eeves's reviews
281 reviews

Great art although the action scenes can feel a little messy. Don’t have much of an opinion so far, but I’m willing to see where it goes. Plus my fiancé has the whole box set so why not? A fun quick read for inbetween other books.

Tanabe’s art is beautiful and eerie, he really captures creeping tension and even manages to make the Deep Ones appear to writhe across the page. I initially thought the details were indistinct and some scenes a little too dark, it makes sense for Lovecraft’s work: suggestions of unfathomable horror and dread. 

Lovely stuff. Definitely gonna check out Tanabe’s other works and I guess his next adaptation is Call of Cthulhu so looking forward to that. 

I was (more so) a fan of A Natural History of Dragons so I mostly enjoyed this, though it’s not worth the hype it’s getting. Love the whimsical, eerie nature of the faeries, Emily’s occasionally a vibe and Bambley made me picture a friendlier Astarion. 

It does have its issues though. The “slow burn” rivals to lovers romance is basically nonexistent so when the declaration of love happens it feels really jarring. 

I’m conflicted with people claiming Emily is autistic-coded. As an ND person myself, I can def see that the author chose ND-ish traits and how people can relate to her… but I don’t love the perpetuation that ND people are very unsympathetic to the plight of those around them. Tbh I read that more as a flaw in Emily’s character because let’s be real this book (and I assume the rest of the series) is light on the plot so they needed to give her SOMETHING of an arc. 

What little action there is is summarized in a perfunctory way, draining any tension from the scenes. 

The climax felt very, well anticlimactic unfortunately. 

A fine read if you’re looking for something simple and chill. You definitely have to be in the mood for it though, otherwise it’ll feel slow and dry. 

I can see how some readers would find this book boring: it’s a pretty fast read, but it’s very quiet and moody. Reid’s books typically deal with abuse, trauma and violence against women and it shows in Effy’s nature and her view of the world. It’s a little lighter here (maybe because it’s YA?), but it’s done compassionately and is no less relatable. I find it weird that some people didn’t seem to understand why she’d start off as a timid and paranoid character, but okay. I’m not sure how I feel about a couple choices: like the overall mystery is kind of predictable and the romance while genuinely sweet sometimes, lacks chemistry. It’s beautifully written though and the atmosphere is thick. Reid really captures the murky relentlessness of the ocean and water in general. 

This was a SLOG  to get through. Supposedly Maas’ first series in ADULT fantasy and… man, it doesn’t read that way. This is a YA fantasy with a lot of juvenile writing, stilted swearing and an unnecessary amount of horniness. It’s like a hormonal teen’s fanfic about a bunch of different fantasy worlds shoved together with cursing thrown in left and right “Alphahole?” I cringed every time it was uttered. Second-hand embarrassment from beginning to end. 

There’s no cohesion to the worldbuilding. There are so many species and mythological figures that she pulls from and yet there’s no real connective tissue between any of them.

This was so long for no reason. It easily could’ve been cut in half. Saying it gets better after page 500 is a bonker. The amount of infodumping is ridiculous, made worse by the fact that it was mostly shallow. I.e everytime a character popped up, it was followed by literally paragraphs of background info. 

All the characters are often objectified, the female characters especially and the MC in particular. This whole book is oddly written so heavily from the male gaze. The MC can’t be in a scene without someone looking at, describing or admiring her ass/body. Why is she reduced to a body for most of the novel?? This book is filled to the brim with slut-shaming, ageism, and objectification.

Speaking of MC: Bryce is the hottest, most badass, smartest, best at everything Chosen One Mary Sue = BORING. As I understand it, all of Maas’ MCs are written like this.

There’s a weird admiration towards the oppressors in this society and blaming the oppressed groups and framing them as terrorists when they try to fight for their rights and freedom. I can’t believe that’s such a strong message behind this book. 

Random side note: this kind of reminded my of the later Anita Blake books by Laurel K. Hamilton, who is incidentally praising the book on the back cover

This is marketed as gothic fantasy, and while there are some elements of that, it feels more just like a regular fairy tale fantasy. I wouldn’t call this a romantasy either. It’s there, but it’s not the focal point. I prefer that personally, but just an fyi if you’re looking for more romance… 

This whole book is completely predictable. There’s no intrique, no surprises. The plot twists are not twisting and when they finally happen, you’re left thinking “yeah I knew this 100 pages ago.”

The magic system (magic-granting tarot-ish cards) is neat, if underutilized. 

 It might not bother everyone, but I noticed very quickly that the author has a terrible habit of repeating certain turns of phrase, descriptions, titles, etc. (her lips curled, Captain of the Destriers, slick like oil, his gray eyes, among others). It makes reading so tedious. 

Elspeth… in constant need of saving from beginning to end. Everything interesting (and useful) about her comes from The Nightmare: the only remotely interesting character.

If you go into this specifically wanting an easy, light read then I think you’re good, but oof. I don’t really understand why this has such high ratings.