• Home
  • My Love is Vengeance
  • The Dictator’s Wife
  • The Cavaliers Series
    • Oxford Dining Societies
    • The English Civil War
    • Character Guide
    • Glossary
    • About Oxford
  • The Blog
  • The Author
  • Contact Georgiana / Mailing List

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

Tag Archives: book reviews

Review of Shadow and Bone

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

book reviews, shadow and bone

It’s just struck me that there’s been a pretty serious omission with my blog so far – a total lack of book reviews. That’s particularly surprising given that I read a lot and faithfully review every book I read on Amazon and Goodreads. In fact, I’m very nearly an Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer (I was 1087th last time I looked!)

I’ve therefore decided that it’s time to start adding my reviews to the blog – and this is a particularly timely decision given that I’ve just read a pretty strong contender for my book of the year: Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone.

There’s a weird feeling I get when I’ve really, really loved a book. The sort of feeling where every song you listen to and every bit of news you here reminds you of the story. The sort of feeling where you don’t want to read anything else for a while because you know it will only be a disappointment by comparison. The sort of feeling where you scour the internet for anything to do with the book and you desperately try to recommend it to all your friends and drop references to it in conversation.  Yes, that’s been my weekend.

There have been a lot of books I’ve enjoyed over the last year or two, but it’s been a long time since I’ve really felt like that. The last time was probably when I first read Game of Thrones, about four years ago now, but on the whole, it’s more something I associate with being a teenager, when my hormones were on a knife edge and I was easy prey for identifying with every heroine and falling in love with every hero.

Recently, I’ve found most supposed romantic heroes to be a bit of a turn off and most villains to be a bit “meh.”  I was almost scared that it would never happen again, that the weird, all-encompassing feeling of truly loving a book was something I’d grown out of – turns out, I’ve just not been reading the right books. Or perhaps more accurately, much like romantic love, it all comes down to chemistry, and finding the right one is very personal and requires a certain degree of luck.

My “official” reviews of  Shadow and Bone is below, and I’ll try to add my review of the sequel tomorrow. But while I would whole-heartedly recommend this to most readers, bear in mind that my review is not necessarily entirely objective, in much the same way that a “review” of my fiancé would say more about my feelings for him than it would his actual qualities. I promise that most of my reviews are a bit calmer and more balanced than this one, as you’ll hopefully see as I start to roll them out over the next couple of weeks.

SHADOW AND BONE

10194157

Blurb:

“The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?

Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.”

MY REVIEW – 5 Stars

The summary of this book made it sound as though it was about an ordinary girl with a unique power that could change the world, who finds herself torn between a dark mysterious figure and a faithful childhood friend. In short, it sounded like YA cliché central. On one level, that’s a pretty fair description of the plot, but if there’s one thing this book proves, it’s in the hands of the right author, the seemingly most overused plot devices can still seem original and pack a real emotional punch.

I expected to vaguely enjoy this book. In actuality, I utterly loved it. Unputdownable is an overused phrase, but I actually cancelled pre-planned Friday night drinks to stay in and finish it! It’s a long time since I’ve been so mentally engulfed in a novel. It’s difficult to say what made it stand out from the wide variety of broadly similar books that’s I’ve read and merely liked. Sometimes, a story just gels with a reader, and sometimes an author is just a brilliant storyteller, and I think both were true here.

If I tried to be more precise though, I’d say it was the following things that made it special for me:

The first was the setting, which was basically a fantasy version of Tsarist Russia. It’s great to see a fantasy novel use any model other than medieval England as it’s template, but I also thought that the glamour of the Russian court and the harshness of the landscape make for a great backdrop.

Secondly, the fantasy elements were well done: developed enough to give people who like to immerse themselves in another world a bit of a thrill, without being too overwhelmingly detailed for people who are mainly interested in the action and the romance.

The plot was nothing I hadn’t seen before and was in many ways quite straightforward, with only one or two really twisty moments, but it was very well done and left me desperate to find out what happened next and made me constantly veer between emotions. There were some cool concepts, such as a monster-filled strip of land where it’s always dark which cuts the country off from the sea, or the hierarchy and training methods of the Grisha, in effect a race of aristocratic sorcerers.

The real standout aspect, however, was the characters. Alina was an enjoyable heroine and easy to like – a good mix of ordinary but unique, powerful but weak. She did make a habit of doing exactly the wrong thing quite consistently, in an “I’m fleeing my enemies so I’m going to stop in a crowded town for food” sort of way, but I found that quite endearing. I think it’s pretty much what I’d end up doing. That said, there is one scene where she makes an utterly inexplicable decision which made me want to reach into the book and shake her. You’ll know exactly what I mean when you read it. The deer. That’s all I’m saying. Most of the supporting characters were pretty good too, though some of the Grisha and soldiers sometimes blurred into one.

Above all though, what I really loved was the Darkling, the leader of the Grisha, and the strength of his scenes with Alina. I’ve always had a soft spot for those characters that tread a fine line between dark love interest and antagonist, but since leaving my teens behind I’ve rarely developed a proper little book crush on one. The Darkling was the finest example I’ve seen in years and a new entry on my all time favourites list, making me intensely nervous and utterly seduced in every scene he appeared in. He’s the sort of character who makes a scene sexier by showing up and saying a few words than most characters manage in the most explicit sex scenes.

I’m launching straight into book two, at great risk to my social life over the next few days. If you remotely like this sort of book, I suggest you launch just as enthusiastically into book one.

***

This post is rapidly getting overlong, so I’ll leave the review of Book Two until tomorrow. One last comment though. As well as reading these two books back to back and then proceeding to seriously geek out over them, my weekend has also been a frenzy of trying to finish Ivory Towers. I can never decide whether reading a great book helps or hinders my own writing. On the one hand, it can provide great inspiration and remind you of why you wanted to write in the first place. On the other, it can be hard to drag yourself out of someone else’s world and back into the one you’ve created. The good news is that I think I broke my all time record for most writing in one weekend (apart from possibly one weekend during NaNoWriMo), but I’m not sure whether that’s in spite of or because of falling in love with these books. 

Top Ten Tuesdays – Books that were better or worse than I was expecting

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book reviews, top ten tuesday

It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly feature hosted by the blog, The Broke and the Bookish – http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.co.uk/

Each week they ask people to write a top ten list of something on a literary theme. This week it’s books that were better or worse than expected.

I don’t actually find that this is something that happens to me very often. I try to carefully pick out books I think I’m genuinely going to enjoy, and my radar tends to be quite accurate. I expect most books I read to be roughly three or four stars. In this list, however, I’ve got some that were better than expected and some that were worse. Almost all of them, in both categories, can be blamed on either recommendations by friends or having previously read something by the same author – and ultimately, on me massively judging books by their covers.

Note that better doesn’t necessarily mean “amazing” nor does “worse” mean awful. These are all based on my pre-conceptions versus my actual verdict. To make this clearer I’ve tried to give a rough estimation of what star rating I was expecting to give the book and what I actually gave it/would have given it if I’d written a review.

BETTER

1)The Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe (read 2008 – expected 2 stars, verdict 5 stars) and A Song of Ice and Fire – George RR Martin (read 2010 – expected 3 stars, verdict 5 stars)  – my then new boyfriend (now fiancé) said Urth of the New Sun was his favourite series of books. I like a touch of fantasy but from the cover and the blurb this looked like the proper hardcore variety – at best dull, at worst ultra-trashy (or should that be the otherway round?) Nonetheless, I decided to read all four books in an effort to impress him AND ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM. Absolute undoubted five stars. They have a fascinatingly complex plot, are written in beautiful language and are undoubtedly the most literary and post-modern genre novel I’ve ever read.

Dear man in sinister cape with massive sword - you are not filling me with confidence about the contents of this book

Dear man in sinister cape with massive sword – you are not filling me with confidence about the contents of this book

Despite this revelation  I was unconvinced about the merits of my boyfriend’s second favourite series, ASoIaF, but decided to give them a whirl and devoured the whole series back to back. Needless to say, I now unquestioningly listen to all his book recommendations.

2)Anno Dracula – Kim Newman (read 2012 – expected 2/3 stars, verdict 5 stars)- I had a conversation with a friend at work that basically went, “you write vampire books. You have to read this.” From the eighties front cover it looked like pulpy horror and it took me ages to actually get around to reading it, but it turned out to be a brilliantly researched piece of Victoriana by an expert in pop culture and vampire lore.

Seriously, this does not look like a good book

Seriously, this does not look like a good book

This is the new cover which would have left me much more enthusiastic from the outset

This is the new cover, which would have left me much more enthusiastic from the outset

3)Sparkles – Louise Bagshawe (read 2008 -expected 1 star, verdict 4 stars) – I don’t really do “Chick-lit.” I read this for one reason and one reason only – when I was on the Oxford Union committee, its author, Louise Bagshawe (Mensch) was coming to participate in a debate we were holding about Tory women. I’d mainly invited her because she’d been selected as a ministerial candidate, but thought it would be rude not to read one of her books.

I picked up the book, with its pink sparkly cover,  through gritted teeth, to the amusement of everyone who saw me with it. But it was actually great fun – obviously not great literature, but surprisingly well-plotted, with some wild twists and turns , and above all, absolutely addictive. When no one was looking, I read most of her other books in quick succession.

It's so very pink and sparkly

It’s so very pink and sparkly

4) The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (read 2011 – expected 1/2 stars, verdict 4 stars) – the more hyped-up this series became, the more I determined to avoid it. The premise didn’t really appeal and I generally find that supposed “must-read” books don’t live up to expectations. I finally cracked after a friend persuaded me. I’m not saying it became an all-time favourite or anything, just that I was expecting it to be awful and it was actually quite engaging.

5) Vampire Diaries 1 – LJ Smith (read 2000-ish – expected 2/3 stars, verdict 5 stars)- As a young teenager, I read LJ Smith’s Secret Circle. It was about witches and Greek mythology, two things that hugely appealed to me and I predictably loved it. I read the whole trilogy back to back and then desperately went looking for any other books by the same author. The only other series was described as “vampire romance.” I distinctly remember the way that neither term appealed – one sounded too scary, the other too sappy. But I’d love the Secret Circle so much that I forced myself to read them – and to this day I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed reading something to quite the extent I experienced that weekend.  Other books quickly replaced them in my favourites list and there are a lot of books I’d regard as objectively better, but for sheer love at the time there’s little competition. I spent most of the next two years reading any vampire romance I could get my hands on, but nothing ever quite hit the spot in the same way. It’s probably the only time a book hasn’t just changed my preconception of itself, but of an entire genre.

WORSE

1) Vampire Diaries 5-7 – LJ Smith(read 2011 – expected 4 stars, verdict 2 stars) Following on from the above, I was excited (if slightly nervous) to hear there was going to be a new trilogy, about twenty years after the first were published and ten years after I read them. The first was disappointing, the second was actually quite good but still massively below expectations and the third was a train wreck. If they’d been a different series by a different author, I could have dismissed them as a diverting but disappointing read, as it was I was actually left slightly traumatised. Perhaps the saddest thing was that there were the odd splashes of the old brilliance here and there.

2) Number 9 Dream – David Mitchell  ( read 2006 – expected 5 stars, verdict 3 stars) This wasn’t terrible, it’s just that I’ve loved ever other book by David Mitchell and this one just didn’t work for me. There were some good bits, but lots that was surreal, lots that was a bit dull and lots of extremely odd plot devices.

Not being as good as Cloud Atlas does not make you a bad book but I'm going to resent you for it anyway

Not being as good as Cloud Atlas does not make you a bad book but I’m going to resent you for it anyway

3)Anita Blake -Laurell K Hamilton (read 2009 – expected 4/5 stars, verdict 2 stars) Ever since I expressed an interest in vampire novels as a teenage and more so since I started writing them myself, everyone on the internet was telling me I should read these (albeit with some warning that they go rapidly downhill as the series goes on). They sounded great – vampires that were attractive and scary in equal measure, a strong heroine and lots of sexy scenes. And when I finally read the first book all of that was there, but somehow it just didn’t work for me at all. You know how sometimes you meet someone who is attractive and nice and you have loads in common with them but there’s just no chemistry – well, it was a bit like that.

4) A Visit From the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan (read 2010 – expected 5 stars, verdict 3 star) – with a Pulitzer Prize win and just the sort of multiple-perspectives and non-chronological narrative I like in a literary novel, plus a rock music theme, I was expecting to love this. Instead I just read it, vaguely enjoyed it and instantly forgot about it. Which is almost worse than hating a book.

5)The Blade Itself – Joe Abercrombie (2011, exp. 4/5, verdict DNF) and The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch (2012, exp 4/5, verdict 3)- I’m clubbing these together partly because I’m rapidly running out of entries, partly because everyone seems to mention them in the same breath and partly because  I had a similar problem with both books. Basically, I’d seen lots of people say “If you like Game of Thrones and/or Kingkiller Chronicles, you’ve got to read these.” I was expecting clever, modern, epic fantasy, but I found both of them quite predictable and clichéd.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with a bit of clichéd genre writing (says the girl who unashamedly has a vampire love triangle all over her books) but I couldn’t understand why everyone was claiming these books redefined the genre or were anything like the favourites they were being compared with.

The man with the big sword would have put me off had the other book not lulled me into a false sense of security

The man with the big sword would have put me off had the other book not lulled me into a false sense of security

Blogroll

  • Buy Oxford Blood at Amazon (US)
  • Buy The Cavaliers at Amazon (UK)
  • Buy The Cavaliers at Smashwords
  • Oxford's website
  • The secret behind my beautiful cover
Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers, #1)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Previously on the Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal…

  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Looking for something?

Recent news

  • My Love is Vengeance published
  • Sacrifice Night – An Extract from My Love is Vengeance
  • My Love is Vengeance – Kindle Scout
  • Dictator’s Wife Spinoff Story 3 – Julien
  • Dictator’s Wife Spin-off story Number Two: The Two Facts Everyone Knows About Me

Top Posts & Pages

  • Oxford Dining Societies
  • Contact Georgiana / Mailing List

Twitter Updates

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy