Recent Reads: January 2019

As this blog has been on hiatus through most of 2018, I’ve been playing catch-up with writing reviews to all the wonderful books I’ve read. The creative juices are flowing again and you can expect more reviews to come in the following month. Since those reviews include a lot of books I read sometime last year, here’s a little peek into what I’ve been reading in January.

Leigh Bardugo – Siege and Storm

It took a while for me to warm to Leigh Bardugo’s writing, but once I starting liking it, it wasn’t long until I fell in love. After I finished her fairy tale collection The Language of Thorns, I had to finally get on with the Grisha trilogy. Full review to come, but spoiler: I really liked this one.

Leigh Bardugo -Ruin and Rising

You may have guessed why I read this book. 🙂
I really, really loved how this trilogy ended, how the characters grew with every chapter, how the plot strings all came together so nicely. The trilogy had a slow, rather paint-by-the-numbers start for me, but it ended up being so much more than I expected.

Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire

My full review will be published in early February but I can already tell you that I was very disappointed with this book. I’m well aware that hyped books have a hard time living up to expectations, but when literally everything that was promised (on the book description, on blurbs, by early reviewers) turns out to be the opposite, I have to ask myself why. A pretty cover and the pretense of being feminist and stereotype-smashing won’t fool anyone who actually reads the book. Sure, this may have sold a lot of copies but disappointed readers will think very hard about buying the sequel…

V. E. Schwab – A Conjuring of Light

I loved the first book in this trilogy, A Darker Shade of Magic. Which made me all the more disappointed with the mediocre, oddly paced sequel A Gathering of Shadows. Which, in turn, made me put off reading the final book for so long. While this was definitely better than the second book, I had some problems with the characters and the (lack of) plot twists. If by mid-book the protagonists form a plan and then spend half the book executing it, without much in the way of opposition or surprises, the entire story falls rather flat. It was an okay ending overall but I’ve yet to write a full review.

R. F. Kuang – The Poppy War

This was a difficult book to read and I don’t know if I’ll review it. I don’t even know where to start sorting my thoughts about it, let alone write a cohesive review. It’s half military school, half war novel, with full on magic and gods. While I really loved the book, I can’t say that it was an enjoyable read. It asks many, many tough questions, deals with dark themes, and because it is so multi-layered, it’s hard to even know who to root for. Definitely recommended though!

On my February TBR:

• Nnedi Okorafor – Akata Warrior
• Susan Dennard – Windwitch
• Ibi Zoboi – Pride
• Katherine Arden – The Winter of the Witch
• Leigh Bardugo – King of Scars