sarah2438's reviews
1046 reviews

I'm torn on this one. How do I weigh the joy of returning to the world of Percy Jackson, against the obvious cash grab that this book is? How do I balance my critical reading while remembering that this is literally a middle-grade book, and that I would have been obsessed with it if I'd read it at that age?
One of the first gods that our favorite crew encounters is Hebe, goddess of youth, and I had what felt like an absolute revelation as I read that section. At the time I wrote a full paragraph around the chapter title and I'll summarize that here: This whole nostalgia / return to youth theme is an interesting choice for this book because that's exactly what Uncle Rick is going for and why I and everyone else pre-ordered it. It's almost a comment on itself. This is a sequel series meant to suck us in just like this bizarre arcade. It's all very intentional. All of the repeated references to previous books adds to this point too, trying to pull us back in and get us to read them again just in time for the TV series as well. Very cleverly done, Uncle Rick.
(It was 10pm and I was binge-reading this, so I've tidied up some of my language.) Anyway, it's very interesting to mull over how Percy has a subplot of nostalgia and anxiety about moving on from something (in this case, high school and going to college), while at the same time, a lot of us had moved on from Percy Jackson, and yet we are again being pulled in by these new books. Nothing really ends, does it?
Anyway, this was fun. The nods to the previous books started to feel gratuitous, which is really saying something given how sentimental I am. But Uncle Rick writes in his signature style that's been endearing us to him for the last 18 years (brb having a crisis over how old Percy is) and I may just have to acknowledge that my own taste has changed in those years; there's a reason I haven't followed up with any of his other series. Of course I'll still read the rest of the books in this sequel series, but just as Percy experiences the bittersweet nostalgia of growing up, I find that while he'll always have a special place in my heart, but I'm just not as perfectly aligned with him as I once was.

((Cackling over the contrast in critical thought between this middle grade review and the adult dark academia review I wrote earlier today lol see The Cloisters for reference))

I feel bad rating this low when it was recommended to me by a friend but I just couldn't get into it. There was a lot of potential but the pacing dragged and it always felt like an info dump when history or tarot was discussed. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and the repeated references to fate and how much Ann hates Walla Walla just got old for me. Overall just not my kind of book, which is unfortunate since this is my first attempt at dark academia. Hopefully the next one works better for me.

The speed with which I read this has broken my brain. I know I read it all cause I annotated the entire thing. But my brain is lagging with the worst sort of book hangover. Here are my few coherent thoughts:

That's it for now. I need a nap...

Frantically trying to finish this series before I see V.E. Schwab on tour in 4 days. I read this one super quickly thanks to having the audiobook, and I found that I enjoyed it more than the first. The pacing continues to be crazy fast, making this series very binge-able (thank god-- speaking of which, I enjoyed the way that religion was fleshed out a bit more in this book). A new character is introduced where I really did feel that chemistry that was missing, and I think the chemistry builds for Kell and Lila, despite them barely interacting in this one. I could see an argument for second book syndrome, or that the competition copies The Hunger Games (though I don't agree, I think they're clearly very different and this competition is such a minor component of the story), but I think the book rises beyond those criticisms and has some real merit. If it weren't for the author event on Monday, I wouldn't have bothered buying the second and third books. But this one stands on its own well enough that I am intrigued to read the final installment. Fingers crossed I can get it done in time!

Going back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars. I liked this one significantly less than the first. It felt less like a social commentary and more focused on making jokes and being generally ridiculous. A hint of that old tone remained, but it was mostly gone. The first half had some straight-up horror elements and I was getting super into it, but once Derek went to his special inventory shift, it just went downhill for me. The romance felt flat and completely unnecessary (also kinda weird when you think about it) and the attempt to bring in that universe's modern-day social media (SnapYap and hashtags) was just really cringey. I'd say read the first one and call it good; this was unnecessary and not that well done.

I liked the vibes and really liked the twist but with the twist I noticed a bizarre change in tone that felt off to me. Additionally, despite how short this is, it seemed to drag and get repetitive. Of course from the beginning you know a twist is coming but I didn't expect that one, and the buildup was pretty interesting and had a nice dash of creepiness. Overall I enjoyed this one and would recommend. It feels like a horror novella best read in the spring or late summer, less of a cozy fall vibe.

Accidentally binge-read this lol
I loved the story and the writing but I think it was so thoroughly researched that, at times, it was bogged down. I'm glad I listened to the audiobook so that I could hear the proper pronunciations, but I also had my ebook handy because there are multiple instances where the hieroglyphs are included in the actual text. I found the love stories and that internal conflict super relatable and very well done. I sympathized with Dawn while also feeling genuine anger at her decisions. To me, a book that makes you feel things that strongly is a very good book. Additionally, I loved the way Win's story mirrored Dawn's in a way. The twist of how the timelines came together didn't feel totally necessary, but I'm not really mad about it. I do just have to say though-- that ending had me MAD. I mean, come on...

This is my 3rd book by Crouch and by far my least favorite. There were some things in his more recent works that gave me strong "this is too obviously written by a man" vibes, so I went into this with that in the back of my mind, and it's clear that those observations in the newer works held stronger roots in his older material. The trope of "FMC pushed aside for MMC to shine" in Dark Matter and Recursion is actually an improvement from the misogyny in this work. All of the women in this book are in some form of subservience or another-- they work at the front desk of the hotel, they're a waitress, they're receptionists. They're "cute, though a little on the heavy side" or they "had probably been a stone-cold knockout in her twenties, although thirty-four or thirty-five-- whatever she was now-- didn't seem to be treating her too badly." 35?? The horror! (But don't worry, he has just a "shallow layer of fat on top of Ethan's well-defined abs".) And he is such a total asshole to all women. He does a very brusque "I'm an important man, do what I want or I'll get you fired" routine with every single one of them. And the wife that we don't know anything about except how much he loves her? I think we're just supposed to disregard that he cheated on her. Being the main character is not enough to make me root for you, and Ethan Burke really proves that.
Beyond the icky misogyny, the writing was fine and I'll admit it was a very fast read that kept me hooked. I don't really understand why it's a series, so I won't be reading any others. I don't think it's a bad book, but it's definitely not for me.

This is about 3.25 but I'm going to round down. I liked Lila and Kell on separately but I don't see any chemistry. The pacing was well done but I felt a little disconnected from the stakes. As usual with Schwab's work, I enjoyed the writing. Overall, I thought it was good. I don't know if I'd actually continue with the series if it weren't for the fact that I'm going to Schwab's author talk about Fragile Threads of Power, the first book in the sequel series to this one. But I want to give the series a full chance, so the next two books are on their way. Fingers crossed!

Continuing the series of reading classics I'm completely ignorant about and being shocked by plots everyone knows, we have Jane Eyre. I thought this one would be darker, more like Wuthering Heights. Especially considering the woman trapped in the attic. Seemed like everyone was really quick to just say that's normal?? Like the issue here is that he's married, not that he keeps his wife chained up in the attic. Or the 20 year age gap and how condescending he is about his life experience. Jane briefly contemplates being single forever and I would've loved that for her.