jediprincess's reviews
376 reviews

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Do you remember being born is a wonderful story about an elderly poet, Marian, being asked to co-write a historic poem with an AI, Charlotte. It's a poetic (who would have thought!) piece on loneliness and regret.

I loved the characters and their interactions. Marian's thoughts felt real, if at times a bit too arrogant. Her relationships with family, Charlotte, other poets, and the likes felt intensely vivid - I could imagine a little old lady in a fancy hat making funny comments and "swooping" to music. Charlotte stole the show though. Her poetry and questions had me in tears at points. The idea of AIs experiencing loneliness is something I'm sure we all think about since we tend to anthropomorphize robots and AIs, so I found Charlotte's journey working with Marian to be especially moving.

The format of this book was excellent, the dialogue between Marian and Charlotte was heart-wrenching at times. The use of second person was delightful, it felt as though the conversations between Marian and Charlotte were continued with its use, as if Charlotte was narrating Marian's life, feelings, joys, and failures from the moment of her birth, which Marian, as a human, is incapable of remembering completely, unlike Charlotte.

My one complaint about the book was when Marian would go introspective and have these thoughts about her reactions to others/events being gendered, like "am I only reacting this way because I am a woman" type thoughts. They were heavy handed and jolted me out of the story sometimes because they didn't feel natural to her thought process. Although perhaps it was a bias on my part learning the author is a younger man writing the POV of an elderly woman.

Overall I quite enjoyed the novel, the pacing was a bit slow but I think that lent to the drawn out feeling of the week going by and life being reminisced upon. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I breezed through this in a couple hours, it was so captivating!

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

maybe I’ll come back to this but the first few chapters were not gripping, which is sad cause I was really looking forward to this book!

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I quite liked this but there were some pacing problems where the scene would shift really awkwardly or quickly in a way that made it take a minute to realize what was happening

Star Wars: Yoda by Marc Guggenheim, Jody Houser, Cavan Scott

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adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced