quillnqueer's reviews
381 reviews

I struggled with this book when I was younger and reading the Narnia series, largely because it's incredibly boring. As an adult, I was equally bored, but at least I read faster now. Bringing us away from the Pevensie family for the first time, The Horse And His Boy brings us over the desert lands connected to Narnia, and we meet Shasta.

This is a harder read than the other books, because while I can excuse the heavy Christian themes of the first two, you cannoy excuse the blatant racism here. The Calormenes are depicted as a wild, brutal, barbaric people while the Narnians are seen as worldly, wise, and educated. There's a constant feeling of Lewis poking fun at Middle Eastern people.

I don't remember the full plot of the Narnia series too well, but I expect to see Shasta again in the future, either in person or by mention. We're told his life story at the end of the book, so I'm unsure if we'll see him in person or by name only.

This was a wildly unique story about a girl whose parents have joined one of the American Christian Cults that believe in the rapture and end of days, and how she copes when this seems to happen, leaving her and her friends alone to cope in a world descending into chaos. This storyline coupled with strong characters that I quickly loved made this such a memorable read.

Vivian is a little messy, and I liked that. Raised to be obedient, she quickly bands together with her friend Harp, but chooses to leave them to move in with her grandparents, a choice she regrets and has to deal with when she chooses to go find Harp. Vivian's character really develops over the course of the story, and she becomes a strong, resilient character in a believeable way.

I think the ending did let this story down a little, with the reveals being a little too ridiculous for my liking. While they did make sense, I think I wanted a different answer as to what was happening. There was a moment that was truly devastating, but retracted it a few pages later. I think that moment should have been kept, as it made the story stronger.

A potential picture of future Britain in the aftermath of a right wing political victory, this could almost be classed as Dystopia, but I felt that we're just one step away from this actually happening, making it feel chillingly contemporary. Recounting attempting to escape London to her Grandfather's with her little sister Billie, Clem tells us of her search to find home.

The start and ending of this story are gripping, but I will admit the middle is quite slow. When I reached the ending chapters though, with Clem making her jouney to Edinburgh and revealing the secrets she'd hidden, I was devastated for her, and almost wanted to go back to that slower pace of life she'd found at her Grandfather's, although temporary.

This is a such a terrifyingly realistic novel, and it's definitely left it's mark. Although this is a sad story, overall it's about hope, and the story makes sure to leave us with some. While Clem's journey across Britain will stay with you, her final words of reflection will too, as she finds lost loved ones and prepares for her future in a changed world.

This book wasn't fully on my radar until I saw an Interview with Susanna, and she mentioned that she was influenced by Narnia. There was enough clues that I gathered throughout the book to guess that this book is actually a sequel to The Magician's Nephew, which may be my favourite and most read book in the Chronicles Of Narnia series.

I was not too familiar with the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (thanks Google) until I finished the book and started looking at his work. Incredibly, the depictions I had in my head of Piranesi's House in the book matched the original Piranesi's art perfectly, which just goes to show how good Susanna is at creating this strange world of roaring tides, buried secrets and ever-watchful statues.

I was so comfortable with the character, Piranesi. It felt very much like I was walking with an old friend, who was showing me around his house and his favourite statues, telling me where to stand as the tides rushed in. Despite the vastness of the house and the secrets that are unburied, Piranesi's voice and the revelations he goes through is what really stuck with me when I closed the final pages.

The start of this book feels like a 5 star read. A sapphic couple hiding from their conservative, religious parents in small town America, Stevie and Nora are making plans to leave when the worst happens - a freak accident makes Stevie lose 2 years of her memories, forgetting Nora in the process. As none of Stevie's family or friends know Nora, there's a question of if they can ever find each other again.

Every time a YA book has a vegan in it they seem to go to extra lengths to talk about meat and animal slaughter for like the entire book. I don't need vivid descriptions of meat or for the main character to bond with a cow that's slaughtered a few pages later, and the actual vegan in the book was so blase about it? Like yeah we're handling 100 pound of meat whats the issue? It's very weird.

The romance was really well done, but I did feel a disconnect from the characters that I couldn't explain. The ending was tied up a little too neatly with a bow, and Stevie's parents reaction didn't feel realistic. I think this could have been more interesting if Stevie and Nora reconnected in college, rather than in the same town.

This is a fast paced read, told in the form of Lucy's POV mixed with Podcast interviews, conducted by Ben. I liked that Ben wasn't overly concerned with legalities or morals, without being an asshole about it, he and Lucy made a really good fit that way despite coming into this mystery from different angles.

The dry wit and sarcasm really makes this story shine, elevating what could have been a fairly generic murder mystery to a truly funny story where I was so busy laughing at Lucy's deadpan replies that I didn't care if the end reveal was good or not. Lucy's Grandmother Beverly really kept this story moving, and she was such an outrageous, flamboyant character that we really need more of in books.

While this is a really funny story, it has it's moments where it shows the darkness of domestic abuse without making light of it, and I thought this was handled extremely well. The final reveal made sense to me, and I loved that the characters, especially Savvy, were shown to be real, flawed, messy people.

It's June, and I've found my favourite book of 2024. This is such a beautiful, hopeful story filled with so much sapphic angst, about two women who end up living alone together in the same castle. The romance is beautifully written, watching them navigate their own hurt and loneliness to finally find each other was so emotionally raw.

This sets such a high bar for romance for me, and the way Mina decides to simply turn up and annoy the Witch with her presence every just to get her attention is quite frankly, so me. They both start bonding over their interest in each other's experiences, sharing quiet breakfasts together, and parallel play even makes an appearance, something I really connected to.

Of course, there is the underlying mystery of why Mina is in the castle, and where her predecessors went, and there's a constant awareness that she may be going to her death in this castle. This story blends many fairytale stories together, and I truly had no idea what was going to be revealed when Mina started investigating. This ending of this story is so, so good.

This story is worth reading, because it's the last of Peter and Susan's adventures in Narnia and introduces an important character, Prince Caspian. However, the story felt clunky and poorly plotted, with the strongest moment being when the Pevensies realised they were in their crumbling castle of Cair Paravel.

A good chunk is taken up when the Pevenies are told Prince Caspian's backstory, but they don't actually interact with him that much later on. The majority of the story is taken up by them travelling to another battle, which is quickly won, and they go home again.

I felt there could have been a better way of having the Pevenies come back to Narnia, and meeting Caspian without there being a battle, which overshadowed any character development they and Caspian could have had. However, it's good back story to have before Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.

This is a super cute story of a millenial woman who finds out she's a Magical Girl, right as a major event is about to happen to the Magical Girls in the country. Although this is a lighter toned story, it has discussions about financial insecurity, suicide, climate change and domestic violence, while managing to tell it in a lighthearted but thoughtful way. I think my only gripe would be that I would love it to be much longer, so the storyline and characters could be more fleshed out.

It's always hard to guess where this series will go next, and after the last book where we visit Jack and Jill's past, this time we continue the story left off after Nancy leaves, bringing Sumi's daughter into the story, who is slowly disappearing. Banding together with Cora, Christopher, Kade and Nadya, they travel back to Sumi's world of sweets via Nancy's halls of the dead.

This story was a little weaker for me, because I felt that it was never quite sure who to make the main character. Early on it seemed to be Cora, and I really loved that the fat rep in this was done so well, and so positively. However it felt that sometimes Cora seemed to disappear and the POV would focus more on Rini, and perhaps this short story just struggled with one or two too many characters.

I really feel like we're establishing the world now, and I look forward to seeing where it will take us next. I like that we get to continue the story of old favourite characters, while introducing new ones and new worlds with vastly different rules. The most intriguing character for me in Christopher, and I'm hoping we get a book focused on him soon.