Book Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

I just wanted a well rounded dyslexic character kicking butt, bonus if not a boy.

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

I have no pressing reason to review this book as it's not by a British writer or book I received for free off a publisher/author. But like I said in my review of the first book, this series has rep that affects me and is hard to find. This review will have spoilers for the first book but I try best to avoid spoilers in my reviews of the actual book I'm reviewing.

So one of the characters is coded Dyslexic. Weasley is unable to read and his dad is a dick about it because he's evil. The rep is okay I guess. I mean, it's mostly Weasley wishing he could read so things would go faster and a little talk about the failure of him being taught. It's kinda raised that he could have been taught wrong. Dyslexic people do process information differently, meaning they have to be taught differently. It never goes into details and he has no other symptoms of Dyslexia except being capable of non-reading things.

I listen to the audiobook of this whole series, and Weasley voice actor sure did make a choice when it came to doing Kaz. He's an old man with him and Weasley has a bigger part than the last book so it never came up till now. I don't mind multiple voices in audiobooks but I do when the voice actors do completely different things for a character. It's very distracting. I guess it's meant to show how Weasley sees Kaz compared to the other characters.

There are high emotion moments, that I feel are meant to be devastating but I just felt whatever about. I don't understand the choice. I guess I just wasn't that invested. There is a lot of characters at play and I did feel for the most of them. That part just didn't have an impact for me.

Overall, I give this book and the series 4/5 stars for Sugar Eating. This was fun, dark read so my type of reading. The world-building was great and it's definitely great to have multiple Disabled characters in one series. Having read this series now, I'm really interested in reading Ninth House on how it had to be an adult novel. I guess maybe you get away with least in Urban Fantasy over straight-up fantasy.

Book Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

I want a cool cane but there are so expensive.

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams - but he can't pull it off alone.

A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.

Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction - if they don't kill each other first.

I had forgotten that I once upon a time that I requested a review copy of this book and I always believe in reviewing books that I do end up reading from my review pile. I only realise when I went to mark on my Spreadsheet of books that I had finished this book, that I found it on my NetGalley arc lists. This is all funny because as I was listening to it, I was like "Ha Ha I don't have to review this and can just go on to the sequel book." I suppose, now in 2019, people wouldn't have minded if I just fulfil the need to review this book by reviewing the whole duology as one. But here we are single again.

Yes, I have read the whole the Grisha trilogy and while liking the world, I did have issues with the solution to that series. Honestly, it's depressing as hell. This book does have sad things; that can be found in life right now. This is a heist plot at its core with a bunch of personal storylines that all the characters have.

This is a lot pairing off in our Six of Crows gang. It's basically made up of couples to be. They all fine, a decent Hate/Prejudice to Love thing and another too emotionally scarred to just being together. The relationships are fine, we do have Queer characters and there's a bit of pinning over the seemly straight ones. The characters are okay, they all have different wants and motivations. I feel for them,

The rep in this book is okay, there's a lot this book is meant to have but I never pay attention to character descriptions except for the weird Irish Stereotypes that I just sigh at now but won't say anything because it's not a weird Scottish stereotype and this is a technically a fantasy world originally based off Russia. I know how the characters look more because of the fan outrage over the casting than anything else. I know Nina is meant to be plus-sized a.k.a. fat like me. Nina is very obsessed with food so I don't love that about her but she is also very "sexy" which is nice to see with a fat character and her love of food isn't made out to be a bad thing.

Now for the rep that I actually care about it, because it affects me and is lacking in fiction. There are two Disabled characters in this book. Kaz is out there with his badly healed broken leg and then another character whose disability is a twist. I actually recently tweeted that there is so few dyslexic characters or even coded ones in fantasy and books in general. This is the most undeveloped character of the crew and I'm hoping that in the sequel they are more developed and more like actual rep.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for fragile Ice. This is a fun book about revenge and other things. Yeah, tons of sad things that play into the real world but in a fun way. We already discussed in other reviews that weird definition of fun books. Ableism would be easier to cope with if it came with magic and heists.

Update: I have now read and reviewed the sequel.

An e-arc was provided from Netgalley and this book was published by Orion Children's Books on 2 June 2016 (I'm not sure if this was the UK date or not since I brought it in 2015, but maybe I did pre-order it).

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. 

Book Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

So three years late is better than never.

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

I have reviewed the second book in this series and the start of Maas' other series. It's been over 3 years since I received an arc of this book, but I never technically abandoned books I received review copies for.

The world building is interesting as we are in a new location and learn more about the fae. Get new characters.

We are introduced to a character that's destined to die. They were apparently introduced in the last book, but not noticeable. They reek of death the moment they introduced and making their interaction meaningless and obvious plot fodder. I stand by that Chaol and Dorian make a more interesting ship than any of the other things they have going on. I just dislike Chaol,, but can't remember why? (re-read the first two books? no). I mean he doesn't do a thing to change my mind so I'm just going to stick with the dislike.

The book changes POV and they were some I just didn't care about (Chaol's,) but had to read for plot reasons. The plot was okay, I really didn't care for the Adarlan side of the story. The climax on the side was somewhat obvious, but does feel like interesting set up for the next books. The rest of the plot was good and still like Celaena for the most part.

Overall, I give this book 4/5. I enjoyed this book better than the last one and probably pick up the next book soon (at least sooner than I did this one).

I got this book for Review off NetGalley and it was published by Bloomsbury on 11 September 2014. They probably rather I mention that the 6th novel is out next month. Also I did end up purchasing a non-signed edition of this book.

Book Review: A Girl Called Owl by A.J. Wilson

When Monster High runs out of Monsters...

It's bad enough having a mum dippy enough to name you Owl, but when you've got a dad you've never met, a best friend who needs you more than ever, and a new boy at school giving you weird looks, there's not a lot of room for much else. 

 So when Owl starts seeing strange frost patterns on her skin, she's tempted to just burrow down under the duvet and forget all about it. Could her strange new powers be linked to her mysterious father?And what will happen when she enters the magical world of winter for the first time?

A glittering story of frost and friendship, with writing full of magic and heart, A Girl Called Owl is a stunning debut about family, responsibility and the beauty of the natural world.

This novel sounds like a cool concept and then you realise it about 13 years old. To be honest, I think making the protagonist thirteen years old was a mistake, it feels like she should be fifteen for some of the storyline. Her maturity is not of a fifteen year old (though she probably maturer side of some of the 15 yrs old found in YA) but is of a 13 yr old so she is written well in that sense. Parts of the storyline do match, but there was just a lot dancing around the birds and the bees.

The story seems to get lost a bit, then I started analysing the chosen villain and how the conflict makes little sense. I feel like it was added as a second layer because there wasn't a natural villain to push the plot and character development along. Might have worked better without the forced conflict. Some of the chosen mythology was just kinda odd to throw in without explanation. Like it took from Arthurian Mythology for some reason, whilst being based in fay with some own invention I believe (google shows nothing).  I now would randomly like to point out that May used to be the first month of summer, and any Queen associated with that month that is an old myth would be a Summer Queen, and therefore next to Autumn already. Basically, I would have liked more thought, or explanation of thought behind the mythology. There was suggestions to things that would have been interesting, but were just intriguing mentions.

There were important female characters in this book, but they're literally sat back and let the male ones rule the roost (for majority). Owl does have a girl best friend, but she was not there to add to plot/action as she is human.

The characterisation was consisted and decent for our main characters. But a certain important character's characterisation filp-floped so much that I for sure thought he had to be a different character. There is no explanation for this.

The romance is this book is very mild, but clearly hinted at. There's also weird vibe from it, because I have no idea how old this guy is next this thirteen year and I feel like there has to be two years at least with plot stuff, so that just humanly wrong (if you are 13 years old, please stay away from people two years or older than you. There is something wrong if they are interested in you romantically. This rings true till twenty basically) or he is immortally a thirteen year old and so is she so that might just be tragic. This could just me thinking way too much about the plot.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for accidental freezes. In writing a review of this book, I have probably thought too much about this stand alone book than it was ever meant to be thought about (if there is a sequel, it will lose points, if you say the end, then its the end). Its charming, middle-grade book, that I probably wouldn't recommend past that age, but for that age sure.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Books.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Crused Child by NOT J.K. Rowling

I think this might have been written by Bellatrix Lestrange.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

At first when I was hearing all the bad things about this book. I thought it was from people not being used to reading plays and didn't understand the differences between them and a novel. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and read it when I finally got my hands on the copy I had pre-ordered months ago.  I wanted to form my own opinion and now I have.

This has to be some of the worst, laziest fanfiction I have ever read. EVER. and that is from someone who lived between Harry Potter books and has went through months of only reading fanfiction.You read (and create) a lot terrible stuff when you're fifteen; in the name of Fandom. This play even has some of the worst tropes.

This play based off a story by J.K.Rowling (e.g. fanfiction), written by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne. J.K. Rowling did not write this and it pretty obvious.

The characters are really out of character. There clearly wasn't a space for Ron in this play so they turned him into his dad and this awkward comic relief. Yep, we get the wrong the Wealsey in this book, which reminds of me fanfiction because for some reason there are people who really hate Ron and think he useless, like he is in this. Harry says stuff I could never imagine Harry saying, even with 20 something years later. Also none of the character have their own voice and use odd words. I now wonder late at night "Where did a Malfoy learn the word "mate" and why would he used it when he thinks hugging is weird?" It also comes straight after a much older character using is (or maybe the other way around) to emphasise how lack of thought went into the characters dialogue.

The house sorting is dumb. I've never came across two more truer Hufflepuffs in my life. We have Draco's and Harry's son being really gay with each other (fanfict).  But not, because the religious nuts already hate Harry Potter enough without having actual gays in one of them. Poor Hugo has been written out of this play but we know he exists because he's mention once. Albus also has no relationship with his siblings. They there but only because they have to be and emphasise what a "failure"Albus is. Scorpius is also infatuated with Rose (fanfict) and Albus has a love interest to prove he's straight and it is a level of fanfict I have never read by choice until this play made me. Its giant trope that I can't get into because spoilers. Creepy, creepy heteronormative spoilers. Why couldn't they just be gay and avoid the creepiness that we presented with at the end with both of them?

I have a hard time believing that these kids were raised by the same kids we got to know so well in Harry Potter or by the adults we glimpsed in the last book.

The book deals with time travel (look here's a timeturner, even though all of them were destroyed.What happens, it is a giant troupe in the Harry Potter Fandom). The big issue that's it really lazy take on the "Butterfly Effect". There's an obvious route that the plot could have took that would make a lot more sense, but they don't do that. Instead, they add unrealistic character development, that we don't see so of course that makes it incredibility unrealistic.

The plot makes very little sense and has giant gaping plot holes that took me out of the story so much. Time Travel is complicated and not enough thought was put into it for it work and then we have odd character motivation. Time Travel thing could have been used as technique to teach Albus a lesson about his father's actual childhood, but no just hm...actually I don't know we got with that time travel.

The ending was terrible, a fanfiction troupe and utterly pointless. The whole thing was just, here lets experience this for no real reason. It was just really lazy way to end the play with emotional bow, that  at least fails on paper.

But relax true HP fans, this play opens by going against canon. I mean its written as though Albus is the first to go Hogwarts, which is just dumb. Therefore, its not the actual eighth story. I don't know if there's actual story written or plot-outline by J.K.Rowling that the play was based on but even if it was, this was not a well done adaptation. I mean literally, a parody musical got the characters better than this book. If there's an actual short story, then they should have probably published it instead or along with the play.

Overall, I give this book 2 out of five stars for gay-baiting. There's another major fanfict troupe this play has, but I can't go into because major spoiler for this joke of a play. I have other issues with it but I'm already on the borderline of Spoiler land and those thoughts belong in video discussion. Seriously though, what was the point of this? Does J.K. Rowling have a secret gambling problem so she needed to make money quick or something? Why was this ever approved? I know this is very negative review, but there was nothing good or enjoyable about reading this play. It's possible that is better acted out, you know in its intended media, but going off how bad the dialogue I really doubt it.

If this play had actually been about about Harry Potter's adult life or the challenges of being the son of a War hero then it would have been interesting.  No we got timetravel and not even the Marauders
to make it fun at least. I think it ends being a two star and not one for me because there was something thing that could have been really good but everything they got right, they twisted till it wasn't. Now, I'm off to read decent fanfiction.