Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.77 stars Content Rating: R for violence, drugs, alcohol and sexual content Trigger Warnings: Forced marriage, animal death, drug use/addiction, kidnapping. The elves come for two things: war and wives. In both cases, they come for death. Three-thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella's village to be their Human Queen. To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark nineteen-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she's dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town's only healer. That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives... for her. Everything Luella had thought she'd known about her life, and herself, was a lie. Taken to a land filled with wild magic, Luella is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet blisteringly handsome Elf King. Once there, she learns about a dying world that only she can save. The magical land of Midscape pulls on one corner of her heart, her home and people tug on another... but what will truly break her is a passion she never wanted. (goodreads.com) You might be looking at the cover of this book and raising a judgemental eyebrow in my direction. Particularly if you’ve read my reviews before and you know I don’t like sexual content in my books. And yes, that cover does look rather suggestive, but in my defense, lots of people were saying this book has very little “spice” in it and that it is a YA book. Having now read it, I can safely say that if this is mild on the spicy scale then I should probably stay far, far away from anything people consider steamier than this. One thing that I will say is that, the majorly amorous parts of this book were at least contained to Chapter 31 for the most part (and a few scenes after that weren’t quite as spicy, but still out of my comfort zone) with nothing important to the plot tied up in the descriptions as far as I could tell. So you could just skip Chapter 31 and skim the other parts if you wanted to and not miss any necessary information. Which I appreciate! There’s nothing that annoys me quite like there being a sex scene in a book that also includes vital information for the rest of the plot. If there has to be sex in a book, I prefer it to be possible to opt out of reading it without losing the thread of the part of the story I actually care about. Now that we have that discussion out of the way, let’s talk about the rest of the book, shall we? Overall, I liked it fairly well. The characters were, for the most part, likable, and the plot was intriguing enough to keep me reading through the bits that weren’t for me. The writing style was sort of strange (we’ll get into that in a minute), but easily overlooked. The world building could have been better, but for a book that’s main focus was a love story, I think it achieved its purpose. As I said, the writing was a little odd. There were some words that didn’t seem to fit into the flow of medieval-inspired fantasy land, like “yeah” and “heck” (I really did find it hilarious to read someone in an adult book say “what the heck” though and it definitely gave me the confidence to do the same with my own writing). It also seemed to go back and forth between more formal writing and super casual, which was jarring at some points, but didn’t hinder my enjoyment. There were also a few instances in which the sentence structure seemed a tad off (though who am I to call someone out for that) and I would take a moment mentally rearranging the words to correct it. Again, this didn’t really top me from easily reading the book, it just snagged my attention from time to time. I would like to take a brief moment to applaud the author for using the terms “Your Majesty” and “Your Highness” correctly. Goodness gracious, it was incredibly refreshing to have the king and queen be referred to as “majesty” and the prince as “highness”. Some writers use them interchangeably and it drives me crazy. Let’s talk about characters. Luella, the MC of the story, was actually pretty fun. I liked her more than I thought I would. She was interesting, with her own goals and abilities. She was also, for the most part, smart and reasonable. Plus, she was an herbalist healer and I can’t recall any other main characters that I’ve read with that profession. King Eldas, the titular Elf King, was almost exactly how I expected him to be. He was protective, foreboding, and grudging but with a soft side for Luella. However, I can’t help but find it funny when the reader finds out that he has basically been secluded in a castle his whole life. Generally, when I come across a dark, fierce, brooding love interest, he’s got some life experience under his belt. He’s been to places, done things, acquired scars both mentally and physically. You may never know how many people a Dark Brooding Boy ™ may have killed or maimed because his past is complicated. Eldas’ first time really leaving the castle, it is revealed, is when he goes to pick up Luella at the beginning of the book. This means, since she’s been to an academy, Luella has probably traveled more places than Eldas. She’s probably done more things, met more people, experienced life more. And one of the reasons I find this funny (morbidly funny) is because Eldas, when we first meet him, really wants to use his magic to tear this one guy limb from limb. And then, toward the middle of the book, but still nearer to the beginning, he actually does dismember a dude. And since he’s rarely left the castle up to this point, all I can imagine is that he has never killed anyone before (I can’t remember if he says otherwise in the book or not), but he knows the kind of guy he’s trying to be would definitely kill people. It’s like he’s so committed to his aesthetic that he just dearly wants to murder people to live up to it. We don’t get to read any of his inner dialogue but my headcanon is that it went something like this after he ripped apart a dude: Yes! Finally! Oh my gosh… that’s a lot of blood. I might be sick. No! No Eldas, stand majestically. Hold Luella. She is so impressed with me right now I bet. I just saved her from this guy and then dramatically punished him for his crime. And I managed to say something awesome! Heck yeah, this is fantastic. Okay, okay, I’m just goofing off now. Back to the review.
The side characters were nice. I liked that Luella had friends in the castle and that she spent time with people other than Eldas. I won’t say much because of spoilers, but I liked how things turned out with Prince Harrow too, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was certainly refreshing as far as plots involving wild, wicked brothers go. Before I wrap this up, here are a few other bullet points of my thoughts on the book:
While this book and its spice were not a great fit for me, I can totally see how someone looking for a steamy romantic fantasy would enjoy A Deal with the Elf King. I don’t see myself ever picking up the sequels to this book, mostly because they aren’t really sequels, just stand alones in the same universe, but also because I haven’t come across many positive reviews. I’m undecided about whether or not I’ll try anything else by Elise Kova. Originally, I thought I would give her Air Awakens series a go, but now I’m not sure. I’m sure I’ll let you know if I do decide to try it. Thanks for reading this review! If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to mix up a whole bunch of plants into a super elixir that will heal pretty much any wound ever. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55285911-a-deal-with-the-elf-king?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=mp7CvaB8B5&rank=1
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Personal Rating: 5 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.9 stars Content Rating: PG-13 (for violence) TW: Violence, racism Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive. (goodreads.com) Why is it that books in the Science Fiction genre always either have totally boring covers or completely gorgeous covers? There is no in between and this book falls solidly on the completely gorgeous end of the scale. The colors! The stars! The details! The intense look on Binti’s face! Amazing. Okay, with my swooning over the cover out of the way, let’s get on to talking about the actual book, shall we? This is a Sci-Fi novella (less than 100 pages) about a girl from a future Earth. She lives in a desert that she has never left and she is an amazing mathematician. Out of the Himba people, she is the only one to ever be accepted to a prestigious space college and even though her family does not want her to go, she sneaks away to get on the spaceship that will take her off of Earth and to the school. I generally have trouble getting into “heavy-duty” Sci-Fi/space travel books, but if more of them were in novella format like this book and All Systems Red then I might enjoy more of them. Since shorter novels need to make more use of their words and their plot and can’t spend too long on pages-long descriptions of how things work, they tend to pack more of a punch and they definitely hold my focus better. It also doesn’t hurt to have more female Sci-Fi characters and, of course, more characters of color in Sci-Fi as well. Make it more relatable for more people and more people will enjoy it. Anyway, I’m not here to climb on any sorts of soap boxes today, I’m here to talk about a book. I did not research this book very much before reading it, so I was definitely surprised by some of the things that happened in the plot. It kept me on my toes and kept me worried for the safety of the main character. Sometimes it’s nice to go into a book blind and not have any idea of what conflicts might pop up. Binti was a stellar (pun most definitely intended) character who I enjoyed reading about. I was invested in the outcome of her situation immediately and I can’t wait to read the sequels to learn more about her. I do wish there had been a few more important characters who Binti could interact with, as there was really only one who she connected with much. Perhaps more connections and characters will show up in the sequels. It’s hard to review a book that I enjoyed so much because, while I can think of plenty of positive things to say, without getting into spoilers all of the positive things sound pretty generic. So, I apologize that this is a short review, but I don’t want to ruin this book for you if you intend to read it. Which you should. Especially if you love Science Fiction but you don’t always have the patience to read Science Fiction. Also, if you like exploring African culture in a futuristic setting with aliens and mysterious rocks and excitement. It’s a good time. Thank you for reading this short review, hopefully next time I’ll have more to say. They can’t all be comically sarcastic scathing reviews of terrible pirate books *cough* The Dust of 100 Dogs *cough, hack, wheeze*. Until next time! I’m off to apply for space college and see if it goes better than my bout with real college… Image source: https://goodreads.com/book/show/25819514-binti Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating at time of review: 3.73 stars Content Rating: PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Cancer, family deaths The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week… With each object that disappears the postman reflects on the life he’s lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he’s loved and lost. (goodreads.com) Now, you’re probably looking at the cover of this book and thinking “Corrie, why in the world would you pick up a book with such a depressing title?!” And when I first saw this title, I was also astounded by the very notion that anyone would even dare to think of removing cats from this world. I mean, can you imagine a world without cats? What would become of the internet?! It is unthinkable! But you have to admit that the synopsis of this book is intriguing. Even so, I mostly picked up this book because the library I work at is doing it for a book club and my coworker asked me if I would participate in the podcast discussion for If Cats Disappeared from the World. I won’t be posting this review until after we’ve done the podcast so that I can link it down below if anyone is interested in listening. But I wanted to write my personal review for it before the discussion so that I can get down all of my own thoughts fresh from reading the book. This is not usually the kind of book I would read. Deals with el diablo? No thank you. I am a Christian and that sort of thing really doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t know if it’s because of how I was raised or just common sense, but I’ve never understood why fictional characters agree to anything the devil offers. I mean, c’mon guys, he’s literally called the ruler of darkness, the evil one, the tempter, the slanderer, destruction, the ruler of the bottomless pit, etc. Does that sound like someone who is going to offer you a deal where you come out on top? Ever? No! In media, whenever characters make a deal with the devil, something bad always happens to them and they generally regret their decision. So it is hard for me to want to read something where characters are making arrangements with Satan because it always leaves me with the feeling of “you brought this on yourself, dude, this could have easily been avoided”. This book was a bit different though. The character of the devil, who the narrator calls Aloha because he’s always wearing Hawaiian tourist shirts, presents the situation to the narrator as something that is “God-approved”. He claims that the humans have made too much junk and that God has given His approval for Aloha to offer this deal with humans where they can gain an extra day of life in exchange for getting rid of one thing across the whole earth. The idea of this situation having God’s stamp of approval is completely ludicrous, but it did make me remember that, hey, I’m reading a fictional novel, that means that the relationship between God, Satan, and humans is going to be fictionalized too. So, once I put that behind me and stopped trying to consider this book with the eyes of a theologian, I was able to get into it a bit better. Now, if you go into this expecting an interesting sci-fi/fantasy exploration of “what things can I get rid of before it seriously starts to affect quality of life for everyone?” that is not what this is. Going into this book, I was under the impression that the narrator would get to choose each thing that disappears from the earth. I assumed the title was his last resort after having gotten rid of nearly everything else in the world. I was expecting the Twilight Zone level of plot. I kept trying to think of things that you could get rid of without hurting too many people or anyone (if you were curious, my mind decided I would start with super specific things that are pretty much useless, like hamburger shaped Christmas tree ornaments or already buried traditionally embalmed corpses or the top button on polo shirts or stickers featuring Nicholas Cage). However, this book isn’t really a sci-fi novel. Instead of the narrator getting to choose what vanishes, the devil gets to decide. And instead random useless items, they are all things that link the narrator to his loved ones and his personal experiences in life. An item disappears in each chapter and in each chapter the narrator explores his memories and emotions regarding that item. For example, the first thing to vanish was the phone. And the book doesn’t get into the nitty gritty of how exactly this works or how the world at large is affected or if other people even realize that phones have vanished (the narrator comes to the conclusion that no one else really remembers the things, but it isn’t really delved into). Instead the story focuses on how the narrator used to use phones to communicate with the girl he was dating several years previous and how his relationship with that girl changed him and shaped him. And that is the way with all of the items that vanish. Objectively, I know this was a really good and thought provoking book. It uses the fantastical to convey real feelings and emotions. It is sad because of the themes regarding death, but joyful because of the life that was lived and the lessons learned along the way. It is peacefully mundane, while also being gripping with wondering what the next loss will reveal about the narrator and the human experience. It’s a lovely work of literary fiction. That being said… I’m really more of a sci-fi girl myself. I could not stop thinking about the havoc that losing these things would wreak upon the rest of the humans on the planet. And I know that was not the point. The point was much deeper than that, but you can’t put a book like this in front of me and expect me not to think about all of the people who no longer have phones and the absolute chaos that would cause. I spent the whole time thinking about how people would no longer be able to communicate with loved ones or make emergency calls. Like, I get the point that the narrator’s cell phone was distracting him from his life and creating a barrier between himself and real people and if there was a “moral of the story” it would be about ignoring the set in stone norm with our focus on structure and organization. But also… people in this day and age need phones. They are very important devices that can save lives. And I don’t think the book was even trying to put out a “boomer” message of “technology bad!”, I think it genuinely had something important to say. However, I could not personally take away as much as I should have from the book because my brain was focused on the repercussions for the entire earth and not the individual. I guess, I’m trying to say that, maybe if you go into this book knowing that you aren’t supposed to read it with the eyes of a sci-fi reader, you should read it with the eyes and heart of a poet, then maybe you will get more out of it than I did. And maybe someday I will try to re-read it in that way. Podcast recording: Click on the green button below to listen to the podcast (Last Tuesday of the Month Book Club). Listening to it myself, a few weeks after recording it, I just want to apologize to my coworker and to anyone else who listens to it for all of the times I used the word “like”. In my defense, I was very nervous. If you do decide to listen to it, I hope you enjoy my senseless rambling and Amy’s very professional and engaging thoughts! Thanks for reading and/or listening! I’m off to give my beloved cat some more cuddles. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37901571-if-cats-disappeared-from-the-world Personal Rating: 2 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.62 stars Content Rating: R (for violence, sex, abuse, and language) TW: Domestic abuse, animal abuse, rape, addiction, mental health, violence, stalking, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with "the dust of one hundred dogs," dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact. Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs to escape her no-good family and establish a luxurious life of her own is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica… (goodreads.com) Believe it or not, this is actually a book my cat selected for me to read. I saw a person on TikTok do a video where they put some books they wanted to read in a circle and then put their pet snake in the middle of the circle to see which book the snake wanted them to read next. I decided to copy this with my cat Elinor in the TikTok you can find here. Now you’re probably looking at this video and then looking at my rating of this book and thinking “sheesh, your cat is terrible at picking out books”. And… well, you may be right, but how can we know for sure unless she picks more? This was only her first try. Besides, I think Elinor picked out this book because it’s been on my TBR for quite some time and she sensed it was not good, but knew I wouldn’t ever get rid of it without reading it. So she prompted me to read it so I could see that it was bad and then pass it on to someone else out in the world. At least, that’s the theory I’m going with. Anyway! Moving on. I thought this book was going to be great or at least decent because the premise sounded so interesting and I love a good pirate story. I also thought it was going to be a book for teens, and while it is tagged as being YA/Teen on Goodreads, I definitely felt that it was more for adults. Putting this book in YA feels similar to putting the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas in YA. Like yeah, okay, I guess it could technically be for “young adults” but young adults and teens are lumped together and you have to remember that “teen” starts at 13. And younger kids than that browse the teen section. I’m just saying. I feel like that’s my biggest bone to pick with this book. If it had been presented as an adult book then I would have been less shocked at the mature content. Well, probably not because you know at heart I’m secretly an old, eternally scandalized church lady clutching her pearls. But I at least would have had an inkling! Apart from all of the dark and troublesome themes in this book, the plot was actually pretty interesting. (If it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have finished it and this review wouldn’t exist.) The story is broken down into chapters of Saffron Adams in the 1980s and 90s, backstory for Emer Morrisey from the late 1600s, and sections that are one part dog training advice and one part more back story. Saffron Adams is the human reincarnation of Emer Morrisey, a pirate who was cursed to live many lives as dogs before turning back into a human. She also retains all of Emer’s memories, including the memory of where she buried her treasure and of all the time she spent as dogs. As far as characters go: they were okay. Most of them were horrible people, but the only one we get much development for is Emer/Saffron. She was a decent main character. She went through a lot of terrible stuff and changed a lot from the beginning of the book to the end. One thing I couldn’t stand about her was how she was such a I’m-not-like-other-girls-girl and how little she cared for other women when she was a pirate and when she was a highschooler. Like, I get the book was published in 2009 when that was the thing, but it really is so irksome. I did wish there were more piratical adventures. The chapters that took place in the 1600s were really just backstory for how Emer became a pirate until the book gets to chapter 20 or so, which is pretty late in the book. And after that, there were plenty of pirate shenanigans from Emer, but they were told in broad strokes, just giving the reader an overview of the things she did. I had hoped that Saffron would also get up to pirate business, but her chapters were mainly about her time spent with her struggling family. She mainly dealt with her mother’s high expectations for her and her brother’s drug addiction until she graduated high school and was free to go look for treasure, which was, again, late in the book. Still, there was enough going on and enough intrigue that it kept me interested. I feel like the pace really began to pick up after the halfway point and from there on out it was pretty exciting. However, despite the attention keeping writing and the plot, if I had known about all of the rape, addiction, and abuse that were going to be in this book, I probably would have never read it and I do not recommend it. I’m going to do a spoiler section/rant below, so feel free to keep reading if you don’t care about spoilers. Otherwise, thanks for stopping by, best of luck in all of your treasure hunting adventures. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931132-the-dust-of-100-dogs Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: Content Rating: Light R (many, many sexual comments, but nothing graphic, violence used for comedy, some language) TW: Drink spiking (with magical potions) Sasha Pierce hasn’t had a single dream since she was a child… ... until she accepts a substitute teaching position in the charmingly witchy village of Old Middleton. Her first dream in twenty-five years ought to be enchanting, but her wonder quickly turns to shock when she realizes that it’s not a dream at all, but an entirely different sort of magic. Catapulted into the fairy tale kingdom of Between through an ancient portal, Sasha’s astonishment is swiftly upgraded to panic when she accidentally performs a supposedly impossible feat and is declared the True Queen of Between … and betrothed to its infuriatingly handsome sorcerer-king. Lorn, Shadow King of Between, is desperate to break free from Between’s clutches. Magically tethered to the ramshackle kingdom, he wages a daily battle to save his disreputable subjects from rampaging magical creatures, sinkholes, and catastrophes of the distressingly lethal variety. To avoid an early grave, he needs an escape plan, not a wife...until he learns that this magicless mortal holds the key to his freedom. Unwilling to leave her world to accept the crown—or the husband—Sasha must race against the clock to disentangle herself from this fairy tale. But her empty throne leaves a dangerous rift between their worlds. As dark forces descend upon Old Middleton, the two must make a choice: work together or unleash fairytale chaos upon their realms. (goodreads.com) I’m going to warn you now, this review might get a little bit fangirl-y. I might geek out about it a little too much and this might turn out to be a very long review. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I found this book at one of the libraries that I work at. My thought process at seeing this book went something like this: Oooh, pretty cover. Goodness gracious, this book is hefty! How many pages? Sheesh! 750? Well… what is it about? There is a unicorn on the cover and unicorns are fun. *reads description* Oh dear, I think I might have to read this. Oh dear, but I already have so much I need to read… *proceeds to read it anyway and have a great time* Now, before I get to all of my gushing, I am going to talk about the things I disliked in this book, but I’d rather do it in bullet points so let’s go ahead and get those out of the way:
Okay, that’s enough negative. Onto the gushing! THIS BOOK WAS SO GREAT. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE. It turned out to be a perfect read for this time of year too because it is set in October, right around Halloween. The small town it’s set in feels like an autumnal Hallmark movie with super atmospheric descriptions of leaves changing color, pumpkins, moonlight tours of the town, a cute bookstore, and cafes! This book is like a fall Hallmark movie crossed with a Diana Wynne Jones book, crossed with Hocus Pocus, crossed with Labyrinth, with a garnish of terrible rom-com jokes thrown on top. Also, Sasha works as a kindergarten teacher, so there are opinionated five year olds running around, which is great. Also, also, *slight spoiler*, there’s a coven of fierce old lady witches running around—also great. End slight spoiler. The sense of humor in this book (apart from the sex jokes) was my favorite kind of humor. Things like “oh, this place isn’t so bad” *giant monster flies past window*, or the terrifying Wraith Queen not understanding sarcasm of subtlety, or a mail truck being used as a weapon of self-defense, or the elves being awful poets. I laughed so much throughout reading this and I may have even hugged the book a few times. My cat probably thinks I am deranged. I just remembered something else that you need to know: THIS BOOK IS ALSO ILLUSTRATED. There are not a ton of illustrations, but the few that we get are FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. The expressions on the characters are perfect and their body language fits them so well. Plus, any magical symbols that are described have a picture to show what they look like, which is really nice for someone like me who is not great at imagining symbols. You’ve probably figured out by now that this review has no real structure to it, so rather than me trying to come up with an awkward transitional phrase to get from my last point to the next, let’s just save time and skip right on to the characters: Sasha was lovely. She is sensible and sweet. She’s not really sure what she’s doing with her life and she’s moved all over the world during her lifetime, taking one teaching job after another. I feel like, in that sense, she is very relatable to people in their mid-twenties to thirties. Obviously, not to everyone, but I felt a connection with not knowing exactly where I want my life to go. Sadly, I am not a world traveler like her, but I do understand moving from one choice to another looking for the right fit. So, I really liked Sasha as a protagonist. Except when she first met the Shadow King at which point I was screaming at her with second-hand embarrassment. Oh my gosh, I nearly had to stop reading because I was so embarrassed for her. Then there is Lyla, Sasha’s best friend. While I found her annoying at times, I also felt somewhat of a connection with Lyla. Especially the part where Sasha has to physically drag her away from a bookstore with cats in it. A BOOKSTORE WITH CATS IN IT MUST BE VISITED FOR SEVERAL HOURS, SASHA, C’MON! LET LYLA HAVE HER BOOKSTORE EXPERIENCE. Then we’ve got the mysterious, handsome, magical, scheming but chivalrous, Shadow King, Lorn. I’m going to say it outright, you can make fun of me all you want: I think I have a crush on Lorn. This is a historic moment everyone, I’ve never actually admitted to having a crush on a fictional character before (no, I did not have a crush on Artemis Fowl when I was twelve, I had a friendly fascination, there’s a difference), but Lorn is just such a wonderful character it’s impossible not to love him so we may as well all admit it now. The man has the best sarcastic sense of humor I’ve ever read in a book, he’s kind to his subjects and friends, but also murderous to his enemies when need be, he’s protective, fierce, but also bashful—not to mention he’s a powerful sorcerer and a wealthy king to boot. And such a good king! He has to put up with a lot of crap, as you find out in the second half of the book (which is told from his perspective), but he still dutifully takes care of everything with flair. The way he speaks reminds me of Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars Prequels, which is sardonically satisfying. Also, he wears a sentient cloak some of the time and that’s rad. If we ever see him wield a sword in the upcoming sequel I may actually swoon. The supporting characters in this book are probably some of the best I’ve ever read. The coven, the kindergarteners, and my favorite of all, THE JOLLY MONARCHS OF THE LOWER KINGDOMS, whom we meet in chapter nine of part two. Reading that chapter made me feel like I was old friends with the characters and we were all sitting around chatting together. Also, let it be noted that the Wraith Queen is a sweetheart and I would protect her with my life if she wasn’t also terrifying and totally capable of protecting herself. My other favorite side characters were Daisy, Violet, Izzy, Setzel, the imp with the notepad (who doesn’t have a name to my dismay), Maddox, and Mason. I would also like to note right now that I don’t trust Penelope and I have my suspicions about Felicia. We don’t learn a ton about them in the first book, but if one or both turn out to be evil, let the record show that I totally called it. A couple of brief notes about the plot and then I promise I’ll shut up: At times the plot moved a little slowly, but it still kept me reading so that didn’t really bother me. This book is split into two parts, the first is from Sasha’s perspective and the second is from Lorn’s. I knew this going into is, but I thought that time would keep moving forward even after the switched perspective, but it actually jumps back in time to show you what Lorn was up to while Sasha has various Ordeals. When I figured this out I didn’t think I would be as interested in the second half of the book because it would just be rehashing things but I WAS SO WRONG. I loved the second half of the book. The second half is why I now have a crush on Lorn. Okay, this review has gotten wildly out of hand. Let’s wrap this up. Basically, I love this book and will be ordering my own copy as soon as I lift my self-imposed book buying ban (I have a problem). I do wish that the humor in it weren’t quite so adult, but it is a book targeted at adult audiences, so whatcha gonna do? But other than that, I found Between delightful and I am quite anxious to read the sequel when it comes out. Well, the Shadow King has banished me to endlessly wander the swamps of Between because of my ridiculous declaration of adoration for him, so I’d best be off. Thanks for reading! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55820016-between Personal Rating: 2.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.78 Stars Content Rating: R (for violence and sexual themes) Trigger Warnings: Rape (not described in graphic detail), violence, mentions of suicide, stalking, alcohol and drug use Meet Chloe Sevre. She’s a freshman honor student, a leggings-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. Her hobbies include yogalates, frat parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her. Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study for psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements. When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath. (goodreads.com) You know, now that I’m a grown-up and I work in a library where other grown-ups are asking for advice on what grown-up books to read, I’ve been trying to read some books written for adults. I mean, I can’t exactly recommend grown-up books to people without having read any. So I do my best, but I just don’t think I’m cut out for it. At least not thrillers and mysteries. Certainly not romance. This book held my interest; I really wanted to know what was happening with the murders and if Chloe was going to accomplish the murder she had planned or not. This book has such a gripping premise and I think the story maintains that grip throughout the book. It’s a weird feeling to be rooting for the characters to solve a murder, while also rooting for one of them to murder someone else. I mean, obviously murder is bad and we should never cheer it on… but this is a fictitious story and the guy she intends to kill kinda deserves it. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. I thought the story was well paced and pretty much everything eventually led back to the main plot. Since I’m a person who enjoys mundane things, I almost wish that we would have seen more of Chloe hanging out with her college friends doing silly college stuff, or more of Andre (another character in the psychopath program) and his friend group. But, I know that normal stuff would have clogged up the story with unnecessary details and there were enough scenes of ordinary college life that I still felt mostly satisfied. So, if this was such a well written murder mystery with an interesting plot and good pacing, why the low rating? It’s totally a personal thing. That’s the hard part of reviewing books. I can know that something is objectively well written, but still not enjoy parts of it because of personal preference. So the reasons I didn’t fully like this book may not be deterrents for other readers, but since I’m the one in charge of this blog I get to decide the rules. And the rules say that I can give a book any rating I want. The reasons this book wasn’t for me:
So, if you asked me if I liked this book, I’d have to say yes and no. Yes, I liked the premise, the plot, and the setting, but no I wasn’t a fan of the parts listed above. After this and The Bones of Ruin, I think I need to read a sweet wholesome story with loveable characters and no dead bodies. Or, at least, very limited dead bodies. However, the problem with wonderful, wholesome stories is that they make for very boring reviews. But I’m sure we’ll manage. Okay, now onto the spoiler section, aka the rant about Charles section. Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating (as of a week after book’s release): 3.68 Stars Content Rating: R (for disturbing violence) Trigger Warnings: Racism, torture, SO MUCH VIOLENCE, mentions of suicide. As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences, always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture… She cannot die. Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t. To help them choose a leader for the upcoming apocalypse, the Committee is holding the Tournament of Freaks, a macabre competition made up of vicious fighters with fantastical abilities. Adam wants Iris to be his champion, and in return he promises her the one thing she wants most: the truth about who she really is. If Iris wants to learn about her shadowy past, she has no choice but to fight. But the further she gets in the grisly tournament, the more she begins to remember—and the more she wonders if the truth is something best left forgotten. (goodreads.com) First off, I won an ARC of this in a Goodreads giveaway, so thank you to the publisher and to Goodreads. Secondly, LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS COVER! Oh my goodness, I love this cover so much. I mean, I adore any cover with a girl with swords on the front (who doesn’t?) but make that girl wearing a fabulous tutu while tightrope walking over a blazing city? That’s pretty darn cool, man. Apart from the lovely cover, the writing of this book really draws you in right away. I had plans to read something else before this book, but I happened to read the first few sentences of the first page and then suddenly it was midnight and I was five chapters in. Because it is such a long book (almost 500 pages) there were points that lulled a bit and the momentum slowed to a point where I would put the book down and not pick it up again for a while, but usually it didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things. This is definitely an action packed book. Some of the action was a little hard to follow at times, leaving me confused as to what just happened, but usually by the end of the chapter things were made clear. Although I ultimately understood what was happening in the book, there were small pieces that seemed to contradict themselves or just weren’t written super clearly and made it difficult to understand what was happening. Again, these things cleared themselves up for the most part, but there are still a few instances that left me confused. One such part was a point where the MC, Iris, was given a ribbon by a friend, but then it seemed like another character exploded that ribbon, but then she had it again in the next chapter. Maybe they were two different ribbons? I’m not sure. One thing I am sure of was how incredibly violent this book was. Goodness gracious. Let me just lay it out for you: there’s a cannibal in this book. And the “mealtimes” are described in vivid detail. Usually books aren’t graphic enough that images linger in my mind, but there is one scene in particular that I’m pretty sure is going to haunt me forever. I’m still cringing thinking about it. I don’t advise eating anything while reading the fight scenes. I don’t care if it’s saltine crackers. The grisly details will upset your stomach even if you aren’t eating and haven’t eaten for hours. I literally shuddered every time this character showed up. There were other aspects of this book that were violent too. The other most upsetting violence was done by a scientist performing inhumane experiments. I won’t say much because of spoilers, but the way this scientist treats other characters, particularly those of color, is pretty much just as horrific as what the cannibal does except he doesn’t eat flesh. If this book doesn’t give me nightmares I’ll be surprised. But enough about the gore. Let’s talk about some positives, eh? I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book hosts a full cast of super-powered characters. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for superhero-esque plotlines. Especially when there are so many fun powers! You may be asking, what kind of superpowers are in this book (Well, we got everything nowadays. We got a guy who jumps, we got a guy who swings, we got a guy who crawls up the walls. You gotta be more specific.) and the answer to that is pretty much all of the wacky and wonderful ones. You don’t really have your usual super-strength, flight, superspeed things. It’s more like X-men style powers with shapeshifters, portal-makers, and fire breathers. Iris, apart from her undying-ness, was also a tight-rope walker by trade and I wish that had been brought up more in the story. There were a few minor parts where her skills came in handy, but not nearly enough. I would have loved to see her have to walk a tightrope to further the plot, or at least have more references to the circus that was mostly just at the beginning of the book. I also liked how the secrets of the story were revealed. Sometimes it frustrated me that things were being revealed so slowly, but I did like that the reader gets to piece things together themself as they go along. The clues are all there, but you have to put them together. (Speaking of clues, I just briefly want to complain that there was a whole chapter dedicated to this super elaborate riddle based in opera, English history, and Norse Mythology and they barely spent any time going over it! It made me so mad because it was such a complicated riddle that I could only figure out bits and pieces of it with help from Google and the characters only solved, like, two parts of it! I really wanted a full analysis, but alas, it was not to be. Which was honestly probably good for the pacing of the story, but STILL!) There was a bit of romance in this story, and it was fairly triangular (although, there was also another guy who might have made it a sort of square, but there was also another girl who was interested in one of the boys, so kind of a love pentagon thing going on). The “who will she end up with?” thing didn’t really go so well in my opinion because there was really only one serious option, but the romance, along with several major plot points are still not resolved by the end of the book so we’ll have to wait until the sequel to find out if I’m right. I should probably wrap this up before I give too much away. Final notes: I really liked this book even if I was confused about sections sometimes. I thought Iris was an interesting and likeable character and even though I wasn’t fond of him, I thought Adam was intriguing too along with many of the others. If you are into books with high stakes competitions, impending doom, super powers, crazy rich people, and kick-patooty girls and you can stomach the astounding violence, then I definitely recommend that you give The Bones of Ruin a read. I will be eagerly awaiting any news of the sequel. Until next time! Image: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43699470-the-bones-of-ruin Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Gooreads Rating: 4.15 Stars Content Rating: R (for violence and language) In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth. (goodreads.com) I first heard about this book while I was watching one of Book Roast’s reading wrap up videos and while adult Sci-Fi is not a genre I usually read, the premise and short length of this book appealed to me. And then I happened to see it while I was shelving at the library so I figured it would be fun to at least try it and see if it was anything I’d be interested in. As it turns out, it isn’t really something that I would normally enjoy, but, for some reason, I couldn’t put this novella down. It turned out to be way scarier than I was expecting, though part of the problem might have been that I was reading it at night. I’m also easily scared by space survival stories. Can that be a genre? Is it a genre? You know the kind of story I’m talking about. Like, humans in space—usually explorers or scientists—and then something dire happens that leaves them stranded somewhere or facing a horrifying unknown as well as the fact that they are impossibly far from civilization. You know that kinda story? Does that have a name? I’m calling it space survival. Anyway, I’m not usually a fan of that kind of story because they freak me out too much. I did not like Lost in Space and other similar movies/shows. I prefer space stories with a hint of magic and super unrealistic-ness to them, like The Lunar Chronicles or Star Wars. I don’t like feeling as if the space adventure could actually happen because space, while awesome, is creepy as heck. Moving on! Given my dislike for space survival stories, I did not think that I would like All Systems Red once I realized that it was that sort of story. However, I was proven wrong and, apart from hiding under my blanket and clutching my teddy bear close, I wasn’t even that scared! A popular complaint that I’ve seen about this book is regarding the ending. Now, I’ll try not to say too much, but it does feel like it’s missing something. It sort of jumps from the middle of an action scene where everyone is in danger to the resolution and epilogue without even stopping to take a breath. And I sort of understand why, but it also makes it feel like a few pages have been removed from the book. I’m hoping that some of the missing information will be cleared up in the next books in the series if I choose to read them. As far as characters go, Murderbot and Dr. Mensah were the only ones who you got to know and Dr. Mensah was still not the most fleshed out. But, this series is the Murderbot Diaries and at the beginning of the book Murderbot didn’t particularly care about the human characters, so it makes sense that we would really only get to know about our dear Murderbot. I do hope that in the rest of the series there are other recurring characters who we get to know better. I don’t want Murderbot to be lonely! Another thing that I wish there had been more of was world building. Of course, it’s hard to fit much world building into 144 pages, but I still would have liked to know a bit more about this futuristic world. Is Earth still around? Do people still live there? Do people live on other planets? In space stations? What’s up with the planet that this first book takes place on anyway? I feel like there were some mysteries left unsolved there. At first I was confused about what exactly Murderbot is, but thankfully the book does a good job of revealing that and it doesn’t take too long to grasp. That’s about it for my thoughts on All Systems Red. I enjoyed parts of it, other parts left me with a sense of dread and foreboding, but on the whole I liked it and if I’m ever in the mood to travel back to that corner of space I’ll pick up the sequel. Even though I don’t particularly like Lost in Space, if you did you might also like this book. Or if you want to relate to a socially awkward main character who isn’t sure of who they are, then this book is great for that too. Thanks for reading! If you’ll excuse me, I need to go make sure that my security robot isn’t going to kill me. Toodles! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32758901-all-systems-red Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.78 Stars Content Rating: Light R (for language, violence, and suggestive content) Trigger Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Mental Health The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister’s memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message—and what exactly she’s trying to say. (goodreads.com) Originally, I picked up this book because I wanted to read a book by a Latino or Hispanic author for National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th through October 15th). I found this one listed on one of my local libraries websites and thought it sounded like a good spooky season read also, since there is a ghostly element to it. And then my wonderful coworkers/friends *waves to wonderful coworkers/friends* alerted me to a Hocus Pocus themed read-a-thon going on in October. The read-a-thon, based around the 1993 movie, involves three teams (Sanderson Sisters, Undead, and Trick-or-Treaters) and different prompts for each team. I am on team Sanderson Sisters and one of the reading prompts for this team is to read a book about sisters. So, Tigers, Not Daughters is killing three reading goals with one stone and it turned out to be an excellent book to boot! Though it features an angry ghost, I wouldn’t exactly call this book a horror story. Paranormal maybe, but not really horrifying. So, if you are looking for a book to scare you, then this might not be the one for you. Honestly, the ghost wasn’t in it as much as I thought she would be. This was really more of a family drama kind of story. Which was a little disappointing since I was sort of looking for a good scare, but also a bit of a relief since I can’t actually handle scary stuff very well. I would describe this book as Little Women, but with more swears, more sexual references, lots more violence, and with more hateable male characters. Speaking of the male characters… there seemed to be a running theme of the men in this story being unhelpful, which is actually kind of interesting. Now, I’ve been out of high school for a few years now and haven’t really intensely analyzed any literature since then, but every once in a while I’ll come across a book that I wish I could have read while in a literature class so that we could get into the nitty gritty details and the literary devices and such. This was a book like that for me. I want to talk to someone about the continuing theme of unhelpful men. Even the nice boy character wasn’t much help. Throughout the story you see instances of the sisters turning to these men and boys for help or the boys/men trying to help unsolicited and when they get involved things almost always get worse or, at least, they don’t get any better. I loved going from being annoyed with the boy characters because of their tendency to make things go south (even when they meant well) to cheering for the girls when they do things on their own. I was also interested in the motif of laughter. (I’m eighty percent sure I used the word “motif” correctly, but like I said, it’s been a long while since high school so bear with me.) I mean, there was even a freaking hyena that showed up throughout the story. Sometimes when spookish happenings were about to occur the sisters could hear the ghost’s laughter. There was one point where two characters got into a fight and one of the sisters couldn’t stop laughing even though it wasn’t funny. There was a point when something horrible and embarrassing happened to another sister at school and everyone, including some unhelpful boys, laughed even though some of them felt bad for her. I no longer possess the skills to pick apart what that could mean, and I’m glad I don’t have to write a paper about it, but I found it really interesting. Okay, that’s enough analytical mumbo-jumbo from me. Let’s rate some characters! Ana - unattainable, much spook, doin’ a protecc. Jessica - The second oldest Torres sister, just working her crummy part time job, making most of the money for their family, keeping things afloat after the tragedy in their family. Makes a lot of bad decisions when it comes to men and sometimes I just wanted to shake her, but she was amazing nonetheless. Iridian - I started out liking her the best because she’s a writer, but as the story went on I kind of disconnected from her a bit. I still liked her character and how multi-dimensional she was, but it became more and more difficult for me to read the chapters from her perspective. Rosa - A saint. A warrior. A detective. Picked pretty much the only helpful boy in the story to hold her hand. The youngest, and possibly wisest sister. 1,000,000 out of 10. Rafe - I feel kind of bad for him… but like not a lot. He’s pretty much the worst. Also, I feel like the only reason I feel bad for him is because of his intense grief, but he also uses that grief to manipulate people so… like, I don’t actually feel bad for him at all. I won’t give away spoilers, but I’m not sure I liked how the book ended for him. Also, what the heck was up with that bracelet? I feel like that was important. John - Poop. Negative 1,000,000 out of 10. I also wish we’d gotten to see more of what happened to him because I’m curious. Peter - A nice boy. Kinda dumb. Unhelpful, but sweet. He’s trying anyway. Bit of a creep at times, but way better than John. Peter’s friends - Also very unhelpful, also creepy, don’t have a ton of redemptive qualities, but they weren’t the worst. Fairly neutral, actually. If this were a Greek play I’d say that these boys were the chorus. They’re typically present for the happenings of the story, but apart from their Mega-Unhelpfulness at the beginning, they don’t sway the plot all that much. That one priest guy - Not helpful. What was with the ants? Supposedly got in a fight with Rafe at some point?? Would have liked to see that. Alright, you’ve probably had enough of my random ramblings about these characters and literary devices that I sort of remember so I’ll wrap this review up now. Basically, what you need to know is that this was an excellent book with some mature themes and the plot and characters have much more to offer than a surface level scary story. It is probably one of my favorite ghost books I’ve ever read and it didn’t leave me with that aching heart feeling that other ghost books tend to leave me with. Okay. I’m pretty sure that’s all you need to know. Thank you for reading, I hope you had a good time and if you’re interested in this book I hope you check it out! I’d better get going because it would seem there is a hyena in my yard. Toodles! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52776262-tigers-not-daughters Personal Rating: 3.75 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.8 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 Herein lie four quirky stories of unexpected heroes. Jebediah, the Unlikely Hero, and the Three Plagues of the Kingdom is about a coward who must confront a dragon and grapple with an ogre before finding a happy ending. Super Human is a short piece about designer babies created by genetic selection. The Fortune-Maker is a short story about a girl who struggles to find something to believe in. Fink Naggat and the Giant's Toe is about an adventurer of tiny proportions who has adventures of grand proportions. This book is not intended for children or adults, but rather for anyone who would like to hear a story, regardless of age. This book is illustrated by the author. (goodreads.com) First off, I want to say that I love this cover. I know I really need to stop picking books based solely off of their covers, but look at those colors! I love the beautiful colors mixed with the black lines of artwork and then the three boxes with more artwork. Also, that dragon is adorable and I would very much like to hug it. Okay, I’m done freaking out over the cover now. (BUT IT IS SO FREAKING CUTE AND WHIMSICAL.) I picked up this book at one of the libraries I work at while I was shelving. It was right next to a book I was putting away and the spine caught my eye. Skinny books often get looked over on the shelves and I wanted to pull this one a bit farther forward. The colors on the spine and the lack of text made me look at the cover, because you never know what hidden gems you’ll find tucked on the shelves at the library. It looked so cute and like such a quick read that I checked it out. It was definitely a quick read and highly entertaining. Since this is a conglomeration of four short stories, I’ll do like I did for Because You Love to Hate Me and review each story separately, since I like some better than others. Jebediah, the Unlikely Hero, and the Three Plagues of the Kingdom: This is definitely my favorite out of the four stories. It’s basically a fairy tale about a peasant named Jebediah and a princess named Terrina. The plot was clever and funny and the characters were adorable. What I really loved about this story was how everything was described. There wasn’t much dialogue, but it seriously didn’t need it because the narration was hilarious. I don’t know how best to describe how wonderful this story was other than saying that you really ought to just go out and read it. Super Sense: This was the shortest story in the book and it almost felt more like an essay than a story, but it was still good. It made me think about what it would be like to have enhanced senses, like Superman, and how difficult that would actually be. Like, there are some smells I can barely stand now, I can’t imagine having a super nose when confronted with a public restroom. It was a good short piece and it left me wanting more of this character and her struggles. The Fortune Maker: I have to say it, I just didn’t like this one. It made me sad and a teeny bit offended, though I doubt that was the author’s intention. It’s about a woman named Renee who is looking for something more in her life and she’s tried all of the religions and found them wanting, believing them to be about loving your neighbor unless you disagree with your neighbor, which is definitely true of some people and religions and some branches of religions. As someone who was brought up Christian and brought up to “love thy neighbor” no matter what they do or believe (though I will admit to struggling to do this at times), I felt a bit prickly after reading this one. I wanted to talk to Renee: “Let me tell you about Jesus and how He loves you! Please? Come to my church, I want you to meet my friends!” But, you know, she’s in a book so it’s a bit hard to communicate. Still a well written story, but it left me feeling sad. Of course, every story is not written for every person so that’s okay. Fink Nagget and the Giant’s Toe: I thought this story was really fun. It reminded me of when my siblings and I were little and my dad used to tell us stories. He came up with the craziest characters and the silliest scenarios for those characters and the adventures of Fink Nagget were similar. Fink’s house gets crushed by a giant, all except the bathroom, which fits between the giant’s toes. Then Fink goes and lives on the giant’s toe for some time and encounters all sorts of creatures and adventures. It’s totally ridiciously and completely fun to read about. All together, four entertaining and thoughtful stories with some sweet illustrations to go with. It’s such a short read (only about 50 pages) with such fun writing that I can’t help but recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of fun. Mostly because of the story about Jebediah, but the other stories were really well written too and worth the read. It was refreshing to have brand new stories that aren’t a retelling of anything and that have plots I’ve never heard before. Plus, the cover is freaking fantastic. So, if you come across this book or feel like ordering a copy (I checked, it’s on Amazon if you’re interested), I definitely suggest giving it a read. Thanks for reading my review! I’m off to catch a ride on a giant’s toe so I’ll see you later! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26219733-tales-of-whimsy |
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