Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

From Goodreads:
Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

This was the last book I read in 2017, between December 28 and December 31. 

I was pleasantly surprised with Poison Study, not expecting much from it besides a few thrills and excitements here and there. What I got was a well-developed story with excellent characters and good world-building. 

The character development in this book was amazing. Everyone was layered and there was more to everyone than met the eye. While none of the characters were black-and-white, that did not detract from my enjoyment of them. I was actively rooting for Yelena, and the eventual romance she has did not feel forced or awkwardly put in for the sake of checking off a box. I had sympathy for most of the characters and understood the motivations of almost or all of the characters in this book. There are two characters who are mainly there for comic relief, but ended up being two of the best side characters I think I have seen in a while for a fantasy novel; you can so easily believe their friendship and their devotion to Yelena as well as their dedication to their jobs and to their boss. 

As I mentioned, this book has amazing world-building. Ixia and its ruling/justice system was set up rather well with the backstory being told in a believable way (that is, an info-dump that doesn't have an info-dump feeling). I could very easily see this world existing, as well as the unrest in its society. The world-building will probably be even better in the next book of the series. The fantastical elements in this book are subtle enough that it can't outright be called a fantasy novel, but they are prevalent to the story and to the world that Maria V Snyder has built in Ixia.

The writing style is unique in the sense that it is not elegant or flowery like I was expecting it to be going into it. It has a very not-elegant writing style which I think works for this story. Right off the bat it describes Yelena's current situation and pulled me in instantly. The fight scenes were written excitingly While there were things that were not answered in this book, it is only the first in this trilogy and some answers are being set up to appear in the second or third book. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger but it works well. I have the other two books ready to go, but will space them out a little bit. 

Poison Study surprised me in the best way. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It had great character development, a fitting writing style, exciting moments, excellent world-building, and sets up well for the second book in the series. I can't wait to read the next one. I loved this book so much and I'm going to give it a 5/5. 

Beyond the Wild River by Sarah Maine

From Goodreads:
Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business—and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners—so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.

Yet the consequence is a welcome one: she is to accompany her father on a trip to North America, where they’ll visit New York City, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and conclude with a fishing expedition on the Nipigon River in Canada. Now is her chance to escape her cloistered life, see the world, and reconnect with her father.

Once they’re on the Nipigon, however, Evelyn is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, the former stable hand and her one-time friend who disappeared from the estate after the shootings of a poacher and a gamekeeper. Many had assumed that James had been responsible, but Evelyn never could believe it. Now, in the wilds of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the truth about that day, James, and her father will be revealed…to stunning consequences.

This book was quite different than I expected it to be - and that's a good thing! 

Beyond the Wild River is Sarah Maine's second novel, and the first novel by her that I have read. Her writing style works very well with the time period she is writing about, making it more believable and realistic. I enjoyed her writing style and how it adapted to fit the settings that she was writing for. 

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I found my thoughts returning to this book often when I couldn't read it, and after I had finished reading it. The characters were well-developed and each person in this book could have been guilty in the crime - the setting really helped with this too. No one could escape without looking suspicious or ominous in the boonies of the area surronding Thunder Bay, Ontario (northern and northwestern Ontario is pretty sparse to begin with, even when it's not the boonies). 

Each element of the book was engaging in its own right. I had no idea who the killer would be until it was revealed. I was rooting for Evelyn and James. I wanted Evelyn to reconnect with her estranged father. While some of the more minor characters were less developed than I would have liked, they too added much to the overall story and in certain cases, showed the contrast between Evelyn and James with everyone else. 

While it moved a bit slowly in the middle, I think it was important to set up the climax and finale. The descriptions were well-done and added a lot to the novel, even making Nipigon River and the surrounding campsite a character of its own as well. The descriptions and Sarah Maine's characters made for a very engrossing read. The way Maine writes her characters makes them have credibility and authenticity. I liked how she keeps the reader guessing, like a game of nineteenth-century Clue. 

All in all Beyond the Wild River, while it does have some slower-paced moments from time to time, is a well-written and well-imagined novel. The use of nature makes it more intense and intimidating and adds to the atmosphere of the book. The characters are well-developed and have authenticity about them. The romance did not feel forced or come out of nowhere and was well-developed, too. Sarah Maine's writing style is very well-established in this book and her descriptions and characterizations make it a compelling read. I'm going to give Beyond the Wild River a 4/5. 

An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet

From Goodreads:
Six months ago, the men of the lakelands marched south to fight a dark god. 

Weeks after the final battle was won, sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister, Marthe, are still struggling to maintain their family farm—and are waiting for Marthe’s missing husband to return. After a summer of bitter arguments, Hallie is determined to get Roadstead Farm through the winter—and keep what’s left of her family together, despite an inheritance destined to drive them apart. 

But when Hallie hires a wandering veteran in a bid to save the farm, every phantom the men marched south to fight arrives at her front gate. Spider-eyed birds circle the fields, ghostly messages write themselves on the riverbank, and soon Hallie finds herself keeping her new hired hand’s desperate secrets—and taking dangerous risks. But as she fights to keep both the farm and her new friend safe, ugly truths about her own family are emerging—truths that, amid gods, monsters, and armies, might tear Roadstead Farm apart. 

I read a couple of not as good as expected books in the fall before I started on my assignments and essays for school. This was one of them. 

I bought this book in August-ish, hoping for a good book about the apocalypse war, the aftermath, and how the war would come back. Those things kind of happened, but not as I expected. It has a good premise, and a good writing style. It just has too many moments where things fall short or fall flat on their face, making it a difficult book to plough through. 

My biggest problem is that there are far too many conflicts: there's the sisterly conflict, the bigger family history conflict, the conflict with the farm hand, with the town, with the neighbours, the mayor. It seems like everyone has a conflict with Hallie, our main character and narrator. It has some good moments, but there are just too many conflicts, which bogs down the book and makes it be unfocused. While some of the conflicts are necessary for the plot and the overall narrative and tone of the book, some could have easily been removed and made the book be way more focused than it was. 

I found that Hallie was more well-developed than the sister, Marthe. But besides Hallie and the farm hand Heron (whose real identity I knew right away when he was introduced), none of the characters were all that well developed. It was frustrating at times. Marthe was a horribly portrayed person and I did not feel sympathy towards her. She was an awful human being and then she just turned around and did an unjustified 180 towards the end of the book when the plot called for it, which led to more frustration because that conflict is one of the more necessary ones. The love interest sort of came out of nowhere and all of a sudden we're meant to care about their burgeoning relationship. 

While Leah Bobet has an excellent writing style, it's diminished by the inundation of plot threads, slow pacing, and too many conflicts going on in the novel. It was really her writing style, and the creepy, not-quite-right atmosphere that kept me going throughout this book. I had so many questions while reading this book that did not get answered or were glossed over by other things, even the important one, like how did the war start? who was the god? Things like that detracted greatly from the overall enjoyment of the novel.

An Inheritance of Ashes is ultimately a pretty forgettable novel. It took me longer to read it than usual because a) I was in the middle of assignments and b) it was so slowly paced and I didn't really care that much about what happened. There is way too much going on in this book that it did not have a focus. The characters were not really that well-developed and it really took all I had to not DNF this book. That being said, the writing style of Leah Bobet, and her creation of tone and atmosphere was very well-done, and was probably the best part of the book. It had a lot of potential to be a great novel, which disappoints me. I'm going to give An Inheritance of Ashes a 2/5.  

The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

From Goodreads:
When Winter’s dad goes missing during his nightly patrol of the wood, it falls to her to patrol the time portals and protect the travelers who slip through them. Winter can't help but think there's more to her dad's disappearance than she's being told.

She soon finds a young man traveling in the wood named Henry who knows more than he should. He believes if they can work together to find his missing parents, they could discover the truth about Winter’s dad. 

The wood is poisoned, changing into something sinister—torturing travelers lost in it. Winter must put her trust in Henry in order to find the truth and those they’ve lost. 

I tried, I really did.

The Wood has an interesting premise. Time travel and a sick forest? Sign me up! Also, the cover is really pretty. But there was not any blood or gore in this novel. If there was, it was minimal and not integral to the overall plot.

This book had an interesting premise and set-up, but it took its sweet time getting anywhere. One of the first things I noticed was the amount of "filler" that set up the in between scenes when nothing was going on. The filler stuff didn't amount to much which detracted heavily from the novel and added an amount of boredom to my reading experience leading me to skim-read or ask that dreaded question again that I mentioned last year in my Indelible review: so what? If this little moment or scene isn't adding anything to the overall story, what is its purpose to the novel besides filling in gaps that don't necessarily need to be filled in? It's called reading in between the lines. Bobulski does have a good writing style, she really does, especially when it comes to romance, but I didn't understand the need to put in unnecessary moments and scenes when stuff wasn't going down.

While I did not mind the character of Winter, I found her to indulge in the typical YA cliches a lot, like not telling her mom about the eighteenth century man she's keeping in her bedroom, or her best friend that she has to protect the woods and the people that inadvertently find their way into. Like ... shouldn't that be information you divulge to two of your most important people? I found the best friend character Meredith to be grating from time to time but perhaps if she had been developed or have more page-time, I would have received her better. The only two characters that are well-developed are Winter and Henry, who just oozes Ichabod Crane from the TV show Sleepy Hollow (which was an awful show past season 1, don't watch it).

The Wood lacked that pull that novels of this type should have. I should want to keep reading. I should want to know what happens next. But I didn't really. I finished it. It got better at maintaining the "pull" in the latter half, but the first half was a drudge to get through. The twist of who the bad guy was was also very predictable. I was not surprised in the slightest. My non-surprise of the villain's true identity could speak for the rest of the novel - I was not fazed by much in this book, which made it forgettable and easier to put down in favour of doing something else.

The Wood isn't an awful book. It's not the greatest book ever, either. It's very bland in a lot of places, however. It did not do what was advertised in the summary on the back of the book. It had some good moments, and Bobulski has a good writing style, but that does not redeem all of the book's shortcomings. I'm going to give The Wood 2.5/5 - it's okay, but it's bogged down by many unnecessary and/or predictable moments.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

From Goodreads: 
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. 

First post of 2018! (And first post in like 4 months, sheesh) 

I actually read this book when it came out on October 10, 2017, and was all set up to post about it when I finished it. But fourth year is like a void of work and assignments and getting up at 6:45am to be on the bus for 7:40 to be at school for 8:20 so I could work on assignments for 8 weeks. And then Christmas break came along, and I was focused on doing other things. So, there's that. But I still have a week left off school before I go back, and besides working and getting my textbooks for the semester, I'll post about all of the books that I have read between All the Birds in the Sky and now. Starting with this one.

John Green is a talented writer. He knows his typical demographic well. However, the only book of his previous to this one that I really enjoyed was The Fault in Our Stars. Every other book of his has left me feeling indifferent or slightly annoyed. What's so beautiful about Turtles is that you don't have to be a 16-year-old girl to appreciate and enjoy this book. Unlike his other novels, this one is autobiographical in a lot of ways, since he suffers from OCD similar to that of his main protagonist Aza. The moments portraying Aza's crippling thought spirals are intense and terrifying and well-portray what someone with OCD might go through. Although I do not have mental illness, this book spoke to me in a way that cannot be described. It's emotional, heartfelt, and realistic. I also learned first-hand that this is not a book to read on the bus. 

While there are the typical John Green cliches, they are drastically downplayed compared to his previous four novels. The characters are all well-realized and developed, and can see their plights and struggles easily. But since it is written from the point of view of someone who is stuck in her own head, it takes a while to see how they are feeling about things, and how Aza's mental illness affects them, which is great writing from John Green. The romance in this book, while an important part of the story, did not overwhelm the narrative and showed an important thing that more people need to understand: love does not and cannot fix mental illness, no matter how strong the love is. It shows the ebb and flow of life, and shows that while sometimes things can be bad, that doesn't mean that things will always be bad.

While the plot and actual storyline runs a bit thin and rushed, I think that is necessary for a book like this. It shows the temporality of things and events in life, and shows that not everything is permanent. It is by far more a character-driven novel than a plot-driven novel. I don't think it would have worked as well as it did had it beeen a plot-driven novel instead of a character-driven novel. If it had been a plot-driven novel, it would not have been so upfront about mental illness and would have either candy-coated it or beaten around the bush which would have detracted from the novel greatly.

Turtles All the Way Down is an unblinking, realistic look at mental illness and how it affects those struggling with it and those around them. It highlights the importance of love and friendship. It shows that every one has a different, personal story with mental illness (there is no universal depiction of mental illness, only variations). This story strayed away from usual cliches of illness narratives and instead of having a boyfriend save her from her mental illness, depicted a very realistic portrayal of how a boyfriend/girlfriend can't save someone from their mental illness. Turtles is a great and emotional novel with a lot of heart. I'm going to give it 4/5

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

From Goodreads:
Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families.

But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together—to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

If Wes Anderson ever made a movie based on a book, I could very easily see him adapting this book. It's creative and imaginiative and just the right amount of quirky. Not so much that it's off-turning. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and took my time with it, because it is not a book that you should read in one or two sittings over the span of a couple of hours. This book demands that you savour it, and savour it I did. 

This is the first Charlie Jane Anders novel I've read, and it won't be my last. I loved everything about this book. It was funny, it was clever, and it was just so weird in the best possible way. But as weird and quirky as it was, it was also very real. Anders utilizes the idea of magical realism in this book a lot, and it works well for the story she is telling here. I could very easily imagine these events happening, even the magic-y stuff, since I am a believer in magics both small and big, noticed and unnoticed. The magical realism adds another level of charm and quirkiness to this book that just makes it that more compelling and readable. Like I said earlier, this book demands that you take your time with it, or at least, it made that demand of me. I read this book in little bits over the course of four days. 

This book makes the claim that it is about love, life, and the apocalypse. It absolutely is. While it's an odd combination, Charlie Jane Anders' writing style makes it work really well so that it is realistic and compelling. Her writing style is unlike anything that I have read before; it's almost as if the narrator is having a conversation with the reader and uses terms such as "And then Patricia was like ..." which is very true to life. I loved seeing a departure from more aloof (for lack of a better word) narration style that you sometimes see in books like this. Her writing style added so much to the charm and quirkiness of the book. The writing style in All the Birds in the Sky was such a huge added bonus for me, and if it had been anything other than what it is, I probably would have enjoyed it less than I did. 

The characters were well fleshed out and relateable. I feel like after reading 432 pages, I could very easily tell you about Patricia and Laurence and what makes them tick. I loved that the love in this book was both romantic love and platonic love. The characters in this book are very well-developed which is great because in order for a novel like this to work, you need to have compelling characters in order to tell the story correctly and in a unique way. The characters also brought a lot to the table, and also upped my enjoyability of this novel. Nothing is worse than a magical realism novel with less than compelling characters. Even the side characters were well-developed and interesting. I could read entire novels about the side characters that show up in this book.

All the Birds in the Sky is one of the most unique, charming, and quirky novels I've ever read. It has great characters, a compelling and interesting story, and a great and unique writing style. It is just the right amount of weird that it works and I'm so glad that it is weird and quirky because if it was anything else, this book wouldn't have been so enjoyable. I loved this book so much. I'm giving All the Birds in the Sky 5/5 - I can't wait to see what Charlie Jane Anders does next. 

Wild Fell by Michael Rowe

From Goodreads:
The crumbling summerhouse called Wild Fell, soaring above the desolate shores of Blackmore Island, has weathered the violence of the seasons for more than a century. Built for his family by a 19th-century politician of impeccable rectitude, the house has kept its terrible secrets and its darkness sealed within its walls. For a hundred years, the townspeople of Alvina have prayed that the darkness inside Wild Fell would stay there, locked away from the light. Jameson Browning, a man well acquainted with suffering, has purchased Wild Fell with the intention of beginning a new life, of letting in the light. But what waits for him at the house is devoted to its darkness and guards it jealously. It has been waiting for Jameson his whole life - or even longer. And now, at long last, it has found him!

It's a sign when it takes four days to finish a 180 page book. 

The one thing I keep coming back to when I think about this book is how I wish it were longer than 180 pages. 

I went into this book thinking that most of it would take place at the haunted house and it would be about an old haunted house, that the main character/narrator has to find the hidden meaning behind. It is ... for the last 50-ish pages (not counting the prologue). Most of the story is devoted to his upbringing, his strife-filled childhood and early adulthood, and his relationship with his father. That being said, I did really like the writing style that author Michael Rowe has in this novel. It had a real page-turning quality that I enjoyed. While I did take four days to finish this relatively short novel, whenever I was reading this book, I found I could not put it down. There are some really chilling moments during the "formative years" section which Michael Rowe does well. 

I did enjoy reading about the main character Jameson "Jamie" Brown and his upbringing. He is no stranger to strife. I found him to be mainly sympathetic, but I found my sympathy for him waning by the end of the novel. I had so many unanswered questions about Jamie and about the other characters that are briefly featured in this novel. The main reason I wish this book was longer is to see more of the supporting characters and more of the creepy "mirror-friend" that shows up in his childhood, and then again at the very end. I wanted to see more of Jamie's relationship with his father, and I especially wanted to see what led him to look for the haunted house and eventually purchase it, despite the lunatic real estate agent. 

 The haunted house in question, however, doesn't show up in present time until near the very end, and then it is rushed and filled with cheap, cliche scares that can easily be found in a B-grade horror movie. I feel as though it was really rushed at the end. And it featured some of the most squirmy and squickish moments I've read - and not in a good way - about 30 pages before the ending. It would have been nice if the book were longer so that there was more set-up, explanation, and more of a cohesive conclusion that wraps things up more coherently. 

Wild Fell is ultimately a mish-mash of great and OK at best. The writing is great for the majority of the book, but sort of falls apart in the latter section of the novel as it is reaching its close. While there are some chilling and creepy moments in the beginning and middle sections, and some in the concluding section, the conclusion was unfortunately kind of sloppy and rushed with some REALLY squicky and squirmish moments near the end. It would have been much better had Wild Fell been even 50 pages longer to have more of a set-up that would play into a better pay-off. I was looking forward to this book, but I was ultimately disappointed. I'm giving Wild Fell a 2.5/5 - it had some great writing and the "Jamie's Childhood" section was really well done, but it just fell apart and was super rushed at the end; I am positive that I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it had been slightly longer than 180 pages