Tag Archives: Reviews

Review: The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy

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The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy was so good; I tore through it. In a world where only women can be witches, Lorel, who has always been seen as a boy and who wants to be a witch, agrees to take her friend Lane’s place when the witches come to collect Lane. What unfolds is a story of magic, identity exploration, friendship, magic, grief, joy, and growth. The witches must find the source of a plague, the colddead, that is spreading across the land or else they will take the blame for it and probably be destroyed. To do this, they must trace the source of the magic of the Sapling Cage, a golden cage with a magical sapling in it that allows anyone, not just witches, to do magic.

Lorel is a delightful character and excellent narrator. Her friends, the other whelps who have also recently joined the witches, were interesting and varied and the whole thing made for a good story. I pledged to the kickstarter campaign for this book, which is why I have an actual physical copy. I don’t buy a lot of books anymore. The only thing I find disappointing about it is that it is the first in the series and now I have to wait for the next one to come out.

Weekend Reads: Gross Vampires

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Beth and I recently saw Nosferatu, and it got me thinking about vampire media. I’ve noticed three distinct types of vampire offerings: campy vamps, sexy, vamps, and seriously disgusting vamps. Nosferatu, I think, straddles the line a bit between disgusting and sexy? He’s got that vampy charisma, but he also has somehow both dry and gushy corpse vibes. With that in mind, here are some recommendations of gross vampires you can check out if you’re looking for a new book to dive into this weeked.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Strain follows the story of Ephraim Goodweather, Abraham Setrakian, and others as they battle a plague of vampires that begins with an airplane landing mysteriously at JFK with no damage but also almost no survivors. The vampires cannot be mistaken for your sexy True Blood or Twilight Vamps. It is the first in a trilogy that is intense, heart-pounding, and an interesting take on vampire mythology. It is also a TV series, if you’re not looking for a book, but would like some vampire content.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Sunshine is a favorite here at Stacks Exceed Life Expectancy. I think both of us have read it multiple times. Set in a world of magic, it follows the story of Rae “Sunshine” Seddon and her unlikely compatriot, the vampire Constantine as they join forces to fight other vampires. These vampires aren’t gross in the way that Del Toro and Hogan’s vampires are, but they are decidedly more dangerous and less fun than other modern takes on vampires. This one is so good, y’all.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

They come at night.They are shrouded in mist. They leave you with a fever that portends death. This one is set in Texas before Texas was a U.S. state. It has cowboys. it has Anglos coming in and making trouble. It is historical fiction as well as a vampire novel and it was so good. Oh, and it has a love story. So, even if you still want that bit of romance with your gross vamps, you get it. I really enjoyed this one and the audiobook has a solid narration.

Do you have a favorite unsexy vampire novel? Sound off in the comments!

Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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Set on a small island North of the Arctic circle in Norway in the 1600s, this novel follows the lives of women in a fishing village who lose most of their men in a freak storm and then get caught up in the witch hysteria sweeping Europe. It is centered on the lives of Maren, a young girl woman from the island who lives with her mother, sister-in-law and her newborn nephew and Ursa, the Bergen born newly wed wife of the new Commissioner assigned to the town. Their relationship was an unexpected twist that I really enjoyed. Ursa is not prepared to find herself at the edge of the world in a one room house without so much as a maid and Maren is not expecting to stumble into a friendship with this helpless woman. As their friendship grows, a fever of distrust and poisonous religiosity spread through the village.

This book was compelling. I was infuriated, saddened, and touched. The ending caught me by surprise. If you like books that center women’s stories and historical fiction. I recommend you try this one!

Review: The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

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The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

In this novel, a young woman attempting to escape the military dictatorship rounding up dissidents in Buenos Aires accepts a position at a school in Patagonia as an English teacher in the 1970s. The school is on the edge of the world, in a manor house built by an aristocratic family at the beginning of the century. The home had once been a school, but it has been shut down for decades because everyone caught a mysterious illness and many of the students and faculty died. They say that the house is built on land that was cursed by the indigenous people the family stole it from. Now the school is being reopened by the domineering business mogul who grew up in the house before she was forced to flee the mystery illness.

While this is creepy, our brave heroine Mavi likes her chances at the school overlooking ice fields in Southern Argentina better than her chances on the streets of Buenos Aires. Once at the school, she meets the other instructors and the son of the headmistress, heir to the wealthy family who owns the manor. And he’s a dick. Or, he starts off that way. But then his personality completely changes. That’s not the only strange thing that happens. There is a mysterious visitor in the night. The girls begin to fall sick. The house begins to decay. Everything begins to spiral out of control.

This book had an interesting twist that I was a little annoyed by at first. I could see it coming and I was hoping for another outcome. But the reveal wasn’t as clunky as I was expecting it to be and the resolution was interesting. This is an okay novel. I was hoping for a little more horror, but it kept me interested. If you like slightly creepy mysteries and need a reasonably quick read, this is pretty good. I am planning on checking out other books by Faring in the future.

Quick Review: Chain and Gold by Cassandra Clare

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In this new series in the Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters universe follows the children of Tessa, Will, Cecily, Gabriel, Sophie, Gideon, Charlotte and Henry as well Elias Carstairs who was introduced in the finals chapters of the Infernal Devices trilogy. The new group of you Shadowhunters are James and Lucie Herondale, Cordelia and Alaister Carstairs, Matthew Fairchild, Anna, Christopher and Thomas Lightwood and Grace Blackthorn. London hasn’t had any demon attacks in over a year so when the attacks come again they are not prepared. Especially since they are a demon they haven’t seen before. Now if you read any of the other Shadowhunter books, this will be familiar. It has a lot of characters with complicated plots and full of romance and drama. For fans this is was a fun read and everything you want in a Cassandra Clare. She continues to fill her stories with a wide array of characters. For a novel that takes place at the turn of the 20th century it is filled with diversity from race and LGBTQ. Something that she has had some push back from fans who have argued you wouldn’t have so many LBGTQ and Brown people in Edwardian England. Which is ridiculous because the British Empire was in full force and LGBTQ people have always existed. However you feel about Miss Clare, she has never shied away from diversity in her novels. So yeah, it was a fun read but I think it’s for fans only.

Quick Review: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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I will be honest and say that I’m not sure how I feel about this novel. On the one hand it was entertaining but on the other it was incredibly long. The major mystery was solved and the villain was dispatched and yet there was still another 100 pages left in the book. Bryce is a half human half fae who likes to party. Her best friend, Dannika who is a Wolf Shifter is often her partner in crime when they go out. Tragedy strikes when Dannika and her pack are brutally murdered and it sends Bryce into a deep depression. She doesn’t start to come out of it until she is given the opportunity to help with the investigation. She is paired with Hunt a fallen angel slave who has no choice but do help in hope of winning his freedom back. It’s a pretty decent murder mystery as they follow the clues to what happen to Dannika and how it ties in to another crime as well. Bryce and Hunt are both fun characters and have a love of fun dialogue between the two of them. For fans of Sarah J Maas books, I think will enjoy this one too. It has a lot of the same hallmarks, witting dialogue filled with imaginative characters and magic. The one issue I have is the length of the novel. As I alluded to in the beginning, it had a really nice ending that wrapped up the mystery and dealt with the bad guy but there was still a 100 pages left to read. I understand that events in the last pages were crucial to character development but it could have been added to the next book or at least edited it down. This book didn’t need to have so much in it. It would have been okay to spread things out a little more instead of having it all in one. Let’s hope the next book is little bit more economical with it’s story.

Quick Review: SuperNova by Marissa Meyer

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So I mentioned in my Review for Rebel that what makes a good villain is one that you don’t necessarily disagree with. Nova has been playing the villain role. She’s been a double agent. Working along her enemies, the Renegades while undermining them working for the Anarchist. All because she believed that the system needed to change. The rules the Renegades have put into place were too ridged and anyone who didn’t want to conform to what they thought was right was thought of as a criminal. She and her fellow anarchist felt that all prodigies should have the freedom to live they want to live without fear of persecution. You can’t really fault her or them for that. Things get murkier, when the Renegades introduce Agent N. A biological weapon that take away prodigies powers. If any villain steps out of line, they would be neutralized. The problem with this is who decides who is truly a villain? What process will the go through to decide? When word comes down that patrols will be outfitted with Agent N and given permission to use as deemed necessary to protect themselves. Now we come to a situation where prodigies would be neutralized on site without any due process. The whole shot first and ask questions later routine. I’m sure many people can draw comparisons of this in our society. There is a lot of back and forth that goes on this book. Nova is discovered but Adrian and his team look for any reason to not to believe she is Nightmare, that they are so easily duped into releasing her. I mean, yes a lot of the evidence was circumstantial but also pretty obvious. Nova for her part, sees another way to get what she wants,thanks to her time with the Renegades but also time in prison. She soon discovers that past prejudices are hard to overcome and what you thought was true is not always the case. The epic battle comes down to Nova, Adrian, Oscar, Danna and others to put aside their differences and learn to trust each other so they can work with each other. I enjoyed the series as a whole but I do think they council needs to be disbanded and another form a government needs to put in place because as good as they are superheros, they are bad policy makers and considering that the door has been left open for more books, I hope that this will be explored more.

Quick Review: Steel Tide by Natalie C. Parker

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I really love this series. It just gets better. Caeldonia and her crew have been separated because Cala couldn’t help herself and tried to take on Lir at the end of Seafire. Fortunately for her she was saved by the Blades, a group of former bullets. They heal her and she convinces them to help her get her crew back, even though it would mean for them to go back to some old bullet homesteads and put them in danger. The great thing about this book is that we truly get to see why Cala is the captain and why people are so willing to follow her. She had strength in the Seafire but we had met her after she had assembled her crew. In Steel Tide, we get a glimpse of her she was able to assemble her crew in the first place and earn such loyalty from them. Cala is a little rough behind the edges but she is so smart and brave that it’s hard to believe she can do everything. She has the ability to see every aspect of the situation and come up with the plan and execute no matter how impossible it may seem. Her belief that she is right and able to make the impossible possible make people follow her. Cala confidence also grows, she is still unsure why she is the leader and doubts her own skills but she knows something has to be done and is willing to do it. She has given people hope so the next book is going to be epic. I can’t wait to read it.

Review: Caraval Trilogy by Stephanie Garber

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***MInor Spoilers***

All and all this was an enjoyable series. The Caraval trilogy is about sisters, Scarlett and Tella. In their own ways they both are obsessed with a mysterious and magical game called Caraval. It is lead by the even more mysterious Legend. Scarlett for years wrote letters to Legend begging him to bring his game to their small island for her sister’s birthday to no avail. That is until the invitation to play the game finally comes on the eve of her wedding. Scarlett is thrilled at the offer but doesn’t want to accept because she has convinced herself that her upcoming marriage will save her and her sister from the abusive father. Tella has either ideas and with the help of the charming Julian, Scarlett is whisked away to Legend’s private island to play Caraval. She plays the game in earnest as Tella is taken and to win the game she must find her before anyone else. It’s whimsical and heartbreaking as Scarlett overcomes her own fears and traumas to win the game and find her sister. Now, Tella I do not like as much as Scarlett. In fact if my sister did to me what Tella does to Scarlett I wouldn’t be so forgiving. I was very upset with how it ended and after finding out the second book, is from Tella’s point of view I almost didn’t want to read it. It wasn’t that bad. While Scarlett is earnest and constantly thinking of her sister and others, Tella is selfish and self involved. This Caraval isn’t like the others because it’s the real this time. The Fates who once ruled and were cruel were trapped in a deck of cards and are threatening to be released. The only person in their way is Tella. She made a a deal with the Prince of Hearts to help her get to the Caraval and in return she needed to find the true identity of Legend. Tella didn’t know she made a deal with a Fate. In the process of playing the game, Tella falls in love with a man named Dante who is more then she bargains for. If Tella wins she will either doom humanity by betraying Dante and Caraval or lose more of her family by betraying the Prince of Hearts. Well, things don’t end the way anyone thought and the final book has alternating POV of Scarlett and Tella. Honestly, I really wish it had more Scarlett then Tella but it was welcomed development to have Scarlett back. She was a little frustrating at first because she insisted on getting to know the Fiance she left behind and for little pay off. He was there and then not. Same with their Mother. Tella spends all of the second book, trying to release her only to have her die a few chapters into the third. Minor criticisms. The biggest issue I have that was never addressed is this. The end of the first book, Tella is believed dead by their abusive father. When the second book, they are invited to go with Caraval to the capital of the Empire. Scarlett doesn’t want to go because her former fiance lived there and was afraid they might be seen and word would get back to their father. So what does Tella do? She gets in engaged to the heir to the Throne. Their abusive father is the Governor of the island they grew up on. While news may travel slowly to their former home, it would eventually get to him that the heir was engaged and surely he would have recognized his own daughter. It was like this whole plot point was just forgotten and we are supposed to forget it too but it bothered me the rest of the series. Other than that, I enjoyed this series and I’m glad that I waited to read it until it was completed to start reading it. It’s nice to read a series all together for once.