simonlorden's reviews
1280 reviews

This was a bumpy ride for me: started out low, then it became good, then boring again, then as interesting as it is brutal.

I wasn't sure about the amnesia plot at first, but seeing how far Laurence has come, and how shocked his old self would be at his current life would be interesting. And of course, him trying to figure out his relationship with Emily and Mrs Pemberton and others based on clues was also fun. (Emily my girl has grown up so much.)

One of the most interesting things in this series is how different countries and people treat their dragons. I won't say the Russian treatment surprised me, but it was miserable.

I don't know if I would have thought of Laurence/Tharkay before seeing it on Tumblr, but I'm absolutely here for it, and they had some really good scenes in this book.

WE'RE SO BACK!!!! The last book dragged terribly and it took me a month to read it, meanwhile I devoured this one in two days. After the African and Australian indigenous people, we now get to know the Inca Empire, which lasted a few more centuries in this world than ours, likely thanks to the dragons. In this respect the series is less "realistic", but I don't mind at all - I love that our two main characters so loudly go against the British Empire's racist and imperialistic orders, and I love that the indigenous peoples get to thrive with their dragons.

Some old friends are finally back (but I haven't seen Jane in years!!!), and we get to know some feathered Inca dragons, which are really cool. Hammond is less happy about this than I am. Also, the Granby reveal!! I hope we get to see more of Little in the last two books, but we'll see.

This was far from my favorite book - most of it drags awfully and not much happens, but the few chapters at the end make up for it. I do love Kulingile, Demane and Roland, and of course Tharkay, so there have been good moments. And I'm really sick of the British government ruining everything for their own greed, but it seems the characters are too. Meanwhile the French and the Chinese are both making alliances with and respecting the strength of the "savage" indigenous peoples, which really makes the British seem even stupider and racist. Anyway.

Why do I read these horrible war novels?? I mean it was amazing, 5 stars, but why??

In 1937, Malaysia is occupied by the British. Cecily is a mother of two who spies for the Japanese, who promise to liberate her country and make Asia strong. Ten years later, the Japanese occupation is just as brutal as the British one, if not more.

The story is told from four POVs, Cecily and her three children, and two timelines. Even though they are obviously related and the stories intersect sometimes, they still all have their own separate stories, and all of them are grim. Jasmin and Yuki's story is definitely the one that destroyed my emotions the most.

It was interesting to read a book about real history where neither the oppressor nor the oppressed are white. Instead it's a conflict between two Asian nations who might be considered "basically the same" by Europeans or white Americans, when that couldn't be further from the truth.

So I loved the first book, which ended with a kidnapping and a note. Thing is, to me it was immediately obvious from the note who the kidnapper was (it is signed, for fuck's sake). It didn't even occur to me that it was supposed to be a mystery. So I was pretty surprised when I started the sequel and realized that Grim... doesn't know? And then both Grim and the other investigators proceeded to ignore the contents of the notes and think about connections, and it took Grim 70% of the book to figure out what I didn't even think was a question. So yeah. That kinda took the enjoyment out of it.

That being said, the Grim-Argyle friendship/queerplatonic relationship is pretty nice.

Native American Snow White in the Wild West. For all that the story is changed, it works, even with the seven dwarves being seven wild women on their own. My favorite part was all the chapter titles that had the atmosphere of Native American folktales, from what I know about them.

A horrifying memoir about war and religious oppression in Iran, and also about a young woman/teenager trying to survive on her own outside of her country. There were truly awful war crimes and such in it, but still the part that really got to me was the ending. Marjane originally chose to return to Iran because she missed her family, but in the end she is still forced to leave them, because she cannot thrive or even survive in her oppressive country. What can I say, that felt a bit too close to home, even though our situations are not quite comparable.

Love this series because it's so funny and beautifully illustrated, but also gets really dark and serious sometimes. Minthe and Thetis are so toxic. I hope somebody beats Apollo's ass. And Eros's little siblings are cute.

 Szerintem feladom a verseket. Nem nekem valóak, nem igazán értem őket. A 160 oldalból volt talán 5 ami igazán megérintett, de a legtöbb igazából nem mondott nekem semmit. Ez valószínűleg nem a költő hibája, csak nem illünk össze :) Azért 4 csillag, mert biztos jó, csak én nem értem. 

Oh nooo that ending T_T

I liked this better than Coffee, Milk & Spider Silk. It takes place in the same city, but nonbinary aromantic vampire solving magic mysteries is totally my jam. Loved the platonic relationship and Grim's trauma over Everything. Also loved the different monsters/species and their little quirks. Jumper-host pairs were the most interesting.

That ending though T_T