this was just fun as hell. like i don't think it's a new all-time favourite book or anything, but i enjoyed myself so much and the characters were funthis was just fun as hell. like i don't think it's a new all-time favourite book or anything, but i enjoyed myself so much and the characters were fun and it was all-around very engaging...more
i really loved most of this book, but the end didn't quite work for me i think, so i'm left not quite sure what to thinki really loved most of this book, but the end didn't quite work for me i think, so i'm left not quite sure what to think...more
I really don't have any coherent thoughts on this book, let alone anything new to say about it, but I'm glad I finally read it, and I enjoyed it a lotI really don't have any coherent thoughts on this book, let alone anything new to say about it, but I'm glad I finally read it, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. there is a *lot* jammed into this book, and my head is slightly swimming now, but it was very good!...more
this was cheesy and absurd but it was just such a fun read, the characters were so compelling and the writing was good and I didn't want to stop readithis was cheesy and absurd but it was just such a fun read, the characters were so compelling and the writing was good and I didn't want to stop reading, and like sure, it's not a book that i necessarily need to recommend to everyone or anything, but i think it did exactly what it set out to do and did it well...more
it was absolutely wild being back in this world with these characters after so many years, and i'm still sort of processing because i listened to the it was absolutely wild being back in this world with these characters after so many years, and i'm still sort of processing because i listened to the last like eight hours of this over the last two days, but! i enjoyed this very much! i really like some of the new characters, and am quite intrigued by others, and of course it was also nice to see so many old favourites again. i'd say this was a nice blend of old and new, bringing in lots of new characters and settings and plotlines, while also keeping so much of what made me love the first series
there was definitely A Lot in this book, but i never felt bored or like the plot was dragging, even when it wasn't actually really moving anywhere, so i guess it worked? i think if i didn't love v.e. schwab's writing so much, i might have gotten impatient with all the flashbacks and meandering paths in this book, but honestly they were often the parts i enjoyed the most, and i always came away from them feeling like they'd added something important to the story
i'm still trying to fully gather my thoughts, and honestly i think i'm not going to fully have anything coherent to say until the rest of the series is out, but i definitely thoroughly enjoyed every second of this...more
Sophie Gonzales literally never misses! This was so fucking fun
I mean like this is an objectively hilarious premise, first of all. It also does a goodSophie Gonzales literally never misses! This was so fucking fun
I mean like this is an objectively hilarious premise, first of all. It also does a good job at balancing like genuine love and respect for fandom and fanfic with the fact that the main character is,,,,,,,,, sort of an awful writer lmao. Like it's definitely poking some fun at certain fanfic cliches, but it's done in a way that feels very affectionate, and as someone who reads and writes a lot of fanfic, I was losing my shit the entire time.
At the same time though, like every Sophie Gonzales book, it was also very genuine and heartfelt, and the characters were fantastic. This book got wacky and wild and completely out there at times, but it all worked *so well* because at it's core, it was so emotional and character-driven, and I just! love her writing!! so much!!...more
This was a very strange collection of stories and I need to think on it some more before I fully decide how I felt about it, but Carmen Maria Machado This was a very strange collection of stories and I need to think on it some more before I fully decide how I felt about it, but Carmen Maria Machado is undoubtedly a very talented writer...more
this was very fun, i enjoyed it immensely. i really don't have anything more to say, but it was a great timethis was very fun, i enjoyed it immensely. i really don't have anything more to say, but it was a great time...more
i loved this so much but also ohmygod i should never listen to audiobooks in public, this had me fighting back tears in the produce aisle and full on i loved this so much but also ohmygod i should never listen to audiobooks in public, this had me fighting back tears in the produce aisle and full on crying on the bus
god just??? the characters are so good mason deaver i love you so much please never stop writing.
wyatt is so important to me i want to be their best friend actually. and neil is a fucking dumbass but i love him so much someone please give this boy a hug. and the character dynamics are so good too, like!! every character feels so fully fleshed out and authentic, whether or not they have a lot of actual page time, and their dynamics all work really well. i feel like it's especially impressive because neil, who's our narrator, absolutely is not the most reliable in his views on the people around him and often views them very shallowly, but someone mason deaver still makes their depths come through, and.... i want to live in their writing forever i think actually
anyways i didn't actually set out to write more than that i loved this, but it was so fucking good and i want to gush about it, so somehow this ended up being the closest i've come to writing a review in like at least a year tbh. anyways go read mason deaver's books please i love them sm <3...more
please ignore that i started this more than a year ago. it was on my kindle. i lost my kindle cord (or honestly maybe it was the kindle itself?? it's please ignore that i started this more than a year ago. it was on my kindle. i lost my kindle cord (or honestly maybe it was the kindle itself?? it's been so long i don't even remember) and by the time i found it again i'd sort of forgotten i was in the middle of this
anyways I started over again a few days ago and proceeded to spend hours listening to the audiobook when I was supposed to be doing homework, and oh my god I loved it so much
I don't have a whole ton of coherent thoughts right now and also I don't have time to write a full review because I really need to go read Beowulf now for class since that's what i SHOULD have been doing all the hours i spent lying around reading this instead, but this was very good, I loved the romance, I loved the nuance given to all the girls' relationships with jordy and the show instead of dismissing them like would have been so easy, I loved Maya and Skye, I loved the ending, I loved all of this honestly. truly I have no complaints, but honestly when do I ever have complaints about Sophie Gonzales' books
anyways this was fantastic, so much fun, very highly recommend it, way more interesting than Beowulf (this might not be fair to say since i have not yet started Beowulf but also Beowulf isn't about queer girls on reality TV so I think it automatically loses points for that), I'm really just procrastinating now but ohmygod I swear I didn't just binge this in three days because I was avoiding my homework, I had plenty of other things I could have avoided my homework with, but this was just an incredibly fun and compelling read and I very much adore it...more
y'all don't even understand how much I love this series. I'm going to try to form coherent thoughts here finally but I don't really know how because ty'all don't even understand how much I love this series. I'm going to try to form coherent thoughts here finally but I don't really know how because this is probably my favourite series ever and most of the thoughts I have are either complex analysis half-stolen from friends that I can't go into without spoiling things or else just nonsense noises of various emotions
this is honestly probably my least favourite of the series, just because it had so much to live up to, but it's still a fantastic conclusion! there's one thing at the end I wish had been set up a tiny bit better, and I do really wish we got a little more closure for some of the side characters, but honestly, there was so much going on in this series that I think in order to keep this last book to a reasonable length, she sort of had to pick and choose what to focus on, and I think it was done well! the important stuff was resolved, and I have my imagination and a bunch of friends who are also obsessed with this series for the rest. overall, I'd rather come away from a series wanting more than feeling like they overdid it, and for such an ambitious and complicated series, the more I sit with it, the more I feel like this finale was exactly what it needed to be
I think on a personal level, Lee and Annie's Furysong storylines are probably the least interesting to me, next to their storylines from the first two books and the other characters' storylines in this one, but that's not to say they're bad, either! they're still fun, and narratively speaking I think they're actually really good, they just don't focus on the things that give me, personally, the most brainrot about this series. all that said, I do still really love a lot of aspects of them!
going to get into some spoilers here, just briefly! (view spoiler)[I really appreciate the fact that Annie is finally truly given a choice of what she wants to do with her life, after so long of never having had the autonomy to do that, and I also really appreciate that she chooses dragonriding! it's bittersweet, for sure, because I want her and Lee to be happy together, but I also think it's really powerful to have her not choose romance, and for that not to be a tragedy! and I think it fits really well with her character (hide spoiler)] I also really love (view spoiler)[how both Lee and Delo end up in supporting roles instead of being the heroes of the story. Delo's line, right at the end, "Let them sing of others." knocked the wind right out of me, because it was such a testament to how far he'd come as a character, but also because it's such a powerful sentiment expressed in both his and Lee's character arcs (although they of course had very different arcs). I love that this book took these two dragonborn boys who have been primed their whole life to be leaders (Delo by the dragonborn of course, but Lee too by Atreus's regime) and had them realize that they don't need that, and they could choose instead to support the people they love in being leaders and help nurture the next generation. they both could have been "heroes" in the public eye, but they were both able to be much more heroic by putting aside their pride and lifting up others who were better suited to those roles, and that's soooo important to me <3 (hide spoiler)]
anyways on that note, Griff and Delo are so incredibly special to me as well. as much as I understand they were secondary main characters to Lee and Annie, and their story didn't need as much page time, I will forever wish I had gotten to see more of them, because I love them So Much. Griff is such a little shit and I love him and his attitude. his arc in this book. hurt. a lot. that's all I can really say without spoilers but. ow. anyways I love him!! and then Delo.... god I'm so obsessed with Delo. I can't believe we don't get a Delo POV until Furysong, because his POV is so fucking good holy shit. but at the same time, I think his POV was only really needed in this book, because of the way power dynamics shifted after Flamefall. and fuck his arc in this one.... god tier. it's so good. I love him so much. and then of course Griff and Delo together are so good too ohmygod I love when romances are a little messed up but also the softest thing I've ever read. best fucking dynamic I love them so much ohmygod
also the side characters? obsessed with them! it's very hard to talk about the ones that compel me most in Furysong without spoilers, so I'm gonna briefly say some spoiler things. (view spoiler)[okay obviously Power?? incredible character arc. he's such a dick even when he's redeeming himself, but he's SUCH a good character ohmygod. and the scene where he told Ixion he was nuts for Annie? iconic behaviour! I feel like Power's the most obvious character to discuss here, because he's probably given the most page time of the side characters, but I'm also a little bit obsessed with Lotus and Rock's dynamic in this one because... yeah. it's so painful and I'm so mad at Lotus but also I feel for him, because you can tell he had no idea how bad it would get, and he just wanted Rock to be safe, but also.... use one single braincell Lotus my dude. also, I'm quite compelled by Phemi in this one? we don't see much of her in Flamefall, and when we do it's not with much depth, but he arc in Furysong is so fascinating to me. I'm not quite sure what I like... think of her overall, but I do know she's a really well-written character in this one! I can't decide if I like her, because she probably should have had some qualms about rigging explosives before they killed someone, but like. god she's well written (hide spoiler)]
I think what I keep coming back to with this series is how much depth every single character has. even the worst of the worst characters feel so deeply human. that doesn't mean you like them, or even sympathize with them, but you understand how they got where they are. even Ixion, who I hate with every single cell in my body, feels human. he's awful and irredeemable and his past doesn't excuse it even slightly, but you still understand how his past has shaped him into who he is today. and this applies to all the characters, from the ones you hate, to the ones you love (all of whom are still so deeply flawed) to the ones you can't make up your mind on because they're so goddamn complicated and well-written
and then I could spend hours (okay let's be real I have spent hours) discussing all the themes and parallels and cycles in this series, but there is no way I can coherently make sense of them in this setting, so I'll just say there are so many layers here, and they make me absolutely insane. the way the series is both about cycles repeating and about breaking cycles, the way every single detail seems to matter so deliberately, the way this is a story about language and the stories we tell with it while also being an action-packed book about dragons, and I know I'm not making a lot of sense here (I swear I have way more intelligent things to say about these books when I'm not trying to boil it down to something easy to put in a review with very few spoilers) but you just have to read the books to understand I think
anyways this series is incredible and I loved rereading it so much!! also, the audiobooks are very good, 10/10 recommend
first read reaction, august 12, 2022: okay I need time to like. process. but I will say that (1) holy fuck this was so good, and (2) I had not finished a book since the beginning of june and I just finished the last third of the first book + the second and third books in this series in the past 25 hours. what I did not do is sleep. decisions were made and they were bad ones but rn I'm riding such a high from this fucking series that I don't even care
anyways do not be like me please sleep, but also please read this fucking series it will devastate you
pre-read comments, probably last summer lmao
I both need this and am absolutely terrified for this...more
god this book is so. fuck. i have no words (this is a lie i have many many words but they are mostly incoherent and extremely spoilery so i save them god this book is so. fuck. i have no words (this is a lie i have many many words but they are mostly incoherent and extremely spoilery so i save them for my DMs with my aurelian cycle friends <3)
i think this one is probably my favourite in the series though because it's just so incredibly insanity inducing and there are so many layers and there's delo and griff and there's some absolutely wild character arcs and there's just so many brilliant little details and. literally i cannot say anything without spoilers but oh my goddddddd
second read, August 12, 2022: GONNA. JUST GO FUCKING SCREAM NOW THIS BOOK IS SO AHHHHH
I feel like I remembered this as like good but not great, but honestly on rereading it this book is actually so fucking good. I was so hooked, even knI feel like I remembered this as like good but not great, but honestly on rereading it this book is actually so fucking good. I was so hooked, even knowing what was going to happen, and the characters are so compelling, and it was just! really enjoyable!!
April 20, 2021
hi wow I adored this
I mean, I'm not surprised, seeing as it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but I'm still reeling a bit too
like. wow. so many passages really resonated with me, and also I would just do anything for these characters ahhhhh...more
i listened to half of this while like feverish and bordering on delirious lying in bed with my eyes closed so i cannot really say much coherent about i listened to half of this while like feverish and bordering on delirious lying in bed with my eyes closed so i cannot really say much coherent about it but i enjoyed it and the audiobook was very good for listening to while sick so like. good book ...more
this book is so insane and so incredible—I love how poetic and weird it is. I feel like last time I read it, I didn't have the full capacity to apprecthis book is so insane and so incredible—I love how poetic and weird it is. I feel like last time I read it, I didn't have the full capacity to appreciate that, but ohmygod I'm obsessed with this book actually it's so bizarre in all the best ways. it's funny, it's heartfelt, it's romantic as shit, it's so poetic, I want to tattoo it onto the insides of my eyelids
First read, January 2020: I don't have the slightest fucking clue what I just read, but I think I liked it?...more
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