THIS IS ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE!! If you don't agree with my ratings, that's totally fine and I respect your opinion! Please don't hate me if you liked any of these books!! If you'd like to state your opinion on any of these books, feel free to do so! I'm very open-minded and willing to hear what you have to say. Maybe you'll change my mind about them :) !! I DON'T hate any of these books. I don't think they are bad books. I have not read any bad books this year. This project is merely an outlet for me to rant about the minor things I didn't like about them. None of them have ratings below 2/5 stars, because all of them have aspects that I enjoy or appreciate. If you have any book recommendations, PLEASE tell me!! I need books to read this new year!! The project will include photos of the book, my rating out of five stars, and a brief synopsis. If you want to read my further critiques, the rest will be included in the description below. BOOK COVERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME!! THESE RATINGS AND REVIEWS ARE ALL MY OWN OPINION, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE PUBLIC. SYNOPSES ARE NOT OFFICIAL AND MAY BE INACCURATE.
1: This book was wild. I read it because it sounded absurd, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. However, while hilarious to describe to other people, this book was so boring. Everything, even the action scenes, feel slow and underwhelming. The humor didn't quite click with me, but this book was written for a Swedish audience, so maybe it's a cultural difference. Overall, I didn't enjoy reading it, but it makes for a fun story to tell. 2: I just didn't understand this book. Maybe I didn't interpret the messages correctly, because this book was confusing. Margo is a quirky girl who's so mysterious and is always off doing something insane because she's "not like the other girls". Quentin, the protagonist, is boring and has no personality, which I understand was part of his character, but it made it difficult to connect with him. None of the characters felt like real people with real ambitions, which made it hard to understand their motivations and their beliefs. This could be because John Green is a 47 year old man, not a teenager about to graduate high school, but still. I picked this book up with no idea who John Green was or what it was about, and honestly even after finishing it I still have no clue what this book was trying to say. 3: This is the sequel book to The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, in the UK), a book I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about this one. All of the charm from Lyra's world vanishes and is replaced with dull, shallow new worlds and characters. Lyra is basically sidelined in favor of the shiny new male protagonist, Will, who I failed to connect with at all. The story was boring and forgettable. 4: As the conclusion to the trilogy of the Golden Compass, I expected this book to be great. However, while it was a fun read, I am extremely disappointed in many aspects of this book. Although I am not religious, Phillip Pullman's bashing of Christianity reaches an almost unbearable height. It isn't even done in a tasteful manner, it just feels like an anti-Christian rant. It isn't a critique of the real-world problems with all religions, it's just "Christianity is the only religion and it's literally the worst in every aspect", which is neither true nor beneficial to anyone. Phillip Pullman hints at other religions existing, but they are depicted as being almost scientifically accurate and "knowing all the secrets of the world", which is also not true or beneficial. I understand that this is a fantasy, but it literally takes place in our world with real-world religions. The world-building becomes confusing and nonsensical. All of the villains are defeated or diffused in disappointing, underwhelming ways, which completely destroys the tension in the book. The ending was strange and out of place. I liked the story about the world of the dead and the mulefa, as out of place as they felt, but the other aspects were just too bad to ignore. 5: I really wanted to like this book. I love dragons, I love sci-fi, and I wanted to read a book by a female author during a time when the genre was very male-dominated. Unfortunately, this book sucked. We spend very little time with our characters as the story goes on. So much of the story happens off-screen, which can be good in moderation, but it was so extreme that it was hard to put together what was happening. Characters are introduced off-screen and we're supposed to understand everything about them?? The writing was very sketchy, so I had no idea what the world looked like, or even what our protagonists look like. Speaking of, Lessa is a boring and weak character. She's supposed to be 'strong of will' but she's very docile, only making occasional snide remarks that are almost immediately played down. The male lead, F'lar, had more personality than Lessa did. But still, his whole relationship with Lessa is him going "Haha, you're so unique and strong but also you're too weak and stupid to do anything and also you're really pretty when you don't have a personality." He doesn't take Lessa seriously at all, and actually physically abuses her quite often. Their relationship just gives me a very gross feeling. There are some other horrible aspects to their relationship that I cannot talk about on Scratch, but in summary, it's disgusting. I liked the world-building in this book, but like the descriptions, it was very sketchy and lacking. The only parts I truly loved were the terrifying Threads and the connection between dragon and human, which says a lot, because these aspects were barely in the book. I respect Anne McCaffrey for having such a successful series, but I just can't bring myself to enjoy this book. Maybe the next few books are better. Thanks for reading my critiques!! I'm pretty biased, so please do your own research or read the books yourself before formulating your own opinions about these books. Anyways, I've hit the description word count, so bye :"D
