I got two chapters into this book and I knew it was going to be a new favourite. I'm a huge, huge Percy Jackson fan, so I was nervous and excited when I heard this book hyped as Chinese Percy Jackson meets Yugioh. I shouldn't have been nervous, Xiran Jay Zhao writes perfect books and I was wrong to doubt them. ZACHARY YING AND THE DRAGON EMPEROR is my new middle-grade obsession and I need everyone to read this immediately.
I kept seeing this book on display in Waterstones, and I loved the cover. It has the perfect balance of spooky and fun, and I picked it up while I was on my pre-birthday middle-grade shopping trip. I nearly picked up both, and now I wish I had because THE HAUNTING OF AVELINE JONES is a perfect gothic middle-grade read and I need the sequel stat.
I picked this one up on a birthday book buying spree because I absolutely love escape rooms and I've been on a huge middle-grade horror and thriller kick lately. I love the cover, it's very eye-catching and beautiful. Unfortunately, I wasn't a huge fan of this book, but it hasn't dented my love for the genre and I do want to try more from Christopher Edge.
This was an unexpectedly fun romp of a thriller. I picked it up as a quick read to break up my other reads because I had several very heavy and complicated epic fantasies on the go, and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. DREAD WOOD was not what I expected, but honestly? It was better, and I can't wait to read the next book in this series and see what happens next. If this book is anything to go by, it will be surprising, spooky and so much fun.
I ended up finishing this in one sitting and immediately ordering the sequels; The Hidden Witch and The Midwinter Witch. Which I then also read in one sitting. I added this one to my wishlist after reading The Girl from the Sea, so it's safe to say that I'm officially a Molly Knox Ostertag fangirl through and through. I do think that The Witch Boy was my favourite of the lot, but I do think they'll be comfort reads that I come back to a lot.
I read this book completely blind, having requested it based on: my ridiculous run of 4 or 5 star reads with Pushkin Press, the hype I'd seen on twitter and that gorgeous cover. I'm actually kind of glad I read it with no idea what was happening, because it meant that this book swept me away with its emotive story. Rating: 4 stars!
I'm obsessed with the cover for this one! School for Nobodies has a gorgeous cover, and as someone who always wanted to run away from the circus a little bit, I was fascinated by how the circus aspects were going to be tied into the story! I was so excited when I got my hands …
Continue reading School for Nobodies by Susie Bower (Review)
Our lives do not belong to us.You speak and we rejoice.You never will do wrong to us.We live to hear your voice. Nightshade was out on the 7th of April, and true to form I read it immediately! My intention was to post this on April 9th, to round off my Alex Rider re-read but …
Continue reading Nightshade, by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider review #13)
Nightshade is out today! I'm not usually a huge fan of short story collections, but I'm giving them a try in 2020 after reading a couple of incredible ones. The stories were fun (and I've broken them down below) but they did contradict the main stories a little which was my biggest criticism. I think …
Continue reading Secret Weapon, by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider reread #12)
“We all make choices, Cossack. Who we are in this world, what we do in it. Generous or selfish. Happy or sad. Good or evil. It's all down to choice.” This book has almost legendary status on my bookshelves, honestly. I've owned it since it was released in 2013, and never read it. That's nearly …
Continue reading Russian Roulette, by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider reread #11)
inkandplasma reviews 