by the wrongness of her actions and she's never truly conflicted about whether she's on the right path. as someone who enjoys antagonistic, complex, difficult women characters in my fiction, elektra was simply boring. apart from her obsession with her father, there was literally nothing else to her. sorry i like my fictional women a bit more layered than that.
now clytemnestra was actually that layered character i love reading about and if only she had been the focus and the narrative had been on her side, my feelings would be so different right now. as for cassandra, the third POV, i have mixed feelings - it felt like her chapters were just endless suffering without any rhyme or reason. yes, women suffering at the hands of men is a reality that should be depicted in our media, but for me, there needs to be more to it than just that. i don't like reading about pointless suffering, but that's just me.
overall, sure it's a beautifully written book and a breeze to get through but at the cost of my sanity and my average storygraph rating? no thanks.
this book was a complete waste of my time, a waste of space on bookshelves, a waste of the trees sacrificed to make the pages for its useless words.
(full spoilers ahead).
elektra is by far one of the worst characters i've ever had the displeasure of coming across. a one-dimensional, infuriatingly single-minded, naive, hypocritical, delusional mess. her brain is a vast, empty, echoing chamber with a single brain cell dedicated to her vile father, agamemnon. her motivations made ZERO sense, her train of thought was absolutely baffling to me, her decisions and actions were so stupid that i was almost in awe. the way she alienated all the women around her to dedicate her entire existence to her disgusting father who murdered her sister was beyond my comprehension. the way she was wholly, utterly unmoved at hearing of her sister's murder, that she actually DEFENDED her father for it and VILIFIED her mother clytemnestra for taking her rightful revenge against agamemnon???? i was unfortunately stuck in this girl's head the whole time but i have no fucking idea what she was thinking. why didn't she care about her sister's murder? why couldn't she sympathize with her mother? why was she so completely obsessed with her father that it never occurred to her that he might throw her away too like he did her sister??? why was she SO OBSESSED with her father that she wanted to exchange places with the women he enslaved and raped just so she could be near him???? and i'm expected to feel an ounce of sympathy while reading pages upon pages of her grieving this revolting man.
and the nail in the coffin for me is that the narrative treated all of this in a pretty neutral way. sure, the story highlights elektra's hypocrisy and she herself recognizes it but ultimately the narrative rewards her for it so what was the point??? the book ends with her feeling at peace with herself and her life. i was truly bamboozled.
honestly, clytemnestra is the real protagonist of this story and elektra is, at best, the antagonistic side character. i genuinely don't understand the choice to title this book 'elektra'. she isn't even a well-written antagonist - she's so unsympathetic and her motivations are absolutely unfathomable, plus she's never confronted by the wrongness of her actions and she's never truly conflicted about whether she's on the right path. as someone who enjoys antagonistic, complex, difficult women characters in my fiction, elektra was simply boring. apart from her obsession with her father, there was literally nothing else to her. sorry i like my fictional women a bit more layered than that.
now clytemnestra was actually that layered character i love reading about and if only she had been the focus and the narrative had been on her side, my feelings would be so different right now. as for cassandra, the third POV, i have mixed feelings - it felt like her chapters were just endless suffering without any rhyme or reason. yes, women suffering at the hands of men is a reality that should be depicted in our media, but for me, there needs to be more to it than just that. i don't like reading about pointless suffering, but that's just me.
overall, sure it's a beautifully written book and a breeze to get through but at the cost of my sanity and my average storygraph rating? no thanks.
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
2.5
this trilogy is just an exercise in mixed feelings for me.
in some ways, mirrored heavens improved from fevered star and in other ways, it remained the same or got even worse. the pacing is just as bad as in the previous book - way too much build-up was happening for a finale and too much page time was wasted on useless POVs. too many new plot threads were introduced - dreamwalking, serapio's prophecy, xiala's teek arc - and they weren't really resolved in satisfying ways (except for the prophecy which made sense thematically for serapio's character). balam's POV chapters were interesting but felt like second book material to me - did we really need this much backstory and exposition in a final book?
serapio's character arc remained the most well-written, coherent aspect of this series. his struggle between following a pre-determined destiny and taking fate in his own hands is just as compelling here and i think the prophecy plotline was a good way to highlight that internal struggle. i just feel like the author chickened out a bit towards the end from really confronting serapio's terrible actions and kinda waved them away instead.
what this book improves upon (sort of) is xiala's and okoa's characters. at long last, xiala gets her own space in the story, her own goals separate from serapio, and comes into her own powers (although we never learned why the teek lost their magic??? it seemed like the author just needed a reason for xiala to be the super special chosen one). i was just happy to see that, for once, xiala's world didn't revolve around serapio and she got to do her own thing for a while. i also think her personal resolution was the most satisfying out of all the characters.
as for okoa, i was pleasantly surprised that his chapters weren't a complete bore for me like before. his inner conflict between his duty to his clan and his bond with serapio finally made sense and i actually started sympathizing with him. i also really liked his relationship with serapio and i was looking forward to seeing how it would evolve - until the author completely fucked things up of course.like you're telling me okoa ends up pointlessly killed by a completely random character?? we never get to see serapio finding out??? we never get to see serapio mourning him???? what was the point of developing their bond in this book??? so yeah, i hated how his arc wrapped up and the resolution given to carrion crow.
naranpa was done so dirty in this book, i was kinda shocked. her arc really peaked in fevered star and honestly, if THIS is what the author gave her in the final book, i'd rather naranpa's arc ended in fevered star. we had to watch her go on this inane side quest that was not only divorced from the main plot but was eventually rendered completely useless. and her main conflict in this book is with BALAM? that was so out of left field for me.and then she ends up in a years-long coma and that's how we leave her???? iktan is now just her mourning spouse trying to cure her. sorry but that was lowkey queerphobic to me. hated everything about her chapters except her relationship with iktan.
the main plot with the war between tova and the other cities had a pretty good build-up and i liked seeing serapio as a war leader - but of course, this author is allergic to satisfying resolutions so the war plot we spend significant page time on is concluded in the most anti-climactic battle ever with the most anti-climactic and pathetic final confrontation between serapio and balam.
also, i absolutely hate that we didn't get serapio's POV in the last couple chapters. i wanted HIS reflections on everything - it felt like his character arc was just left hanging in the air towards the end. the last chapter with him and xiala felt like such a cop-out to me and showed me that the author just didn't want to deal with any actual consequences of serapio's actions or figure out what a viable future between him and xiala would look like. we had to see them constantly pine over each other and make these huge love declarations just for that?
overall, this book had way too many things going on and nothing actually happening at the same time. i wasn't happy with where any of the characters ended up, except for xiala. the more i think about it, the more i want to lower my rating but i'll leave it at this for now.
in some ways, mirrored heavens improved from fevered star and in other ways, it remained the same or got even worse. the pacing is just as bad as in the previous book - way too much build-up was happening for a finale and too much page time was wasted on useless POVs. too many new plot threads were introduced - dreamwalking, serapio's prophecy, xiala's teek arc - and they weren't really resolved in satisfying ways (except for the prophecy which made sense thematically for serapio's character). balam's POV chapters were interesting but felt like second book material to me - did we really need this much backstory and exposition in a final book?
serapio's character arc remained the most well-written, coherent aspect of this series. his struggle between following a pre-determined destiny and taking fate in his own hands is just as compelling here and i think the prophecy plotline was a good way to highlight that internal struggle. i just feel like the author chickened out a bit towards the end from really confronting serapio's terrible actions and kinda waved them away instead.
what this book improves upon (sort of) is xiala's and okoa's characters. at long last, xiala gets her own space in the story, her own goals separate from serapio, and comes into her own powers (although we never learned why the teek lost their magic??? it seemed like the author just needed a reason for xiala to be the super special chosen one). i was just happy to see that, for once, xiala's world didn't revolve around serapio and she got to do her own thing for a while. i also think her personal resolution was the most satisfying out of all the characters.
as for okoa, i was pleasantly surprised that his chapters weren't a complete bore for me like before. his inner conflict between his duty to his clan and his bond with serapio finally made sense and i actually started sympathizing with him. i also really liked his relationship with serapio and i was looking forward to seeing how it would evolve - until the author completely fucked things up of course.
naranpa was done so dirty in this book, i was kinda shocked. her arc really peaked in fevered star and honestly, if THIS is what the author gave her in the final book, i'd rather naranpa's arc ended in fevered star. we had to watch her go on this inane side quest that was not only divorced from the main plot but was eventually rendered completely useless. and her main conflict in this book is with BALAM? that was so out of left field for me.
the main plot with the war between tova and the other cities had a pretty good build-up and i liked seeing serapio as a war leader - but of course, this author is allergic to satisfying resolutions so the war plot we spend significant page time on is concluded in the most anti-climactic battle ever with the most anti-climactic and pathetic final confrontation between serapio and balam.
also, i absolutely hate that we didn't get serapio's POV in the last couple chapters. i wanted HIS reflections on everything - it felt like his character arc was just left hanging in the air towards the end. the last chapter with him and xiala felt like such a cop-out to me and showed me that the author just didn't want to deal with any actual consequences of serapio's actions or figure out what a viable future between him and xiala would look like. we had to see them constantly pine over each other and make these huge love declarations just for that?
overall, this book had way too many things going on and nothing actually happening at the same time. i wasn't happy with where any of the characters ended up, except for xiala. the more i think about it, the more i want to lower my rating but i'll leave it at this for now.
The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart
mysterious
tense
2.0
i wanna root for adult queer fantasy books by authors of color so badly but they're making it really hard for me.
unfortunately, i have very few good things to say about this one. but some positives: the writing flows well, it's fairly easy to get into. the worldbuilding with the gods living in a magical underground world is pretty cool. i like the ecological fantasy premise, with the concept of humans having destroyed the natural magical forest and in response, a god rising up to shatter the existing lands to remake and restore them. basically, good concepts and ideas, beautiful gowns, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
my biggest gripes: poor character building, poorly written dialogue, utterly uninteresting plot. it's all well and good to have unique fantasy concepts and i can tell the author put a lot of effort into these ideas, but without good characters and an engaging plot, it's all useless. all the characters were so frustratingly single-minded that their POV chapters quickly became unbearably repetitive - i had to read them having the exact same thoughts and the exact same conversations over and over and over again (funnily enough, a problem i had with the author's previous book the bone shard war).
hakara and rasha's relationship as estranged sisters on opposing sides of a war was supposed to be the emotional core of this story but it made me feel nothing. at most, i felt mildly annoyed but also i just didn't care much. they didn't feel like fully rounded characters and frankly, they just weren't compelling enough for me to be invested in them. same goes for the other relationships in the story - none of them felt developed or genuine. there are a couple of potential romantic connections being made (one f/f and one m/f) but again, both were shallow and unconvincing. only one side character stood out to me....and i don't know if i can forgive the author for writing a story with prominent women characters and giving the most interesting backstory to a man.
overall, everything about this book is just surface-level and underdeveloped and boring as hell. i was bored out of my mind the whole way through, right to the very end. there aren't even any strong themes here - something about how the world isn't what the characters think it is, religion as propaganda, etc, but they're only touched upon. there's literally no depth to this book.
anyway, let's end with some recs: if you want an actually good ecological fantasy about climate disasters and magic, read the fifth season instead. if you want a story about doomed sisters actually done well, watch arcane instead. if you want to read a fantasy about religion as propaganda and how the world isn't as it seems, check out blood over bright haven instead.
thank you to netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
unfortunately, i have very few good things to say about this one. but some positives: the writing flows well, it's fairly easy to get into. the worldbuilding with the gods living in a magical underground world is pretty cool. i like the ecological fantasy premise, with the concept of humans having destroyed the natural magical forest and in response, a god rising up to shatter the existing lands to remake and restore them. basically, good concepts and ideas, beautiful gowns, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
my biggest gripes: poor character building, poorly written dialogue, utterly uninteresting plot. it's all well and good to have unique fantasy concepts and i can tell the author put a lot of effort into these ideas, but without good characters and an engaging plot, it's all useless. all the characters were so frustratingly single-minded that their POV chapters quickly became unbearably repetitive - i had to read them having the exact same thoughts and the exact same conversations over and over and over again (funnily enough, a problem i had with the author's previous book the bone shard war).
hakara and rasha's relationship as estranged sisters on opposing sides of a war was supposed to be the emotional core of this story but it made me feel nothing. at most, i felt mildly annoyed but also i just didn't care much. they didn't feel like fully rounded characters and frankly, they just weren't compelling enough for me to be invested in them. same goes for the other relationships in the story - none of them felt developed or genuine. there are a couple of potential romantic connections being made (one f/f and one m/f) but again, both were shallow and unconvincing. only one side character stood out to me....and i don't know if i can forgive the author for writing a story with prominent women characters and giving the most interesting backstory to a man.
overall, everything about this book is just surface-level and underdeveloped and boring as hell. i was bored out of my mind the whole way through, right to the very end. there aren't even any strong themes here - something about how the world isn't what the characters think it is, religion as propaganda, etc, but they're only touched upon. there's literally no depth to this book.
anyway, let's end with some recs: if you want an actually good ecological fantasy about climate disasters and magic, read the fifth season instead. if you want a story about doomed sisters actually done well, watch arcane instead. if you want to read a fantasy about religion as propaganda and how the world isn't as it seems, check out blood over bright haven instead.
thank you to netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
challenging
reflective
tense
4.0
this book is both deeply engaging and extremely difficult to read - it's difficult for me to read about women so trapped in their roles by society and the men who rage and lord over them, women who have to fight tooth and nail and give up self-respect just to survive and live a decent life.
the way i connected on so many levels with these african women living in colonized zimbabwe (rhodesia back then) in the late 1960s showed me that the struggles of women really do transcend borders and time. but i also appreciated the look into african culture at the time of colonization, particularly the bonds between women living in a severely patriarchal society where the patriarch of the family would be likened to a god.
i liked seeing our protagonist, tambudzai, fighting against expectations to get an education and got frustrated when she succumbed to traditions along the way (even though i completely understood her). there's this running theme of being torn between tradition and progress that speaks to a lot of us from the global south - this urge to tear out the ugly, backward, misogynist aspects of your culture and at the same time, wanting to preserve your culture and customs in the face of colonization. wanting to be proud of where you come from and wanting to grab at any chance of a better life. it's a difficult story with an uneasy, tense atmosphere and no answers at all. but i'm so glad it exists.
the way i connected on so many levels with these african women living in colonized zimbabwe (rhodesia back then) in the late 1960s showed me that the struggles of women really do transcend borders and time. but i also appreciated the look into african culture at the time of colonization, particularly the bonds between women living in a severely patriarchal society where the patriarch of the family would be likened to a god.
i liked seeing our protagonist, tambudzai, fighting against expectations to get an education and got frustrated when she succumbed to traditions along the way (even though i completely understood her). there's this running theme of being torn between tradition and progress that speaks to a lot of us from the global south - this urge to tear out the ugly, backward, misogynist aspects of your culture and at the same time, wanting to preserve your culture and customs in the face of colonization. wanting to be proud of where you come from and wanting to grab at any chance of a better life. it's a difficult story with an uneasy, tense atmosphere and no answers at all. but i'm so glad it exists.