Book Check-In 11/24/20

 I’m late again. My last check-in was 11/11. I didn’t check in at all last week! Since then I read 5 books, but I’ll only be talking about 3 of them here. I mentioned in that last check-in that I was reading Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake. Unfortunately it got returned to the library before I finished, so that update will have to wait for a while longer. I instead read Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner (#5 in the Queen’s Thief series), Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and Beanstalk by E. Jade Lomax (#1 in the Leagues and Legends series)

Reviews (and spoilers) below the cut:

Thick as Thieves! Like I mentioned in my last check-in, I wasn’t sure about the 4th book. It didn’t focus on my fave character, and it had some yucky stuff. This one similarly didn’t focus on my fave, but it was more fun. It focused on a slave from the nation that had been trying to take over the powers in the first four books. He was a slave to one of the powerful relatives of the emperor (but currently in disgrace due to his failing as an ambassador to the Queen of Attolia). He is informed his owner is dead and there is an arranged meet with an Attolian soldier. He knows all the slaves will be tortured and killed when his master is found dead, so he runs, heading off with the Attolian. He is constantly thinking of ways to get away, because once the Attolian finds out his master is dead, he thinks he will be angry. The solider is from the previous book (#3, The King of Attolia), Costis, who I really liked. As they try to travel inconspicuously across the country, they bond, and it’s a lot of fun. The ending was very satisfying, and I am looking forward to The Return of the Thief, another book in the saga, but my hold has 10 more weeks on it :(

I’d give this 4/5 stars! Got me back into the series

I decided while working this past week to listen to Frankenstein as an audiobook. I knew the gist of the story (don’t we all?). Victor decides he’s going to make a man because why not, then he’s ugly so he fucks right off and then the creature fucks up his shit. Reading this book I was marveling at how useless Victor was. Also, how hideous was the creature??? Like supposedly Victor picked all this shit to make him handsome but then he’s so hideous that everybody hates him on sight and runs or tries to hurt him? To be fair, the creature did do some creepy shit. We all agree that Victor should’ve been more responsible and that would’ve solved 90% of the issues. The creature could’ve also not been so dumb? Like he immediately ran away and then once he figured out what was going on tried being nice and when he was rebuffed was immediately like “time to be evil”. Yikes. I didn’t like it that much just because half the time it got me so riled at how dumb everybody was being that I was talking aloud to myself at work. Also, did I misread the situation or did Elizabeth (adoptive sister-cousin Elizabeth) say “actually we don’t have to get married I’m totes fine just being sibling-cousins” and Victor said “nope let’s marry”. Yikes.

Only 2/5 stars. I guess it’s a classic and super important because Mary Shelley was a young girl who progressed the genre but imho it doesn’t hold up.

Beanstalk is one of my favorite books. I reread it just about every year. I wasn’t sure if I was going to this year, and then I picked up my kindle for the first time in ages and opened it and immediately got sucked back in. It’s so good, so beautifully written, such vibrant characters. It’s about 4 students at an academy for heroes that get put together for a group project and become something more. The found family in this book is amazing. Jack wants to do better and help save every person he meets. Grey wants to keep his head down and become a librarian. Laney wants to prove herself, be who she knows she can be, not what everybody says she should be. Rupert wants to make things the way they should be (he’s the mom friend). They’re so good. Support independent artists and read this book because you’ll honestly love it. It only gets better on a reread. Every time I read it I pick up new things. And it’s one of those books that even while it’s been awful to the characters, it’s so kind.

5/5 stars. I reread it every year for a reason.

I love it so much that I’m already reading the sequel: Echoes of a Giantkiller by E. Jade Lomax. I’ve also started reading (listening to) Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery.

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.