tvislife's reviews
373 reviews

Finally got around to reading this classic, and it didn’t disappoint! It follows Lyra and her daemon, as they become embroiled in a secret plot and try to figure out how to survive it. 

I absolutely adore the concept of a daemon. Even though I had never read these books, I’ve known the basics of how they work forever (I saw the shitty movie as a kid, and maybe it stuck with me from that? or it’s just part of popular culture?). I was excited to read the source material for it though, and god do I love it. An external soul, that we can cuddle and talk to?? I want every character in every book to have a daemon, and I want one for myself so so bad. 

When it comes to the plot, I’m a bit conflicted. I love Lyra, and I love the armored bears, and the idea of a group of people trying to separate daemons from their people. All of that is super interesting! But the whole “Dust” thing, especially as it relates to religion, is just a bit “really?” to me. I get it, it’s the driving force of the plot and reason as to why all that shit was going down, but still—Dust? Come on. I’m hoping the next book will be a bit more grounded and less hokey to me, but we’ll see. 

I can see why people wouldn’t like this book as much as the others, but it’s still a fantastic lil fantasy novel. Kell and crew have to deal with the spread of Osaron’s influence. 

Kell is one of my favorite fantasy characters. I just really love settings in the different Londons, and his place within them. He has (threeish) world(s) on his shoulders, and a deep sense of duty and love for those around them. He’s really easy to root for, even if he can be a crab and an idiot. I loved his storyline, and how it intertwined with Lila’s and Rhy’s. Although I’m a huge fan of this series, a few parts could feel pretty clunky and some of the characterization was meh—but you know what? It was entertaining enough to make up for that, and I can’t wait to read more of Schwab’s writing. 

Not as good as the first two, but by no means bad. The Protomolecule and the havoc it’s wreaking are having more and more consequences, and somehow (shocker, I know) Holden and his team are in the middle of it. 

This book didn’t have a standout character for me like the other two. I miss the cynical yet endearing Miller, and the crass Avasarala with the heart of gold. I liked Bull in this, but didn’t feel as connected to him, and we really didn’t get enough time with our main characters (Holden and his crew) for me to have that balanced out. I enjoyed this, and I’m really excited with where the plot is going, but yeah the character work in this book was much weaker in my opinion. 

Love this book just as much as the first. Lila and Kell went on different paths, but are reunited in an unexpected way during the magic tournament in Red London. 

God I love Kell. He’s my grumpy badass with an unending stream of love for those he cares about (which often presents itself as shoves and insults). I was slightly bored in the beginning when it was just Lila on the boat, but she’s just as badass as Kell, and I quickly got invested into her storyline too, which, unsurprisingly, became entwined with Kell’s during the competition. 

The big magic competition was surprisingly entertaining—I’m not usually a huge fan of competitions in fantasy novels, they tend to get a bit silly when describing the action (which is usually just flying colors or zaps of magic), but this was actually engaging. It kind of reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I liked “seeing” how the different characters could wield the elements. The competition didn’t end how I thought it would, but I am notoriously terrible at guessing what happens next in books. 

I’m very very excited to continue this series! 

I love a sweet rom com, and this book fits the bill! Alex, the son of the president of the US, and Henry, a prince of England, navigate their feelings for one another as they quickly pass from hate to love. 

This was adorable! I have always liked the ol’ “I think this person hates me but actually they’ve been secretly in love with me” trope, and this book fits that to a T. I thought Henry was sweet and likable, and Alex was funny, if a bit too much at times. I go back and forth on whether I like reading / watching things about fictional politics because I find it boring a lot of the time, but this was fine! A bit “rah rah, THIS is what should have happened instead of Trump!”, but whatever, it was cute. Not my fave romcom I’ve read, but one that I genuinely enjoyed and was easy to breeze through. 

Even better than the first, and I can’t wait to continue this adventure! This book follows Holden and his crew, plus a few new faces, as they discover that the protomolcule is still fucking shit up in the universe. 

You know, I was worried I wouldn’t find a character to really like this book after Miller left, but I found my new love—Avasarala. God, she’s the best. I love her no-nonsense attitude, her sense of humor, and how she’s just a total badass bitch to everyone. Just the best. I was kind of worried that these guys wouldn’t be able to really write a female character that I liked, but I was so wrong. She was the best, but every part of this book was enjoyable. I’m really liking the scale of this conflict—I understand why the series is so big, instead of just like a trilogy. There are so many more things I want to explore in this universe, and I can’t wait to do it! 

I’m not usually a huge sci-fi fan, I tend to prefer fantasy, but this was fun! It follows Holden and his crew as they keep somehow landing in shit, and Miller, a detective who can’t let a mystery go. 

This is one of those weird novels where I think the whole is better than the parts. Usually, I tend to really like the characters in a novel but the plot is just okay, or the plot is exciting but I don’t love anyone (Holden was too righteous and annoying, Naomi was a woman written by a man, Amos had one mood which was “horny smartass”, and I actually liked Miller—best characterization imo). That being said, all the smaller aspects of the novel were just okay, but when combined, I think it made a really good novel. 

The characters were a little one dimensional (also Holden is annoying as fuck and I don’t like how he thinks of women) but I generally liked them; the writing was straightforward and engaging but not really special; and the plot was very standard but still somewhat surprising and had some good twists. But when all that was combined? It made a pretty good book! I’m excited to read the rest of the series, but I know it’s not going to be anything groundbreaking. 

A very good book, but not one I’d recommend to anyone. It follows the stories of seaman trapped in the ice as a monster and the cold slowly try to kill them all. 

This book is very long and very dense. There are so many instances where the author is just naming various men and their role on the ship, the number and type of stores they have, or the different directions that people traveled looking for help. Those parts (which were pretty frequent!) were very boring and made it difficult to power through the rest of the book. 

That being said, I did like this book! I thought there’d be more focus on the monster, and it would be more like a creature feature. But honestly, the scariest part of this book was the unrelenting cold and darkness. To be basically marooned in the middle of nowhere, the weather getting more and more extreme, and running out of food? Horrifying. Throw a monster into the mix? Fantastic horror novel. I just wish it was a bit more succinct. 

Odd little novel, with a creepy tilt. This follows David, both “Before” and “After”. David never quite got over losing his granddad, and as a child and as an adult he realizes he doesn’t quite belong. 

I’ll start out by saying I think this author is very talented. Her writing was lyrical and beautiful at certain points, and some of her lines were truly haunting and gorgeous. That being said; this book just didn’t work for me. Despite the beauty of the writing, the actual substance was so boring to me. I could tell it was meant to be mysterious and a slow-burn, but to me it was just confusing and a slog to get through. It picked up around the halfway point, especially when it mostly focused on the one timeline, but by that time I had mentally checked out and honestly didn’t really care where Davey went “home”. For those of you that don’t really care about plots, this might be a nice little fall read, but in general I’d say to skip this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Short, creepy read. I’ve seen the movie years ago, but from what I remember, this was pretty much the same thing. It follows a couple as they raise a sinister little boy, who may or may not be the Anti Christ b

Not particularly scary, but a good story, and a perfect read for around Halloween. I liked how tight the story was, if it had been any longer I think it would have been a bit boring, but this had good pacing. Recommend to any horror fans!