MASSIVE Book Haul – 25+ Books

I’ve been buying books like crazy over the past few of months. So a book haul is long overdue. This is going to be pretty long, so let’s get right to it. If I have a review of a book, it’ll be linked.

 

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson | The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton | Sabriel by Garth Nix | Temeraire by Naomi Novik | The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare | City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare | Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling | The Bat by Jo Nesbo | Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

The School For Good and Evil by Soman Chainani | Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo | A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (20th anniversary Ravenclaw edition) by J. K. Rowling | The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

The Wrath and the Dawn by Rene Ahdieh | Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman| Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey | Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare | What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings by Johann van Goethe | Ready Player One by Ernest Cline | Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Mass | Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff | The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valante | The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Sabriel by Garth Nix – Spoiler Free Book Review

Rating: 4/5 stars

First published: 1995

Genre: YA fantasy

Author: Garth Nix

Synopsis: Since childhood, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who refuse to stay dead. But now her father, the Abhorson, is missing, and Sabriel must cross into that world to find him. With Mogget, whose feline form hides a powerful, perhaps malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage, Sabriel travels deep into the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life and comes face-to-face with her own hidden destiny

Book Depository | Goodreads

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This was a pretty unique book. It was published quite a while ago (it’s older than I am!), when YA wasn’t quite the big thing that it is now. I really enjoyed this book, for the most part. The story was really cool, it has to do with necromancers and traveling between life and death. I got an Underworld/ Dante’s Inferno vibe from it, which was really cool and not something that’s explored that often in YA.

I really enjoyed the magic system. It’s very rigorous and strict. Usually, you see magic as a sort of free, raw power that just manifests itself. But here, it’s very strict. It’s strictly tied to music, which I thought was really cool, and also to these symbols and runes and to magical objects as well. I found that really interesting to read about and I really look forward to exploring more of it.

I did enjoy the characters. I didn’t connect to them as much as I would have liked, but they were good characters. I love Mogget. Mogget is my favourite, he’s the only one that I actually connected with.

The world was pretty interesting. There’s this wall that separates the magical Old Kingdom from a version of the real world. I don’t think it takes place in our world, per se, but one side of the wall is like our world. They have cars and electricity and the same sort of societal structure that we do. I loved Abhorsen’s house in the Old Kingdom and I really hope we get to see more of it in future books. I also loved Death, which reminds me of the Underworld in Greek Mythology, but also of hell as depicted in Dante’s Inferno, with the nine circles. It’s really cool and interesting and I really enjoyed that aspect.

The one thing I didn’t really like was the writing. It’s not bad writing, it’s just not to my taste. I had a hard time connecting to it. It didn’t involve me enough in the story, or with the characters and as a result, I cared a lot less about them than I would have otherwise. Still I will be continuing with the series.

February -April 2017 Wrap Up

It’s been an age since I’ve done a wrap up. I think probably the last one was in January. That’s because I didn’t read much in February. Or March. Even April has been only okay. *sigh* Life just kept getting in the way. Anyway, here are the books I’ve read since January. I have reviews for most of them, so I’ll link those if you are interested.

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 Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

5/5 stars

I think this is the only book that I read in February. At least it was a good book. I loved everything about it and I cannot wait for the second one to come out. This book was just badass. I have a spoilerfree review of it, if you would like to know more.

A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab

5/5 stars

The conclusion to her Shades of Magic series. It was SO. FREAKING. GOOD! I love this series so much and Victoria has been announced as a guest at YALC this summer and I just can’t wait to meet her! It was such a good conclusion to such an awesome series. It made me feel feelings, okay? I also have a review of this, if you would like to know more of my thoughts.

 

The Waste Land by T. S. Elliot

3/5 stars

This is not so much a book. It’s just a long poem. I don’t read a lot of poetry, and when I do, I often don’t enjoy it. This was the case with this. I felt that there was too much background reading that was necessary to understand this poem and I didn’t get it. I feel like everyone should be able to take something out of a good poem, regardless of whether they’ve read as extensively as the poet has.

 

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

5/5 stars

This was a re-read for me. I was deeply into a reading slump and I wanted something light and easy to read, but also kind of clever and engaging. I read this book last year and was surprised by how much I loved it. I really enjoyed it the second time around as well, and it actually helped pull me out of my reading slump, at least a little. I have a full review of it if you’re interested.

 

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

4.5/5 stars

This is the second book in The Raven Cycle series. I liked it a lot more than I liked the first one. I’s not that I didn’t like the first one, it’s just that this one cleared up a lot of the things that had me confused in the first book.  It was a little bit slow in terms of the plot progression, but there was plenty of character development, so I didn’t really mind. I also have a review of this one.

 

Replica by Lauren Oliver

4.5/5 stars

The first Lauren Oliver book I’ve read. I enjoyed it quite a lot, I read it in one day. I thought the way it was written was very engaging and I really liked the themes it explored. It’s almost entirely character driven, so it may not be for everyone. The plot really wasn’t that good. It wasn’t bad, it was just meh. But I got the impression that the plot was more of a backdrop for exploring the themes the author wanted to explore, so it didn’t bother me. Check out my full review if you want to know more.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

1/5 stars

UGH. THIS DAMN BOOK FRUSTRATED ME SO MUCH! I was so disappointed by absolutely everything about this book (except for the cover). I had to skim the final 150 pages. It was just boring and badly written and ugh! I have both a spoiler free review of it and a spoilerific rant, so check those out if you want to know all the reasons for which I hated this book.

 

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

5/5 stars

My newest obsession. This is the first book that I read this year that kept me up until 3 am. I just could not put it down. I loved it so much, I need to read the rest of them ASAP! I don’t know why I haven’t read Brandon Sanderson until now, but I have now joined the fanclub. Give me all the Brandon Sanderson. I have a spoiler free review of it and a spoilerific rave as well.

 

Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

1/5 stars

I hated the guts out of this book. I haven’t reviewed it yet, but you can be sure I will have one hell of a rant about it! It’s coming. I requested this book from NetGalley in September 2016. I started reading it in September 2016. I finished it in March 2017. You can imagine how much I hated it. I almost never DNF books. I push through even when they suck. But I very nearly gave up on this one. It was horrible. I hate it. I HATE it. Stay tuned for my review.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

4/5 stars

This is a pretty old book. It feels like the ancestor of YA. It was really interesting, it follows a necromancer, which was really cool. I really liked the world and the magic and the atmosphere of the book. Unfortunately, I had a problem with the writing style. I couldn’t connect to it, and that made me not really connect to the characters. Still, I will be continuing with the series, as it seems cool. I haven’t got a review of this one yet, but it should come soon.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K Rowling

5/5 stars

I’ve been re-reading the HP series. I audiobooked this one this time around and found I really enjoyed it. I listened to the Stephen fry audiobook, and it’s good. I’m currently listening to Order of the Phoenix. I wouldn’t recommend audiobooking it if this is your first time reading the books. But as a re-read, the audiobook is great.

 

Ten Unique Books – Top 10 Tuesday

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is 10 unique books you’ve read.

It’s not Tuesday, it’s Thursday, let’s move on. I think it’s become clear by now that it’s an event when I actually make a top 10 Tuesday post on a Tuesday.

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The Graceling Series by Kristin Kashore

This companion series was so unique to me because for one, I believe it was the first companion series I had read. And the thing that links these three novels together is the villain, which I thought was really cool. Also, the relationships in this series are quite unique within the YA genre and I loved that aspect of it. It’s an amazing series that I feel does not get the hype it deserves.

The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

I found this duology to be unique because generally in YA, the main characters are always so physically beautiful. And to have a main character who was not flawless, for a change, was really refreshing and quite unique at least within the YA genre. It also had some pretty cool mythology. Another really underrated series, in my opinion.

The Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer

I feel like hardly a post goes by when I don’t talk about this series. I honestly love it so much and it’s so, freaking underrated (this is turning into an underrated books post). The blend of magic and technology and the spin it puts on fairies and just celtic folklore is amazing. The characters are quite unique, the titular character, Artemis, is one of my favourite characters ever. It’s just a great series guys. Read it.

Pale Highway by Nicholas Conley

This is not a book that I enjoyed that much. You can read my full review on it for my thoughts and opinions. But it was definitely unique. I have to give it that. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that had me kinda cringing from its… uniqueness, but also kinda curious to see what the actual hell. So yeah, it definitely has a place on this list.

Abhorsen Series by Garth Nix

I’ve only read the first book in this series. I recently read it, and I enjoyed it. I should have a review of it soon. I thought it was pretty unique because it’s not every day you read a book with a necromancer as the protagonist. It has a cool mythology that reminds me a bit of Dante’s Inferno and a bit of the Greek mythology of the Underworld. It’s cool. It’s unique. At least I’ve not read anything quite like it before.

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

This story is told through letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew to guide him in his attempt to lead his assigned human into temptation and eventually to hell. I thought it was very unique and I loved this book. I don’t think I’ve ever read a C. S. Lewis book I have not loved, to be honest. This is satire and I love satire. And it’s really good satire.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I can’t really say why I think this is unique because spoilers. I mean, it’s been forever since the books came out, the movies are all out as well (though I don’t know whether they changed the ending or not, cause I haven’t watched the last ones), but I still don’t like outright spoiling things, particularly that this is such a major thing. Most of you probably know what I’m talking about.

The series in itself was not particularly unique. It stands out among YA dystopian as one of the better ones, but other than that… it’s not so unique. Except for the ending of this book. That’s not really something you see very often in YA. I don’t think I have ever seen it in any other book. So, it deserves a place on this list.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

This series has a pretty cool and unique take on dragons. I’ve only read the first book so far and I really enjoyed it. Particularly the dragons and how they work. I thought they were really cool and unique. I also enjoyed the very political nature of the plot. I know a lot of books have political plots, but this one stands out in my mind for some reason.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I loved this book so much. I read it… easily 8 years ago and I still remember it so vividly. I think this was the first novel I ever finished in one day. I could not stop reading. So well written, so unique in its idea and construct and just… gah! This book is a masterpiece. And if you’ve not read it, you’re missing out.

The Tunnels Series by Rodrick Gordon and Brian Williams

I used to be obsessed with this series. I’m sad that I never finished it and that I’ve forgotten so much about it, that I would have to reread it in order to continue, which I doubt will happen. I think there are 6 books in the series. At the time I read it, there were 4 out and I’ve read those, but then I had to wait and I just never continued with it.

This series takes place mostly underground where an entire civilization lives. And it’s so cool, it’s quite dark and mysterious and kind of conspiracy theory-esque. It’s awesome and has a really unique plot and characters as well, and just the whole underground civilization is really cool and I’ve not seen anything quite like it.