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The Magicians (The Magicians #1) by Lev Grossman

"Little bit Hogwarts, little bit Narnia, little bit Jessica Jones, throw in a vague but believable idea of magic and this is the result. It was gritty and dark and I both liked and disliked it. I'm intrigued enough to need to know what happens next so, I'll have to find The Magician King soon." 3 Stars Pros: Grossman made his magical system esoteric enough that it was halfway believable which I liked/I like Eliot better than Quentin, I hope the plucky comic relief lives to see the end. Cons: They're all a bit nasty to one another, it seemed unnecessary/Alcohol + kids with immense power with no responsbility and no barriers = chaos/All the lying, cheating, drinking, drugs, sex, revenge. It was all so unnecessary but then, there would be no conflict. Full Review Magic is real. Quentin Coldwater finds that out when he's randomly transported out of Brooklyn and to Upstate New York, just in time for the exam to start. He's swept into a room with 99 other ...

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

"An interesting stand alone by Schwab that follows Olivia Prior, an orphan girl whose only link to her past is her mother's journal. On the very last page is a letter to Olivia, expressly telling her to stay away from Gallant. And of course, that's the one place where Olivia ends up. This was an interesting story about family, courage, love and how everything has a balance." 3 Stars Pros: The idea of a shadow world is an interesting one/Hannah & Edgar 💖/The ending was good but, it hit hard. Cons: I do wish we'd gotten to see more of Olivia's parents and the history of the Priors but, I guess that's part of the mystery, the not knowing. Full Review Olivia Prior has nothing. No friends, no family, no place to call her own. She's lived her entire life in Merilance, an orphanage for independent girls. The girls are cruel, the matrons strict but Olivia just keeps to herself. She's non-verbal and can't communicate with the others, so she...

Beloved by Toni Morrison.

"A heart wrenching, story of violence, loss and death but told in such beautiful prose, Morrison's writing is transcendent. This book will stay with me forever." 5 Stars Pros: This was so emotionally and mentally heavy, that sometimes I had to put it down and walk away. Like, take breaks and remember to breathe because Morrison doesn't pull any punches, nor should she. It's no surprise she won the Nobel Prize 👏. And yes, when a book hits me that hard, I consider it a Pro, not a Con. You want books that stay with you. Cons: The part where Beloved, Sethe and Denver are all one and the same, those chapters were trippy and threw me for a bit. Full Review Almost told in reverse, we learn of Sethe, a former slave, who ran away to Ohio, to her Mother in Law, having sent her children ahead of her. They were free, at least for awhile but then something threatened that freedom. We learn that Sethe did something drastic then, to try and preserve what they had. ...

Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey

"The Penultimate in this insane, whirlwind of a series, Corey, as usual, makes the turning of the page effortless. All the same characters with a few new faces and some serious insanity from the Protomolecule had me hooked." 4 Stars Pros: Teresa Duarte is an entitled little brat, but I like her all the same/Timothy 💖 Cons: The siege of Laconia was very technical and completely lost on me. Full Review Since this is the eighth book in a nine-book series, if you haven't already done so, I suggest you stop reading this fascinating blog and go read the first seven books 🤣. If you've already done so, then please, proceed. It's unclear how much time has passed since the ending of Persepolis Rising, but it feels like it's been a while. The crew of the Rocinante are all off doing their part to serve the Underground, the rebellion against Laconian rule. Naomi spends her time acting as an agent, sending out communications to other spies, following her o...

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

"Part research paper, part journal, all parts endearing with an original and fun idea but frankly, the plot got a bite contrived by the end. All the gasping moments of melodramatic realization and "shocking betrayals" just didn't feel all that shocking. It was a fun read but not a real page-turner." 3 Stars Pros: I did like January for all her doe eyed, lid batting, naiveite. Cons: Everything was so melodramatic to January but to me, I was like, "How is this a surprise?" Maybe I was too jaded and bitter for this book 😅 Full Review January Scaller, thinks she's just the Ward of the surprisingly wealthy curator of the New England Archeological Society, Mr. Cornelius Locke. She spends most of her time torturing her nanny and reading in the many attics of Locke House, a palatial estate in the Lake Champlain area of Vermont. When she's not causing trouble, she's playing with the local Grocer's boy, Samuel and distantly waiting for her ...

Slackjaw by Jim Knipfel

"What I thought would be a story about one man's slow descent into blindness and how he adapted, turned out to be more of a story about his life, the poor decisions he made, the relationships he ruined and the abject misery that he struggled with, the blindness was more of an aside. I appreciated Knipfel's sardonic wit but his stubbornness and pride left him in a lot of unfortunate situations. He was a frustrating person to read about." 2 Stars Pros: Knipfel's sardonic voice brings some levity to an otherwise tragic situation/I like that he was contrary from a young age, though at the same time, he made a lot of bad decisions that didn't help his situation any. Cons: This book turned out to be more of a timeline of how Knipfel's poor decisions impacted his life, while he slowly went blind. The blindness felt like more of an afterthought/Knipfel's struggles with major depression and alcoholism were profound but he didn't really seem to want to get...