Tag: fantasy

Reviews

Dungeon Crawler Carl Review

by amyleighreads1 Comment on Dungeon Crawler Carl Review

LitRPG isn’t something I’ve ever really been into but this book completely surprised me.

A man. His ex-girlfriend’s cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Only a few dare venture inside. But once you’re in, you can’t get out. And what’s worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it’s game over. In this game, it’s not about your strength or your dexterity. It’s about your followers, your views. Your clout. It’s about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

I listened to the audiobook and I’m so glad I did. The narrator is hilarious, he reminded me of Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove. It totally elevated the experience. The banter between Carl and Princess Donut had me cackling way more than I expected. Their back and forth honestly made the whole book for me.

What I didn’t care as much for was the repetitiveness of the leveling up, stats, crawler “gifts”, all that stuff. That part kind of lost me and brought down the story a bit, but the characters and comedy more than made up for it. It’s not just funny either. There’s this one scene where they go out of their way to help some elderly residents, even though it puts them at risk, and that’s when I realised this book actually has a lot of heart too.

So even if LitRPG isn’t your thing, this book still might be. It’s wild, weird, unexpectedly touching, and genuinely funny. I gave the characters a solid five stars, emotional impact a four, and the rest sits around a three for me. But overall? Way better than I ever expected.

⭐️4/5 stars the audiobook for this was TOP TIER.. I highly recommend!!!

Book Lists

Another 5 Fav Fantasy Stand Alones

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Another 5 Fav Fantasy Stand Alones

I’ve missed this the last couple of years but around this time I usually post my 5 of my favourite fantasy stand-alone books that I read in the year previous. So I figured I had to get back into the swing of things and continue on and list another 5 more for you all!

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Reviews

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Witchcraft for Wayward Girls Review

In the sweltering summer of 1970, fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the Wellwood Home in Florida, a place where unwed mothers are sent to have their babies in secret before being forced to give them up for adoption. Isolated from the world, Fern finds herself among other girls in the same predicament—strong-willed Rose, who dreams of escaping to a commune with her child; determined Zinnia, who believes she’ll return home to marry her baby’s father; and delicate, silent Holly, whose pregnancy is shrouded in mystery. Under the strict rule of Miss Wellwood, the girls’ lives are tightly controlled, their pasts erased, and their futures decided for them. But when a librarian slips Fern a book on witchcraft, the girls begin to grasp a power they’ve never known. What starts as a glimmer of hope soon spirals into something darker, because power is never given freely—it comes at a cost, one that may be paid in blood.

Hendrix does a great job capturing the suffocating reality these girls faced, showing just how desperate they were to have a say in their own lives. The book’s horror elements (especially anything pregnancy-related) are intense and unsettling, so if that’s a sensitive topic for you, consider this a warning. The real horror, though, comes from the way these girls are treated, and that’s what makes the story hit hard.

That said, the pacing is a bit of a struggle. It takes a while for things to really get going, and even after the witchcraft elements kick in, the story moves in waves, some parts are gripping, while others drag. The characters are also hit or miss. Side characters like Rose and Zinnia bring some much-needed energy, but Fern, as the main character, feels pretty bland until the very end. There’s also the issue of how Black characters are written.. several moments feel tropey, and they’re mostly used to serve the white characters’ stories, which didn’t sit right with me.

By the end, the story ties itself together well, leaving you with plenty to think about. But the slow pacing, uneven character development, and the book’s own uncertainty about its message on witchcraft make it a bit of a mixed bag. If you’re into slow-burn horror with deeper themes, you might enjoy it, but if you’re looking for something fast-paced and witchcraft-heavy, this might not fully deliver.

⭐3/5 stars Not the best I’ve read from him but definitely not the worst.

Reviews

Chlorine Review

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Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life. But these are human concerns. The concerns of those confined to land. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Stories that called sailors to their doom. Stories that dragged them down and drowned them. Stories of the creature that she’s always longed to become: a mermaid. Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine – the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

I enjoyed Ren’s character for the majority of the book however, she does become more and more unlikeable as the plot progresses. I think it’s mostly to do with her slow descent into madness and her lack of empathy and awareness of the feelings of those around her. She was so mean and nasty to Cathy throughout the book and it was very unwarranted I feel. Cathy continuously shows up for Ren and the couple of times where the peer pressure was too great for the both of them Ren blames Cathy for not speaking up more.

The pacing of this book wasn’t really consistent for me. There are times where Ren is on the go and then it slows down and we’re going around in circles a lot of the time. This is a pretty short book in terms of pages but it felt like kind of a slog to get thorough which made me a bit hesitant to pick it back up at times.

This book had a lot of potential. I can see how some of the themes in here can really relate to a lot of young people, especially those that are still in high school but I’ve realised whilst reading this book that coming of age stories aren’t my favourite thing to read any more. I don’t really have the patience to sit through hundreds of pages of young people making obvious and unnecessary mistakes over and over and not really take accountability.

⭐️3/5 stars fell a bit flat for me

Reviews

Gild Review

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*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck. Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.

Auren definitely has some form of Stockholm syndrome because King Midas really has done a number on her. I can understand her being happy as his favoured one had she been fully aware and ‘in’ on everything that King Midas was doing. But as the story has unfolded and she’s found out there is a whole lot of information that she hasn’t been made privvy to she has to realise that she can’t keep living like this. I have a feeling she isn’t going to happily go back to her cage after everything now.

All the men that have been introduced so far in this series are all quite horrible. Not only to Auren but the other saddles and women as well. Even the guard who she befriends on the trip is still more loyal to Midas than he is to Auren. I can’t see how any of them can be redeemed as far as I’m concerned so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series play out.

Being first a self published romantasy book I feel as though Raven Kennedy was gearing the book towards those types of readers. At the time reading this I wasn’t personally offended by the language or any of the abusive scenes that take place but I can definitely see how a lot of people would. Be that as it may I was still very engaged and intrigued by the plot of this book, I finished it in basically one sitting. It was a slower start but the pace definitely picked up the story progressed and there was definitely plenty of twists and turns that were quite entertaining.

⭐️3/5 stars quite an addictive read