![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book reviews
May. 29th, 2022 03:21 pmZachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao
Genre: Middle grade, fantasy, sci-fi
So much fun! The comps "Percy Jackson meets Yu-Gi-Oh" are definitely accurate. And I learned a lot about Chinese historical legends I never knew.
My only complaint is that Xiran is better at writing first person POV than third person, and I do wish their third person narration was better; I often felt like my brain was bouncing off descriptions and actions and I would have to reread sentences multiple times.
Sadie On a Plate by Amanda Elliot
Genre: Adult, contemporary romance
Just when I was ready to give up on genre romance, I read this book and adored it.
I love a well-written cooking competition romance, and this book absolutely hit the spot. It's a bit light on the romance since it spends most of its time describing the cooking competition, but I definitely prefer that to the opposite situation. If I pick up a book about a cooking competition, I want to read about the damn cooking competition.
I loved Sadie's pride in her heritage and her determination to bring attention to Jewish cuisine. Just so much fun and a heartwarming read all around.
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Genre: Adult, historical, gothic
So...this book was interesting. It feels like the inverse of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's MEXICAN GOTHIC in certain ways: It's less of a slow-burn gothic horror and more fast-paced, focused more on the attempted exorcism of the haunted house and Beatriz's relationship with Andrés than the building dread of MEXICAN GOTHIC.
The prose was lush, but I felt like it occasionally became too melodramatic and tipped into the realm of purple prose. Especially when it kept describing Andrés's "darkness", which became hard to take seriously. I like the idea of different traditions of witchcraft, but why is European witchcraft inherently "darker"? There was no explanation given.
The "mystery" of the haunted house isn't much of a mystery, since we're abruptly given the answer near the end rather than following any kind of investigation. And people have said this book is about colorism and prejudice against indigenous peoples, but while those are certainly mentioned, I wouldn't say this is a book about those issues, not the same way MEXICAN GOTHIC was about racism and eugenics.
Genre: Middle grade, fantasy, sci-fi
So much fun! The comps "Percy Jackson meets Yu-Gi-Oh" are definitely accurate. And I learned a lot about Chinese historical legends I never knew.
My only complaint is that Xiran is better at writing first person POV than third person, and I do wish their third person narration was better; I often felt like my brain was bouncing off descriptions and actions and I would have to reread sentences multiple times.
Sadie On a Plate by Amanda Elliot
Genre: Adult, contemporary romance
Just when I was ready to give up on genre romance, I read this book and adored it.
I love a well-written cooking competition romance, and this book absolutely hit the spot. It's a bit light on the romance since it spends most of its time describing the cooking competition, but I definitely prefer that to the opposite situation. If I pick up a book about a cooking competition, I want to read about the damn cooking competition.
I loved Sadie's pride in her heritage and her determination to bring attention to Jewish cuisine. Just so much fun and a heartwarming read all around.
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Genre: Adult, historical, gothic
So...this book was interesting. It feels like the inverse of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's MEXICAN GOTHIC in certain ways: It's less of a slow-burn gothic horror and more fast-paced, focused more on the attempted exorcism of the haunted house and Beatriz's relationship with Andrés than the building dread of MEXICAN GOTHIC.
The prose was lush, but I felt like it occasionally became too melodramatic and tipped into the realm of purple prose. Especially when it kept describing Andrés's "darkness", which became hard to take seriously. I like the idea of different traditions of witchcraft, but why is European witchcraft inherently "darker"? There was no explanation given.
The "mystery" of the haunted house isn't much of a mystery, since we're abruptly given the answer near the end rather than following any kind of investigation. And people have said this book is about colorism and prejudice against indigenous peoples, but while those are certainly mentioned, I wouldn't say this is a book about those issues, not the same way MEXICAN GOTHIC was about racism and eugenics.
