Book Review

Nightlights Review + YALC Ramble

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I got this gorgeous colourful book from my birthday elf box (we do a birthday box like a secret santa) Tracey, and I was really happy.

This is the paperback version as there is a hardback one, but I am a paperback human through and through. The book is big and colourful and full of imagination.

It is like the perfect imagination box inside, and with a story about a little girl who prefers to doodle than do her homework or pay attention in class (I was the kind of person who needed to doodle to pay attention or she just couldn’t concentrate). And then she meets a new girl at school and she seems to like her drawings. But maybe it isn’t all good…

It has a creepy/scary element in it but it reminded me a little of the Book of Kells style of artwork (it isn’t the same I know) and type of story. Highly recommended as a story book and just to enjoy the artwork.

I am at YALC this weekend so hopefully if you are around you can find me (bright blue hair, cosplaying each day).

My short tip list is to:

  • Be kind. Your attittude will help you get the help you need.
  • Hydrate. It is hot and you are excited and you forget. A few of us “veterans” are well prepared, so reach out to us.
  • Eat. Snacks are the very least but there’s places to eat or bring your own food (again, find veterans who can help if in a pinch).
  • Do a recon of the area. I sometimes go a bit crazy and do everything the first day. Depending on which days you’re going, try to make it last as long as you’re there.
  • Don’t rush. Yes, there’s a lot to see and do, but you’ll enjoy it more if you take it easy rather than rushing around.
  • Sunday near closing time is when crazy offers happen (stock is too small to take home, etc). If the risk is not too big for you, it may be worth waiting. I snagged some wonderful deals on Sunday that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
  • Authors sometimes walk the area and will happily chat to you and sign books (not all of them, be polite when you approach them and don’t expect them to be at your beck and call, they’re humans too). So don’t over fret.
  • Divide and conquer. If you’ve got friends (or made queue friends) who can help you queue or get a ticket or something, ask. Most of us are a friendly bunch and diviing bits and asking for your highest priority and helping others get theirs is win win.

I could go on and on but there are other helpful guides around, so I’ll leave it there. I will be posting a selfie or some kind of picture of my costume each day so you can find me (I am very bad at names, so I forget, even if I recognise your face don’t take this badly). Be aware that at social gatherings I go on overdrive and I am talkative and overly extroverted (my Mexican side shows up). I am not trying to be annoying.

Hope you have lots of fun! 🙂

Book Review, Books

The Poppy War Review

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The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Keju, the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies, it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard, the most elite military school in Nikan, was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

This is a powerful brutal book and I freaking loved it.

Rin is a war orphan and well, she does her bes tot get a scholarship to a school to avoid getting married off to an old man just so her foster family can kinda get rid of her and “sell” her well (money talks). So she manages that and goes to military school.

The best thing about this book is that it has many of the things I love in general and in books. One of them is the whole “this happens in a school” (which is part of the first part and the second part of the book). There is also a lot of military, fighting and strategy information, which I love very much (we watch documentaries on tanks, on spies, on guns, on military strategy, on yeah… you get the gist I will stop here, the point is that reading her training made me very happy).

And then we have the bonus of weird magic that is powered by a mysterious thing (because spoilers, though I did guess what it was but nevermind) or drugs (while reading this I couldn’t help but feel like I was back in Mexico and also about Carlos Castañeda’s books). Lore is what they call it.

Now this is where I would like to discuss all the spoilers and all that stuff but I really shouldn’t. I have to say, only one of the twists surprised me. This usually means I enjoy the book a little less, but not for this one. It just made it good because it wasn’t the goal that meant it but rather the “how we got there” and it was a glorious brutal journey.

This is also a great example of how side characters aren’t there just for the sake of, and they all exist as individuals. Plus Rin is a little bit of a bad person and you hate her sometimes (you also love her at times) and this doesn’t make you want to throw the book at the wall and give up. My uttermost respects to Miss Kuang for pulling such an amazing story and giving it layer over layer of information. This also includes the historical nuance.

As a bit to know, there is self harm in it (burning), there is obviously a LOT of violence and gore, implied rape and dehumanization, amongst many other vile things (I can’t even remember them all) so this isn’t a fluffy light book. But despite all the hard stuff, it was an amazing read.

Book Review

Blog Tour: The Rage of Dragons

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How many dragons can I try to fit around the book, that aren’t more books? Not Enough!

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

Game of Thrones meets Gladiator in this debut epic fantasy about a world caught in an eternal war, and the young man who will become his people’s only hope for survival.

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

I don’t remember much about Gladiator, but I do about Game of Thrones. I didn’t like the books, the show was “better”. So I wasn’t too happy with comparing this to Game of Thrones, but it is a better book than Game of Thrones.

Why? The best way to describe this book is it is a man book ready to fight and to become a dragon. The writing is fast paced and you move from action to action, with very little “slow scenes” (and even those feel kinda fast, or at least, well paced, you never feel like you’re falling asleep reading this book).

Tau is an interesting hero. The first few chapters he seemed a bit bland to me and I prefered other characters, but as we we go from a wide focus (where Tau is and his surroundings) to a more specific focus (Tau and his quest for revenge), he becomes better defined.

I have to say, he is a flawed hero and that was interesting to read and sometimes frustrating. There were many times I was like “Why Tau, why?!”

On the not so good side is that this book contains a lot of battle gore. And despite the fact that the society is female centered with women being in power, we still get rape (which didn’t resonate with how important women are, nor how valuable having a Gifted is) and barely any woman. Most of the female characters are there to advance the plot for the man focused view. (A love interest, someone to be raped to show how horrendous the world is, and the prologue which is probably the best female character).

There is also the fact that the worldbuilding dunks you in and it takes a very long time to get used to this world. There are also elements of racism and “class” division. (Why are the hedeni so bad? It is THEIR land you’re trying to conquer, and they have Gifts too, more than the Chosen do).

I’d say this is a man book or one for those wanting a lot of battle action, lots of grunting and training, and not so many dragons (very disappointed because the title is all about Dragons).

Book Review

Teen Titans Raven Review

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Teen Titans Raven by Kami Garcia; Illustrated by Gabriel Picolo

When a tragic accident takes the life of 17-year-old Raven Roth’s foster mom–and Raven’s memory–she moves to New Orleans to recover and finish her senior year of high school.

Starting over isn’t easy. Raven remembers everyday stuff like how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can’t remember her favorite song or who she was before the accident. And when impossible things start happening, Raven begins to think it might even be better not to know who she was before.

But as she grows closer to her new friends, her foster sister, Max, and Tommy Torres, a guy who accepts her for who she is now, Raven has to decide if she’s ready to face what’s buried in the past…and the darkness building inside her.

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Let me start this by saying that when I heard Picolo was illustrating this book I knew I had to have it. Plus, I grew up watching Teen Titans on Cartoon Network so there was also that.

I’ve been following Picolo since he started his very first 365 doodle challenge (at the time I was in my third or fourth year of daily drawing challenge) on Deviantart (before I left, but I was already almost gone from there). And still follow him on social media. So yes, I really enjoy his art.

Which brings me to my rating. To be honest, the only reason this book gets 4 stars is because of the art. The story is bad.

Wait, what?! Yes, the story is bad. It is weak. This is Raven! And what we get is a poorly written story, something that feels amateur for comics (my personal take is that Kami knows how to write a novel/books, but that doesn’t mean it translates well to graphic novels). It tries SO hard to keep the suspense and make Raven even more mysterious than she is, while making her extra moody and annoyed, that you get annoyed at her and want to throw the book at a wall. (As per above, I didn’t throw it at a wall because the art is my jam).

I mean, if you go see Picolo’s instagram and stuff, there’s TONS of Teen Titans fanart. And those tell a better story than this book (in a single image, the whole “a picture is worth a thousand words” definitely applies here).

In summary, art carries the story which is weak and suffers from pacing, information delivery and “ohh mysterious mystery won’t tell you anything then info dump it on you at the end because I forgot there was all of this you needed to know for it to make sense” issues. I think Raven deserved more. And I want all of the Teen Titans illustrated by Picolo <3

Book Review

Skyward Review

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Informal review, because today’s my birthday. And I thought I’d review the earliest birthday gift I received this year, by a lovely twitter peep who granted me a birthday wish.

Skyward was fun to read, and it went by very quickly from a chirpy kinda thing to a more dramatic one. I did enjoy a lot the way humans adapt to the low gravity environment (I mean, there’s a lot of other things that wouldn’t work but not going into the nitty gritty, this is a comic).

There are many creaive ways of “moving” and of staying “grounded” rather than being blow away by a movement that would propel you out of the atmosphere. I guess the best way of describing it is having the same atronaut “space” feel but all here on Earth without the “oxygen tank and protection from stuff” problems real space has.

I enjoyed it a lot and it was a good thing to read on a day I was feeling sad and a bit in too much pain (I don’t talk to much about pain, but that’s a journey too long to say here). So thank you very much! I can’t wait to get the next volume!

As for my birthday baloon day, it’s going to just another day. Work, then I treated myself to an aerial sling class, then a haircut/dye.

What do I want from this next year? I want to strengthen my body slowly, to cope better with the causes of my pain (I can only manage it, not fix it). Do more art, I haven’t done much art this last year as I changed jobs and then planned a wedding (it takes SO much of your time). I also want another critter…

Book Review

You Can’t Hide Review

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You Can’t Hide by Sarah Mussi

When Lexi wakes up in the Hudson Medical Center, barely in one piece, she is unable to recall how she got there.

Nobody seems to be able to tell her.

Disturbing memories haunt her daylight hours. Nightmares stalk her sleep.
With huge unanswered questions, like where is her Mom – why doesn’t she visit? What’s happened to her boyfriend Finn – and who is this friend, Crystal, who visits her a lot and of whom she has no recollection? Lexi sets out to discover what’s happened.

But the more she searches for answers, the deeper and darker the mystery gets.

And as she begins to piece the fragments together, she remembers one thing: I MUST HIDE FROM CHARLIE.

But the question is: who is Charlie? And is he still out there?

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

I will start by saying that this book requires trigger warnings: domestic abuse, violence, sexual content, gaslighting and similar. (Also mentions amnesia due to an accident)

This review will include small spoilers (not the two main plot things) so decide to read ahead at your own peril.

This is a tough book. Lexi has woken up int he hospital and starts to try to write down to Finn about what is happening. She’s forgotten why she’s in an accident but one thing she hasn’t forgotten at all is that there is imminent danger and that she may not be safe even in the hospital.

To try to help herself recover those memories, she backtracks to the moment they arrived to the US from the UK after having fled from her abusive father (they being her and her mum). And throughout what Lexi writes of her memories after the exodus (as she titles it) we also get flashback scenes on things that happened when she was younger.

The flashbacks can be a little brutal, and many brought memories to my mind, so do be careful when reading this to be prepared (the book doesn’t throw stuff without building up to it). But it was well done, and as we unravel what is happening and what is true and what isn’t things aren’t as clear as they seem.

One of the things that reduced stars for me from this is that Lexi stalls and does a lot of descriptions. I understand this is because that’s probably what someone with amnesia might do as they are anchors. But it became boring and I would skip a lot of her “in the US” descriptions (you don’t miss much).

Probably the best part is her trying to be a stronger self, one that isn’t bullied and pushed like her mother and like herself when they lived int eh same house as her father. That was interesting as was the build up to how they escape, and the build up to what the danger is.

All in all, if you can and want to read this book, it is very brutal and very honest, and does a good picture of domestic violence (and why it is hard to leave, why you don’t see it until it is too late, etc).

Subscription Boxes

For Book Lovers Illumicrate Unboxing

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A double book Illumicrate, dedicated to books and the love of books, yes please of course I want it (I mean I know in general I like Illumicrate, but this one was so tempting). Let’s start with the contents on the top left corner and going clockwise (back to normal):

  • Birthday by Meredith Russo. You can kinda see the sprayed rainbow edges on the side (gorgeous). This book wasn’t really in my radar, so unsure what to expect.
  • For Book Lovers zine/booklet.
  • Underneath everything we have a Goddess of Reading Tapestry. I like it as a light blanket type of thing but wouldn’t hang it up. Maybe turn it into a curtain… I do wish it was mroe blanket type than a wall tapestry (why do book boxes think we have endless wall space?! We just DON’T!)
  • A sampler of The Paer & Hearts Society, which I read and it confirmed I wasn’t feeling the book, so I was glad to have it there.
  • The main book, This Time will be Different. I have been looking forward to this one for a very long time so I was really happy to see it included.
  • A TBR Jar, which is cute, but we already established that I have two TBR bookcases and several piles fo books strewn around the house, so this jar just won’t fit all my TBR in it (not even in tiny pieces of paper).
  • Part one of the Bookend, which is gorgeous. This is meant to be the Reality part and there’s a Fantasy side in the next box (looking forward to it and to compare). I will say that this is cute but I prefer the other bookends that came ina different book box.
  • Page tabs/flags. I never use them or if I do they get all crumpled and horrible so I get annoyed them.
  • The collectible coin, still NOT into them but whatever.
  • The book came in this cute booksleeve. Thoguh being a bit plasticky it isn’t as foldable, adaptable as the fabric ones but I like it.

All in all a nice box and kept a love of books at the top of it so I was happy with it.

Book Review

Henchgirl Review

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Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk

Mary Posa hates her job. She works long hours for little pay, no insurance, and worst of all, no respect. Her co-workers are jerks and her boss doesn’t appreciate her. He’s also a supervillain. And her parents… well, they’re the most famous superhero couple in Crepe City, along with her sister. Cursed with a conscience, Mary would give anything to be something other than a Henchgirl, but no matter what she does her plans always seem to go awry.

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

I borrowed this from Nikki 🙂 and it was a nice read for before bed time. It is a bit chaotic but funny and at times reminded me of Nimona.

Basically Mary is a little bit unlucky and is working as henchgirl for the villains in Crepe city btu doesn’t actually like it. As we move through the book, we learn more about why she’s doing that. That she thinks taxes are a great thing to be able to do (poor woman, she has no idea!) There are a lot of puns in the comic, starting with her being Mary Posa (mariposa, butterfly in Spanish) working for the Butterfly Gang.

There’s her room mates and Mannequin, plus her family and they all add a little bit of a different flavour. The story is left in a cliffhanger which was very confusing as halfway through it felt like it was getting to the end of an arc, and there was suddenly something thrown into it that “revived” the arc and didn’t let it gracefully end.

It was still enjoyable, and the art isn’t the most amazing art but it is cute and get the point, reminds em of the Sundays cartoons.

Books, Subscription Boxes

Witches in the Woods Book Box Club Unboxing

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Another one fo the few pictures I had where I was changing puzzles, so no nice background (now you see why I do puzzles to decorate my table? It’s so dull and sad). The theme for this box is an awesome one and the contents are lovely too. Starting on the top left corner and going counterclockwise (for a change):

  • Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan. A very atmospheric witchy read I am enjoying a lot.
  • Vegan caramel marshmallows. I love them. Probably too much as there are none left. Sad face. I need more.
  • A coaster for Sabrina the Teenage Witch (the Netflix version), I haven’t watched it but I like the coaster, it is very nice and quite flat.
  • A promotional postcard.
  • Clubhouse invite. I love that they are personalised. One of my favoruite things here.
  • Tangleweed and Brine, the second bonus book of this box! I love the blue in this edition.
  • Perfectly Preventable Deaths print. I am tempted to find a quote to write in the space inside the glass dome.
  • A herbal hand cream, with a citrusy scent and in a decent size (which means it will be used up rather than languish forever in my house).
  • Forbidden Forest mug, very cute. My only dislike is that it is an enamel mug and those I use a lot less as they get hot too quickly and can burn your hand unless you’re camping or somewhere super cold.
  • The theme card which is gorgeous and fits the theme beautifully.

All in all, a nice box, stuck to theme and feels magica and lovely.

Writing

Moon Writes: careful with the match

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gunpowder issue is at nine,
a reenactor knows that,
I can be Bob, James,
or if I’m happy trodding on
my skirts, I can be Ann.
(neither is my real name)

but you, palpitating vessel,
tell me, who you are.

is your passion fueled,
by those gray particles that
explode when caressed by
a playful spark?

worn by use bandoliers,
made of wood for safety,
wait for it to be inside the musket,
set it off with the match lock,
pull the trigger, watch it burn,
here comes the B A N G.

are there clouds inside of you,
trying to peek out from your eyes?
Or maybe the rain waters your soul,
helping those seeds of words grow?

did you know that the sound
of the gunshot is not as loud,
when you’re the one behind it?

smile, explosions of delight,
coming from deep inside,
don’t be afraid,
it’s just life…

Wrote this for a friend that was (we fizzled each to our own world just because life happens).