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sleepypapercrownsI was on holiday for most of May so I didn‘t watch much, but did read a lot of good books! I hope you enjoy this very late May recap.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (2024, historical/fantasy)
The Familiar was such a huge disappointment that I kind of don’t even want to talk about it. I adore Leigh Bardugo but don’t get what happened here. Luzia, our main character, gets characterised by other people as so incredibly intelligent and cunning as well as so stupid and untrustworthy. This makes sense in that other people don’t see the whole of her so they ascribe what they want to see. The problem comes in when Luzia changes how she acts in each scene too, suggesting that Leigh Bardugo didn’t even know who Luzia is. Also coming from Six of Crows which was a very diverse read to having another romance between a young girl and an ancient creature. No, thank you. If you want to hear some more eloquent thoughts I agree with everything Willow says in this video.
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (2023, fantasy)
I LOVED this! Emily Wilde is an autistic coded scholar for faeries and we follow her as she sets off to a small village in Scandinavia to research the local folk and add them to her encyclopaedia. Shortly after she arrives her flamboyant colleague joins her and chaos ensues. I loved Emily and Wendell’s dynamic, the townsfolk, a little fae called Poe and basically everything about this book. Such a cosy vibe without being boring! There is plot, there is romance, there are vibes but everything is well balanced. Highly recommend it!!
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (2024, fantasy)
I was determined to not read this until I found a physical copy on my holiday but after two unsuccessful bookshop stops I got impatient and just bought the ebook because I simply need it!! This time Emily and Wendell are travelling to the Austrian Alps with Emily’s Niece and a grumpy colleague in tow. I was sceptical at first if this would follow a similar storyline as the first book and therefore feel formulaic but it did not! I love when faeries are scary and brutal and we got more of that in this book. I grew even fonder of Emily’s way of seeing the world and now I really can’t wait for the next book to come out.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian (2024, historical/romance)
The fact that all that remains of me is not only a puddle of goo is truly surprising. Mark and Eddie are so freaking adorable, they were almost the death of me. Even though I also really liked Nick and Andy, I must admit that I liked this second book even more. I still wish we had more Nick and Andy crossover in this book but also appreciated all the time we had to focus on Mark and Eddie’s struggles.
Highly recommend checking it out! You can read it without reading the first one if you wanted but it’s more fun to already know the characters.
Volcano by Rán Flygenring (2022, graphic novel)
In Volcano we follow a little boy called Kaktus who follows his Mom for a day at work. She is a tour guide, so they and a group full of weird tourists get packed up in a bus and they explore Iceland - mainly they find a volcano that just exploded. THe art style is a mix of cartoon-ish illustrations of the characters and childish scribbles making up the background and I loved it! What a beautiful book to have on my shelf and a fun story too.
Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (2022, romance)
In this companion novel to Delilah Green Doesn’t Care we follow her half-sister Astrid who is quite frankly an annoying character. She and her mom are kind of the villains of the first book so it was incredibly hard to root for her to find love in the beginning. Obviously she grows as a person but I still would’ve preferred to read this book from her love interests pov. Alas, it went by quickly but wasn’t my favourite.
The Idea of You (2024, romance)
Horrible. I hated it so much. Anne Hathaway is way too hot for this movie and the dialogue was so cringey. “Why would you break up with a kind, talented feminist?” No, just no.
Drive My Car (2021, drama)
Also not my thing, because it was so incredibly slow moving and also very long. I found the theatre production that is the main part of this movie very interesting especially because of its mix of languages and the inclusion of sign language . But outside of that I never really connected with the characters and thought that the “normal” dialogue also often felt like reading off a script without any emotions. I didn’t get the appeal..
- tangled in you by flying_dream (skz, minho/seungmin)
- you got me trippin’, stumblin’ by merryofsoul (zb1, matthew/gyuvin )
- medium-hard launch by popliar (atz, hongjoong/seonghwa)
Books
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (2024, historical/fantasy)
The Familiar was such a huge disappointment that I kind of don’t even want to talk about it. I adore Leigh Bardugo but don’t get what happened here. Luzia, our main character, gets characterised by other people as so incredibly intelligent and cunning as well as so stupid and untrustworthy. This makes sense in that other people don’t see the whole of her so they ascribe what they want to see. The problem comes in when Luzia changes how she acts in each scene too, suggesting that Leigh Bardugo didn’t even know who Luzia is. Also coming from Six of Crows which was a very diverse read to having another romance between a young girl and an ancient creature. No, thank you. If you want to hear some more eloquent thoughts I agree with everything Willow says in this video.
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (2023, fantasy)
I LOVED this! Emily Wilde is an autistic coded scholar for faeries and we follow her as she sets off to a small village in Scandinavia to research the local folk and add them to her encyclopaedia. Shortly after she arrives her flamboyant colleague joins her and chaos ensues. I loved Emily and Wendell’s dynamic, the townsfolk, a little fae called Poe and basically everything about this book. Such a cosy vibe without being boring! There is plot, there is romance, there are vibes but everything is well balanced. Highly recommend it!!
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (2024, fantasy)
I was determined to not read this until I found a physical copy on my holiday but after two unsuccessful bookshop stops I got impatient and just bought the ebook because I simply need it!! This time Emily and Wendell are travelling to the Austrian Alps with Emily’s Niece and a grumpy colleague in tow. I was sceptical at first if this would follow a similar storyline as the first book and therefore feel formulaic but it did not! I love when faeries are scary and brutal and we got more of that in this book. I grew even fonder of Emily’s way of seeing the world and now I really can’t wait for the next book to come out.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian (2024, historical/romance)
The fact that all that remains of me is not only a puddle of goo is truly surprising. Mark and Eddie are so freaking adorable, they were almost the death of me. Even though I also really liked Nick and Andy, I must admit that I liked this second book even more. I still wish we had more Nick and Andy crossover in this book but also appreciated all the time we had to focus on Mark and Eddie’s struggles.
Small spoiler in here:
I also really appreciated that we didn’t have a big third act break-up, because a) it feels really overdone and b) my poor heart couldn’t handle it.Volcano by Rán Flygenring (2022, graphic novel)
In Volcano we follow a little boy called Kaktus who follows his Mom for a day at work. She is a tour guide, so they and a group full of weird tourists get packed up in a bus and they explore Iceland - mainly they find a volcano that just exploded. THe art style is a mix of cartoon-ish illustrations of the characters and childish scribbles making up the background and I loved it! What a beautiful book to have on my shelf and a fun story too.
Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (2022, romance)
In this companion novel to Delilah Green Doesn’t Care we follow her half-sister Astrid who is quite frankly an annoying character. She and her mom are kind of the villains of the first book so it was incredibly hard to root for her to find love in the beginning. Obviously she grows as a person but I still would’ve preferred to read this book from her love interests pov. Alas, it went by quickly but wasn’t my favourite.
Movies
The Idea of You (2024, romance)
Horrible. I hated it so much. Anne Hathaway is way too hot for this movie and the dialogue was so cringey. “Why would you break up with a kind, talented feminist?” No, just no.
Drive My Car (2021, drama)
Also not my thing, because it was so incredibly slow moving and also very long. I found the theatre production that is the main part of this movie very interesting especially because of its mix of languages and the inclusion of sign language . But outside of that I never really connected with the characters and thought that the “normal” dialogue also often felt like reading off a script without any emotions. I didn’t get the appeal..
Fic
- tangled in you by flying_dream (skz, minho/seungmin)
- you got me trippin’, stumblin’ by merryofsoul (zb1, matthew/gyuvin )
- medium-hard launch by popliar (atz, hongjoong/seonghwa)
no subject
Date: 2024-06-16 01:17 pm (UTC)i’ve heard of the emily wilde books but your descriptions def make me want to pick them up!!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-17 12:42 pm (UTC)If you do end up reading Emily Wilde text me your thoughts!! I just think it’s very charming.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-22 02:46 pm (UTC)My coworker LOVED Emily Wilde! She can't wait for book three, so I might have to pick it up. You're the first person who said it was autistic-coded, so I'm definitely a bit more curious there.
And I adored You Should Be So Lucky! I read it before We Could Be So Good, and I loved it so much more. There were a few bits in WCBSG that I was like ah yes, Cat and I enjoy the same tropes, but I wasn't hooked in the relationship like I was with Mark and Eddie. A friend of mine pointed out that this was something like the third romance I've recommended to them this year with a grief plotline, so maybe that just resonates with me? Idk but I did love it.
Ok, I LOVED The Idea of You. It was SO stupid. The feminist line had me rolling around on the floor. I think I went in knowing that A) all of my friends who had read the book didn't like it, and B) that it was kinda stupid and just. Had an absolutely great time. Anne was hot. The boy was hot. The movie was stupid. I intend to watch it so many times. This concept is also just catnip for me so like, to make me not like it I think it would have just had to be miserable.