juan_adhd_reading's reviews
120 reviews

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There must be something in the fourth book of every Rick Riordan series, because I could swear it’s always my favorite one!!! Last year when I read PJO, The Battle of the Labyrinth was also my favorite. 

Percy and Annabeth’s journey through Tartarus was just done masterfully. This is mostly because the book acknowledges that there are perils that even these Demigods, who have beat several giants and titans and innumerable other monsters, can’t handle. So how do they survive Tartarus? With the help of one the titans they beat in the past! I’m gonna have to re read Sword of Hades to get over Bob 😭 He was such a great addition, and his redemption arc felt so real. I love how this and past books show that evil is not inherent in a monster, with such great and sweet characters like Tyson, Ella, Bob and Damasen (the peaceful giant). 

Meanwhile the other group has to deal with absence of two of the most important demigods, while trying to get to the Doors of Death before Percy and Annabeth get consumed by Tartarus. Nico was definitely the star here, dealing with being the black sheep of the group but still essential if they have any hope of making it to the House of Hades. The scene with Cupid??? *chef’s kiss* Hazel and Frank also get major character development, with Hazel learning to control the Mist and Frank finally learning to accept his heritage as a son of Mars and use it to his advantage. I didn’t feel that the character development was as strong with Piper and Jason, though. 

Now Leo…
LEO AND CALYPSO!!!! *screams internally* The chapter with Percy on Ogygia was one of my favorites in BotL, and this one was almost as good. I felt like it was being written a little mean towards Leo, but that was just to reflect how he feels towards himself being another black sheep in the group. The fact that out of every demigod that has visited the island, he is probably the only one with the technical capacity to find it again and finally break the curse!!! I understand why people would ship him with Calypso after all that, though personally I feel like Leo is aro/ace.


I can’t wait to finally finish this fantastic series!
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Listen, I'm not gonna pretend that this book doesn't have its flaws, particularly regarding prose, dialogue, and world-building. Yeah, it can sometimes feel a bit underdeveloped or even juvenile (I think it could've benefited greatly from being written for adult audiences instead of YA). But at the end of the day I do NOT care, because this book was insanely fun!!! It's an action-packed revenge story that blurs the line between sci-fi and fantasy with magically controlled giant mecha suits fighting against aliens. It basically feels like reading anime. The protagonist, Wu Zetian, starts as a morally grey femme fatale type of character who plots to avenge the murder of her big sister, and throughout the story, we can see her descent into a fully unhinged tyrannical villain. I LOVED IT!!!
There is a plot twist at the very end of the book that completely redefines the events of the story, and some might feel like it came out of nowhere, but I believe there are some clues scattered throughout the book that actually foreshadow it. We know that the war is not what it seems, because the army has been lying about everything from the very beginning, from the accuracy of Spirit Pressure testing, to why women are always placed in the Yin seat instead of men.


Overall, I really enjoyed this story, even if it took me a little time to get into it. I CANNOT WAIT for the sequel!!!
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Network Effect by Martha Wells

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book really had the potential to become my favorite Murderbot novel. I guess I wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time when I read it, otherwise, it could've easily been a 5-star read. Having this story be a full-length novel instead of a novella really helps with fleshing out Murderbot as a character, showing how its life is at Preservation with Dr. Mensah and her family, and helping it discover what it really wants to do with its newfound freedom. Also, ART is back and sassier than ever!!! I ADORE Murderbot and ART as a duo, and this was a fantastic arc showing them figuring out their relationship. My real only complaint is that this novel's pace felt slower than the other ones in the series, but again, this could be because I was reading it at a bad time in my life.
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

At the time I rated it 4 stars, but the more I thought about it, I decided to lower my rating. The reason I gave it 4 stars in the first place is because I thought the last third of the book was great, specifically after
Medusa's death/beheading. Ironically, dead Medusa seems to have more personality and character development than live Medusa.
To me, it seems that the author only had enough of a story to write a novella, which I personally think would've worked a lot better, but decided to add more content to make it a full novel. But this additional content doesn't really add a lot to the story of Medusa, and I would argue that it actually takes attention away from her. As others have pointed out, a vast amount of the book focuses on Athena and Perseus, and a bit on Andromeda too, to the point in which they seem to be bigger characters than Medusa. 

One thing that really bothered me, is that a very large plot point of the book doesn't get resolved.
Throughout the book, we are shown several times how other gods have disrespected Athena, most prominently Poseidon (by raping Medusa in Athena's temple) and Hephaestus (by being tricked by Poseidon to ask Athena in marriage, and later sexually assaulting her by ejaculating on her). After both of this offenses she vows to take revenge, and we read an entire chapter of her pondering how she'll do it, but I guess she just forgot all about that? Because Hephaustus is not mentioned again in the third act, nor any of the other Olympians who voted against her in deciding who gets the land of Athens. Poseidon loses a bit of the sea, not by the hands of Athena, but by the the other two Gorgons, and in the end he gets it back anyway. So what was the point in wasting so much time figuring out Athena's great plan to get back at the other gods, if by the end she just gets turned into a statue without doing anything about it?


Anyway, I think this book would've worked a lot better if we just kept the chapters focusing on Medusa and her sisters. Because these parts were really beautiful, showing how much love she had for her sisters, and how her sisters loved her so much back, enough to being actually able to change, when their nature is to be unchanging and unmovable. I really wanted to know their grief and emotions after Medusa is killed, but instead, we just get it passively and briefly through other narrators. So, because of this, I decided to lower my original rating, but I'm still hopeful to read other works by this author.
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Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Although the book is great as a standalone short story, it doesn't compare to the other books in the series in my opinion, especially considering how amazing the last novel before this one was (Network Effect). This feels like a filler book, which although does serve to extend Murderbot's backstory about its life and role in Preservation, doesn't have a very strong character development and kind of interrupts the flow of the story after Network Effect. I'd recommend reading it if you're craving to know more about Murderbot's job in Preservation, with a bit of a murder mystery, but otherwise, you can skip right ahead to the next book (System Collapse).
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Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This entire series has permanently changed my brain chemistry and how I view Sci-fi / Fantasy forever! Out of the current three in the series, this one is the one in which I felt less confused, and I felt like I knew more or less what was going on most of the time. Amazing, adorable characters all around, both new and old faces (wink wink...), with Muir's very signature humor as expected. The beginning almost feels like a sitcom -in an apocalyptic setting mind you- but a coming-of-age, found family sitcom nonetheless. And then it escalates SO quickly, and the ending happened, and HOLY JOD!!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!? I wish I had the proper words to describe just how great this book is, but I'm quite literally left speechless. So all I'll say is that I love Nona, and Nona loves you too <3
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Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you came to read this book after watching the movie like I did, be aware that it’s a very different story. Some of my favorite parts of the book are Howl being way more sassy, him being originally from Wales
(which is where the black door leads, in contrast to the war zone of the movie)
and Sophie being a klutz and just as sassy as Howl. I also really like that Sophie’s sister’s feature much more prominently in the book, with Michael falling in love with one of them. Also, Michael is a teen rather that a little kid. Overall I really enjoyed this story, although I felt that the pacing was a little bit slow at parts, and entirely too fast in the end. An epilogue would’ve benefited this greatly, diving the last chapter in two and allowing for a more fleshed out ending, imo.
To end this in a positive note, I also would like to point out how fantastic it is for Sophie to have magic in the book, and it’s something I would’ve really loved to see onscreen!
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have no words for what I just read, mostly because I was and still am largely confused (in the best way possible). This was absolutely phenomenal, and I’m not afraid to call it a masterpiece, because I’m still completely in awe at how a person was able to think of and craft this too convoluted universe, how they were able to gaslight and outright lie to their readers, and still end up writing this action packed, gut wrenching and hilariously macabre work of art. 
I think I’ll need to read this book and it’s predecessor at least ten more times to even begin to comprehend what I just read, all the clues that were laid out for the truth, and all the subtle jokes I might have missed.

I would say that I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, but in truth my brain feels like it has run a marathon, and I’m not yet quite ready to begin with a triathlon. Until I muster the bravery to pick up Nona the Ninth, I’ll just wish a happy Pride month to, well, practically every character in this book!
The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think this book was much better than The Demigod Files. I loved all four stories, but especially The Son of Magic! Wow, Rick’s son is just as fantastic, and I feel like his writing style is darker and more mature. I don’t even know if this story is canon to the Riordanverse, but it would make an amazing series. I would rank the other three stories as Luke’s Diary > Quest for Buford > Staff of Hermes. Really good Percabeth moments in the Staff of Hermes, but it just doesn’t have the same impact to the overall series as the other ones.

My main complaint is that this book still uses that horrible old art, and that alone would stop me from owning a physical copy.