Its about that time, I've gone through 5 audiobooks, so it's time that I summarize my scant thoughts about them! It's about time too, because I keep forgetting which audiobooks I've listened to and where they fall. Lets get into it
Sin Eater by: Megan Campisi
Rating: 2/5
Summary from Amazon:
"For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater—a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.
Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why."
This book was just fine, it was kind of like a historic Handmaid's Tale vibe. I liked Campisi's use of imagery and the way that she used language. At a certain point, the book really started to drag. It takes hours of listening for the book to even get into the actual mystery. I'm not going to lie, I forgot that there was supposed to be a mystery because of how long it took. Really I was just kind of confused for a lot of the book, and I didn't really understand the protagonist's motivations. Like, I was following her whole character for awhile, but then halfway through she has this mental breakdown for no reason and does a complete 180 and decides that actually she's going to be a dick. But then like an hour later she decides that no, she isn't going to do that. So it was all just for nothing? I don't know, the whole hour I listened to her try to fight back mentally against the system felt like wasted time that was included as filler since she ended up going back on this change pretty immediately. It's been awhile since I listened to this one, so I don't have very specific thoughts, but I know that her weird breakdown in the middle that felt like it went against her whole character specifically got on my nerves. Also, kind of be history or don't? Like this was leaning hard on the history of like Elizabeth the first and Bloody Mary, but just slightly tweaked. The narrator did a really great job.
A Dance With Dragons (ASOIAF #5) by: George R.R. Martin
Rating: 4/5
I will not include a summary, I feel like if you've made it to the fifth book in the series, you probably know what it's about. The same things I said about the other books still apply. Plenty of action and great world-building. This one was full of just so many characters making so many bad decisions (*cough* Jon *cough*) that you can really see building into something bad. You can see more of the weird way the last two books were divided in the strange array of the POVs. That is really my biggest complaint. It was nice to get the POV of some actual primary characters that I actually care about, but there are some other POVs that I want that just aren't in this one. The weird way that Cersei, and especially Jaime, were just barely sprinkled in really got on my nerves. At this point I'm invested in their perspective and I want to know what they know. Likewise, I wish we could've gotten Margaery's POV in this book. I don't know why George is determined to just work around some people rather than just include them. But thank god I know what everyone in Theon's family is doing at every point in time. I feel like 90% of Victarion's chapters could've been cut. Also, just name the chapters with Asha's name, stop calling her weird, coy things so that I have to guess who it's going to be (well if you look at the chapters in advance).
Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1) by: Robin Hobb
Rating:3.5/5
Summary from Amazon:
"Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated as an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz’s blood runs the magic Skill—and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family.
As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom."
This one really caught me off guard. This is one of those books where you're a bit dubious while you're reading, but after it ends you're surprised by just how much you enjoyed it. The end of this book was so good that it almost made up for the incredibly slow beginning. This book is a coming-of-age fantasy with a really interesting magic system. And as this is at its core an adult fantasy, people that you like really do be dying. A lot of dog death too, well it's only two but that kind of feels like a lot doesn't it? The coming-of-age aspect is kind of the part that makes it start very slowly. It's a good 50% into the book before things start to actually get interesting. The villains were pretty one-dimensional, you knew who they were as soon as you met them. There was never any question as to who the antagonists are.
I'm also not a fan of the device through which Hobb decided to write the book. I'm never a really big fan of books where it is just the protagonist writing their past down and narrating the book as if it were a story being told. The biggest reason for this is because it takes away a lot of the tension. I know that Fitz is going to live because he has to live in order to be writing this book. See how that can make life or death moments kind of moot (well, if it's the protagonist's life on the line). I know that a lot of what I said make the book sound like it's kind of bad, but it isn't. Once you get into the heart of the story you really want to know what comes next, you're so invested in Fitz and his duties to the crown. The political plots and manipulation going on was very well done. The whole book was just very well written. The audiobook covers are heinous, but the audiobook itself was very well done. The narrator did a very good job portraying the different people.
The Elementals by: Michael McDowell
Rating: 3/5
Summary from Amazon:
"After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait. Something that has terrified Dauphin Savage and Luker McCray since they were boys and which still haunts their nightmares. Something horrific that may be responsible for several terrible and unexplained deaths years earlier - and is now ready to kill again . . . "
As someone who is from Alabama, his portrayal of the state was just spot-on (which makes sense as he is also from Alabama). If you want to understand what it's like to waste away in an Alabama summer, read this book. His use of description was gritty, but also very well done. The whole book had a raw feeling to it, the horror was in the scary stuff going on in the third house, but also the family dynamics of the people in Beldame. The horror not being necessarily paranormal, but related to the elements was also a very nice touch. It felt fresh and I was interested to hear more. This vibe was the kind of horror that's more creepy than straight-up terrifying. Now that we've discussed the good, this was a classic case of a child in a horror book acting so much like an adult that it's a little disconcerting and not realistic at all. The relationship between Lukar and India was just so incredibly weird. It was way too casual and there were so little boundaries that it was just uncomfy. She saw her dad like butt-ass naked like at least 2 times and that was just chill. Like? No? So it's safe to say that some f the family dynamics just felt kind of unreal or undeveloped. Like the dynamic between Lukar and Leighton was never really explored, rather it was kind of just the baseline. And while I had never noticed the use of the "magical negro" stereotype in fiction, boy do I now. Odessa was really the epitome of that trope. The narrator was good, but sometimes the southern accent shifted to kind of like soft, debutante, Arkansas/Kentucky southern and not Good Ol' Boy, Deep South southern like it might've been. It doesn't take away from the book, it's just something that I took note of.
Wild Seed (The Patternist Series book #1) by: Octavia Butler
Rating: 5/5
Summary from Amazon:
As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past—and mankind’s destiny is changed forever.
For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.
Okay, imagine X-Men but set in the past coupled with Eugenics, with some African culture thrown in. That is how I would describe Wild Seed. This book was complicated. The main characters felt very well-developed, especially Anwanyu and Doro. This book isn't for the faint of heart because it touches on some dark topics. Selective breeding for one, gruesome deaths, incest, slavery, suicide, and problematic relationships, it's just a whole lot wrapped into one book. I must say though, it all comes together to form a book that feels so new, yet also raw and real. The way that we see the story unfold and build is just fantastic. It was also super cool how, through Anwanyu, Butler was able to interweave some bits of African culture and history. The magic system (if you can call it that, its more akin to super powers) was so fascinating in the way that different abilities formed in different people. Doro's is especially interesting, to have this character that can't be killed, but that has to kill to survive is such a cool concept. Because how do you even fight him? Though, this almost feels like too much power, it works to make him a constant threat in the book but he also felt overpowered. How could someone hope to actually beat Doro? Also, there is such a strong love/hate relationship between Anwanyu and Doro that even I don't know how to feel. Like, they're terrible for each other (Doro is terrible for Anwanyu at least), but their dynamic is one that is almost addictive. I don't want them together, but also there's a little piece of me that does (a very small piece). To have someone that is just the epitome of bad coupled with someone who is just so good is conflicting to think about, but also totally gripping to read about. Like, this book didn't have too much in the way of plot, it was very character-driven, but I was still always curious to know what would happen next. My biggest complaint was that the villains (except Doro) were very underdeveloped, and 2-D. They were just kind of there to be bad and make trouble randomly in the book for some action I guess.