poisonenvy's reviews
755 reviews

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

You may be asking yourself "Is this book good?" and the answer to that is:

No.  No, definitely not. 

You know, I don't really read light novels, and that's mostly because every time I do they're just... kind of bad? It's got to be a translation thing. I imagine that books written in East Asian languages are incredibly difficult to translate in a way that is pleasing for English speakers, and I likewise doubt that they're shelling out money for the best translators for things like light novels. 

But here's the thing: Even if this book is kind of objectively bad, it's also a lot of fun.  That, and I'm already a big fan of The Untamed, the C-Drama that is currently on Netflix.  And I love the characters. And the art was pretty.

So I thoroughly enjoyed reading this truly, objectively terrible book.  I had a lot of fun with it. I'm going to read the rest of the series, and then I'm probably going to read other Mo Xiang Tong Xiu books too, because dammit, sometimes I just want something fun, even if it is, again, really quite atrocious.   

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I didn't dislike this book, not really. I did, however, struggle to keep my attention on it. While the story could have been good (and I'm a sucker for books righting the wrongs that mythology has done to some women, in the vein of Circe), but I found the writing and the characters to be very flat. None of the characters seemed especially fleshed out, though I couldn't tell you why (maybe it was just the quality of the writing),and the story suffered badly for it. 

I read this book in three more-or-less equal sections, and the middle section was by far my favourite. 

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It feels like every Bardugo novel I pick up is better than the last. She is absolutely an author who works to improve her craft with every novel, which is very nice to see.  

The Familiar is set in Spain, during the Inquisition, and follows Luzia, a young woman who is employed as a scullion, who is able to perform fests of magic called milagros, or miracles.  When her gift is discovered, she attracts the attention of some powerful men, and enters a tournament to attract the notice of King Philip, with the goal of putting aside her servants life and reaching for better things. 

It was an excellent novel, very well written, with a satisfying romance and enough intrigue to keep me hooked. 

Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon

challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Like probably a lot of people reading this book in 2024, I came here straight from watching the TV show, and then was disappointed to realize that it cut probably my favourite storyline from the TV show (and also some of my favourite characters, but I suspected from the beginning that they were likely show only).

This book was, at times, a challenge to work through. It was very dense, with a whole lot of political minutia from the 1950s Lavender Scare -- it eventually got to the point where I was forced to google historical events and historical people just to make sense of what was happening in this book, since I had no prior knowledge and this book, I think, assumes that people will just automatically know relatively minor political players from the 1950s (I assume relatively minor though, given the fact that Senator Charles Potter's wikipedia page is pretty short despite the fact that he's apparently written a biography).

I'll admit that I did find myself missing a lot of the more character driven aspects of the TV show (I would say I might have liked the book more if I hadn't watched the show first, except that I probably would've never read the book at all if it wasn't for the show), but when this book did dive into the central characters and their relationships, I was very much invested. It's significant that this book starts with a wedding and ends with a funeral.

I do like politics quite a bit, so I think that this book was not as much as a slough for me as it might be for someone who's less interested in, again, the day-to-day minutia-type politics that this book gets into. 

Anyway, I enjoyed the ride overall, and I'm pretty glad I picked it up. 

Suffer the Children by John Saul

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is my second John Saul book, and the second John Saul book where I've been pleasantly surprised by the fact that they're not as bad as I thought they'd be. This book opens with the murder and SA of an 11 year old child, which made me very nervous about the content of the rest of the book, but it luckily comes up very little in the book itself and it's never treated voyeuristically, which occasionally happens with this. 

I did side-eye, however, the man who beat his daughter so badly that she then suffered from life-long mental health issues and trauma so strong that it caused her to become mute, who was let off with a "oh you were drunk so it's okay ndb really the real victim here is you" sort of attitude. 

Anyway, the book was fine. It was entertaining, though occasionally veered sharply in directions I was less than thrilled about. Overall, it was okay-ish.  

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So, this is it.  I read my first Discworld books sometime in high school, and then seriously decided I was going to read the whole series back in 2014.  And here I am, a decade later, finally finished with the last book.  This was... a really great book.  This was a really great series.  

There's more than character development in this series.  There's world development. And I don't mean that in the usual sense, but in the sense that the world of Discworld, the world itself, evolved and changed, and started at one place and ended in another, and there was just a whole character arc, I guess you could say, for the world itself as Terry Pratchett evolved and changed as an author.  And it's really something beautiful to behold, when you put it all together like that, from the beginning to the very end.  

I'm going to miss this world. I'm going to miss having new books to come to in it.  But I'm absolutely going to revisit it. How could I not, when I can see the whole picture now? 

The Discord of Gods by Jenn Lyons

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The House of Always by Jenn Lyons

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a beautifully written and illustrated book about mental illness, homelessness, and healing (or not healing) from trauma.  Overall beautifully realized.  

You can also see the seeds of Realm of the Elderlings, especially Fitz, in this book which made my fangirl heart sing. 

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

What can I say?  Hated the prose.  Hated the plot. Did not care at all about a single one of the characters.