book review

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 3 Comments

TheHauntingOfAshburnHouse

I’ll admit it, horror is not often my genre. In the last year I’ve read three horror/thriller books including this one. Just three. Why? I like to sleep at night. Something about this book pulled at me, though. I ran across it while browsing Goodreads a few months ago and it kept popping up in the back of my mind. In the last couple of weeks I’ve tried to pick up a dozen other books and just couldn’t get into them. My mind was begging to read this one. I finally gave in and I must say that this book is different from most of the others I have read of the same genre.

The story begins with Adrienne and her fluffy, slightly overweight cat Wolfgang. An elderly relative of Adrienne’s had recently passed away and she has been left her great-aunt Edith’s property including her home, Ashburn House. Addy doesn’t remember having a great aunt or any relatives at all, for that matter. Sadly though, she is down on her luck and being left a furnished, paid off house is a windfall. Using the last of her cash, she takes a cab to the house she is determined to make into a home without ever seeing it or the town that it is a part of. Desperation and potential homelessness can make you do some silly things.

The house is everything you’d expect out of a setting for a horror story. Set back into the woods, old, spotty electricity, and no phone line.

Alright folks, moment of confession here. I’m honestly having trouble writing this. My desk is against a wall with a stairwell behind me and I keep spinning my chair around expecting something creepy and horrible to be behind me or some nightmare creature to be hanging down from the skylight. I have given myself such a bad case of the willies. It’s terrible. I’m such a wuss. Moving on…

As Addy and Wolf settle into the old Ashburn house they start to notice some strange things about the place. First, it has absolutely no mirrors anywhere on the property. Where a mirror would normally hang there are cryptic messages carved into the walls warning against them. She finds further messages carved into the dining table and door to the attic.

LIGHT THE CANDLE
YOUR FAMILY
IS STILL
 DEAD

Wanting to find out more about the mysterious Edith and the people that once lived in the house, Addy discretely asks questions to the people in town. An older fellow, whose father was once the local police chief, tells Addy the story of Edith and her family. In the early 1900s young Edith and her mother, father, aunt, and uncle all resided at Ashburn. They were a very well off family and often went into town. After the locals hadn’t seen or heard from the family in a few days some of them went out to the house to investigate. There they found a blood bath. The family, save Edith, had been horrifically slaughtered. According to the tale, their blood painted the walls and pieces of them were scattered throughout the house. Little Edith was found as the lone survivor, locked away from the mess but was cleared of the crime being only eight and physically unable to cause the carnage.

The story that follows this revelation to Addy is one of nightmares. She slowly begins to discover the reason for the cryptic messages carved around her new home as well as locating an old grave on the property. Adrienne and the fluffy Wolfgang are isolated in the woods and their horrors are just beginning.

As much as this story scared me I still very much enjoyed it. The pacing was well managed and terrible little details were dropped at just the right moment. I physically gasped a few times and nearly hurled the book across the room once or twice when a passage particularly startled me. If you at all enjoy a good horror novel I would definitely recommend this one. Also, for those of you wondering, the cat lives. I doubt I could have said anything kind about the book if he hadn’t. Never kill the cat!

IS IT FRIDAY
LIGHT THE
CANDLE

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

ACourtofWingsandWuin

 

I don’t often mention it but, as this is a highly anticipated new release, beware. Spoilers and foul language to follow.  

This 700 page monster was touted as the most anticipated fantasy release of the year. Maas collected quite the following after her Throne of Glass series and the first two books in this series, A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury. Somehow, I’d been living under some kind of reading rock for the last few years and had never heard of her. I’m so glad I came out from under that rock. While some people knock A Court of Thorns and Roses I actually enjoyed it very much but it could hardly compare to A Court of Mist and Fury. That one sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go. In hindsight it was probably all of the sexual tension and Rhysand’s cocky swagger. I pre-ordered A Court of Wings and Ruin while I was still reading the second book and dove into it as soon as it was delivered in high hopes that it would pull me in the same was Mist and Fury did. Let’s find out if it met those expectations, shall we?

“When you erupt, girl, make sure it is felt across worlds.”

We return to Feyre’s story while she is residing with Tamlin in the Spring Court with him and Lucien. After Mist and Fury we are predisposed to think of Tamlin now as an agent of evil. He continues to solidify that thought as he invites members of Hybern’s court to his home to aid them in their quest to bring down the wall between the Fae and humans.

Among the party to come to Tamlin’s court is Jurian, the human general from the last war that Hybern brought back to life using the cauldron. He comes off as a cocky bastard but I found him oddly likable. I think that is in part because of how pussy whipped Rhysand became. I loved Rhys in Mist and Fury. He was snarky and a little rude. Now he is so over the moon for Feyre that all of his bad-assery disappeared and it was nice to find some of it again in Jurian.

Moving on…

Blah blah blah, Feyre is vindictive and tosses the Spring court in a salad spinner and screws everything going on there up and then runs away. She and Lucien then both find their way back to the Court of Dreams. It was nice to see Lucien making his own choices instead of just following Tamlin blindly. However (and I feel like I’m going to have a lot of “however”s in this review) he ended up being completely pointless for the entire book. Sure, he showed up in scenes and apparently went and did things but the story would have been the same with or without him. Seriously. If every mention of him was removed from the book absolutely nothing would have changed other than perhaps being a few pages shorter. That is disappointing. I wanted him to have a moment of redemption and his own glory but he was still little more than a background player in everyone else’s games.

Let me be honest here, I could “blah blah blah” about 3/4 of this book. Most of it really felt like it had little point. The entertaining sexual tension from MAF was gone, the “men” were all pussy whipped, and the story just drug on and on and on with nothing of consequence happening. Don’t get me started on the incredibly awkward intimate scenes. At one point I’m pretty sure Feyre was having a naked chat with Rhys with her legs up over his shoulder or something. Who does that? Uncomfortable and, again, awkward. When reading or watching a movie the target audience has to have their reality suspended and become immersed in the story line and characters for the book/film/whatever to be good. The addition of these painfully awkward scenes brings the audience back to themselves and thus the story is interrupted.

I also got the distinct impression that Maas threw in an LGBT character just because that seems like the thing to do right now. Don’t jump down my throat, let me explain. I love alternative sexualities and diverse cultures having inclusion in literature. In fact, there should be more of it. However, they need to be presented in a believable and appropriate manner. If you haven’t read the book yet I won’t ruin this part for you, but,  it seemed to me that the author just tossed it in because it was “the thing” to do. It didn’t feel right for the character’s previous set up and story line. I was not on board.  Good for you for including an LGBT character but credibility and believability are also important. Don’t just hop on the band wagon. And for God’s sake, don’t make them appear ashamed of their sexuality. Ridiculous and completely out of character. Okay, rant over.

“It is a new world, and we must decide how we are to end this old one and begin it anew.”

The final battle in this book is something I think fans have all been looking forward to. The big tete-a-tete with the evil Hybern when the world of man and Fae will either be saved or doomed. I’m not going to get too far into this because it was the absolute best part of the book. However (I told you there would be a lot of howevers) this was also a bit of a let down. It goes back to the suspension of belief in your own reality in order to be immersed in the presented reality. Once more, it just didn’t work. Sure, the battle was interesting and it was quite honestly the only part of the book I truly enjoyed but it did not live up to the expectations set by TAR and MAF. Everything was too convenient, too easy. This was supposed to be the be-all-end-all fight to the death and it just didn’t have the pizzazz for that. Parts that could have been truly interesting were cut painfully short while we go back to the expected and dull “I don’t want (insert name here) to die because I love them so!” BORING.

This is legitimately the longest review I have ever written and thank you all for sticking with me through it. I wish I could say that I loved this book and it was everything I expected it to be. I wanted to adore it. I was prepared to worship this book for years and re-read it time and again. Sadly, I’ll probably never pick it up again. Maybe my opinions on this book aren’t popular, I don’t know, but there they are just the same. A Court of Wings and Ruin, you let me down.

 

 

 

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 3 Comments

APerilousUndertaking

Sequels. Whether in books or movies you never quite know what to expect. Traditionally the sequel doesn’t meet the same expectations of it’s predecessor. Take the original Star Wars trilogy for example. Some of the absolute most popular films in history and yet that second one, The Empire Strikes Back, is typically considered the most lowly of the three. The curse of the sequel.

I read the first book of Raybourn’s Speedwell mysteries, A Curious Beginning, a few months back and very much enjoyed every page. When I spotted A Perilous Undertaking at the library I was excited to jump back into it’s Victorian era mystery but at the same time apprehensive. Would it live up to the first book or would I be left wanting?

I should never have doubted Raybourn. A Perilous Undertaking is every bit as good as A Curious Beginning. Shame on me.

We return to the story with Veronica Speedwell, a lepidopterist, some months after having learned that she was a bastard child of the royal family. A family that would never, and could never, claim her. She accepted this and was quite content going about her own life in pursuit of scientific inquiry of butterflies. She and her companion (not in the connubial sense) Stoker have planned a new expedition and are excited to leave London behind in search of adventure.

Their plans are thwarted when one of their party (the one with the deep pockets) falls ill and they are forced to put their expedition on hold. In the meantime, Veronica has found herself at a club in the company of one of the royal princesses. Princess Louise asks for Veronica’s help in correctly solving a murder and clearing the name of the man currently blamed for the deed.

“The hardest lesson I had learnt upon my travels was patience. There are times when every muscle, every nerve, screams for movement, when every instinct urges escape. But the instinct to fly is not always a sound one. There are occasions when only stillness can save you.”

Going through some other reviews of this book on Goodreads and Amazon and such I’ve noticed several people commenting that it takes this story a while to get going. I don’t agree. Every act, every moment in the first few chapters is important. You are reacquainted with the cast of characters, given information on their current lives as they do differ slightly from the first book, and are introduced to the mystery at hand. I didn’t think it was slow moving at all but instead necessary information to make the story complete.

Of course Veronica takes up the mystery with the aide of dear Stoker and once again they find themselves investigating a murder. I was, as I was the first time, thrilled with Veronica’s decidedness to be her own woman. She did not allow the social aspect in the Victorian era of letting the male oppress the woman rule her. I love what a strong, intelligent, willful character she is.

The investigation takes the duo to some very interesting places. A vast private home being used to house and teach budding artists, an opium den, Scotland yard, the royal palace, and a grotto on a piece of private property which was obviously used as a salacious sex den. All the while Veronica and Stoker keep up their witty banter which I quickly fell in love with in the first book. They are both highly intelligent people on a mission and their dialogue is marvelous. The dynamic between those two is so entertaining that they could be having a discussion about the common house fly and make it interesting.

If you enjoy a good mystery or have an interest in Victorian era historical fiction I highly recommend giving this series a shot. The story was thoroughly engrossing and while I suspected the eventual murderer it was still a joy to watch the duo come to the same conclusion. As a side note, while I am not particularly squeamish I know that some topics can be delicate for folks and would like point out that the murdered person was a pregnant woman. I’m sure it would be a touchy subject for some people and prefer to give readers a heads up.

I hope that if you do choose to pick up these Veronica Speedwell mysteries that you enjoy them as much as I do. The third book featuring these characters, A Treacherous Curse, is due out in January of 2018.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

ACourtofMistandFury

Folks, I do believe I have become obsessed. I cannot get enough of this series. Let me give you some perspective on that. I started this book last week, finished it in three days, and immediately returned to page one and started reading it again. All 626 pages of it. During the second read through I realized how many little details that I had overlooked the first time. When I started the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, I was sure the popularity of the books was going to end up being all hype and end in a let down. Oh how very wrong I was. These books aren’t dry, tasteless grocery store cupcakes. Oh no. They are full on wedding cakes with many layers and fillings, worthy of being ogled and admired.

Sometimes, I love being wrong.

“Many atrocities, have been done in the name of the greater good.”

We return to the story with Feyre and Tamlin having survived the horrors Under the Mountain and gone back home to the Spring  Court of which Tamlin is High Lord. It felt like a “happily ever after” moment but no. Tamlin has changed from a kind and generous lover to a no nonsense, hardline ruler. Feyre, who once prowled the grounds and surrounding woods at her free will is now constantly escorted and under guard. She is allowed to go nowhere alone when she is permitted to leave the manor at all.

Her paradise has become a prison.

Feyre has wasted away to nothing during her hard months back at the Spring Court. She is skin and bones, can’t sleep due to her nightmares, and is mentally and emotionally stunted by the border-line abuse she suffers at the hands of the High Fae that claims to love her. She is merely a shell of her former self.

“When you spend so long trapped in darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.”

On the day of her wedding she sends out a mental plea for help, only to be rescued by Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court. The other High Lords seem to harbor some fear and ill will toward Rhysand and often view him as the villain. Tamlin certainly does. He appears on the grounds of the Spring Court and spirits Feyre away from the place that has been effectively killing her. Rhysand frees her from her prison.

I don’t want to spoil much of what happens after that for anyone because if you enjoy fantasy at all these books are well worth the time. I loved reading as Feyre changed from the wilted husk she was with Tamlin to the strong, determined woman of the Night Court. The characters introduced in this book are also very entertaining. They each have their own histories and strengths but they blend together so beautifully. I particularly loved Mor’s strength and perseverance. People, her own family, had tried to break her, mentally and physically. Had sold her to the highest bidder and was left for dead. She picked herself up, put herself back together, and became stronger for it without it dulling the shining personality beneath. She is a treasure as are so many of the unique characters introduced in this story.

As I mentioned, I do not want to spoil this story for anyone (and I usually don’t mind tossing the spoilers around a bit) but I can’t recommend enough that you pick it up. It reads as a testament to determination, patience, strength, love, and the desire to do more. To do better. To be better, and know your own mind. I can easily see myself picking this book up over and over in the years to come and I’m already looking forward to it.

“I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would not be weak, or helpless again
I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.”

 

I will also mention again, as I did in my review of A Court of Thorns and Roses, that while this book is most often listed as YA I would be cautious in how young a person reads this. The sexual content is strong with this one.

 

The third and final book in the series, A Court of Wings and Ruin, is set for release May 2nd, 2017. According to Goodreads it is coming in at 696 pages and I can’t wait to devour each and every one of them. Happy reading, everyone!

 

 

WWW Wednesday – April 19

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

WWWWednesday

 

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words and was formerly hosted by A Daily Rhythm. It is open for anyone to participate, even without a blog you can comment on Sam’s post with your own answers. It is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.

The three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

ACourtofMistandFury

“When you spend so long trapped in darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.”

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. I started this book yesterday evening after finishing A Court of Thorns and Roses. It isn’t pulling me in as much as the first one did, unfortunately, but I’m only on page 170/624. I know that Feyre has to rebuild herself after all that happened to her but I just want to kick her booty into gear.

What did you recently finish reading?

ACourtofThornsandRoses

“Because all the monsters have been let out of their cages tonight, no matter what court they belong to. So I may roam wherever I wish until the dawn.”

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. In case you haven’t seen my review of this book, I loved it. I mean, really, what else can I say? From the first page to the last the story sucked me in and had no intention of letting me go. I was held prisoner by a book and I liked it.

What do you think you’ll read next?

APerilousUndertaking

“There are times when every muscle, every nerve, screams for movement, when every instinct urges escape. But the instinct to fly is not always a sound one. There are occasions when only stillness can save you.”

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn. I read the first book in this series, A Curious Beginning, a few months back and loved it. Raybourn’s writing was engaging and the characters so full of life. Also, Raybourn cracks me up with her Twitter feed.

Thanks for checking in with me this Wednesday! Feel free to leave a link to your own WWW Wednesday post in the comments. Have a lovely day!

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 4 Comments

TheMaskedCity

 

When my local library added this book to their collection in March I was pretty excited. I had read another book by this author and the first of the series, The Invisible Library, a few months ago and adored it. It was one of those rare books for me that I picked up and genuinely couldn’t put down. I read it while making dinner, while folding laundry, and even while sitting at stop lights. So, maybe you can understand that I was excited for it’s followup, The Masked City. Expectations were high and I had opened it to read the first few pages before even leaving the library.

Perhaps my expectations were too high.

The story begins with the same cast of characters that we were familiarized with in The Invisible Library. Irene, our logical and straightforward agent from the Library, and her partner Kai, a dragon masquerading as human (no joke), are in their alternate version of Earth trying to procure a rare book at an underground auction. Afterwards, Kai is kidnapped by parties unknown and Irene embarks on the task of rescuing him from another alternate world.

Sounds fun, right? I like the idea of the heroine doing the rescuing instead of being rescued.

Let me be honest here, I’m having a difficult time coming up with a way to make this review sound interesting. The book took me more than a week to read which is incredibly rare for me. It just didn’t hold my attention and even now the details in my head are a bit fuzzy. The story just didn’t grab me like it did in the first book so pardon if I plod on a bit.

Alright…

In a daring attempt to rescue Kai, Irene, with the help of one of her enemies, boards a magical train that is embarking for the alternate world where her partner has been taken. The train is full of a species called Fai which are enemies of her and the Library and she must blend in to gain information in the hopes of rescuing her dragon friend. The Fai are an odd bunch as they can manipulate the people and world around them to suit whatever story they wish to find themselves in. Perhaps they want to be a damsel in distress. The damsel Fai would use their power to change the reality around them to conform to that story line. Irene must be cautious to not get caught up in one of their stories.

Irene learns that Kai is being auctioned off in this alternate world to the highest bidder in an attempt to start a war between the Fai and the Dragons. She cannot depend on any help from the Library on her mission and must navigate this strange world and succeed in rescuing her dragon partner not only to stop a war but because it could cost her her position within the Library.

She of course has many mishaps and adventures while trying to accomplish her task but, sadly, none of them drew me in the way they did in the first book of this series. I can’t even quite place why I was so ambivalent to this book. It had adventure, intrigue, danger, and many of the other things I usually love in a good story. There was just something missing that didn’t pull it all together. Irene didn’t feel as in control in this story and that was part of the reason I liked her in the first book. She was unrufflable. In this one, not so much. The location also felt hollow. It is portrayed as Venice in it’s prime but the people and Fai there did not behave or dress indicative of that time period so it broke the spell that Venice would normally weave.

Maybe I’m being too picky. Perhaps it was the beautiful spring weather that was distracting me. How could I resist the sun shine and warm breeze after months of freezing temperatures and high winds? Either way I’m fairly confident I’ll still pick up the next book in this series at some point. I enjoy Cogman’s writing style and the characters, for the most part, are well done. The story in this one just wasn’t there for me.

March Wrap Up

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

Another month bites the dust. I feel like the older I get the more quickly time seems to pass. I was not as productive this month in my reading as I would have liked having only read four books. I feel like my DNF pile for March is bigger than my read pile (which isn’t true, just feels that way) which is a bit depressing. Hoping to do more in April.

Read and Reviewed

  • A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab – The conclusion to V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy. I think she wrapped it all up very nicely though the book did drag on a bit. 4/5
  • The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon – This is the third book in Shannon’s The Bone Season series. I had been waiting for it to be released for two years and it was well worth the wait. The best in the series so far and my first autographed book. 5/5
  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown – I picked this one up out of curiosity and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect as the book and it’s trilogy have a lot of hype around them. But, I loved it. Well written, good story, just a little tough getting through the first chapters. 5/5
  • Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Another book with a ton of hype and huge following. I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. The story and characters felt hollow. 3/5

 

DNF

  • This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab – Picked this one up by Schwab as I had loved her Shades of Magic books so much. I didn’t even make it half way. Nothing against the story, it was well written, just not for me.
  • Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch – This one had been recommended to me by several Redditors on the /r/52book board. Got about 3/4 of the way through and bailed. There was a story in there somewhere but it was too shallow to keep going.

 

Upcoming Month

I am currently reading The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman. This is the second book in her The Invisible Library series. I previously reviewed the first one, titled The Invisible Library, and you can find my review here and it’s Goodreads page here.

 

What were you reading this month? Any books you would recommend for to me for as an upcoming read?

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

Cinder

Where to begin, where to begin…

I had no plans to read this book. It wasn’t on my TBR and I really knew nothing about it. Sure, I’d noticed people talking about it here and there and my younger cousin had mentioned once that she enjoyed it but it just didn’t ping on my radar. But, meandering through the library one day while waiting for my daughter to decide between a book about Christmas (it is March) and another about a trash truck (this was apparently a taxing book choice for a toddler) I stumbled across Cinder. I’d read Heartless before by the same author and loved it so into my bag it went without much thought.

When I sat down and opened this book up the next morning I can’t say I really knew what to expect. So, with the vague understanding that I’d be getting myself into a Cinderella retelling, in I dove.

What I didn’t expect was to be entertained.

“Even in the future the story begins with Once Upon a Time.”

We begin with Cinder, a teenage girl who is part machinery which makes her a cyborg. The year is…well, sometime in the future. I’m sure the date was mentioned but I couldn’t be bothered to jot it down. Cinder runs a mechanic’s repair booth in the market in New Beijing where people bring her datapads, androids, and other electronic odds and ends to fix. Her life gets turned upside down one day when Kai, the crown prince, brings her his android incognito for repair. He hints to Cinder that he just has a sentimental attachment to the machine but she can tell he is lying and there is something more important to the android beneath the surface. Cinder, despite being a cyborg, is still a teenage girl and gets all awkward with the handsome prince but does promise to fix his android.

In recent years, New Beijing and other parts of the world had been having trouble with a plague. Scientists couldn’t figure out where the plague was coming from and there appeared to be no cure. The disease is highly contagious and had been decimating populations and has found it’s way into Cinder’s home.

Of course, being a Cinderella retelling, Cinder lives with a guardian aka wicked stepmother and her two daughters. Most cyborgs were treated as property but one of her “stepsisters” had become friends with Cinder and treated her as just another person. A friend. This stepsister contracts the plague and Cinder is devastated. Her stepmother/guardian blames Cinder for her daughter catching this incurable disease and “volunteers” Cinder to be taken by the government for testing as they try to find a cure.

“My only mistake was in waiting too long to be rid of you”, Adri said, running the washcloth between her fingers. “Believe me, Cinder. You are a sacrifice I will never regret.”

From there Cinder’s life changes irreparably. Moon people are involved. Okay, they aren’t called “moon people” but that is what they are. Also with any Cinderella story, even a futurist retelling, we have our pumpkin coach, glass slipper, and ball gown. I did enjoy seeing how those themes were worked into Cinder.

The story turns out to be fairly interesting and being YA it was an easy read. Admittedly I had reservations about a story with a cyborg Cinderella from the future. It just didn’t tickle me the way so many other people seemed to enjoy it. The story was quick and caught my attention but I probably won’t be handing it more than 3 stars on Goodreads. For me it just didn’t have any meat. Everything was expected and that just makes things dull. Not to mention the whole awkward teenage girl thing. Why is that necessary? I’d love a YA novel with a strong, intelligent, not silly young protagonist. One that doesn’t get the flutters around visually appealing Y chromosomes. Sigh…

In a nut shell, entertaining book but it could have been better.

 

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 9 Comments

RedRising

 

I finished reading this book several days ago and have put off writing a review of it of. This book is very popular and so many people have had their say about it, what could I have to add that would put something new into the conversation? What thoughts could I have that dozens of other people haven’t brought up before? So, I waited to write this, hoping for some kind of epiphany. I’m sorry to say that epiphany moment never came. All the same, I felt the need to throw my two cents in regarding this book.

Why? Because it is wonderful.

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

It was impossible not to fall in love with this story. I tried. I don’t like hopping on the bandwagon. But, when Rick Riordan and Patrick Rothfuss both gave it glowing reviews on Goodreads I thought I would be doing myself a disservice to not pick it up. So, I picked up a very well thumbed copy of it at my local library (this sucker was falling apart at the seams) and settled in.

Not going to lie, those first couple chapters are a hard sell.

We are introduced immediately to our hero, Darrow. Darrow lives in a mining community on Mars. These miners and their family’s are a part of the Red class. They are there working to make Mars habitable for future generations to settle the planet from the dying Earth. These miners are very serious about their jobs and the work is hard. Most die young. Darrow is very good at his job, if sometimes a little reckless. He also has a loving young wife, Eo, who he obviously adores. If it wasn’t for Eo, Darrow would be nothing. She is his hope, his dreams, his everything. When she is put to death, he is broken.

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.’
‘I live for you,’ I say sadly.
She kisses my cheek. ‘Then you must live for more.”

Now, I very nearly put down the book and returned it to the library at this point. Darrow seemed like a spineless, gutless sack of flesh and I couldn’t see how he could possibly grow to be anything else. He annoyed me. He was completely and utterly broken by his wife’s execution as she was the only thing he had ever cared about and was just a slobbering mess. No thoughts of his own, no nothing. Just Eo.

So, with a great deal of sneaking and deception, Darrow is taken from his Red camp and is shown by a leader of rebellion that everything he thought he knew was wrong. His people weren’t living and dying in the mines to make Mars habitable to save future generations. The future was already here and the planet was settled in glorious fashion. Towering cities, lush accommodations, and so much frivolity that it was sickening to Darrow who had never had enough. The rebellion selects him to lead a revolution, freeing the people from the ugly caste system of which the Reds are the lowest. The Golds, the ruling class, fly high above everyone and govern with an iron fist.

To succeed in this rebellion, Darrow must become a Gold.

The story from that point on is entirely enthralling. Each time I put it down I only wanted to pick it up again. Darrow joins this group of rebels and commits to their cause for Eo. Her dream was to be free, for her people the be free, and Darrow lives on and fights for her. Nothing is going to stop him.

I couldn’t care less about his little love story but since it is his driving force it is certainly important for the plot to progress. From that point Darrow finds himself transformed into a Gold and put into a game that is meant to train a class of Golds to rule. That’s where the real story for this book is, during this game. This training exercise. Golds that are on the cusp of becoming adults are tested and conditioned to become the best of the best. They slaughter each other to come out on top and through this Darrow must adapt or be destroyed. If he dies, Eo’s dream is lost.

I think Darrow ended up being such a good character because of his capacity to learn. He starts the story as a weak willed little shit that annoyed the crap out of me with his mindless drudgery. But he learns. He makes takes chances, makes mistakes, and learns how to be better. He learns how to be good enough to maybe, just maybe, win in this war game with the young Golds. If he does that, he will then have the opportunity to try to topple the government and free the enslaved people of not only Mars, but all humans who are subjugated to a slave-like existence under the ruling class.

If you haven’t read this book I sincerely suggest you give it a try. The world Brown wove is so vivid and enthralling I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. I’ve seen many people compare this to The Hunger Games but it is so much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed those books, but the story with Darrow has so much more depth and detail. The Reds, Golds, and everyone in between are written as to seem human with their flaws and triumphs. I’m very much looking forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy down the road. I don’t think there is any way that Brown can let me down.

“Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.”

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 4 Comments

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The Song Rising is the third book in Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season series. When the first book came out Shannon was compared to JK Rowling and many press releases said that her books would be more popular and influential than The Hunger Games. She was 21. I don’t know about you but at 21 I was hardly mature enough to be allowed into public, no less sign a six figure book deal. When I discovered this series in 2015 I was hooked and have waited for two years for the third installment to be released. Folks, I was not disappointed.

The Song Rising picks up precisely where The Mime Order, the second installment, left off. Paige Mahoney is the newly appointed head of an underground faction of clairvoyants in Scion London. Many among them feel that she unfairly took the title from her previous mentor, Jaxon Hall, and that she doesn’t deserve the crown. Despite the unrest among them, Paige is determined to unite all the clairvoyants of London against Scion and bring the corrupt government to it’s knees. This would free Paige and those like her from their years of being viewed as lesser beings, not worthy of respect, and help lead them to the path to freedom instead of suffocating oppression.

Scion is introducing a new level of that oppression in the form of a portable scanning device that easily allows their foot soldiers to reliably identify four types of clairvoyants. This device could bring Paige and her followers to it’s knees if it is not somehow stopped. Despite the unrest within her Mime Order, Paige and a group of trusted voyants set off out of London in an attempt to stop the scanners from being put into use. No leader within their order has ever left London before and more voyants seem to be losing their trust and patience with Paige’s reign. She has urged them underground, literally into the sewers, in an effort to keep them shielded from the scanners that would quickly end their lives. Despite the fact that she is trying to help them she has become immensely unpopular.

She and her small group depart London with a seemingly impossible task. Their dangerous quest will lead them from London and into Manchester then on to what was formerly Scotland. In true Paige form, nothing goes quite as planned but she never gives up despite the immense weight of what she has to do. As a female lead she is everything I look for. Strong but not without fault. She thinks forward to what the future could be instead of just accepting her circumstances. Paige has a defined goal and set of principles that she isn’t willing to give up. She truly is one of the best leading female characters I have ever read.

Alright, in a nutshell I adored this book. I think it is easily the best of the series out so far. Yes, it is the shortest of the three but there is so much going on, so much action that it is impossible to care about the length. I have never rooted so hard for a group of fictional characters in my life. The end was both painful and optimistic. While the story is obviously ongoing most of the story lines within the book were wrapped up nicely before moving on. I appreciate that. I hate when I get to the end of a book that I know will have a sequel and there are too many plot lines in the wind. Some sense of closure is needed even though the story itself is nowhere at an end. I can’t wait to see what Shannon comes up with next for these characters.

The other books in The Bone Season series include:
The Bone Season
The Mime Order

Also, follow the author on twitter and Goodreads.