Already in love with this book. I am a fan of the 2nd person pov, and I enjoy the challenge that comes with being behind the eyes of the character. The theatre description automatically made my brain go to Spirited Away and I can't shake it now 😅

While hardly offensive if it is, The Poppy War has me wondering whether or not I've missed its advertisement as Young Adult fiction so far. Far from a spiteful observation, but it's... yeah. It expresses some interesting ideas, but strongly commits to "this is a *low* fantasy world where powers *definitely* don't exist" and other similar ideals that feel a bit like babying its readership. As a positive, borrowing from historical East Asian conflicts for the foundation of its story grants it the ability for some interesting discussion. For the most part R.F. Kuang succeeds at bringing a unique idea forward with reasonable interactions (a history teacher presenting their own skewed perspective as a closest-to-reality interpretation, for one) but moves far too quickly past these ideas. The novel so far very rarely approaches its story with method or rhythm. Instead it collects incidents and exposition, largely ignoring any connection between them. Characters that exist as emotional and narrative importance are discarded just as quickly as they're appended to the story. Relationships and development are teased but quickly sidelined in favour of literal expression- including a healthy amount of profanity. It does bring a bit of a charming edge to the story, but its infrequency makes it stand out in a more ironic fashion, personally speaking. It feels very dissonant to even what I had set my expectations towards. Again, far from terrible or offensive, but being entirely blunt, lacks confidence and ability. Hopefully as the novel settles into a rhythm that opinion will change. As a final aside, being a hilarious stickler for world-building, I can't help but giggle a little bit at how wildly disparate its naming conventions are. Overall, it's hardly something worth complaining about, but it just gets a giggle out of me- especially with some of the real world content that Kuang parodies.

What is one popular book you've read and didn't like, where you didn't get the hype or don't understand how many people can genuinely like it? I'll go first : Le Petit Prince I've never understood how everyone loved the book, as a kid I was forced to read it every year and go to see plays about it and until today I don't understand the hype.

Was thinking to myself how I have this ridiculous habit of intentionally speeding through book blurbs trying not to learn too much, leaving a book on my TBR for ages, starting to read it going off the memory of the blurb, and then being completely thrown by what the book is actually about because I realize I didn't actually know. Case in point: started the castle knoll files series today, DEAD CERTAIN the MC was an old male detective. It is about a 25 year old girl and her kooky aunt. This is abundantly clear in the blurb and I have no idea how I misremembered that badly. I spent the first 20 pages going "oh? Oh?? Oh!" So anyway, that got me thinking, do any of y'all have reading quirks like this that are ultimately harmless but kind of weird? A beige flag, if you will?

Do you have any book/reading takes that you think is controversial or unpopular? If so, what is it?

What are some books you adore that you rarely see recommended or being talked about? Feel free to give a little summary :) Heard about them once and then never again: - the Hostage of Empire series by S.C.Emmet. It's an adult political fantasy trilogy inspired by east asian history. It follows the lady-in-waiting of a princess being betrothed and sent over to her fiance's coutry. He's the heir and brother of 5 other princes (from the Queen and 2 concubines) and the FMC and her lady are immediately thrown into court intrigues and scheming from all sides, often with deadly results. It's brilliant and I'm constantly looking for similar books. -The Light between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth. It's a YA magical realism/fantasy about 2 sisters who crossed to another world as children and started settling there before abruptely getting sent back to our world. One sister wants to forget and move on, the other falls into deep depression, always searching for a way back. It's crazy to me that it's considered YA because it goes DARK, but I'm a sucker for that kind of "Narnia but if they delved a lot deeper with the trauma that this would have created" and that book had me by the throat. Only rarely mentionned: -The Winnowing Flame trilogy by Jen Williams. Incredibly cool and original lore, 3 povs (an excentric adventurer, a witch locked up by a cult, and a.. tree vampire? Honestly, awesome concepts) crossing paths as an acient threat comes back to life, except the race that saved the world before is now almost extinct after their life-force vanished and they turned on humans. -The Conqueror's Saga by Kiersten White. YA (once again, where??) historical fiction. Kind of retelling about the daughter (and son) of Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Dracula. It's about those kids being given to the Ottoman Empire as hostages for political gain and grow up with the son of a Sultan, and how they go from there, as their worldview change (in drastically different ways) while war is forever on the horizon. Lada, the FMC is THE anti-heroine. She's cruel, ugly, ruthless and bitter. I loved her. Her, and her sweet brother, and the sultan's son and their incredibly complicated and heart breaking dynamic while each fights for what they want (spoiler, it's incompatible). -The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. A 90s -first military- then epic fantasy about a 18yo woman running away from an arranged marriage to join a mercenary company. Very classic, old-school, it took me a while to get into the 1st, but by the end I felt like I'd gone through hell and back with Paks. -Babylonia by Constanza Casati. It's a famous author, it's wild to me that I never hear anyone talk about it. Reimagining of the rise to power of the Assyrian empire's only female ruler. It's beautiful, it's got the most toxic love triangle (but I say that as a love triangle hate. That one is mutual love and fascination, and adorable, and loyalty, and bitterness through every line of that triangle. Co-dependency, but three-way).

Inspired by PagesOfEmma's post about autobuy authors, who are authors you used to auto-buy, but lost their streak with you on a bad book? Alternatively, what is a book in a series that caused you to stop reading that series altogether? For me, it was Janice Hallett; I loved the appeal, bought the other two that were out at the time, got so excited for The Examiner, just for that book to be a total let down.

Only 3 chapters in and I’ve already accepted that I’m not smart enough for space science 😂 Super into it so far, though! Grateful for brilliant minds—meanwhile, my peak space achievement was making a comet out of a cotton ball in elementary school.