Review: She Who Became the Sun

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tragically underwhelming for a story with so much backstabbing and a side of ghosts.

The plot: Zhu is destined for Nothing, but refuses to believe this and instead takes her brother's fate of Greatness as her own. This involves pretending to be a boy and infiltrating an army. YES, it sounds like Mulan, but this is definitely not the family-friendly Disney flick we all know and love, folks.

I enjoyed Zhu's character growth, and how she was so manipulative from the very start. She suffers plenty so you do feel quite pleased when things finally start going her way, but towards the end there is a lot of arrogance which may rub the wrong way if you haven't come to love the character. I did enjoy that she always seemed pretty easy-going on the surface, and I enjoyed her joking around with people.

Ouyang was a fantastic, loathsome character. He's so easy to hate, but there's still an element of sympathy there, too. Mostly I just liked that he was kind of an evil d*ck.

The gay stuff was weird but okay whatever.

The ghosts were more weird and honestly I feel like they were just a bit pointless? They could have just been metaphoric, rather than making them literal and calling this fantasy. It really bothers me that this book was sold to me as fantasy. Aside from ghosts occasionally being present and a bit of fire here and there, this is not fantasy. What a disappointment. And the ghosts were just so wasted. They mostly just hover in the background and they never really do anything.

Then it's all padded out with these boring war moves and talk of politics and there's just too much of it weighing the story down. You get these really awesome backstabbing moments and scandals and then you have to wade through another boring battle and it just slows the momentum of the story. I just was never hooked enough to want to pick it back up.

So I guess it had some really fun moments and the characters were great but the story overall was just a bit slow and bland for my tastes. Ultimately it was disappointing, considering how much attention its been getting. Not for me, I'm afraid.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy.

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Review: The Woods Are Always Watching

The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

GODDAMN THIS WAS GOOD!

Sign me up for everything this woman writes from here on out.

Two girls are going hiking. Unfortunately for these best friends, their inexperience and a few nasty secrets the woods are hiding are going to make for a bad time.

Straight away, you can feel the tension seeping in. The girls are BFFs but everyone knows misery loves company so their positive attitudes are soon transformed by pain, heat, exhaustion ... you name it. These two girls are not enjoying their first experience of hiking.

The beauty of this story is in how it takes this ordinary hiking adventure and makes it ominous. You really do get the sense that something is out there but you want to brush it off as irrational. The tension builds slow and steady until everything goes horrifically wrong and the terror latches on and refuses to let go.

The relationship between the two girls is quite fun, because you get the best friends whose friendship is tested by hardship. They're having a really tough time so its not long before they start snapping at each other and you begin to wonder if their friendship will survive the trip.

It's hard to talk too much about this one without giving things away, but safe to say I was hooked from start to finish. I was sucked into the atmosphere of this one, and it reads like a horror movie so I was easily able to see it all play out in my mind.

I'm pretty stingy with my 5-star ratings and the only thing that prevents this one getting it is the re-read-ability factor: so much of my enjoyment of this one was in the tension and not knowing what was going to happen, so I'm not sure it would hold up for a re-read. However it was a LOT of fun, so I'm gonna go ahead and call this one 4.5 stars.

Highly recommend for people wanting a short dabble in the horror genre. It's a simple, tense story filled with memorable moments that will leave you shuddering.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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Review: Sistersong

Sistersong by Lucy Holland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Daaaamn, things got real weird for a hot minute there. I LIKE.

Three sisters: Keyne, who would prefer to have been born a son; Riva, scarred and self-conscious after a fire many years ago; and Sinne, the young, precocious child who dreams of love and adventure. There's also a magician, a priest and a handsome stranger, so these girls are in for some interesting times.

I loved the relationship between the sisters, because there's a really strong bond there with lots of surface bickering. Mori and Myrdhin were a lot of fun, too, though a little bit cliche - the wise wizard who acts as a mentor for the girls, speaks in riddles and only interferes when necessary; the witch who lives in the woods and makes magic with herbs and potions.

The story is a little slow to unravel, though I was never bored - the characters were great to learn about, and the magic system was a curious thing. It was a long, sprawling story, but I never felt the pace - particularly as things get rather bizarre towards the end and the action comes hard and fast so it compensates for the length.

There were some rather frustrating moments that made things easily predictable, but all in all it was a story I followed without too many complaints. I was swept up in the Dwarf King story, too, which was a beautiful moment.

An easy read with plenty of action, diverse characters and some unpredictable moments. I found it rather addictive and definitely recommend it for those interested in YA, twisted fairytales and/or historical fiction with a touch of magic sprinkled in.

With thanks to Macmillan for an ARC

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Review: Hard Rain

Hard Rain by Irma Venter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally had a good audio book experience! :D

The novel is told alternately in chunks by Alex and Rana - journalist and photo journalist, respectively - and sees their love story go awry when a body washes up and Rana is the number one suspect.

I actually really enjoyed the narration of this one, and I suspect it made me appreciate the story more. Even though both Alex and Rana seem like horrible people, I found the narration allowed me to become invested in their story while remaining detached from them as characters. I could just appreciate their story unfolding without getting too worked up about them being terrible people. Plus, they were just really pleasant voices to listen to. They told the story really well.

I really enjoyed how things built up around Rana - there was definitely something suss going on but it was hard to pinpoint what that was. I really enjoyed mulling over the mystery without lingering too much on trying to solve it.

Towards the end it did begin to feel a little drawn out, and it makes me super curious about this being a series. I do feel there was enough here that it could have been a standalone, but I'm also intrigued enough by these characters - and particularly Rana's past - to continue onto another adventure with them.

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