Mini-Reviews

I have been so busy with the end of the school year that I haven’t been posting much, which means that I am way behind on my reviews.  So to help me catch up, I’m going to be doing some mini-review.  I think there will be a couple of posts over the next couple of weeks, and then I should be all caught up.  I have linked the titles to the book’s GoodReads page if you are interested in knowing more about them. 

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

Publication Date: August 2, 2018

Truth be told I had no idea how to write a review for this book.  It is very odd, and somewhat bewildering.  I have read previous works by this author and have always found them to be quite amusing and fun, but this one not so much.  It wasn’t bad, just mostly confusing.  There was a very complex alternate world, that was never quite explained.  There was also quite a bit of jargon that I had a lot of trouble remembering.  (A glossary would have come in handy here.) I often found myself rereading sections thinking that would clear stuff up, but it never did, so I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. But there were moments of brilliance, and times when I was like “Ok, now we are getting somewhere.”  But the next page would be confusing again.  I didn’t give up though, and in the end I was glad I didn’t.  If you have never read a book by this author, don’t start with this one.  Try either his Thursday Next series or the Last Dragonslayer.  Much more interesting and less confusing.

Blink and Caution by Tim Wynn-Jones

Published: March 8, 2011

This was the first book offered by SYNC this year and it was a good one.  I really enjoyed the characters and the plot.  It didn’t play out the way I thought it would which was a surprise, as I can almost always guess where a plot is going.  Both Blink and Caution were great characters.  Both came from tragic and hard backgrounds and have found themselves lost in the world.  They spend about half the book on different journeys but when they do finally meet up, they help each other find themselves.  And even though they don’t know each other well, they just see something in each other that makes them want to help.  The plot did get a bit slow in the middle, but the rest of the story certainly made up for that.  The narration was also excellent.  MacLeod Andrews always does a great job.  

Storm of Locust by Rebecca Roanhorse

Publication date:

I finished this one weeks ago, and I really did intend to write a full review, but it just never happened.  This second book in the Sixth World Series, was just as good, if not a bit better than the first.  While the first book was all about Maggie moving on from her past and becoming her own person, this one is about forgiving herself and becoming a better person.  It is also about grief and forgiveness and friendship.  I loved that we got to see more of Rissa and that even though their friendship is strained at the start, they still have each others backs.  Plus there is a new character, Ben, a young lady who has some interesting powers of her own, and needs Maggie as much as Maggie needs her.  I would have liked to see a bit more of Kai, but I was ok with how things played out between him and Maggie.  The plot of this one is faster moving than the first and we get to see much more of the world beyond the Walls of the Dinetah, which was quite frightening at times.  Also, I am now deathly afraid of locust swarms.  (shudder)

The Shadowhunter’s Codex by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

Publication Date: October 2013

This is an interesting ‘non-fiction’ take on the Shadowhunter world.  It is a bit dry, mostly because it is meant to be read as a textbook.  But there were some parts that were interesting and shed a little bit of light on this world.  There were some inconsistencies though, for example it is stated that there is no school for Shadowhunters, but we now know there are two.  The comments written by Clary, Simon and Jace, gave the book some humor, but it could have used more.  I also really enjoyed the illustrations although there were some that I wasn’t quite sure who they were.  I enjoyed reading about the history of the Shadowhunters and about Jonathon and David and Abigail.  I would love to see a series about that.  Also the founding of the Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters gave some needed insight into their worlds.  If you love the Shadowhunter books this is something you should consider reading.  It does fill in some gaps in the history.  

Well that helped tremendously, and makes me feel a bit less stressed.  Hope you enjoyed these mini-reviews and hopefully one of them will be making it’s way to your TBR list.  Until next time.