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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

7.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

TV Show

Lonely thirty-seven-year-old Mikami Satoru is stuck in a dead-end job, unhappy with his mundane...

Jujutsu Kaisen

9.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

TV Show

Hidden in plain sight, an age-old conflict rages on. Supernatural monsters known as "Curses"...

Teeth Marks

Matthew Weber

10.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

12 Twisted Tales from America’s Deep South! Psychotic Killers, Bloodthirsty Monsters and Ghastly...

Coldheart Canyon

Clive Barker

7.0 (5 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Film's most popular action hero needs a place to heal after his surgery has gone terribly wrong. His...

Horror Rape Bestiality Ghost

Kyera (8 KP) rated Our Dark Duet in Books

Jan 31, 2018

Our Dark Duet

V.E. Schwab | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

9.0

(10 Ratings)

Book Rating

Oh, my heart. I can't. I absolutely adore V.E. Schwab's books and this series is no different. Her stories are more of a slow burn than constant, action-packed scenes but that style lends itself fantastically to her incredible world building. The first book took place solely in Verity, or V-City, a place overrun by monsters. We heard about the other cities in This Savage Song, but in Our Dark Duet, we were able to experience one of the other ones. People always said that there were no monsters in Prosperity, but they were wrong. The city just had a different type of monster.

One of those different monsters finds its way to Verity and forces Kate to return home. Both Kate and August are different, having been forced to confront or suppress their demons. August is still my favourite of the two main characters, despite his struggles. They both experience character development that makes you feel for them and only wish for their happiness.

I am glad that we got a little more development of some of the secondary characters. Schwab populated her books with such a variety of interesting and unique characters that you want to get to know them better. You want to discover their motivations, desires, fears, and secrets. The additional depth provided to Ilsa makes you love her and just want to protect her from harm. The other character that I loved the introduction of would be spoiler-y, so I'll just say I enjoyed the unique perspective they gave to the story and the diversity they added.

This world was so richly populated and described that it easily blooms into existence within your mind. Although this is only a duology and the final book, I would love to see more books set within this world. Perhaps the story in Verity is done, but there are plenty more monsters and cities to explore.

The story takes readers along on a steady, but not slow, ride that culminates with a dramatic flourish that will leave you breathless, a little heartbroken, yet hopeful.

I would highly recommend this fantastic urban fantasy series to all young adult/teen readers who enjoy fantasy, immersive world building, character development and V.E. Schwab's other books (like the Shades of Magic trilogy).

Kudos

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Alice in Zombieland - White Rabbit Chronicles in Books

Feb 1, 2018

This was an interesting re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. In Alice in Zombieland, Alice Bell's life has always been curtailed by her father's insistence that monsters exist. The family cannot leave the house after dark, she's been taught how to fight hand-to-hand and with a couple of weapons, and they never - NEVER - drive past the graveyard. All of this changes in one night - when Alice "falls down the rabbit hole" as it were - and discovers her father wasn't insane after all.

Now, living with her grandparents, haunted by visions of her little sister and glimpses of monsters in the dark, Alice - or Ali, as she insists on being called - finds herself being called on to fight the monsters alongside the roughest crowd in her high school. Falling in love with the leader of the bad boys doesn't help her social life, but might help her stay alive.

I enjoyed this book and will probably pick up the sequel, Through the Zombie Glass, if I can find it at the library. The writing flowed well most of the time, and while Alice began a little whiny, by the end of the book she was pretty bad ass. It felt.... a little more "young adult" than some young adult books I've read; the emotions seemed detached or damped down a bit. While she was dealing with grief over the loss of her family, and possible death at the hands of zombies, it just didn't feel as raw as I think those emotions should have felt. And the notion of a bunch of high school kids fighting zombies - with the support of adults, including the high school principal - was a little weird. Still an interesting book, and not a waste of time, but it felt a lot like "teenagers are special snowflakes!"

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com