May Wrap-Up

Hello, my dear readers and writers! May was a disappointing month, I was expecting great things from some of the books I read, but they didn’t met my expectations.

The Raven King

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

-Goodreads

The Raven King is the final book of The Raven Cycle series and I already made a review of this book, of the whole series actually. So, I’m just gonna repeat the non-spoiler part and if you want the whole thing you can go to the original here

Overall, I think this was a good book, I enjoyed reading it and there are no major problems at a first glance. It finally showed the LGBT+ representation I was looking for, and it did a good job at it. The writing style was the best part, there are so many quotes you can pull off this book. All the characters had satisfying endings.

The main problem were all the faulty plot-points. I mean that the author kept creating many small sub-plots that raised some very interesting question but many of those sub-plots were never resolved, it’s like the author completely forgot about them. I won’t go into details because that would be a spoiler so if you want to know more go check the original review.

4/5

Stardust

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall—named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining.

-Goodreads

This was such a sweet book. It’s like a classical children’s story with all the elements of a fairytale included. There are so many great concepts and ideas splattered all around it, I kinda wish the book was longer so the author could have explored more in deept some of the things that happened, like the pirates that collect stardust and the witches that live in a mirror. Of course, the actual length is also good.

All the great ideas give enough material for a sequel, and that is not something I normally say about stand-alones, but if Neil Gaiman wanted a sequel it could actually be really great. My main problem was that there is this romance subplot that I just didn’t care about. I never noticed the chemistry between the two characters.

4/5

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, the epic story of Catherine and Heathcliff, situated in the bleak and desolate wilderness of Yorkshire, is an astonishing metaphysical vision of fate, obsession, ion and revenge. Published for the first time in 1847 under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell, a year before its author died, this work completely breaks with the canons of "decorum" that Victorian England demanded every novel.

-Ecured

This book did one good thing, all the characters are incredibly well written. The amount of realism in this book is great. The thing is, is hard to appreciate how realistic a story is when you hate every single character in the novel. Seriously, they are well written but I never had a favorite and most of them are truly awful. The only one that is okay was Nelly, but she doesn’t really have a great personality to like.

The book was also boring in certain parts, it felt like nothing was happening. Finally, I didn’t like the ending, it just wasn’t enough for me. I can really explain it because that would be a spoiler, but was just bad. I was disappointed by this book.

2/5

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself ing a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

-IMDB

I read this book for the first time when the movies started coming out, I was 12 or 13 years old at the time. I thought the book was great right up until the end, when I discovered that the dragon barely did anything and got killed in a very simple way, or at least that was my opinion. I was so mad about it that I almost stop reading it. Many years after that, I still believe that Smaug should have done more stuff. Dragons are supposed to do cool things, not dying immediately after showing up. The book still good.

Also, shout-out to Bilbo for not initiating a mass murder after the dwarves invaded his house and ate all his food, if that was me I’ll have ended the line of During over cheese.

4/5

The Fellowship of the Ring

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins.

In the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

-Goodreads

I wanted to love this book, I really did. I’ve heard so many great things about it, probably we all had. The world building was as great as it was expected, the amount of detail, effort and time that went into this book is amazing. Tolkien even invented new languages for his books and that’s so great. The characters were okay, it was good to read about them and I have no complains.

Sadly, the book did disappoint me in certain areas. The entire time I was reading it I felt like I was waiting for something to happen but it never arrived. That happened because of a mixture of the slow-pacing, long descriptions and lack of suspense.

And I did like reading it, but there were some things that were kinda “off” and I didn’t realize until I finished. For example, Tolkien’s descriptions are kinda misplaced. He explains the long backstory of one rock the Fellowship crossed one time and that is never mentioned again, but he doesn’t say what a balrog is, what does it do, and why it’s so scary. And yeah, balrogs are very important in the story.

No one seems to take the whole “take the ring to Mordor” task any seriously, or at least those are the vibes I’m getting from the people tasked to do it. I mean, if Elrond is so wise and powerful why isn’t he a member of the Fellowship? I’m pretty sure that whatever duties he has in Rivendell can wait for him to return from saving the world. And why isn’t Radagast, a wizard like Gandalf, invited to be part of the team? If they don’t get the ring to Mordor all the trees are going to die so he has to care about it.

Why Galadriel and her husband, Celeborn, don’t the Fellowship? If they are so powerful and mighty I’m pretty sure they would be able to help save the world. What I’m saying is that there is a lot of people that could have ed the team and be really helpful. Merry and Pippin are only there because of the Power of Friendship for God’s sake.

Also, 90% of Middle Earth’s problems could be solved by someone inventing a way to travel that isn’t through dangerous paths and potentially dying. I really wish I loved this book.

3/5

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There you have it guys. What do you think? Have you read any of these books? Did you liked them? Let me know in the comments below.

#curatorreview