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QuinoaQueen

QuinoaQueen@bookwyrm.social

Joined 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Actively moving from Goodreads, hopefully more people start using this site. :) My star ratings are: 1 - did not like, 2 - it was ok, 3 - liked it, 4 - really liked it, 5 - loved it A three star book is still a good book!

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QuinoaQueen's books

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Success! QuinoaQueen has read 13 of 12 books.

Adrienne Young: Spells for Forgetting (2022, Random House Publishing Group) 3 stars

So...Slow?

2 stars

There wasn't a lot of substance in this book until the final 10%. Other readers have said that they'd reread for the cozy fall vibes, and it is very slice of life, but I wish we learned more about the island and community for those slice of life moments. When the island of Saoirse became a narrator, it made me wish we had more of it's point of view, as a primary aspect of the story's narration is in regard to how much the island is its own separate entity and controls the magic, and the people of Saoirse as an extension.

The plot itself was interesting enough. I didn't think that the characters were very interesting, though Emery got more characterization near the end of the story as more past events were revealed. I was surprised by the ending, the twist that I had guessed (view spoiler) was flipped, …

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Susanna Clarke: Piranesi (2020, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc) 4 stars

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building; its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls …

Magical

5 stars

I loved this one!

It's the story of "Piranesi", as written in his diary. Piranesi lives in a place he calls the house, which is filled with halls and rooms, no two of which are the same, and with statues all over the place. There are clouds in the upper level of the house, and water in the lower levels, water which sometimes floods the middle levels. As far as Piranesi knows, he has alwas lived in the house, and the only other person we meet is the Other, who meets with Piranesi once a week, but who's whereabouts the rest of the time are unknown.

The quickly suspects things are not quite as Piranesi describes them, and the rest of the plot consists of Piranesi finding his place in the world again.

I loved the prose and the setting of this one, and there were a number of callouts …

Susanna Clarke: Piranesi (Paperback, 2020, Bloomsbury Publishing) 4 stars

From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an …

Intrigue! Mystery! Other worlds!

4 stars

This book started off strange and developed into a lovely mystery that I had fun unraveling alongside the narrator.

Susanna Clarke uses her descriptions of the narrator's environment to the fullest degree. What at first I found a confusing place was clear once the narration started. Piranesi is such an interesting character, and his voice in this book is unlike most others I've read.

4/5. This book is so creative, intriguing, and only the very beginning was hard to understand. I've never read a book like Piranesi, but I hope to find many more.

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Brom: Slewfoot (Hardcover, 2021, Tor Nightfire) 4 stars

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – …

Review of 'Slewfoot' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Abitha is trying her best to fit in to this strange new world, America where she is wedded to a man she never knew until her father sold her off from England. Though not necessarily in love with her new husband there is an affection there, and she does what she can to be a good wife. Her husband's brother is a selfish and greedy man while her husband is often too meek to stand up to him. The villagers are Puritans, and are more realistically portrayed in this work of historical fiction than in the actual history book I was made to study as a child. They are not people who believe in religious freedom, they are my way or the highway kind of people who would sooner shackle you and stone you than let you get away with being 2 minutes late for a sermon, and heaven help …

Brom: Slewfoot (Hardcover, 2021, Tor Nightfire) 4 stars

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – …

This was a Good One

2 stars

Be sure to check trigger warnings before reading this book!

I really like Slewfoot. It’s my first Brom book, but definitely made me want to read more.

Slewfoot is about a woman brought to a Puritan colony in America after being sold as a wife to one of the men there. While Abitha and her husband live outside the colony, they still go to church and are beholden to the morals of the townsfolk there. Abitha pokes at the Puritan religion through the entire book, and I feel it would have been more believable if there were another woman that also had doubts about their religion.

The book started out very slice-of-life, with a dash of horrific imagery and magic here and there. I really liked the magical aspects of this book. The combination of pagan and Christian morals was interesting. I also really liked how the magic was universal, …

Ava Reid: A Study in Drowning (Hardcover, 2023, Del Rey) 4 stars

Effy has always believed in fairy tales. She's had no choice. Since childhood, she's been …

My Heart. My Soul. :(

3 stars

TW: Mentions SA

This is the first book by Ava Reid that I've actually enjoyed. While some of what I didn't like from her other works (cough The Wolf and the Woodsman cough) were still present (mainly repetitive prose and weird similes, though after the 60% mark it mostly went away) I ended up really liking the final messaging of the book.

There are consistent metaphors focusing on water, most of which I found incredibly relatable when they referenced Effy's assault. (When they didn't, it felt annoying) Effy's rage paired with how she feels like she's 'drowning' during those periods, feeling like she'll see her assaulter just around the next corner, wow. Though the prose stayed simple for the most part, with patterns to the text in the beginning that were a little bit annoying, I still think the message of female empowerment and overcoming odds that feel …

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