book.dreamblog’s Book Reviews!

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May *This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mentions r*pe*  Summary & Review  I want to preface by saying that when I listened to this on audio, I had absolutely no idea that this was loosely inspired by the Great Gatsby and reimagined as a sapphic historical dark fantasy. (Actually, once you turn Gatsby into a sapphic historical dark fantasy, how inspired by Gatsby can it really still be?) But, I think not knowing that actually allowed me to enjoy the story more. Had I known that this was supposed to be inspired by Gatsby, I would have been a lot more critical of the plot, the characters, the general direction of the story, etc. Not knowing just simply allowed me to appreciate this story for what it is on its own.  I don’t have terribly a lot to say about this book. There was nothing terribly bad about it that I want to rip apart, and there was also not a lot overly impressive that I want to gush about either....

  These Violent Delights (Duology) by Chloe Gong *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mention suicide* Book 1: These Violent Delights   There is certainly a lot to enjoy about this wildly popular book duology. It has a great premise, an interesting mix of characters, a very unique setting, and it’s based on one of the most well-known Shakespearean plays ever written, Romeo and Juliet .  I should specify that I say “based on” pretty loosely because the actual direct references to Romeo and Juliet are pretty few and far between here. After all, this book is a dark fantasy romance set in 1920/ Shanghai, not a historical piece about English teenagers like the original play. We have the infamous balcony scene played on, the main characters’ names (Roma and Juliette) are pulled straight from the source material, and it’s fairly easy to figure which characters represent whom from the original play (Lourens in Friar Lawrence, Tyler is Tybalt, M...

  King of Scars ( Full Duology) by Leigh Bardugo *This review contains spoilers*  Book One: King of Scars  The final installment in Leigh Bardugo’s grishaverse, the King of Scars duology, comes across to me as the quintessential “love it or hate it” edition to her universe. Die hard fans if the Grishaverse are going to love it. More casual fans might feel more like I did jumping into this duology, which is that it’s pretty much a mixed bag of things I really liked and things I really, really did not like.  Starting with things I liked:  The actual mechanics of the writing. Bardugo’s skills in writing prose have improved exponentially since the original Shadow and Bone trilogy. The actual writing of King of Scars is just much more practiced and mature. It’s less bumpy, more likely to appeal to an older demographic than the Shadow and Bone trilogy.  I also really enjoy that this duology takes both existing pieces of the established Grishaverse, Shadow and Bo...

  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller  *This review contains spoilers*   Content Warning This review mentions rape.  Introduction  First and foremost, I am not the type of person who feels compelled to give highly popular book glowing reviews just because everyone else does. I have no problem giving my honest opinion on them. I'm giving this novel a good review, not because of the hype, but because I genuinely feel it deserves it.  The Song of Achilles is a Greek mythology retelling by Madeline Miller that covers the events of Homer's The Iliad, but instead of being told from Achilles' perspective, it is told by his companion Patroclus. There has been quite a deal of speculation about the nature of Achilles and Patroclus' relationship as written by Homer--were they really cousins? Were they actually lovers? Or were they simply just really close friends? As far as the actual Iliad goes, I don't suppose we'll ever know, but in The Song of Achilles, Mille...