Book Review

Thoughts on THE BOOK OF AUTUMN

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Dad got a new phone because he decided it would be fun to tumble into the pond with his old one in his pocket. That damn water hose just snaked out and grabbed him by the ankle. Splash. He’s fine. Fish are fine. Dogs just sat there and laughed at him. Lost about 4 years worth of pictures, but apparently everything else was backed up. Otherwise, life is still going. Today is the last Wednesday of October, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I went with a dark fantasy in the hopes of getting some spooky vibes. The Book of Autumn by Molly O’Sullivan was released yesterday (the 28th) by Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

The Book of Autumn follows Marcella Gibbons as she returns to her alma mater, a school of magic deep in the New Mexico deserts, to help solve a brutal murder and eerie magical plight. She must delve into her troubled past to save the life of another troubled young woman and perhaps the entire school. But can she get out of the shadow of her dimidium, the other half of her magical soul, long enough to shine on her own?

Plot and pacing. The plot has a lot of potential, but in actuality, it’s super muddy and makes very little sense. There’s no real reason why Cella and Max are even needed. No one cooperates with them. They both blatantly ignore obvious clues for no reason other than to drag the story out. There’s this whole thing with mushrooms that never really comes to anything. It’s just a confusing mess and everything is crammed into the last 20% of the book, which makes the first 80% of the book useless. It’s far too drawn out and the ending ends up being confusing and jarring. It’s just not executed well at all.

The characters. They’re all selfish and deliberately ignorant. The only one with any sense is Luce and that’s not saying much. None of them know how to have a conversation, which would solve so many issues right up front. These are supposed to be adults, but they all act like they’re 12. I just really hate stupid people. I really wanted to DNF this one because of them, but I pushed through.

The writing. So, this book was supposed to mimic an academic paper with footnotes and references and everything, but it didn’t work for me. Most of the footnotes just felt like stuff the author was told to cut and decided to sneak it back in under the guise of academia. It should’ve stayed cut or been blended back into the story itself. Beyond that, pretty much the only redeeming feature of this book was the descriptions. The New Mexico setting sounded beautiful.

Ultimately, I really didn’t like The Book of Autumn. It sounds like a great story, but missed every mark. I’m trying really hard to think of nice or at least constructive things to say. Nothing is coming, so this review will have to stay short.

Overall, I gave it 1 out of 5 stars. I struggled really hard to get through this one and just can’t bring myself to recommend it.

Thoughts on R.A.T.S: REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF TEENS

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this first day of October? Things here are the same. Just waiting to find out if I’m still cripple enough for Medicaid if they ever do anything. Anyway, as you can see from the post’s title, this is going to be a book review! That book that was supposed to come out in June was finally released, so I’m going to go ahead and review it. R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens by Claudia Daher was released on September 25th from Vanguard Press (an imprint of Pegasus Publishers). Rachel Lachney from Books Forward reached out to me about reviewing it. As usual, this is an honest and unbiased review. I will say that the ARC I received was from way back in March and I have no idea if any major edits have taken place since then or not. So, take this review with a grain of salt just in case I didn’t have the most recent version. Here we go.

R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens follows a number of young people from all over the world, mainly David, as they become immersed in a video game about saving the world from climate change and an alien threat. When they find out the game isn’t just a game, but based on a real and imminent disaster, they take it upon themselves to use the training provided in the game to go save the world.

The age range of the kids has this book straddling middle grade and young adult, but it definitely reads on the younger end of middle grade. It’s an over-simplification of climate change and some other complicated issues that encourages kids to think about these things and try to work together on potential solutions. I like that part. In today’s world, adults (at least where I’m from) can’t even agree that basic access to affordable food and healthcare are rights, not luxuries. They certainly aren’t going to fix anything as complex as climate change. So, the premise of this book is great.

The actual plot, though. Meh. A lot of it reads like a C.S. Lewis book. Thinly veiled Christianity. The good aliens are beings of light and warmth who never interfere with a human’s free will, etc. While the bad aliens are beings of darkness and greed who destroy everything they touch, but they happen to be descendants of evil, lying, sinning humans. There’s also a random scene with a lion and a lamb, just in case everything else was too subtle. Oh, and David’s basically Jesus for reasons I won’t spoil, but which are glaringly obvious. Now, I’m not saying this is an inherently bad thing. I do think it will confuse the crap out of Republicans. “Must ban because climate change doesn’t exist, but it’s thinly veiled Christian stuff…” -internal meltdown-. I find that hilarious. I’m just saying, I’m not into books that try so hard to be religious and cover it up at the same time. So, it ruined an otherwise decent plot for me.

The characters are all pretty much perfect, except for the bad aliens and random young Texans. This is not a good thing, especially in a middle grade book. There are no flaws for young readers to relate to, no room for growth. Literally the only character growth in this book is when one of the Texans decides not to be a dick any more. Otherwise, everyone makes all the right choices at all the right times. There’s no tension. No internal conflict. Everyone is just perfect and it’s boring.

Side note: the dialogue is pretty standard if somewhat stilted, except for the Texans. They talk like some combination of the Beverly Hillbillies and every cliché Western movie. I’m not entirely sure if it was supposed to be insulting (if so, fair) or if that’s how the author actually thinks people talk here. It’s just weird that they’re the only ones who get lines that sound like “I done jumped ’bout as high as an armadilly what got it’s tail-end tickled with a feather” (not a quote, just my own example). I mean… why?

The writing was fairly unobtrusive. It flowed and made for a quick read. There are also pictures drawn by the author throughout the book, which was lovely.

Ultimately, I thought the premise of R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens was great, but I was not a fan of the execution. Most of my dislike was a me problem. Personally, I just felt it could’ve been better.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One because it was written and published and one because I know other people will like it more than I did. If you’re a fan of thinly veiled Bible retellings, you’ll probably like it a lot more than I did. If you’re a fan of middle grade sci-fi or have kids who are, check it out.

Thoughts on EXTRAORDINARY QUESTS FOR AMATEUR WITCHES

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are about the same. Still waiting. Still tired. Anyway, it’s not time for random complaints. It’s the last Wednesday of September, so it’s book review time! This month, I went for some fluffy, gay fantasy. I didn’t realize it was actually the second book in a loosely connected series when I requested it, but it stands fairly well on it’s own. I just hate reading things out of order because if I do go back to the first book, it’s spoiled. But I digress. Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches by Kayla Cottingham was released by Delacorte Press on the 23rd (yesterday). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches follows Kieran, who is currently reeling from a series of unfortunate events, as he accidentally curses his (on a break) boyfriend and sets off on an impossible task to fix it. The task? Finding a panacea (cure all) which may or may not exist. To make matters worse, this quest is also his Calling, the test of his own choosing that the Witch’s Council will use to determine whether or not he keeps his magic. Why did he choose something so difficult? But at least he gets to go adventuring with old friends and even a new one. Why does the new one have to be so attractive, though? Kieran has no idea what he’s doing. Hopefully, he can figure it out before everything falls apart.

The plot. It’s cute and predictable. The romance is a little too slow burn for me, but it’s adorable. The main part of the story is broken down into three tasks, then the culmination and climax. I went right through the first two tasks, but by the third one, I had a little trouble continuing. It was just so clear what was going to happen that I lost a little interest. The climax was also super disappointing. This is supposed to be all about Kieran growing and becoming the hero, but when it comes to the final boss (if you’ll excuse the video game reference), someone else takes care of everything while he cries over his inability to save someone. It felt lazy.

The characters. I loved most of the characters. Especially Kieran and Sebastian. Seaweed was my favorite, of course. I thought Ash was an asshole and not worth all the angst, but maybe if I had read the first book, I’d feel different. If he was even in it. There was also a baddie who shows up for like five pages that was useless. They were supposed to be this formidable opponent, but the way they showed up and disappeared was weak. They were literally used to make Kieran freak out about the fact that Sebastian had dated before, then thrown back into the ether like they had never existed. They could’ve been a much larger part of the story. Adelaide also feels completely random, but I’m almost positive that’s because I didn’t read the first book where she seems to play a big role.

The writing was good. There was nothing mind blowing about it, but it flowed nicely and made for an easy read.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the first half or so of Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches, then got bored with it. I seriously thought about going back and reading the first book, but this book basically spoils the whole thing, so I probably won’t.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It wasn’t bad per se, it just wasn’t for me. If you enjoy super light gay fluff fantasy, check it out. But there are a lot of better ones out there.

Quick Thoughts on THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m fine, just annoyed. On Friday, the Medicaid people sent one of their fearmongering letters saying they never received my renewal application (the one that was sent July 17th that they confirmed they got when I called on August 4th just to make sure they got it) and if I didn’t submit everything within 5 days, I’d be booted off. Five days and it’s a freaking 3 day weekend. So, I called on Friday and was told they had everything except the signature page, please just send that ASAP. Sent it right away. Called Tuesday to confirm they received it. They did. Everything is under review and now I get to keep waiting. They don’t have any ridiculous deadlines with serious threats to get back to me, though. Like, why can’t I get a response in 5 days or they lose their insurance? Anyway. It’s late, so I figured I’d give you a brief review of The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J. R. Dawson since I finished it! Why a quick one? Because I’m biased and therefore don’t give full reviews on books by friends.

Plot: it’s a take on Orpheus, but it’s kind of like there are three very different versions of the myth happening at once. Charlie and Sam, Nera and Charlie, and the Keeper and the thing in the dark. All three storylines have echoes of Orpheus and Eurydice in them, which is cool. Plus, there are doggies! So many puppers to cuddle. That alone makes this a great book in my opinion.

Characters: love, love, love Nera. Especially at the end when she has grown strong enough to put her own needs first instead of trying to cater to everyone else. Charlie is a lot, but given what she’s been through, that’s to be expected. All of the older people suck, but I think they’re supposed to. If they were well-adjusted individuals with healthy coping strategies, chances are Nera and Charlie would have those traits, then there wouldn’t be a story. The doggos are still the bestest part of the book!

Writing: the flow is really nice and I love how the remnants sections break things up. They provide a respite from the heaviness that comes with stories about grief and loss.

Overall, I gave The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World 5 out of 5 stars. Definitely recommend it if you’re into Greek mythology, enjoy stories about the journey through grief, or just REALLY like dogs like me.

Thoughts on LOVE’S A WITCH

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? We have tomatoes (Sweeties and Black Krims)! Yummy. Be jealous. We also have jalapeños that are good too. But mostly yay for tomatoes! Anyway, we’re not here to talk about yummy goodness. It’s the last Wednesday of August, so we’re (you and I, not the royal we) here for the book review. This month, I went for a witchy little romance. Not like an epic, sweeping romantasy. Just a cute sounding little romance with fantasy elements. It’s the first book in the Scottish Charms series. Love’s a Witch by Tricia O’Malley was released yesterday (the 26th) from Gallery Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s get to it.

Love’s a Witch follows the MacGregor sisters as they move back home to Briarhaven in Scotland to try to break the curse that’s been on their family for centuries. Sloane, the oldest, is so used to playing mother hen to her sisters that she’s having trouble acknowledging that they’re all young women now. She’s also struggling with the fact that she’s coming into her magic as her 25th birthday looms. Throwing in a pushy hottie hellbent on running them out of town before their curse quite literally destroys everything, and Sloane can’t get much more stressed. Can they stop the curse and save themselves from a nomadic existence? If they do, does Sloane even want to settle down? Maybe with a certain pushy hottie?

The plot. I love the plot. The whole idea of trying to break the curse because they want a place to call home without having to move all the time. There’s enough family drama introduced to keep the future books connected to this one. I didn’t even mind the enemies-to-lovers trope (it’s not my favorite, but I try to give it a chance). It’s interesting and fun, but I have to be honest… the pacing sucks. There’s lots of talk about breaking the curse, but none of the sisters actually do anything about it. All the information just kind of falls into their laps. They don’t do any research or anything. Hell, when they find out the name of the woman who cursed their family, they don’t even bother asking around about her to try to find her descendants. Everything gets done for them, which makes any step forward unsatisfying. Plus, everything is crammed into the end of the book. It’s not balanced at all.

The characters. I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t have to like the main characters in order to like a book. That being said, I absolutely hated Sloane and Knox. I don’t give a fuck how hot a dude is. If he comes to my house, drags my bags out into the snow, and tells me I have to leave without so much as a “hey, what brings you to town?”, then proceeds to have the townsfolk bully and blackball me and my family when we don’t leave, the dude’s irredeemable. No way I’d talk to him, let alone have sex with him. And his whole background is supposed to make me sympathetic to him, but it only emphasizes the fact that he’s just a giant walking red flag with too much money and zero communication skills. Sloane’s not much better when it comes to communication. And even though she supposedly took care of her sisters, it’s like she still expects everything remotely difficult to be done for her and if it isn’t, she threatens to run away. They’re both annoying and I hate them. Luckily, the side characters were all wonderful and did a lot of heavy lifting in this story.

The writing itself was fine. Nice description and dialogue. The steamy scenes were disappointingly short, but I guess that’s more realistic than most scenes like that.

Ultimately, I was just kind of meh about Love’s a Witch. I enjoyed the plot and side characters enough that I will check out book 2, especially if it switches to Lyra as the main character as I’m guessing it will since she comes into her magic next.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Not a must-read, but if you enjoy little witchy romances, it’s an okay read. Hopefully the next one is better.

Thoughts on MURDER AT THE WHAM BAM CLUB

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are about the same as they’ve been this entire year. That’s about it. But it’s the last Wednesday of July, so that you know what that means. It’s book review time! This month, I decided to try a new cozy mystery series. Murder at the Wham Bam Club by Carolyn Marie Wilkins was released yesterday (the 29th) from Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

Murder at the Wham Bam Club follows Nola Ann Jackson as she returns to her hometown after the death of her husband. It’s the 1920s and Nola’s a young psychic just learning how to use her gifts. When she’s asked to help find a missing young woman, Nola finds herself dragged into arson, murder, and mysteries. While everyone else would be happy blaming the missing girl, Nola is determined to find out what’s actually going on in her small town. Whether or not she can do it before the police find and charge the missing girl is the question.

The plot is pretty standard. There are some interesting red herrings. I fully admit that I found some of the romances icky. A 16 year old shacking up with and getting married to a bass player of unknown age after one meeting (not even a date). Gross. I get it in the context of the story and its setting, but it still makes me cringe. Most of the relationships in this book have huge red flags. But the mystery part of the book is entertaining and distracting enough that the story is still enjoyable.

The characters are pretty well fleshed out. I like Nola and her aunt. I thought Lilly and Brenda could’ve used more page time because they both feel a little cookie cutter. Jim has potential. It felt like he was going to prove the rumors wrong, but then he just kind of disappears from the book. Hopefully he gets his redemption in later books. I really like Nola’s bosses at the catering company. They provide a levelheadedness to the book that helps bring Nola back to her senses once in a while. Everyone basically has potential to grow (for better or worse) in future books.

As for the writing, I enjoyed it. But the language is pretty true to its time period, so if words like negroes or a school for “colored girls” bothers you, be aware. I still suggest reading it because it’s a fun mystery, though.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Murder at the Wham Bam Club. I’m not sure I’ll add it to my must-buy series, but I’ll definitely give book two a shot whenever it comes out.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I do recommend it if you’re into cozy mysteries. Just be aware of the language if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing.

Thoughts on THE WHISPERWOOD LEGACY

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I’m not going to complain. After all, it’s the last Wednesday of May and you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I decided to go with some dark fairy tale vibes. The Whisperwood Legacy by Jo Schulte was released yesterday (May 27th) from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

The Whisperwood Legacy follows Frankie through the turbulent time after her grandmother abruptly closes the family amusement park, the main source of the family’s income. Frankie spends most of her time carrying groceries and other necessities to her grandmother after the rest of the family basically disowns the old woman unless they need something from her. After a scene at an unwanted celebration, her grandmother disappears and things start going very wrong at the park, but Frankie and the rest of her family are trapped there along with the mysterious new groundskeeper. It’s up to her to figure out what’s going on and fix it before everyone dies.

The plot is interesting and there was a lot of potential with it. The story is built around fairy tale magic and family legacies and all that fun stuff. It sounds like it will be great. But the pacing is off. There are tiny hints of maybe magical things, but then the blatant magical stuff is just plopped on the page without any natural growth towards it. It’s abrupt and jarring and a bit unsatisfying. Also, there’s this big reveal that Frankie knows exactly what’s happening with the park even though she’s clueless about other things, but there’s zero foreshadowing to clue in the reader, so it totally feels like an afterthought. I was afraid I just missed something, but other people complained about it as well. Things are just awkwardly timed or have little to no build up. It’s meh.

As far as the characters go, Jem is pretty much the only decent person, but he just feels like a caricature of the “ideal dude.” Everyone else is disgusting and I wanted them all to die. If mommy/grandma was such a horrible person (which she was), then cut ties with her and get a job instead of relying on her money. Don’t just sit around wishing her dead, then get pissed when you’re left out of the not-will. And Frankie isn’t much better than the rest of her family, despite the fact that she pretends to be. The book itself was meh, but the characters ruined any chance I had of actually enjoying anything about it.

The writing was fine. It relied far too heavily on pop culture references that are already becoming dated, which I don’t particularly care for, but I guess some people like that kind of thing.

Ultimately, I was not a fan of The Whisperwood Legacy. I was originally just glad to be done with it, but the more I think about it, the more I actively dislike it.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. More like 1.5, but I rounded up. If you’re super into everything fairy tales, check it out. Otherwise, you’re not missing anything.

Thoughts on ONE SHARP STITCH

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are okay other than Sophia having a severely sprained back. Pupper parent life is at it again, but at least there wasn’t an anal blood crime scene this time. Anyway, it’s the last Wednesday of March! It’s book review time! I went back to the cozy mystery genre this month. One Sharp Stitch by Allie Pleiter is the first in a new series. It was released yesterday (the 25th) from Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

One Sharp Stitch follows Shelby Phillips as she returns home to sort her life out after being laid off and manage her mother’s needlepoint store while her parents go on a road trip. Her strained relationship with her seemingly perfect sister doesn’t equal a particularly pleasant homecoming. Throw in the murder of an old school acquaintance and things get even more complicated. Can Shelby solve her own problems, let alone a murder? She’s sure going to try.

The plot is pretty standard, but with some family drama thrown in for fun. There’s a love interest, an annoyed police chief who isn’t quite as useless as she thinks he is, and a blossoming friendship that is definitely the shenanigans-encouraging bestie. There’s a lot of talking, but not a lot of going out and actually investigating, so the story moves slowly. The actual clues kind of just fall into Shelby’s lap. I’m fine with that, but I admit it’s not as engaging as other series with similar crafting themes. However, there are some nice twists that made me second guess myself for a couple of pages before going back to my main suspect (which was the correct one).

As far as the characters go, I liked them. At the least, they have potential. Shelby and her family are fairly fleshed out. As is the chief. Most of the other side characters are pretty flat, but they each have potential to be more in future books. I found Shelby’s and her sister’s aversion to their parent’s fun weird and annoying. So what if they wear matching shirts and stop at all the corny roadside attractions and take silly pictures? It’s not cringe if they’re enjoying themselves. So, I got a little tired of the teenager-esque “ew my parents still have fun” attitude from a couple of 30+ year olds, but that’s a me thing. Otherwise, the characters were interesting enough to keep me entertained when the plot dragged.

The writing was unobtrusive and nothing special. Sometimes, themed cozies can get carried away with all the technical jargon relating to the topic (needlepoint in this case) because the author wants to prove they know what they’re talking about, but this one doesn’t do that. There’s a nice balance of technical terms and explanations of those terms without feeling like the author is craftersplaining (like mansplaining, but crafters instead of men).

Ultimately, I enjoyed One Sharp Stitch. It has some issues, but nothing major. Most first books in a series have issues that either get better or worse as the series continues, so I’m willing to give this series another shot. I’ll keep an eye out for book two.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. If you’re into cozy mysteries or cross stitching, it’s definitely worth a look.

Thoughts on A TRINKET FOR THE TAKING

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? If you celebrate, are you ready for Turkey Day? Dad’s making a whole spread this year. As I’m writing this, it currently smells really good in our house. Be jealous. But anyway, it’s the last Wednesday of November, so it’s book review time! This month, I went with something more on the fantasy side. It’s a mystery, but with a pretty detailed magical system and some extra world building even though it’s mostly just a real world setting. A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie was released on Tuesday the 26th by Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

A Trinket for the Taking follows Dovey Van Dalen as she sets out to celebrate her 200th birthday in style. Unfortunately, work gets in the way when a super powerful and deadly trinket (magical device) goes missing. She’s tasked with finding it before the unbound (non-magical) world gets suspicious. It doesn’t help that the thief seems to be targeting a prominent unbound family. And to complicate matters further, she keeps running into a ridiculously attractive FBI agent and she can’t seem to escape him. Nor does she really want to, which is a whole problem within itself. Can Dovey figure out the case and retrieve the trinket before it’s too late?

The plot was pretty good. Entertaining. Standard combination of mystery and fantasy. Magical item must be found before death and destruction ensue. Oops, too late. Magical person teams up with plucky non-magical sidekick. Weirdness happens. Last minute saving of the day. Happily ever after… until the next book. But the pacing was off. The first two thirds of the book was loaded down with world building and character histories and it dragged. A lot. Especially when the same info was repeated two or three times. And because of all this excess information, the last third of the book felt super rushed since it didn’t have any. Don’t get me wrong. A lot of the information was necessary. It just could have been incorporated more strategically. But the three scenes when her hedgehog helps her pick an outfit are completely unnecessary. The first one was cute and by all means keep one scene for fun. But three? During which nothing important is conveyed? No. Either utilize the other two scenes to pass on relevant and new information or cut them. Otherwise, it makes the story drag. Aside from that, there were also a couple of deus ex machina things that made me roll my eyes. One of them made it apparent that a particular character was thrown in as an afterthought just for that moment instead of utilizing any of the existing characters. And the hedgehog in the pocket thing was random and not really necessary when the reader was already told that she had what it gave her. If it had been a surprise, it would’ve been cool, but she literally brought the thing with her in case she needed it. No hedgehog needed.

As for the characters, there were a lot and so many of them did nothing. For instance, there’s a perv at the elevator within the first couple of pages. He literally does nothing but ogle Dovey, then let her take the elevator by herself. And he never shows back up. It was weird. A lot of the characters could have been combined into a one or two. Mostly they do one thing then disappear. It’s annoying. But I mostly liked the main characters. Dovey is interesting. I don’t understand why she randomly falls in love at first sight. It’s creepy. But otherwise I like her. Gib is fun. Ursula could’ve been utilized more. And Elric is just a gross old dude. But overall, I enjoyed most of the characters.

The writing itself was fun. Despite the pacing issues and iffy characters, I read the book pretty quickly and didn’t dread picking it up after a break.

Ultimately, A Trinket for the Taking was entertaining while I was reading it, but not particularly memorable. I will pick up the next book if I see it, but I probably won’t go looking for it.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. A solid three. If you’re into magical mysteries, it’s worth checking out.

Thoughts on THE DEMON

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Dad and I got our Covid and flu shots on Tuesday (today as I’m writing this), so I’m either fine or feeling blah and vegging. Only time will tell. But it doesn’t matter. Today is another book review! Don’t worry. It’s back to our regularly scheduled reviews for a while after this. Anyway, Simone Jung from Books Forward (a marketing firm I’ve reviewed for before) contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing a dark fantasy YA with demons and Philippine mythology. Sounded right up my alley, so I agreed. The Demon by Victory Witherkeigh is actually the second book in a duology, but I was told it could be read as a standalone. It was self-published and released yesterday (October 1st). My reviews are honest and unbiased. Let’s get to it.

The Demon follows Hukloban, a demon who has possessed a girl. The problem is, she doesn’t remember why. When Death (her boss and lover) appears, she discovers that her actions went against his wishes. Why would she do such a thing? Why would she disobey Death? As punishment, she’s forced to live out the college years of the girl she’s possessed. How is she supposed to navigate the human world? Can she balance her demon urges and human needs? But most of all, can she figure out why she did what she did and regain her place by Death’s side? Does she want to?

It definitely sounds like something I would love, but I couldn’t get into it. Instead of being a cohesive novel, it turned out to be a bunch of disjointed vignettes. That could work. It’s been done successfully before. But here it’s just messy and confusing. random people come and go with no warning and it’s like we’re expected to know who they are. I would say they might’ve been in the first book, but there are way too many and it’s obvious at least half of them are new characters. The style also makes the plot feel broken and completely random.

Speaking of the plot… it’s disappointing. You could strip away all of the mythology and still have this book. It’s just an angsty college student slice of life story. It’s half porn, but not even good porn. It’s a horrible representation of the BDSM community. There’s a random gang rape scene that’s somehow okay. Like… what the actual fuck? Then all of that is randomly left behind in favor of chasing after random bros. There’s absolutely no growth throughout the story. Oh, and there’s a separate plot about how horrible the girl’s family is. Everything was super cliché and annoying.

None of the characters were remotely likeable. Sure, demons. But even the main character was just whiny and annoying. Any sense of growth feels forced and unearned. I’m not entirely sure if that’s because of the style or because the characters are asshats. By the end, I didn’t care what Hukloban chose to do. I was just happy to be done with her drama.

The writing was not great. That’s all I can say without feeling too harsh. This book is another example of a great idea, but a poor execution.

Ultimately, I wasn’t a fan of The Demon. I really wanted to like it, but it didn’t hold up.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One and a half, really. One because it was written and a half of one because someone will probably like it. But I don’t recommend it.