Overly Critical Reviewer

My opinion is my own. There is no need for you to agree.

[shadowsingingsassenach]

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is a series written by Dean Koontz. This series really meant a lot to me, as a good friend (basically my godfather, even though he was technically my sister’s godfather and not mine) had sent me his copy of the first book, Odd Thomas, and said I would love it. This was around the time he was diagnosed with cancer. The day I learned he died, I went to the book and right there in the bargain priced shelf was a single copy of the final book, Saint Odd, signed by the author. Naturally I bought it. 

The series is made of 7 novels and 2 novellas. They follow the story of a strange young man named Odd Thomas, who has a bizarre gift. He can see and feel the dead. To him the dead feel as solid and warm as a living person. He also has very strong intuition, knowing when something or someone isn’t right. He uses this for good, helping the local chief in his hometown solve murders. And throughout the whole series, all Odd wants is to be  a fry cook or a tire salesman and marry his girlfriend. But the world seems to want to get in the way. 

I love this series. I don’t want to spoil it too much for anyone, but it’s one of those series that just flows beautifully. And Dean Koontz makes it so realistic compared to other books. Even as he faces cults and Satanists, serial killers and terrorists, he struggles and stumbles and most things that happen are all very possible events. Odd is witty, sarcastic, and has a somewhat dark sense of human. He can find the good in any situation. 

I highly suggest this series. There are no cons to it that I can find. I look forward to reading more of Dean Koontz work soon!!

[shadowsingingsassenach]

I’m Back!

Kind of dropped off the face of the planet for a while there. Sorry about that. College does that to people. Anyway, I’m going to try to be more active. My goal is to do a book/series review every day. Feel free to suggest books and/or series!

[shadowsingingsassenach]

The Iron Fey -Series Review

The Iron Fey is a series written by Julie Kagawa, and don’t let the cliche and cheesy summary giving on the back of the books fool you. This isn’t your typical “fairy princess torn between two boys and two worlds” shit, this is hard core faeries and battles and beauty. 

The first 4 books are my favorite, mostly because of the inclusion of one of my favorite characters, Robin Goodfellow. Yes, the same Robin Goodfellow from A Midsummer Nights Dream, but the way Julie writers him is perfect. The main character for the first 3 books is Meghan Chase. Her and her 3 main companions, Puck (Robin Goodfellow) and Ash and Grimalkin get pulled into all kind of crazy things to save Faery from the Iron Fey, which is poisoning their world. Iron is toxic to faeries, hence why people used to put horse shoes over their doorways. It was too keep out the faeries. 

A lot of stories about faeries seem to take them and turn them more...human. Either take away the allergy to iron and inability to lie, or make them have souls and be capable of having empathy and all that. Julie doesn’t do this. Puck and Ash are very allergic to iron, they can not lie and they are bound by their promises and deals. The deals aren’t just ‘find me a gold watch’, it’s requests like “give me your first born”, “let me steal your favorite memory”, “I’ll take a few years from your life”, crazy stuff like that. I love it. Neither have souls, so the idea of killing someone or leaving someone behind doesn’t really bother them too much. But then, faeries are also creatures of extreme passion. Everything they feel, they feel to the extreme. Jealousy, hatred, love, betrayal, and they never forget. Julie’s faeries live off of the stories told about them. The more stories about “The Big Bad Wolf”, the more powerful the wolf becomes. Human hopes and dreams are what fuels faerie, hence, why iron fey were born. People turned away from nature, and turn towards technological advancements. 

SPOILERS

There is a love triangle, of course, as most young adult books have. Meghan, Puck, and Ash. Both boys love her, but are kind of sworn to kill each other and they’re from different courts. Puck, who has the best chance being that he’s been hanging out with Meghan for the past 16 years, knows her the best, and is her father’s (Oberon) favorite, also tends to wait to long. I feel like it’s a good thing though, because I don’t think Puck would adjust well to the married life. He’s too...free. 

The 4th book is all about Puck, Ash, and Grimalkin, along with The Big Bad Wolf, traveling to the ends of the world in order to get a soul for Ash so he can go with Meghan. So if you love the love/hate friendships as much as I do, that one will probably be your favorite. Its great.

Regardless, if you love faeries, this is one of those underrated book series that I HIGHLY suggest. 

[shadowsingingsassenach]

I found a post where I used the incorrect ‘their/there/they’re” and I am DISAPPOINTED and ASHAMED. 

[shadowsingingsassenach]

Heronstairs & Other Not Exactly Gay Ships?

Apparently it’s an unpopular opinion that there can be such a thing as straight ships these days in books/show. Or that there can be non-romantic ships? It’s a thing called platonic friendship. I love it. 

Guys. I love the gay ships. I love the straight ships. Not every character must be gay. Not all must be straight. But they can’t all be one or the other. It’s like a salad? Do you want a salad of just lettuce? Or do you want a salad with iceberg lettuce, maybe some spinach or kale, croutons, tomatoes, cheese, maybe eggs, peppers, a whole damn Olive Garden salad? With the dressing and breadsticks! (Or maybe you prefer your ship-salad without dressings? lol, I’m sorry)

((Also just being a jerk, because I’m like that, but I don’t think Will and Jem from Infernal Devices were gay. That time period, men just spoke like that about each other. They could express their love openly. 

Plus...

Ya know...

There’s the parabatai curse. If Jem and Will romantically loved each other, they’re parabatai runes would have burned, they would have gotten those black markings as their insides literally burned, they would have turned into giants, and the heavenly fire of the relationship would have burned away Jem’s drug addiction. 

So in conclusion, Jem and Will were straight, but loved each other as twins often do. Twins from different parents. The Livvy and Ty of the 1800s. Sorta. 

Granted, they may have possibly, had they had the chance for it, had a 3-some with Tessa. If there had been time before Jem did the Silent Brother thing, they probably would have given it a shot at least once. Technically, you don’t have to be romantically in love with someone to “make love” with them. 

Thanks for reading through my jerk rant, I hope I didn’t make you want to cyber punch me!

[shadowsingingsassenach]

Queen of Air and Darkness -book review

Queen of Air and Darkness is the 3rd and final installment of The Dark Artifices, written by Cassandra Clare. 

I have been a fan of Cassandra Clare’s book for a very long time. The Mortal Instruments is what really kick-started my love of reading. I had picked up City of Bones randomly at walmart one day, just to give me something to read on the plane ride to Colorado, and then next thing I know, I’m chomping at the bit for the next book. 

Of her 3 current series in the Shadowhunter world, however, I find the Dark Artifices my least favorite. It took me a long time to get the motivation to actually finish Lord of Shadows. Queen of Air and Darkness only took me about 3 weeks, thanks to college finals and the joys of being a 3rd year college student with professors thinking my life revolves around their classes. 

Anyway, the pros about Queen of Air and Darkness:

One of the best things about all of Cassandra’s books are the witty characters, the diversity, and the important lessons mentioned throughout the book. 

At the end of Lord of Shadows, Livvy dies. Queen of Air and Darkness spends a lot of time exploring how different people deal with grief, and how losing someone can affect a person’s behavior. The 4 it really focused on was Ty, Kit, Dru, and Julian. All 4 had a very different way of dealing with the grief, from the unhealthy ways (Julian and Ty) to the ways that can be seen as more healthy (Kit and Dru). Having lost someone very close to me and experiencing people’s different reactions myself, I could really appreciate seeing that not everyone just pushes through it like nothing happened and that not everyone grieves openly, and, one of the many lessons shown in the book, grief is an important emotion to feel and a vital part of life, because life without grief is a life without joy.

Cassandra also hits all the points with diversity. We have the Friendly Neighborhood Lesbians (Helen and Aline), the Local Transgender (Diana), the Fabulous Gays (Magnus and Alec, Kit and Ty?), the Precious Polygamous (Mark, Christina, Kieran), characters from all over the world and various races and species, in mixed relationships and there’s too many to list them all. But no one is left out. She explores how characters may struggle to reveal these parts of themselves to other, the insecurity and unsureness of knowing whether or not they’ll still be accepted. Being straight myself, I can’t say I understand exactly how it feels for someone to come out to their parents/friends/loved ones. But this book, I feel, gives a pretty good idea of how difficult it is for people to come out, and how much better they feel afterwards. 

One thing that is consistent with all Cassandra’s books important lessons that are mentioned throughout, whether it’s directly said or hinted at and shown in various ways. A lot of said lessons are about acceptance, loving each other, learning to trust each other, and giving mercy to those who have done wrong. In today's world, this is pretty important. It’s not like it once was, where someone does something wrong, you duel them, and then move on with your life (ah, the good ole days). 

The ending of the book was probably my favorite. Not because it was ending, but because a lot of things were wrapped up nicely. The short story involving Jace and Clary was beautiful, Alec and Magnus literally just need to be mentioned anywhere and it’s beautiful, and (SPOILER) we finally get to stop listening to Julian and Emma complain about not being able to be romantically involved. While a lot of issues were tied up, some new ones also came up, which will lead into the next set of books. 

Plot wise, the book was kind of 5/10. Some things seemed really rushed and unimportant to me, while others were amazingly written out and thought out. It seemed to jump around a little in my opinion. 

The cons of the book are mostly my opinions, and you can agree or agree to disagree. There were 2 huge cons about it that I really didn’t like: romance and politics. 

We’ll start with the romance. While I like my fairshare of fluff and romance in books, it was really getting tiring with this one. There was too much time spent on the characters worrying about their love lives, as if there was nothing more important to worry about. All the main characters, besides Kit, Ty, and Dru (so the children, basically) were maybe focused 45% on the actually issues, and 55% on their love lives. And it was just the type of romance where they would give their lives for each other, or just enjoy sitting together in silence. It was constantly as if they wanted to have sex. There was no simply kissing, unless it was rushed, it was all heavy make-out sessions. I actually skipped a lot of the scenes because it was just too boring. I’ve read my fair share of books involving heavy romance and risky scenes (Outlander, Game of Thrones, Dark Hunters series...) and the big difference being that those are adult series, and not as romance-based as it seemed this one was. Sex happens in those three, often, but it isn’t as fleshed out every time like it seemed it was in QoAaD. The book would have been significantly shorter, were it not for all the drama about the characters love lives. 

Politics. I am a firm believer in that everyone has the right to their own political opinion, but also a very firm believer than politics needs to be kept out of entertainment. You can very, very clearly tell where Cassandra Clare’s political views lie, and while she is obviously entitled to have whatever views she wants, it’s just so obnoxiously obvious in her book that it’s almost hard to take it seriously. If you’re going to show your view on modern politics in your writing, it should be done fairly, showing the good and bad of both sides. This book only shows the bad of the opposing political party. She uses the media’s favorite word several times, which, as it has in the media, just makes the word less meaningful. 

Please, do not be a sheep. Do not be the person who reads their favorite author or celebrity’s political opinion and take it as you own. Do your own research on BOTH sides, look at websites that AREN’T biased and have RELIABLE sources. Politics is a very important part of our lives, but we need step back from trusting the media, facebook, and crazy people for all our info, and look for it ourselves. THAT is how this country will become united again. -There’s you life lesson from me. You’re welcome. 

So in the end, I give this book a 5/10. Those two major cons just really hurt the plot, the integrity, and the entertainment factors of the story for me. I am a little disappointed by it, because Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices were perfect and I love them so much.

I will be reading her future books, of course, and I have a lot of hope for them. With some luck, they will be a little less political and more structured plot wise. 3 disappointing books out of 14, I can still say she’s one of my favorite authors and I hope to read more great books of hers in the future. 

[beautifulbookland]

When you see someone reading your fave book

[shadowsingingsassenach]

Throne of Glass -Series Review

Sarah J Maas’ book series “Throne of Glass” follows the story of an assassin/princess and her friends, fighting to save their world from a demonic overlord who is bent solely on destroying other worlds and something about finding his sister-in-law. For an actually summary, look elsewhere, because this will mostly be analyzing some characters of the series. 

I honestly found these books pretty enjoyable, especially book 1, Throne of Glass. That’s when you’re introduced to a lot of the main characters, Aelin, Dorian, Choal, and I believe that is when Rowan comes in as well.

In this world, magic is something that has been forbidden and outlawed, but as it turns out, Aelin and Dorian both have magic. Aelin, in the form of fire and a little drop of water, and Dorian has raw magic, which is literally the most powerful of it because it means he can do essentially whatever he wants with it. 

Now it’s been a while since I read the first few books, as I started last Christmas, and the last book in the series, Kingdom of Ash, was just released. 

And it’s in Kingdom of Ash where I began to see the problems with the plot and the author. 

Quick disclaimer: I have a soft spot for the unappreciated, overlooked characters that have all the potential to be great, but are never given the chance thanks to the writers. 

Kingdom of Ash is told mostly through the eyes of various female characters, and a few of the love-sick men. There lies issue number 1. They’re literally in the middle of a damn war that will determine the survival of the whole world. And yet a huge part of the stories is the characters pining for each other and mopping around because they can’t be with whoever because that person obviously can’t possibly love them. 

Sarah J Maas comes across very much as a feminist in her writing. There is NOTHING wrong with this, do not try to say I’m claiming it’s bad. But the thing about feminism, is that it means equality for men and women. Key word: equality. 

What isn’t seen very much in Kingdom of Ash? Equality. At the end of the book, the female characters get all of the credit for it. Lysandra, Yrene, and Aelin are credited with winning the war. All of these character did play huge roles in it, and Aelin is the main character of the series. But I feel that Dorian was extremely overlooked and Aelin extremely overrated. 

Dorian, by the end of Kingdom of Ash, can shapeshift, summon/control flame and ice, has “magic hands” or control over some type of energy that can hold people in place, destroy things, block things. He’s incredibly powerful. He pulled down Erawan’s temple/keep place in the mountains, single-handedly. He tricked the Valg Queen and beat her at her own game, MADE HER PRISONER IN HIS OWN MIND. He basically taught himself magic, on his own, because there was no time for anyone else to really teach him of it. And yet, he barely gets much mention in the end of the book. He’s the one who lured Erawan over so that the healer could deliver the final blow and kill him. He’s the one who sent out the light, who stood as bait. Yet barely any mention. Yrene got all the credit for it. 

Aelin also got a ton of credit. And was annoyingly self-sacrificial. Meanwhile, she was kinda making it hard for herself when it didn’t have to be. She destroyed kingdoms to get her own back, pick petty arguments and made annoying sarcastic comments all the time in the type of show-off Mary-Sue type we all know and hate. Now, I’m all for smartass comments, witty humor, laughing at things that shouldn’t be laughed at. But to constantly, at every single comment or question or challenge respond with it, it rather childish. 

Aelin returned to her kingdom knowing she would be accepted by the people, knowing the people already accepted her as their Queen. But she left Dorian to go pick up the pieces of his own shattered kingdom with no help, knowing that she had helped destroy it. Knowing that without Dorian, they would have lost the whole war. It wouldn’t have been possible without the crown prince stepping up to the plate. 

Maybe it just bothers me because I can relate to Dorian more. He has all the skill, all the talent, all the potential to be an amazing, powerful character, and yet he’s constantly brushed off and pushed back as less important. 

Lysandra is a character I was rather fond of. A shapeshifter, and a damn clever one at that. She had a ton of good qualities. She was a great judge of character, she was smart, she was relentless and determined and strong-willed, but still had that sense of humility about her. She wasn’t cocky, she wasn’t snobbish, she knew her skills and her limits and she used them to her advantage to get done what needed to be done. Her loyalty was to her Queen first, her kingdom and her promised home. Then to her adopted daughter(?), and then to her love interest. She was the type of female character that I like. She has her priorities straight, knows her strengths and her weaknesses, and pushes herself to the limit for what she believes in, without being overly dramatic about it like Aelin. 

The cadre, Rowan, Lorcan, Fenrys, and Gavriel, I love. They were beautiful and amazingly dynamic and interesting characters. There was a lot of variation between them personality wise. Fenrys was more of the jokester, very loyal, fun to be around. Lorcan the broody angsty type with the gift of death. He was a badass, and I love me some grumpy could-be-a-really-awesomely-powerful-and-dangerous-villain characters. Gavriel was the mom friend. He was most definitely the care taker of the group. And Rowan was the loyal leader of them, the prince. They all had contrasting abilities, personalities, and histories that just fit so nicely together. It made it all work, and I really don’t have complaints about them. Except that Gavriel died. That was kinda sad. 

In the end, I would recommend this series for someone looking for a female-lead character, an interesting plot, and a bit of adventure. I’m picky about my characters, so I judge characters a bit harsh, but I would rate the series a 6 or 7 out of 10, mostly because the overlooking of some characters I really thought a little more important and worth more time than they were given.