#like. rereading these books the first time doesn't even count as rereading imo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

neutral-towards-mindmaps · 3 months

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can't stop thinking about tamsyn muir's choice to present her deep, morally and politically complex science fantasy world with a central web of magic, secrets and lies reaching back ten thousand years through the eyes of three characters who:

1. tune out and start thinking about hot women whenever the magic system or worldbuilding are being explained

2. experience hallucinations on a daily basis, have brain damage and are being deceived and misled by their peers, authority figures, themselves and God

3. don't know who they are, have spent their entire life in one place and are, on all levels but physical, six months old

#she said: you will have concrete information when i say you can have concrete information #and then every new bit of information you do get fundamentally changes some earlier element of the story #like. rereading these books the first time doesn't even count as rereading imo #it's just an entirely new experience #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth

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justmybookthots · 10 months

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The Cruel Prince

4.5/5 stars

This book ruined me for fae books and I'm not even sorry. It also doesn't help that this was my first literary introduction to fae (Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't count). The prose is so lyrical and beautiful and had me feeling as if I were utterly lost in Elfhame / an otherworldly, fae-filled realm. (Also funnily enough, I read this series while I was down with COVID, so maybe the delirium added to the otherworldliness of it.)

What I Ioved about fae was that they couldn't lie. And Cruel Prince really does work that in parts - seeing Cardan use wit and cleverness and lies by omission to sidestep that "weakness" in him. Even until now I haven't quite seen a book execute that to the degree Cardan displayed. Books like ACoTaR just eliminate the inability to lie in their fae, which is a huge step down, in my opinion.

I also adored Jude, which is very rare for me because most heroines in fiction annoy me or they're either too bland for me to care. But Jude - JUDE - she was hardworking, ambitious and determined without being a special, overly snarky Mary Sue about it. She actually showed her smarts, imo best demonstrated when she outwitted Balekin (that exchange with the poison made me SCREAM).

Speaking of poison - she poisoned herself everyday, trying to build an immunity to poison. It was painful, and I cringed for her, but she did it. And throughout it all, she never had any special ability until the third book, which barely showcased said ability. Jude got through the trials and tribulations by being clever and cunning and human. She wasn't half-fae; she wasn't given special gifts in combat like Feyre - she was just herself in a world of immortals, and she worked her ass off to compensate for it.

But what makes the book for me isn't really Jude, though she's a big part of it. It's Cardan - whom I fell so deeply for; cruel, pathetic drunkard Cardan.

Was he a little too weak for my tastes? Yes. Was he a little too drunk, to the point that I found it repulsive at times? Yes. Was he kind of sucky in bed? Yes, though that's more because it's YA and they weren't going into detail about the spice.

And yet the way he spoke - how he could wax poetic and make it sound like a dagger or a kiss - OH MY GOSH. I also just love a boy who was able to be socially adept when he needed to, and manipulate people to his advantage. I loved how he had to teach Jude at the end of the first book to win allies over, and how he once (very exasperatedly, might I add) told her that murder (brute force / violence) wasn't the answer to everything.

I loved how cruel he was at the start and how he slowly became kinder, more trusting, more willing to love himself and accept that he loved Jude. And if there is one trope I hate in books, it's trauma-bonding, but there wasn't that. Jude's past was nowhere as wretched as his, and they never once felt like (... for lack of a better term) edge-lords pretending they were more special than the world because of their childhood histories. Cardan slowly came into his own without needing Jude to "fix" him.

I don't often feel my heart beat for male leads in books anymore, not for a long while. I've become very jaded, or something. I don't know. But I did for Cardan.

Shut up 😭😭😭😭

That's not to say this series is perfect. I have my gripes with it. The last book was meh and too short and could have done with more Cardan instead of him as a snake. I think there was a lot of potential wasted with that book. The first and the second are much, much better, though I still reread the third the most because they were far more certain in their love then. Also I do wish Jude was a little weaker just to seem more human, and Cardan a bit stronger.

I'm still mad at this series because it put me in book slump for a good bit. I couldn't get over it. It wasn't until some time later that I finally managed to start reading and enjoying books again. Even until today, I haven't read any books that portray fae as wonderfully as Holly Black did, and that is a problem because fae are everywhere, which makes my Cruel Prince hangover even worse.

Also, Holly Black can write her fucking ass off. She's one of the prettiest writers I've read. If there is one thing I hate, it's modern slang in a fantasy setting (to be honest, I just... despise modern slang in any setting... lol), but she nailed the prose for this book. It was so pretty and enchanting without it being too purple.

I need to get to Stolen Heir and I don't know why I haven't. I thought Oak was really cute in the Cruel Prince series, though I heard he becomes a real piece of work in the new book and I am very, very scared.

- Read in April 2023

#the cruel prince #cruel prince #booktok #book recommendations #the folk of the air #bookworm #booklr #books #jurdan

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crucifixinhell · 2 years

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Oooh I just checked out the description for the Sandman Slim series. It sounds hella fun! xD Could you tell us more? Please feel free to monologue ;)

OKAY

Everyone be grateful for the new long post feature. I personally am very grateful for this very lovely anon who gave me an excuse to monologue at great length.

The reason this took me so long to answer is because I ended up rereading the first book (and most of the second) in the process... (I've lost count of rereads lol)

Reasons I love Sandman Slim:

1. It's this glorious mishmash of genres. I'd loosely categorize the first book as a spaghetti western revenge story set in an LA urban fantasy with angels and demons and a decent chunk of horror. (I love the world building. Some of the Christian theology was inspired by string theory.)

2. The narration isn't my usual style, but it's pretty fun in a lot of ways, because Stark (narrator/main character) is very direct. So his POV is easy to read. There's very few adverbs and a lot of the dialogue has minimal tags. (I'm pretty sure this is because Stark doesn't really have much emotional awareness. But.) Also, Stark's sense of humor is basically mine. Even if I don't get a lot of his references because he really likes obscure movies.

4. Stark is an asshole. Holy shit, he's an asshole. He's a very flawed person. Richard Kadrey (author) describes the series as "a monster learning how to be human" for a reason. Stark comes out of Hell and doesn't know how to not be an asshole. (He wasn't great at it before Hell, but he was also 19, so.) He mostly tries to do the right thing for the people he cares about, but he's incredibly terrible at it. This will make you want to yell at him, but also, if you like a proper antihero? This is a proper antihero. In Hell, they call him the monster who kills monsters. (A defining quote from very early on: "I hate cops and I fucking hate goody-goody hero types, but there is some shit I will not put up with if it happens in front of me.")

5. Stark has a huge case of PTSD (and probably some other stuff, but I don't think that ever gets diagnosed in-world) and it affects every aspect of his life. It affects how he looks at things, how he acts, and how he thinks in ways he doesn't even notice. So... like how PTSD/mental illness actually affects people. Which is so incredibly refreshing to read. And it's well-done/realistic, imo.

Stark has PTSD and is a dick about it for a long time. He refuses to acknowledge his time in Hell was an issue. He has some of the worst coping mechanisms on the planet and they hurt himself and the people around him until he starts accepting help. (Monster learning how to be human!) He can't reconcile who he used to be with who he is after Hell. He's suicidal and/or engaging in self-harming behaviors for large portions of the series. But he gets better.

7. It takes (I think) nine books to explicitly get there, but Stark is queer and he dates a non-binary person. I say explicitly because a) he more or less talks about all genders in the same way, even if he's usually only involved with women, and b) he describes Lucifer as a bad-decision fuck in the second book. I had my suspicions. Also, there's a couple poly relationships throughout. So that's cool. There's never a whole lot of identity conversation because the world is always ending. I love representation that is just. There.

9. They're just... entertaining books with fun characters. There's a zombie-killing Czech porn star. There's a bartender who reacts to a charred-up, scarred-up stranger talking about murder by saying that the potential dead people probably deserve it (Carlos is awesome). There's an angel working for Homeland Security. There's an immortal French alchemist stubbornly refusing to lose his accent. There's an excommunicated sin-eating priest whose sins get eaten in a ritual involving Johnny Cash. I love them all.

#anon if you ever want any firstborn children I'll steal some for you #subpoint on all of this is that it's very fun to write alternate povs for this series #bc stark doesn't acknowledge pain/trauma for long but. holy moly. there's so much there #anyways read sandman slim kids #oh the r word gets used a couple times in the first book but i think that's it? the author is aware and apologizes for his fuck ups soo.#sandman slim #crucifix talks #anon asks #answered #one day I'm gonna explore Stark's trauma in regards to sex bc there's more than a few mentions/implications there. but.#first i gotta finish some stuff lol #crucifix recs #gonna make that a tag for my own organizational sake lol

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