Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

★★★★★

Putting words down for how I feel about this book, how it made me feel reading it, is proving to be an incredible challenge. It is intriguing, dazzling, beguiling, wondrous, mesmerising and whimsical. It was soft, gentle and absolutely nothing like how I imagined it, and I am so incredibly glad.

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”

Erin Morgenstern

The book is about a circus, which isn’t really anything like a circus. It all began with a challenge, a girl named Celia and a boy named Marco. This challenge has rules, but Celia and Marco don’t know them, and it takes them many years to fully understand the stakes upon which they are battling. However, it is the most thoughtful, gentle and elegant challenge, with each move made with purpose and intention. There was no action in this book, it was an incredibly slow burn and the romance is subtle, yet fits in perfectly with the book.

It was written out of time, with the beginning of each chapter probably in a different location, day or year than the one before. Its disorienting, like the entrance to the circus; you don’t know where you are, or where anyone is but you know if you keep going, you’ll be in the circus. The writing was so spellbinding, just as the magic in this book. It’s impossible to describe my feelings about this book, its soul is the circus, and the circus is nothing without those making it what it is. The Rêveurs were such a wonderful idea, and I will be a Rêveur for this book, forever. 

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

Erin Morgenstern

I want nothing more than to experience a circus like this, and I know I haven’t done this book justice with this review, but it is truly impossible. The characters, every single one (and there were many), were fleshed out, unique, and utterly pivotal to the story. They were (almost all), morally ambiguous, which heightened the level of ‘realness’ to this. People aren’t purely good or bad, people make bad choices, and the actions of the characters in The Night Circus, were so incredibly believable within this dazzling world. I will have to shout out my two favourite characters, Poppet and Widget. They brought something to the book that no other characters did, it’s an indescribable quality, but it’s there nonetheless. 

From the first chapter, and the obvious link to William Shakespeares The Tempest, I knew I was in for a story about spirits and illusions, magic and performances, and that’s exactly what I got. This book is much like Le Cirque de Rêves, it is beautiful, mystifying, and unique, and only with you for a short while. This book will not be for everyone, there is no action, it is not fast-paced, and there is no steamy romance, but it is probably one of the most intricate books I have ever read, and I implore you to give it a try.

Review: From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout

★★★★☆

Okay, I’m going to keep this spoiler-free, but its gonna be damn hard. This is a very tentative 4 stars, because honestly, I had more issues with this than I was anticipating. But I will start by saying that I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did such a good job! I would definitely recommend listening to this book! 

That brings me to my first issue with this book, the writing. It started with this enormous info dump which I am going to assume takes up the first two-three pages. This was not a good experience when listening to the audiobook, especially because I couldn’t easily re-read it/ review it later when terms and people were mentioned. It was so bland to listen to and also just way way wayyyy too much information. Like, honestly. Build the world please. This book had so much potential, and I literally couldn’t tell you any noteworthy part of the world building?? There’s a big wall called ‘the rise’ (real original lol), and of course there’s small houses in the poor district, and the fancy big castle thing. That’s all I got. With the writing, there was so much repetition. SO MUCH. I found myself thinking, ‘we just heard this like 2 minutes ago, we don’t need to hear it again.’ So yeah, there was a few issues with the writing which put me off. The world grew later in the book, like, the last 30%, but before that, it was very two-dimensional and bland. 

However, the book was a slow burn, and to be honest with you, I vibe with that. Obviously, I would have preferred that the world was built, and dimensions were added in that time, but also just getting to know the characters, the relationship dynamics and history of the people we’re reading about is something I enjoy. 

What a great segway into the characters. We are in the POV of Poppy for the entire book (and in first person too which shook me at the beginning), and oh my god. Poppy is so stupid. Sorry, she is not some amazing heroine, she is dumb. Yes, she took the initiative to learn how to defend herself (bless Viktor), but you’d think being forced to be ‘The Maiden,’ and literally not allowed to talk to anyone would mean that she would be a good observer?? That she would use her inability to talk to people to observe, and actually SEE what was going on around her. But no, she literally didn’t see anything that was right in front of her the whole time, and would be absolutely bamboozled when explained to her. I understand why she feels how she does, she’s kept isolated and alone for her whole life – but she doesn’t act like it? And!! She doesn’t use it to her advantage? I dunno, her POV was mostly enjoyable, but damn she could be slow. 

Then we get to Hawke. I’m not going to say a lot about him, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I am disappointed. He is not the sexy, brooding but actually soft and sweet bad boy that we live for. The ending was really interesting, like the last 5 or 6 chapters were just wild, and it’s really set up the potential for an exciting sequel, but the VERY LAST SENTENCE literally left me with goosebumps, but not the good kind. Yes I was surprised with one or two aspects of the wild final 30% of the book, parts of it were SO obvious that honestly, I picked them up pretty damn early. 

I love morally grey characters, I LIVE for a villain that is complex, but by the end of this book, I was just angry, frustrated, and frankly, incredibly uncomfortable. This book was a binge-read for me. It was interesting, and I wanted to keep reading and the last 30% of it kept me on my toes, but it wasn’t a 5 star read. I am SO conflicted. Honestly, it’s hard to review this without spoiling it, and it’s hard to give it a star review. I have probably contradicted myself a few times during this, and I can’t help it. I would LOVE to know your thoughts about this book! Please leave a comment, or message me on insta (especially if it’s about spoilers!) This was a wild mess, I’m sorry, but welcome to my brain!

Review: Theogony and Works + Days by Hesiod

★★★★☆

Theogony and Works + Days are both epic poems from the rich history of Greek epic poetry. They are dated to the 8th century BCE and credited to the greek poet Hesiod. Prior to being written down, these two epic poems were part of the oral traditions of Ancient Greece such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and would have been written down later than their initial telling by Hesiod. 

The Theogony, which comes from the Greek word ‘theogonia‘ meaning ‘birth [or generations] of the gods’ is aptly named since it is primarily concerned with describing how the universe came into being, and the genealogy of the titans, gods, monsters, nymphs, dryads, demigods and everything in-between. From chaos or chasm, came the Earth, misty Tartarus, Eros (the god of sexual love), Erebos, and Night. From them came Air and Day, starry Heaven, Mountains, Nymphs and the Oceanus. It all pretty much escalates from there. 

This founding myth of the creation of the universe is the cosmogony of Ancient Greece, and explains just how the universe came into being, and why things are. It’s honestly such an interesting read, I really enjoyed it. I loved the interconnectedness of the primordial gods to the rest of their offspring and beyond. Comments about how parts of the Theogony were from specific regions, and regional myths is so fascinating, and the fact that we have the knowledge that sections of the text would have been added in later blows my mind! This piece of work is over 2600 years old, and yet it can still be enjoyed in the modern day. 

The themes of power + violence, cycles of succession and family are so prominent in the work and are all interconnected within each other. These themes absolutely transcend time, with violence and power being hand in hand in our current political climate, although hopefully, we are on an upward trajectory away from that damaging time. Family remains as a massively important concept in the modern world, and it is often a device used in literary and cinematic works! This synthesis of such a massive variety of Greek myths and legends concerning gods and the universe needs to be appreciated more! 

The Works + Days though… not so much. This was definitely an interesting text, although not as enjoyable. It is very clearly split into different concepts which could only be read as a rule book of sorts. Sections such as myths and fables, works (evil is easy but virtue is hard), a calendar which tells the best time to plant + harvest crops, a calendar on when is best to travel by sea, advice on family management and a section at the end about days and basically which days to do things, and which days to not. It is definitely very intriguing, but not as fun to read. 

Works + Days is the first extant account of the concept of the ‘five stages of man’ which incorporates the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, the age of heroes and the Iron Age which is the age of Hesiod’s life. It is a Greek creation myth which essentially traces back the history of man through five stages, or races until it gets to the current stage. We also get the earliest written account of Pandora and her pithos (yeah, it was a jar not a box, sorry). Essentially, Hesiod says that women are the punishment of man, and because Pandora spilled the contents of her jar, the world is plagues by illness and all sorts of evils. When Pandora was created, she was bestowed traits by the gods and goddesses of Olympus including the skills of weaving, a deceitful nature and shameless mind and lies and crafty words. From this alone, you can understand the general attitudes towards women in Ancient Greece. 

Not only that, but I really hated reading the section about how men are ready for marriage at around 30 years old, but women (basically still girls), are perfect five years after menstruation began. So for some, as early as 15/16 years old. It’s easy to gloss over uncomfortable and confronting views and beliefs from the ancient world, but it is SO important to acknowledge that there was real issues, just as there is today. It’s okay to read a piece of classical literature and be uncomfortable! 

So, overall, I enjoyed reading these two works! They give us SO much information on Ancient Greek beliefs and understanding of the world around them, and of general ideas of everyday life as a farmer. They are really interesting pieces, fairly easy to read and plenty of notes to supplement the reading as you go. I would definitely recommend reading these if you’re a fan of Greek Mythology and the ancient world!

Review: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

★★★☆☆

The fact that it was published over 200 years ago gave me some trepidation when I started it, especially since the only other experience I have of reading Jane Austen was during Uni which gave me plenty of resources, background, and support for understanding it! 

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” 

However, these worries were futile because although the witting style and vocabulary is definitely something to get used to, the characters and themes struck me as very universal! A young man who thinks he’s the best (and lets everyone know it), and couldn’t possibly understand why someone wouldn’t reciprocate his feelings could definitely be used to describe people in this day and age. A friend who is self-serving and self-absorbed and a handsome man who is inclined to open your eyes to the world. 

The relationships in this novel were dynamic, and I really enjoyed the contrasts Jane Austen made between our protagonist Catherine, and what would happen if this was a novel in which she was the heroine. It was such an interesting and engaging writing style, and although Catherine was indeed our heroine who endured a number of dissatisfying and embarrassing events, the parallels drawn between her and heroines of novels she so happily read were endearing!

“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” 

– Jane Austen

Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

★★★☆☆.5

This book was good, I love VE Schwab’s writing style, it is the most poetic prose that I’ve encountered in a long time. I’m a fan of stories that are gentle, and don’t have crazy battle scenes or fast paced action, but I never got really hooked into this like I thought it was. Maybe I was coming in with too high expectations since so many people have absolutely adored it and sobbed at the end and so forth. It just never demanded to be picked up and read. I could always put it down at any point. 

I really enjoyed the beginning with Addie in France, I loved her grappling with the possibility of a pointless and static life (I feel that), and her initial meeting with the darkness. And then I didn’t enjoy it quite so much, but when Henry was introduced that definitely picked up the interest. He’s such an interesting, and to me, relatable character in so many ways. Also, a cat called Book will always make me happy. I really liked the ending, the last 5-10 pages I thought were such a great way to end the book, but also not really where I thought was going which was a good note to end the book. 

I don’t know, it was just missing something for me but I can’t really put my finger on it. Don’t get me wrong, overall I really enjoyed it, but it just isn’t 5 stars for me.

“What she needs are stories. Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget. Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books. Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.” 

VE Schwab