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Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Mask of Shadows in Books

Jan 23, 2020  
Mask of Shadows
Mask of Shadows
Linsey Miller | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b><i>Review copy provided by SourcebooksFire via Netgalley</b></i>

I don’t think I follow enough people on social media, because I rarely see Mask of Shadows running around in my timeline and it deserves more hype if it hasn’t. I’ve also been reading a lot of “fluffy” reads with very little blood involved.

Mask of Shadows is a complete 180 from that. It is absolutely bloody and there are assassins involved, and sad to say, it is completely up my very dark alley of reading preferences.

My mother should be worried about me. “You’re a good kid compared to most of those I’ve seen out there. You don’t do drugs, don’t party, hang out with good people….”

I mean, has she seen the books I enjoy reading? (She would be very concerned.)

I honestly thought of The Hunger Games as an assassin edition while reading, even though the novel is pitched as Sarah J. Maas meets Leigh Bardugo. Our main character, Sal, finds an invitation to become one of the queen’s personal assassins, and sets off to audition in the hopes to get a new life. The auditions are full of trials and are a fight to the death – each of which are varied so there is never a dull moment. I’ve never read Maas, but I personally don’t see any comparisons to Bardugo unless we’re talking world building. The world building is absolutely amazing and stunning, and if I could actually draw some of the descriptions, I would totally do it. (Alas, I am just a graphic design minor.)

Emerald, a vision of steel and green silk, glided through the doorway. She was lithe and muscled, arms bare and flexed, streaked in scars with a pale silver dust twinkling over her skin like stars scattered across the evening sky. She walked past me in a breeze of perfume and peppermint, the apothecary scents clinging to her like the old, black ink of the dead runes scrawled across her. The silk layered and draped over her shoulders matched her high-cheeked, mouthless emerald mask perfectly. Beetle wings stitched into the train of her dress glittered in the light.

That is actually one of my favorite descriptions in the book. It is gorgeous.

Mask of Shadows is the first book I’ve read featuring a gender fluid character. Miller does a really good job of handling Sal’s character well, but the beginning seemed a little rocky, almost as though the author was trying to find the right foothold in the story. But after those rough patches, the story went along smoothly.

2017 was a fantastic reading year for me, and I am extremely happy to say that Mask of Shadows is one of my favorite books for the year. Miller’s debut novel is action packed and fast paced, and it will leave you turning the pages until the very end.

<a href="https://thatbookgal.wordpress.com/2018/03/23/guest-book-review-mask-of-shadows/">This review is originally posted on That Book Gal</a>
  
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Christopher Hobbs recommended Vampyr (1932) in Movies (curated)

 
Vampyr (1932)
Vampyr (1932)
1932 | Horror
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The distinguished director of The Passion of Joan of Arc in a moment of strangeness. He said Vampyr was not a horror film. Certainly, in a setting where images and voices fade through a sort of ghostly mist and shadows take on an independent life, where the leading man drifts from one bizarre and unsettling episode to another with a look of incomprehension on his face, an atmosphere of threat and unease is created, but it is the unease of dream, of nightmare, and is ultimately more unsettling than Hollywood’s brash efforts."

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Pierce Brosnan recommended The Godfather (1972) in Movies (curated)

 
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
1972 | Crime, Drama
9.3 (52 Ratings)
Movie Favorite Watch

"Huge fan of Marlon Brando. For this man to come out of the shadows playing Don Corleone was just captivating. And it never disappoints; to this day it doesn’t disappoint. That movie is still a spectacle of Americana storytelling with a performance by him which is just inspiring. And he was an inspiring actor, he was certainly somebody who I still go back and watch and… the music, the story, the whole trilogy — It was very much connected to my youth as a young man about to go off to drama school."

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