Reviews and Comments

So, I guess I finished this book yesterday, and I was lying awake at night, imagining what I thought of it.

First impressions, this book is longer than, I think, any of the other Shadowhunter books. I noticed in particular because I'd actually ordered the hardcover edition, and it seemed huge! I guess that's a point in favor of the Kindle edition. It didn't really drag, though. The pacing was pretty consistent.

I liked all of the "new" characters, though of course we kind of met most of them in City of Heavenly Fire. I loved the Blackthorn family motto, a bad law is no law. A nice contrast to the usual Shadowhunter creed.

I liked the way Malcolm was introduced. At first I thought he seemed like he was going to be too much like Magnus, and I think that was deliberate misdirection because when he showed up with his shirt half unbuttoned I thought that he was going to be show-offy like Magnus. Then he said he'd just forgotten to finish buttoning it. And he'd tied his shoelaces together.

I liked the tie-in to the children's story.

I did not predict the ending at all. I was very sad to learn that Malcolm was the enemy.
At my MOPS group somewhat recently, we had a speaker on the topic of protecting your children from sexual predators. A lot of the things that Malcolm did reminded me of the predatory "grooming" that she talked about. He got the family to trust him, he watched movies and ate pizza with them. He played with Tavvy and gave him toys. This actually made the scenario much more believable for me.

I was interested in the tie-in of the Edgar Allen Poe poem. I was half expecting to read that Malcolm was really Edgar Allen Poe or something. It was pretty awful what happened to Annabel, and it's sad that Malcolm thought that everyone had lied to him about her. I was glad to learn that they didn't know either.

Emma/Julian - That's going to be a problem. All of the main ships in these series has had big obstacles, but I can't see how this one could be overcome.

A lost Herondale! Great surprise near the end. I thought that perhaps Kit would be selected to go to the academy and try to ascend or something. I didn't expect him to be Christopher Herondale.

How awesome are Tessa and Jem?

This book actually wrapped things up more than I am used to for something that I knew would be the first in a series. I appreciate that. The main plot of the book was pretty much ended, and it wasn't really cliffhangery.

I was wondering what would be left for the next book until the reveal of Christopher Herondale, the parabatai curse, and... Annabel waking up.

A Boy Called Christmas was a delightful fantasy story. It really had a Roald Dahl feel to it. The beginning especially felt very Matilda/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I liked that it wasn’t one of those Santa stories about “saving Christmas”. Christmas is already a thing, and the main character loves it despite coming from a poor family and rarely getting presents. The story didn't suggest that he was connected to the historical figure of Saint Nicholas either. It was a very British style Father Christmas, despite the main character being from Finland.

A Boy Called Christmas was just a great, magical fantasy story with a unique fantasy origin for "Father Christmas" with elves, reindeer, and lots of heart.

I needed something with an audio version to listen to while I drove to do a store pickup, and also while I wrapped presents. As I looked at the choices, I noticed A Boy Called Christmas. I had seen this book around a little bit, but didn’t know a whole lot about it. I saw that the audiobook was read by Stephen Fry. It’s hard to go wrong with an audiobook read by Stephen Fry!

A Boy Called Christmas was a wonderful story, and the audiobook was a fantastic listen. And I really did finish this book on Christmas Day! I finished the last ten minutes or so in the early morning when I woke up before my kids.

Christmas Shopaholic was a super funny Christmas themed book, but also had some touching storylines. I really identified with the struggle to help another mom who is going through a hard time.
Becky’s adventures were as outlandish and funny as ever, but not so unbelievable that it made me doubt her ability to pull it off in the end.

I relayed quite a few of the funny bits to my husband, and he laughed out loud too. Christmas Shopaholic really seems to have recaptured the charm of the earlier books. All of the characters felt like old friends I was catching up with after a long time.

Christmas Shopaholic came out in 2019, but for some reason I didn’t read it until this year. I don’t know why, but I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I feel a little silly for not reading Christmas Shopaholic sooner, but I’m glad I read it this year. Looking back at my reviews for the previous two Shopaholic books, I definitely thought that was the end of the series, and I wasn’t looking for a continuation. I was definitely wrong! Christmas Shopaholic was a delight and a wonderful book for getting in the holiday mood.

This is a re-read, because I originally read these as shorts when they were first released in 2015. But it’s also my first time reading these stories together in one book.

This book/series was one of my favorites when it was released. I love the character of Simon, and the Shadowhunter Academy setting was really fun. I also enjoyed all of the “flashback” stories. The stories feel more tied together than the Bane Chronicles(I liked those too, but they felt more standalone). It was also nice reading about young Julian and Emma now that I’ve read their series as well. The cast of additional characters felt more cohesive to me on this reading.

I read this as part of my “chronological-ish” reread of Shadowhunter books. I had just finished reading The Mortal Instruments. One very important thing happens in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy that didn’t happen much in all of The Mortal Instruments books. Time passes. That’s right. School years go by and the characters age! It’s just really satisfying, after reading a six book series over the span of years which all took place within the span of three months. Simon turned 19? How did that happen? Time passed, characters developed, and it was amazing.

I’m a confirmed descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims William Bradford and William Brewster. I’ve been to Plymouth and seen the museums and the Mayflower 2. There wasn’t really that much in this book that I didn’t already know about the Mayflower Pilgrims, but it still kind of messed with my head.

I appreciated learning more about the Wampanoag than I had previously learned, and I thought this History Smashers book told a more complete story than may be familiar to many Americans.

I think the biggest revelation for me is that the very idea of the Pilgrim’s feast in 1621 being the “first Thanksgiving” is the most fictional part of all. Neither the Pilgrims, nor the Native people in attendance ever referred to it as a thanksgiving. Both groups did have thanksgiving celebrations and this was not one of them.

The idea of this mythologized “Thanksgiving” was brought out with a nostalgic lens during times of struggle and war, I guess with the hopes of increased unity. I can imagine them suggesting that if the Pilgrims and the Indians could get along and give thanks together, we can all get along too! This is, of course, presented without additional historical context and completely ignoring how things turned out in the years to follow.

I’d like to quote The O.C. now. Possible spoilers for The O.C. Season 2.
Ryan: Alright, look. Luke Skywalker was happy to find his dad, right? Even if he turned out to be Darth Vader.
Lindsay: Ryan, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fought each other with light sabers until one of them died.

I was greatly anticipating this new book from Rick Riordan. I was part of a touring show adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea in college, so I felt that I was familiar with the source material and was curious about what he would do with it.

You don’t need to have experience with the original story to enjoy Daughter of the Deep, though. This is kind of the Percy Jackson treatment for Captain Nemo(not the cartoon fish). It was nice to recognize some characters and events from the original story, but the book gave you everything you needed.

I enjoyed the female main character and the diverse group of supporting characters. The world of their training was really interesting, with Dolphins, Sharks, Orcas, and Cephalopods, each representing a house that had different strengths and talents.

There was a point at which I was expecting a character to, like, turn out to be a dolphin or something. Then I realized that wasn’t happening because this is sci-fi! I’ve watched lots of Star Trek, but I haven’t read that much sci-fi, compared to the amount of fantasy I’ve read.

Despite the action early on, the story felt like it built a bit slower than other Rick Riordan books that I’ve read, but it definitely picked up. I was riveted to the page by the end. I loved the “alt-tech”.

If there is a sequel, I’ll definitely read it. I’m not sure if there will be or not. This book definitely works as a stand-alone, but I think the door is open for more stories in this world.

Pumpkinheads is a sweet story about two friends spending their last Halloween in a pumpkin patch. This really must be the world’s best pumpkin patch, based on all of the different food stands and attractions that were shown or mentioned. It was the Disneyland of pumpkin patches.

Pumpkinheads was my first graphic novel. I bought the Kindle version of this book by Rainbow Rowell two years ago, but had not read past the first couple of pages. So this review is a response to reading a graphic novel in general just as much as it is a review of Pumpkinheads as a story. Possibly more. This is different for me. I’m very auditory, and to me, books are about words.

Reading Pumpkinheads, a graphic novel, was a little confusing at first. I had to read the word bubbles in the right order. I had to really look at the pictures to see what was going on in the story. These might seem like silly or obvious things to point out, but these were the little differences that were, for some reason, hurdles to the very idea of my reading a graphic novel.

I got used to the different format pretty quickly, and soon stopped noticing that I was looking at pictures at the same time that I was reading words. To me it felt a little bit like watching a movie with subtitles. Since all of the text is dialogue, I could also compare it to reading a play. But with pictures. It was also pretty fast to read. Much faster than a traditional novel, because of course there is far fewer text on each page.

Fun fact; I started reading this while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my husband. At the end of the book, in the acknowledgments, the authors talk about bonding over their love of Star Trek: The Next Generation. True story.