Tag: Only a Monster

Posted in Book Tags

Ten Bookish Questions Tag 🔟

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

I was honestly so surprised that I hadn’t done this tag before—I found it, like I do most of my tags these days, on The Corner of Laura, and the tag was originally created by A Books Neverland.

Let’s begin, shall we?

🔟TEN BOOKISH QUESTIONS TAG🔟

HOW MANY BOOKS DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN?

…I don’t know the exact number, but certainly more than I have space for…

HOW MANY BOOKS ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

Normally, I stick to one book at a time, but since I’m often reading for other classes, it usually ends up being two or three at this time of the school year. Right now, I’m currently reading Ten Low and re-reading The Left Hand of Darkness for one of my classes.

CHOOSE A COUPLE OF BOOKS YOU READ BUT DIDN’T ENJOY.

I just chose a handful here that I’ve read (somewhat) recently and didn’t enjoy:

  • Only a Monster – Vanessa Len | I really, really wanted there to be some nuance, but no. Apparently we just had to have the themes beaten into our heads with a crowbar.
  • Frontier – Grace Curtis | for the fascinating premise it had, this novel just felt so…boring? For a book with the tagline of “love. loss. laser guns,” you’d think there would be more action, but every plot point just blurred into the next.
  • The Sevenfold Hunters – Rose Egal | this was my first DNF of the year, but it was more out of a feeling of “I have neither the time nor the will to read any more of this” than “I hate this book with a passion.” Even still, there were a lot of problems I had with what I read—mainly the implausibility of everything happening to the characters (and them emerging almost unscathed every time) and the sin of listing off every single character’s sexualities instead of organically weaving in their representation in a way that didn’t feel like checking off boxes.

A COVER BUY?

I put off reading Firekeeper’s Daughter for quite some time, but after reading Warrior Girl Unearthed, I was fully convinced to buy this one…but the cover was a significant part of the sell. Absolutely gorgeous design, isn’t it?

A BOOK YOU OWN BUT HATE THE COVER OF?

I don’t hate the cover of Ammonite, but it kind of screams “graphic design is my passion,” y’know? Gotta love the ’90s.

A BOOK YOU HAVEN’T READ IN YEARS?

It’s been at least a decade since I’ve picked up any of the Warriors books, but those consumed my life from 3rd to 5th grade like nothing else had before…god, those were the days. Nothing like cats violating every single term of the Geneva Conventions for some after-school reading.

A BOOK YOU WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND?

Every time I go to any bookstore with friends, I inevitably try to steer them over to this one. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is truly special. I swear.

ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK SERIES?

Y’all already know the answer to this one…

WHERE DO YOU READ?

Mostly in bed or on the couch, but when the weather’s warm, I read outside, and when the weather’s cold, I read in the campus coffee shops.

I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PARTICIPATE!

Today’s song:

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Monthly Wrap-Ups

May 2023 Wrap-Up 🌂

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles! Hope this month has treated you well.

How is it already the end of May? It feels like I was trying to get dust bunnies out of the corners of my dorm room just a few days ago…(so many dust bunnies 😭)

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Whew! May has been pretty busy, but everything’s…temporarily winding down. I finished up my finals and managed to make straight A’s this semester—I just found out I got on the dean’s list, too! Still can’t believe I’m already finished with my first semester of college; it was such a scary and jarring experience at first, but I’m already finding myself missing parts of it. What a weird and wonderful year it’s been. Now that I’m back home for the summer, I’ve just been trying to soak it all up—I’ve had a few quiet weeks, but I’ll be going back to the library soon, which I’m so excited about!

My reading and blogging have both still been slower, with all of the bustle of finishing…everything, but I’m starting to get back on track now that summer’s started. I’m slowly trying to get back on a writing schedule as well—I ended up deciding to write the sequel to my main sci-fi WIP, and once I finish outlining it (which I’m in the middle of right now), I’ll get back on my writing schedule. That’ll probably be what I end up working on for Camp NaNoWriMo in July…

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing more, playing guitar, watching Kindred (Octavia Butler deserves a better adaptation), committing to binge-watching my way through Taskmaster (there’s strength in arches, y’know), and enjoying being home. We’re still in the “summer, but not disastrously hot yet” stage here in Colorado, so I’m enjoying that while it lasts…

And more importantly, I’m going to a virtual Q & A with the one and only AMIE KAUFMAN tonight!! I CAN’T WAIT!!

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 18 books this month! My reading’s still a bit slowed down after finals and moving out (!!!), but I still feel like I read a good amount. It was a really mixed bag, though—two 1 star books (one was a DNF, the other would’ve been had I not been trying to wait out a lightning storm before going to sleep 🥴), but THREE 5-star (one rounded up from 4.75) books! Can’t remember the last time the former happened. Either way, I found a ton of great reads for AAPI heritage month, and finally got my hands on some of my most anticipated reads of the year!

If this month’s 1 star reads are any indication, maybe the word “monster” is the problem…?

1 – 1.75 stars:

Only a Monster

2 – 2.75 stars:

This Is Not a Personal Statement

3 – 3.75 stars:

The Art of Prophecy

4 – 4.75 stars:

The Isles of the Gods

5 stars:

A Thousand Steps into Night

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Stonewall Reader – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

POSTS BY OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

SONGS/ALBUMS I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

[castanet insanity ensures]
NEW PALEHOUND LET’S GO
Kindred was a disappointment but this cover is great
✨𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙬𝙣✨
EXCELLENT album
NEW BLUR OUT IN JULY I AM NOT OKAY I AM NOT OKAY
I don’t know if I’m completely committed to listening to this album all the way through yet but I WILL EVENTUALLY IT’S JUST LONG

Today’s song:

I have not felt peace since this was uploaded to bandcamp on Sunday night

That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (5/23/23) – Only a Monster

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

This book has been on my radar for quite some time—I’m always up for a good urban fantasy every once in a while, and the V.E. Schwab comparison had me hesitantly optimistic. I figured it would be a good read for AAPI Heritage Month, but…alas, it was such a mess, and ultimately not worth my time.

Enjoy this week’s review!

Only a Monster (Monsters, #1) – Vanessa Len

Joan is set to have the perfect summer. She’s staying in London with her late mother’s side of the family, amidst historical buildings, a steady job (with a handsome co-worker, Nick), and the smell of magic in the air. But when a disaster leaves most of her family dead, Joan is confronted with an ugly truth—she comes from a long line of time-stealing monsters. Worse still, the handsome Nick comes from a long line of monster hunters. Can Joan hone her powers before the monster hunters track her down?

TW/CW (from Vanessa Len): murder, violence, blood, loss of loved ones (on & off-page), substance abuse, xenophobia (fantasy), racism, interrogation, brainwashing, weapon use

DNF at 27%.

Before I get into my rant: I’ll always appreciate how much time and love it takes to write a book and put it out there. Any kind of creative output like this is highly admirable, and I can give this novel a certain degree of slack knowing that it’s Vanessa Len’s debut novel. That being said, Only a Monster really wasn’t it for me, and sometimes 1-star rants can be good for the soul as long as they aren’t actively hurting anybody. Gotta air it all out sometimes.

I went into Only a Monster expecting for it to be a nice break from some of the denser books I’d just read—something fun, something charmingly over-the-top. And…well, the over-the-top element was very much present, but not in a good way at all. From what I read of this novel, it was really just a mess that lacked any sort of nuance whatsoever.

We had the setup right from the start—a monsters versus monster-hunters conflict, “Joan is not the hero of this story,” et cetera, et cetera. Before reading this, I figured a lot of that language was just going to be for the sake of putting a nice hook on the front cover and other marketing purposes; I assumed that the book was going to get into some of the morally gray (as much of a buzzword that’s become with books these days) aspects of that conflict, but…no. From the get-go, we’re hit over the head with a comically large sledgehammer that JOAN IS NOT THE HERO OF THE STORY!!! and that BEING A MONSTER IS BAD BAD BAD!! and that MONSTERS AND HEROES!!!! DO NOT MIX!!! EVER!!! It’s not so much a theme so much as it is a metal pipe that gets painfully shoved down your throat. It got to the point where I felt like it was insulting my intelligence—I didn’t need to be told all this over and over. I really didn’t. Jeez. It could’ve been developed somewhat compellingly, but….no.

Beyond that, I didn’t know going in to Only a Monster that there was going to be a dreaded love triangle, which…[EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER]

If there’s anything that can instantly ruin a book, it’s that. THERE’S NO NEED. And the setup wasn’t even anything that hasn’t been done before—each love interest is on one side of the conflict (monster and monster-hunter), and while I didn’t care to stick around to find out how it was resolved, I had a feeling that it would end up as a trash fire. What I did manage to get, however, was the description of Nick as “stupidly good-looking.” Can we please, as a society, get rid of this? Please? It’s starting to become just like “she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding” at this point. Again: zero nuance.

All in all, a bitter disappointment of a book that lacked the creativity and nuance that the blurb and reviews promised. 1 star.

Only a Monster is the first in Vanessa Len’s Monsters trilogy, which will continue with Never a Hero (slated for release this August) and an untitled third book.

Today’s song:

WE LOVE THE MAGNETIC FIELDS IN THIS HOUSE

That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!