Tag Archives: dystopian

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Book review: Red, by S.J. Sanders

I saw S.J. SandersRed recommended on Tiktok and purchased a copy for myself.
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There were certain truths everyone knew. Never wear red or any other bright color. Make as little sound as possible if one had to be outside the protection of the sanctuary settlements. And never, ever, go out in the wild places alone. The Ragoru, an alien species set down to live among them, dwell within the forests and everyone knows that they crave all things red.

Arie’s life has always been one of playing by the rules. She doesn’t draw attention to herself. She doesn’t leave her home without her hood that conceals her bright red hair. It is a secret from everyone, and her hood protects her secret so that she may continue to live safely within the village until one day that secret comes to light. Absconding into the woods soon becomes her only safety, and she will risk her very life into the care of the very dreaded beings that all people fear, the Ragoru, in hope of making it to her grandmother’s house in the citadel at the other side of the great forest.

When circumstances reveal them to not be the monsters of human imagination, but that they stir the ravenous beast within her, Arie finds that she is willing to risk far more to find a way to be with them forever. Even if that means severing ties with her grandmother, rejecting the human comforts of the citadel, and facing the horror of the Order of the Huntsmen.

my review

Meh. I actually really enjoyed the first half of this book. It is super formulaic and predictable. (I mean if, before reading the book, someone had asked me to write a generic outline based on this book’s blurb, I would have succeeded with 100% success.) There are NO surprises and NOTHING that you’re used to seeing in the genre is left out. Even the seemingly random events are just section 2, part b, subsection iii of the most commonly utilized industry outline (or so it seems). It’s your basic bitch, Why Choose fairy-tale retelling book. But hey, we read them because we enjoy them. So, predictable in the extreme, but also super cute. I really did enjoy watching the males come around. They’re all adorable in their own way.

I can’t really say the same for Arie though. She just kind of existed. And I honestly never got over my page-one question about why, if you could be exiled or killed for having red hair, you’d grow it out instead of cutting it off. I was really bothered by the idea that she walked around with a whole Merida-like head of hair hidden under a hood her whole life. Why would you endanger yourself like that? It was ridiculous in the extreme, but I decided to look over it. Despite that, I still found her a fairly bland heroine.

I’m wandering. My point was that despite being noting new to the genre I enjoyed it…up until the halfway mark. I even overlooked the editing mishaps. But after the halfway mark, when Sanders took the characters outside of their small story-line, the whole thing fell apart. Most notably the plotting fell apart and suddenly everything was too easy.

Three non-humans walked into a hostile human city for the first time and instantly found what might have been the only human who both wasn’t afraid of them and was willing/able to help them. Arie similarly was introduced to one person. She asked them for help and they said yes, etc. It didn’t even really feel like a story anymore, just a list of events with no emotional significance. By the time the final fight scene rolled around—which was won with ridiculous red photoease—I was done.

The book is also just too long. Whole sections could be cut easily. I’m thinking of the entire episode with the mutated humans and subsequent events, for example. All of it could have been cut wholesale for a tighter read, it contributes so little to the overall story.

So, to recap, fun if formulaic first half, lazy (and still formulaic) second half. I love the cover though!


Other Reviews:

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Book Review: Civil War, by TC Marti

I accepted a review copy of TC Marti‘s Civil War, as part of it’s book tour with Love Book Tours.
Civil War cover

I was Culled at age five into the Bastille Military, the World of Rondure’s superpower…

…Having lived on-base for thirteen years, military life taught me two things: Mastery of the Smoke Element and to never apologize about using it on enemies

Now that I’m awaiting a sure death sentence for the crime of exposing Bastille’s true crimes, they’ve left me with no choice. When they try to extradite me, I will call upon my Sword of Smoke and escape this predicament, using every combat technique they taught me against them.

Then, I’ll take it upon myself to finish a mission I started years ago; to unplug the People of Bastille and let them know who the real enemy is: their home nation and its Capital City of Paramount.

As I go rogue, every authority figure with money, power, and influence in the Bastille Empire will want me dead. Thanks to them, I’m one of the most powerful Smoke Masters in the World of Rondure. And I’m ready to break the spell the people of my nation have lived under for over a century.

my review

*Sigh* If you’ve read very many of my reviews then you know that one of the things I complain about most frequently is picking up a book labeled as ‘Book 1’ and discovering that it’s actually a spin-off of another series and not really a first book. Civil War is just one more such book (the third series in its universe, as far as I can tell) and I was completely lost for darned near the whole book.

This makes reviewing it difficult. Because I’m not sure how much more of the plot, characters, world, etc I would have understood and been invested in (or not) if I had read the previous books. I can’t know, for example, if this book honestly just has really weak world-building (and erratic plotting)—it does—or if the author simply deemed it unnecessary because I’m just supposed to already know the world(s), factions, religions, even some of the characters, etc—I don’t. But as it stands I didn’t enjoy my time with Civil War.

The writing is pedestrian, but perfectly readable. The editing seems pretty clean. I like the cover. But beyond that, too much really hinges on the fact that I don’t think it stands alone and I read it as a stand-alone.

I suppose this is an unconventional ‘review.’ But it’s the best I can do and stay remotely positive….neutral-ish.civil war photo


Other Reviews:

Civil War: Chronicles of Rondure: Book I

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Book Review – The Intra-Earth Chronicles: The Two Sisters, by Kara Jacobson

Last month The Intra-Earth Chronicles: The Two Sisters, by Kara Jacobson was featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight. Honestly, being Middle Grade I wouldn’t normally have chosen to feature it, but I just loved the cover so much I made an exception for it. I went through the same thought process when I chose to enter the giveaway to win a copy. And guess what, I did.

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In the year 2444, two noble sisters, Sasha (15) and Adrianne (11), have survived a nuclear fallout, only to be torn apart.

The ground splits open and Adrianne is thrown from her horse, plummeting into the ravine. Spurned on by the hope that Adrianne lives, Sasha embarks on a journey through the desert to face the ravine that claimed her only sister. Meanwhile, deep within the earth, Adrianne is running for her life. She took something that did not belong to her.

In The Intra-Earth Chronicles; Book I: The Two Sisters by Kara Jacobson we experience a fast-paced fantasy adventure woven within the earth, and the unshakeable bond between two sisters.

my review

I have to preface this review by saying that I don’t read a lot of children’s fantasy or middle grade books, now that my own children are a bit older. And I find them hard to review. Because, while I obviously know I can’t judge them by adult standards, it’s difficult to know where the line between ‘this is written age appropriately’ and ‘this is just awkwardly written’ sits.

In the most general terms, I enjoyed this. I liked the strong bond between the sisters, that the world is colorful and diverse, and the story-line. However, I also thought things progressed so quickly that it was often jarring and the dialogue was quite stilted. Also, while, I wasn’t looking for editing mistakes, I did notice a few. Notably a homophone (lay/lei) and an extra ‘a’ in a sentence on page one. But honestly, there weren’t enough to do more than mention it. I can’t imagine children will notice, after all.

All in all, I’d call this a middle of the road read for me, with the caveat that I’m not usually a MG reader/reviewer.

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Other Reviews:

Blog Tour: The Intra-Earth Chronicles Book One: The Two Sisters – Kara Jacobson

Blog Tour: The Intra-Earth Chronicles, Book 1 – The Two Sisters

The Two Sisters