Like The Bone Season, I am incredibly late to read the Shatter Me series. I had to read it for the monthly book club that I go to at my local Waterstones and I was so glad that Shatter Me was picked, because it just meant that I had an excuse to FINALLY get around to it.
It’s very… meh? …
I had heard SO MUCH HYPE surrounding this book so as soon as I saw that it was available to request off NetGalley, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t start reading it til a few months later though because well… That TBR was CRAZY OUT OF CONTROL.
Wicked Like a Wildfire is yet another hyped up YA magical realism book that completely let me down. Yes, I know that I’m starting this review in a negative way, but I just had to get that off of my chest. …
After absolutely LOVING the first book in this series: Heart of Mist, I couldn’t wait to be able to read the second book. However, I had to wait a whole year which wasn’t great, but oh my life, the wait was definitely worth it! I had listened to Heart of Mist on audiobook, so I definitely wanted to carry that on and so I pre-ordered the audiobook for Reign of Mist. I had gotten so used to the narrator and the way that she voiced the different characters, that I couldn’t think of the characters talk any other way.
I am so happy to have been able to read this sequel pretty soon after reading the first one. I don’t think I could have waited a whole year. The first book – The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter – was absolutely amazing, so I had very high hopes that Europen Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman would be the same. …
I had seen quite a lot of BookTubers talk about this book prior to its release, and the one thing that really captured my attention about this book was the cover. It has such beautiful gold foiling that shines and it’s just gorgeous. The only problem for me was that I went into this book with low expectations. I don’t really read a lot of historical fiction because of the connotations that are attached the genre (boring, long-winded…), but I think it’s safe to say that I was positively surprised. …
On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.
Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.
But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.
Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.
This is the first Jay Kristoff book that I’ve read, and I’ve got to say, I’m not 100% sure whether his writing style is for me… But then again, I can’t judge an author’s writing style based on one book. There was a lot of things that were good about this book, but then there were a lot of things that just didn’t do it for me.
“Your past doesn’t make calls on your future. It doesn’t matter who you were. Only who you are.”
― Lifel1k3
There were a lot of weird slang words that I didn’t get and there wasn’t a glossary at the front or back to tell me what the words meant which was annoying, but from what I’ve gathered from other reviews, Kristoff tends to use a lot of slang in his other books as well – so I guess that’s just his way of writing.
For me, the negatives of this book were that I just wasn’t invested in any of the characters apart from Lemon. She was my favourite and probably the most fleshed out even though she was the protagonist. She was so cool, and I loved all of the sarcastic comments that she would make. I also really liked the friendship between her and Eve. I thought that their friendship was so cute and together, they kicked ass. But Eve as her own character didn’t do it for me; she was very two-dimensional.
“Breathing in the ink and feeling all those wonderful lives beneath you fingertips. In between the pages, I’m an emperor. An adventurer. A warrior and a wanderer. In between pages I’m not myself-and more myself than in any other place on earth.”
― Lifel1k3
Another thing that I couldn’t wrap my head around was the romance element of Lifel1k3. It was boring, very insta-love in a way that I didn’t like, and it didn’t really have any development. So it was just… there. Also… I don’t really know that much about AI’s but Eve had sex with one, which means she had sex with a robot? Please, can someone clarify if an AI is a robot… Because I’ve seen Extinction on Netflix and the AI’s on there seem very human but I don’t know in this case. Clarification is much needed if anyone can help me out with this. But yeah, the romance was cardboard and felt forced so I didn’t feel like I wanted to ship them.
However, I really did like the concept of the story and a lot of people have said that they guessed what the plot twists were but honestly, I didn’t. I had no clue. This meant that when the atmosphere was being built towards one of the main plot twists, I was on the edge of my seat (or the aeroplane seat in my case), and I was transfixed by what was going to happen.
Overall, this was an enjoyable novel with a lot of twists and turns and a brilliant female friendship, but because of all of the hype that was surrounding it, I was let down a little bit. I know that there is going to be a sequel, and even though I gave this book a very average rating, I do think that I will be reading the sequel because I’m intrigued to learn more about the AI’s and their relationships with each other.
When I read the premise of this book on Netgalley, I was instantly sold. I didn’t realise that the story was told in verse though. Not that this impacts the story negatively, if anything, it added to the atmosphere of the book.
Twin sisters Elena and Marianella couldn’t be more different. Marianella goes out of her way to actively participate in their Puerto Rican culture, whereas Elena is embarrassed by their traditions. Marianella is also fighting a very private battle with mental illness and takes her own life not long after their fifteenth birthday. As Elena mourns her sister, she tries to live her life without the limitations and rules Marianella set for her. When her life spirals out of control, Elena realizes the depth of her roots and the guilt of not helping her sister before it was too late.
It’s always interesting to read a story in verse, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this before. I know that there are quite a few authors who have been doing it over the past couple of years, but for some reason, I’ve never picked one up – up until now. Based on the blurb on NetGalley, I was expecting prose, but no! Like I said before, just because this story wasn’t in prose, it doesn’t mean that it was any less effective in the story that M. Azmitia was telling. I think that telling the story in verse was actually a lot MORE effective because it added impact to the emotions that the characters were feeling.
The Same Blood follows the life of a teenage girl who is struggling with her twin’s suicide. What’s so clever about this book is that M. Azmitia also conveys how the family deals with the death of their daughter as well. Intertwined within this book is the feeling of not being proud of your heritage. The main character – Elena – is embarrassed about being Puerto Rican and does everything in her power to change the way that she looks so that she doesn’t feel like she lesser than everyone else. However, throughout the novel, Elena realises how wrong she had been in her life, and many her actions had harmed her sister, and also how she realised what was going on with her sister but didn’t say anything.
For those of you who have read/watched Thirteen Reasons Why you’re probably thinking that it has a similar message of being wary of how you treat people because of how your actions have consequences. But for those of you who are regular readers of my website, you will know that I HATE Thirteen Reasons Why. The Same Blood has a similar message but goes about sending that message in a much better way.
I don’t know whether it would have been better being told in prose form… I’m not sure… But being told in verse was definitely powerful.
Overall, I’m very glad that I requested this book off of NetGalley, and it was a very quick read. It was a powerful story and one that I recommend everyone reading.
Trigger Warnings: suicide, depression
Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
I do love a good contemporary. For me, it’s the genre that I always go to when I want quick, light read. Or even if I’m in a major reading slump and I NEED TO GET OUT OF IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE. When it came to reading A Bad Boy Stole My Bra, it was because I needed a quick, light read. I was on the way back from Malta, the sun was shining, and I wanted something where I could chill, and not think too hard. (That sounds so bad like I’m saying contemporaries aren’t hard to write, but I just mean I don’t have to concentrate on world-building or the pronunciation of fantastical names. I do not mean any offence.)
I HAVE BEEN MEANING TO READ THIS FOR SO LONG! I’ve seen it floating around booktube and the blogosphere ever since this book was released, but I’ve never gotten around to it. But when I saw that it was up for grabs on Netgalley in May, I seized the chance and requested it. A few hours later, I had been accepted. But, well… I didn’t start reading it until I was on holiday in Malta… in August…