Rea K > Recent Status Updates

May or may not finish. I've been listening to Brandon Sanderson's sci-fi and fantasy class (from 2020) on YouTube and I think what's not doing it for me is that I was promised a story that was taking place in India with adventure and excitement and mystery. Or so I thought. And I got the most boring travelogue imaginable. There's also a distinct lack of progress because the love interests keep doing nothing.

I told one of my coworkers that I could read this in a week. So. Challenge begun.

This is such nice easy reading that now I remember how I used to knock out multiple 500+ page books a year.

I'm 18% in and I'm just not feeling it. Is it the story? Maybe. Maybe it's just me expecting too much, but it's rather flat so far. But the cover is pretty.

Me: *raises arm above head* Plothole! (About a a thing I remember and a thing I already read)

Alright. It is *time* to do the re-read. I completely understand that Paolini was fifteen when this was published. I was thirteen when I read it and named a cat after the main character. I think I've only read this book twice, the last time being in high school. I'm going to do this.

It's like it's trying to be little women, but it's trying too hard. (I mean. Like. Regency little women.) The narration style is 3rd person all over the place where we see one person worried for the next person, but then the next sentence is in a different person's perspective (you've definitely seen it before. It flips and flops like a fish out of water.
I'm *trying,* my dudes. I'm *trying.*

*stares at pages* Like. It's not the *worst* thing I've ever read, but, like, this is a bit of a struggle.

🤭 cue me all excited about cress and thorne and jacin. *pretty sure we meet winter soon and I'm ready to squee*

I'm honestly not sure if I like the characters, their voices, or the narration style. Going to keep on trying it, but something just seems... off.

Hi, Sadie is as dumb as a board. That is my take on this.
*buries face in hands* only 50 more minutes. Only like 29% left. I can do this.

*jumps around squeaking "I ship it! I ship it"*

It's not a reread of howl's moving castle if I'm not comparing myself and people in my life to the characters. Currently I am Sophie.

Turns out that all I had to do to get this ebook from the library was to move across the country and join a new library.

Either my personal cursing is a hell of a lot worse than this book's or some Amazon reviewers are just ultra-sensitive, because I, personally, have dropped more f-bombs in a single sentence than I've seen in the entire first portion of this book.

Okay. For real, the fact that this series intertwines with the previous two series (just like the last series intertwined with the first) makes me so happy and so wanting to reread those series as well.

*cringes* like. I know *we* know who these people are, but *he* doesn't. You need to introduce them properly, not just pretend it happened while you weren't in the story.

Haven't much cared for Jen Turano's writing in recent years, but she's got a story in the book. About which I just said "this story is a hot mess." Because it is a hot mess, like all previous stories by the author in my opinion, but I am determined to give it a go.

Since the stories aren't in chronological order, I've decided to flip through and read them in chronological order.

I'm 194 pages in and I still am trying to figure out where the whole "mystery" aspect comes in. And half the portion of the back cover synopsis.
Was *not* expecting multiple perspectives either.

I think my biggest problem with this book is how uneven it feels. Previously in the three Alexandra Moody books I've read, it was more evenly distributed to alternating chapters by the two mc's. Here it just feels like we are always in Ally's head and I don't even like her that much. And The Plan is stupid.

Page 1: "I hate this boy. Why is he so mean to me all the time?" Because he's obviously madly in love with you.
Real life: "I hate this boy? Why is he so mean to me?" Because he's an asshole.

Literally screaming "he's a dick! He's a dick!" Yeahhhhhh... I'm slightly invested in this book.