#tbr takedown

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 25b

The Unbroken (Magic of the Lost #1) by C. L. Clark

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onMay 1, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please REBLOG and add your thoughts!

Every Empire Demands Revolution.

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren’t for sale.

Date added: 2021

Goodreads: 3.82

Storygraph: 3.89

PRO:

queernorm (I think) fantasy setting!!!

Big chonky fantasy

Storygraph informs me the characters are complex with lots of development

Available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

Dark. Dark dark dark. Not always my thing but if the writing holds up I can go with it.

Also seems like it's going to be focusing on pretty big-scale problems, which is also not my main preference these days. BUT -

[booksofmirth]

Book of the Month: May 2020

TBR TAKEDOWN: Chose a book on your TBR list (individual)

Unofficially: May 2020

Nevernight, Jay Kristoff Godsgrave, Jay Kristoff Darkdawn, Jay Kristoff

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 17.a

Truly, Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(See results)

Voting ended onMar 3, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * * *

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Winner

Date added: 2019

Goodreads: 3.90

Storygraph: 3.90

PRO:

Mystery!

I liked the last Maureen Johnson that I read (in 2017, admittedly)

Entire (current) series is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

Young adult

Thriller/"true crime" elements

There will supposedly be one (or two?) more books? But it's been a few years since the most recent release.

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 24a

The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St Clair

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onApr 21, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * *

A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume.

"Beautifully written . . . Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers." --NPR, Best Books of 2017

The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.

In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture.

Date added: 2020

Goodreads: 4.09

Storygraph: 4.1

PRO:

I think color is a fascinating subject, and I'm also very 👀 about art history and historical fashion

Available from the library in ebook and print

CON:

Not available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook), BUT because of the visual component (color samples), that may be for the best.

May be too informative/factual?

who knows when I'd get to it, my non-audiobook tbr only gets longer

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 22a

The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) by Daniel O'Malley

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onApr 7, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * * *

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, The Rook is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

Date added: 2020

Goodreads: 4.10

Storygraph: 4.06

PRO:

Love a supernatural mystery!

Not one but FOUR authors I follow on GR reviewed it positively

Apparently more humorous than it sounds

Current series is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook), fourth book is out this year!

CON:

Seems a bit dark?

I'm not usually one for a spy thriller

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 20.a

The Bone Ships (The Tide Child #1) by R.J. Barker

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onMar 24, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * *

A brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships is the epic launch of a new fantasy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.

Two nations at war. One prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war. The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

Date added: 2020

Goodreads: 4.04

Storygraph: 3.99

PRO:

Always looking for a big chonky fantasy

Dragons! And presumably world building.

Is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

ALSO: ships!

CON:

So, like, who is this book about exactly? I have no idea who the main characters are or what kind of story this is supposed to be.

The rest of the series is available from the library but NOT in my preferred format.

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 24b

Archivist Wasp (Archivist Wasp Saga #1) by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onApr 24, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * *

Wasp's job is simple. Hunt ghosts. And every year she has to fight to remain Archivist. Desperate and alone, she strikes a bargain with the ghost of a supersoldier. She will go with him on his underworld hunt for the long-long ghost of his partner and in exchange she will find out more about his pre-apocalyptic world than any Archivist before her. And there is much to know. After all, Archivists are marked from birth to do the holy work of a goddess. They're chosen. They're special. Or so they've been told for four hundred years.

Archivist Wasp fears she is not the chosen one, that she won't survive the trip to the underworld, that the brutal life she has escaped might be better than where she is going. There is only one way to find out.

Date added: 2021

Goodreads: 3.74

Storygraph: 3.78

PRO:

Ghosts! Archivist? Hmm.

From reviews, it seems to move a bit more slowly (which is probably good for YA sff)

I think this is often recommended as no-romance/ace-adjacent?

Both books in the series are available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

YA

post-apocalyptic

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 19.a

A Study in Brimstone (Warlock Holmes #1) by G.S. Denning

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onMar 17, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * *

Sherlock Holmes is an unparalleled genius who uses the gift of deduction and reason to solve the most vexing of crimes.

Warlock Holmes, however, is an idiot. A good man, perhaps; a font of arcane power, certainly. But he’s brilliantly dim. Frankly, he couldn’t deduce his way out of a paper bag. The only thing he has really got going for him are the might of a thousand demons and his stalwart flatmate. Thankfully, Dr. Watson is always there to aid him through the treacherous shoals of Victorian propriety… and save him from a gruesome death every now and again.

An imaginative, irreverent and addictive reimagining of the world’s favourite detective, Warlock Holmes retains the charm, tone and feel of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle while finally giving the flat at 221b Baker Street what it’s been missing for all these years: an alchemy table.

Reimagining six stories, this riotous mash-up is a glorious new take on the ever-popular Sherlock Holmes myth, featuring the vampire Inspector Vladislav Lestrade, the ogre Inspector Torg Grogsson, and Dr. Watson, the true detective at 221b. And Sherlock. A warlock.

Date added: 2019

Goodreads: 3.70

Storygraph: 3.72

PRO:

I LOVE a fantasy/supernatural mystery-detective book. This one sounds delightfully chaotic.

There are supernatural-Sherlock retellings among my favorite books (The Angel of the Crows specifically, and I like The Affair of the Mysterious Letter much more than any of Alexis Hall's other books)

The entire series is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

Honestly I don't think you all can talk me out of this one

CON:

I have not actually read the vast majority of the original ACD Sherlock stories 😅