September 2023 Mini Reviews - part 3
Published: 30th June 2020 by Simon and Schuster Children's
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I have really been craving a solid Fantasy read now the weather's gotten colder, and I had heard good things about Rogerson's other book, An Enchantment of Ravens, so I thought I'd try this one, because I really liked the sound of the whole magical library plot, but this just really didn't work for me, sadly. I thought the beginning started off quite strong, and I really liked the idea of Elisabeth having grown up in the library and having some sort of special connection to the books, but the story soon became quite far-fetched and confusing. I feel like it was trying to do too many things at once, and I never really connected to the main characters or was particularly invested in their fates. The romance was severely underdeveloped and I didn't even particularly want them to be together. I found myself just dragging through the book to get to the end because I'd read most of it already, and that's never a good sign.
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
Published: 1st September 2020 by Headline
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this, but it ended up being a really beautiful tale of the bond between mothers and daughters, and the resilience of love even through physical distance and withheld secrets. The pacing of this in the beginning was great, as Mina's journey as an immigrant moving from Korea to America is paralleled by her daughter's journey back to her childhood city of LA after not being able to get in contact with her mother. I enjoyed the mystery element behind Margot's discovery of her mother's secrets, and learning about who her mother was when not solely being a maternal figure in the eyes of her daughter, but I found the actual twist towards the end to fall quite flat for me, and I almost didn't need to know that there was a reason behind Mina's death, as that didn't feel like the most important part of the story.
Daddy by Emma Cline
Published: 3rd September 2020 by Chatto & Windus
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I feel like Emma Cline is such a beloved author, and so although I didn't fall in love with The Girls like many others did, I wanted to give Daddy, her collection of short stories, a try. I liked her writing style much more this time around, as it felt more concrete even in a shorter form. However, I think the classic pitfall of a short-story collection, of some stories just being so much more stronger, or at least personally preferred, to some others, definitely happened here for me. Towards the end, they all seemed to blur into one for me, which is interesting considering the fact that the stories didn't seem to be connected to one another in any way, and I found it hard to find any distinguishing features each story may have to separate it from all of the others. I might give her latest a go but I just don't think Cline is a standout author for me.
3 stars
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Assistant to the Villain #1
Published: 14th September 2023 by Penguin
Random House
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
This was such a ridiculous book - I can honestly say I've never read anything like it, and I don't think I ever will in the future. I made the conscious decision to get over the more absurd plot points, even though I did definitely roll my eyes at the fact that the villain was indeed called The Villain, and that he lived in 'Massacre Mansion', and after doing so I found myself quite enjoying the first half, even though I did think it was quite slow-paced in its plot. However, the story started to lose me around halfway and I wasn't invested in the larger plot of the rivalry between the Villain and the King, and the budding relationship between Evie and the Villain didn't feel very real to me. Whether that was because it was meant to be a slow-burn stretched over the course of the trilogy I'm not sure, but I don't think I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series.
3 stars
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