Book Review: The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

The Song Rising sounds awkward to me. Maybe This Song Rising.

Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London's criminal population. 

But having turned her back on Jaxon Hall, and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.

Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it.

This is the third book in The Bone Season series (I have reviewed the previous ones if you're new to the series The Bone Season and The Mime Order), so spoilers for the first two. This is the first of the novels that I've listened to on audiobook. The voice actor,  Alana Kerr Collins does a pretty good job of capturing Paige's voice and does all of the other books so no jarring changes (and hopefully none in the future).

Despite, liking Collins it took me a while to finish this book. It technically took me eight months to read this book exactly according to my Goodreads. 20.9.2017 to the 20.5.2018 for a book that's twelve hours and a bit long. I got to the Chapter 7/25% in by 31st of December and didn't properly go back till May. I just didn't want to. I went after other audiobooks, I wasted time repeatedly going through the oddest and rubbish opinions my local library has (it's rubbish for me, there's like no fantasy or horror of any kind), instead of listening to this book already downloaded to my phone.

Though, with the next novel not coming out till 2020 so not like it a big deal, with a planned six books from the start, I do wish they had been coming out more frequently. I don't think its time, more the last of pacing. The start of the book is political stuff as Paige recovers and takes control of the Mime Order.

In terms of world-building, we get to see more of other Scion control locations and what has gone down in the past. That was interesting and seems to be more where the series is going.

We get new characters that are fine, though once again I couldn't say who for sure was actually introduced in this book. The old characters do a lot of searching. I didn't feel that connection to them this book.

Slight Spoiler, Highlight to see: I was also half convinced that Shannon was going to kill off a main character and did not care. Half-convinced in I thought she just might do it.

I had completely forgotten that Paige is still only meant to be like 19 when all this shit is going down. I guess that's because of the time that takes for the books to be written and I've been slowly ageing and ageing away from Paige. Though, she was already in the future so she was always going to be the youngest of us two.

The ending is quite a cliffhanger, in tune with the other books. I'm kinda disappointed due to what's been set up for the last book, but I also get the choice.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Gaelic Dungeons. This novel was okay once I actually listened to it. I might just wait until the series is finished before picking more novels. I want to know what happens, but all at once might work better.


I paid for this book with my own damn money thing time. I probably would have request it off NetGalley if I had saw it.

Book Review: Under my Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Who doesn't love witches?

The tingle begins, the green fire rises inside her. She Smiles again, staring at the doorway, and waits...

Enjoy this inventive and quick-witted collection of witch stories by some of our most loved fantasy authors writing today. Young witches, old witches, kind witches, mean witches, witches' dogs, witches' curses. They are all here, in their diversity and richness, lurking amongst the pages of this treasury, just waiting to be set free to allow their magic to fill your imagination.

What's in it: Spider Silk, Eye of Newt, Black Moss, Snake Venom 

A short stories about witches, what could go wrong?

Intro by Jonathan Strahan: Strahan quoted from Wikipedia and does it wrong, as the internet changes you have to have the date. He also refers to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty as being a witch when she a fairy. They might be few version where she a witch, but in the Disney version she an Evil Fairy. These are basic facts.

Stray Magic by Diana Peterfreund: A special dog appears at the pound. Interesting concept. Almost feels like the start of a novel. 4/5 stars for cheesy names.

Payment Due by Frances Hardinge: This one was interesting too. A teen girl gets revenge on a bailiff. 3/5 stars for Body Swaps.

A Handful of Ashes by Garth Nix: This features a Oxford like witch and wizard university so it has colleges within it. Snobish and evil bullies so fun. Well, thought out world, my brief research it doesn't appear to be an extension of another word. 4/5 stars for Radish Girls.

Little Gods by Holly Black: A baby Wiccan goes to her first covens gathering and big ceremony. Religion and wanting magic. This is was okay, kinda bland next to the previous ones. 3/5 stars for alcohol offerings.

Barrio Girls by Charles de Lint: Barrio girls are obsessed with Twilight/Vampire Diary clone and they come across a Vampire Witch. I liked the writing style of this book and the idea. 4/5 stars for Moonstream Merch.

Felidis by Tanith Lee: A guy wandering about in the woods, ends up lying and living with cat lady. This was old fashion thing, the idea was alright. Kinda sad.  3/5 stars for velvet skin.

Witch Work by Neil Gaiman: This is a poem. A poem about a witch by the sea. It's fine, not got many opinions about poems. 3/5 stars for silk cords.

The Education of a Witch by Ellen Klages: Once again Maleficent is called a witch when she not. She a fairy, mistress of all evil. Also I just don't think its that weird for a kid to like Maleficent. The fairies are the only actual characters in that film. This story has chapters in it and then nothing happens. There's all this build up for nothing. A five year is negated by her parents so she only starts to do bad things by the end 1/5 stars for bad puppets.

The Threefold World by Ellen Kushner: Elias Lönnrot is a real Finnish Historican figure and a witch according to this story. Okay... 3/5 stars for unwanted wares.

The Witch in the Wood by Delia Sherman: This writer is married to the writer before her story, which is kinda cute that they next to each other. So actual story is a girl coming across a deer and falling in love with said deer. The writing style worked for this type of story. 4/5 stars for Bad Deals.

Which Witch by Patricia A McKillip: This involves a musical band of witches with two violin players and murders of Crows. Something random happens. Better short film than short story. 3/5 stars for crow feathers.

 The Carved Forest by Tim Pratt: A fourteen year old girl decides to run away the day before Thanksgiving, so her brother follows her to the local witch house. 3/5 stars for Rootless Trees.

Burning Castles by M Rickert: This is the question of magic, unlike most of the other stories. The style was okay. 3/5 stars for tree earrings.

The Stone Witch by Isobelle Carmody: You're on Air plane and then you're on a quest for an egg. Also addressing making life discussion without realising. 4/5 stars for Hipster Demons.

Andersen's Witch by Jane Yolen: This is about Hans Christian Andersen, who made a deal with an Ice Maiden for three wishes. Karen Marie is referred as both his step and half-sister, and is obviously a sex worker in this story. Brief search says there no evidence of this, nor is it necessary. Yolen also equals marriage as love and that children love Hans Christian Andersen. Not really, they love Disney. Andersen's just seems a bit of dick going off his work. Disney too like that narrative considering in the Little Mermaid Cartoon series, he meets Ariel (pre-legs) and then writes a story in which she has her tongue cut out and has no soul, then dies. This story becomes more problematic with the bio-note that says the Yolen is refer to as the American Hans Christian Andersen so the ending is quite vain. Odd anyway. Basically, the Ice Queen definitely wins now. 1/5 stars for Gentlemen Callers or Stock Legs.
 
B is for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher: This is part of the The Dresden Files series, you don't need to know the series, it works without that knowledge. Though, I did watch the TV series, didn't recognize from that though. He's a wizard who also a PI. 4/5 stars for Ice Buckets.

Great-Grandmother in the Cellar by Peter S Beagle: Women either have bad taste in men or are weird not witches demon things. Those parts of the story ain't great. Kinda interesting otherwise. He wrote the Last Unicorn, book and film. HM... 3/5 stars for Witch Boys.
 
Crow and Caper, Caper and Crow by Margo Lanagan: A grandmother goes to bless their grand daughter. 4/5 stars for walnut-shell ships.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for leaking cauldrons. These were mostly good, some were not about witches or magic users so disappointing. If you like witches, it worth checking out.

Book Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

If you tell me not to do something, I'm probably gonna do it.

I CURSE ANYONE WHO READS THIS BOOK. 
SCREW YOU, HAPPY READING
 
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.

Elmbridge High School burned down. Three Students were killed in the braze, twenty were injured, and one, Carly Johnson, disappeared.

For two decades, little was uncovered about what became known as the 'Johnson Incident'.

UNTIL NOW.

This is another book I requested off of NetGalley years ago and found in the library so decided to finally started reading it. It was really good so I wished it was of the NetGalley unread books I had brought (there's a large collection of them).

This is a really good horror book, with horrifying outcome.  It has a lot of Horror Tropes, Boarding School, insane asylum, magic, ghost demon things. The Main character Kaitlyn has mental illness issues but it some what a question what is mental illness and what is magic. 

There's is a made-up Scottish Magic in this book which I enjoyed. It was really well thought out so much so I started wonder if this was real thing that I had somehow had not heard about it. It's not a real, just really well done. 

The characters are all quite likeable and started to feel panicky about the character's outcome, which is great considering the amount of horrors that don't even try to have likeable or realistic characters. There is an odd romantic relationship and its up to question.
 
This book is told in "discovered" documents, mainly Kaitlyn's diary. It really works for the mystery thriller side of it.

Overall, I gave this book 4/5 stars for Church Pews. I really enjoyed this book and I am going to autobuy Dawn Kurtagich. I would recommend this to any horror buffs out there.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley years ago and it's published by Orion Children's Books.

Buy

Book Review: Daughter of Burning City by Amanda Foody

Especially, if their don't have physical eyes.

Reality is in the eye of the beholder…

Even among the many unusual members of the travelling circus that has always been her home sixteen-yea-old Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years.
This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all of their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival's Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real.
Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Now she must unravel the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.

This book was rather disappointing. The concept is cool, but the execution is poor and weird. Information is repeated at nausea and is even on the same page sometimes.

I personally found the world building to be problematic. Up-mountains are religious and unenlightened. Here I am Up-mountainer, that sure sounds like propaganda about Northern people in Europe. It hard to win these things as I don't think the author is likely to have realise this. This probably could have been solved by being more creative and more fantasy based than Up-Mountainers a.k.a. you mean the North and the main character is from the East so Asian or the middle East. It's backed with how the characters are described as look as well. Others might not read into this. On the fantasy front, it's always the ones that live in the mountains that savages and uneducated, so it just stereotype carried from others' works. Other parts of the world building were interesting such the idea of the traveling city and aspect of the magic.

This book is a murder mystery, with conspiracy, the ending of this book is dumb, but also really sad and depressing. (also, Spoiler: incesty). The main character generally comes across as being sad. She has no friends her own age and spends most her time with people she made up and therefore, how much control does she actually have over them.

It's told from Sorina Point of View, she an okay protagonist. The characters are fine. I don’t care much about characters that died or were threatened.

There's some diversity with different Sexuality with lesbian and a character hinted at as Demi-sexual. A first, but you can also read into badly if wanted due to how this book ends. The Traveling city is also meant to be diverse with different people, but mostly Down-mountainers. A lot of characters have deformities, some magical and some if not for magic would be a disability. The main character has No Eyes, but can still see. I guess it fine and does talk about how Sorina is treated.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Lamest Show in the City. This book was either going to be amazing or disappointment with the cool concept it had. Sadly, it was a disappointment for me. I didn't enjoy the reading process of that much and some of the author's choices I really didn't like. It was an okay read.

This book was rather disappointing. The concept is cool, but the execution is poor and weird. Information is repeated at nausea and is even on the same page sometimes.

I personally found the world building to be problematic. Up-mountains are religious and unenlightened. Here I am Up-mountainer, that sure sounds like propaganda about Northern people in Europe. It hard to win these things as I don't think the author is likely to have realise this. This probably could have been solved by being more creative and more fantasy based than Up-Mountainers a.k.a. you mean the North and the main character is from the East so Asian or the middle East. It's backed with how the characters are described as look as well. Others might not read into this. On the fantasy front, it's always the ones that live in the mountains that savages and uneducated, so it just stereotype carried from others' works. Other parts of the world building were interesting such the idea of the traveling city and aspect of the magic.

This book is a murder mystery, with conspiracy, the ending of this book is dumb, but also really sad and depressing. (also, Spoiler: incesty). The main character generally comes across as being sad. She has no friends her own age and spends most her time with people she made up and therefore, how much control does she actually have over them.

It's told from Sorina Point of View, she an okay protagonist. The characters are fine. I don’t care much about characters that died or were threatened.

There's some diversity with different Sexuality with lesbian and a character hinted at as Demi-sexual. A first, but you can also read into badly if wanted due to how this book ends. The Traveling city is also meant to be diverse with different people, but mostly Down-mountainers. A lot of characters have deformities, some magical and some if not for magic would be a disability. The main character has No Eyes, but can still see. I guess it fine and does talk about how Sorina is treated.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Lamest Show in the City. This book was either going to be amazing or disappointment with the cool concept it had. Sadly, it was a disappointment for me. I didn't enjoy the reading process of that much and some of the author's choices I really didn't like. It was an okay read.

I got this book off of NetGalley for Review and it's published by HQ on 7th September 2017.