We Hunt The Flame and We Free The Stars by Hafsah Faizal
The second pull from the jar was actually this duology, so technically it is only considered the 2nd of the Book Jar list, but it was two books so I am counting them both separately.
Regardless, if I had to rate this series I would give it a very happy 9/10, the only thing keeping it from becoming a full 10/10 being that some aspects were very thoroughly foreshadowed and I didn't find myself terribly surprised by much. I would say that by and large this is a true Y/A style adventure story, there is something to say about the very well cultivated plot and character development for all main and side characters. No leaf was left un-turned, everyone had what I felt was a very fitting conclusion and I felt that the story was also a very satisfying read! I would put this in a recommendation list for people that are fond of well-rounded characters and conclusive storylines, and for lovers of fantasy. There is magic, non-human creatures, and the book details folklore and contains a map of the realm, which I think are all incredibly well-thought-out features.
For more specific thoughts that do contain spoilers, I'll put beneath a banner.
The only part of the book that truly surprised, shocked, and upset me was undoubtedly Deen's death. It was wholly unexpected, I did not see any signs or foreshadowing, and I also did not see any reason for it. Though, having read and completed the entire series, waiting with baited breath for an inkling of good reasoning for it, I found that there was no actual reason. It was a profound kind of moment where I could understand Hafsah Faizal a bit better, I think, because she was correct. Sometimes war and death and love are senseless. Prejudice, murder, the foundations for the grand villain in this duology, are also rather senseless, bound and rooted in overbearing amounts of pride and self-importance. I think Deen's death and the lack of plot device it was used for (in my own personal opinion, Zafira showed little remorse for Deen in the days, weeks, and later months after his death. She only truly seemed to mourn him after meeting with Yasmine, his sister, again and seeing her grief) showed that Faizal really understands the complexity of the human spirit, or at least has a lot of experience with and empathy for many different personalities and thought processes.
I also find that many different types of people being brought together for one shared purpose, and then forming an incredibly solid and understanding found family, was a warm and simple way to represent the unity of an entire kingdom. All kinds of backgrounds, family matters, education levels, hardships, and yet they all worked together with a great amount of understanding and hope. I do wish Kifah had a small page or so towards the end for me to witness her giving her father what-for, though I guess you can't have it all.
The first book I pulled from the BookJar was Saving Tara by L.S. Carr, a self-published and crowdfunded book that I personally contributed to (specifically to the crowdfund, I donated in order to gain a signed copy).
This first pull actually ended up going unfinished, for numerous reasons, but the primary reasoning is that I felt the story and writing were of very poor quality (numerous typos, grammar issues, incorrect use of certain vocabulary, as well as extremely questionable choices involving plot and character building).
This is the first book I've ever had to try and force myself to read, and also the first book I have not been able to finish due to sheer dislike of almost everything about it. I actually disliked this book enough that I went as far as to annotate on the actual pages, so I will add some snippets of those thoughts here.
For spoiler purposes, I'll be putting specific details under a Read More banner
For the record and full transparency, in the crowdfunding campaign, those who donated about $20 received a signed paperback copy of the book, and from what I understand, there were only 20 of these signed copies from the first print. My book is labeled No. 11/20. I don't know if these books were further edited and republished at a later date, or if they are currently for public sale now, or not.
The book is 283 pages, containing no author's note or acknowledgements. I stopped reading at page 212, which is just before chapter 29 (of 43 chapters, each chapter between 4 and 15 pages long).
The first mistake I noted in this book was on the very first page, in the very first line, where the work 'darkroom' is used to describe a dark or dimly lit living room, which I assume is an error. The insane amount of errors, typos, and other mistakes in this book make me believe that it was never proofread before being printed, bound, and sold.
The main character is a trans man named Emmet, who, for all I could see, is highly immature, anxious, and self depreciating. He also involves himself in a love triangle at the first available opportunity. In the second chapter he is introduced to his separated-at-birth identical twin sister, in another world (in Tara, the book's namesake) and she is revealed to be essentially is exact opposite. I found that I adored her character a great deal, and she experiences a love and a life that is doomed. I believe the point I stopped reading was shortly after her character discovers a prophecy in which she must allow her lover to be killed to "save" a man who is. Known to be evil (and later becomes a primary villain) as well as sacrifice herself and allow her brother (Emmet) to kill her. She agrees to follow along with the prophecy, mainly agreeing to her own suicide, and seeing as every other character I encountered in this piece was insufferable and infuriating, I stopped reading altogether at this point. Not before skipping ahead to the chapter labeled Heir To The Battlefield, which is chapter 40, to confirm she does, in fact, die. (for context, Emmet is giving the title 'Heir To The Throne', while Reine, his sister, was given the title 'Heir To The Battlefield')
Other characters in this book include a pair of winged brothers, one dark and one light, the dark one being the Evil person Emmet becomes romantically involved with. The names for these characters, however, are ridiculous. The dark brother is named Samuel Di Kaito, the light brother is named Leonardo Di Vinci (yes, really). They are both referred to as the Di brothers. Samuel is described as being pale, with black hair, black wings that are iridescent like an oil spill, and heterochromia(one eye is described as bright red, while the other is "sunshine yellow"). Leonardo has dirty blonde hair and "light eyes".
The majority of my grievances with this book lie with the fact that Emmet is a very stupid, lovestruck puppy. He becomes deeply involved with Samuel, to the point that they end up having relations on a regular basis, but do not kiss. Ever. He also has a very detached romance with David, a royal guard side character who is doomed by the narrative later. Emmet constantly shirks his duties, disregards people and training, in favor of spending time with Samuel or due to Samuel telling him things aren't very important at all. His sister, David, and just about everyone else constantly ask him to think for himself, thing about the country, or think about the upcoming war he is to fight in, but Emmet vehemently refuses and acts highly immature.
The fact that both David, Leonardo(who becomes Reine's doomed lover) and Reine end up sacrificing themselves to save the kingdom in Emmet's name is infuriating, because Emmet does not show any signs of growing up or maturing. I specifically wrote in multiple instances throughout the book things like "are you stupid?" And "he is insanely gullible" and in one specific instance, almost immediately after David tried to kill him and Emmet is immediately consumed with Samuel, I wrote "he has no sense emotional permanence at ALL".
There were also multiple instances throughout the book where I could not make any sense of how much time had passed, what the context of several conversations were, and where characters were located. There are annotations all over the book where I say "what" and "what is going on here". In general I think the entire thing was written without much thought to world building.
Would i recommend the book? Absolutely not. Never. I think it is a disaster. I initially picked it up and participated in its crowdfunding because I knew in advance it would be a fantasy book with a trans main character, and gay relationships. However aside from the relatively good description of a ftm character (in the context of struggling with gender, body dysphoria, etc) I think this book is rife with very very poor representation, exceptionally terrible writing, and even worse planning. Characters that are named like shitty 2013 deviantart ocs, with coloring to match. This entire thing should have been a free Wattpad story left abandoned.
Okay. A while back I started a Book Jar in which I put a bunch of slips of paper with the titles of books/series' I currently own and have on my bookshelf that I have either 1. Not read just yet or 2. Have not read in several years.
The point of it was to force me back into reading (which is a goal that has ultimately succeeded thusfar) as well as force me to read all of the books I own before I am allowed to buy any more.
I figured, because I have many thoughts on what I have read so far, and probably will have many more thoughts to come, I would share what I think and maybe help other people find new things to read, etc.
I'll simply tag everything with #BookJarThoughts or something (this post will be tagged with the ultimate tag that I'll use for all of them). I also hope people will give me recommendations for books to read in the future, since I have an ever-growing list of books to buy when I finally clear the jar -and find the need to fill it again.
#nowreading #book #books #livro #livros #instabook #bookgram #igreads #bookjar #chuckpalahniuk #planner #acraft #coloryourlife #flatlay #lightroom #acolorstory (em Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul)
Nova capinea da @santanuvem essa linda Só capa #topper keke #coffee #coffeeholic #coffeandbooks #book #books #livro #livros #instabook #bookgram #igreads #bookjar #lightroom #acolorstory #nowreading #familiasantanuvem (em Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul)
Provavelmente será a primeira leitura de 2018 (eita que a fila desempacou) #book #books #livro #livros #instabook #bookgram #igreads #bookjar #lightroom #acolorstory (em Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul)
