2025 Book Logs

LegendBorn :The Cycle

Looking back the book is a bit tropey but I will always be for my black brothers and sisters first.I really enjoyed adding the Afro American element to it and what I mean by that is that it combined Western African spiritual practices and how they translated and evolved in the American space when they were enslaved and eventually emancipated and began to create their own culture and norms. This especially so as black Americans are constantly trying to prove they have culture (Which they do) and considering its constantly bastadised on the internet under the guise of 'gen-z slang' when it comes to their venacular or 'streetstyle' when it comes to their style of clothing , I liked reading about black american spiritualism culture and how it has evolved from its roots.Africa may be the mother but the children have been able to create something really beautiful from it.Long ass rant but the point is the book is phenomenal and I can't wait to read the last part of the triology.

Martyr!

Martyr came to me during a time in my year that I was going through it ALL! I mean I was in the fucking pits and my self loathing was at an all time high.And so was the protragonist of the book.I loved his depictions of alcohol dependancy and his journey to not only overcome that but also whatever caused the dependancy.The characters in this story were so likeable and the queer romance was so sweet I was kicking my feet at each turn.Kavek Akbar,I cant lie ,you did your big one with this one.

Blue Skinned Gods

The beginning of the book hooked me and the synopsis was what got me to read the book in the first place considering the premise is extremely unique and delves into cult-like practices and exploitation.In spite of that,the reason I gave it three stars is because the ending felt a bit flat.Not to say it was a bad ending and is actually a decent ending but it was unfortuanetly to me a boring ending.I felt no carthasis to whatever happened and maybe that was because I hadn't dug deeper into it but I never felt like it meant something significant you know?Anyway those are just my opinions.

The Invisible Life by Addie LaRue

I hate to be mean.Cause at the end of the day this is somebody's baby.Somebody's work of art but dear lord was it not a snorefest.I DNF'd it. I was promised suspense,I was promised fantasy,I was promised romance but all i got was dull dull and fucking dull Addie in the few chapters I read constantly yapping about how woe is me for being forgotten . Woe is me for being homeless and never having a home. Woe is me for not finding a soulmate.It doesn't help that protag has no personality at all.I mean just as bland as a boiled unseasoned chicken breast.Maybe its not catered to me.I can accept that critique almost gratiously even.I really will try my best to read V.E Schwab's other works but this really put me off.

Yellowface

I love R.F Kuang. I really do.She should stick to writing historical dark academic-esque books cause as much as I finished the book.It was not the most interesting.The protag is annoying at best and downright malicious at worst but ... still.I get the premise of the book, the moral of the story but i felt it needed more anxiety inducing moments.

The Poppy War Series

Yo I binged this series in a week and hyperfixated about it for a month.When I found out this was her debut series I keeled over in both envy and admiration cause the lore,the characters everything was so beautifully executed I still can't find any flaws in the series from the premise to the plot to the well described fantasy elements that never felt like you were reading a research paper about Chinese gods and their lore. Anyway one of my favourite books of the year.Absolute cinema. No notes.It made me cry ALOT!

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

I saw a negative review of this book and almost blew a gasket but then calmed down cause everyone is entitled to their own opinions "( – ⌓ – ).The book progresses slowly at first but I think being thrusted into a world that you would at first not pay attention to (Sri Lanka) either considering its in the developing world or simply because it may be further away from where you currently live.We love an inperfect hero.Someone that despite their flaws is trying to do the best they can in a world filled with war and anguish.And we especially love imperfect queer characters who Maali definetely is.His character development is the most fascinating part of it but aside from that it made me want to visit Sri Lanka,understand the war and its tragedies cause even the tragedies in the book are far too gruesome to even state in this short review and how the country has grown from it.I omly knew as Sri Lanka as either the country M.I.A is ethically from or from the gen-z protests but I never knew of its gruesome tribalic history which aligns well with the country I am from

Anyway a brilliant book that has a less discussed part about the afterlife not well discussed.Pick it up.

A Dictator calls

I came out of this book thinking "Damn,I think Stalin was doing a bit too much bro you do not need to go that hard for a bunch of poets"But it really exposed me to how much art can used as a tool for not only enlightening the masses on the faults of society but also for resisting a system that oppresses you.Simply facts are not enough.Learning about how a death squad abducted,tortured and killed people on the news doesn't get people as much as reading a book or looking at a painting that encapsulated the same situation.It adds a human emotion to something that could otherwise be only quantitative despite being gruesome

But I can't lie,the book was a bit boring towards the end cause of its reiterations of the conversation between Stalin and a particular poet whose fellow collegue was just abducted by Stalin's squad the day before.And this is no fault of the author I think its an interesting persepective to focus on the text analysis and eventually the meta of why he may ahve chosen text analysis . I'm just really really into fiction.If you liked this book in particular I recommend also reading "A day in the life of Ivan Densiovitch" which takes a journalistic approach in following the life of a man trapped in the gulags in the 1940s and which haunted my teenager brain for better or worse.

The Three Body Problem

HOLY PEAK!

I read this book this year and became the reason why I promised myself to read more sci-fi this year.I think it changed my brain chemistry and I mean this in the best way possible.The premise,the plot the characters,everything about this book reminded me about how vast the universe is (And that 'god' isin't real lol).Don't pick up this book if you are going through a moment of exsitential dread though or bounts of negative nihilism cause as much as the book ends positively it still fills you with a sense of grief and a lot of fuck it all. Also it has aliens,but I think a very interesting perspective to aliens cause they are lowkey just like us but aliens I guess?.

A Little Life

I'll give her one star only for the fact that she did not write it with AI. That this horrible waste of paper and resources was at least not a by product of OPEN FREAKING AI.However,this was the worst book I had read in 2024 . I DNFed it. I got a spoiler about Jude's ending right after I had read of the most vile acts of child abuse and I couldn't stomach proceeding on with the book.The horrible abuse aside.It was just poorly written.It felt like a horrible collaboration between a wattpad BL fanfic writer and a sophisticated A03 writer that couldn't compromise on their creative writing differences and instead made a lovecraftian monster that feeds on death and misery.Yeah its that bad.But if you enjoy crying for absolutely no purpose at all please pick it up.Otherwise,yeah its shit.Hanya Yanagihara if heaven does exist I hope you are judged severely before you enter those white gates to the promised land.

And no I will not be reading To Paradise. Thank you very much.