Books I Unfinished:
What's it about: a curse, a witch/mage, gay people, something about a war,
Quit at: 44%
This was a novella (under 150 pages) but somehow it drags. First, the main character puts a curse on her brother and getting her powers (and her period - I have always hated this association - a girl gets her period at the same time she gets her power, a sign of maturity, blab, blab...) follow by a ton of back stories and then supposedly she tries to un-curse her brother but she (and another brother) was mostly reading books, doing math and listening to songs that tells happenings we don't get to witness and then something happens, the end.
I always read spoilers when I decided not to read a book. Click to Show/Hide Spoilers > In the end, there is an orgy (although not described in detail) which the main character watched on her wedding night and she was only 15 years old. She needed to be saved at the end which irks me. What was her power for anyway? And the cursed brother ended up coupling with the jackass who had been treating her like crap and almost killed her - both of these would would have pissed me off so I'm glad I didn't finish this. End Spoilers >
What's it about: murder, early 1900, New York
Quit at: 31%
I just lost interest. Even with how gruesome the murder (with details) was, this had been dull. I flipped to the end and found out who did it and it somehow confirmed my idea of who did it so I know it makes for a mundane end. Although Detective Ziele is an interesting name and he had a tragic back story like every detective I read.
I think it would have been better if we turn the situation with Ziele's dead fiancée/losing his arm and turn that into some sort of crime/murder to solve, it would have been a better book. Beside the fiancee, they killed off his entire family - his sister got married and moved away but I guess they made it sounded like he'll never see her again, so that makes him even more pitiful.
This book got some sort of award which didn't make sense because the writing was mediocre and the mystery was dull and it's 400 pages. I only decided to read this because it was a murder set in New York in 1900s.
What's it about: travel, inventions, scavenger hunt, romance
Quit at: 24%
There are two perspectives - Arthur aka Theodore and Clara. I disliked Clara's perspective even though it does give us some fun stuff - a mother who likes to protect animals, a grandfather inventor, animals all over their house - she's all worries and mistrust and who wants to read about that? On Theodore's side, there is mystery and some bits of reasonable thinking. But Clara got so much page times (at least in the beginning) that I just don't want to slog through her views just to get to something worth reading. I think I now dislike romance books with two perspectives (usually the two main characters who are having the romance) because there is always a chance I hate one of them.
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Books I Finished:
What's it about: mythical creatures, another world/dimension, attempt murder of a child, traveling, something about protecting magic from extinction
This never felt like a fun adventure. There is constant danger but anything fun is brief but also it moves so fast - the actions, the characters (runs, travels), the endless introductions of new creatures - you don't get to enjoy much before moving on.
I disliked the writing - it was clunky with short sentences, sentences with lots of commas, colons, semicolons, awkward/odd wordings and a lot of times, we are told of something and then comes the detail. It seemed like the author is doing a lot of explaining and not enough storytelling. I'm not going to continue the series because the writing drives me crazy. Here are the goods with the not-so-good stuff:
• The perspective is mostly from Christopher's (first main character) view which I guess is so that the readers can experience all the new things he does but there is definitely a lot of people explaining things to him.
• Christopher (I don't know why he never got a nickname) is sort of a mythical creature magnet - good, kind, cute creatures are attracted to him and wanted to be near him but this trait was never talked or used again after a time.
• There is a glossary in the back of the book with illustrations of all the mythical creatures - most of them are awful creatures who are not delightful nor any being you want to encounter unless you want to be eat
• I like the tiny dragon who is sort of cute and gives the book a little humor though his appearance is brief.
• It does seem like Mal and Christopher (and the other two adult characters) were just running amok and not really have any goals - they gain them one step at a time which I guess it's how they do adventure.
• I like Mal (second main character), well, maybe I like her coat more - she has a coat that allowed her to fly like a bird. It took her years to learn to fly the coat but in a later scene Christopher took seconds to learn and flew with the coat like he had done it for years.
• Mal picking her nose and eating it seemed stupid for a character who seemed mature.
• We barely get any perspective from Mal and I think she is the most interesting character. In the second beginning (there's two) we get Mal's perspective but then not much of her thoughts later in the book - it's all Christopher all the way to the end.
• I like Gelifen, Mal's pet baby griffin but Click to Show/Hide Spoilers > his death was used to motivate Mal to continue on the journey when she decided she didn't want to be an immortal and want to go home. I hate using such death as motivation for a character to change her mind. But mostly, it seemed like Mal was all about saving the creatures so why would she suddenly change her mind and just want to go home? End Spoiler >
• No magic - so yes, they are trying to save magic but I guess the magic is the creatures such as boats made from dryads that can sail by itself, a tooth of a sphinx (if you put it in your mouth) allows you to understand any language spoken - but no one's magical or do any magic.
• The death of Mal's aunt in the beginning was ignored and we are never told if she really did die or if she did, there was no follow-up.
• There are lovely illustrations but of course, they look better if seen on paper (I read the ebook).
• The cover is great but the dragon appears only at the end for maybe 60 seconds or so.
• Immortals can die - there are these being called Immortals who lives for hundreds of years but the last one died young in an accident. Perhaps a different term should be used because immortals shouldn't die, at least, that is the meaning of that word.
• The beginning (the first one with Christopher that started the book where a creature is trying to eat him) is great but it's too bad I don't know where it continued and I read it five times and searched the book. So yes, there is a scene (later in the book) where a creature tries to eat Christopher but there's way to tell if this beginning continued there. Click to Show/Hide Spoilers >
• In the end, Mal is suddenly able to use her coat to fly when they said she can only fly when there is wind but there isn't. There was a giant hole in the ground when they went through the maze to get to the magic tree and Mal (we are told afterward after Christopher had gone through alone) that she managed to use her coat to fly over it even though there aren't any wind but I guess that is explained by the bad guy blowing some kind of misty wind that somehow moved everywhere but I'm not sure.
I assumed Mal, after drinking the potion that allowed her to remember all the things an Immortal knew, she would gain some magical powers too but nope, she just gained memories. But then she must have gained extra strength and the will to make wind because she carried the bad guy (who is an adult size even if he was thin) and fly him straight into the sun. Mal is always said to be a tiny girl and her coat can only work if there is wind - so how could she carried a man and fly? I don't like her sacrifice - there could have been another solution. And Mal do not appear in book 2 or 3. End Spoiler >
What's it about: a woman obsessed with a rich woman, children who burst into flames when highly emotional, horrible adventures in babysitting, basketball, bad parenting
I didn't like reading a story punctured with the four-letter f word every few instances and sprinkled with little inconsequential happenings. Although this thought from the main the character, Lillian, disturbed me: "...so we just rode in silence the rest of the way, the radio playing easy listening that made me want to slip into a hot bath and dream about killing everyone I knew." The woman hated her life and pretty much everyone except the woman she's obsessed with. She needs therapy.
All the characters are unlikable, even the two children who burst into flame. You would think these children having suffered through their fire-bursting days and losing their mother and their father barely around, they would at least be sad or withdrawal but no, they're asshats. But also, they didn't seem like children at all, more like emotionless, slightly angry adults in children's bodies. There was little to care about them or any of the characters.
And Lillian, how dumb could she be. In the scene where they go to the library to borrow books but none of them had a library card and instead of calling the children's stepmother or someone to come and bring a card or a paper with their address so they can get a library card, she decided the children should just steal the books. Such a good nanny, teaching the kids how to commit crimes. Lillian also kept saying everything is weird like we need a reminder?
It ended like it started. Everything that happened had zero consequences. Got beat-up and bitten and almost lost a finger with bleeding wounds? No hospitalization needed. Open wounds just heal all by themselves. Stole some library books? No one noticed. Try to burn down a mansion? No cops seek you out. Burst into flames? Lose some clothes and carry on with your life. Whenever something happens, nothing happens. I can sum up the book like this - a woman gets a job babysitting twins who could burst into flames and then continued to do so, the end. The title of this book - Nothing to see here - is absolutely correct. If there is, I didn't find it. If it was funny (I might have slightly chuckled at one scene), it was probably because of the stupidly or the absurdity of it.
What's it about: cats with magic, mystery, library, murder
The cats, Hercules and Owen, had the ability to appear/disappear anywhere and walk through walls. They used this two abilities to get clues and gives them to the main character (Kathleen) but she's a reluctant sleuth so she didn't really care to solve the murder or even know what the clues are about until way later. The cats are smarter than her but maybe the reader is also smarter too because I figured out a few things before she did. Also, for someone who had an electric shock, broken wrist, bruised shoulder, a burned hand, she seemed perfectly fine without any real medical treatment. I don't think she had any self preservation.
I think I would enjoy this if there is less fluff - so many things Kathleen did like her tai chi classes or having breakfast with her friend or working or drinking coffee every few minutes (that's not an exaggeration, these characters drink coffee constantly) - Kathleen pretty much does anything but investigating. Maybe at the end, she did a tiny bit of investigating but it's the cats that did most of the work but their work is useless because they can't talk so Kathleen never get anything they are trying to say to her.
Click to Show/Hide Spoilers > I think Kathleen should have not reveal the killer at all. Somehow, it seemed so wrong since the victim was such an awful person but also, the killer didn't really killed, she gave him aspirin and waited around for him to die. It doesn't seem like justice was served, not when the bastard died from an accidental head wound. Plus Kathleen didn't seem to care that she was ruining a lot of people's lives by this revelation. End Spoilers >
The chapter titles are tai chi moves (or whatever they are called) because the main character practices tai chi but I didn't get this until way later but still didn't understand because I know nothing about tai chi. (The second book had no such titles.)
I tried the second book but I didn't have the patience for it. I really like the cats and their magical abilities but Kathleen as a main character had nothing interesting about her to stick around for 15 more books so no continuing this series.
What's it about: people's shadows running off, slums, slice of life
I don't know what the point of this book is. A girl (the narrator), maybe a woman, she's some random stranger, going about her day, thinking about random stuff, talking to people, not really doing anything in particular. In the beginning the narrator was following her shadow but simply stopped. Other people talked about their shadows rising or running off but no real conclusion to their stories. There's no explanation about the shadows either - no how, no why, nothing. This is like someone talking at random - random tangents, random people telling tales about their shadow, random memories. There are no quotation marks so sometimes I thought the narrator was still narrating but no, it's someone talking. This is a short book (under 200 pages) and it ended abruptly or rather it just tapered off. Maybe I just didn't get it.
Have you read any good books lately?
I have seen the Sophie Kelly books before and wondered about them because I'm a cat person. Thanks for the review. That gives me a better idea of what they're like.
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