Elvadrieng's Library

Uggghhhh, this was so boring! All this girl does is describe things - things happening to her, things around her -and no emotional residence in connection with any of it! It doesn't help that the narrator is so monotone either....the logic is all over the place I stopped caring after about 2 hours but I'm not a quitter, I always hate not finishing a book, no matter how bad it is. Thankfully, it was only 6 hours of listening to How to Write a Cliqued YA Dystopian Novel. There is no character development at all, which is what I live for, especially in YA. Character goes from A to B to C, ruminates about something in the past before "the 17 days", thinks about everything happening to her, complains, and repeat. Honestly, the writing is fanfiction. It goes through the checklist of elements for a dystopian YA lacking all of the proper back-story, characterization, or just basic storytelling points. AKA the good stuff. For some reason, there is a sequel, I certainly won't be picking it up.

And another thing! how dare you kill off precious doggie, Bella?! I have a Bella and she is the cutest thing ever!

In true Ghibli-style artwork, every turn of a page reveals a brilliant new set of colors. This would make a stunning animated film, maybe Studio Ponoc could do it or Dreamworks based on their amazing CG sand work in Rise of the Guardians. It was a little difficult at first to get into the story with so many different words unique to this universe thrown about and there is so much put in bold that if it's supposed to be the character's emphasizing all of them in one speak bubble, it makes the dialogue sound off. There was a lot of that, but the artwork - for me - makes up for it, it's a graphic novel and a wonderfully crafted one at that. Can't wait to read the second volume!

This love story is sweet and cute but the dialogue is very simplistic, It was all very rushed and tried to sound good with so many tumblr buzzwords like "warrior goddess" and "self-care" and then tries to shoe-horn in a The Notebook ending. The art style is nice and colorful but the writing is so boring, not a fan. 

An exciting, unique world and characters brought to life by fantastical and glossy artwork, can't wait for the next volume!

Sailor Moon meets Steven Universe sans fusion. The art is beautiful as ever but there's barely any character development in such a short number of pages - and it is achievable if you take the time to work in some subtlety with whatever situation your characters are put into - so it's a bit of a drawback in that aspect. Fun but could've been better.

Genderbent Lumberjanes, basically and it's fantastic! The neon lighting with the incredible artwork and character expression is top notch from James Tynion IV and Adventure Time/Dreamwork's cartoonist Rian Sygh.

Genderbent Lumberjanes, basically and it's fantastic! The neon lighting with the incredible artwork and character expression is top notch from James Tynion IV and Adventure Time/Dreamwork's cartoonist Rian Sygh.

Ehh...didn't really like the art style and while it is a good tale of growing up and all that drama, it was too complicated and I just didn't really care about this characters. Not a fan.

Wonderful and quick read about the endurance of three determined women in their respected fields. I know of Jane Goodall's work but was more familiar with Dian Fossey from seeing Michael Apted's Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and didn't know anything about Birute Galdikas. With such a short book and not knowing much information about them previously, the story did feel a little rushed in terms of each one's timeline but they were intertwined well enough. I didn't know they had all met each other. I would've liked more facts about each of their journeys but having read the afterword, that wasn't the intent and there are plenty of references to books and other media on each woman. (less)

Chi is adorable as ever, so many sweet tales discovering the new apartment and other fun animal friends!