Jazel L. Faith (Author of Fighting For Hope)

Jazel Faith rated a book really liked it Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
word, this is phenomenal. but in the way of feeling more than understanding. there are too many things i don’t know about the world yet, things i should know, but dont. so these references to the real world, i recognise so little of it. i admit that. ...more
Jan 11, 2026 12:27AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith and 6997 other people liked saffiyah✧ఌ's review of Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1): "an editor! an editor! my kingdom for a fcking editor! (no kingdoms were harmed in the making of this review) ˚✩ ⋆｡˚ ✩ i am what some sexist pigs would call a basic btch. if you give me a tall, dark-haired, sarcastic, morally-grey guy in a romantasy th" Read more of this review »
Jan 04, 2026 05:17AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Powerless by Lauren Roberts. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Powerless by Lauren Roberts <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith rated a book liked it Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1) by Lauren Roberts (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
(3.5) Powerless is a mound of tropes and cliches. There’re pros and cons to this: it’s terrifyingly easy to swallow in one mouthful (which basically translates to a one-sitting read, a singular 12-hour saturday to get it done and dusted). On the othe ...more
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Jazel Faith rated a book really liked it I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
(3.5) The amount of times I repeated You’re so irritating and That’s so cute were pretty much on par (maybe slightly more on the former), pingponging from one to the other. There were aspects that I felt were severely lacking, things mentioned but sh ...more
Dec 31, 2025 11:51PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith rated a book liked it I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
rtc (if i remember), but i’ll just ramble for a bit. the storytelling ties, the story was reasonable in the way it flowed from start to finish without a hitch. eg. the shooting star appears coincidentally on time, start and end (though, there’s no ot ...more
Dec 31, 2025 11:51PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith rated a book really liked it The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
i feel like i should be writing something incredibly thought-provoking and full of speculative depth after a book as highly discussed and appreciated as this but throughout the reading, i primarily felt this mild interest and thought wow i like how t ...more
Dec 28, 2025 02:33AM · like · see review
Jazel Faith and 32 other people liked Teresa González's review of Kiss of the Basilisk (Split or Swallow, #1): This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Nov 18, 2025 06:42AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith rated a book did not like it Kiss of the Basilisk (Split or Swallow, #1) by Lindsay Straube	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
i read 50% of this book, and that is a feat so large i can barely believe it. i have notes and no time to write it today but i shall soon. people on tiktok were going on about how fun and wild this book was, and i thought snake x human? how fun! or s ...more
Nov 18, 2025 06:02AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jazel Faith rated a book it was amazing Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Speechless. This book is crafted with more skill than I can pray to have. It’s riveting, it’s everything. This packaged and consolidated envy into words that is so masterly that I too feel that vinegary-sour panic like a tapeworm in my gut. June is m ...more
Oct 29, 2025 06:52AM · like · see review

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word, this is phenomenal. but in the way of feeling more than understanding. there are too many things i don’t know about the world yet, things i should know, but dont. so these references to the real world, i recognise so little of it. i admit that. ...more

Jazel Faith and 6997 other people liked saffiyah✧ఌ's review of Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1):

"an editor! an editor! my kingdom for a f*cking editor!

(no kingdoms were harmed in the making of this review)

˚✩ ⋆｡˚ ✩

i am what some sexist pigs would call a basic b*tch. if you give me a tall, dark-haired, sarcastic, morally-grey guy in a romantasy th" Read more of this review »

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Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)
by Lauren Roberts (Goodreads Author)

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(3.5) Powerless is a mound of tropes and cliches. There’re pros and cons to this: it’s terrifyingly easy to swallow in one mouthful (which basically translates to a one-sitting read, a singular 12-hour saturday to get it done and dusted). On the othe (3.5) Powerless is a mound of tropes and cliches. There’re pros and cons to this: it’s terrifyingly easy to swallow in one mouthful (which basically translates to a one-sitting read, a singular 12-hour saturday to get it done and dusted). On the other hand, it’s frustrating. To know nothing would be different, to know it is a regurgitation of identical scenes nabbed from scenes I’ve already experienced. But I knew what I signed up for. I had an inkling that the above would be in the review when I was given this book. The thing is though, I love cliches and tropes. Issue lies in… (and this will be an exaggeration but imagine this comment toned down by a quarter) how the tropes feel like one-shots featuring distantly acquainted characters. As if every scene is just building out to reach the next type of popular course of action—thieving, alleyway fight, knife to the throat, ballroom, Hunger Game trials, huddling for warmth, “who did this to you”, “what have you done to me” x1727 times, joining a rebellion, swindling two princes with nothing but attitude, hating for the sake of hating, ending with a betrayal.

I’m baffled that Paedyn didn’t explode in a type of never-seen-before-darkness-shrouded-moonlight-goddess power that just ripened too late, which everyone gawks at. Following that, Kai will be beaming proudly, before deftly borrowing it so they can defeat a common enemy. It goes against the point of the book, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Writing-wise—I’m currently the same age the author was when she wrote Powerless, and in previous years have written versions of it. Incredibly fun to write, but shelved precisely because it was too typical of YA fantasy. It is this hyper-awareness of certain repeated phrases, tropes and cocky-bastardness that makes everything a pinch irritating, and yet bittersweet. A book like this managed to make it, even in the saturation of YA fantasy! It was calm, not a single word to scour on the internet for some vocabulary expansion. A few lines didn’t make sense here and there, and it was overall a fluffy read to remind me of books from my past. When Kai looks up into the rainfall wistfully at the sound of his name, I thought Hi Aaron! When Kitt and Kai both fell for Paedyn, well, there’re many princes there I said hello to.

Character-wise is where things dwindled. The characters were so black-and-white, senseless at times. Ace was nakedly “bad” and dislikeable, for example. Blair as well. Kai is a little too nakedly good. I wish I could say he was morally grey, but killing and torturing (as he very kindly reminds us is his occupation every five lines in his chapters) in his position is so… so normalised in this sort of book, it’s lost its morally grey tag. Kitt is just nonsensical. You know your brother likes this girl, knew it from the get-go. And you still blatantly chase her. Code broken, I dislike him. And back to Kai, he’s nonsensical because he’s so unserious about his duty, despite drilling it into the reader’s brain every two minutes. It’s an upsetting character contradiction. The trials are literally (the amount of times this word is used in the book…) designed for him, and he just… doesn’t want to win. He’s not even trying! At all! He doesn’t outwardly say anything against the trial, so it would make sense for him to at least try. But no, he’s playing about. Paedyn… her saving Kai needed more justifiable substance, I think. That whole father thing doesn’t cut it.

Romance-wise, it’s so love at first sight. Gosh, they weren’t enemies once. It’s not slow-burn, it’s slow-action. The love is already there.

Also, a quick Adena mention, I liked her a lot! The book’s silver savour. Though, despite all the above notes, as I said, it was a quick read. A mindless, fluffy, familiar, quick read. And I’m never tired of cocky bastards with looks to match their arrogance, so I did in fact fall for Malakai Azer.

Ps. This likely doesn’t happen in the trilogy’s future, but as I’m reading about Kai duplicating Sadie’s (another useless character that could’ve had a little personality. Also, Blair just didn’t gaf about her. At least give Blair some empathy so she can be a little real) cloning ability, I was thinking my god, a tensome with ten Kais!!! You already set up the world, might as well set up some groundbreaking smut. ...more

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I Hope This Doesn't Find You
by Ann Liang (Goodreads Author)

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(3.5) The amount of times I repeated You’re so irritating and That’s so cute were pretty much on par (maybe slightly more on the former), pingponging from one to the other.

There were aspects that I felt were severely lacking, things mentioned but sh (3.5) The amount of times I repeated You’re so irritating and That’s so cute were pretty much on par (maybe slightly more on the former), pingponging from one to the other.

There were aspects that I felt were severely lacking, things mentioned but shriveled in vain later on in the story. For example, two times, the plot point of “owing” was brought up. Sufficient attention was allotted to it to suggest that there will definitely be a callback, with Julian saying something along the lines of if he thought about something Sadie could’ve done to make up for what she did, he’d say it later on. No callback. The foundation was set and never visited again, and it happened twice!

Then there are the more mundane contradictions that, though small, did play a role in transporting me out of the story. Things like Sadie saying that she finished all a week before the deadline, as part of her “self-deadline”, then later saying she had to finish work for the next day’s deadline (shouldn’t it already be finished?). Her character is so rigorously centered on her affinity for scholarly performance (which I understand, because same, but hers was slightly overdone), and it stole away from personality traits that are more permanent. Things that could’ve been explored to at least assure the longevity of her and Julian’s relationship. I know they’re teens in this book, but as with every love story, it feels more fulfilling if there’s something more stable that ties them together (isn’t that why so many epilogues end with proposals or marriage or children?). As a data analyst, Sadie doesn’t have to study or play sports or like a student anymore. Does this mean she’ll be a raging workaholic? But she works to secure a future, not for the “passion of it all”. How will their relationship sustain if all her current studious personality traits are wiped, what dynamic would she have with Julian? Their romance would be so much stronger if both of them were written with more permanent traits that could give a mild sense of what their future would be like.

Then there’s the plot points, which I appreciate but also sometimes groan at, because convenience is the backbone of the story. So many cliches—-truth or dare to finally establish their first kiss? An accidental hearing confession? The thing is though (slightly deviating from the topic), I’ve just got done with Handmaid’s Tale which was a heavy, long-winded read so this was overall such a simple, fun story in comparison. Exactly what I needed. So the cliches are very welcome and enjoyed. But I can see myself, in another situation, tiring out because of them. In the meantime, though, the predictability of the storyline was calming.

Now, about Julian and Sadie. God, they’re so irritating LOL But at the same time, I don’t know, it’s quite nice to have a school-set enemies-to-lovers that isn’t the boy seeming to hate the girl (but it’s all accidental looks of hatred), and the girl hating the fact that the boy seems to hate her. Julian and Sadie genuinely seem to dislike each other at the start, which surprised and discomforted and pleased me. I don’t quite understand the point during which Julian truly started liking Sadie, though, since there never was a fair reason to like her (maybe the part when he saw her polyester clothes soaked through?) but that makes no sense because he immediately fled to punch Danny for her afterwards. But before that? No sign. Their relationship boiling down to convenience to satisfy the plot is… not the best, but maybe I missed something. Also he talks funny. Unnatural.

Ok the thing about Sadie that makes my eyes twitch is she keeps saying she’s going to choke (oh god, flashback to the email, the second-hand embarrassment of the thought of the school reading that is bad) and kill and murder Julian, but God! She never does anything! That one kick was so tame, and of no consequence. Not saying she should, but if you aren’t going to at least try to choke the guy, stop giving me false hope!

But all these aside, as I mentioned, this was an easy, fun book. Consumed it whole in two days, was practically ravenous. Rolled my eyes constantly but then physically couldn’t part with the book. Made me laugh, elicited self-conversation. Plus, Julian and Sadie were genuinely adorable at times. When they had their fight at the bike shed, so, so, so cute. And that very last email Julian sent to her, so cute! And when Julian ran that race for her. Cute!!

Also, I love her name. Sadie Wen. Sadie. So good. ...more

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I Am Not Jessica Chen
by Ann Liang (Goodreads Author)

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rtc (if i remember), but i’ll just ramble for a bit. the storytelling ties, the story was reasonable in the way it flowed from start to finish without a hitch. eg. the shooting star appears coincidentally on time, start and end (though, there’s no ot ...more

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The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

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i feel like i should be writing something incredibly thought-provoking and full of speculative depth after a book as highly discussed and appreciated as this but throughout the reading, i primarily felt this mild interest and thought wow i like how t ...more

Jazel Faith and 32 other people liked Teresa González's review of Kiss of the Basilisk (Split or Swallow, #1):

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Kiss of the Basilisk (Split or Swallow, #1)
by Lindsay Straube

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i read 50% of this book, and that is a feat so large i can barely believe it. i have notes and no time to write it today but i shall soon. people on tiktok were going on about how fun and wild this book was, and i thought snake x human? how fun! or s i read 50% of this book, and that is a feat so large i can barely believe it. i have notes and no time to write it today but i shall soon. people on tiktok were going on about how fun and wild this book was, and i thought snake x human? how fun! or so i thought. instead i was stuck, absolutely fuming at a system that is so against women that i feel somehow implicated like ive betrayed a thousand years of women in my ancestry line just by reading bc i trusted some person on tiktok and didnt read the blurb. a book that portrayed woman as a vile toy with nonexistent self-respect. and ive read no self-respect done right, in a playful way that still managed to equalise two people in a relationship. this was no self-respect done in such a nakedly poor way. what do you MEAN she was begging for him to take the pain away because her human body was literally breaking apart and she just had to satisfy him. what do you mean her pelvis LITERALLY broke and her hipbone snapped in the middle of a tradition where hundreds were watching her be some toy for a man to prove her worth??? nonono. this book was written horrendously, too long, no chemistry, nowhere close to dark romance. there’s no fun in the smut, no wildness. it’s also all so horridly cliche and just so old… i think i read exact replicas of every single smut scene nine years ago. and during that scene she had to fuck his dad, i was thinking alright maybe this book can redeem itself to half a star out of 5 with some sprinkle of humour. nope, another cliche scene, just a normal ride. what the hell you could’ve at least done SOMETHING remotely interesting. ugh. the mechanics of everything is so cheap as well. the eliminations (eugh), a PODIUM to rank women? cheering for the best girl??? yeah, the main problem is definitely the society. and if it was done satirically, maybe it’ll be aok but nope. i said i had no time but ive just angrily splurged. so well this is it. this was bad. ive never read a character (targetted at tem) so disloyal to their own characteristics. she is a wholly different person around each man, a wholly different person in her own narration to herself, and her way of speaking and acting switches even with the same person. essentially, the writing makes her nonsensical… and don’t even get me started on the unreasonability of everything else. you’re saying a century+ old sex god snake prince who has fucked probably a million people and snakes alike looked at a random highly self-conscious virgin and immediately came from the sheer lust of it? you don’t even explain what makes her special, she’s forced to be it only because the book is about her. i’m so UGHHH DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE LACK OF ROMANCE there’s none!!! none at all. it’s just bad lust. ...more

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Yellowface
by R.F. Kuang (Goodreads Author)

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Speechless. This book is crafted with more skill than I can pray to have. It’s riveting, it’s everything. This packaged and consolidated envy into words that is so masterly that I too feel that vinegary-sour panic like a tapeworm in my gut. June is m ...more

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