aphrael's reviews
719 reviews

Quite an interesting story. loads of politics. Quite interesting to tell the religious part of the story from the viewpoint of a true believer, rather than a cynical political player. I loved how there was a pro-science faction, that's not something you see a lot of in books where magic is real. Overall I really enjoyed the book but the characters seem to have their ending and I don't really feel the need to read on right now.

Very interesting premise, to use the big heroic story as background to tell a smaller human story. I quite enjoyed this book, it's very teenage but still about fundamental human issues like relationships and getting out of your own way. I think it's probably a more interesting read if you're closer to the ages of the protagonists, but I did enjoy the book.

The book is better than its bland title. I quite liked the way Hail cared for her family even after being estranged from them for so long. I didn't find her super relatable but the plot was nice enough to make up for this.

I reread the first 2 books and really enjoyed that I still loved them on the second read, so I was stoked to read the next book. Maybe I need to read this one twice as well, considering that I didn't immediately love the first book, but I felt a bit disappointed in this book. The first two books are great because El has SO MUCH EMOTION all day every day. She sits in one place so she really has time to grow and work through changes and emotions. This third book she just seems to go from place to place wihtout all that much emotional impact? In the first book she finds a friend, in the second book she finds community, in the third book she finds... family that furthers the plot but we hardly get to know? A boyfriend who exists against all odds but isn't really present in the books much? A fling with a woman she doesn't really care for that much? I'm not quite sure what the point was. I do like the plot in regards to the mawmouths, although her singlehandedly bullying whole enclaves is a bit iffy, the plot is quite solid and the ending is quite fitting. It just seemed like in all the steps to get from one part of the plot to the next, the emotion is lost. The insular world of the scholomance allowed for much more emotional development, while this book seemed more concerned with where to go and what to do in the big wide world. I might reread it at some point, to see if I was wrong after all, but right now I am a bit disappointed.

Very interesting book with a conquering empire and the half-conquered culture relating to it. The idea of carrying previous generations with you, and how that would look to another culture, is fascinating. The plot is exciting but the way the book shows how the society works and the moral implications of different cultures and cultural practices is quite novel.

This is a very emotional and intimate book. I did feel like halfway through I pretty much hated everyone in it, but the ending really helped to put things in perspective. I loved the sense of lived art that was in this book, it's clear that the author loves it too. I'm not sure I would recommend this book, because it's quite a lot to go through, but I don't regret having read it.

Clever guy does clever things in crime ridden supernatural world, it's a simple premise but the author probably figured "don't fix what ain't broken" and quite right. It's a quick read, maybe not a lot of substance there, but still a lot of fun. I like how the main character feels like he does live in a bit of a cutthroat world, but on the other hand also finds a way to be as good a person as possible. I wouldn't mind reading more of this series.

I quite liked how this book really took its time, and I liked the way it handled the warping of reality. The slow build means that there's loads of things that are unclear still at the end of it, but that is not a bad thing. The relationship between the main character and the three supernatural guys seems a bit weird to me. She's not really scared much, which is helped by them seeming to talk more about not caring for her than actually not caring for her. Maybe it rubs me the wrong way because we don't yet know much of the society the 'psycho's' come from, but I don't super believe that the main character ever believed the threat they pose or if I should believe it. Either way, she turns out to be super great and helpful and therefore worthy of keeping around. But it would have been more interesting to see what would have happend if she would have been allowed to be scared or mess up or be irrelevant.

I read this as a kid and thought it was fascinating and weird and special. Now, reading it as an adult, I haven't changed my opinion. Sure, it is maybe a bit simplistic, but it's still a really wonderful and interesting book for anyone who's ever been a child. I love how grounded it is, there's a lot of daily life going on even though there's also big adventures. I also love how even the villains are people, maybe they're bigoted or wrong but they're not outright evil for evil's sake. Quite a lovely book.

I absolutely hated the ending. The meat of the book was a series of errands while the characters built their relationships, which is fine, but the ending

took away the main character's power and let the guy give it back to her and that feels like a bit of a copout to me. It would have been more interesting to see them deal with her being without power, like the rest of the world seemingly had to deal with changes, than just the guy being able to grant anyone witch powers

it was an increasing read but I'm probably done with this series.