Tag: book review

Always Raining Here

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Authors: Bell + Hazel
Genres: Young Adult, LGBTQIA+, Graphic Novel
Pub Date: Mar. 2016 (read Sep. 2018)

Note: This is a review of Volumes 1 & 2

Okay, I keep seeing this graphic novel at my local chapters because it’s set in the lower mainland and I was intrigued, so when the mood struck me I read both volumes of the original webcomic online.

It’s a short series about two gay high schoolers, Carter and Adrian. Carter is super horny when he first meets Adrian and decides to pursue him since he’s one of the only other gay guys in his school. Adrian is still getting over his relationship with David and wants nothing to do with Carter. But eventually the two have an awkward interaction at a party and become friends.

I really didn’t like the first volume. Carter was way too creepy and persistent in chasing after Adrian. Adrian keeps telling him to back-off and leave him alone and Carter just keeps hitting on him. The creepy non-consensual come ons are never okay. Not in straight relationship, not in same sex relationships. Never.

Carter finally gets his shit together though and interrupts two sexual harassment scenes at a party that looked like they were about to turn into rape and Carter takes several punches to the face to protect the victims. After this, Carter and Adrian finally become friends for real.

I liked Volume Two. The characters had very little depth in Volume 1 and not a whole lot happened. Volume 2 was almost twice as long and had a much stronger story. Honestly, I don’t even think Volume 1 is needed, especially with all the creepy shit that went down. Carter and Adrian actually seemed more like real teenagers in the second volume.

Adrian is stressed out about doing well in school and at the same time trying to focus on his role in the school’s musical theatre production. Carter on the other hand, is a bit of a drop out who just doesn’t care about school. He stops hitting on Adrian and the two actually start to develop a real friendship. What I liked about this volume was the way that it flipped the story. Carter seems like the messed up one in the friendship, but it’s actually Adrian who starts losing it with all the pressure he’s under and takes advantage of Carter.

Teenagers are put under a surprising amount of stress in high school, between being expected to do well in classes, participate in extra-curriculars, and still maintain a social life. I thought this was portrayed well in Always Raining Here and that it provided some good insight into why teenagers tend to act out. Both boys were under a lot of pressure from their parents, while also trying to navigate the confusing world of teenage hormones.

The artwork was pretty decent, but inconsistent. I read this as the webcomic though, not the published graphic novel, so I’m not really sure what changes were made in the published version. Sometimes things were a little confusing, but I think that’s due to the nature of the comic and that the two creators were working on this while being in school full time. Overall I’d give it 3 stars because I quite liked Volume 2, but I really didn’t like Volume 1.

Crown of Midnight

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pub Date: Aug. 2013 (first read May 2016)
Series: Throne of Glass Book #2

OMG, I knew Crown of Midnight was my favourite book, but this was even better than I remembered! There is so much action in this book and I was totally hooked from start to finish!

This was everything that was good about the first few books, multiplied by 10! The stakes are higher, relationships grow closer, and more secrets are uncovered. What mysterious evil is hiding in the depths of the castle? What is this new secret society? What is going on with Dorian? Will Chaol ever realize his feelings for Celaena? How did the King conquer the continent so quickly? What secrets is Celaena hiding about her past?

Crown of Midnight is just so juicy and dark! We get the sense from the start (of the series) that Celaena is running from something, keeping her secrets close to her chest, only looking out for herself and reluctant to be anyone’s hero. In this book she is forced to address some of her demons and finally make a stand for something. She secretly acts against the King in her own way, but Nehemia, Elena, and the rebels keep pushing her to be something more. When her whole world is torn apart in the middle of the book, she is forced to finally take an active role in discovering what the King has really been up to in the last 10 years.

While there’s still many unknowns about this world, we finally start getting some answers in this book about wyrdmarks, wyrdkeys, and wyrdgates. We get a glimpse into another type of magic and learn that magic may not be totally wiped from the continent after all. I loved the mystery element of this book and I thought it was a lot more compelling than the mystery of the first book, and frankly downright creepy (all those winding hallways, iron doors, and disembodied eyes give me the shivers).

I love the relationships in this book. I loved watching Celaena and Chaol’s relationship grow, and later Celaena and Dorian’s relationship. Plus I loved the friendship that grew between Celaena and Nehemia. I love that Celaena’s most important relationship is a friendship, I just wished both women were able to be more honest with one another. They both held their secrets so close to their chests. Although that said, I think Nehemia wanted to confide in Celaena, she just knew that Celaena wasn’t ready yet. Celaena does drive me a little bit bonkers sometimes though in that she makes some of the stupidest decisions (what she does at the climax of the novel is the biggest facepalm ever), but she was also grieving her friend and probably having PTSD flashbacks to what happened with Sam, so I guess it’s somewhat excusable.

I alluded to this in my review of the Throne of Glass, but I’m shocked to discover that my re-read has turned me into a Dorian lover! I never spared Dorian a thought in my first read of this series, but I actually love him in my re-read! Even more than Chaol, who I always loved before – I’m shocked! Granted Dorian is pretty mopey in the first part of this book, but omg he is such a good friend to Celaena, I can’t help but love him! I think I used to see him as a threat to Celaena and Chaol, but now I just see him for the caring prince that he is. We’ll see if this love carries through in the next book, but I am 100% aboard the Dorian fan-train! Side note though, can we talk about the fact that Celaena and Chaol are only actually together for 1 WEEK in this book?! I thought it was way longer than that, how tragic.

I am lamenting that I’m now finished the first 3 books (including prequel). I know that the series is going to change a lot going into Heir of Fire and that it becomes very different from what we experienced in the first few books. Heir of Fire is my least favourite book of the series. I remember it being so slow and just not caring about Manon at all. But now that I know where the series is going and actually like Manon, I’m interested to see what I think of this on the re-read. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was my least favourite Harry Potter book for many years, but when I re-read it later after finishing the series, I actually appreciated it a lot more, so I’m hoping that happens with HoF. Fingers crossed!

Throne of Glass

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Sarah J Maas
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pub Date: Aug. 2012 (first read May 2016)
Series: Throne of Glass Book #1

I am so into this series! I wondered if time might diminish my enjoyment, but Maas has totally sucked me right back into Erilea. I’m already 100 pages into Crown of Midnight and I can now confirm that these books make so much more sense having read The Assassin’s Blade first.

I can’t believe this first book was ever passed off as a Cinderella retelling. I didn’t know it was a loose Cinderella retelling when I first read it and upon the second reading I can say it had a ball that Celaena was forbidden to go to and went to anyways, and that’s about where the parallels end. But no matter because in my opinion this is classic YA fantasy. It’s an overdone trope, but I love that there’s a competition in the first book that poses as the main thread to the story, but is really only a introduction to the world building. It is obvious that there is something way more sinister at work in the castle than just the King’s Champion competition and I loved the mystery element of Celaena trying to uncover the truth.

Celaena bugged me a bit in my first read of Throne of Glass because she’s so obsessed with both her beauty and the beauty of others, but I’ve kind of accepted now that beauty is important to Celaena and that’s okay too, so I was able to let go of that hang up in my re-read. I struggled with how quickly she became interested in Dorian and Chaol though. After the traumatic ending of TAB, I thought she would be a little more hung up on Sam and I was sad to see that none of the drama from TAB was addressed in this book. (fortunately it seems it’s going to be addressed in Crown of Midnight though, so that’s good).

Celaena’s ego has always bothered me. We’re constantly told she’s the best at literally everything, yet it doesn’t really seem that way the number of times she’s gotten herself into scrapes. Now though, I kind of see how her ego is really her major character flaw. I appreciated the final showdown between her and Cain when she finally had to rely on other people – Elena, Nehemia, Chaol – to get her through the duel.

What I like most of Throne of Glass is that you can tell the story is just getting started and that there’s so much more to this world than what is presented in the first book. I love books with scope and depth and I think that’s one of the reasons why this series stands out among other YA fantasy series.

I also love the secondary characters. Nehemia, Dorian, and Chaol are all fantastic secondary characters and I love the depth that Maas brings to their characters. I was totally surprised by my second read through of this book though because I used to be a huge Chaol fan in the first few books and always kind of dismissed Dorian as a wealthy, spoiled, womanizer. But I loved Dorian in this re-read! He has been raised by a crazy, brutal, tyrant, yet he has so much empathy and kindness. He genuinely loves his kingdom and wants to work with other nations rather than rule them like his father.

It was a bit slow getting back into this book, but I totally flew through the second half and I know I am going to devour Crown of Midnight in a few days!

August Summary

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Okay, August was the best! Well, for books anyways. The wildfires in BC are totally out of control and the air quality was atrocious, so I didn’t do quite as much outdoor stuff, which is one of the reasons it was a great month for books! But also, my August monthly challenge just totally re-vitalized me and got me out of my reading slump!

I was getting a bit hung up with my monthly challenges and the pressure to read specific books, so in August I just set myself the challenge to read pretty much whatever I wanted by trying to read as many of my existing books as possible. I have a lot of un-read books, so it left me with lots of selection to choose from and I finally read some books that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. Here’s my summary:

Books read: 11
Pages read: 4,208
Main genres: Young Adult
Favourite book: Nevermoor and Women Talking!

I started off the month with Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli’s newest book. I’ve heard really great things about this one and I’ve been meaning to get to it for a while, but unfortunately I didn’t love it. I’m really hit or miss with Albertalli’s books and I’m finding myself counter to popular opinion on her books. I liked but didn’t love Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda (but I LOVED the movie) and I really liked The Upside of Unrequited, which I would say is her least popular book. But I didn’t like this one either. Leah kind of rubbed with the wrong way and while I still loved all the diversity in this book, I found parts of it problematic.

After that, I decided to participate in the 25infive readathon, which challenges people to read for 25 hours over the span of 5 days. I didn’t quite finish the challenge (I read 23 hours over 4 days), but I read 4.5 books, so I was super pleased with myself. I started with Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend and Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. I totally flew through both books and I am not slightly obsessed with Nevermoor. Nevermoor is totally Middle Grade fantasy at it’s best and I confirm that the comparison’s to Harry Potter are valid and that everyone should read this book because it is just so much fun! I also loved Radio Silence, which is about the struggles of senior year and the pressure to go to University, and I will definitely be reading more of Alice Oseman.

I followed up those with Ten by Gretchen McNeil and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. I pretty much hated Ten and found it problematic and kind of offensive, but I thought To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was really cute. I was only inspired to pick this one up because the new Netflix movie looked really cute (can now confirm – it is cute). Lara Jean seemed like the type of YA book that I gave up long ago, but I loved that this was more a story about sisters than it was about boys and I thought it was really cute. I also read the sequel this month though, P.S. I Still Love You, and unfortunately I thought it was no where near as strong as the first book and basically unnecessary.

While I did read P.S. I Still Love You in August, it wasn’t part of my 25infive reading challenge. The last book I tried to squeeze into the challenge was Uprooted (I got halfway through during the challenge). Uprooted was a challenge for me. It’s a well written, traditional fairytale type story, but I found it so slow moving that it was really hard for me to get into it.

I interspersed my reading of Uprooted with The Last Time I Lied, which was definitely the opposite in terms of pace. This was my first Riley Sager book and it wasn’t quite as scary as I was anticipating, but I really enjoyed it. It was a solid mystery thriller book about a girl name Emma whose 3 friends disappeared at summer camp when she was 13. She’s returned to the camp as an adult and 3 more girls disappear, forcing her into a race against time to figure out what really happened 15 years ago. I was convinced that I had the mystery figured out and I was thrilled to find out I got it totally wrong and didn’t see the twist coming at the end at all.

I had one book that I had to read in August, which was for my book club, was Circe by Madeline Miller, the new fantasy book that came out this year and has super good reviews. I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this one, similar to Uprooted. I thought the story was really good, but it was a slow read for me and the reading experience overall wasn’t great, even though I did like the story.

I read Women Talking by Miriam Toews towards the end of this month and it was definitely one of the best books I read this year! It’s a fictional account of the true story of a community of Bolivian, Mennonite women who were attacked and raped in their sleep over the course of 4 years. After the crime is discovered, the women meet to discuss what to do about it and the whole book is basically a group of them talking about whether they should leave the community or stay and fight. The writing in this book is wonderful and the content is so thoughtful. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone and everyone.

Finally, I finished the month with a re-read of The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas, which is the prequel to the Throne of Glass series. I am a bit obsessed with this series and with the final book coming out in October, I’ve decided to re-read the whole series! The Assassin’s Blade was just as good as I remembered and I can’t wait to jump into the rest of the books in September!

September Monthly Challenge

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I am feeling so re-energized after my August Monthly Challenge! I kind of flaked out a little bit on a real challenge in August and just challenged myself to read as many of my existing books as possible, but this was so successful in getting me out of my book slump and making a dent on my TBR!

I feel like my September Challenge is a bit half-assed too, but necessary. This month I am challenging myself to:

Re-read the Throne of Glass series

Yes, I have already read all the books in this series, but I’ve been dying for a re-read and I’ve been forcing myself to wait until just before the final book in the series, Kingdom of Ash, is released. I’ve been waiting for this book for what feels like FOREVER and I’m really excited to jump back into the Throne of Glass series and see what I think of it the second time around. I re-read The Assassin’s Blade in August so that I could start right with Throne of Glass in September. The Assassin’s Blade is the prequel to the books and I actually never read it until after I’d finished Empire of Storms, and I think the series is going to make so much more sense now that I’ve actually read this book. I would definitely recommend reading this one first if you’re just starting the series.

For those of you who are living under a rock and haven’t heard of Throne of Glass, it’s an 8 book series by Sarah J Maas, with the 8th and final book coming out on October 23rd. It’s set on the continent of Erilea, which has pretty much been conquered and taken over by the King of Adarlan. Celaena is from Terrasen, which was pillaged by Adarlan when she was 8 and magic suddenly disappeared from the land. She was found by Arobynn Hamel, the king of Assassin’s and trained to be the greatest assassin in all of Adarlan. The series follows Celaena and a huge cast of characters and as far as epic fantasies go, I do really love this one.

I am going to be on vacation for the second half of September, so I’m aiming to get through Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, and Heir of Fire in the next two weeks. Then I’ll continue with Queen of Shadows and Empire of Storms in October. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to re-read Tower of Dawn or not. I don’t really want to because I didn’t really like it and it is SO LONG. But honestly, I probably will because I want to be totally up to speed when I start Kingdom of Ash and I can’t really remember the important plot points at the end of Tower of Dawn… I just remember they were important to the greater story.