chaptersofmads's reviews
827 reviews

“Anyone  can be capable of something impossible— as a witch, she must believe that.”

You know the part of The Princess Diaries films where "only Paolo can take this and this and give you: ✨a princess✨"? Okay, so imagine that but the "this" and "this" are witches and sapphics and the end result is a very poorly crafted Bridgerton fanfic.

Impressive, I know.

I love books about witches. They usually get slightly higher ratings from me, simply because I love reading about nature witches and the overall atmosphere. To some degree, this book did deliver on atmosphere (at least for the beginning of the novel). My favorite parts had to do with the honeybees and the nature spirits.

Adding witches to a sapphic plot about a woman that has sworn off love because the only love she's aware of feels like sacrificing her autonomy? Does that not sound fantastic? It almost sounds like a flawless premise for a book.

But alas... this was not the case.

The book itself is structurally and technically a mess. The plot is an incredibly basic one, with scenes that were used in nearly every fantasy book of the 2010s. The plot-twists are painfully predictable if you've ever consumed any media. And the stakes are never talked about with the appropriate severity.

I want to be clear: I don't mind when a book is predictable and messy, so long as it's enjoyable. If I care about the characters enough, I don't mind if the plot-twists feel like they were lifted directly from the pages of "Tropes: A Beginner's Handguide" by Plagiarism Phil. I'll just be happy to be there.
Unfortunately though, this was one of those books where the characters were insufferable.

Practically everything was insufferable. The exposition is handled terribly (the first 35% percent of this book kind of feels like being forced to watch a instructional cutscene for a game you've been playing for thirty years). The pacing is somehow rushed and too slow at once (i.e. the book takes place over about a year and a half, but the characters act like it takes place over a decade.) The characters are childish and irritating. The dialogue is atrocious. The writing style is both melodramatic and stilted.

I think there's a reason for all of this and I think Bridgerton is to blame.

This reads like AI generated sapphic Bridgerton fanfiction. With over-the-top dialogue lacking the actor's human emotions to somehow level it out and bring the silliness back down to earth. And even Bridgerton takes itself far more seriously than this book ever did. I mean, the fmc literally growls "She's mine!" about her love interest at her old suitor, in the middle of a ballroom, causing lightning to strike in the distance.

This kind of leads to my final point: I don't think most people write grumpy x sunshine well. Or! Perhaps, I just don't like grumpy x sunshine, which may very well be the case.

However, more often than not, it feels like either one character is an abusive asshole and the other is just a nice person or! One feels like an angry asshole and the other feels like an inconsiderate, toxically optimistic asshole. Which could work, if it didn't feel like we suddenly switch from them hating each other (and just being generally unnecessarily rude) to dramatic expressions of love.

This was no exception. The two characters barely speak to each for the first 45% of the book and then when they do talk, one of the characters is incredibly rude. This kind of gets explained, but the switch from belittling and obnoxious to lovingly devoted felt insincere.

I don't know, I tend to love softer love interests so maybe that's why I didn't connect with this, but alas.

I'm afraid if I don't stop myself now I will continue to complain (particularly about a death scene involving someone's gore being trapped in their suspenders like a spider web? or the cartoonish villain dialogue) and that isn't my intention. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I'm devastated that I didn't love it.

There are good aspects to this book (the bees) and I do think people should pick it up if it sounds interesting to them, because some of my issues truly are personal. If you love witchy books and don't mind it when they're a bit messy, I encourage you to give this a try. You might love it.

Unfortunately, though, I did not.

I'm already so bored and not vibing with the writing style. Might pick this up again someday, but it's unlikely. 

This was fantastic.

Not the usual "this is the story of how I became famous" celebrity memoir (which can still be interesting!) but much more heavily focused on Alan Cumming's childhood abuse, his relationship with his family, with male mental health, and more. I really appreciated how everything was talked about and the clear-minded, hopeful way that this book approached survival.

I also adore Alan Cumming and would listen to him talk about paint drying, but that's only because I'm sure he'd find a way to make it both witty and introspective.

A brief warning for a singular use of the r slur. It was a moment of his internalized panic at not being able to properly function as a person. I don't believe it had harmful intentions, but I still wanted to address it.

Overall, I absolutely loved my time reading this and I highly, highly recommend consuming it as an audiobook so you can hear Alan Cumming narrate it. 

“The knowledge that she was alone and no one could see her— that she could do anything, say anything, think anything and no one would be the wiser- made her feel fierce and wicked and brave.”

One of my favorite books of the year!!

Read this one with Reagan's (PeruseProject) Cozy Seasons Book Club through the Fable app which was a fun addition to the story. I liked finishing the chapters and getting to see what the other readers were saying about it/exchanging theories. It made me want to start participating in more Fable book clubs lol.

Moving on, this was practically a perfect book. I didn't know what to expect going in, other than some fairytale vibes and maybe a bit of spookiness. Nothing could have prepared me for how emotional this book would make me or how connected I would feel to every character. (Well, nearly every character. Some, the only emotional connection I had was my intense loathing <3)

I don't want to say much because I want other people to go into this pretty blind but I will say: read this if you love found family, Downton Abbey vibes, abuse/trauma survival and recovery, fantastic female friendships, cozy food descriptions, a sweet romance between two lovely side characters, and geese that know just a bit too much about the world.

I loved this and I highly, highly recommend.

Now, to read everything else T. Kingfisher has ever written.

I finished this book hours ago and have subsequently spent that time trying to figure out how to review this.

I want to start by saying I received an arc of You've Reached Sam in 2021 and adored it. I've also since followed Dustin Thao over the years and I really admire him as a person/author. I know this book was important to him and I don't want to diminish that.

However... I felt like this book fell flat in nearly every way possible. Due to the nature of the story, I can't go into much without heading into spoiler territory, but I can say that this was structurally messy and incredibly redundant.

For a book about grief, I felt like the grief aspects were actually really side-lined? Much of the story follows Eric after Daniel's death and we see his life in a downward spiral, until he finally caves and gets a job at a theater. This begins the absolutely thrilling saga of Asshole Coworker 1 and Asshole Coworker 2 taking him to party with a bunch of rich people, whom Eric subsequently allows to use him/actually gets assaulted by. This was not only painful to read, but also really tedious.

I understand that he was in that particularly place due to grief, but we focus a lot more on him trying to assimilate to really awful groups of people with little-to-no growth happening from those moments.

Carrying on from that point, Haru could have been written out of the book and none of the core aspects would have changed - other than a handful of scenes that they spend together, exploring the city.

Also... this might be spoiler territory, but Eric read as someone experiencing severe mental illness. Not just grief, but other severe issues that went unaddressed by anyone in his life. Haru aside, we see multiple instances of Eric hallucinating. These moments are referred to as daydreaming, but in some of them, the reader is told he has a sense of foreboding, like something is wrong/he's forgetting something.

That doesn't read like daydreaming as a coping mechanism. That reads as someone that is struggling to distinguish fiction from reality and needs people in his life looking out for him (Kevin tries; we love Kevin.) But for most of the story (due to him pushing people away, I'm aware) he continues these extremely harmful cycles that no one is noticing.

By the end, he's doing better but that's mostly because he's... decided to do better, which isn't exactly the best message.

I also found the romance insufferable, but I probably should have guessed that when two movies I hate kept being referenced and even had the characters act out scenes from them. But I also struggled to connect with their relationship for two specific reasons.

The first: Haru was unbearable. Even in the prologue section where everyone could see him, he came off self-centered. One of the first times he shows up in the actual book, it's in Eric's bed (whilst Eric is asleep) and that's just supposed to be accepted and not questioned.

I get that this is because Eric was imagining this, but it's still odd, especially as you're reading it.

The second: we see Eric show interest in at least 5 guys during this 304 page novel, some overlapping time-wise

i.e. going from a date with Haru to a date with Christian, then being shocked Haru might be bothered by this.

It's not so much that I'm upset that he was interested in that many people, but when you have an entire book that hinges on a "strange, fateful connection" between he and Haru, that gets painfully undermined when it seems as though Eric feels connected (at least briefly) to every man that he perceives as being interested in him.

With all of this being said, there were a few things I thought this book did well. The family relationships, being the main ones. I really appreciated any scenes with Eric's family and wish we'd gotten more, even if I understand why that didn't happen. I also really liked the last few chapters. They reminded me of why I'd loved You've Reached Sam and I wish the whole book had been like that. (I don't like the epilogue, but that's just personal opinions.)

In the acknowledgements, Dustin Thao acknowledged that this wasn't the book he'd always wanted to write and how much he'd struggled with writing it. I wonder what this could have been if he hadn't been quite so restrained and had been allowed a bit more creative freedom.


Overall, this was kind of all over the place. It was a mess in a lot of ways, but it does still have an undercurrent of hope and finding your path after grief. I would recommend this, but maybe not to people expecting this to be as touching as You've Reached Sam.

Jordan Ifueko, we do not deserve you.

This book was so good, holy crap. If I had ever had any doubt in Jordan Ifueko's stellar ability to craft a story (which I didn't) this book immediately quelled it. Everything she writes is nothing less than a masterpiece. No matter whether the focus is on worker's rights or a cute little gecko animal sidekick, you're about to read something incredible.

I loved everything about this book. I adored Sade and getting to follow her was an absolute delight. She's put through so many absolutely atrocious things, but the story never feels... overtly grim. That isn't to say the atrocities are just ignored, because much of this book focuses on the structural issues in a society that relies on people it can't even treat as people.
Running alongside that, there's also an underlying message that Sade's life is her own, no matter what other people attempt to place on her, that gives the story a strength. Her struggles with being small and then the ultimate realization that 'ants vs giants' still plays into a system she doesn't wish to uphold was handled so well.

Also, this is a highly personal compliment, but as someone that's been deconstructing from my religion for years, Jordan Ifueko's personal stories have been incredibly helpful in making me feel less alone. And because of that, there were quite a few lines in this book that I tied with deconstruction (even if that wasn't the original intention) and they meant the world to me.
(Especially a particular paragraph in one of the last chapters.)

That's not even starting on the love interest (whom I adore) or the animal sidekick or the disability rep or the side characters I loved or the food descriptions or the magic system or even just my own excitement to be back in this universe. Getting any mention of characters from the Raybearer duology felt like a little treat and I loved how they were handled.

If it wasn't clear, I loved this book. It's so cozy (not in the genre sense, but in the feeling of a warm fireplace and nostalgia) and magical, while also being both harrowing and incredibly empowering.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book along with anything else Jordan Ifueko has written/shall write from now unto the end of time.

"Trust is a greedy thing, like gifts. You expect it but you never give it. I stopped trusting my pen and tongue. But the pen also stopped trusting me."

First read of September completed!

Hope Ablaze is a book that tackles a lot of heavy, important topics whilst also balancing them with celebrations of love, family, food, and the fmc's Muslim identity. The moments of community and pure joy were so lovely to read about. I also really appreciated the way this book called out liberals and progressives that still operate as if they need to "save" anyone wearing a hijab.

There were some aspects of this book that were a bit messy, particularly in terms of pacing and characterization. Sometimes there were big moments that were reduced and small moments that dragged on. The characters would have really heavy moments and their next scene together made it feel forgotten.

I'm not someone that's ever gotten into poetry but some of it... didn't translate well, at least to the audiobook version. It came across very juvenile, which I suppose makes sense with this being a YA book; but with the main character's talent for it, I was hoping for a bit more.

Overall, I would recommend this. As I said, I had a few issues with it and I felt the ending was a bit out of place, but I still think this book is important and manages to (successfully) touch on quite a few topics that the YA age range would benefit from reading. 

The best installment yet!

B.B. Alston continues to write the most magical, high-stakes, complex middle grade series I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I felt every emotion while reading this book and even ended up crying at the end, which I think may be a first for me (in regards to middle grade.)

This was such a creative book, with so many fun twists and turns and actual dark events that keep the stakes of the story feeling as high as they're meant to. Amari continues to be one of the best characters I've read and I love how we delved a bit into her flaws in this book, even as her strengths grew.

For most of my time reading this, I was leaning towards a 4.5 rating until I started to tear up and realized that most books don't make me feel that heavily. I also really loved how Halloween-y this one felt! It's perfect for this time of the year.

These books means so much to me, especially since reading them has been such a bonding experience for me and my little sisters. I cannot wait to see where the series (and B.B. Alston) goes from here. (I also can't wait for my little sisters to read this installment and see their reactions hehehe)

I really do recommend this series, especially if you have kids in your life - but even if you don't and you just need some childlike whimsy. It's so magical and easy to enjoy, but also has a lot of complex/real-world elements that make the magic even more meaningful.

Overall, a spectacular addition to the series. Highly recommend. 

 "Every act of translation requires sacrifice."

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

A scholarly take on dragons and their languages, with a focus on revolution and class wars.

Read the above line and tell me this isn't the perfect concept for a book. You can't. Granted, my favorite series is a political dragon fantasy with an emphasis on revolution and class wars so my tastes may be slightly biased. Nevertheless, this remains one of the most unique concepts for a YA that I've heard in a quite a while.

That being said, the concept could have been executed slightly better. Don't get me wrong: this wasn't bad. It was fine, pretty enjoyable in parts and some of the conversations were very interesting to read. I particularly appreciated the first half of the book, with it's focus on the politics of the world and the MC making poor choices due to her belief that she was already too flawed.

(I also LOVED the dragons. Which isn't surprising, but still! Dragons! With personalities!!)

Some YA novels transcend the age category and can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of age and/or preference, some don't, though, and that's fine. This is one of those books. If you're an adult reader that has grown out of YA, this one will not be for you. The characters are all very stereotypical, particularly the villains who are almost cartoonishly evil. The conversation around grey morality is reduced to "there is goodness and badness within us all; everyday is a chance to choose goodness" and that's about it. The writing style is also very, very stilted - with most lines being written like: "I tell him." "He blushes." "I say."

These aspects become unavoidable in the second half of the book when the threat starts closing in and the reader is confronted by how little sense it actually makes. The last bit of this book lowered my rating just a bit, based on a number of factors, but one of the main ones being how much of this book falls apart if you look at it too closely. Specifically the fact that the MC (the brightest linguist of her age) was thrown by

dialects?

All of this to say, this wasn't bad. I liked quite a bit about this book! I also felt a bit let down by it. However, I do think a lot of people are going to absolutely love this one. (So long as they ignore the Fourth Wing comparison. Their only similarity is the fact they both have dragons and violent students.) It's got a forbidden romance with a priest-in-training (my sister kept calling this "children's Fleabag" whenever I talked to her about it), dragons, a flawed main character, dragons, languages, and also! dragons!

Overall, I'm incredibly grateful for the chance to read this and I hope it finds an audience that absolutely adores it. 

“There is more than one kind of darkness, and none is darker than doubt, for the light required to illuminate it belongs not to a jewel or a flame, but your very soul.”

A nice conclusion to a really fun middle grade series.

In terms of using middle grade fantasy to teach about complicated emotions, no one is doing it like Roshani Chokshi. There were so many moments in this series where she deftly explained/sorted through a character's emotions in a way that would make kids feel seen/understood and this installment is no different.

The core of this novel is Aru not truly knowing what she's fighting for anymore or if there's even any reason for her to fight at all. There are lot of other things that go into it, but throughout the story she's consistently been shown that the world isn't quite as easily divided as she had once assumed.

For a finale, I felt like this fell a bit flat. The pacing felt a bit slow and I never felt the urgency of this being the final book where everything finally comes to a head. In fact, the final battles felt kind of lackluster compared to previous installments.

That isn't to say this was a bad finale or that we receive no closure, because that's not the case. There are a lot of bittersweet moments sprinkled in and I do appreciate the fact I didn't feel like the author was beating me in the head with the 'remember! everything is ending! look at where they started! remember the first time they met each other?' stick that a lot of authors use because that's my mortal enemy lol.

It just felt a bit... empty, for the last book, I guess?

I will say! (without spoilers) I loved the creative choices made about certain characters at the end. It was messy and painful, while ultimately hope-filled and I was so happy to see that was the direction it went in.

Overall, like I said, this was a nice conclusion. This is genuinely a really good middle grade series and I completely recommend it to anyone looking for a good series for a kid in their life (or that just wants to revisit the nostalgic vibes of MG fantasy.)