Review: Twenty Years After

Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Third read:

Ah! Au revoir my musketeer friends! Until the next book! Alas, we've lost some friends along the way!

With each re-read I gain so much more from this series, and I'm so in love with the characters, and the way Dumas writes them. It's absolutely fascinating to read about how four inseparable friends can be divided in opinion and yet still treat one another so respectfully. Athos in particular is a god among men, and even among his friends he's astoundingly honourable. I love how much respect he commands in this novel.

'And when I have signed, Messieurs, what will be my security?'
'My word of honour, Monsieur,' said Athos.
Mazarin started, turned towards the Comte de la Fere for a moment, scanned that loyal, noble countenance, and taking the pen, 'That's quite sufficient, Monsieur the Count,' said he, and he signed.

I cannot express how deeply I wish a person's word could be trusted the way that of Athos is.

D'Artagnan is still a hero with a keen mind, and he thinks of everything. He's also freaking hilarious and has the greatest insults ever. He's so clever he verbally backhands people all the time. LOVE. IT. Aramis is rather politically minded and still quick to anger, but he's tempered by the calm that is Athos. He still has such an intriguing role, and of course he's mixed up with another lady friend whom he's definitely not sleeping with *wink*

Porthos gets so much love from me in this novel because his devoutness simply cannot be faulted. He may be a little slow on the uptake, but he trusts his friends so completely and it makes my heart wanna burst. Every single time he says something like, 'I have no idea what you're talking about but just tell me what to do' I feel my heart expand for him.

These four men are #friendshipgoals and I will never stop loving them, and wishing that modern men were more like these heroes. I guess it's my destiny to be constantly disappointed by men for the rest of my life. *cries*

Guest appearances from de Winter and Rochefort were delightful as I missed them just as completely, and I love that d'Artagnan and Rochefort are bffs after constantly trying to kill one another in the first book. Bless them. Anne is a total menace in this one and it makes me that much sadder for the loss of Buckingham. Mazarin is a douchebag and it's sad to see d'Artagnan and Porthos working for him. Bills, bills, bills, I guess. Raoul is a total sweetheart and I'm looking forward to re-reading about him in The Vicomte de Bragelonne.

Honestly I could go on about this series forever. My heart is entirely devoted to these Musketeers.

If you don't continue with the series after The Three Musketeers, you are seriously missing out my friends.


***
Original review (after second read):
It's certainly a longer story than The Three Musketeers, with complicated politics and a whole lot of new names that are easier to remember if you do a little research of the time and put some faces to names. At times, it's easy to lose the story in trying to remember who everyone is, and whose side they are on; it can be rather tricky to follow. That being said, I will never stop loving these characters. Taking place twenty years after the original novel, our Musketeer friends have aged well, and the first saga of the novel is dedicated to renewing old acquaintances and discovering what's happened in our absence. D'Artagnan is still our hero musketeer, though he has cemented his place as a brilliant soldier and his experience is evident in the way his new adventures are written. His brilliant mind is sharp as ever, and so many of my favourite moments in this novel come from his wit, confidence and natural ability to form a plan simply because one is called for. His closeness with Porthos is quite charming, and I love how much faith Porthos has in his friend even after twenty years of separation. When it's revealed that the four friends are split between duties, I must say I felt quite unsettled, even knowing how the novel concludes (this being a re-read). Their friendship is the cornerstone of this entire series and to have those dynamics shifted makes for tense reading.
The introduction of the villainous Mordaunt sends shivers down the spine at how easily he commits evils, yet there is still sympathy to be found in the form of the musketeers' regrets of how the situation with Milady was handled in the former novel. He is written so as to be hated, but there is a depth to him that also allows for pity. It's this masterful creation of characters that has me so in love with this series. I find it easy to be caught up, and feel alongside those I'm reading about.
The inclusion of Mazarin and a Queen Anne of Austria so different from the first novel was something to get used to, particularly when the musketeers' hatred of Mazarin gave them such respect for the main villain of the previous novel. This, too, shows the power of the decades that have passed. This is a sequel cleverly written, giving respect to time and how it gives wisdom through hindsight and maturation. It is also fascinating to read about the changes that have occurred between the two time periods.
All in all, it's everything you loved from The Three Musketeers, though complicated with politics, a long list of characters, and several different arcs that lengthen the novel quite drastically. Perhaps a little too heavy, and therefore easily avoided by fair-weather fans, but this is a must read for those who fell in love with The Three Musketeers the same way I did. The depth this novel carries is truly satisfying, and you will finish it with the sense that, once again, you have said goodbye to old friends.

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Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Repetitive. The style is repetitive.

Question marks. There is still a lack of question marks.

Nothingness. This book was full of nothingness.

Characters. The characters are the single redeeming point.

Style. Did I mention the style is incredibly repetitive. And that there were no question marks. Did you have any questions. Because this book doesn't.

I am actually a big fan of Sarah J Maas but her writing is getting real old, real fast. I started with the Throne of Glass series, which I love, but the writing is exactly the same between the two series, and it seems that she clings to new style devices once she discovers them. For example: duh! the lack of question marks! See my last few Maas reviews to read more of me complaining on this topic. IF IT IS A QUESTION IT NEEDS A QUESTION MARK. And I get that it's a clever way of implying that the words are stated but 8 TIMES IN 229 PAGES IS TOO MANY FOR IT TO REMAIN CLEVER.

Also. Sentences like this:

Decadent-it felt decadent ...

A year. Gods, nearly a year ...

Pizza. She was craving pizza.*

(*Not an actual sentence from the book.)

Again, a neat way to write a sentence, but when it pops up enough to notice it, the style gimmick gets annoying. It's hard to concentrate on the forest when the trees all have the same ugly branches.

So yeah. The writing blows.

Then there's this obsession with writing detailed sex scenes which, granted, has been there since the start of this series (and is totally out of place in ToG, IMO) but is also starting to get old because there's only so many times I can be entertained by cosmos-shattering smut. That just ain't my thang, yo. YOU LIKE EACH OTHER A LOT AND SEX IS GOOD I THINK WE GET IT.

Now we come to the actual story. Now, this is more like a novella, so it's short and sweet, but rather than actually telling an interesting story, it seems to just be setting up for the next book. This one is just about the Night Court residents celebrating solstice. There's no real drama to keep things interesting, just lots of romance and present-buying. Plenty of foreshadowing for drama to come, though.

So to recap: the writing kinda sucks, the smut kinda sucks, and the story kinda sucks.

So what does that leave?

The mighty, saving grace of the entire series and my love for SJM: THE CHARACTERS.

I love these characters. Even if Feyre and Rhys are SO BORING with their constant declarations of The Strongest Love in the World Ever. I love the ragtag band of heroes - Az, with his calm deadliness, and his soft spot for Elain; Cassian, the loud and obnoxious one with the warrior spirit; Mor with her dark past and loving, wild spirit; Amren who has no filter, and Nesta who is a badass living on her own terms. Even wishy washy Elain has a bit more personality these days. I love these characters. I would read about them celebrating paint drying because there is so much sass and the dynamics are so different that they make every interaction entertaining. The way they relate to one another is beautiful, and is the sole reason I'll keep reading this ridiculous series and basically everything else SJM decides to write.

I really do hope we get the question marks back soon though.

***
On reading the burb:

Man, I don't know ... it sounds kiiiiiiiind of lame.

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Review: Winterwood

Winterwood by Patrick McCabe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What the heckin jeezuz did I just read???

Wow.

This book is so deeply disturbing and confusing and dark and creepy and ... dear lord, what a mess.

The prose is disjointed and the narrator is completely unreliable, which means you have to put most of the story together yourself. I enjoyed that aspect of it, but it also made it incredibly confusing and leaves a bit of a mystery to it, because how much have you figured out correctly and how much is just your own imagination?

It's so incredibly messed up, and quite clearly Red has some serious issues. This dude is what I like to refer to as a PROPER PSYCHO. It makes his story fascinating and horrifying and you never know where he's going with it. It jumps about and his feelings are constantly changing which makes the book brilliantly written but the story utterly disturbing.

This was one of those confounding novels where I immensely enjoyed feeling completely repulsed by what I was reading.

I can't say much more. The takeaway is that it's a well-written, seriously disturbing book and you should definitely read it, particularly if you enjoy feeling uncomfortable.

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Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of unique re-tellings of fairytales but this one is pretty out there!

Here we're given Cinderella with a major sci-fi twist: it's set in the future, and Cinder is a cyborg with an unknown past. Would you believe there's also a Valuable Princess who is believed dead yet would be the same age as Cinder if she were still alive? And hope lies on finding this not-dead-just-missing princess? And Cinder is just a Completely Ordinary cyborg mechanic that the Prince immediately falls in love with?

The sci-fi stuff is unique but the plot certainly isn't. It's taken the old fable we know and love and turned it into an original story that is, in fact, very similar to a multitude of fantasy novels. These novels have taught me that a car crash in which parents die is almost never actually a car crash, and that an unknown past more often than not means the person who survived the Tragic Accident is a Long Lost VIP or has Super Special Powers or even both. Hence, I was not particularly sucked in when I encountered the same story here.

That being said, the characters are fun and the sci-fi stuff does put an interesting spin on things. I much prefer my robots and cyborgs running mad and destroying things, but the science was pretty light here so I didn't mind it so much. It was a bit confusing, particularly being thrust into it so abruptly at the start, and it's hard to work out how much is normal society and how much is Cinder's cyborg-ness, but if you kinda just go with it, it's interesting enough. I wouldn't even try to figure out how all the comm systems and stuff work because I feel like a few technical holes would become apparent and I'm not committed enough to go looking for those.

Some of the writing made me cringe a little, with ridiculous reasoning and small mistakes like the 'coy' pond and the incorrect use of 'imminent'. These things, while small, always make a book seem very amateur to me, and it heavily impacts my reading experience. The less critical will easily glance over this, but for me it's one less star.

I did love the characters, though. Cinder was a pretty typical martyr, but I liked her friendship with Iko, who I wanted more of. Iko seems sassy and who doesn't love sass? I need more sass in my reading life. I hated most of Cinder's decisions, and she frustrated me a lot, but I appreciated the mechanic part of her, because she was doing something other than whining about being different. I liked Kai, and it bothered me that he put up with Cinder being so freaking moody. He's the typical Good Guy but he does also consider the fate of his people before his own selfish desires so that was refreshing. The evil step-fam could easily have been more evil; I enjoyed the nastiness but felt they were definitely not utilised properly. Queen Levana was a beautiful villain.

This book feels like a messy introduction to the series, and it's also incredibly predictable. Was absolutely not surprised by the twists, but the action does amp up towards the end and get pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to the story taking its own path in the following books, as this was all seemingly just a setup for greater things to come. It's an easy read, and I flew through it, but I'm really looking for a cleaner story, better characterisation and more action in book two to keep me invested in the series.

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Review: Black Sun Light My Way

Black Sun Light My Way by Jo Spurrier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If this was a movie, it would definitely be rated R for violence and sex. And I would definitely watch it.

Repeatedly.

Carrying on from the first book, our friends quickly make their way back to one another and grudgingly work with the bad guy we all secretly love, Rasten. He's kind of a dick but deep down he's traumatised and actually kinda sweet so be prepared for some feels here.

Sierra and Isidro are desperately in need of training montages, so they both learn a bit more of the craft but not nearly to the extent I anticipated. The magic is actually pretty vague and confusing and not particularly well-described. This book gets a bit more political (always my least favourite part of fantasy) and there's lots of talk of armies and negotiations and who is mad at whom etc. Relatively dull, but it fortunately doesn't go into too much detail.

Mostly I was just happy to go along for the ride. I wasn't trying to figure anything out, or determine what would happen next. I'm actually grateful to Game of Thrones for renewing my belief that main characters can totally die. It made the tension that much greater, and thus the story more exciting.

Some elements I did guess thanks to some pretty terrible writing, but it wasn't major spoilers. The writing is actually pretty decent in terms of atmosphere and setting the scene, it's just a little clumsy with setting up future events, leaving it slightly predictable in places. That being said, so much happened in this novel that I never really knew where it was going. This book covers much more distance than the first!

The core characters are still mostly lovable, and we get to know them a little more, as well as newcomer Delphine. Aside from her, though, there aren't any fresh faces. A minor disappointment, but not a deal breaker.

How 'bout sex, huh?!! I actually appreciated that it was dealt with in such a no-fuss manner. (view spoiler)[But then it took on its own life and MAN, was there a lot after that! (hide spoiler)] I'm not big on sex scenes, but I was so thankful it was not revered and likened to suns, stars, explosions, fireworks and the like. Sex is just such a base human act, and it was nice to encounter a book that didn't make a big deal out of it. (view spoiler)[Mind you, then it was kind of ruined by the whole, 'sex equals super powerful magic' bit. (hide spoiler)]

Here's a Fun Fact: This book actually gave me nightmares. Legit, woke-up-with-terror-and-disgust, nightmares. I dreamt I was having scones with the queen and there was a Smaug-like Chinese dragon flying around entertaining us but it flew too low and crashed into the ground and then some guy said, 'I'll do it, it's my horse' and then I realised that a horse had been the one controlling the dragon and on crashing it had broken something and it was thrashing around all distraught an dying and OH MY GOD I STILL FEEL LIKE CRYING OVER WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT POOR HORSE, I can't go into detail because you'll think I'm a proper psycho but safe to say I woke up feeling distraught and ill and wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Then I remembered a snippet of what I'd read before going to bed and, look, my imagination is clearly out of control but the point I'm trying to make is that THE VIOLENCE IS REAL YO. So, um, yay? I mean, I actually really enjoy violence in books (I swear I'm not a psycho) but this one kinda snuck up on me? It's definitely adult fantasy, though. It has some seriously brutal scenes.

I think I was more in love with the first book but I still really enjoyed reading this one. I think it was weaker in terms of the plot because it was all a bit unclear to me, but I'm looking forward to everything becoming clearer in the last book. I particularly enjoyed Rasten's journey in this one so will be interesting to see where he ends up!

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Review: Ten Days in a Mad-House

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Absolutely compelling and horrific. I can't even imagine the response to this article at the time it was published! It's common knowledge these days that people were poorly treated in institutions, but to read this first hand account is absolutely chilling.

Nellie Bly faked insanity in order to expose the conditions of life within an asylum. She went into the project not expecting anything too troubling, but the simple ease with which she is committed is appalling, and an indication of the horrors to come.

Cruel treatment, inedible food, beatings and harsh conditions - the women of this institution were degraded in almost every way conceivable. Reading this account made me so furious at the way these women were treated, and it's utterly horrifying to comprehend that this is a tale of real events that happened to real women.

I think it's an important story to read, and I'd be interested to discover just how much Nellie's tale influenced changes to the treatment of those with mental illnesses. I am so pleased Nellie's era had such a strong woman to crusade on the behalf of these mistreated individuals.

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Review: Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ima be straight up - this soared waaaaay over my head.

It's a bunch of nonsense.

I like that it's two guys sitting around talking nonsense and all the possible hidden meanings it suggests, but I honestly don't get it. I understand that it's really, really clever, but I cannot fathom why .

So I'm a bit torn about how to rate it. I found it intriguing to read, and even though nothing was happening and it was all totally bizarre I was really curious about it all. I have so many questions.

Seems like a pretty cute friendship between Gogo and Didi, though. Pozzo was weird, not sure what his deal was. And Lucky the slave ... I honestly wasn't sure if I was supposed to be outraged by slavery or laugh at the absurdity of his dependence on Pozzo.

Seriously, this play is a mess. I need someone who is far more intelligent than me to explain it all. Then maybe I'll appreciate it more.

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Review: Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The movie was better.

*gasp*

YES I SAID IT.

I freaking love the movie. They are all such complex characters and there's so much drama and it was just so beautifully done. It has a lot going on and the performances are so absorbing.

This autobiography, which inspired the film, has a lot less going on. It's always hard to criticise a memoir, and it was fascinating reading about these events first hand, but having seen the film first I found this to be rather uneventful in comparison.

The writing is fairly plain, and there's little colour to it. It felt very flat and monotonous to me. But I respect the author for telling her story, and I'm glad she did because I think it's so important that our media becomes saturated with mental illness stories so society can properly understand the scope and finally accept it accordingly.

So as an autobiography of one woman's mental illness journey, it's worth a read. But if you're looking for a story that matches the drama of the film, this is unlikely to meet expectations.

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