Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Contemporary Romance & Mystery
Book Reviews
December 2024
The Will of the Many
by
James Islington
Rating: 4.5 ★
Genre: High Fantasy, Mystery
Review: This is a novel for people who like the finer things in life, without being pulled into the current of pretension.
The Will of the Many is a brilliant reminder of why a meaty fantasy book just hits differently. The backdrop of the story is a societal hierarchy where individuals seed power to those in higher tiers. We follow Vis, an orphan who is adopted by a powerful man under the agreement that Vis will attend an academy to solve a murder.
Along the way, he is roped into an underground rebellion to hunt a weapon, all while navigating the secret of his true origins and identity.
If you’re on the hunt for a book with action, blackmail, an academic tournament, a murder mystery, friendship, thought-provoking political commentary, betrayal, an epic fantasy landscape and so much more, I’d highly recommend picking this up!
“Silence is a statement, Diago. Inaction picks a side. And when those lead to personal benefit, they are complicity.”
“A fair system only works if there’s an unbiased means of assessing merit.”
Happy All the Time
by
Laurie Colwin
Rating: 4.25 ★
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Literary Fiction
Review: If you’re someone who needs a good plot to drive a book, you would absolutely hate this. But if you’re like me and can read about intriguing characters until they feel like they’ve seeped into your bones, then you will adore this.
The book seemingly follows two men and their respective marriages but really, in my opinion, this book is about the women. The men simply orbit Holly and Misty – both of whom gutted me in different ways.
At first glance, I think it’s easy to write them off as confrontational and unnecessarily provocative characters, but I think that’s kind of the point… There is something so specific about why these characters are the way that they are, and I absolutely love that.
The story itself isn’t much to write home about but Holly and Misty are truly something special.
“What he felt about Holly was not obsession, but enrichment. Without Holly, his life was worth something, but not all that much.”
“I just can’t see things up close. Then I get intrigied by the idea of distance.”
“It seemed to her unwise to let the world at large know how easily moved she was, so she kept it to herself.”
“Love made fools of everyone. It was a man’s fate.”
“Guido realized that his wife would have made an extremely efficient dictator.”
Red Rising
by
Pierce Brown
Rating: 3.5 ★
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian Fantasy
Review: I so badly wanted to love this. It has everything that I typically froth over. The Hunger Games vibes? Reminiscent of Ender’s Game? Sign me up!
And yet, this ended up being a bit of a flop for me. To be fair, I think that a lot of my dislike had to do with me simply consuming this as an audiobook instead of reading a paperback. My biggest issue was that I could not handle the drama of the main character, and I think that was heavily exacerbated by the narration. Simply put: it gave me the ick.
I just could not relate to the characters with inflated egos and zero capacity for levity, which ultimately meant that I lost interest. The plot itself and the landscape are genuinely fantastic (hence the 3.5 stars) but I really just did not give a sh*t by the end.
I’m really open to giving this another shot though, and I’m tempted to read the second book as a paperback to see if it was simply the narration that threw me. If you have thoughts on whether I should give it another go, please let me know in the comments below!
“Love and war are two different battlefields.”
Intermezzo
by
Sally Rooney
Rating: 4.0 ★
Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Review: I thought this was beautifully done, for many reasons, but mostly because of the characters. To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel about the story itself but the characters felt like they were very intentionally crafted, and I loved how real they seemed.
I loved that they weren’t people that you were necessarily supposed to like or dislike; they were just who they were. Also, the relationship between the brothers had a realness that struck home, even – or rather especially – in its messy pain and dysfunction.
I enjoyed the writing style, even though it takes a little bit of adjustment when reading. This particular style that lacks quotation marks for the characters’ dialogue is something that I first came across and fell in love with in Talking at Night by Claire Daverley. So, if you enjoyed Intermezzo, I would highly recommend reading Talking at Night. Well, actually, I would recommend reading Talking at Night regardless; I still get goosebumps thinking about that book.
This wasn’t necessarily a 5-star read for me and I know that this isn’t really a reflection of Sally Rooney’s other books, but I will definitely be picking up more books by her.
“Well, if that’s suffering, he thinks, let me suffer. Yes. To love whoever I have left. And if ever I lose someone, let me descend into a futile and prolonged rage, yes, despair, wanting to break things, furniture, appliances, wanting to get into fights, to scream, to walk in front of a bus, yes. Let me suffer, please. To love just these few people, to know myself capable of that, I would suffer every day of my life.”
“I don’t want you to be grateful, he says. I just want you to be happy.”
“Call unsuccessful. What does he have to tell him anyway. I just want to say, I’m on your side. I know I’ve never done anything to help you, Ivan, but in principle, in spirit. I’ve been on your side all along.”
Ninth House
by
Leigh Bardugo
(reread)
Rating: 5.0 ★
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Review: This was my second time reading Ninth House because somehow, a creepy thriller about ghosts, hell and murder has become a comfort read for me. Please don’t ask me how that happened. I’m just as confused as you are.
When I first read this, I gave it 4.5 stars but this book has been living in my brain for over a year now, just begging me to revisit the sheer adoration I have for these characters and this story.
Everything about this book is finessed to perfection. The plot is intriguing, the setting is satisfyingly gothic, the fantasy elements are rich in detail and the characters are phenomenal.
Our main character, Galaxy “Alex” Stern, is the embodiment of “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” She’s gritty and selfish, but fair and incredibly loyal to people who earn it. If you love a hard-hitting character who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty, you will love Alex! I say this with a major qualification though: Alex is one of the very very rare characters that feels like her “badass” persona isn’t forced.
I’ve read a lot of books with strong female leads but none of them come close to the kind of nonchalant metal running through Alex’s veins. And that’s just Alex. Every other character in the book is just as well-constructed.
However, I would say that these characters need a little bit of time to marinade. At face value, and when I first read Ninth House, many of the characters (particularly Darlington) felt a bit unremarkable. It was only after I had read Hell Bent – book 2 in the trilogy – that I fully appreciated the impact of Ninth House (you can read my review of Hell Bent in the June 2024 Book Reviews). The fact that the remarkableness of the characters is so understated, is what makes them so weighty.
If I had to describe Ninth House in three words, it would be raw, classy and pointed.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
“I let you die. To save myself, I let you die. That is the danger in keeping company with survivors.”
“He needed her and she needed him. That was how most disasters began.”
“There were always excuses for why girls died.”
“Maybe all rich people asked the wrong questions. For people like Alex, it would never be what do you want. It was always just how much can you get?”
“‘Didn’t someone say love is a shared delusion?’
‘Call it magic if you prefer. Two people reciting the same spell.'”
“‘Fuck,’ he gasped. Alex blinked.
‘I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you
swear.’ Chills shook him and he tried to control the tremors that quaked through his body.‘I c-c-class p-p-profanity with declarations of love. Best used sparingly and only when wholeheartedly m-m-meant.'”
“Alex didn’t know what lived in boys like Blake. Beautiful boys who should be happy, who wanted for nothing but still found things to take.”
“She could hear Darlington’s voice in her head: When was the first time you saw them? Low and halting, as if he wasn’t sure whether the question was taboo. But the real question, the right question, was: When was the first time you knew to be afraid?
Alex was glad he’d never had the sense to ask.”
I love your commentary on Sally Rooney!! When I read Beautiful World Where Are You I couldn’t quite put my finger on whether I adored the book or didn’t really care for it… I haven’t read enough of her work to make this a fully formed comment but it feels like her style is consistent here. I adored how natural and real her characters were but the plot felt lacking and one dimensional. But the characters! There was just something there that stayed with me after.
Adding Ninth House and The Will Of The Many to my 2025 TBR!!!!!!
This quote got me: “ Didn’t someone say love is a shared delusion?’
‘Call it magic if you prefer. Two people reciting the same spell.’”
Yeah maybe that’s just her vibe but I’ll definitely need to read more of her books to find out 🙂
Oh my gosh, please please please let me know how it goes with Ninth House when you read it! Would love to hear your thoughts <3
It's such a gem x