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More books for adults should have illustrations

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5 Things I Loved About The Scholomance Trilogy

Spoilers!

Galadriel Higgins. She's a brilliant narrator - so aware of so much of the broken system around her, and so cynical, and then shocked whenever people don't meet her more cynical expectations - even as she refuses to follow anyone's expectations about her! Also, I love that her name is Galadriel, because it starts out as a Fantasy Name, then you find out that she's called that because her mum loves Tolkien.

The metaphor(s) for society that is/are embodied in the maw-mouths and the mals. It's so well done, in part both because it's so closely tied to reality. In addition, the maw-mouths are excellent monsters, they really are horrifying as a concept.

The friendships - there's such a wide variety of friendships shown - truthfully I would have loved to have seen more of some of them, but what we do see is lovely!

The scholomance - a big, terrifying entity that emphatically isn't human and does not love its charges as individuals but is still completely devoted to its cause. Such a chilling a beautiful concept!

Might be controversial, but I kind of loved the ending - the irony that Ophelia Lake, definite antagonist, is going to get what she wanted and is even sort of on El's side. It's horrible but it fits in with the themes of the series and I do admire that.

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The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)

This is an excellent ending to the series - I loved finally seeing El and her friends outside of the Scholomance and interacting with the wider world.

The book continues with the fast pace of the previous two, which works very well. While I'm saddened about some things the reader doesn't get to see because of this I appreciate that seeing those things probably would have slowed the pace and changed the style.

There are a couple of revelations that don't quite feel like they get enough weight, but I think that's an interesting decision by the author as part of the style, so I'm interested rather than annoyed.

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The Last Graduate (Naomi Novik)

I really enjoyed this book as well! It's a good follow up to the first book's ending.

The solution to the problem and the ending scenes were beautiful, and the book's overwhelming premise of kindness was genuinely moving.

Also, I absolute love what we learn about the nature of the scholomance in this book!

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A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik)

I really loved this book!

It's very tightly focused, both on the plot and its points about the politics of survival, with a very fascinating setting. I really loved the developing friendships of the main character, for me they were one of the highlights of the book.

The world building also felt very consistent in terms of the responses of the characters - there aren't really any times when any of the characters aren't focused on their own survival, and times when they aren't are important points of both characterisation and world building.

Overall it's very clever and a lot of fun!

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The thing about El too is that when she fails to see obvious shit right in front of her, it OFTEN ties right back in with her trauma.

Refuses to see something is Wrong With That Boy, because she has been unfairly judged her whole life and refuses to do this to Orion.

Completely misses the Mawmouth / Enclave connection until the very last second because she's so convinced she will one day turn evil and destroy enclaves on purpose, she never realizes it could be an accident.

Never suspects the prophecy will come true sideways because it never occurs to her that Deepthi, the woman she has most reason to resent in the world, would be that cruel to her.

Doesn't realize she has friends until Aadhya outright offers an alliance, because she's never had a friend before.

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All Systems Red (Martha Wells)

I really enjoyed this! Lots of ink has been used to talk about these books, so I'll be brief.

I love an identity reveal, and this book is in many ways an extended identity reveal for the main character, and I loved that as much as I hoped I would. At some point I would like to read the rest of the books.

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Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Kerry Greenwood)

5 Things I Loved

I read these books over the course of two years, in non-chronological order - it's been too long to do individual reviews, but here are 5 things I loved about the series!

I love how cold Phryne is. Her reactions to things are just slightly off - never worrying, even when children have been kidnapped, for example. It's really interesting to see a detective who is intent on doing the right thing, even when they don't always have an emotional need to set things right.

The family Phryne builds over the course of the books! It's lovely to see her fill her life with people over time - her mentoring of her children, her unconventional romantic relationship, her affection for her sister, as well as her close friendship with Dot and her other relationships are charming to watch develop. I can see why the TV show streamlined these relationships a bit, but I do love the books' sprawling family and community.

Weirdly, I liked the place Phryne's romances have in the books. I was expecting there to be a guy-of-the-book romance that would distract from the plot and other characters but that wasn't what I found. Romantic relationships are a hobby for Phryne, but they never distract from her friendships. To paraphrase one of the early books - even when her man of the moment is there, when Phryne needs support, it is Dot she turns to.

Phryne's children. Another aspect of the books I didn't expect to like as much as I did! For most of the books Phryne has two daughters, with her taking in a third child later in the series. I loved watching her raise them in her own idiosyncratic way and the way being her children has influenced them. I would have loved to read more about what they will be like in the future!

Mary Mead, a character in one of the books whose name is a pun on Miss Marple's home village - I'll avoid spoilers but her minor role in the book she's in makes me smile every time I think of it.

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Saturation Point (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

I picked up this book because I'd heard really good things about some of the author's other work and wanted to see what I thought of them with something shorter.

Its a short, very tense book - I enjoyed it but found the ending very disturbing for reasons I can't pinpoint. I really loved the setting - believably horrible and not in a way you often see.

I didn't really like any of the characters but I think that's deliberate. There wasn't as much of a twist as I was expecting from the reviews but I think it would probably still reward a reread in the future - although I'm not sure if I ever will go back to it.

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Looking at the blurb for the fourth one it looks like we might get more information on that scene in The Rook, which I was not expecting but am really curious about!

The trouble with making those lists of things I love about The Rook and Stiletto is now I cannot wait to read the next two books!

I am so looking forward to them!!!

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The trouble with making those lists of things I love about The Rook and Stiletto is now I cannot wait to read the next two books!

I am so looking forward to them!!!

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Stiletto (Daniel O'Malley)

5 Things I Loved

The set up of the book follows on beautifully from the end of the first book, and it's such a cool concept for a sequel!

I love how balanced the two sides are - it would have been so easy for the grafters to be either boring, or threatening, or a let down after The Rook but they are so much fun and O'Malley does an excellent job of showing both why the two sides are terrified of each other and why teaming up could work.

I loved seeing the Checquy from the point of view of someone whose experience of it was so normal, for whom the machinery had all worked, in comparison to Myfanwy, who had such a hard time. It really highlighted the character of Rook Thomas.

The scene in the restaurant where they pretend to be graphic designers - hysterically funny and rather charming, all in one. In fact, any scene of the Checquy and the Grafters bonding.

I love the core theme of the book and how nonchalantly it's woven through the text - the difference between the good guys and the bad guys isn't who they are or how they're made, it's what they do.

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Scarlet (Genevieve Cogman)

The is one of those books where the premise - French Revolution with vampires - does not make the book sound as good as it is!

I like the author so I bought the book trusting that I'd like it better than expected and it ended up being amazing!

The supernatural and historical elements work really well, but the book shone in its relationships between the characters! One of the main themes of the book is who gets believed - the main character is of a lower social class than most of the people around her and constantly conscious of whether they will listen to her.

This kind of thing would normally put me off - and the author does use the horror of not being believed to full effect at times, but she balances it with really fantastic character relationships.

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The Rook (Daniel O'Malley)

5 Things I Loved

Myfanwy - she's such a fun protagonist and I love watching her approach to problems and making friends. It's fantastic watching her come into her own.

Speaking of, something else I really love are the dynamics between the characters. There are so many different types of relationships in the book, which is impressive given the fact that Myfanwy is an entirely new person meeting all these people for the first time. Some of my favourites are the relationships Myfanwy has with Ingrid, Shantay, and Gestalt!

The scary elements. The book has some really chilling and horrifying concepts and the darker side of the world building us often explored.

The powers! There are so many different and unusual powers in the book and some of them are really unique!

The ending. It's a brilliant and unique solution and I loved seeing it play out in the sequel.