Little Knife (Grishaverse, #2.6) by Leigh Bardugo Review

 

This review does not contain spoilers for Little Knife. This is an additional short story in the Grishaverse, accompanying The Demon in the Wood, The Witch of Duva, The Tailor, and The Too-Clever Fox.

You can read my reviews for The Grisha Trilogy, The Tailor, The Witch of Duva, The Too-Clever Fox, Six of Crows, and Crooked Kingdom on my blog and my Goodreads now!

I definitely recommend reading the novellas and short stories for the Grishaverse, as they add so much to the story in such a limited number of pages. You learn so much about the characters and the world through these tales, and Bardugo continues to raise the bar when it comes to plot and character development.

This short story follows Yeva, a girl born so beautiful she must be kept locked away so that men will stop fighting each other over her hand or trying to steal her away from her family. Her father has noticed the attention she receives, and tells the men who stand outside their home that he has a number of tasks for them - for whoever wins, will have his daughter's hand.

Seymon, a poor man with no job or money, sets his eyes on Yeva, and finds an interesting ally in the game to win her hand -- Little Knife. But things are not always as they seem in Ravka, and Seymon soon finds out that he too may not be as genuine as he believes.

I always enjoy Bardugo's additional short stories, and Little Knife does not disappoint. What seems to draw loosely on a reverse Cinderella-esque tale, Bardugo is able to convey the Grishaverse's history through short yet intriguing tales. A quick read that will leave the reader with more understanding of the Grishaverse and yearning for more.

You can add Little Knife and the rest of the Grishaverse series on Goodreads now, as well as follow the author to stay to up to date on publications and releases.

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Fighting Destiny (The Fae Chronicles, #1) by Amelia Hutchins Review

This review contains some mild spoilers for Fighting Destiny at the beginning of the review. The remainder of the review does not contain any plot spoilers. Please read with discretion.

I was looking for a little fantasy palate cleanser after reading a lot of romance books, and came across this in the free section on iBooks. From the short description, I figured I would give it a go and see how the series began -- I went into this series not knowing anything more about the plot besides what was included in the description, so I was not exactly sure what I was getting into before reading.

I most certainly did not expect one of the first scenes in this book to be basically an assault scene. From my understanding, this prince that these characters loved talking about to so much, along with the rest of these fae, can literally sleep with people and turn them into dissociative zombie-like people? Honestly it really threw me off because it happens so fast that you do not even realize what is happening until it's basically over.

Synthia, our main character, is headstrong and seems to argue with every person that breathes in her direction. The entire time I was reading this book, the only thing playing in my head when I read her name was the slam poetry scene from 22 Jump Street - "Cynthia. Cyn-thi-a. Jesus died for our Cynthias. Jesus cried. Runaway bride." Then we have Alden and Adam, who I could barely tell apart while reading and kept switching their names up so much I am not too entirely sure who is who anymore. Ryder, our lovely little demon fairy prince, is literally one of the most unhinged characters that I have come across - I don't know if it is because of the way he talks, but this boy literally screams red flags to the tenth degree, yet I eat it up.

This book is giving sex club owner meets paranormal fantasy meets assassin/spy plot - it is set in the very modern world, and our main character even has an apartment and a roommate who avoids paying rent yet has time to go on shopping sprees. I have to say that I was not a huge fan of this book being set so modern - the descriptions of every character wearing jeans and button ups and watching reporters on the news while also talking about a fae's organs being removed gives you a bit of whiplash. There are a decent amount of song references in the book, and you can definitely overlook them as they don't hinder the plot by making the references too modern, but they are there and Synthia does mention them throughout the book.

It honestly took a few chapters for me to finally start to get into the book - probably about one third of the way through I began to like the characters more and the plot seemed to become more concise and flow better. I definitely started to like Ryder a lot more than I originally did, and that may just be because I'm a sucker for a dark and brooding male character. This book certainly does not come without its twists and turns, and I won't be the one to spoil those here, but I will say that if you pay enough attention, you'll be able to piece everything together right before it is revealed.

Larissa and Adam as side characters started to annoy me in the sense that they constantly keep information from Synthia until it's too late or she has already gotten hurt. I understand that they are working some type of mission, but they are shown to consistently put the cause over Synthia's wellbeing, when Synthia is the one doing all of the work. Everyone is always telling her what she has to do, but no one actually understands the predicament that she is actually in.

I recommend this book to fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope and dark-themed romance. It has action, sex, and fae - a read that will certainly keep you entertained and a plot that isn't riddled with unnecessary characters or confusing lore.

Fighting Destiny is available to download for FREE on iBooks and Kindle. You can add Fighting Destiny on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on publications and releases.

 

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Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Review

Reader discretion is advised for Lolita, and I highly suggest reading up on potential trigger warnings if this content is not something that you are comfortable reading about in the book or in this review. This review does contain mild spoilers for Lolita.

Lolita's reputation for decades has been followed by controversy, taboo, and intense conversation. The novel's film adaption did not help this discussion, as Humbert's thoughts and narrative should have been kept to the page - creating a film of the very topic made Humbert as an unreliable narrator turn into something that Nabokov never intended for this story.

I have to say that I was definitely on the fence about even owning this book, let alone reading it, after hearing for years about the debate that has been going on for decades - does this book romanticize the "relationship" between Humbert and Dolores? We begin the book with Humbert in jail, for crimes that we automatically assume must be related to this character, Lolita, whom we have yet to meet but already have an idea of who she is - except for her name. Humbert's thoughts and storytelling are contradictory and calculated as he describes what his life has become and recounts his life before Dolores enters it, and how he came to be involved in her life.

Right off the bat, we know that Humbert is a character that we are rightfully disgusted by - he tells the reader of his various encounters with young girls and the obsessive thoughts and feelings he has towards them. Nabokov has Humbert cut right to the chase of what type of person Humbert is, and as a reader, you are find yourself struggling to get through these early pages of description and detail of Humbert's thoughts. The way that Humbert describes the girls he encounters and the girls he only sees in the streets or in passing has the reader questioning if they should even continue with the story, hoping that whatever they're about to read about Humbert and Dolores does not cross into this territory with a twenty-foot pole. 

Dolores is a young, twelve-year-old girl who is quite the opposite of the "nymphet" that Humbert constantly refers to her as - she is simply a child with a child's attitude and outlook on life. Humbert takes everything that Dolores does and warps the meaning behind it to fit into the narrative he has created in his mind. Dolores is acting out towards her mother and delays their picnic? Humbert believes she is doing this to tease him. He creates these encounters in his mind in which he and Dolores are living a life together and doing unspeakable things together. Nabokov writes Humbert with the ability to speak directly to the reader, where he attempts to justify his thoughts and tries to change the reader's view of his actions. But with the knowledge that we have about Humbert, it is impossible for us to ever see his side, because it is simply wrong in every way. He deserves no remorse, no compassion, and certainly no justification.

Humbert agonizes when Dolores is away from him, and blames everyone, even Dolores at times, for when his plans are thwarted from going his way. Her mother wants to send her to school far away, and Humbert does everything in his power to change this course of action. So much so, that he ends up marrying her to ensure that he stays close to Dolores. When Dolores's mother passes away, Humbert does not even initially tell her what has happened, he instead takes her away to a motel or something like the such, and prolongs telling her so that he may live in a world where it is just him and Dolores in his own fantasy.

After the reveal of her mother's death, we see Dolores change in character - or do we? Our unreliable narrator tries to paint a picture of an antagonizing Dolores that provokes Humbert at every chance, along with being sexually suggestive towards him. In reality, the reader knows that this is not actually happening, that it is Humbert combining the reality that he and Dolores live in with the fantasy of her that he has spent months formulating and building upon. 

We get very few fleeting moments of Dolores actually acting as a character rather than the object of Humbert's obsession, and even when we do, her words are not her own. They are the words that Humbert has given to her in order to satisfy his thoughts. This was expected, as the reader is only being fed information through Humbert, and while he tries to plead his case and give explanations for what he believed to have happened, it is obvious that anything that Dolores says or does once it is only her and Humbert is not actually Dolores, but Humbert's mind.

Seeing Humbert slowly fall into an even deeper obsession with Dolores once she becomes older was deeply uncomfortable to read. He continues to talk directly to the reader, consistently telling us that it is in fact Dolores who is responsible for the way he is, instead of himself. While Humbert does acknowledge in the beginning and end of the story that these thoughts are his own, he spends the almost the entirety trying to convince the reader that Dolores is responsible for his responses. His obsession with Dolores is doomed from the start - it is not only deeply disturbing and unsettling, but watching it unfold into some type of cat and mouse chase at the end makes the reader hope that Humbert will never see Dolores again. Even the idea of him knowing what is going on in her life was too much for me to imagine - he does not deserve to know what becomes of her and her future.

Nabokov's writing style, filled with French phrases that only emphasize the story and its characters, is able to create such an unlikable character out of Humbert. We know he is the unreliable narrator and that we should not believe a word he says, yet we continue to "listen" to the story he is telling us - we have to know what happens to him in the end. I obviously do not condone the way Humbert acted towards Dolores and the lengths that he took to stay in her life - he is a gross human being and no redemption for him is in his future.

A controversial classic, Lolita captivates the reader as we try to untangle Humbert's thoughts and decide what is true and what is obsession.

You can add Lolita on Goodreads now.

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