cody_crumley's reviews
126 reviews

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

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informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Jade City by Fonda Lee

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“The clan is my blood, and the Pillar is its master.

On my honor, my life, and my jade.”

In Fonda Lee’s adult debut, she was able to establish a world and its history with a deep family background like “The Godfather”. While the beginning and end have some trouble taking off and landing, what she is able to do at the start of this trilogy is introduce multiple POVs and keep them all at varying levels of intrigue and importance.

That is what the backbone (or in the case of the city of Jonloon, the Pillar) of this story is. The interactions between characters is what makes this an easy book to read but hard to put down. Falling down the rabbit hole of politics in Jonloon with the two clans (this worlds version of the mafia) of No Peak and the Mountain, who use to be one and how it is told through the POVs that Lee selectively chose is what makes this such a page turner. Barrow is the only one who gets kinda shortchanged, but even that has a narrative reason.

Having this be an Urban Fantasy, it is able to easily bridge the gap of modern society with magical realism with the power of Jade. Jade in this world makes certain members of society called “Green Bones” have god-like powers, with the more Jade you have the more powerful you are. This does not become an OP problem though, as people can struggle to carry all of their Jade and succumb to its allure in a narcotics rule of way.

The most interesting character POV for me was Shae. She had left the No Peak clan and her family, married a foreigner from another area, and as we are introduced to her, she is coming back after a divorce and graduating from a foreign university. How she struggles with the pull of her family trying to get her back in the clan, and how she slowly falls back into clan business is fascinating. It goes to show how hard it is to separate yourself from your blood, no matter how toxic or bad for you it is. Family and Jade in this world have a lot in common.

There are some struggle points in this book, mainly focused on the beginning and end of this book. The openings at the front are not bad, but it’s slow while also throwing lots of info at the reader. My problems with the ending is how convenient the “conflict” of this book is kinda wrapped up, even if the war is alluded to not be over and will eventually continue, but then plan that was done just seemed weirdly “plot armored” in a way that up until that point had not been the case for many characters.

This book does a fantastic job of setting up the next book. Hopefully in the next two, the minor knit picks I have will be resolved and smoothed out because the foundation has been set and it is solid!

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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mysterious reflective sad fast-paced