Life and Death

March 2020 Reading Wrap-Up

LeeLeave a comment

Failure to Appear by Emily L. Quint Freeman
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  February 17 – March 1
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  LGBTQ+ history from a first-hand perspective
Least Favorite Thing:  Wish she would have acknowledged her privilege?

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

My Posts About Failure to Appear

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 1 – 2
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Tony is presh
Least Favorite Thing:  She’s so selfish!

I mean…. What do I even say? I preferred the movie… They softened Eilis, made her more sympathetic where the romance is concerned. When you watch the movie you understand how she might wind up torn between the two men and the two lives, but in the book she just seems so selfish and calculating…

My Posts About Brooklyn

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 4 – 5
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  Oh man there’s so many scenes I love how can I pick just one! Probably the root beer scene or the sandwich scene lol
Least Favorite Thing:  Fuck a least fave, I love this book.

I have been craving a reread of these books for a minute, and they are on the list of books I recommended to my boyfriend to try out, so I figured I might as well give it a listen as well.

My Posts About Gregor the Overlander

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 5 – 8
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  Twitchtip!
Least Favorite Thing:  I know what I should say, but it’s probably still just the fireflies… They are even more annoying in audiobook form lol

Everyone calling Photos Glo-Glo “Fo-Fo” cracked me up though.

My Posts About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
(Princess Academy, book 2)
Rating:  N/A
Review:  DNF
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  February 26 – March 10
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Quarry-speaking in the palace.
Least Favorite Thing:  Alternately boring and stressful…

Like the little intrigue with the whole “will there be a revolution lets meet at my house to secretly discuss the king” thing was stressful and then the rest was boring so…

My Posts About Palace of Stone

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  March 5 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The writing style
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally all the men?

I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley.

I am so glad I requested this book! It was so good! If you want my full thoughts, please read my review (link above), but the short version is:  Excellent look at the struggles of women both within South Korea and without. Definitely recommend to all women.

My Posts About Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
(A Song of Ice and Fire, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 9 – 25
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Are all the Starks just casually wargs then? (At least where their wolves are concerned?)
Least Favorite Thing:  Men are gross in this series.

Ugh can someone please just protect the Starks?? Is that too much to ask???

My Posts About A Storm of Swords

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight, book 1.75)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  February 19 – March 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The ending was different?
Least Favorite Thing:  SO BORING

I’ve never been so bored in my life, fuck this book honestly. I hope I never get it into my head to reread Twilight again…

My Posts About Life and Death

April 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

LeeLeave a comment

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 3)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 1 – 2
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  It could have been longer, but it wasn’t and I’m grateful.
Least Favorite Thing:  Bella’s doormat impersonations…

Lordy this book was obnoxious. There were a lot of parts I hated, but all of them in some way tie-in to the whole “Bella as a doormat” crap so… Like seriously I kept wanting to climb into the novel and shake her like “just stick to your guns about literally anything, just stand up for yourself, just stop letting these idiots run right over all your boundaries!” and then scream for an hour.

My Posts About Eclipse

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 4)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 2
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Bella is slightly more tolerable as a vampire.
Least Favorite Thing:  Nessie. Both the name and the concept.

I read all of the Twilight books and my head didn’t even explode it’s a miracle! Never again.

My Posts About Breaking Dawn

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  March 8 – April 4
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Lorcan being like “I hate Elide, but if anyone ever even thought about hurting her, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.”
Least Favorite Thing:  Up until the very end of the novel, it was like “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong” and that made me tired.

My least favorite thing is actually why I rated this book only 3 stars. It was good, interesting, and there were a lot of parts I enjoyed, but it felt like for every good thing there were two bad things and it just starts to wear on me after a while and make me tired so it limits my enjoyment of the novel.

Also can I just say, why are they like “oh obviously someone has to die to forge the lock” when they have two heirs of Brannon? It takes all the power of one heir of Brannon to forge the lock, they have two heirs of Brannon. Halfsies, bro. Everybody lives.

My Posts About Empire of Storms

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
(Books of Bayern, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it *
Review:  Yes **
Format:  Full-Cast Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 5 – 7
Read Count:  5-ish
Favorite Thing:  Vicious Attack Geese!
Least Favorite Thing:  Um literally all of Selia’s guard friends. Too skeevy, blech.

* Please note that this rating is for the novel as a whole, not the Full Cast Audio version.
** This review is for the Full Cast Audio version, not the novel as a whole.

My Posts About The Goose Girl

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1.75)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 10 – 13
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The alternate ending.
Least Favorite Thing:  So boring.

Please tell me she’s done beating the dead horse that is the Twilight Saga???

My Posts About Life and Death

White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Rating:  ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 5 – 15
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The amazing prose.
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally every male past puberty that ever came in contact with Astrid….

This was recommended to me as part of the Buddy Reads activity in an online Book Club I am a part of. My “buddy” recommended this to me because I wanted to try more books outside of the YA genre this year. I am so incredibly glad I signed up for this activity because I got an excellent recommendation here. A recommendation which I happily pass along:  Read this book!

My Posts About White Oleander

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it (real rating: 3.5)
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 15 -17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Snarky wedding planner comments.
Least Favorite Thing:  Ambrose’s habit of writing everything off as being somebody else’s fault. Fucking obnoxious…

I read this book for my book club’s April Challenge (Read a book with a pastel cover.) and also because I’ve never yet met a Dessen novel I didn’t like. I wish I could give half-star ratings on Goodreads though.

My Posts About Once and for All

What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang
(Hybrid Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 20 – 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Sisterly bond? Is that an accurate term for the bond between two souls sharing the same body?? Whatever. That’s what I’m calling it.
Least Favorite Thing:  Slow? Kind of slow… Not slow enough to DNF, but still slow.

April Challenge #2 complete with the finishing of this novel! Yay! (I don’t know how quickly I’ll move to the sequel though.)

My Posts About What’s Left of Me

Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 29 – 30
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I took sick pleasure in angry, vengeful Cath.
Least Favorite Thing:  Peter Peter.  Actually that’s not even the thing I hated most, but the real thing is a big spoiler.

It took me a minute to get into it, but once I did I couldn’t put it down! And April Challenge #3 successful by the skin of my teeth!

My Posts About Heartless

In Progress

And one other thing!

LeeLeave a comment

Am I the only one who thinks that Edward/Edythe deciding that they shouldn’t kill/eat rapists and serial killers anymore is worse than the actual killing part?
Like…some people should die, y’all. That’s just how it is. And if you know that someone is a rapist/murderer and you just let them go about their business, you’re shit.

Somebody going through my town and getting rid of all the bad people doesn’t sound like a monster to me. Sounds like a fucking hero. Vigilante Vampires! We could even still use the fucking bat signal.

Help me Sparkle Man, a pedophile moved to my town! Oh, you already ate him on the way here? Cool cool thanks, you rock Sparkle Man.

Just sayin’.

Mini Review: Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

LeeLeave a comment

So Meyer set out to make a gender-swap Twilight to disprove the allegations of sexism, but all she managed to do was emphasis the sexism and add some new different sexism. So that was… unenjoyable.

This book was actually really boring, so on that front the original is better; although, I still haven’t managed to put my finger on what it is that makes it so much more boring. It was actually hard to read though; I couldn’t keep my attention on it.

I will say, the ending is much better. Maybe just because it, you know, ends. Instead of dragging on for three more cringe-inducing novels. But I remember thinking all of that crap was so unnecessary when I read the original saga, so it’s nice to see the fat trimmed and the story summed up in a more efficient manner. Besides, Vampire!Bella was the only vaguely tolerable Bella. Vampire!Beau is still pretty boring, but at least it was done instead of three-and-a-half novels of “will they or won’t they” to read.

All in all, a pretty superfluous addition to an already not-good series, but not quite as bad as it could have been.

Update: Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

LeeLeave a comment

Lee is 80% done

I love how much extra bullshit she pulls to be sure no one ever carries Beau bridal-style. They almost all carry him once in this chapter and they all do it in a different way, and they’re all so extra! One of them picks him up around the waist and lets his legs drag along because that’s SUPER efficient. Apparently Meyer thought being carried bridal-style by a girl wouldn’t be masculine enough. But she’s not sexist!