sol_journal's reviews
82 reviews

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

**Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph (retail reviews pending release date)

Posted on: 24 February 2025

4.6 (rounded up to 5) out of 5 stars.

I want to preface this by saying that this book might be a hard read for those who hold traumas and/or any fears from the 2020 pandemic, especially those deeply affected by anti-asian hate crimes that occurred more frequently because of how close-minded people tried to paint out this epidemic. This story is heavy, it’s hard, it’s got a few golden softer moments, but a lot of it was darker than Kylie Lee Baker’s usual work. It’s gory and gruesome and intense, so it’s not a read for everybody. It’s a social commentary piece though, so at the same time, it's almost as important as it is frightening, if not more.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng talks about being Chinese-American in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the grief of a racially charged murder that leaves almost nothing left (or maybe too much left) to mourn, and the hungry ghosts that appear to you when nobody else cares to hear what they may need. This read was strong from the get-go and ended equally as strongly with hardly a space for a breath once the dominos begin to fall.

Cora Zeng, I think, was a good character. I’ve read few horror stories, but none quite like this. In all that I’ve read, the main characters are more self-assured, more solid in their ways, or just more confident somehow. We learn that Cora relied on her sister Delilah a lot when it came to making decisions/general life choices. After Delilah's death, however, Cora is left on her own. What makes this worse is that she’s balancing on the tightrope between the Chinese side of her family (or more specifically her Auntie Zeng and the Hungry Ghost Festival traditions she’s unsure she believes in) and the American side (or her Auntie Lois and her attempts at being a Good Christian Girl). What makes Cora interesting is the very fact that she’s unsure and untethered. When things begin to happen around her, it’s her more human, not-a-born-savior take on it that makes the emotions hit harder. Cora crumbles, she warps within the space Delilah carved out and was ready to take with her even before she was murdered.

I think the rest of the cast that we follow, too, is really lovable. Harvey and Yifei were some of my favorite side characters and I think the way they interacted with Cora helped push the heavier feelings I felt the deeper through the story I got.

As for the plot itself, there were only minor bits where something happened and it felt… out of place almost (up until you see the resulting end and realize how the moments were meant to connect). I genuinely didn’t expect the story within the pages considering the synopsis and I think that’s what kind of led to the stronger emotional reaction in the end. Nothing could have really prepared me for what was going to happen. In the name of the genre, this book horrified me and I really can’t wait to get a physical copy of it just to read it all over again.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a powerful and well-built read that mixes real life horrors with something more paranormal and supernatural. You wouldn’t expect to find heart in something like this, even more so once the threads unravel to expose the flesh of the fear, but it was a phenomenal take on the grief and trauma embedded in the world, and just how much hatred truly plays a part in it all.

CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Death, murder, blood, grief, mental illness, body mutilation/horror, racism, hate crime, racial slurs, gore, misogyny, femicide, pandemic/epidemic, animal cruelty, sexual harassment, police brutality, medium-detailed crime scenes involving murder/mutilation, child abuse (emotional, neglect), alcohol, forced institutionalization (not graphically detailed), vomit, religious content/religion minorly used to guilt

Content Warnings

Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley and DAW Publishing for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph (retail reviews pending release date)

Posted on: 24 February 2025

4 out of 5 stars.

Wow.

Wow wow wow- where do I even start with my review on this one? I don’t think I have the right words to even begin to share how this read made me feel… I’ll try my best-

I kind of requested Aunt Tigress on a whim after scrolling through NetGalley one day and seeing the cover. I’ve said it once and I’ll probably keep saying it- I judge books by their covers. I do! It’s an immediate eye-catcher, an attention grabber. A pretty cover doesn’t mean what’s inside will be equally as stunning though (eyeing the-book-that-shall-not-be-named that is still, unfortunately, sitting in a box waiting to be dropped off at a secondhand bookstore). That’s how I stumbled upon Aunt Tigress, however. When I was scrolling during a time I most certainly shouldn’t have been scrolling considering my backlog of ARCs that has yet to shrink, I saw this pretty cool looking cover that called me like a siren.

I’m SO glad I fell for its song.

Aunt Tigress, on the surface, is an urban fantasy with a hearty blend of myth, character, and intrigue. At its heart, it’s something so much more. In the summary alone, we know that there is a pretty vicious murder which seems to be the catalyst for everything set to happen. Tam’s Aunt Tigress is only an edge of the world within the pages though, as so much begins to unravel itself upon her death.

Something that I noticed a few others touch on is the fact that there is a lot of other stories brought into the main plot line. These other stories break up chapters or are entire chapters themselves. I personally didn’t have an issue with the break of main story into a side, usually past, story before going back to the present. My slight (and I mean very vague because the style was new and intriguing and eventually became a favorite) issue was the way tenses changed mid-writing. A majority of the novel follows Tam in the first person point of view. When more characters come into the mix though, we shift into a third person point of view that switches back to Tam’s first person pov. As I mentioned though, once I got used to this shift, it actually gave the book another layer. It made it more immersive somehow, almost playing like flashback sequences in a TV show or movie. I think that’s why I began to enjoy these flips, because it was a really new the way to introduce important information without just dumping it awkwardly into dialogues.

To shift gears from style to characters for a moment, I want to say that I also loved how we came to learn more about important people in the book. Each character, just about, received a glimpse back into their past. Again, I loved this form of storytelling because not only did we get to see and learn more about these characters, but it was also interesting the way we got to do so. There’s a reason, I’d say, for the set up of the storytelling in this, but to avoid spoilers I’ll leave that thought here.

I don’t read urban fantasy too much, but this one was such a solid pick for me. I absolutely loved the blend of Chinese and First Nation mythology, and some history that just aches as you begin to see the threads connecting events to people. It was almost a mild commentary piece, too, in that it discusses some traumas that different people/groups of people go through (like attacks on a woman/misogyny, missing persons/the fact that authorities don’t care about certain demographics, lgbt+ discrimination, and angry father-figures/toxic households to name a few). ‘Aunt Tigress’ feels like it’s something more than just another fantasy or horror novel (which I loosely classify it as horror only because there were body horror depictions that I think push it over close enough near the horror genre), but again, I just don’t have the words to express just what it feels like to me. It’s a story, it’s a lesson, it’s a social piece, it’s a memory of a read that I don’t want to forget. It may not be for everybody, but I loved it so much and I can’t wait to see more from Emily Yu-Xuan Qin!

TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNINGS:

LGBT+ hate/discrimination (from side characters in passing), misogyny (also in passing), body horror, trypophobia/mention of, gore, violence, blood, death, self-harm (to feed familiars), animal death, mentions of First Nation history (missing and/or murdered indigenous women, very very brief and not-detailed mention of school-setting trauma), cultural appropriation (by one semi-main character of different cultures but namely First Nation), (paranormal) child loss, hospitalization, minor and not-detailed sexual content

Content Warnings

Where Shadows Bloom by Catherine Bakewell

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emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 3 February 2025

4.3 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.

I first read ‘Flowerheart’ by Catherine Bakewell sometime in 2023. I really enjoyed it from the whimsy to the deeper themes embedded inside the story. I loved Bakewell’s work then, but part of me knew that her future works would be better with the prose and the flow. ‘Flowerheart’ was a lovely read, don’t get me wrong, but the writing was mildly lacking. It was simple, if I can say that without sounding rude or offensive. I did enjoy the story, but I knew that Bakewell had more potential to unlock in her writing with more practice.

And ‘Where Shadows Bloom’ is how she delivered it!

I know not where to begin with this review because I literally just recently put it down this morning. I’ve gone to my reader friends’ group chat to rave about this read (I actually took it to them before I’d even finished it, but now that I can fully say that it’s a good read from page one til the end, I returned to them with the update.) I’ve finished my playlist for it and have already pre-ordered it. These are like the key things I do if I really love a book, and I really love ‘Where Shadows Bloom’, but let me get started on the actual review part.

I normally start with things that I didn’t really like in the book/about the book, but everything kind of settled out in the end? Everything made sense, I should say instead. I do think it resolved mildly anti-climatically, if I can be honest. I also think that I say that because I have a bone to pick with HEA books where the ending has potential to be soul-crushingly intense and sad- but I am nothing if not a sad girl at heart. So the thought that books can end on a sad note is just personal preference. The ending here is fine and makes sense, and still managed to make me cry on my commute to work, so it’s still a win all around.

While it’s not something that I hate, so to say, there is something that annoyed me. Do you know when characters do or say something that has you screaming at the book/tv/screen, “No! Why would you do that!?”… There were a few instances here in this book like that. Now, I won’t say that I entirely hate this, however. It was irritating, sure, but it also just fit so well with the characters’ motives that had been written out up to this point. I think staying true to a character’s voice is a very good thing because for one, it means that you have fleshed out a character well enough that they even have a distinct voice to make note of. Secondly, it means that it just added another layer to the story. Where a reader would want something to happen to avoid conflict, the bump in the road just makes arriving at the finish line all the more joyous. So while it was a pretty rough bit to get over, it just made sense (and I fear that I’ve said that enough that the phrase is losing its meaning.)

The book isn’t terribly predictable either?? I also was bouncing in and out of a reading slump though, so take that with a grain of salt. It did have really lovely writing though and that I can vouch for. I’m pretty sure in my review notes, I wrote “Lyrical, lyrical, lyrical, ly-“ quite a few times if that counts for anything. There’s also keyboard smashes, general notes of silent screaming, and the occasional “my hearts!!” If that also can say anything about my general thoughts towards this. It feels like a love letter to the way Studio Ghibli movies make people feel. ‘Where Shadows Bloom’ is a letter to love, to yearning, to whimsy, and to a beautiful ballroom setting (but not enough dancing, I’d say). I genuinely loved it. The pacing felt right with the tale, the prose was absolutely beautiful, the POVs added layers of desire and want that bubbled over to the ending we received. Honestly, there’s not much more to say about this book besides the fact that it was a lush read filled with heart. It feels like Hadestown’s own Orpheus wrote this. I need ten more like- yesterday.

Content Warnings

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 16 January 2025

3.9 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

This is another one of those titles that I thought was going to rank lower than it did based on my grading metric. I am nothing if not honest though, and while I had my minor bone to pick here and there, I also can admit that the world building and the overall plot itself saved this read for me. I think the points in these categories really pushed the overall score up, because otherwise I don’t know how well this book would have done with me.

Let’s just jump right in (get it- cause they used puddles to travel in the book… Okay, I’ll see myself out…)

I want to start off by saying that this book snagged me in pretty early on. I had just come out of a different arc read that left me wanting (especially after being my first DNF at hardly 10%) and I was losing traction on this beta read that I had the honor of completing (no reason here, just a mild book slump that had left me struggling to finish reads). So I knew I needed a breath of fresh air, and Water Moon was just what I needed. It had a beautiful world unfolding before me, so vividly enough that I could see it (but the writing style itself wasn’t too flashy and over the top). I hadn’t even gotten to 10% here when I knew that it would be a keeper.

And then the romance came in…

I don’t know why I have such a bone to pick with romance lately! For this story specifically though, I think I know what the issue was. Hana and Keishin falling in love was cute and all, but there was a thread that steadily unraveled and I realized that I just couldn’t forgive this character for it. SPOILER BENEATH THE TAG FOR THIS

If you must know/have already read the book so this won't be such a spoiler- it was the fact that Hana was already in an arranged marriage and Haruto was such a sweet guy. I mean, I had to put the book down to stop myself from crying when his last scene came up! What do you MEAN he says "Dying while I remember you is better than living a day without knowing your name." HELLO??? If he had been a b*tch or just an uninterested guy, then maybe this last scene could have been his moment of redemption, but all Haruto did was love. I miss him, dear reader. I hope he has a different ending in another life :(

So yeah… That and its almost insta-attraction base, it would have been fine. Again, the world and the plot was SUCH a lifesaver for this book. The writing leaned on the simpler side, but it was still able to lend this depth to the story that really gave it the push it needed to keep rolling. There weren’t any snags in the plot that made me stop (from what I can remember) and everything did solve itself pretty nicely while also making sense. Water Moon definitely does carry the vibes of a classic Ghibli film, and that really helped me find the wonder and the want to sit in this world longer and longer. I mean, there’s teahouses you can visit when you dream, paper houses of origami creations, the ability to travel on a song- everything was so unique and beautiful to me that I really did find myself falling in love with this new world! I have never wanted to see something in film more before than this!

There’s also the themes that the book tackles. I think what helped the main characters click with each other was the shared fact that both of their mothers were gone from their life somehow. That fact lended me a sliiiiightly less critical lens against the romance as it did give them a kernel of connection that they were able to nourish. Alongside this though, there’s deeper traumas and regrets that feel more universal and touching. It was all lit in a sort of dim, warm light that you wouldn’t be able to realize its importance until the growing brightness suddenly blinded you.

Water Moon held a lot more beyond its beautiful cover than what met the eye. It told a story that I wasn’t quite expecting set within a lush and lovely world that felt like I was dreaming. Truly, pushing all my issues with the romance subplot aside, I enjoyed this read. It had everything within it that I needed to avoid falling over the cliffside edge of a deep book slump.

Content Warnings

The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard

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3.0

**Thank you NetGalley and HarperVoyager/Avon for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 21 December 2024

2.8 (rounded up to 3) out of 5 stars.

This has been one of my lowest rated and earliest dropped books of the year and I’m kind of really disappointed! I came here with a mild understanding of the book, no previous experience with Amalie Howard’s writing via previous books, and no expectations.

Boy, will I learn to do my research better next time…

I’m a hater by nature. I can hash out the meanest review if I wanted to. I won’t though, because I don’t wanna be mean considering I,

1.) didn’t get far into the read at all (10%) to give it a fair and fighting chance at redemption

2.) should have done my research better to see if this was a pick for me or not.

3.) know that I could’ve been way meaner for another read *cough,serpentanddove,cough* and I wasn’t, so I’ll keep that kindness here again too.

So, I’ll start my review with that much. I’m going to be as fair as I can be in my words because I know I didn’t finish, but I have zero desire to continue it.

“Why not?” you may ask if you know me because sometimes I like to spite read books I don’t enjoy or at least push on to the 20% mark before DNF’ing.

“Because,” I say, “there wasn’t enough to keep me hooked.”

Let’s begin.

I am in the lgbt+ community. I myself identify as pansexual/panromantic. I don’t feel like I have the voice to speak out on bisexual struggles against stereotypes that are prominently made in media. I can, however, bring awareness to it and suggest people turn to more vocal pages and people instead (there’s multiple threads on Twitter/X that I used when making my mind up on whether or not I would talk about this in my review or not so that’s a place to start)

We are introduce to Laleh in the first chapter. She is Suraya’s best friend and not explicitly stated as bisexual, but there is a mention of her having previously dated a woman and now she’s lusting over the prince. It can be assumed that she’s bisexual because of this (or I assumed so at least since bisexuality tends to be featured in books more than pansexuality from what I’ve personally seen anyways). “But that’s not too bad!” you might think and yeah, it’s not. It’s good! Love to see the rep! Until that rep is painted to be very sexually minded. Every other sentence, it seems, is some innuendo about sex, or she’s always making sexual hand/mouth motions. She quite literally tells Suraya to ‘clear the cobwebs’ she’s sure to have since she hasn’t had sex in a while. And okay, the argument could be made that Laleh isn’t meant to be seen as more promiscuous than Suraya, but as more sex positive. I personally think that’s a very thin line to toe though, especially considering the romantic inclinations of Laleh. It can be seen either or, and I just personally saw it as fitting too closely into bisexual (or any non-straight for the matter if you wanna get broader) stereotypes that are harmful for the bisexual community.

I encourage open conversations if others think otherwise and totally am open to learn other points of view! This is simply mine and it left a bad taste in my mouth enough to not like the book. There’s even a part in a different chapter where somebody has transitioned somehow, but the person they are speaking to is ‘uncaring about her preferences or appearance’ after the former character has stated they now go by a different name. This moment could also be shrugged off and I might be looking way too deeply into things, but it, again, did not sit well with me.

To shift gears a little, let’s talk about our main character Suraya. She’s pretty much like any romantasy character in that she’s given this opportunity and cannot believe somebody picked her because “well look at me!” (She’s basic, she’s your average looking woman who doesn’t see her beauty compared to others). She’s a pretty interesting enough voice to follow up until (maybe jokingly, maybe not) says that the prince’s type has to be ‘some stunning specimen with melon-sized breasts and a brain the size of a walnut.’

I dunno… didn’t rub me the right way at all.

To not entirely be a hater, I’ll bring up something I did like. The writing style has to be one of my favorites, scene-building wise. The prose was quite nice and enjoyable in style! I could tell that this would have been a lovely world to dive into via the writing alone. There was just a disconnect with the way the characters speak and the setting. That’s totally on me though. When things aren’t set in some modern-day town or city, I automatically assume it’s some historically dated era. You can imagine how jarring it was to go into this book thinking this only to read, “book boyfriends are simply better”, or “thick thighs save lives”. Ya know? Again, that’s totally on me (or that’s on me for always assuming that more dated settings need to use dated language. It’s a fantasy world so change it up however you want babes, just personally it wasn’t the take I was following so I was taken aback at first)

Anyways, all of this to say (my tl;dr summary): the prose was nice. The writing flowed well and I actually liked it for setting bits. The disconnect came from how characters were being portrayed, and assumed things that I made for the book instead of just letting it flow as it is. ‘The Starlight Heir’ isn’t a read for me. It might be for you and kudos for that much, but I have to pass on this one. Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for approving me for this ARC. I just hate to say it wasn’t for me at all. I’ll do a better job at researching what I can about books before requesting them, but nonetheless I am grateful for the opportunity no matter how short-lived it was.

A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley and RHCBEducators/Random House Children’s for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 17 December 2024

3.6 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

I use a grading system to help rate my books and not gonna lie… I thought this read would be rated a bit lower. Maybe I’m being generous because I wanted to love it where I only liked it, but I’m nothing if not honest. My grading scale ended with a number that rounds up, then I shall round up.

I say this because I had a love-hate with the story. This is my first Angela Montoya read and it’s left me wanting. There’s a bunch of little thoughts floating in my brain but I think it can all be summed up with one sentence-

I felt that the story was romance first over story first, and damn that was a good storyline that got overshadowed.

Let’s dive in.

Okay so we have a pretty good cast of characters. I loved Lalo, I loved Carolina, and I loved the secondary characters of Nena and Fernanda. I think sometimes the characters hit too hard into the themes they were made from and it made their delivery fall short. I can’t explain it. It’s like when a book is built on tropes and shoehorns these tropes in to say that they did it, but it’s so in your face that you’re like “oh okay yeah.. I saw it buddy, thanks”

Carolina and Lalo’s romance was sweet, don’t get me wrong. I loved it, I loved them, but sometimes they did things that didn’t make sense. It kind of goes back to their character types and also kind of goes back to my aforementioned statement. A minimally non-spoiling example is when the two are hiding out in Carolina’s abuelo’s room. It’s late and she’s already gotten onto Lalo to keep quiet else somebody hears- and then they start training?? Like, go off I guess, but I don’t think throwing punches is exactly quiet. They also have banter in the most serious moments and it kills the vibes. They find out some information crucial to their search and then Carolina giggles over something Lalo says.

Oh also- they don’t jest…..

Tirade over, I think it’s a good story in that I was hooked on the background plot happening. I kind of really liked Montoya’s take on vampires and how they started, and the whys to their weaknesses. These were pretty well thought out and made sense to the lore she’s built up. In hindsight, perhaps the romance was pretty necessary for the way the story turned to for endings (to avoid saying much more anyways, that’s all I’ll say). Again, the romance itself was sweet. Who doesn’t like the ‘touch her/him and die” (because it went both ways here). It’s an entirely swoon-worthy read for sure.

There’s also some lighter/semi-focused on topics that weren’t exactly the main issue, but they weren’t entirely cast aside either. The whole time, Carolina is fighting to be seen by her father for who she is, as she is. For many Latinas (and many others with father issues too but just to mention specifically a demographic more likely to pick up this read and resonate with the issue), we all know the struggles of machismo and how papás tend to favor their sons over their daughters. I think this was important to see too in that never was there a part where Carolina was extinguished. Montoya gives us a fiery female lead who finds a partner that can handle it without getting burned. I think that was the biggest saving point for me in this book, the fact that I love angry, stubborn, headstrong women, and the lovers that whole heartedly support them in all their sharpness.

This book has its faults. I can see why people can love it and I can see why people found their issues with it. After typing up this review, I can actually see why I personally decided to keep it at 4 stars. I can admit that I’m being a little harsh in my criticism, but it was a pretty good book! It wasn’t my usual read, but it had a lot of little things that shined through enough for me to like it in the end. Would I pick up another Angela Montoya book? Honestly- I think I will! After seeing her style, I can be better prepared for any other works. She sees the desire for angry women and soft love, and she nailed each point right on the head with ‘A Cruel Thirst.’

Content Warnings

We Are The Beasts by Gigi Griffis

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley and RHCBEducators/Random House Children’s- Delacorte Pree for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 26 November 2024

3.9 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

I kind of requested this book on a whim after seeing that we are birthday twins (hello other Dec 10 babies <3). The premise of it seemed interesting and I thought it fell into all the right boxes for some of my favorite books, so I said why not and requested it!

Little did I know that I would find a heart and home within the pages.

I usually like to start off my book reviews with things that I didn’t like all too much in the book, but there was very little of that here. I get what some people disliked about the language used. In the first chapter, we get the infamous “not today, satan!” quote that I found a little funnily out of place, but not terribly bad? There’s a lot more instances of “oh la la la la la la” (I’m not exaggerating at how many ‘la’s’ either) that were more annoyingly overused, but even then it wasn’t enough to overpower the rest of the story. Besides that, I personally don’t think the language used sucks you out of the story too much. That’s just my personal opinion though!

Next on the list- characters. There’s a good mix of characters at play in this story. We, of course, have the main duo mentioned in the summary- Joséphine and Clara. We get plenty of villagers too, some soldiers (vaguely anyways) and some rich men too far from danger to realize its true effect. Because of all the moving pieces needed to help nudge the story and its central theme along, I think the length didn’t give enough time to flesh out the smaller notes. Yes, we’re given reasons to hate the monsters living inside the houses, but it’s surface level. We see girls with bruises who flinch away from men or girls who do what they need to get out of their homes. And yes, I did hate the men and the boys and the priest who needed to get more than just bit, but if the novel was longer, the dislike could’ve been sown deeper.

I think that’s my real complaint here, I just wanted this novel to be a little longer. I loved the angry main character who yearned to feel beloved and needed. I loved the gentle secondary character who loved all the sharp bits and held a fire of her own in her chest. I loved the cast of girls we follow that support each other, that learn to lean on each other and break their silence. I think I just wanted to see more of them, especially with the ending that we are given (I got chills reading that epilogue at the gym, truly this book has a piece of my heart)

‘We Are the Beasts’ spoke to the anger in me. It reminded me that the anger isn’t /just/ in me, but in all of us, in different ways. This book is for the fiery, feral voices with teeth sharp enough to rip. This book is also for the quieter, careful voices with hands to mend but hearts that burn. I think this book fed the same fire in me that reading Clytemnestra’s story did- and I wholly support all the women’s wrongs that might have transpired during the first page up to the last of this novel.

CW: blood, abuse, mention of child death and allusions to how it happened/what happened to the body, murder, passing mentions of torture and sexual harassment where you can assume what the intentions were but it’s not exactly written out word for word.

Content Warnings

The Tournament of Heirs by Amilea Perez

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

**Thank you Amilea Perez for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: Goodreads and The Storygraph

Posted on: 25 October 2024

3.5 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

Firstly, happy book release week! I totally didn’t mean to do a review this last minute, but I didn’t quite know what I wanted to say, really. In the end, my criteria to rating books left this at an even 3.5 which I rounded up to 4 stars. I’m still kind of sitting between that 3 and 4 star mark, really, but for the sake of Goodreads’ limited options, I will *keep* it rounded up.

Anyways, all of that to say that I had a bit of a love/hate with this book. I tried to keep all my thoughts in order by keeping an ‘info dump’ list that I didn’t quite keep up with- bummer. I do have enough to sort my words out enough though, so let’s get to it.

I usually try to stray from reviews when I’m reading a book if only to not have anything spoiled for me. Regardless, I find myself skimming through them in the end and I couldn’t help but keep note of some of the things other readers saw and mentioned. So I guess I’ll start off with the things I didn’t quite enjoy/things that bugged me when reading:

I can’t quite place my finger on it, but the dialogue felt a little like… awkward at times? Did anybody else catch that? Especially between the family (well obviously, that’s who we followed for over half the book but more on that in a bit), I just felt that it was giving… Disney-channel-family-movie-dialogue. Does that make sense? It wasn’t *bad* so to say, but it did just feel a little unnatural.

I’m gonna shift gears and bring the topic of family with me into the theme of pacing. Perez mentioned this in her instagram story once already, but let me say it here again too- this book is a slow burn. This book is slow paced. It is NOT for the reader who likes action and fast-moving scenes because we literally follow the House of Life for most of the book up until the day of the tournament (this was roughly around the 60% mark because I remember ranting about it to a friend of mine). I had a love/hate with *this* for the fact that- well the book is *called* ‘The Tournament of Heirs’. Why do we only get 40% of actual tournament content? On the flip side, I loved the chance to get to know these characters more though. The slow pacing helps in giving readers a moment to learn about this main cast and get attached to them if only to make the tournament part more stressful to read.

And now to segway this pacing issue into the broader topic of writing style. I didn’t exactly *hate* the way Perez writes, I think for a debut book, it’s wonderful and definitely could grow into something more graceful and lovely. However, I did see the issue a few other readers had in that the content felt repetitive. I get it, I saw it, I read it over and over- it is repetitive, especially in things that the author wants you to remember. It’s a mix of show *and* tell, which I felt didn’t hurt the story *too* much, but it did get a little tedious after a while. I think that with time though, Perez’s writing can most definitely improve into something where the need to repeat facts that she wants the reader to know will slow evolve into another way of keeping info constant without being too in your face about it.

Phew, okay. So you might be thinking, “Well damn girl, if you had all that to say about the book, then why did you round it up to four stars!?”

Uhm, well.. I’m asking myself the same thing…

What *really* got me hooked onto this book was the strong sibling dynamic that was promised in the early book promo. I love love LOVE books with sibling relationships as somebody who has two older sisters and sometimes wishes that we were all closer together, or that we didn’t fight so much growing up and hold those old grudges, or that no matter what happens in the future, we will *always* be there for each other regardless of how much distance is between us (Elle, if you’re reading this, no you aren’t). So when I met Acalan and Metztli, I knew I would stick with the book. These characters were written with love by Perez, that much is very clear. Where a few other characters felt a little flat or just distant because we didn’t get the chance to know them better due to passing mentions of them or.. other reasons (iykyk), I think the main sibling duo we follow had their chance to shine. And I won’t lie, it felt a little trope-y sometimes, a little too much cliche or simple, but I don’t know… I just couldn’t let go of these characters as easily. And I never hit a point where I was like “this is so annoying, I have to stop reading or I’ll become a hater”. Although there was one thing that I kind of didn’t like…

The romance in this was okay. I didn’t really come into this book with a need to see love flourish, but it was something nice! Acalan’s story had a more insta-love type that usually isn’t my cup of tea. It was sweet, it was nice, it got me annoyed in one scene but I got over it. I think the characters worked well together which made it all the sweeter, but again- I personally don’t like the insta-love too much. Metztli’s story had more of a slow burn, but when it happened- oh boy, it happened. It, again, was a nice side romance story. I think *those* two characters work well together too. Necalli has a lot of my favorite book-romance-lead tropes which meant that I’d love him eventually, but I still feel like his snarky-ness could’ve shown a little more/it wasn’t a switch that made these two fall into one another.

I think the storyline went along well. There’s prophecy talks that’s kept a secret most of the time. I switched between annoyed and intrigued at its constant mention, but it played out well enough in the end. I will say that the ending kind of felt a little anticlimactic to me? I don’t know if I was so excited to see what happens that I accidentally glossed over some key parts or if it genuinely didn’t have that arching blow that it was leading into. I don’t know. What I do know is that the characters, Perez’s potential, and the way this book ended has all snagged me so deeply into waiting for the second book. It’s a fine read! There’s room for growth, but I think it’s a nice debut that mixes bits of Mexican and Aztec culture, and a new fantasy world to make an interesting tale! I think it’s worth a try if you’ve been looking for a new book about gods’ games, sibling bonds, and the desperate need to keep a kingdom and a family safe.

Content Warnings

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

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dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

Posted to: Goodreads and The Storygraph
Posted on: 25 October 2024

3.5 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

Full review to come. I literally just finished the last page though and must drop my initial thoughts.
This book was a horror in such a good way. I cringed and I tried to cover up the words while reading the gory bits. I *felt* Ji-won’s rage and kind of hate we were taken along the roller coaster of deaths and devours only because I realized I’m more squeamish than I thought. Still, I absolutely will be here whenever Monika Kim releases another book! There was something just wickedly gruesome and terrible about this that didn’t allow me to put it down. I loved the narrative we got to follow, loved the descent and the twists and the ending. Loved loved *loved* this little terror of a novel.

Content Warnings

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

**Thank you Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph

Posted on: 7 October 2024

3.4 (rounded down to 3) out of 5 stars.

I don’t know where to start for this one. I wanted to love it, so so SO badly did I want to enjoy this! Rebecca Roanhorse hadn’t steered me wrong before so I was ready for another banger she reviewed.

It fell short for me and I don’t know why! It was easy going first. You do kinda start off kind of thrown into this world, but I think August Clarke does a splendid job of pulling you through with the main character. I think what got me confused some was the sudden ‘you’ that was mentioned and turned out to be a friend (potentially lover too I think?) of Marney. Once I got it though, it was like nothing.

I think what bugged me was the pacing? It started off with a bang, kind of slows down, and I feel like it alternates between these action scenes and suddenly slower informational bits. The world building was slipped into these slower bits, and I think it just felt like a dump at times? I literally entered a reading slump during one of the slower bits and found myself pushing through until it got a little better, but I just couldn’t bring myself to force-read it anymore.

I say this, but still I don’t think it was a /bad/ read. It just wasn’t for me at the moment. I do want to try and pick it back up again another time because the plot was good. I was here for the lesbians and the worker’s revolt, and I was not left wanting. I think the info bits were just dragging too much, and I was too distracted to fully re-immerse myself after picking it back up from one break already. Lots of people did seem to enjoy this read though, and I can really see why! At the same time, I can also see how it isn’t for everybody as well. It’s definitely an interesting ready, and the writing style wasn’t entirely my favorite, but it’s one I want to come back to. Just for now, I had to DNF because I didn’t see myself picking it back up again and actually finishing it before it released.

Content Warnings

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sol_journal's reviews 82 reviews

sol_journal's reviews
82 reviews