I love this setting, the characters, the villains, and the magic system. My only issue with these books is despite how deeply interesting they are...they can‘t hold my interest for a long time. However, that feeling isn‘t enough to dissuade me from continuing the series. The plot, character development, world building, and atmosphere compete heavily with Riggs‘s writing style and win out. The ending didn‘t feel rushed or easy—tenterhooks!

I love the representation in this book. But, I was honestly so bored throughout most of it. Faizal has good characters and atmosphere, but her writing style didn‘t draw me in— I skimmed a lot. Between I‘ll-defined words and third-person that felt like first person...it was just not my cup of tea.

TLDR: love the characters, plot, and atmosphere; really couldn‘t vibe with the writing style.

This was slow at first, but the pace really hit the ground running about 50 pages in. Page turner! Don‘t want to say much plot wise since it‘s a sequel, but my goodness! It was SO atmospheric, the magic system was excellent, the romance was fun, and the intrigue... the intrigue. This book did NOT suffer from second book syndrome at all. So excited that I already put Queen of Volts on hold at the library; yay for me that it‘s already published

3.5 🌟🌟🌟

Good: Loved the flip of taking traditional fairy tale roles (beauty=good, patriarchy) and negating them. Enjoyed the magic system and the school setting, too. The ending.

Not as good: I worry about the message it sends about toxic people. Love saved a character, but this is a dangerous precedent to set. People have to be willing to save themselves, too. Or the relationship will be imbalanced. Found the book a bit predictable.

My yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment. Some tomorrow soon, I‘ll forget that I stood before you and gave this speech. But just because I‘ll forget it some tomorrow doesn‘t mean that I didn‘t live every second of it today. I will forget today, but that doesn‘t mean that today didn‘t matter

It is a good thing to learn the truth one‘s self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.

She wept when they gave birth to daughters, knowing that to be born a woman meant a life of humble hardship.

But the penciled sheets did not seem like nor smell like the library book so she had given it up, consoling herself with the vow that when she grew up, she would work hard, save money and buy every single book that she liked.

...the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem. An asylum for the insane, its name shrunk through popular usage to Bedlam, which eventually entered dictionaries as a lowercase word used to describe scenes of chaos and confusion.

She is calm and self-possessed as a housecat; it is the way that all girls who only know one boy move. Centered as if the love that boy feels for them anchors them deep as a tress‘s roots, holds them still as the oaks, which don‘t uproot in hurricanes. Love as certainty.

To give life...is to know what‘s worth fighting for. And what‘s love.

I‘ve not been thrown by a twist in a while, so that really pleased me in this book. She got me! What a cool story about witches—it felt new, fresh, intriguing. I really liked her characters and the way the magic worked. The plot was perfect. I loved the writing. The atmosphere was everything I could have wanted in a witchy book by the sea. The logic was strong. All-in-all, an enjoyable witch book perfect for a stormy night.

I might love him. And it has tilted my universe off center, the frayed edges of my life starting to unravel. Loving someone is dangerous. It gives you something to lose.

But how do you let your self unravel in front of someone, knowing your armor is the only thing keeping you safe? So I don‘t say anything. I keep my heart hidden deep and dark in my chest.

He sees the same thing in me: a chasm of secrets so deep and wide and unending that it bleeds from me like sweat. We both carry it. A mark on our skin, a brand burned into flesh from the weight of our past. Perhaps only those with similar scars can recognize it in others. The fear rimming our eyes.

Good: Super inventive! Characters, plot, ideas— all were unlike any other paranormal fantasy novel I‘ve ever read. Loved the philosophical discussion of are good acts truly good and are evil acts truly evil; the balance of good of evil.

Bad: The ending wasn‘t as weird as I had hoped it would be based on the rest of it.

Overall: This book was quirky and so fun. Such an interesting read—I‘ll read the sequel.

Good: Loved the ending. Very sad, but good. Super atmospheric, and such beautiful writing! I love these characters and I‘m sad to know everything is over, but such a good ending to the series. I didn‘t want to put it down. I really like how she tied off almost everyone‘s plotlines.

Bad: Some parts were slow. I wanted more screen time for some characters and wished some characters had other endings.

Overall: Loved this book. Loved this series.

A haunting representation of one of the worst periods of human history—the Holocaust. Its few pages tell the story of a boy and his family living in the concentration camps. I accidentally decided to read this on the anniversary of Elie Wiesel‘s release from Buchenwald, an ultimately moving decision. What is of most import in Wiesel‘s story is the story itself. One that must be told over and over, so we may never forget.

Sometimes I feel just like that hull: scarred and dented and left to rust since he vanished somewhere out at sea.

Truth‘s always two-faced. The only thing we have is the right to reject the lie we find most repugnant.

One of the quirks of people who‘ve managed to find their place in life is that they believe that‘s the way things are to be. Everything simply works out the way it ought to. And if someone feels shortchanged by life, then he has only himself to blame. He must be either lazy and stupid. Or else he thought too much of himself and tried to “get above himself.”

It was like the most beautiful voice surrounding them, looping through them, promising that no one is ever alone because aloneness does not exist. All are connected.

We can‘t do nothing about what other people do. We can only do right by what we believe. It‘s a hard path to be who you are and try to put your best self into a world that doesn‘t always show thanks for it. A world that can be unfair. Downright cruel at times.

Behind the idea of a person you constructed to suit yourself, the people you loved had their own stories —whole worlds going on inside —and you ignored them at your peril.

On the last day that the town of Beckettsville would ever know, the weather was so fine you could see all the way to the soft blue skin of the horizon.

We are all storytellers telling the story, adding our piece.

...how easy it was for false information to be repeated and spread until everyone just assumed it was fact.

I won‘t comment on the characters or plot, since it is a biography.

Artists envy the pictures Krakauer can paint with words. The atmosphere and writing are supreme. I preferred reading about Krakauer‘s ascent of Devil‘s Thumb to most of the book; however, the epilogue was very moving.

Through most of the book, I struggled to care about the boy; but, compassion overwhelmed my annoyance in the end.

Early on a difficult climb, especially a difficult solo climb, you constantly feel the abyss pulling at your back. To resist takes a tremendous conscious effort; you don‘t dare let your guard down for an instant. The siren song of the void puts you on edge; it makes your movements tentative, clumsy, herky-jerky. But as the climb goes on, you grow accustomed to the exposure, you get used to rubbing shoulders with doom.

We like companionship, see, but we can‘t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.

A mini readathon on this lovely Saturday afternoon.

Good: compelling and diverse characters, BEAUTIFUL writing, wonderful plot lines that tied together well, good ending.

Bad: Not bad, per se, but I wanted more motive behind what really drives the characters. I also wanted a bit more atmospheric feeling.

Overall: Really enjoyable, intriguing 880 page book. 4 stars.

...if home can‘t be where you come from, then home is what you make of where you go.

....he said that unrequited love was not possible; that it was not love. He said that love must be freely given, and freely taken, such that the lovers, in joining make the equal halves of something whole.

Reason is no match for desire: when desire is purely and powerfully felt, it becomes a kind of reason of its own.

...the best social science evidence reveals that taking candy from strangers is perfectly okay. It‘s your family you should worry about.

His temperament was deeply nostalgic, not for his own past, but for past ages; he was cynical of the present, fearful of the future, and profoundly regretful of the world‘s decay.

He held the kind of passion for books and learning that only comes when one has pursued an education on one‘s very own.

Good: Some beautiful passages, descriptions of Knoxville, TN, and a poignant understanding of a death in the family.

Bad: Almost unbearable to get through: stream of consciousness passages, sets of pages in italics (like fifty of them), clunky transitions, and it‘s very much of novel of its time (slurs, bullying, etc.).

Overall: Wouldn‘t recommend, unless you really like academic, stream of a consciousness novels.

I bought this tonight and I can‘t wait to start crafting my worlds. DND to inspire story writing and I get to hang with friends who will help? Sounds perfect. :)

Added my DND character that I made in the Sims.

Good: How she deals with PTSD is top-notch; people don‘t respond to trauma the same way. Oppression, intra-racism, and classism, all through the guise of magic—so smart. The atmosphere was visceral. Intriguing writing and some great characters.

Bad: The structure helped me predict an end plot point WAY too early in the book. Wanted more on Saran and the magic system.

Overall: Super enjoyable with an interesting magic system.

For although a man is judged by his actions, by what he has said and done, a man judges himself by what he is willing to do, by what he might have said, or might have done — a judgment that is necessarily hampered, not only by the scope and limits of his imagination, but by the ever-changing measure of his doubt and self-esteem.