Books 26 and 27 of 2020: The Hollow Place, Storm after Storm | Endling, Stormborn, Blood for Blood

[thistlechaser]

I'm down to 363 unread books on my Kindle! Down from just over 400! I'm trying to be selective about adding new ones, because dying with unread books is probably how you end up as a ghost haunting a library.



Finished:
The Hollow Place by T. Kingfisher. Oh this was so good! I was briefly worried because it is horror, but to me it was more wacky fantasy than scary (there was just a brief scary part). The plot followed two almost-strangers as they end up in a portal between worlds. It was so odd and foreign and interesting! Kingfisher is such a good author. I'm working my way through all of her books.

Storm after Storm by Ryan Graudin. Only reason I finished this one was because it was so short. Set in the same world/book series as Blood for Blood (below), it told the story of a side character. Only problem with that was that this story was set within one of the books, so we knew all the happenings already. Waste of a story, it was just a retelling of part of the plot of one of the series books.

Abandoned:

Endling by Katherine Applegate. Applegate wrote the Animorphs and other good book series, but this one just so completely did not work for me. Too simple, too boring, too generic, too flat. The world building, characters, plot, nothing hooked me. (DNF 22%)

Stormborn by J.T. Williams. I'm not sure if this author was attempting a style with their writing or something, but it was unreadable. The individual words were in English, but together too often they made no sense. It must have been very short, since I gave up at a couple pages in and yet somehow reached 11%. Amazon reviews mention how poorly written and how short it is, so I guess it's not just me. (DNF 11%)

Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin. I had loved this whole series (AU about what the world would be like if the Nazis had won), but the series just kept going slowly downhill. By the time I got to this book, I realized I didn't care anymore. Nothing much happened plot-wise, and the strong Jewish girl main character who somehow escaped concentration camp was falling in love with Nazi boy. Sadly I'm done with this series. (DNF 41%)

Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF books: 11 + 22 + 41 = 74%
Previous abandoned book total: 562%
New total: 636% (six books)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I haven't read The Hollow Places, but I really enjoy Ursula Vernon/T.Kingfisher's work. Remind me, what else have you read/are reading by her?

My favorites have been the Jackalope Wives short story collection (not every story was a hit with me, but I really liked several and enjoyed most, so it was a hit overall), Swordheart, and Summer in Orcus.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hmmm did I read only one other book by her? I might have credited other good books I read to her by mistake. My friend raves about her all the time, so I feel like I really know her books.

I really liked Raven and the Reindeer by her!

I have much-recommended A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking on my Kindle now, waiting for me to need a book I know will be good. (I try to save ones I know will be good for when I hit a string of bad ones.)

I grabbed a copy of Jackalope Wives, also Minor Mage, The Seventh Bride, and Clockwork Boys (which looks like the start of the series Swordheart is from).

Thanks for the recs!

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I took a look at that series by Applegate, too- read some reviews online and then I think must have picked up a copy back when library browsing was possible- I remember glancing through the first few chapters and deciding it didn't actually look interesting. Sounds like I judged well.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think it's another bit of evidence that her husband wrote the parts of Animorphs that worked best for me: The dark, serious, heavy stuff. She tends more to fluff like Endling, I think. Fluff is fine, lots of people like that, but I like something heavier.