This book was absolutely stunning. The characters were amazing, the plot constantly took me by surprise, and the writing is a great blend of readable modern language and the intense style that usually accompanies fantasy. The only critique I have is that I would consider this book more NA than YA considering how dark and viscerally gory it gets. Zilan is an amazing main character; she’s competent without being perfect, she’s ruthless and driven without being completely heartless. Her cousins, Yufei and Wenshu, are particularly interesting, especially concerning their relationship with Zilan and how complicated it is. The love interest is a good balance to Zilan, though I hope to see their relationship develop more. Empress Zetian is a chilling and horrifying villain who is truly a terrifying opponent. The plot was constantly twisting and turning, keeping me on my toes, and while I found some moments a little too fast paced, the overall quality of the story definitely makes me want to keep this at a full 10/10.
Read my full review here
I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway Volumes 1-4 by Sou Inaida (7/10)
I usually don't count manga/manhwa I read since I tend to breeze through them pretty quickly. However, I read and then reread these volumes in the span of like two days, so I figured I'd include them. As someone who's read a lot in this genre, this really caught my attention. These are purely self-indulgent reads. The plot isn't really there, it's mostly just (highly suspect) romance. I do like the main character; she's a lot more serious and focused than a lot of these sorts of protagonists, who tend to lean more towards schemingly evil or happy-go-lucky. She is still, of course, incredibly dense when it comes to love. I do have a favorite love interest (of which there is no shortage). While the romance is obviously the focus of the story, there actually seems to be some pretty interesting worldbuilding/plot things going on in the background, and I'm really interested to see where it leads. I think these books are for a very specific audience, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. (Also the title is misleading, the girls love her too lol)
Islands of Legends by Lisa McMann (7/10)
I really enjoy this series; I think the magic is a lot of fun and I really like the characters and how complex their relationships are, especially for middle grade. However, I had two major issues while reading this book. First was that the plot points in these books are starting to push the believability when it comes to a bunch of fourteen year olds running two separate countries. Especially when it’s established that there are adults with significantly more experience than them just kind of…hanging around. Second, these books are starting to fall into a pattern of deal with issue from last book, discover new island, new island presents a new problem, repeat. The ending looks like it’s shaking things up, but this one wasn’t as good as the last one.
Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang (8/10)
My favorite thing about this book was Sciona. She is so horrendously unlikable, and it makes her character arc all the more satisfying. It’s rare to find main characters who are actually bad people, especially women, and Sciona is a bad person. She’s selfish, she’s bigoted, and she’s callous; I certainly don’t like her, but I love her writing. The plot is interesting but has definitely been done before, and the magic system is unique but sort of convoluted. The worldbuilding isn’t fleshed out enough for the kind of ending Wang tried to do, though I do like the ending especially in terms of Sciona’s ending situation. This was a good book, but Babel by R. F. Kuang does the same thing but much better.
20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
I Reincarnated as the Little Sister of a Death Game Manga's Murder Mastermind and Failed (Pepu, Sou Inaida)
Death Note (Takeshi Obata, Tsugumi Ohba)
Haru's Curse (Asuka Konishi)
March Comes in Like a Lion (Chika Umino)
I sold my life for ten thousand yen per year. (Shouichi Taguchi, Sugaru Miaki)
Monster (Naoki Urasawa)
Goodnight Punpun (Inio Asano)
A Girl on the Shore (Inio Asano)
