Review: DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5/5 stars

I would recommend this book if you have any interest in reading about a fictional biography of a seventies rock band that contains drama and hope and heartbreak and is just an all-around great story with realistic characters and emotions.

The chemistry and tension between Daisy and Billy was nearly palpable. Each of the characters was so dynamic as well. The detail put into the lives of the band members was so extensive that it feels like Daisy Jones & The Six was a real rock band, and oh how I wish they were.

I loved that Billy was really trying to put forth the effort to be a good husband and father, but he also had the controlling and nonchalant side in the studio that made the whole band dislike him at times.

Daisy Jones was something else herself, always getting caught up in the drugs and the alcohol and the late nights, and back to the drugs. I wonder how realistic of a portrayal her life was to the lives of some real rock stars in the 1970s.

My favorite character was Karen. I really liked her voice actor on the audiobook, and her being the keyboardist, I could relate because I play the piano myself.

The real star of the book is Camila though. I love how headstrong Camila is and that she didn’t let Billy’s decisions ruin her life but saw him for who he could be and helped him become that person again. She was so supportive and loving and stuck it out through the rough times, and I loved that about her, just her willingness to never give up on Billy despite everything that got in their way.

I don’t know much about the music industry or what it’s like to record an album or anything like that, so it was nice to get a taste of that in this book. There were references to musical terms that I didn’t know but it made the story sound that much more genuine, and it’s worth noting that not knowing everything mentioned didn’t detract from the narrative in any way. I loved the inside look into the music scene in the seventies.

I listened to the audiobook while reading along with the book so I didn’t get confused about who was speaking, and I would definitely recommend this method for consuming the book. Because the entire story is told as a documentary transcript, it was basically made to be listened to as an audiobook, and the full cast narration definitely helped in that regard.

I am so so excited to see this book become a tv show. I want to see the band’s whole career play out on screen. I want to see Daisy’s fashion. I want to hear the songs and watch the band record them. I honestly would be fine just watching people read this whole book like a bland documentary because I just want to see something. I especially want to hear all ten of the songs from Aurora and see its infamous album cover. I really hope the show does the book justice; I can’t wait.

I loved this book, but it’s no surprise because I expected that I would. I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so much that I knew I had to check out Reid’s newest book, Daisy Jones & The Six. I love her writing style, and now I want to read every book that Taylor Jenkins Reid has written. Her writing has such a way of captivating you and drawing you into the story and connecting you with the characters, who feel so genuine and real, and the whole experience is wonderful. She’s an excellent author.

“You have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?” 

Review: DREYER'S ENGLISH by Benjamin Dreyer

Rating: 4/5 stars

I was casually flipping through this book at my bookstore on a slow day and knew immediately I was going to enjoy the whole thing just based off the two-page-long first chapter, so I decided that I had to read it.

Here’s the thing: I love the English language. I studied the linguistic side of it in school, I got an editing minor so I could become a copyeditor and fulfill my lifelong dream of getting paid to read books and fix their mistakes (which hasn’t happened yet, but maybe someday), and I pride myself on being able to use the language “correctly.” (If you’ve ever texted me you know I type only in full sentences without any abbreviations and with proper punctuation because it hurts me to do otherwise.)

I sort of miss my days in college when I was constantly learning and being challenged, and this book brought me right back there. It felt like something I would read for one of my classes, yet I read it of my own volition and still enjoyed it.

Dreyer essentially has written a style guide of the English language as he uses it. Does that sound particularly interesting to read? Not really. But is it interesting to read? Oh yes.

I’m glad to see that he’s not strictly a prescriptionist. As he mentioned and as I’ve heard many times in school, you have to know the rules to be able to break them. He talks about these classic rules and which ones should stand and which ones can be forgotten (or tactfully ignored), and he gives examples to support his reasoning. He would even purposefully break the rule in the same sentence that was explaining what the rule was. It was ironic and made me giggle. And he disagrees with Chicago on a number of things. As someone who adheres to Chicago’s guidelines myself, I couldn’t believe the chief copyeditor at Random House would choose not to abide by its standards but by his own rules; however, I quickly came to side with Dreyer on many of these concepts because his reasoning was valid and I couldn’t argue.

What I enjoyed the most about Dreyer’s English was his humor and wit. You didn’t think I could literally laugh out loud while reading a book about language, did you? Well, I did. Multiple times.

Dreyer has a fun way of defining words and differentiating them from similar words, so much so that I’m considering bookmarking certain words in this book rather than in my Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, which is my go-to source for easily confused words.

This book was a good refresher of my editing skills, some of which I had forgotten. Plus there were a number of things I learned while reading this book, some of which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know before. Always learning, aren’t we.

If you are an editor, a writer, a fan of correctly used English, or someone who enjoys learning about style, usage, spelling, punctuation, etc. then this book is for you. I think it has earned a permanent place on my shelf, and I’m very glad I took the time to read it.

“The important thing to remember about peeves and crotchets is that your own peeves and crotchets reflect sensible preferences based on a refined appreciation of the music and meaning of the English language, and that everyone else’s are the products of diseased minds.”

Review: THE BLOOD MIRROR by Brent Weeks

Rating: 5/5 stars

**This review contains SPOILERS for The Blood Mirror and the other Lightbringer books.**

I do think this is the weakest of the four books so far, and it was also my least favorite so far, despite all the awesome things that happened, but it was still an amazing book (you’ll notice I still rated it five stars).

The Blood Mirror started out with a bang from chapter one. Right in the beginning we discover that Marissia is actually the White’s—Orea Pullawr’s—granddaughter, and she was never a slave, only a spy for the White. I was sad when she died because I was actually starting to care for her more than just as a passing side character.

Karris has her new role as the White now. I think she’s perfectly fitted to be the White, and I’m so glad she made it instead of someone else who is of an evil mind.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the religious undertones of the series before, but it’s one of my favorite aspects. Weeks himself is Christian, and you can see lots of Christian doctrine and philosophies woven into the story, but not in a preachy way. It’s honestly so wonderful. I love when religion influences a fantasy story. The characters defer to Orholam as their deity, but there are many levels of piety in the books. Lots of history and philosophy is religion-based as well. It just adds so much to the story in my opinion.

I also don’t know if I’ve mentioned in any of my reviews yet that these books are hilarious, which is a detail well worth noting because I have laughed, cackled, and giggled on many occasions during this series, and this book was no exception. Especially during the banter between Kip’s “Mighty” crew, which was a downright good time; they’re a great group together.

Cruxer has really become a great character. I like that he is authoritative without being arrogant. None of the rest of the crew stood out to me as much though.

I was surprised to see Kip draft paryl and chi. I always expected Gavin, as the Prism, to be able to draft the outer-spectrum legendary colors, but I guess Kip, as a full polychrome, should be able to draft them as well. Kip keeps evolving, book by book. I honestly can’t think of another character in any series I’ve read who has undergone so much change and development across all the books as Kip does. He has definitely grown up a lot since his immature ways in The Black Prism. 

Tisis grew on me too. In the first book, she was such a forgettable character, but now she has become an important character, and her personality has gotten much more dynamic. I don’t dislike her like I did when she contributed to Kip’s failing the Threshing in book one, and like when she was trying to seduce Andross. She honestly has become a likable character now and I can’t wait to see how she evolves in the final book. I also really admire Weeks for including her issue of vaginismus in the story and raising awareness of this uncommonly known but very real condition.

So we find out Gavin put the dead man in the prison wall as a form of will-casting of himself before he trapped Dazen. Then Gavin was trapped in the prison and was remembering everything from the past, which he apparently forgot. Because he drafted black luxin which made him forget. Because he’s a black monochrome. THAT was shocking information. He stabbed and killed all of Karris’s brothers to get their colors to become a “Prism,” and thus we learn the true meaning of his title of Black Prism. I am curious though about why Gavin didn’t halo. Black absorbs colors so maybe it was absorbing his colors (he did have to keep killing wights to maintain power and the ability to draft colors) and thus allowing him to not halo because the color was going to the Black instead of to his eyes. But also he’s using stolen colors—I thus realized that every Prism drafts with stolen colors because the blinding knife takes and grants colors to them that weren’t originally their own—so maybe using stolen colors is a factor in not haloing, too. I essentially want confirmation on why he doesn’t halo if he’s not the true Prism.

After this revelation, we now learn we’ve had an unreliable narrator for the past three books so we don’t know what information has been true or fabricated since Gavin has made himself forget his horrible memories.

How do we know the dead man is telling the truth though? He broke Dazen down, so maybe he’s just trying to break Gavin down now too. We don’t know he’s real; we only have his word about what happened in Gavin’s (real Dazen’s) past. Plus he says there is no white luxin, which is obviously not true; he’s either lying or Dazen will-cast that belief into him to confuse present-day Gavin. Gavin already drafted white luxin, although that information came from Ironfist, who we now know we can’t fully trust either. I still believe white luxin exists though.

The dead man later cursed at Gavin in another language. It was printed in characters I’ve never seen before. I wonder if that will come into play later, if it will somehow be important in the last book. Gavin realized that the dead man is actually some kind of separate identity than a will-cast version of himself. What exactly are his origins then? I also wonder exactly how much of what he was telling Gavin is true.

Also, if Gavin took the colors from and then killed all the White Oak brothers, how did Koios survive and then come back as Lord Omnichrome, a full-spectrum polychrome? We learn that Koios was a black drafter himself, so maybe when Gavin used black luxin to strip him of his power, he merely became a non-drafter instead of dying. I would like to know this information because all I can do is speculate.

So Zymun is the new Prism-elect now. I really dislike him. I hope something happens to prevent him from becoming the actual Prism. Even if Gavin ends up dying in The Burning White, I do not want Zymun to have any kind of control. And at least Karris realizes now what kind of a person he truly is.

Who decided the Prism’s sentence is a multiple of seven years, by the way? Is that when he actually loses power and dies or is that when the Chromeria kills him by their choice even if he could be a viable drafter for many more years? And what if all drafters have the potential to be full-spectrum polychromes but what you can actually draft is all about your will? This is just a theory of mine, but how much information does the Chromeria hide from the general populace? Probably way more than we realize. It is interesting that even Andross comments that the Chromeria’s regime is “the absolute worst way to rule.”

And then we find out that Kip is Andross’s son? Andross’s??? I thought when he told Gavin that he, real Dazen, was Felia’s last son that he meant that Sevastain was not her son because he’s the youngest brother. But Kip?? What happened to Sevastian? He probably meant Felia’s last living son since Sevastian is dead.

So Andross seduced Katalina for documents. What documents did he want that badly? Is that who she was referencing when she said that “he” raped her, was it Andross? He did also say that Lina seduced the real Gavin to get back at Andross, so is it at all possible that Kip is actually Gavin’s son after all? Oh I hope so. Andross is such a nasty character, but he’s also so well written that he’s still interesting to read about, and he does have a grey side—he’s not all black inside—so that makes his decisions even more questionable.

Andross said that white luxin was extinct. But we know that Gavin drafted some earlier. Ironfist brought that chunk of white luxin to the White. My theory is that the White stowed it away somewhere and wrote down in her papers for Karris where it was, but then those papers were stolen by the Order, so I think the Order will figure out where the white luxin is and acquire it and use it for malicious purposes.

So the Order promised Ironfist they would foil any assassination attempts on the Nuqaba’s life, yet they then commanded Teia to assassinate the Nuqaba. This does not follow. Is it possible they know of Ironfist’s dual allegiance and are punishing him?

I like Teia, despite her being tangled up in the Order. She thinks she’s being asked to kill Ironfist, but it seems obvious that she’s going to have to kill Gavin instead once he completes Grinwoody’s orders. Killing Orholam? Is that even possible? That’s going to be a main plotline in the last book. I think Gavin’s seventh goal is to become a god, only because Grinwoody commented that he would probably be able to accomplish his seventh goal by completing this mission. I wouldn’t think something like that would be Gavin’s goal, but I can’t think of anything else it could be. 

Why is the book called The Blood Mirror? I know there’s the charred mirror that Grinwoody was showing Gavin, but why did that small thing become the title for this work? I was expecting “Mirror” to refer to a person who is a Mirror, like Janus Borig was, but I was wrong. My honest guess is because they needed a B-word to be the title to match with the other books and this is the best they could do. Unless the mirror becomes important in the next book, who knows.

This book was another excellent installment in the Lightbringer series. I am highly looking forward to October when The Burning White will be released and I will (hopefully) get all the answers I’m seeking. I have some predictions for what will happen in the final book:
—Either Gavin or someone else will reveal to the world that he is actually Dazen.
—Kip will travel to and possibly pass through the Everdark Gates and we will figure out their significance and what lies beyond them. They have been elusively brought up too many times for them not to be important.
—Gavin will climb the tower and “kill” Orholam and magic will be disrupted, then Gavin will die, probably by Teia’s hand.
—Gods of the Two Hundred will come to battle.
—We will get confirmation about what Gavin’s seventh goal was.
—Ironfist’s true allegiance will be revealed.

“A drafter was a candle. She was made to bring light and be consumed in the process.”

Review: THE BROKEN EYE by Brent Weeks

Rating: 5/5 stars

**This review contains major SPOILERS for The Broken Eye. You’ve been warned.**

This might be my favorite book in the series so far. I didn’t much care for the pirate aspect of it, but with Kip’s amazing character progression and all the shocking revelations and that literal jaw-dropping ending, I think I still like this book the best.

So we start with Gavin being now completely colorblind and a slave on a pirate ship manned by Gunner, and Kip has been rescued on another boat manned by Zymun. These scenes in the beginning were my least favorite part of the book (and the series so far) because, for some reason, I struggle with pirate stories.

And then Gavin knowingly drafting black luxin? I wonder what the parameters are to draft black luxin because it seems that it’s tied to being in a very difficult place emotionally.

So for the chapters about the Nine Kings cards, who is looking at the cards? For the chapters with the same card titles, is it different people looking at the same cards, the same person looking at different cards with the same name, or the same person looking at the same card at a different time period and thus seeing a different picture? I had originally thought that those chapters were showing what I would see if I looked at a card but I have since come to realize that they are about someone (who, though?) looking at the cards and explaining them. Is it Kip looking at all the new cards from Janus?

I looked up Diakoptês in the character list at the back of the book and it said the name means “breaker” and is a name or title of Lucidonius himself or of a similar figure to Lucidonius, who some people believe was the Lightbringer. I was becoming more and more convinced throughout the story that Kip is the Lightbringer because his nickname is Breaker. There are just so many coincidences. And then lo and behold, Kip is revealed to be the Lightbringer. No one was surprised about that; we’ve seen it coming since the beginning of the last book at least. I mean the series is called Lightbringer, and it’s not going to be about a character that we haven’t met yet three books in. I love Kip’s progression in this book. Especially compared to the first book, he’s a completely different person now.

There are so many great character arcs during this book, honestly. In chapter 51 when Ironfist and Tremblefist battled during training and Ironfist learned how much his brother loves him, that was so precious. I loved that part. And then Liv was able to see her father and connect with him again, that was really nice to see. And I’m glad she realized that drafting superviolet all the time was such a crutch to her.

A lot also happened with Teia. We now know that she is a light splitter! And she’s still part of the Order, so I’m very curious to see how her membership with them will affect her friendships and alliances in further books. I really didn’t like to see Murder Sharp interact with her though; he gives me the creeps. I wonder if we will ever find out who is the Blackguard that is working for him.

Another interesting character is Quentin, who we discovered was the one who shot at Kip in the alley and ended up killing Lucia instead. I hate that he betrayed Kip. I knew a betrayal would happen at some point but I’m still sad about it. (I wrote this snippet as a note to myself after the fact, not even anticipating the major betrayal to come at the end of the book.) We never got to see Quentin and Kip together again after we found out this information though, and I feel like Kip never knew that Quentin betrayed him, although I guess if he did see all the cards then he would know. But Quentin doesn’t know that Kip knows, so I would love to see some kind of interaction between them again in the next book.

Let’s talk about Gavin for a bit. He really had a rough time in this book, first losing his ability to draft and going colorblind, then becoming an oar slave, then being held prisoner by the Nuqaba, and then being blinded by a white-hot poker! OW! Seriously, just imagine your eyelid being pried open while you’re strapped down to a table, being forced to look directly at the sun, and then having a burning metal rod stabbed through your eyeball. Tssss. It hurts to even think about.

Karris, on the other hand, had much better luck in this book, despite being alone for most of it. She became the new White, much to Andross’s chagrin. I didn’t really expect this to happen but I’m not at all surprised. In fact, I’m quite pleased that she did gain this new position of authority. I think this will add some great tension in the next book as she butts beads with Andross and becomes the third Guile in a high place of power.

The most shocking revelation of all this book was chapter 97. First of all, it starts with the unexpected: Grinwoody is Ironfist’s uncle. Didn’t see that coming, but okay, let’s move on. But wait, Ironfist is working with Grinwoody. He brought a secret box to him from the White’s room. But he wouldn’t betray anyone at the Chromeria, right? Inside the box was the black seed crystal, and thus we find out the true meaning of the Blackguards: to guard the black. But this still isn’t what it looks like; it can’t be. Then the ultimate punch in the face: Ironfist is working for the Order of the Broken Eye, and Grinwoody is its leader.

I was literally so shocked at that scene that I dropped the book right after that moment and had to get up and pace my apartment for twenty minutes just to process everything. The betrayal. I never would have expected it to be Ironfist, but I guess it makes sense that he’s the most likely suspect because he can play his part so well, but still. Everyone trusted him. And even the Order was starting to doubt him, so maybe this means that he actually can be trusted by both sides.

This huge revelation leaves me with a lot of questions. Does Andross work for the Order as well since Grinwoody is his slave and they seem very close? Does Andross even know? How did the Order of the Broken Eye start and how did Grinwoody become its leader? Andross is smart enough to be in the Order but he likes to be in control. I just don’t see him actually working for Grinwoody or the Order because then he would have to take orders and he doesn’t like that, so I’m going to guess that he doesn’t have any idea about Grinwoody’s secret life. I desperately hope we find out more information about Grinwoody’s true identity in the next books.

And I will say it again, the relationship between Tremblefist and Ironfist is so real and precious. Ironfist truly cared about his brother and I loved being able to see that raw emotion. Tremblefist died in his arms and asked him the question that will lead me into the next book: which man are you? Who do you serve?

I theorize that Ironfist will help out the Order in the next book but ultimately result to betraying them and being Kip’s protector against them and then die because of that betrayal. He seems to me to be at least somewhat loyal to both sides, which will only end badly for him because a man cannot serve two masters.

And lastly, that final epilogue. So many implications in less than a page of text. Real Dazen is trapped in the cell he made for real Gavin. Trapped by his father, presumably (although I want to question if it really was Andross because that was only Gavin’s assumption, but who else could it be?). What’s going to become of him now, stuck down there and not even able to draft? People knew he came back, so what will they think happened to him?

I cannot tell you how excited I am to start The Blood Mirror. After The Blinding Knife I was like, surely it can’t get any better. And then The Broken Eye happened, and now I’m like, surely it can’t get any better. Well, I still have two more books. How is The Blood Mirror going to break me next? Surely it can’t get any better.

“In every darkness, there is hope for light. For light cannot be chained.”

Review: THE BLINDING KNIFE by Brent Weeks

Rating: 5/5 stars

**This entire review is filled with SPOILERS for The Blinding Knife.**

This book was incredible! I am so glad I’m reading this series right now because it is everything I want and more. This review will be somewhat disjointed because I type my thoughts as I read so there’s usually little connection from one thought to the next. But I have SO much to say and speculate about this story so let’s jump right in.

I think Kip is the Lightbringer. He fits all the descriptions. He even questioned it himself. Other people questioned it. When he was carrying Janus she said she knew who the Lightbringer was. All evidence is pointing to Kip; he’s the obvious choice. But because he’s the obvious choice it probably isn’t going to be him after all. I bet we’ll have to wait until The Burning White to find out who the Lightbringer really is, or if he even exists at all.

Speaking of Janus Borig though, how cool is she? I’m very intrigued by her. She can see into the past and probably also the future and can depict whole life stories in her magical paintings. And she has singlehandedly created the game of Nine Kings and designed every card in that game. (How did literal fortune cards ever get turned into a casual card game though?) Her ability as a Mirror is my favorite in this series, even more than drafting. I’m so sad that she died. She had such a large store of secrets that I wanted to keep hearing, but at least some of her original cards were saved.

What’s especially interesting about the Nine Kings cards that Kip was going through was that there was a card labeled Black Luxin. Kip didn’t pay any mind to this card and just kept going through the stack, but that is confirmation that black luxin does exist! Which means white luxin must also exist.

It seems pretty obvious that the blinding knife is made of white luxin, but I’d like to know who drafted it and where it came from. When Gavin was stabbed with it, he lost blue. When Vox was stabbed with it, Gavin lost green. How did Gavin lose green if he wasn’t stabbed with the blade a second time? What happens when the blade has grown to maximum size and all the jewels on the blade are glowing and the blade has absorbed all the colors? I guess we’ll be finding out in The Broken Eye, seeing as this was the blade’s state at the end of this book.

I have a theory: the blinding knife was originally used by the Prism in the Sun Day ceremony when he has to free the drafters who are close to breaking the halo. Instead of killing them, like what happens now, he would only take their colors from them so they couldn’t draft themselves into insanity. I hope we do find out more about how the blinding knife is used because it seems to be able to cause multiple effects on people. When Gavin was stabbed at the end of The Black Prism, he lost the ability to see and draft one color. When he was stabbed at the end of The Blinding Knife, he lost the ability to see and draft all colors. When Andross was stabbed, his broken halo receded and he gained more energy as if he had become a younger drafter again. Why didn’t the knife take Andross’s ability to draft colors also? Instead, it strengthened his drafting. Very peculiar.

As much as I hate Andross, I think Weeks does a great job at crafting his character. I’m very curious to see what he will do in the next book now that he has essentially regained his ability to draft, especially since he even commented that this changes everything. And also now that he’s no longer a color wight, which I totally saw coming, by the way. After the chapter that featured the Nine Kings card called ~The Master~, I suspected he had probably become a color wight and no one knew because he was always in the dark and always covered his eyes when he wasn’t.

But Andross went from being a color wight to being a normal drafter again, which means it is possible to affect the halo with the knife, or possibly with white luxin itself? What would the Color Prince do with this information, or with the knife? He is pro-wight, but only because he’s against killing drafters who are about to break the halo. Would he still let people break the halo and be free, or would he keep everyone within the safe limits of drafting because that’s still not something the Chromeria is willing to do? Ooh, I cannot wait to read more of this intricate narrative.

I really want to know more about the legendary colors: black, white, and paryl (and chi, but that hasn’t come up in the story yet). Can paryl do more than see armor on people? How many paryl drafters are actually out there? Is solid paryl actually another form of luxin that’s a different color? Can the Prism see or draft paryl, or chi? He is the Prism, after all, and we already know he can draft the legendary white luxin.

I think it’s interesting that real Gavin had just accepted that he is Dazen now, and when real Dazen visits him in the prison, the prisoner addresses him as Gavin even though he’s not. I would have thought that real Gavin would be headstrong in his identity, that real Dazen couldn’t take that away from him too, his last shred of freedom. But he was going insane and maybe started to believe that he was Dazen by this point.

When the real Dazen killed the real Gavin, I did not expect that at all. What was the whole point of keeping him locked up for sixteen years then, just to kill him? At first, mercy meant keeping him alive, until mercy came to mean ending his life because of his insanity. And the last line of that chapter hit me so hard: “[Gavin] looked over at the wall, where the prisoner had been glancing repeatedly, but he saw nothing but the reflection of a dead man.” Oh wow. That’s heavy. Talk about foreshadowing.

I was impressed by how smart Dazen was in breaking out of the prisons, and by Gavin for creating them in the first place. I was seriously scared a few times that Dazen was finally going to break free, but Gavin outsmarted us all. It is ironic though that the prison Gavin spent only a month constructing held Dazen for sixteen years, while the two prisons that he spent a year constructing barely held him for a month.

I also finally saw the irony in this book of the connection between the definition of the word guile and the characters whose name is Guile. As was stated at one point to the question “Was he a good man?” was the answer, “He was a Guile,” as if that explained everything we needed to know. Weeks does such a good job of crafting his characters and their traits and personalities.

One character who started out as an insignificant tertiary character but who grew into a substantial secondary character was Adrasteia. She really grew on me the longer I read the story, and I like her now. I hated her mistress though, so I was so glad when Kip won her through Nine Kings.

I love Kip’s journey of learning to play Nine Kings and how much he dedicated to learning the cards and practicing the techniques. I mean I hated the scenes when he actually had to play against Andross because Andross is a piece of dirt, but I still liked Kip’s devotion to the game.

Kip isn’t my favorite character but his story is the most interesting to read about. I love how Weeks is able to show how the Blackguard training aided in his character progression. He becomes physically stronger, a better drafter, and more disciplined of speech. His story is really one of him growing up and coming into himself. He used to be (and still sometimes is) very focused on himself, but now he is much more aware of how his actions matter and actually affect others, and he has matured so much since the beginning of book one. I’m looking forward to seeing him grow up more throughout each book in the series.

I think it’s interesting that the Color Prince is trying to create his own Spectrum but is just using the gods instead because he wants to be more powerful than the Chromeria. I think some of his philosophies that the Chromeria is wrong, etc. make so much sense and I can totally see where he’s coming from and why he has supporters; however, he is going about enacting his ideas in the wrong way, which is why he’s a problem.

I do think Liv was misguided when she chose to stay in the Color Prince’s army. I think she finally has her freedom, and just like a child on their own for the first time without anyone telling them what to do, she is asserting her freedom and making poor decisions. Obviously she still loves her dad and respects him, and she even teared up just seeing his handwriting. I think down the road she will realize that she has made a big mistake by trusting Koios and there will be a big ordeal when she tries to leave him. Honestly, the only thing I’m upset about is Liv sleeping with Zymun and letting herself get pushed around by him, which is when I lost all respect for her. I still don’t hate Liv but I do think she is making some bad decisions right now. But in her defense, she’s not directly killing anyone by her own hand. I’m curious if she will still support Lord Omnichrome when he makes her actually kill people, especially if it’s someone close to her, because right now she’s mostly just there on the political side. But she’s not really free. Anytime she is faced with the horrific actions of the Prince, she drafts superviolet and hides behind the ability to become emotionless so she can justify what he’s doing and not have to think about how she’s supporting him by staying, even if she’s not directly taking the same evil actions that he is.

As for Zymun, I was happy to see him leave the Color Prince’s army, and I had hoped he was gone for good, but I was wrong. I was very surprised to learn that Zymun is Karris’s son that she left as a baby. I was wondering when that boy was going to show up, and it turns out it has been Zymun all along. He treated Kip like crap though even though he’s his “brother,” which really shows Zymun’s true nature and that he seeks only after power. One thing I am curious about was how Zymun found out that he was indeed Karris’s son, and I hope we discover these answers in the next book.

Even though I still feel like I don’t know much about Karris, I do really like her. I am so so happy about what happened between real Dazen and Karris. I have been waiting for him to tell her the truth since the beginning of The Black Prism, and they are so clearly meant to be together. Their scenes together just made me smile and giggle at their being in love. I love this subtle love story in this series and that it spanned all of books one and two and really built up the tension before anything actually happened.

I actually think that Weeks does a good job of portraying the differences between men and women without degrading women. I think he has said a lot in these books that is actually quite empowering for women, and I respect that. He understands (or at least writes as if he understands) a woman’s perspective, and I find myself relating to that on many occasions. (That’s not to say all the characters were respectful of women, though.)

The only thing I even slightly disliked about this book is that I had a hard time picturing the final battle scene, which is my own issue, not the book’s issue. For some reason, I just couldn’t play it out in my mind so I couldn’t follow along very well. I definitely liked the battle and fight scenes less than the other parts of the book when they’re learning about the properties of luxin or training to be Blackguards or having important conversations. I know the battles are cool because the characters get to show off their drafting abilities and use luxin to fight, but I am just way more interested in the plot of this book, so I felt like those fight scenes slowed me down from discovering more answers that I needed.

I really like Weeks’s writing style though. I find it very easy to fall into the story. One thing I love that he does is create a slow burn and make me work for some of the details. For example, the blinding knife was introduced in book one, we learned more details about it in book two, but there’s so much that’s still a mystery that will be revealed in book three and possibly even book four. His story isn’t rushed at all, but it also isn’t slow by any means either, and I love that I just get to savor every word in that way.

The Blinding Knife is better than The Black Prism in my opinion, and I bet the books will just keep getting better with each installment. I have never had such a visceral reaction to a book as with this one. Any book that gets that kind of reaction out of me is worth every star and rave review. Weeks is an excellent writer and this is an excellent and unique epic fantasy story that I can’t recommend enough.

“He who looks through only one lens lives in darkness.”

Review: ROOTS GREW WILD by Erica Hoffmeister

Rating: 4/5 stars

Roots Grew Wild is a short collection of free-verse poems that come together to tell a coming-of-age story of a girl and her family in the Midwest.

I especially enjoyed the writing style that Hoffmeister uses. Her writing evokes a lot of imagery through her ethereal sentences. I love the juxtaposition of roots to mean both familial roots and tree roots. She uses beautiful nature descriptions and earthy imagery alongside the story of the girl to create the tone.

Oftentimes with modern poetry, I don’t feel like there is much substance, unfortunately. There are broken sentences and missing punctuation to create an aesthetic and a *mood* but the poems lack actual meaning to me. That’s not how I felt with Roots Grew Wild. This collection is actually substantial and meaningful, and that is one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much. The author has shared her experiences but has also written about them in a way that the reader can experience them too, feel her feelings, see the same sights. I love how evocative it is. These poems were written to transport the reader to another time and witness the main character’s emotions. I could relate to her feelings and connect with her.

I would recommend this short book if you like beautiful poetry collections that tell a deeper story and have beautiful descriptions of nature. It’s one I’ll be rereading in the future.

Review: THE BLACK PRISM by Brent Weeks

Rating: 5/5 stars

In The Black Prism, magic is based on colors, where drafters can create a solid form from the different colors in light waves. Each color creates a different texture and has a different property. But the more you draft color, the closer you come to your death because the magic is slowly killing you.

I have been looking forward to reading the Lightbringer series for quite a while, and that small bit about how the magic system worked was all I knew before starting. I didn’t know about the plot at all, but knowing about the color magic that slowly kills its user was enough to hook me into reading the book. While I’ve been excited to read this series, I’ve also felt a bit intimidated because each book is 600-700 pages and I knew it would be a commitment. I shouldn’t have been scared to start the series though because this book was so easy to read. I fell right into the story, even with the new and complex magic system, and I found myself engrossed in the plot and the characters and the magic. I usually can’t sit and read for hours on end but with this book I found it to be easy to do just that. I never wanted to put it down, but life’s duties kept calling.

I actually started this book by reading through the whole glossary and appendix because, a few chapters in, I already had questions and I didn’t want to be confused. This helped me understand the magic system and the world right from the beginning, which I found to be super useful. This is one of those books that I constantly kept referencing the information at the back to keep everything straight in my mind, and I’m so glad the author included these reference materials.

I’m also grateful for the map because I love to reference locations as they’re mentioned in the story. The only problem I had was that the map is upside down—South is at the top—and it took me five minutes of staring at it to realize this. I hope this has some important meaning we find out later because otherwise what’s the point of an upside-down map?

The description of the Chromeria with colorful buildings that turn to always be facing the sun sounds so neat and I wish I could see a city like that in real life, or at least some fanart depiction of it. But as much as I love the Chromeria so far, I feel like it is actually not a very good place.

This book had some pretty great characters. Gavin was a really neat protagonist. I enjoyed learning about him as the Prism and what those duties entail as far as keeping all the colors balanced in the world. He has a lot of secrets, and I loved discovering snippets of these throughout the story. For example, what are his seven purposes? I really want to know!

I also rather enjoyed Kip and the mystery surrounding his parentage because it was clear from the beginning that Gavin wasn’t telling anyone the full story. We got bits and pieces along the way, and I love a good mystery aspect in a book. Although I will say that Kip was rather impulsive at times. He would blurt out offensive statements then immediately be like “crap why did I say that?” I just wasn’t sure why he was acting that way but I guess that’s just who he is.

I still don’t know how I feel about Dazen. It’s interesting that we learned right from the beginning that he wasn’t dead as everyone suspected, and I’m curious to see how this will play out in future books. Because of very spoilery reasons, I actually feel sorry for him right now.

Karris was okay. I mostly just felt like she was angry the whole time, but I guess part of that can be expected because of her history with Gavin. I kept waiting for her to learn the full truth because I wanted so badly to see her reaction. I think I will like her more as the series progresses.

I really liked Liv from the first chapter. And knowing what her mission was and that the Prism didn’t know what or who she was in the beginning just added to the suspense and made me even more excited to keep reading about her. Plus I really like that she’s a superviolet drafter. For some reason, that’s the most interesting color to me, so I loved seeing what she could do with it. Also, she has me very intrigued with what she could do given her position at the end of the book. I’m very excited to see her character progression.

Even though I know Lord Omnichrome is the villain and a terrible person, I can’t help but agree with some of his ideals. What he says about the Chromeria makes sense in a way. The good are not always fully good and the bad are not always fully bad. I’m very curious to see how his beliefs affect other characters and the rest of the story in other books.

One minor problem I had was the writing style at times. Weeks’s writing was good for the most part but occasionally he would explain something and I wouldn’t understand what he was saying and I would be confused about that aspect of the world or magic system. I did have to reread a few paragraphs because of this issue, but for the most part, I thought the writing was good.

One thing, though, that was kind of jarring about Weeks’s writing style was that thoughts in the first person were not italicized. It really threw me off for the first few chapters that I saw it, but it gradually became a normal part of the story and I stopped noticing it as much. I thought this was an interesting way to approach writing in third person, and even though I didn’t think I would like it, I did. It was kind of like third-person limited mixed with first-person.

Something else I didn’t really like was how long the final battle scene was. It was almost two hundred pages long, and by the end, I was just exhausted of reading about the drafters fighting. I much preferred the non-combat scenes of the book. I’m positive there will be many more fight scenes in the later books, so I can only hope they do not last as long or they are written in a way that is more entertaining to me. I was fine with the first three-fourths, but during the very ending I was just wanting to be done with battle and I didn’t really care what happened anymore.

This book was very compelling, not only because of the story itself, but also because each chapter ended on a cliffhanger but the next chapter would be a new character’s perspective. I had to keep reading to find out what happened next for each of the five character perspectives. It’s been awhile since I read a book like this, one where I was actually excited to know what would happen next in such a way.

Overall, I thought The Black Prism was a fantastic book. It has a very unique and impressive magic system, a well-built world, a great cast of characters, some mysterious aspects, intense fight scenes, vivid imagery, and a compelling plot. The writing did take some getting used to in the beginning, but eventually I came to enjoy it. I would recommend to anyone who is looking for an enthralling fast-paced epic fantasy. I’m very much looking forward to where this series takes me on its journey.

“Moments of beauty sustain us through hours of ugliness.”

How I Rate Books

Everyone rates books differently, and I want to talk about my method for how I rate books.

I use the five-star rating system, and I rate books based on how much I personally enjoy them and connect with the story. If I read a critically acclaimed novel that everyone seems to love that I'm not connecting with but I can see why other people would love it, I'm most likely going to give it a lower rating because it wasn't a book for me, and I'm not rating books based on how anyone else would like them but on how I like them. But if I can see reasons why a different audience might like a book that I'm just not interested in, I'll at least mention the good aspects in my review despite my lower rating. I always strive to be fair in my ratings and reviews.

Here is my reading scale: 
Favorite     5-stars     4-stars     3-stars     2-stars     1-star     Did-Not-Finish

So for how I rate books, I start every book with a three-star rating in mind. Three stars is the middle of the scale, and by starting each book with that rating, I'm giving every book a fair chance.

What I do is if I read a book and nothing jumps out at me as being good or nothing jumps out at me as being bad, if the book feels middle-of-the-road or average, or if I liked the book but thought it was nothing special, I keep it at three stars.

If I'm reading a book and I'm just not connecting with the characters, I'm confused by the plot, I don't like the writing style, I'm having an issue with how something was talked about or handled, or I'm becoming uninterested in continuing on with the story, I will lower my rating to two stars. If these problems become even worse or the book just starts to downright frustrate or anger me, I will lower the rating again to one star. If I feel yet again like these problems continue and there is no redemption and I am just wasting my time reading the book, I will mark it as did-not-finish.

A note about not finishing books: I very rarely decide to put a book down and not continue reading it. Most of the books I haven't finished in the past were because my library hold expired and I was busy and never got around to finishing the book, or because the story really wasn't holding my interest even if there was nothing that I explicitly disliked (read: I was bored). There have been only a very small handful of titles that I did not finish because I truly disliked the books and the thought of reading them just made me dread reading anything at all. I try to finish all the books I start, and I generally only read books I think I'm going to enjoy anyway, but every so often I need to permanently put down a book.

Now as for the higher ratings, whenever I'm reading a book and I start to like the writing, the characters, the flow of the story, whenever something sticks out in my mind, I will move my rating to four stars. This is my most common rating. Then if I keep reading and I become further impressed by some aspect of the story that really stands out to me, or I feel like I literally cannot put the book down (this is actually quite rare for me), or I just love everything about the story, I will bump my rating up again to five stars. Then, if a five-star book keeps blowing my mind and keeps me utterly obsessed about the story, even long after I finish it, and it's a book I know I'll want to read again and again, it becomes one of my favorite books. (I have a favorites shelf on Goodreads, and at the time of writing this post, there are only 18 books on that shelf.)

Sometimes a book will start out going downhill to two stars but then work its way back up to three stars and occasionally even up to four stars. Usually if this is the case, I will rate the book three stars because that is the average rating for my reading experience with that book. Sometimes I will also give half stars to books, although since Goodreads doesn't allow half stars, this is uncommon and only noted in my reviews on this blog. I use a half star if I feel that the one rating is too low but the next rating is too high, that there was just enough of something in the book to keep me from rating it one way or the other. On Goodreads, though, I am forced to select a full-star rating, so I choose whichever one I think most closely reflects my feelings for that book.

There's the breakdown for how I rate books. I start at three stars and work my way up or down the scale, depending on how my reading experience goes. I know my system is a bit different from how I've seen others rate books, but it's the system that works the best for how my mind works.