February books
Mar. 13th, 2018 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalNow that March is almost half over, I may as well get around to what I read last month!
Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater: These are the third and fourth books in the YA urban fantasy series The Raven Cycle, and to be honest, I read them so close together that they blur a little bit, but I enjoyed them both! This is a series that I think has improved as it's gone along, fleshing out the characters and the world and going all-in on the magical aspects that were introduced at the end of the the first book (there are 4 total). The plot, ostensibly, is about a girl who grew up in a house full of psychic women joining a bunch of private school boys on a quest to find a sleeping Welsh king, but mostly it is about the deep and complex friendship among the five main characters, and one of the highlights is how each combination of two or three is just as complicated and developed as any other. Apparently, a TV show was announced last year, no idea if it's still happening, but would definitely watch if it does.
Howie Weener Unclogged: A Colonic Noir Musical Memoir, Howie Weiner: I... really don't know how to explain this one. Not only the plot, but why I ever thought it was a good idea in the first place? I guess I thought the combination of musicals and digestive concerns was tailor-made to appeal to me, but first of all, musicals are a lot less fun when you're READING them, and second, the humor thinks it's the kind that is so over the top it's hilarious but actually it's just too out there to be anything but bizarre. And yes, the main character and the author have the same name but spelled differently. I don't know why. I quit reading about halfway through.
A Conjuring of Light, V.E. Schwab: The third and final book in the Shades of Magic series. The premise is that there are multiple worlds which overlap in the city of London. There's Grey London (our world, cut off from magic), Red London where magic is plentiful, White London which used to have magic but is now dying, and Black London which was overrun with dark magic and is now uninhabitable. Only a select few can travel between the worlds, but carrying anything beyond letters between royal families is strictly forbidden. The story kicks off when Kell accidentally brings Grey London thief Lila back to his native Red London, along with a dangerous artifact. I remember finding the first book kind of slow to get going, but I really liked the second and third, probably because the worldbuilding was already established. I also appreciated that each book has a distinct and not repetitive story to tell - it's not one of those series where each book has basically the same structure and hits all the same beats, nor is it one long story broken up into three parts to sell more books.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater: These are the third and fourth books in the YA urban fantasy series The Raven Cycle, and to be honest, I read them so close together that they blur a little bit, but I enjoyed them both! This is a series that I think has improved as it's gone along, fleshing out the characters and the world and going all-in on the magical aspects that were introduced at the end of the the first book (there are 4 total). The plot, ostensibly, is about a girl who grew up in a house full of psychic women joining a bunch of private school boys on a quest to find a sleeping Welsh king, but mostly it is about the deep and complex friendship among the five main characters, and one of the highlights is how each combination of two or three is just as complicated and developed as any other. Apparently, a TV show was announced last year, no idea if it's still happening, but would definitely watch if it does.
Howie Weener Unclogged: A Colonic Noir Musical Memoir, Howie Weiner: I... really don't know how to explain this one. Not only the plot, but why I ever thought it was a good idea in the first place? I guess I thought the combination of musicals and digestive concerns was tailor-made to appeal to me, but first of all, musicals are a lot less fun when you're READING them, and second, the humor thinks it's the kind that is so over the top it's hilarious but actually it's just too out there to be anything but bizarre. And yes, the main character and the author have the same name but spelled differently. I don't know why. I quit reading about halfway through.
A Conjuring of Light, V.E. Schwab: The third and final book in the Shades of Magic series. The premise is that there are multiple worlds which overlap in the city of London. There's Grey London (our world, cut off from magic), Red London where magic is plentiful, White London which used to have magic but is now dying, and Black London which was overrun with dark magic and is now uninhabitable. Only a select few can travel between the worlds, but carrying anything beyond letters between royal families is strictly forbidden. The story kicks off when Kell accidentally brings Grey London thief Lila back to his native Red London, along with a dangerous artifact. I remember finding the first book kind of slow to get going, but I really liked the second and third, probably because the worldbuilding was already established. I also appreciated that each book has a distinct and not repetitive story to tell - it's not one of those series where each book has basically the same structure and hits all the same beats, nor is it one long story broken up into three parts to sell more books.
