ARC Review: Tell The Wind And Fire

Tell The Wind And Fire | Sarah Rees Brennan

Published by: Clarion Books, April 5th 2016

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Retellings

Pages: 368

Format: Ebook

Source: Clarion, via Netgalley

In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets. 

Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised. Lucie alone knows the young men’s deadly connection, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.

Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy—or herself?

Celebrated author Sarah Rees Brennan weaves a magical tale of romance and revolution, love and loss.

This book should come with a huge flashing warning: IT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART.

But come on, it's a Sarah Rees Brennan book. We already knew that.

Tell The Wind and Fire is equal parts emotionally devastating, enthralling, and hilarious. Although  the parts I found funny (Lucie being pushed over the bridge, anyone?) maybe weren't meant to be...

I wasn't fussed on Lucie until I totally was, and I was cheering her on and totally invested, and I have no idea when she snuck up on me. Carwyn was my favourite, as he was always destined to be. He's my sarcastic piece of shit and I love him so much. I am incensed and righteously furious on his behalf. He deserved so, so much better and I want a hundred gratuitous fanfics of his miraculous recovery. (I will avenge him.) I have no opinion on Stryker #2.

The world is glittering and really damn interesting. I love the divide between the light and dark, and how morality is super grey or unconventional - light guys aren't good, dark guys aren't bad. The rebellion plot was something I was even genuinely interested in (and I am RARELY interested in rebel plots) and I just thoroughly enjoyed the story. I'm going to pretend it ended differently though. My only complaint is there's a whole chapter of info dumping at the beginning and it interrupted my reading experience.

Emotional, character driven, and wholly new and inventive. I will never forget this book. (I will never be whole again.)

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★☆

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Reading round up (46)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. Finally it's Halloween, the month long spooptacular.

29th September

The Walled City is not as good as I thought it'd be. I'm kinda mad that I was excited for this and it's shitty. The world isn't explained AT ALL. Is it a walled city in our world, a fantasy world, a sci-fi world???? No world building whatsoever. Anyway I read another 8% and it was like pulling teeth so I'm gonna DNF because I'm not enjoying it one bit and I don't think I ever will.

SO I started Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (93 pages) because fuck you that's why.

30th September

Currently reading: Unmade | Sarah Rees Brennan

Current page/percent: page 278

Read today: 185 pages

Thoughts: My heart has already been broken TWICE and now my bb Rusty is doing the dumb thing.

1st November

I finished Unmade (90 pages read) and I want to stop existing until the next Lynburn Legacy book comes out OH RIGHT THIS IS THE LAST ONE LET ME DIE.

I also started My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent  (52 pages) because I know for a fact I will hate anything else I read RN because I am SO hungover and hurt and aching from Unmade.

2nd November

Currently reading: My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent 

Current page/percent: page 275

Read today: 223 pages

Thoughts: Kaylee doesn't seem to care much about Nash being held prisoner in the Netherworld. I mean he's a dick and all but ... she loves him and doesn't sound worried AT ALL. I'm pretty worked up about it though. I will rescue Nash.

3rd November

I finished My Soul to Keep (103 pages read) and the ending wasn't as great as I'd expected. I like the glowing girls though and hope we see more of them in the future. I also started Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast (57 pages) which I'm regretting because all it's got me so far is people telling me I'll regret it. And now that negativity is muddling whatever enjoyment I'd have got from it.

4th November

Marked is AWFUL (DNF at page 61). Casual and often use of the word retard, sarcastic insults at people with eating disorders with no second thought about how insensitive and disgusting they're being. If you can't write a teenage voice without causing mass offense, maybe you shouldn't be writing about teenagers.

5th November

I started Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine because I have no idea what to read and it was the first book I clicked on my kindle. I've read 32% and I'm pretty into it. I don't tend to read this era if I do read historical so it's pretty new to me. Romeo still makes me wanna punch him which I enjoy too.

Books finished this week: 2

 The Unhappening of Genesis Lee | Shallee McArthur

Sooooo ... I got super judgy with this book on twitter. I said it was a total rip off of Mara Dyer, and with that title can you blame me? BUT I have since found out it's sci-fi, despite the contemp-amnesia suggestive blurb on EW, and that people's memories are stored in physical objects that are being stolen. HELL YES. GIMME.

MY HALLOWEEN BINGO STARTED. And I am pretty excited about it already. Nobody else signed up, which I thought would bother me, but I'm happy to find out I don't give a fuck.

Reviewed this week: My Soul to Save // Exquisite Captive // The Walled City (DNF) // Unmade

Unmade (Review-ish)

The Lynburn Legacy: Unmade | Sarah Rees Brennan

Published by: Simon & Schuster, September 25th 2014

Genre: YA, Gothic, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 370

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

Powerful love comes with a price. Who will be the sacrifice?

Kami has lost the boy she loves, is tied to a boy she does not, and faces an enemy more powerful than ever before. With Jared missing for months and presumed dead, Kami must rely on her new magical link with Ash for the strength to face the evil spreading through her town.

Rob Lynburn is now the master of Sorry-in-the-Vale, and he demands a death. Kami will use every tool at her disposal to stop him. Together with Rusty, Angela, and Holly, she uncovers a secret that might be the key to saving the town. But with knowledge comes responsibility—and a painful choice. A choice that will risk not only Kami’s life, but also the lives of those she loves most.

This final book in the Lynburn Legacy is a wild, entertaining ride from beginning to shocking end.

I had hoped to gif review this book, as I did the others, but it's just too hopeless. I finished it days ago and I still don't know what my feelings are doing. This book was wonderful and awful, it made me laugh and sob and shout at these dumbass characters. I can't review it in gifs because that would require me to be sarcastic and humourous and I feel numb and hollow. I can barely review it in words. I love this series. *lays on the floor to contemplate an existence with no more Lynburn Legacy books*

If I had to pick one gif though...

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★★★

Writing Style ★★★★★

Book Fashion Friday: Unspoken

Wow I am shit at keeping up with these things. I'm like two, maybe three, weeks behind. Oops, sorry.

Anyway! This week's BFF is inspired by the amazing Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. I went with the US cover because exceptionally pretty. 

The cover:

The fashion:

Fancyyyy~~ also pink! The cover is fancy and pink, the dress is fancy and pink. I have nothing else to add to this.

Available here for $398.

Team Human (Review)

Team Human | Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier

YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, FUN!

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★☆☆

Mel and Cathy and Anna have passed vampires on the street, and sat near them in cinemas, but they don’t know any. Vampires stick to their own kind, and Mel and her friends hang out with other humans—until a vampire boy in a bizarre sun-proof suit shows up at school and captures Cathy’s heart.
Mel is horrified. Can she convince Cathy that life with a vampire is no life at all? Should she? And then all her assumptions about vampires are turned on their head when she meets Kit, a boy who makes her laugh—a boy with a very unusual family history.
Will Mel’s staunch anti-vampire stance jeopardise her closest friendships? And where does Kit fit in? In the end, who will choose... Team Human?

REVIEW

This book is fun, super fun! Seriously, read it. It's such an enjoyable book.

I laughed, I didn't cry (nope, not even once!), and I was totally on Team Human as opposed to Team Vampire. And even though the book is written from the perspective of a girl completely anti-vampire, it presents the pros and cons of both remaining human and transitioning, and it makes you question your own stance on the whole thing. But don't think this is a serious, angsty novel. Oh no! It's humorous, intelligent, and (I use it again) fun.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Team Human, partly because I've only seen co-written books done well once before, and partly because vampires have been way overdone, but this put a cool twist on the whole vampire thing and told it from a different angle.

But do you know what I love about this book? The friendships. Team Human is very much about the complex relationships between friends and how the decision of one friend can affect another. I could literally jump for joy because A VAMPIRE BOOK NOT ABOUT CRAPPY ROMANCE! Okay, it's totally about crappy romance as well but that's beside the point. It's about more than 'Oh, swoon! Attractive dead guy wants to court me!' It's about how important it is to research before jumping into major decisions, it's about supporting your friends even if you disagree with their desires, it's about letting your friends fly the nest even if they are your babies.

I did not expect to find a pretty morally prolific tale between the pages of a vampire romance parody. I did not expect lessons to be learnt. I did not expect this book to be as seriously good as it was. (I'm a vampire cynic, bite me.)

To sum up: A vampire story that I haven't read a thousand times before in other books? Huh. I'm in shock.

[Oh and isn't the Francis on the cover just creepy as hell??]

Unpoken (Gif review)

The Lynburn Legacy: Unspoken | Sarah Rees Brennan
YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Characters ★★★★★

Setting ★★★★★

Writing Style ★★★★★

Review:

IF YOU WANT ME I'LL JUST BE IN THE FETAL POSITION ON THE FLOOR CRYING BECAUSE JARED.

I can't write. I can't emotions. I can gif!

Beware all ye who enter here. There be spoilers abound. 

The Demon's Lexicon reread

Or what I like to cheerfully refer to as Snippets of Agony. Alternatively: Snippets of Absolute Crippling Heartbreak. But Snippets of Agony has a nice ring to it.

I didn't intend to make a post like this, but while I was rereading and attacking The Demon's Lexicon with sticky notes I came across horrible heartbreaking foreshadowing, and I thought - hey! I'll blog this. So if you want to spend your night rolling around the floor, weeping and overcome with demon feelings (And let's be real - who doesn't?!) enjoy this post!

I'll start with something mild.

[about Jamie]
"I know this guy," Nick said. "He's harmless."
"Sure?" Alan asked, squinting behind his glasses.
"Sure," Nick said. "James Crawford. Trust me, if he was a magician, he'd be able to defend himself at school. He's harmless. He's useless."

My note on this said 'Yeahhh, you sure about that, Nick?"

"That was the stupid birds."
"They're very intelligent, actually," Alan told him as if he was under the impression Nick cared at all. [...] "If you catch them young, you can teach them to talk."
"I don't see what the big deal about that is," Nick said. "I can talk."
[...] "Well, I caught you young too. Anyway I think a raven might have been easier-"

And you cry and your tears are Alan teaching Nick how to talk.

[about demons]
"They are very different from us. It's hard to tell, but some people think ..." Alan's voice softened, and he admitted, "I think - that they can love."

Alan taught Nick to love, but Nick's so stupid he never realises it, and Alan just wants to know he's loved.
I JUST CAN'T WITH THESE RYVES BROTHER.

He felt for an instant like the assembled pieces of some weapon Black Arthur had built.

Cause of death: foreshadowing.

I CAN NO LONGER GO ON.

So. Fun post, huh? You're crying, right? I'm crying maybe a little. But look on the bright side: it's a totally proven fact that SRB feeds on reader's Tears of Anguish. We've probably just fueled at least three more Sarah Rees Brennan books. You have that pain to look forward to! You're welcome, you don't have to thank me.

This series will be the death of me.

The Demon's Lexicon (Review)

The Demon's Lexicon: The Demon's Lexicon | Sarah Rees Brennan
YA, Urban Fantasy

Characters ★★★★★
Setting ★★★★☆

Writing Style ★★★★☆

Review:

"Witty, Dark, and Moving" - Cassandra Clare

The quote on the cover really says it all about this book. 

The Demon's Lexicon has the same enthralling, magical quality about it as The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - one of my all time favourite books. From the first chapter I was drawn into an intriguing world of demons and magicians, where darkness and danger follows the lives of Nick and Alan, two boys who live every day fighting demons and on the run from a magician's threat.

The characters are really what make this book, and I fell head over depressing heels in love with Nick, the aloof threatening boy who feels no fear, pity, or remorse for his actions. I have a fetish for horribly broken boys, but this book went above and beyond. I didn't fall for a broken boy, oh no, I fell for a boy yet to be broken. And the ending of this book makes me want to tear it into tiny little pieces. Damn you Sarah Rees Brennan for dumping that torrent of emotions on me without warning.

I'm finding it hard to describe this book without going into detail about the funny and intelligent characters, the unique urban fantasy setting, the often unnerving events that fill these pages, and the brilliant genius that is Sarah Rees Brennan. This is the first book of hers I've read, not counting TBC #1, but as soon as I have money I'm buying everything else she's written. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. God help me.

Overall: ★★★★☆ (4.5 stars)

P.S. How much nicer is the UK cover? Unlucky US, unlucky.