meirinasoe's reviews
157 reviews

Wow… That was quite something 😳😳😳

Apollo had been messing with my mind.

As a fan of consensual romance, this book is my triumphant welcome to the MM Dark Romance genre (I have read the cishet ones, and hated them all).

I buddy-read this with my found-brother and overall it has been a great experience. We enjoyed the kinks (especially him) and grew very fond of our mc, Shade/Shadow (affectionately called “Shady” while reading).

Shade is such a darling. His insecurities hit close to home. Feeling odd, rejected, and thinking something's wrong with him, he shuts himself off from others.

I like that he’s 27 and single. Let’s normalize not finding someone in your teens or early twenties. Give us more older, single protagonists!

Apollo. I picture him as Cillian Murphy during the entirety of the book. The vast blue ocean eyes, it fits. 💙

The worldbuilding in this book is top-notch. I adore the alien metaphors that cleverly mirror our everyday issues. I wonder if all those issues with overstimulation and repletions are a metaphor for neurodivergence, something Shade struggles with while Apollo masks it better. Are all Chittas ND-coded?

Another thing I appreciate is Shade's loyalty to his best friend, even with his decision to stay with Apollo. You don’t ditch your best friend after finding romance, that’s basic decency!

This book has become one of my darlings and I will treasure it as one of my comfort reads.

...and probably will commission art of Shady and Apollo (as Cillian Murphy, of course).

What can I say, now I need a serial killer of my own 😅

4.5⭐/5

This is so cute! The art is so gorgeous and exquisite, it's undoubtedly the best aspect of this book!

I love how the story goes but the ending was a bit of a... letdown after all that tension? It feels like we didn't truly get a resolution to half of their problems 😂

And I think the 'grilled cheese sandwich' should have been more interwoven into the plot, like making their interests set around cuisine instead of fashion.

It was a pleasant read, I'd still recommend.

Nice story, but it's hard to root for the MC and her selkie gf when they're just ditching her friends and act like they're better than everyone else just because they're queer.

I am queer, I have cishet friends who I came out to. This isn't how you do it.

"Self-Made Boys" is a book that offers a unique and twisty take on a beloved classic, and one of my most anticipated reads since last year. But it has left me with mixed feelings.

First of all, I absolutely loved the characters Nick and Gatsby and their sweet, endearing relationship. The fact that they are portrayed as trans adds an intriguing and enjoyable twist, which drew me to this book in the first place.

However, I am not a fan about the drastic changes to Daisy's character.
In the original story, Daisy turned out to be as awful as Tom; a cold and shallow person, willing to pin the blame and abandon those who genuinely care about her for the sake of saving herself. Turning her into an “empowered feminist lesbian” didn't sit well with me, as it seemed to romanticize a character who should be seen as flawed and morally questionable.

Daisy's character represents the social climbers who prioritize personal gain over moral conscience, and she isn't meant to be seen as a victim or romanticized in any way. Altering her character's essence does feel forced and unnatural.

Similarly, I felt that the portrayal of Tom as entirely negative wasn't entirely fair. Even though Tom had his faults, he also had redeeming qualities in the original version: protecting Daisy when she confessed to hitting Myrtle with the car, despite her infidelity with Gatsby.

Another aspect that didn't entirely make sense to me was Gatsby's actions towards Daisy without romantic intentions, especially if both knew they were gay.

While unexpected twists can be exciting, I feel that sometimes they lean too much toward wish fulfillment. If you're familiar with the original story, these alterations can mess with your expectations and leave you longing for the depth and darkness of the original.

If the argument is that original version of the story is "too dark for YA”, I don’t think it’s too dark or complicated for teens to learn that even their family members could be selfish or shallow. It happens everyday.

We seriously need more stories of Ancel and Berenger

CRYING.
SOBBING.
SCREAMING.

PS: Some people noted about an art quality issue, and I agree. The artwork seemed off since Redemption #1, so I did some comparisons with a friend.
- The (black) lines on their faces and hair are thicker and more defined
- Noses become pointier
- The color became warmer and more saturated

Honestly it's sad to see cause I really love the previous art style of Vol 1-5 with softer colors and line arts, and a lot of people certainly do too. The boys look cuter that way.

Anyways, the covers by Lenyan (Magdalena Pagowska) are STELLAR.

Also, C.S. Pacat and his glorious metaphors.
He can say a completely different thing and we can still know EXACTLY what he meant.

C.S. Pacat has done it again.

This is why Pacat needs to write more SAPPHICS!

This is a reread of a childhood favourite.

As a child, this book has always stand out in my memory even I read it only once. And turns out… this story has all the queer metaphors!! 

I thought I might be reaching, but the author has came out as sapphic very recently.

Yes to queercoded kid lit!

Finished it in less than a day!

It's very addicting from start to finish!

I wanted to give it a 5 but that ending was rather anti-climactic 😂😂

(and I did guess the real culprit, in fact, that person's name did come up in my mind a few times during reading)

The single excerpt that showcases my entire feeling about this book.

Fourth Wing has taken up the book community in a (shit)storm. It even has a rating of whooping 4.7 stars! So it must be up to par with Babel and Priory, right? Right???

Wrong.

Fourth Wing is a generic, uninspiring, mediocre cis-hetero romantasy with the same old tropes. Same old patronizing, overbearing, overprotective, hypermasculine male love interests.

You will find:

The book was addicting, up until 50% mark at least. Then it started to drag and resorted to boring repetitive stale fights where the dragons were barely present and the flights were done off-screen. Till it reached 70% it was all static scenes and fillers. When I reached the last 20%, I was wondering what was I doing with my life.

By the time I reached the Final Battle, it was already too late to salvage this book.

The main plot wasn’t bad, I’ll give them that. I like the dragons, the folklore about wyverns and venin. But it was weighed down by its uninspiring, formulaic romance. While I thought it would have more of an epic feel like Priory.

Our FMC Violet Sorrengail is actually quite likable. Not as insufferable as her two love interests, she possesses determination, wits and hard work that would make a solid MC. But she is also a NEPO BABY through and through, earning an unfair advantage in *both* Riders and Scribe Quadrant, having parents and older siblings who were renowned in those fields. (Come on, you can’t say the dragon scale armoury wasn’t an unfair advantage). Even when she’s struggling to make it with the Riders’, the head of the Scribes would gladly allow her to nepo her way into it.

Fortunately, Violet refused. Her struggle and dedication outweighed the unfair advantage she had from nepotism. I acknowledge that she got her place with the Riders fair and square.

Another feature of Violet’s that was emphasized countlessly throughout the book was her silver hair. I wonder if it’s a homage to the Targaryens, which is fine, we’re all obsessed with A Song of Ice and Fire.

Even the tagline of this book is a reminiscence of Cersei’s
“When you play the Game of Thrones you win or you d*e*”;

and Tairn is probably Balerion.

The Targaryens are probably the most iconic dragon-rider characters up to date.
But to my disappointment, we do not get any Targaryen-looking love interests. Instead of getting an Aemond or Daemon, we’re getting two of Incel— I mean, Criston Cole-looking love interests. And both were overprotective as fck.

“It’s only the losing guy who’s so overbearingly overprotective,” you would say.

But come on, it’s not like the MMC wasn’t guilty of it too. One time he said that he was taking over “everything when it comes to” her. Choosing him is like choosing the lesser of two evils.

At times they even feel echoes of Edward Cullen and Jacob Black (and not in a good way).

Someone on Goodreads said that this could’ve been better as a Dragon-shifter romance. I agree. Giving Violet a romance with Tairn would make the story more refreshing and give it way more personality.

For a medieval fantasy setting, this book is wildly modern. The 2020s slang words like “vibes” and “wearing boyfriend’s shirt/jacket” felt so out of place and off-putting.

I also find the Thunder-invoking seggs to be very cringe, and I won’t take any character like that seriously unless they’re a literal god (like Thor lol).

Those who say this book has LGBT reps, you are severely misleading!!
Two side characters were MENTIONED to have same-seggs encounter OFF-SCREEN, and it was never mentioned again! Their love interests were barely present. Those are NOT reps! That is tokenism, as if this author is ticking off diversity boxes from her publisher’s checklist.
I saw a trans reviewer mentioned how offensive it was to throw a random NB character in there. I didn’t even see such a character. The tokenism must be so bad that they’re so irrelevant and blended into the background.

There is no wonder that Fourth Wing has become a massive hit, it caters to popular tropes with a massive following. Which is FINE. If you are into it, good for you!

But people whose preferences are similar to mine, they exist too, and they deserve to be informed.

Now, if you just want a pretty golden book with dragon edges, this might be for you.

But if you were picturing some epic literature, like Babel or Priory,

or you do not love those tropes, DO NOT BOTHER!

“Holy. F\\//ckin. Cringe.”

Update: Deducting my rating to ⭐️
Since I found out that this book is a US military propaganda and the Author is a "proud military wife" writing war romance set in Afghanistan.