Circe by Madeline Miller

Synopsis:

 

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe has neither the look nor the voice of divinity, and is scorned and rejected by her kin. Increasingly isolated, she turns to mortals for companionship, leading her to discover a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft.

When love drives Circe to cast a dark spell, wrathful Zeus banishes her to the remote island of Aiaia. There she learns to harness her occult craft, drawing strength from nature. But she will not always be alone; many are destined to pass through Circe's place of exile, entwining their fates with hers. The messenger god, Hermes. The craftsman, Daedalus. A ship bearing a golden fleece. And wily Odysseus, on his epic voyage home.

There is danger for a solitary woman in this world, and Circe's independence draws the wrath of men and gods alike. To protect what she holds dear, Circe must decide whether she belongs with the deities she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

I'm in awe of Madeline Miller. Retellings usually don't appeal to me, but I think Miller captures the heart of Greek mythology and tells the stories in a way that fills her audience with the same sense of wonder that the original myths did a millennia ago. Though the myths have been preserved and translated through time, I think the writing style is too dated to accurately convey the same feelings the ancient Greeks experienced. Of course, I'm sure scholars and lovers of Greek myth would disagree with me, but for the majority of readers, Greek mythology just isn't accessible. Through Miller's modern prose, she refreshes all the legends without diluting the essence of it.

Circe is excellent. Circe's narration throughout the novel is gorgeously written and super feminist. Even when she feels strongly about things, Circe's voice remains just detached enough to convey the eternity that weighs down on her and obscures the passage of time. It really makes Miller's skill as a writer shine. However, no matter how much I respect that writing technique, it did make me enjoy the story less. Circe's distance from everything made all of her experiences hit me less powerfully, and I didn't have the same emotional investment in her and her story as I did Patroclus and Achilles in The Song of Achilles.

The story also dragged a bit for me, even though I understand its intention to show how long Circe's life is. I don't mind slow books, but between the detached narration and wandering plot, it made me feel less invested than I know I could've been. Again, it's the nature of the story Miller set out to tell, so my complaints ultimately come down to personal preference, rather an issue with the novel's quality.

Though I liked Miller's freshman novel The Song of Achilles more, her sophomore novel Circe is undeniably a gem of fantasy and one of the best modern retellings a reader can put their hands on.

King of Scars (Nikolai Duology, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Synopsis:

 

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.
 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Let's get something straight right off the bat: this is the sequel to both the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows duology, which means you need to read the Grisha trilogy before reading this. The Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology both served as entry points into Leigh Bardugo's world, and King of Scars is a marriage of both - the politics and mythology of the Grish trilogy and the heist and spywork of the Six of Crows duology.

I didn't realize how badly I missed the Grishaverse until I started reading. I missed this world and these characters like crazy! Being back in Ravka with so many familiar faces really highlights how much Bardugo has grown as a writer and a storyteller since the Grisha trilogy. The Grisha trilogy will always have a special place in my heart for being my favorite books when I was a teenager, but they haven't aged well. King of Scars takes everything that was good about the Grisha trilogy - the mythology, the politics, and the world-building - and makes it better.

From what people have said, I expected Nina's story to feel more disconnected from Nikolai and Zoya's, but Bardugo did an excellent job of weaving Nina's story and the spirit of the Six of Crows duology into Nikolai and Zoya's stories without compromising either narrative. While I think the abrupt switch in POVs can be a bit jarring at times, I think Nina's story complements Nikolai's and Zoya's stories well.

However, I do think Nikolai's story was buried by Nina's and Zoya's. For a duology focused on Nikolai, I felt Nina's and Zoya's chapters were more engaging, and even Isaak's chapters filled me with a greater sense of excitement than Nikolai's did. Have I just fallen out of love with Nikolai? He was my favorite character when I read the Grisha trilogy as a teen, but since revisiting it, I found myself more interested in the Darkling and Genya, even Alina herself. I wonder if, because I loved Nikolai so much in the past, his character just isn't as compelling to me.

My least favorite part of King of Scars was by far the slow pacing. The beginning, especially the first 100 pages or so, was incredibly slow. I felt very similarly about Six of Crows, so it may just be how Bardugo will write her books from now on, by sacrificing pacing in exchange for a more solid set-up. But once the plot did pick up, oh MAN did it pick up.

So let's talk about that ending. Without getting into spoiler territory, the ending didn't really surprise me? I expected to be SHOOK over the ending, but there was so much foreshadowing at it in the last 200 pages of the book that it really came as no surprise at all. I think it's definitely a questionable choice, however, especially in how it compromises the original ending of the Grisha trilogy. It makes the Grisha trilogy feel a lot more like "so what?" and that's kind of disappointing. If there hadn't been so many references to the Grisha trilogy in this novel, I would've suspected Bardugo was trying to divorce the Grisha trilogy from the family and have us forget about her.

Overall, I didn't love this novel, but enjoyed it a lot nonetheless and am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

The Glass Spare (The Glass Spare #1) by Lauren DeStefano

Synopsis:

 

Wil Heidle, the only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.

Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.

But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with her power.

With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?
 

Rating: 🌟🌟

2.5 stars.

Red Queen, Throne of Glass, and Shadow and Bone called, and they said they'd like their plots back.

The Glass Spare reads like Lauren DeStefano played generic YA fantasy novel bingo one night, and then decided to shove it all into her novel. Main character is a princess? Check. Main character has unexplained special powers that no one else has? Check. She's forced to team up with a swoony male love interest who isn't affected by her powers? Check and check.

I didn't think it was possible for any novel's world-building to be even more of a clusterfuck than The Selection series. At least with The Selection, the whole thing was so bad that I could let my eyes glaze over and pretend I didn't see all glaring inconsistencies. But The Glass Spare isn't an overall trash fire. The writing is great, and I actually really enjoyed the way the characters interacted. So what the hell happened to the world-building?

At first glance, the world seems like your generic medieval fantasy Europe. But then Wil starts talking about trains and electricity and RIBOFLAVIN??? Y'ALL KNOW WHAT THAT IS?????? And the world-building just starts to collapse in on itself. How technologically advanced is this world? How easy is this technology to access for the average person? Why are alchemy and magical curses a thing, alongside 1900s technology? Why does every kingdom still have a monarchy? I have a lot of questions, but no answers even after 400 pages.

Which, speaking of the novel's length, this book is over 400 pages long but nothing really happens? It takes about 150 pages to even get to what's laid out in the synopsis, which already told me the pacing wouldn't be great. We spend those first 150 pages with Wil and her family, who are overall such generic archetypes that I didn't care about any of them. Wil's mother is the only vaguely interesting one, but gets discounted so often due to her "superstitious" nature that I could tell the novel wasn't going to let her be an interesting, complex character beyond the "crazy mom" trope.

So, why give it 2.5 stars then? Because I didn't hate it. The writing actually appealed to me a lot, to the point where I plan to pick up DeStephano's other novels. Her writing is more literary in tone, so I can see why it would turn off other readers, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made the novel quick to get through, even if I was bored much of time. I also enjoyed how Wil, Loom, and Zay interacted, again mostly due to how the writing shaped their relationships.

But other than that? The novel as a whole is just so unremarkable. If The Glass Spare had even a lick of originality, I probably would've really liked it.

Girls of Paper and Fire (Girls of Paper and Fire, #1) by Natasha Ngan

Synopsis:

 

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most cruel.

But this year, there's a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it's Lei they're after--the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king's consort. But Lei isn't content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable--she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Oh my goodness gracious, I LOVED THIS!!! From the setting, to the atmosphere of the world, to the f/f romance, I adored just about everything in this book. I think Natasha Ngan just claimed a spot on my auto-buy authors list.

What's most striking to me about this novel is how self-aware it is. Based on the synopsis, this novel fools you into thinking it'll be yet another YA fantasy where the main character, Lei, falls in love with her abuser, the Demon King. But where many other YA novels have romanticized such relationships, Ngan subverts expectations entirely: the abuser is rightfully villainized, and instead romance blooms between two of his Paper Girls. By having the f/f romance happen specifically between two of the Paper Girls, Ngan also overturns the anticipated girl hate between competitors perpetuated by earlier YA novels like The Selection. Over the course of the novel, Ngan goes out of her way to show the ways in which each Paper Girl is complex and layered. When girl-on-girl hate does happen, the reader understand the motivations behind the Paper Girl's actions, rather than villianizing her just because she's female.

Additionally, I really enjoyed Ngan's commentary surrounding LGBT+ issues. Throughout the story, Lei makes subtle comments about how m/m relationships tend to be more accepted and anticipated, even if still looked down upon by the society, while f/f relationships are entirely taboo. Because I see this in my own life - and especially in publishing - the LGBT+ rep felt authentic to me. Ngan knows how her book fits into conversations around queer representation.

This is probably my favorite Asian-inspired world to date. Ngan's imagery is so lush, and made the atmosphere deliciously immersive. Usually, when I'm reading a book I'm loving, I can't help but fly through the pages. But the world of Girls of Paper and Fire was so beautifully crafted on an aesthetic level that I couldn't help but savor every page. It's a deception, but gosh is it a beautiful deception.

And the romance? Oh, don't even get me started on how much I adored it. I could wax poetic about it, shout to the stars about it. I won't get into any spoiler territory, but this is my favorite f/f romance I've read to date. As a bisexual woman, it made me feel seen. I love both of the characters, and I love the way in which their relationship develops.

I cannot wait until the second book!