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★★★★★ I received this ARC from Delacorte Press via BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. I better be getting a sequel or I will personally strangle Rory Power. The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything. Obligatory Summary It's been 18 months since an insidious and horrific disease known as the Tox took over Raxter Island, and the girls trapped there are beginning to unravel. The Tox takes something from each of them, humans and animals alike—some their eyes, some their sanity—and gives them something else in return. Hettie and her two best friends, Byatt and Reese, have managed to maintain a friendship throughout all this turmoil. But things are changing, and when one of them disappears, Hettie will do whatever it takes to find her. Part psychological thriller, part psychological hor...

★★★☆☆ Buddy read with Nana ! Wow, the Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet parallels just keep getting stronger. Except Amulet is good and idek what this was. It was pretty. I'll give it that. The aesthetic is on point. I had no clue what was happening most of the time, but it sure was pretty. I could barely keep track of the characters, and almost everything that happened was pure self-indulgence. It really took me out of the narrative when certain large sea monsters were spouting certain words that sounded like something straight out of a drunk draft of Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Also, Corvin gives me ACOTAR x TOG vibes and I'd really rather not rn. The weird Freudian crap going on with Tuya is also very weird and very uncomfortable. Overall, this was just a mess and the next one better be good, because the last one was great. But, I must admit, it was very pretty. Buy the book here: Amazon Book Depository Barnes & Noble

★★★★☆ (original rating: 5 stars) This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds—the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions...the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached. This book holds a really special place in my heart. It's the first book I ever read that was over 600 pages, and it was one of the first books that really got me into reading. I used to keep it next to my pillow every night when I went to bed, and I'd flip to my favorite parts (still know them by heart) over and over again, just to experience them again. I love this book, and nothing can ever change that. I did, however, decide to lower this from a 5 star rating to a 4 star. It just didn't affect me in the same way, the way it once had. Perhaps I've simply numbed myself to it, but it's been over 5 years since I last read it, and I just...didn't feel anything, ...

★★★☆☆ The only thing this book really succeeded in was reaffirming why I hate snobby people and their ceaseless contrivances. If you like Gossip Girl, reality TV, and don't mind fake-politeness, then you'll probably really like this. I, however, really didn't. This is a science fiction romantic mess about the most convoluted love dodecahedron you've ever heard of. Here's a brief overview: Person A is in love with person B , who is flirting with person C . Person A and C are best friends. Person D is friends with person A and C , and was in a relationship with person E . Person E is also in a relationship with person F , who's dating person G . Person H is in love with person A , and was hired by person C to spy on person B . Persons A , C , D , F , and H are all main characters. And that's not even the end of it. It goes on and on and on and on and I hated it. Oh, and there's pseudo-incest, if you're into that kinda ...

★★★★★ The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you. I loved this! It's so atmospheric and spooky! It doesn't really give you all (or any, for the most part) answers, but I think that added to the atmosphere tbh and I appreciated that. If it had attempted to answer literally everything, I think it would probably have fallen into the pit of parody like the Illuminae Files did for me. What this short book accomplished spectacularly for me is that it felt like a half-forgotten nightmare or a memory I've repressed. I felt, reading it, that I had read it before, but not in the sense that it was formulaic or overly predictable, or even that it was a blatant rip-off of something else. No, rather it gave me strong sensation of sensory discomfort and the idea that what is familiar is not familiar, that what is real is actually very much not real, which I believe was en...

★★★★☆ Does the world deserve forgiveness? Does it deserve another chance? I was very conflicted as I read this. The overarching emotion I felt throughout was disappointment. Unlike the rest of the series, this felt like it lacked a real direction. I wasn't sure what the goal was, and what had been the established goal at the end of The Burning World was pretty much entirely forgotten until the climax. Conflicts were often repeated multiple times, or borrowed from previous books, and it left me feeling drained and frankly a little pissed off. A lot of time was spent flipping through perspectives and I felt like I didn't have enough time to feel much of anything for most of them. The scope of this was too big sometimes and the plot was left drowning in it. We all decide the shape of the world, the sum of all minds together. Change has to be chosen. But luckily, Marion is an amazing writer, and his way with words and imagery pretty much saved this. R compl...

★★★☆☆ I received this digital copy from Doubleday Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. Obligatory Summary Three sisters live alone with only their father and mother, cordoned off by the sea and by the rusting fence and the forest. Once, long ago, their home was a restorative retreat for ailing women seeking their special therapy--the water cure--that claimed to heal them of the wearies of a dying world. Now, they are all alone, with only each other as company, performing their water rituals in solitude. But their father, King disappears, seemingly dead and taken by the sea. And then, worst of all, three men emerge from the sea, and everything changes. The Writing and Worldbuilding Every time I think I am very lonely, it becomes bleaker and more true. You can think things into being. You can dwell them ...

★★☆☆☆ This was one of the most mind-numbingly boring piece of "literature" I've ever read. Everything that was good about this series was stripped away, leaving only the obnoxious, ridiculous, and downright formulaic parts. Meet Rhys, the bad boy with a criminal past and tattoos, and hot white ex-boyfriend of the hot white girl. Said hot white girl is named Asha Grant, and she's a headstrong teenager (?) who somehow holds a leadership position despite having no qualifications. Don't worry about personality. They're sassy! That just about covers it, doesn't it? Sound familiar? That's because this is the third incarnation of Kady and Ezra, following Hana and Nik. In case you didn't already have it drilled into your thick skulls: HOT WHITE TEEN = GOOD, MOUSTACHE TWIRLING VILLAIN = BAD, AIDAN = THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS SERIES Now, perhaps for the sake of originality, our author duo decided to drop the insidious psychologi...

★★★★☆ Not as good as the previous books. Slightly bogged down by too many locations. Emily's moral ambiguity and connection to Ikol was nice though. Buy the book here: Amazon Book Depository Barnes & Noble

(I hate movie covers but oh well) ★★★★★ I buddy read this with Nana ! It was a re-read for me, my first read being in junior year of high school, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it once more! How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it enough. Honestly the best thing about this book is Robert Neville. He's sad and alone and a little bit crazy, and I loved him. The poor guy deserves a nice long hug and a good ol' dog. He's such a fantastically complex character, and I really savored his sarcastic conversations with himself: Crossing your fingers, Neville? Knocking on wood? He ignored that, beginning to suspect his mind of harboring an alien. Once he might have termed it conscience. Now it was only an annoyance. Morality, after all, had fallen with society. He was his own ethic. Makes a good excuse, doesn’t it, Neville? Oh, shut up. *sighs contentedly* That's the good stuff, right there. The very ending s...

★★★☆☆ We are our own memory-keepers, and we have failed ourselves. Honestly, I lowkey hated the first two thirds of this. It was dreadful. Dreadful isn't even the right word for it. It was like a soap opera set in a middle school being relayed to you on the cringest tumblr account imaginable. It was a time capsule from 2009. #10yearchallenge to the extreme. There was no personality. The atmosphere was minimal. Not a single character had a personality. The passing of time as imperceptible -- months passed and I hadn't even known it was a new day. The "love story" is almost nonsensical. Their attraction is explained through exposition and the tension consists of the two of them sitting next to each other. How riveting. Just like the 6th grade. It was just a little bit mind-numbing. This was written similarly to Lois Lowry's  The Giver , and while I love most of her work, I admit that she's has a pretty boring style. It works for middle grade but n...

★★★★☆ "We all learn, little woman, that before we can be old and wise, we must at first be very young and foolish." This is marketed as young adult, and while the writing style and pacing were definitely of that genre, the main characters were both 12 throughout the entire novel, which was surprising to me at first. The plot was well paced, though, and the characters well rounded, so it was not a bad thing by any means. I was drawn into the story and the world as soon as Cettie 's character was introduced. She had a gothic quality to her that reminded me of Jane Eyre , and her storyline gave me strong Mansfield Park vibes, which I really liked and appreciated. Unfortunately, I did not feel such about our other heroine, Sera , at least not for a long while. I found her initially more along the lines of the princess part of Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper: whiney, ungrateful, and ~ so unconventional~ But after some hardships, her character r...

★★★★☆ Better than the first in a lot of ways, and a little bit worse in others. But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins. I originally rated this 5 stars after finishing it, but upon reflection, it really was more of a 4 star read for me. But it was still awesome! Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go. Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness. Honestly, this felt like a different series a little bit. Part of that was definitely the lack of chapter e...

★★★★★ Space was not a finite container, but that didn't mean it was empty. Asteroids, stars, planets, the current stream; space debris, ships, fragmented moons, undiscovered worlds; this was a place of endless possibility and unfathomable freedom. It was not nothing, it was everything. I had some mixed feelings about the first book, but I entirely loved this one! It was so good! The inclusion of Eijeh and Cisi's perspectives really added a lot to the story and the world. We got to see so much more through them than just through Akos and Cyra, and it was greatly appreciated. I got my more planets wish and got some awesome visuals along the way (Ogra is my dream aesthetic) The themes were great in this, and the pacing was also great. Everything was great. I was hesitant about the Lazmet death retcon, but it was done really well and added a lot to the story. The plot twists were all super effective and the hard-hitting moments were pretty intense. Let me...

★★★☆☆ Me to this book: "Spare me your self-centered teen angst." So this improved on the overall plot of the series but still suffered from plotholes and unresolved and unsatisfying plotlines. The world and people did not feel real at all and the time travel mess only confused the lore without adding any explanations. The climax held no tension; so much happened where Penryn wasn't there to narrate that I once again felt like I was reading only half of the book. Raffe and Penryn's relationship was so wishy washy. Like, one moment, Penryn was like "ooh baby let's get it on" and Raffe was like "sure thing babe" and then suddenly he'd be like "oh wait heck no" even though he's constantly flirting with her (view spoiler) [and KNEW THE WHOLE TIME that Daughters of Men and angels don't make demon babies but never thought to think about the implications of that in the politics of his world for longer than two s...

★★☆☆☆ “She wasn’t made to be alone.” “I guess none of us are.” I've had the sudden realization that this series is the girl-version of The Maze Runner by James Dashner. It's "fast-paced" aka rushed to the extreme and lacks appropriate characterization and tension. It's probably very fun for a younger reader but for someone who needs a bit more quality to really enjoy myself unironically, it tends to feel like I'm reading the abridged version of a much longer, better paced book. This sequel had all the issues from the first book and even had the initiative to add some issues that didn't exist before. The unnecessary and obnoxiously sexist military guys (not to mention the borderline sociopathic and strangely opportunistic Dee-Dum, who seem to actually enjoy the apocalypse) serve the same plot convenience purposes as last time and the plot revolves once more around Paige's sudden disappearance. This time it held no tension whatsoever,...

★★★★★ This was way better than I thought it would be. Mama, Mama, help me get home I'm out in the woods, I am out on my own. I found me a werewolf, a nasty old mutt It showed me its teeth and went straight for my gut. Mama, Mama, help me get home I'm out in the woods, I am out on my own. I was stopped by a vampire, a rotting old wreck It showed me its teeth and went straight for my neck. Mama, Mama, put me to bed I won't make it home, I'm already half-dead. I met an Invalid, and fell for his art He showed me his smile, and went straight for my heart. -From "A Child's Walk Home," Nursery Rhymes and Folk Tales So, this is for all intents and purposes the same idea and some of the same plot as Scott Westerfeld's Uglies , and yet it somehow utilized that same idea and plot to make something much more profound and frankly more coherent. This book has actual motifs and themes. I adored the writing style and lov...

★★☆☆☆ I received this eARC from Bleeding Ink Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. You know those books that are so generic that it's clear the author just wanted to have a book written but didn't care what it was about as long as it sold? Well, this is the opposite. It's an author who really wanted to tell a story but had no idea how to actually write a book. Obligatory Summary Genesis and her band of faceless masses all live in a world with unpredictable weather, left there by some unseen entity to fight for their survival. Our world runs in cycles that change like a person shaking one of the snow globes we found in the storage room in the bunker when we were kids. Two days of Spring, a week of Summer, four days of Fall, followed by a month of Winter. Most days, I wouldn't mind if our world fell off whatever shelf it is sitting on, smashing the cycle. She and ...

★★★★☆ There was a hunger inside me, and there always had been. That hunger was stronger than pain, stronger than horror. It gnawed even after everything else inside me had given up. It was not hope; it did not soar; it slithered, clawed, and dragged, and it would not let me stop. And when I finally named it, I found it was something very simple: the desire to live. This book is just Divergent with a face lift and some eyeshadow; it's just Divergent with better worldbuilding and better characters, and set in space this time. New and improved. Divergent 2.0 This is told in two perspectives, which only started working about halfway through the book, once Cyra actually started doing things. The first perspective, Akos', is told in third person, and was very well done. Honestly, if someone told me that Cyra's first person was written by a different author, I would believe them. Akos immediately hooked me, and Cyra immediately bored me. I cannot fathom wh...

★★★☆☆ Here's an out of context quote: Please, please don't make him take his shirt off. The Writing and Worldbuilding I've been intrigued by this book since the moment I found out about it. It's basically what happens when The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments are popular at the same time. However, I found it somewhat lacking. It definitely could have been executed better. The biggest issue was the first person narration. It had that snarky wit prevalent in YA and MG fiction and unfortunately, instead of adding necessary humor to lighten the darker themes, it lessened the darkness. It felt tonally unbalanced--tone deaf, if you will. Much of the plot felt juvenile and unrealistic (namely the "cat-fight" with Anita) and much of what happened ultimately could have been cut. The book does not wax philosophical and therefore has no central themes. It says nothing on the human condition, the state of society, and morality, whi...