mxdegroot's reviews
101 reviews

Everybody say 'welcome back reading slump'! Coming back to this one later.

I love all of Kalynn Byron's books that I've read so far, and I like this one too so far, but it's just wrong moment, so I'll probably pick this one up again later.

April 8th, 2024 - April 12th, 2024 (April 22nd, 2024)
DNF at 18 pages/5%

I read the stories that I particularly bought this book for, but the particular translation choices of this author just don't work for me. I noticed this when I was reading the plays and it was double confirmed when I read the last chapters about Sophocles.

March 1st, 2024 - March 28th, 2024 (April 22nd, 2024)
DNF at 248 pages/56%

An entirely new and amazing approach to dragons and sorcerers.

I love it when characters are complicated and every one of them has a point one way or another (except Calla, fuck you Calla). I particularly love it when characters make mistakes and they aren't just erased because the main conflict needs their attention or is solved. At the end of the book, there's a lot still left to do, and that's not erased.

Also

justice for Zephyr

. His death made me cry.

It's been well over a month since I read this book so I don't know what more to say, but this book is definitely a recommendation for all you dragon lovers out there.

March 10th, 2024 - March 19th, 2024.

AIDEN is deliciously complicated.

This was the perfect conclusion to a thrilling, tense, high-stakes trilogy. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, but if you're a lover of tension, action and insanely high-stakes with not much of a breath in between, The Illuminae Files is an instant recommendation.

It's been a while between me finishing this book and actually writing this review, but all I really have to say is: READ THE SERIES. Even if the first two books were a lot to get through, this finale makes it more than worth it.

February 26th, 2024 - February 29th, 2024.

I know that I was only 20 pages in (10 further than last attempt) but god damnit I just really cannot get through this book.

The universe may not have imploded, but my brain most certainly did.

I thought it couldn't get more chaotic than the first book. Well, buckle up, buckaroo, because it did. I loved every second of this almost 700 page long book and do not regret all the brain cells I lost to it. I can't wait for both groups to come together in the third book and probably get more chaotic.

February 22nd, 2024 - February 26th, 2024.

This book makes you feel the chaos of the possible end of existence.

For this kind of dystopia, the unique formatting of the book works amazing. You never get the exact inner thoughts of any character, but you get more than enough insight and it's not hard to follow. The only critique I have is that it could be shorter than it ended up being, as it felt like the pace only really started to pick up towards the middle of the book.

February 15th, 2024 - February 21st, 2024.

Went from horrible to great to horrible to great.

I adored some of the stories in this anthology, and I hated others. I guess that makes sense, but I wished there were more good stories in it. The star rating I've given this book is the average of all the individual ratings, and I wished it was higher.

1000 ships (2/5 stars): I probably would have read this and enjoyed it more if it was a full book. While it worked within the genre of dark academia, I'm definitely not a fan of student x teacher romantic!relationships that are not handled at all. This story made it seem like it's okay, especially since it was written from the student's perspective. And yes, it's made clear that the teacher is not a good guy, but more in a he's-an-attractive-morally-grey-genius kind of way. It was just not addressed how fundamentally problematic the relationship was.

Pythia (1/5 stars): I will start by saying no, I'm not a fan of Olivie Blake. I really wanted to rate this story higher, but I can't. There's a good idea and some potential in it somewhere, but it just felt like one big infodump without a point that doesn't even explain anything. Open endings are great, but this just didn't work, because the plot was all over the place, so you're just left with a pile of information that doesn't make sense.

Sabbatical (2/5 stars): This was an amazing story and had an amazing set-up, and then the end ruined it all. It was so abrupt and, again, made zero sense.

The Hare and the Hound (5/5 stars): Absolute perfection. Dark, magical realism, open ending that perfectly tied up the story, perfectly dark academia. Might just pick up one or more of Andrew's books sometime.

X House (4/5 stars): I almost rated this five stars. This was perfectly dark, culty, half-resolved half-open ending. Just- yes.

The Ravages (3/5 stars): I was disappointed that

there turned out to not be any ghosts

, but I loved the revenge plot.

Four Funerals (5/5 stars): First of all, ouch. Especially in our current time and in America, this is such an important story to tell. The only reason I didn't cry was because I was in public transport.

The Unknowable Pleasures (1/5 stars): There was no plot and it was just a disgusting story. Again, student x teacher relationship that wasn't handled well at all.

Weekend at Bertie's (2/5 stars): Other reviews I read before I started this book kinda scared me but I still held my hopes high. I was unfortunately disappointed. There wasn't much of a plot and it wasn't really dark academia. Rio's writing style never fails to disappoint though. I'm sad to rate this story so low, since If We Were Villains remains my favorite book of all time.

The Professor of Onthology (2/5): The plot started on the last page, which was really sad, because the writing and the set-up of the story were great. It read more like the first page/teaser of a book than a short story. This would've worked so well as a full book.

Phobos (4/5 stars): TEA. Loved it. This is what dark academia is about. It felt a little stretched out though, as if there was a minimum amount of pages/words to reach and Bovalino was struggling to meet it.

Playing (4/5 stars): A perfect example of what dark academia should be. Deliciously dark. The writing was a bit hard to follow from time to time though.

February 8th, 2024 - February 14th, 2024.

Two hundred plus pages of waiting for plot.

This was just a drag from start to finish. It had so much potential, but the character development was either sudden and forced or non-existent, and the ending was horrible, especially since this is apparently a stand-alone.

I'm not saying Moreno-Garcia can't write. Her writing style is fine and I enjoyed the action scenes. The plot was just a drag, there was no development and it all ended in nothing.

February 1st, 2024 - February 7th, 2024