Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1) by Holly Black

Synopsis:

 

Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.

Rating: 🌟

You know that feeling when you wake up after a long, drunken night out and it's 7am - too damn early to be awake already - and your mouth tastes sour, your eyes are crusty with day-old mascara, and you feel so awful and dirty it's like you're covered in a thin layer of grime? That's what reading this book is like.

I'll be real, I've known about this book probably since I was twelve and have always had zero interest in it. The only reason I read it was because I so immensely enjoyed Holly Black's new novel The Cruel Prince that I thought to check out some of her earlier faerie books. I'll be upfront: if you're here because you loved The Cruel Prince, don't read this book.

Originally published in 2002, Tithe hasn't aged well. The novel plays so much off of the 90's grunge aesthetic that everything in this book is defined by being dirty and dilapidated - and somehow that's considered glamorous. I just don't find that appealing. Not to mention, a lot of the themes in this book - such as sexual assault, LGBT+ rep, and abusive parenting - aren't treated with the same sensitivity that we practice now. Quite a few portrayals in this novel are problematic, and at worst, just offensive.

Additionally, Holly Black's writing, characterization, and plot have leaps and bounds improved since this novel. Tithe can't hold a candle to The Cruel Prince or even her 2015 faerie novel, The Darkest Part of the Forest. This book was frustrating to get through. Everything - from its aesthetic to the plot to the writing itself - is messy. Messy enough to make me mad, because more than once I found myself confused. If I can navigate something as complex as a China Miéville novel, then it doesn't mean I'm not reading deeply enough here - it's just bad writing. The only reason I didn't dnf this book was because I was halfway through and thought I may as well finish it so it would count towards my reading challenge.

The bottom line is this: if you want to read one of Holly Black's faerie books, pick up The Darkest Part of the Forest or The Cruel Prince. Don't bother with her Modern Faerie Tales trilogy.

The One (The Selection, #3) by Kiera Cass

Synopsis:

 

The time has come for one winner to be crowned.

When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.

Rating: 🌟🌟

I read these books for the drama. The pettiness, the cattiness, the prom dresses and fake personalities. I don't pretend like there's any real value in that - there's not. But these books are a guilty pleasure I allow myself to indulge in.

This book gets rid of all of that.

Now, for most, I think they would call that an improvement. The girl-on-girl hate disappears. The love triangle goes away. The focus shifts from dresses and drama to the oppression caused by a tyrant king. But here's the thing: I liked the dresses and drama. It's what kept me reading.

After spending two books building your brand on being one of YA's trashiest trilogies, you can't just change your tune in the final book. The people that wanted that stopped reading after book one. Plus, the world-building is still so flimsy that the rebel plot has and always will be weak. So making it the centerpiece of this book just didn't work.

I've been disappointed with this book every single time I've read it. I'll just stick to the first two books, thank you.

The Elite (The Selection, #2) by Kiera Cass

Synopsis:

 

The Selection began with thirty-five girls.
Now with the group narrowed down to the six Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's heart is fiercer than ever—and America is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it with Maxon, who could make her life a fairy tale? Or with her first love, Aspen?

America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Okay, everyone and their mother knows how trashy this series is. So instead of rehashing that, I want to write seriously about this book for a moment.

When I first read this book in 2013, everyone's biggest issue with the book was its weak dystopian world-building. The U.S. becomes a monarchy? Seriously? But now having read this book again in 2018 while living in the U.S. under the Trump administration, Cass's world doesn't feel so impossible...

I don't pretend that Cass's world-building is good. It's not. It's still a YA romance shrouded under a flimsy dystopian veil. But the fact that Gregory Illéa's conquest of the U.S. through his extreme wealth and subsequent creation of the caste system in order to permanently keep poor people in poverty seems like a real possibility for the world I live in, now that scares me. I think, because of how the impossibility of Cass's world doesn't feel so impossible anymore, this novel is relevant to the age Americans are currently living in.

Trust me, if you had told me a week ago that The Selection series, the EPITOME of trash YA, would feel scarily relevant to my life, I would've said you were full of shit too.

People Like Us by Dana Mele

Synopsis:

 

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple.

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make...not something that happened.

Rating: 🌟🌟

There are four LGBT+ girls in this book. FOUR. I couldn't believe it. I knew that this novel had some LGBT+ rep, but I was not at all prepared for the heavens to open up and bless me with so many gay girls in one place. As happy as I am to see LGBT+ rep more and more present in books, it's also true that LGBT+ men are more common than women. I am SO here for girls kissing girls.

But that's about all this novel has to offer.

I did enjoy People like Us. The writing is good, but not too complicated, which made for an easy, quick read. The mystery was intriguing enough to keep my interest. But there was too much going on, and not enough length or depth to sustain the plot. We have Jessica's murder, the revenge website, Kay's recent breakup with Spencer, Kay's complicated relationship with Brie, Kay's new friendship with Nola, six mean girls to keep track of, Detective Morgan suspecting Kay as Jessica's murderer, and the mystery surrounding Kay's dead brother and best friend. That's WAY too much for a 384 page book. I read the hardcover edition, and the text was especially large as well, making the novel even shorter content-wise.

Because there was SO MUCH going on, I found myself confused for much of the novel. Plotlines and characters that seemed crucial at one point would randomly get dropped in favor of something else. Then that would get dropped for yet another new thing. I couldn't tell what was important, what to pay attention to. It just seemed messy.

Not to mention, the treatment of Jessica's murder was so wildly unrealistic that it killed the believably of the story for me. The adults in the novel were either props or villains, placed only to antagonize Kay. What the heck was up with Detective Morgan? That's not how a professional would conduct herself in a murder investigation. That's not how the real world works.

And that ending? Yikes.

2 stars because we have four gay girls and none of them die (I think), so that deserves a star in itself.

Morning Star (Red Rising, #3) by Pierce Brown

Synopsis:

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.

Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I'd like to think of myself as well-read. Maybe not in every genre, but I certainly think I've held enough novels in my hands to know what's what. Because of that, I find very few stories can truly surprise me. As soon as a hint is dropped, I can call whatever plot-twist will happen a couple hundred pages later. What made this series, and especially this book, great was that I couldn't call the plot-twists. And that brought me incredible delight.

I love this series. I don't think I've loved a series so much since I read Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends and its sequel, Arm of the Spinx a few months ago. That's a lot of books to find more brilliance. But the Red Rising trilogy truly is a gem, and I loathe to think that I ever thought it was just another YA dystopian series.

Golden Son (Red Rising, #2) by Pierce Brown

Synopsis:

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

As much as I loved this book, it does unfortunately suffer a bit from second book syndrome. Y'know, when the second book sloooows down from the fast pace of the first book in order to set up for the Big Events in the third book? Yeah. Luckily, Golden Son does save itself and picks up about halfway through the book, keeping significantly better balance between the slow bits and the action than the beginning of the novel.

I did think that this book doesn't have as much charm as the first book, especially in the character department. Mustang felt even more bland and only-there-to-be-the-love-interest to me, which is a shame because this series has such a lack of female characters. I think that's my biggest issue with this series: lack of female characters, well-written and not.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this second book. Onto the third book I go!

Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) by Pierce Brown

Synopsis:

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I don't always know how to write five star reviews. With one, two, three, even four star reviews, there are flaws to talk about, thoughts to explain, and opinions to impart. But when a novel has such fabulous characterization, thorough world-building, and an intoxicating plot, what is there really to say besides read the damn book it's amazing PLEASE?

Red Rising is that kind of book.

I marathon read this thing. I stayed up until 1 am on a weekday reading like I was kid again. I couldn't put this book down, and even when I did, I dreamed about the story continuing from where I left off. In less than 24 hours, I finished it.

This novel is phenomenally good. It's mind-blowingly good. I'm honestly surprised this is a YA book, considering how deep and dark it gets. I feel it fits more in the vein of Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind or Jay Kristoff's Nevernight - written for adults, even though the main character is sixteen.

I've seen some criticism for the abundance of rape and almost rape in this novel, but surprisingly it didn't bother me. It's obvious that Brown himself doesn't condone it, nor does it feel like its placed in the novel to be "edgy." This is a novel about politics and war. And, unfortunately, those are prime breeding grounds for sexual violence. I don't think a novel should be bashed for realism, no matter how awful the act portrayed is. It isn't graphic or gratuitous, and the novel treats it how it is: a horrible, cruel act.

This book was so good. SO GOOD. I'm so excited to read the second one.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, #1) by Julie C. Dao

Synopsis:

An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress--and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins--sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

This novel's greatest strength is it's main character, Xifeng. She is a true anti-heroine, and I think the YA genre is still sorely lacking in that department. She's cunning and ruthless, and I enjoyed seeing all the goodness gradually bleed out of her as the novel progressed. However, because Xifeng was such a presence to be reckoned with, all the other characters paled in comparison to her. They're not completely flat and lifeless, but still fit their character tropes too well to feel different and unique.

The world-building is confusing, and the mythology and history of the world left me scratching my head. Usually this would be an extreme detriment to my enjoyment of the novel, but where Dao fails in her world-building, she makes up for in her atmosphere. Her descriptions are lush and detailed, and made me feel truly immersed in an East Asian-inspired culture. I find very, very few authors can make me so comfortable in their world once they stumble in building it.

While a little too slow at times, especially between 100-250 pages, I think Dao's debut is worth checking out. It kept my interest enough to finish the novel, and didn't make me hate doing it. However, I hesitate to pick up the second book when it releases. I don't know if I liked this book enough to read the next, especially because I know how this story ends. Regardless, this is a good, solid addition to the YA fantasy genre.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Synopsis:

 

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.



 

  Rating: 🌟

I love the movie adaptation of this book. I've seen it five times since its release in early 2017. If I had to pick one movie to rewatch for the rest of my life, it would be this one. I love this movie. I frickin' LOVE it. So naturally, I was highly anticipating reading the book, the movie's original source material. After all, the book is always better than the movie, right?

In this case, folks, no. I thought the movie did a far better job with the story than the original novel.

Unpopular opinion, right?

What I couldn't get over was how boring and meandering this novel is. Whereas the movie did a great job of streamlining the repeating events and showing how Sam's influence changes her environment, the novel just sort of wanders from event to event with little to no direction. Why is such and such scene in the novel? Just for the heck of it! Plus, I felt the repetition of February 12th lacked a sense of true repetition save for a few core events: getting the roses on Cupid Day, Sam having lunch with her gal pals, Kent's party, and Juliet's suicide. I wanted dialogue to repeat. I wanted little details to repeat. I wanted to feel Sam's terror at having the same day repeat, over and over again. But I didn't.

The characters are also super unlikeable. I absolutely adore the characters in the movie, but I couldn't give a damn about anyone in this book. I didn't care about Sam learning to be a better person. I didn't care about Lindsay facing her demons. I didn't care about Juliet being saved. The mean girls in this book aren't just mean, they're cruel. Whereas the movie toned down their antics to petty drama, Sam and the girls do some downright evil things to people in this book. As someone who was bullied in middle school, I had a really hard time sympathizing with Sam and the girls because some of their actions, in my eyes, just aren't forgivable.

Not to mention, how does Sam's change in person really make a difference in the end? Yes, she saves Juliet and does a few nice things for other people on her last day, but the cycle of bullying doesn't end with her. Lindsay, Ally, and Elody will still be vicious to people. Rob is still an asshole. Alex is still cheating on Bridget with Anna. Really, the only thing that Same did was save Juliet. But who's to say Lindsay and the girls won't bully her with an even stronger vengeance, since Juliet caused the death of their best friend? Sam's journey to being a better person comes off as superficial as her character, and her death doesn't lead to any real change.

The writing also didn't do anything for me. It wasn't bad, but I don't have anything good to say about it either.

Did I hate this book? No. I can see why someone would enjoy it. But I didn't like it, and it was such a disappointment to me that I simply can't justify a two star rating.

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5) by Sarah J. Maas

Synopsis:

 

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. 

Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated--scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

I think my expectations were too high for this book. I always knew that this was just a bridge novel between the original ACOTAR trilogy and the new one, a way to tie up Feyre and Rhys' story. But I expected ACOFAS to be more driven, and it simply wasn't.

ACOFAS is very fluffy, without much plot to drive it forward. We follow mainly Feyre and Rhys' first-person POVs, but also get a few chapters told from Cassian, Mor, and Nesta's POVs in third-person. The novel truly is character-driven, hopping from character to character as it suits the story. While bringing Feyre and Rhys' story to a close, SJM sets up threads of plot with the other characters that I assume will be explored in later books.

While a little boring and meandering at times, this book does what it sets out to do: make Feyre and Rhys' story feel complete and satisfying. I didn't cry because I finished the novel at nearly 1am and I was too exhausted lol, but I definitely feel bittersweet and sad over it all coming to a close. ACOMAF hit close to home in a way few novels do, and will remain one of my favorite books for a long time to come. So seeing the end of Feyre's story is a difficult pill to swallow. But ACOFAS gave me closure, in a way that ACOWAR didn't. (Though, I stand by the idea that the original trilogy could've ended with ACOWAR and the transition wouldn't have as jarring as I think SJM expected it to be.)

Also, the smut in this book is kind of weird.