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essequamvideri

28 | mostly lit fic, classics, fantasy + manga

139 points

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Level 2
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The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)
The Night Circus
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
The Plague

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  • Hao: Stories
    essequamvideri
    Jul 28, 2025
    4.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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  • The Devils
    essequamvideri
    Jul 28, 2025
    2.5
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Random notes: - the jokes stopped being funny for me after 50 pages and this really "broke" the book (at least the first half of it) for me. The humour is really like, low hanging fruit: shit, piss and balls. I don't really mind crude jokes (I love making them!) but I do mind the repetitiveness of them and, after the tenth time, being reminded constantly that people have bodily fluids is annoying more than funny. It made everything low stakes. - the book relies a lot on this contrast between serious situations and rather ridiculous resolutions. It worked! The first time around. After you spot the pattern you just get these side quests that become really predictable. - the characters are caricatures. They have one or two exaggerated traits and, while that makes them somewhat memorable and their POVs recognisable (props to Abercrombie for that), this sort of killed their introspection. The shift in tone towards the ending felt a little jarring more than anything because honestly I know very little about these characters besides their most blatant and obvious traits. - I liked the last 150 pages? But the shift in tone felt weird. I think this book had interesting elements (world building is promising), but you need to really dig that type of humour to get through it.

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    6d
  • The Devils
    Thoughts from 28%

    I didn't expect this to be SO full of jokes about piss/shit and balls, they get old fast ngl

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    6d
  • The Devils
    Thoughts from 28%

    I didn't expect this to be SO full of jokes about piss/shit and balls, they get old fast ngl

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    6d
  • The Councillor (The Councillor, #1)
    essequamvideri
    Jul 26, 2025
    3.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I liked the premise more than the final result (I think it was a debut? It sort of shows) and the fact that it doesn't have a sequel doesn't help either. There were good ideas in there but also a lot of rather generic elements that kept me from enjoying this one more. Having a main character that is an outsider and is given an opportunity to rise through the ranks and actually change things is great, but it's a bit of a let down to see someone who's supposedly a scholar be so easily manipulated. The world building was also rather half-baked: it's a very generic european-like country (even the languages are a weird mix of french, italian and latin) and the political subplots were a bit simplistic. It's a fun read, but it could have used some more labor limae imo.

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    1w
  • Missitalia
    essequamvideri
    Jul 22, 2025
    3.5
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    Level 2

    Level 2

    100 points

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    Missitalia

    Missitalia

    Claudia Durastanti

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    Hao: Stories

    Hao: Stories

    Ye Chun

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  • The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3)
    essequamvideri
    Jul 20, 2025
    4.0
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  • The Bright Sword
    essequamvideri
    Jul 19, 2025
    3.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Way too meandering with a fairly half baked plot. Too bad cause I liked the characters enough to keep reading through the 25 pages long flashbacks of Arthur's quests.

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  • Il mio amico Kim Jong-un
    essequamvideri
    Jul 19, 2025
    3.5
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