reading list

[rhodochrosite]

post idea from eliza a while back... here is a quick rundown of all the books i've read recently, excluding anything i was rereading, since quarantine got me suddenly literate again. spoilers for all these books obviously. and non objective but definitely 100% correct opinions




the poppy war + the dragon republic (the poppy war) - r. f. kuang
PREMISE: orphan girl goes to magic school, becomes vessel of god, commits war crimes (at this point i realised this was not the ya book i thought it was), makes a ton of poor decisions, spirals into substance addiction, makes more poor decisions, thirsts after every hot person in her acquaintance, i guess there's a few wars going on too

GENERAL THOUGHTS: are these books Objectively Good? not really. but am i fucking obsessed with them anyway? u bet! i don't care for the war politicking and everything i am just here for the sexy sexy cast dynamics. rin is on a mission to objectify absolutely everyone and especially the yins. no member of the house of yin is safe from her thirst, including her love interest's dad

FAVE CHARACTER: 
“He was brilliant. He was different. You’d have never met anyone like him.” / “You would be stunned. You have no idea how many men are like Altan Trengsin.”

STUFF I LIKED: 

• RIN!!!!! perfect protag of my heart i love violent jock girls and i love when they are literally blazing with fury all the time and also she is so horny oh my god, she spends paragraphs detailing how hot people are even if she hates them, she has the most blatant authority kink ever. she's horny for nearly every single authority figure in her life she spends most of book 2 craving the validation and security of following orders she is THE powerdynamicsfucker69 and i respect that
  • she's basically attracted to people who want to kill her, people who she wants to kill, and people in positions of power. chef's kiss. love her network of beautiful frenemies and rivals and platonic soulbonded bffs and commanding officers and ex commanding officers and whatever
• i'm not ready to talk about altan yet. Haha ummm anyway
  • bitch do be living in everyone's heads rent free tho... he appeared more in tdr than some of the other main characters despite literally being [REDACTED] 
• Hey remember how rin had to kill altan twice. remember how rin went thru like 5 different lotus eater dreams and they were all about a future with altan as he could have been if he were a person and not a vessel for vengeance. but chaghan's lotus eater dream was altan as he truly was bc chaghan actually knew altan
  • i do love that rin has absolutely no emotional revelation permanence like she realises that altan is a real person with Severe Issues once every ten pages and then promptly forgets again in favour of objectifying him
  • speaking of chaghan's lotus eater dream. [POLITELY AVERTS GAZE] [POLITELY AVERTS GAZE] [POLITELY AVERTS GAZE]
  • rin/altan/chaghan was the sexiest shit ever and the potential was sooo squandered ik i have spoken at length about this on twitter but know that when i can finally unleash my yuletide letter.............
• the cike T____T i don't like found family tropes bc they're generally too saccharine for my tastes but seriously people sometimes a family can be an elite squadron of dangerously unhinged magical assassins who understand that one day they'll have to put one another down and even take comfort in the thought that they're each other's checks and balances
• sinegard quartet [kids - mgmt starts playing]

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• thinly veiled historical allusions were a little TOO on the nose... like come on small but densely populated and militaristic island nation invades its larger neighbour and commits horrible war crimes in its neighbour's southern capital and performs medical experiments on prisoners??
• too much war shit not enough relationship drama, i don't care that this isn't a ya series, it should be. though ig i appreciate the message that ultimately the true enemy is the upper class, and also white people
• when altan [REDACTED]
• my curse of onepicking the characters that op hates
• i wish rin would thirst more blatantly after some women. like venka is RIGHT THERE and so is the empress istg if daji doesn't at least kiss rin in book3
• i have to wait HALF A YEAR for the last book to come out and probably everyone is going to die in it and altan is not coming back to life so what is the point why am i still HERE

chain of gold - cassandra clare
PREMISE: sequel to tid i have no idea how else to describe it. theres ghosts and demons and shit. its a shadowhunters book you know the drill

GENERAL THOUGHTS: so yeah cclare still got me

FAVE CHARACTER: miss grace cartwright blackthorn <3 perfect ruthless determined girl who will make terrible choices if it means she can save the people she loves... i want lucie and cordelia to sweep in swords blazing and rescue her from her situation so she can Learn How To Trust In The Good Of Humanity and Have Friends but i know it'll probably fall to christopher to do the honours

STUFF I LIKED:

• CARSTAIRS SIBS >>>>>>>> the way they know each other too well to be able to talk to each other... THE KNIFE SCENE... T__T
  • but also rip cordelia having to live with the incontrovertible knowledge that her brother is a bottom
• the central love triangle is not really a love triangle bc grace doesnt love james he is simply 1) a means to the end of protecting her family 2) the only non-familial connection she has ever had... TT__TT when she said "let me look at you while you still love me" before she took the charmed bracelet off him... like even if he was manipulated into it james is still the only person who has ever been unconditionally kind to her!!! he was her only friend and the only person who cared about her even before the enchantment... and grace had to quash every warm feeling she might have developed in return bc she has a much more important endgame in mind and ofc she has no reason to trust that james will help her w/o the spell..... aughhh grace turning herself into ice. LOVE HER
• lucie/grace and cordelia/grace are so interesting to me... also obsessed with the alastair-grace dynamic tfw your sister in love with a guy currently under a love spell to make him a more amenable sacrifice or whatever the reasoning was like ig they can like coolly nod at one another as they pass by and continue ignoring each other after that
• jordelia fakeout makeout classic trope classic execution
• i think its really epic of cordelia to have a magic family heirloom sword

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• pretty much everyone is gay EXCEPT the protag trio... [sniffles] YOU ARE ALL SO STRAIGHTTTT
• took me two reads to figure out who was who... ensemble cast is really big and the guys all have indistinguishable White Boy names i could not for the life of me remember the difference btwn matthew christopher and thomas and i still kind of struggle
• matthew is a little bitch and i'll be sooo mad if theres a second love triangle with james/cordelia/matthew i have had enough of parabatai in love with the same girl... you think you are will/tessa/jem but you are Not

the traitor + the monster (baru cormorant) - seth dickinson
PREMISE: girl infiltrates her colonisers by becoming an accountant and then a ruler with the aim of bringing the empire down from the inside. then cancer gets weaponised? i forgot the specifics

GENERAL THOUGHTS: it was objectively pretty good but i didnt enjoy it that much. i liked book2 much more than book1 i think baru/tain hu was a lot more emotionally affecting in hindsight... in general i was like weirdly emotionally disconnected from everything the entire time and im not sure why. there were some really lovely lines tho i do still still be thinking abt Is this how you keep grief from crushing you—whenever you are struck, you strike back from within? Your soul sustained by the equiposition of violence inside and out.

FAVE CHARACTER: maybe baru on principle

STUFF I LIKED:

• a lesbian accountant protag whose mode of fighting is economic warfare is very exciting representation for the finance majors among us, especially the gay ones (me)
• the Plot Twist at the end of book1 was pretty shattering so it def worked on me
• i love the throne stuff.... you can get me with fancy mononymic titles
• the prose is really nice to read

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• no actual stonks ): also couldve gone way harder in on the economics pretty much it was just *encourages inflation* *encourages deflation*
• societal homophobia is a keystone of the worldbuilding and u guys know im *carrd voice* Dislikes: homophobia, racism, sexism. so i found it really hard to get through
• i didnt mind the war stuff here as much as in tpw since there was some fun fiscal policy stuff but i also think the books could probably be improved with a shippier approach to cast dynamix

the unspoken name - a. k. larkwood
PREMISE: orphan girl is rescued from being vessel of god/sacrifice by deposed ruler, goes to look for a magic box at her mentor's behest, kills some people, unwillingly teams up with her frenemy co-mentee who is a bitchy twink with severe daddy issues, uhauls with another vessel of a god, helps her escape lobotomisation, a lot happens in this one book there's like two consecutive plots. Like its basically two books in one we love value for money

GENERAL THOUGHTS: so refreshing to read about violence loving jock lesbian protags with serious mentor problems finally some good fucking food. the worldbuilding was really fun i <3 space operas!! 

FAVE CHARACTER: shuthmili!!!!! meu bebe... insanely strong prodigy vessel of a goddess trained her whole life to repress her power as evil and view her impending lobotomy as the ultimate goal so she can serve her people as a perfect weapon. i never thought i'd see another character of the Serena ArcV archetype but here we are!!!

STUFF I LIKED:

• tal/csorwe frenemies without benefits rival co-mentees vying for sethennai's attention and validation completely stole the show i love their petty bitchy competitive asses constantly being sent out on missions together and hating every second of it. they even got the Nobody Is Allowed To Kill You Except Me thing going on. it's the perfect inverse of gay/lesbian solidarity. when csorwe finally broke her rose-tinted sethennai vision and she went to tal's room to mope about it <3 <3 <3
• i love tal soooooo much... inferiority complex supreme. it's depressing as fuck that he is actually in love with sethennai AND even sleeping with him but he will never ever be sethennai's favourite because sethennai picked csorwe but sethennai was forced to take on tal as part of the deal that gave him his throne back. and tal sees sethennai way more clearly than csorwe does but he's stuck there because he's an idiot who is in love
• this entire book is like MENTORSHIPFUCKERY9000 i definitely appreciate it a lot. everyone has so many issues. all the dynamix... Chefs kiss

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• it's kind of slow to start, i wasn't super sure what kind of story i was getting into and i think the pacing suffered from lingering on csorwe's childhood -> adulthood extended training montage
• generally the pacing was kinda weird bc of the two plots... i enjoyed the second one more bc that's where shuthmili and tal/csorwe frenemies came in but it did confuse me when the book like switched gears entirely between the plots. i don't think the first plot works well as a standalone though it's too Basic Fantasy Plot, it kinda has prequel novella quality... maybe it could have just been heavily condensed?

the winged histories - sofia samatar
PREMISE: a soldier, a priestess, a singer and a socialite get caught up in a civil war partly of their own making. also there's vampires

GENERAL THOUGHTS: literally the best book i've read all year possibly ever i cant emphasise enough how good this book is like its good on an objective level AND i enjoyed it so much as well it's really beautifully written.. definitely a book that prioritises character over plot, the actual plot (civil war) is v much on the backburner in favour of going really deep into the cast. lots of interesting stylistic choices in the prose. this is not an easy book to read but it is VERY good. the #Themez of power and powerlessness within imperial and colonial social structures and the significance of history and how it's written and how it's interpreted or twisted and how you try to Make The Right Decisions in the middle of a massive tangle of warring aims and tragedies on the personal and political level. change the world by war, change the world by writing, change the world by art, turn your back on the world and look inwards for change ETC ETC

FAVE CHARACTER: siski ))))))): ))))))))): ))))))))))): i think her story is the most heartbreaking bc it's so internal... out of the four women she's had the smoothest life and she was set to become empress with everything planned out for her except her own and other people's choices fucked everything up. her tragedy is so small-scale compared to the society-encompassing tragedies the first three women are involved in but sometimes it is about the individual yk. sometimes finally taking your own life back and allowing yourself to love is the real redemption!!! IN THE DESERT THERE ARE EMPTY PLACES BUT ONCE WE WERE NOT AFRAID!!!!!! WE RODE THROUGH NOON!!!!!! YOU SANG, MY HEART IS WHITE WITH LOVE!!!!!!!!

STUFF I LIKED:

• everything about twh feels so meticulous like the four protags all have really distinct narration styles that add to their characterisation (tavis the soldier is first person and mostly linear, tialon the priestess-scholar flips between first and third because she's narrativising her own history even as she lives it, seren the singer is first person and narrates in more poetry than prose, siski the princess is third person and largely flashback lingering on a happier (or at least more certain lmfao) childhood)
  • the actual war happens in book 2, which is tialon's, and i thought that was really interesting too bc tavis who starts the war narrates right up to its beginning and then we get tialon's fractured outsider pov on it from where she's held prisoner in her rooms, and then we go back to tavis via seren in book 3 who takes us unflinchingly through the aftermath of tavis's failed coup in which many of seren's clan died. so the action happens almost entirely offscreen and all the tension and stakes come from the impacts of their choices on their interpersonal dynamics. it's like one big crime scene reconstruction. WHICH I LOVE
• the excerpts from in-universe historical texts as chapter epigraphs and section closers were reallyyyy cool
• can i say everything. Honestly everything from character to prose to themes and motifs was exactly my style of story. like twh got me believing in The (Literally) Transformative Power Of Love (dasya........................ the entire last chapter.............. ghgughgh)
• i didn't expect the lesbian romance btwn two of the protags so i was pleasantly surprised by that.... plus the power dynamics of it all
• i've been a fan of op's writing since i read selkie stories are for losers it's seriously gorgeous!!!

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• i wish there were more ensemble dynamics T_T the four protags never all met (and tialon never interacted with the other three at all) and i think it would have been really cool to see them all together... i think tialon and seren could have had some interesting things to say to each other especially... and i want siski to meet her sister's girlfriend T___T
• I CANT BELIEVE PEOPLE LIVE WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLED... AUGHHHHH this is the first book i can recall where the protag-led rebellion ultimately failed and it's kinda crushing to read that in ya!!!
• the book is pretty slow to start it took me ummm 3 years to get past the first 20 or so pages but once i got into it I Was Into It. it isn't an easy book to read for stylistic reasons like it makes you Work for the meaning but it is very rewarding

to kill a kingdom - alexandra christo
PREMISE: the little mermaid but make it enemies to lovers

GENERAL THOUGHTS: great illustration of how to take a bunch of tropes i love and make them suck. it's literally my fave trope ever enemies to lovers... AND there was a bit where they went undercover as a couple... AND the book promised me violence and gore and epic magic... AND SOMEHOW I STILL HATED IT!!!!

FAVE CHARACTER: princess yukiko bc she's manipulative and ambitious and knows what she wants (to rule) and also gets it (by marrying a queen) so really she's the winner of this book

STUFF I LIKED:

• credit where credit is due the protag DID rip out one (1) heart
• sometimes the writing was really nice! there were a few lines that moved me... most of the #banter was kinda tryhard but sometimes it did work too. side characters way more engaging than the mcs

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE:

• now you guys know i'm a straight rights supporter but i think this book made me heterophobic. the romance was boring as hellll they were sort of ok when they were friends but bitches be breaking out of centuries-old ideological indoctrination via teen love? ESPECIALLY THE NON-MCS LIKE THEY JUST WENT ALONG WITH IT?? u expect me to believe that???
• it was really frustrating that the prince (i already forgot his name) didn't know the mermaid (i also already forgot her name) was the enemy he'd spent his life trying to hunt down so the actual enemies part was just kinda like the dude not trusting the girl but still letting her on his ship bc she's hot. i think this wouldve been a much better book if they both knew from the start what they were getting into but were operating under some kind of enemy-of-my-enemy truce to attempt to defeat the sea queen so they have to reluctantly ally themselves but still understandably hate each other. there was barely any time between the prince discovering the mermaid's identity and the final battle i felt very cheated of the Feelings Of Betrayal And Hate
• the google translated greek used in the "fictional" language is not only weird (YUKIKO AND HER FAMILY ARE CLEARLY JAPANESE... WHY ARE THEY RULING A COUNTRY WITH A GREEK NAME...) but also super on the nose (haha yukiko is from a country called "ice" in greek because it's really cold there haha get it) and apparently incorrect too lmao
• the worldbuilding was janky as hell it's just like every couple chapters they sail to a new island cue a few paragraphs of lore infodump and then they go to another island and so on
• pacing sucked the entire middle is just like Nothing Happens. and for a book that opens with the protag talking about how she rips dudes hearts out of their chests only one actual scene of heartripping occurred. EXPECTED MORE GORE
• the book SKIPPED OVER ALL THE INTERESTING PARTS i wanted to read about the protags coming into their newfound power and figuring out politics and treaties and shit after the Evil Was Defeated and like. lingering resentment over the enemies stuff. instead there was just a shitty happily ever after epilogue fuck offfff

Comments

[rhodochrosite]

wahh ilu eliza!!! i hope u enjoy twh and chog~~~ omgggg i feel like im in a book club i love this

> LMAOOO rins thirst jumps out at me bc im always a character/ship oriented reader so i think its so funny that she dedicates a couple paragraphs to describing how hot people are every time she sees them... take a shot for every time she mentions nezhas beauty die from alcohol poisoning. omgggg i do wonder if she would like chaghan more if altan had named him successor instead.. she had no respect for him as altans lieutenant even tho he was higher ranked than her i think the altan angle rly complicates things (but yk.... the nezha angle complicates things with vaisra but that didnt stop rin). actually im kinda disappointed that we didnt get any of the rinchaghan We Shall Carry Out Altans Will teamup rin was talking about at the end of tpw )': i like strategy too but theres something really formulaic about the way rfk writes war that just bores me... either way FINGERS CROSSED FOR KITAY TO SURVIVE
> tfw my onepick dies in the first book [crying emoji] farewell sexy..... MESSAGE TO ALL OTHER BITCHES STAY ALIVE!!!
> yessssssss im obsessed with chaghans dream and the way rin recognises the way chaghan feels about altan TT__TT
> lmfgksjdfhgksdjfhgkjdsfg YEAH a lot of the plot points felt like shock value type dark to me and it just left me rly cold, i was super upset over altans death bc i am obsessed with altan but in the broad scheme of things i think rfks writing shines much brighter when she pares it back (eg scenes with sorqan sira worked much better for me). i think knowing the historical parallels took away from the worldbuilding bc i was like this is just a straight up transplant... whereas i suspect ppl unfamiliar with east asian history would have found it more fascinating!
> actually rfk got into a big twitter fight over the ya thing! she said tpw wasnt a ya book and another author blew up at her saying like Oh whats so bad about ya huh thats sexist of you to reject the genre... personally i think the extreme detail given to gore/war crimes tip it out of the ya genre but opening with magic military school tropes + the romance arcs really do make it feel ambiguous. though comparing it with, say, chain of gold, it does feel more clear to me that tpw isnt ya bc it doesnt have /enough/ focus on emotions and romance like it really tries to be 70% a Book About The Horrors Of War with a few nods to rins love life. in chog theres more of a... fanservicey? feel to the romance even tho the plot is also sort of about war, the focus is clearly on the cast relationships... and i think thats missing from tpw. Wow that was long. but i WISH tpw was ya

smooch thank u for responding to this longass post!!!

[hwarium]

> the more I think about rin/chaghan the more its like a pigtail pulling competition between two kindergarteners with a crush on a year 6 prefect. Rin is so snarky bc he's too similar to her so she needs to put him down to show altan (rip) she's better? Or she's insecure bc they have a History and he's insecure bc she's Speerly

> still kind of mad about the sorqan sira tent ritual where rin kills altan only for it not to work and "oops hey btw you can anchor bond". They built it up as something Rin had to conquer for half a book only for it to be swept away like ash. I think it would have been more powerful if RFK only chose one bc the altan-scene felt like it was only there for the aesthetic of it whereas the anchor bond really cements the trifecta parallel.

> maybe kitay lives but nezha has a near-death experience which is why they need to anchor bond to save him HMMM, maybe nezha will also lose control of his god and kitay will "sigh" and become the handler to two idiots with no sense of self-preservation

> so glad RFK explicitly decided not to develop any romances though keke everything is viable no romance is forced