#megthinks

[meggoreads]

Meg Thinks: Fourth Wing

So, I finally read the second coming of Christ on BookTok. Let's talk about Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing. (Warning: possible spoilers ahead)

First, I was fully under the impression that this was firmly in the adult fantasy genre, but it was a YA fantasy with a NA hat on.

Did I still read it all in two days? Yes. 👀 But maybe it was easy to fly through because I've read these scenes thousands of times before.

It was a trope heavy book that is marketed as about dragons but the dragons take up maybe 10% of the book and feel more like comic relief characters. (They were still my favorite)

Since the author says this is going to be a 5-6 book series, I’m hoping this first book was her finding her footing and each book gets progressively better, but seeing as how the next book is already slated to come out before she's had a chance to read literally any of the constructive criticism, I highly doubt it. (I mean, I'll probably still end up reading it because I vehemently hate being out of the loop)

Things I Liked:

The dragons, obviously

The bonds and the signets

Liam :,(

Things That Need To Be Improved:

The romance, it was boring. Stop leading me on with "This guy literally hates my guts and wants to murder me" only for him to have been in love with the FMC the entire time. I also hate when the main love interests get together in the first book. Where was the build-up???

Relationships and general characterization. Aside from Violet, Xaden, Liam, and Dain, I know next to nothing about any of the characters. Why should I care about any of them? The book was so large, but we barely got any scenes of Violet getting to know her squadmates. Or she could reminisce on her past with Dain, her mother/sister/brother.

Rhiannon seems so suspicious. Please write her better.

Violet's condition. What is it? How does it effect her day to day life?

World-building. I'm not hating on it as much as everyone else is because it's fantasy and the author can do whatever they want. I just think we need more lore because all I'm imagining is Attack on Titan with dragons instead of titans.

Things I Didn't Like:

I'm not a fan of the MMC's name starting with an X (or Z) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Griffins. Without spoiling the ending, how are we supposed to believe griffins have any kind of power against literal dragons??

What even is the Gauntlet? T_T

There was a lot of complaints about the cursing which I didn't notice in the first half of the book, but it was very heavy in the second half and quite jarring

Show Don't Tell. Show us how Violet is smart. Stop telling the reader everything.

I felt like I was reading AoT, Divergent, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and any SJM book all in one. It's fine to take inspiration, but this was just... a lot.

(Also this is what I imagined the Venin looking like)

Overall, it was a fairly addicting read and even if something is not a literary masterpiece, I like being a part of the book community and getting in on all of the memes and discussion. Which can be harder to find for more of the well written books in the YA/NA/Adult Fantasy circles.

Here's to hoping Book 2 has more dragons and a better storyline.

[zephblogs]

In pursuit of...

When I went back from my trip, my office mates asked me how I was which is kinda nice and appreciated. anyhow, the real point in this story is that an older woman, who works in the office asked me if i'm going to proceed to my schooling, i said yes, she asked why, i just told her that well, they're getting old, the professional ones and they did talk to me that they want to retire and its high time to pass the legacy to the younger generation. 

i was never confident in proceeding, i had this thinking  i would graduate old, but the reward of having to actually finish and continue to help the family is inviting. never the less, i won't be alone because two of us, marching into the bloody school hoping to pass all the way and graduate on time will bring an achievement for the family.others doubted me, others believed in me. 

but i for now, will take that one big step into a change in my life, hello books, less sleep, highfalutin terms and glasses. i enjoy learning so yeah. 

[meggoreads]

Meg Thinks: Iron Flame

There's going to be spoilers in this post so please read at your own risk.

First of all, this book felt very Anime Filler Arc. I feel like we've been reading 2000 pages of setup between the first and second book.

Honestly, I think Book 1 and the first half of book 2 could have been one book as long as all the fluff from book 1 was taken out. Take out Jack Barlowe coming back and keep Varrish as the big bad (make him the secret Venin) and then keep the ending with everyone fleeing Basgiath with Book 2 starting with everyone in Aretia and go from there.

Because right now I am getting whiplash between all the back and forth between Aretia and Basgiath.

But let's get into it.

Things I Liked:

Always always the dragons. Though I do feel like they are still set up as comic relief and plot devices rather than fleshed out characters. We didn't get nearly enough of Sgaeyl (and Andarna) in this book.

Jesinia & Imogen, whom I felt were better friends to Violet than her own squadmates. And also felt like more fleshed out characters.

Things I Didn't Like:

Violet & Xaden. God, their relationship was so annoying. Xaden, you should know which information you should be forthcoming with. Violet, people are allowed to be private even if you're in a relationship with them.

Someone also mentioned that the whole "ask me" schtick feels very weaponized incompetence and now I couldn't agree more.

The "intentions" signet. Congratulations, you're just really good at reading body language. They introduce mind-reading as some stairway to madness but of course give the MMC the Lite version instead of actually writing something interesting like descent into insanity (but I guess the venin plot will be doing this for us ???)

Still no real explanation for Violet's disability and it doesn't seem to really impact her day-to-day life outside of a few throwaway lines. I would just like to see the representation be representing. But maybe this will pave the way for other authors.

I don't think having both Sloane and Cat vehemently hate Violet was necessary in one book. Cat's whole "I don't love him, I just want the crown" was flimsy at best, & Sloane just all of a sudden does a complete 180 as soon as Cat is in the picture makes no sense.

Things I Need Clarity On:

Okay, what color is Andarna supposed to be? Is she purple? Is she all of them? I was hoping she would be silver to match Violet. It just didn't feel explained very well. (The last couple chapters in general seemed rushed)

Things To Be Improved:

I still feel like I know next to nothing about Rhiannon, Ridoc, & Sawyer. I don't feel their camaraderie. I actually can barely tell the difference between Ridoc and Sawyer.

Like I had said in my Fourth Wing post, when it was announced Iron Flame would be released so soon, I knew that this book would be unpolished and rushed and RY had no time to really deep dive into the criticisms of the first book to improve her craft. But kudos to her for producing that crack that makes you want to keep reading.

Will I continue to read the series? Probably. Do I think they'll get any better? Probably not. Do I still hope for a decent live action adaptation? Most definitely.

[meggoreads]

Meg Thinks: The Serpent & the Wings of Night

First of all, that title is... a lot. And the sequel isn't any better.

My overall opinion about this book is that I don't know how to feel. I both liked it and didn't care for it. I had actually started this book months ago and put it down because I couldn't get into it, but only picked it back up because I'm in my Astarion era and kept seeing tiktok girlies recommend it. So, I thought 'Maybe I'm missing something?'

Once again, I am a name person. Names can be a huge deciding factor for me if I'm going to like a character or not. I'll be honest that I don't really like the names Oraya and Raihn, but we pushed past it and moved on.

Things I liked:

Oraya as a character. She didn't feel one-dimensional to me and truly felt like a badass. I actually wouldn't mind seeing a live-action version of her.

The relationship between Oraya & Vincent

The Trials. I just loves trials / games / tests in general in stories. I think they're a lot of fun.

The separate factions (though sometimes I was confused because I couldn't tell the difference between a faction and sub-faction?)

Mische

Things I Didn't Like:

Raihn. He was just kind of boring to me. A nicely wrapped amalgamation of every MMC. He's tall. He fights well. He has a tragic past. He's actually trying to save people and is not like other vampires.

The world in general just didn't captivate me the way other fantasy worlds do

What happened with Vincent because now we don't get to see how their relationship would have evolved after the reveal :,(

I also couldn't help thinking this book was very similar to The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (which I also DNF'd) so maybe I am just not into these worlds where vampires have revealed themselves and are at the top of the hierarchy. I think part of the allure of the vampire is the secrecy involved.

I am about 50% of the way through the second book, and I'm contemplating reading the other books in the universe. Maybe they have a different vibe from this story? But Iron Flame just came out and you know I gotta read that to see if that series is going to get any better.

If y'all have any actual Astarion recommendations, please send them my way :)

[meggoreads]

Meg Thinks: These Hollow Vows

I just finished THV last night after it's been on my TBR for a long time, and I have some thoughts!!

Names:

I didn't like that main characters name was Abriella (I kept wanting to pronounce it Arabella in my head) and also it sounds too close to Abra-Kadabrah

Also, Finnian should've just been Finnigan

Bash??? Call him Sebby like every other Stardew girlie

The fact that his name is actually Ronan and he has white hair (Rowan Whitethorn would like a word)

Underutilized:

Jasalyn was super underused for being the main driving force for the plot. I felt like Brie kept forgetting about her sister until it was important to keep her on her mission (I felt like we heard more about the absent mom than the sister)

Brie's abilities as a thief were also under-utilized. She was supposed to be stealing all of these artifacts, but she literally just asked to be handed one of them and then got caught stealing the second one. We should have got more scenes of her sneaking around the castle. Maybe stealing trinkets here and there and stockpiling in her room since her goal was to live as a human back with her sister?? I think that would have been more in character

Mordeus. He was supposed to be this scary villain, but we get like 3 scenes with him and then she just easily stabs him and he dies??? In an easily missed tacked-on sentence?

Predictability:

Brie, sweetheart, you are not the brightest crown in the kingdom. 'I asked the mirror to show me the crown and I only saw my reflection. Guess it doesn't work anymore??'

Sebastian and Suspicious both start with an 'S' for a reason

Like how did you not put together that he was after the crown when he was constantly pushy about the bond?? How he so easily forgave you for all the lies?? How he put a tracker on you before you even came to Faerie?? How he came into your life right after the 'protection' ended? BFFR Be fucking for real

Other:

The feelings between FinnxBrie make no sense. There wasn't entirely enough build-up (maybe book 2 expands on it more... I'm currently a few chapters in). There definitely should have been more conversations between the two.

Tired of the 'everyone immediately falls in the love with the FMC' trope

There should have been more scenes with Brie and the 'misfits' (Pethra, Jalek, Tynan, Kane, etc.) because it didn't make sense for her to feel this tight camaraderie with them with the amount of time she spent with them. Especially when they ignored her half the time

Brie's opinion of the bond changed too rapidly

Wish we got to see more of Queen Arya

Wish we got more scenes of magic use in general

Things I liked:

The 'crown' being a spiritual power that is passed on

The shadow magic ability

The fact that they were called Elvish because I'm tired of all these books about Elves calling them Fae all the time.

Overall:

It was a light and easy read, if not highly predictable. I think if I went in reading this immediately after ACOTAR, I wouldn't have liked it as much as it does feel like a carbon copy.

I'm partially through book 2 so far so I'm sure I will have more thoughts by then.