Mini Reviews: Heart of Gold, Venustransit and Ghostly Echoes

December 27, 2018 Kat Impossible5 Comments

Coming home for Christmas, I managed to not only catch up on my reading, but surpass my (adjusted) reading goal for 2018. I’ve definitely read a lot less this year than in the previous ones, but overall I am still not unhappy with the outcome. So, there’s that!

Click on the covers to get redirected to Goodreads!

Heart of Gold: Act I by Eli Baumgartner/Viv Tanner

I supported this graphic novel via Kickstarter and I am beyond happy I did. The final product is BEAUTIFUL with golden edges and a gorgeous sketch of one of the characters on one of the first pages for me. I adore it!

All the better that the content inside fits the great exterior. It’s such an interesting take on religion, damnation, love, faith and healing. It shows two entirely different approaches to those topics and keeps a mystery and tension going throughout the entire first act. The imagery is so beautiful and I honestly cannot wait to read more.

Heart of Gold is also available as a web comic here!

Fazit: 5/5 stars! I am 100% intrigued and here for it!

Venustransit by Hamed Eshrat

Venustransit is a German comic about a guy who hasn’t quite figured out his life, gets dumped bis his girlfriend and is stuck in a job he hates. It’s set in Berlin and I can almost see the street I am living in on the cover (so close!). I like diving into things I know the setting of and can try and figure out if I walked the same streets. Stuff like that never gets tired to me (except when it’s only historical fiction … like so often with Vienna).

While I wasn’t as in love with the drawing style as I was with other comics I own, the story had a clear line and still took a lot of creative liberties. It was interesting and I am sure relatable to a lot of people out there.

Fazit: 3/5 stars! Gets plus points for the setting.

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

Ghostly Echoes is the third book in the Jackaby series. I only did a mini review for the second book, Beastly Bones, as well, so I feel like I should stick to that format of reviewing for now.

This series legit just keeps getting better and better. The story is becoming more complex, with more dots to connect and still so, so much to discover about the characters. The writing style isn’t really anything over the top and it all seems like light fun in the beginning, but by now there’s a lot more serious stuff happening and you are so emotionally invested in the fate of the characters. And there is a lot to worry about! This book even included a little detour to the underworld!

If you are into Sherlock-esque mysteries with a supernatural twist, have at it with this series. I can only recommend it!

Fazit: 4.5/5 stars! Here’s to hoping the last book will be equally as amazing, if not more so.

Have you read any of the books/comics I mentioned? Are you interested in some of them? Let’s talk!

Mini Reviews: Beastly Bones, The Song of Achilles, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

June 26, 2018 Kat Impossible34 Comments

I love telling you guys how I feel about books! That is pretty much why this whole blog exists, so that I can rant and rave about all the things I am passionate about. However, sometimes I don’t have that strong of an opinion about my last read, or I simply don’t think it warrants a full review. That is why I took a page out of my good friend Marie’s book and am introducing mini reviews on the blog! That in no way means that there won’t be any more full length ones in the future, but every now and then I am just going to do a cumulative post of some of my recent reads with only a short summary of my thoughts.

Click on the covers to get redirected to Goodreads!

Beastly Bones by William Ritter

Beastly Bones is the sequel to Jackaby, which I read and loved not very long ago. I legit ordered this one right after I finished the first book and have no regrets. This time around I enjoyed the mystery of the case a little more, as it seemed less predictable. We are now getting farther into the characters’ backgrounds and are starting to uncover some secrets as well as an overarching plotline for the rest of the series. As much as book-to-book cases would work for this format, I am kind of glad there’s also something more than the people connecting the story throughout the series.

The only reason I am docking one star is because I was frustrated with how little faith or interest Jackaby and Rook showed in each other’s investigation techniques. It took them forever to solve something they might have realised far quicker if they had listened to one another. They do acknowledge that mistake by the end, so I feel like it shouldn’t happen as much in future parts.

Fazit: 4/5 stars! A worthy sequel and … dragons!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Folks, I have to be real with you, I feel bad because I didn’t love this as much as apparently everyone else in my immediate friend circle did. I adore Greek Mythology, I like a good slow-burn gay romance, I am ALL for books that make the unreal seem real, but still … the book didn’t click with me the way I hoped it would.

First of all, it took me forever to really get into the story. I felt it was too slow, until it finally picked up some pace around the halfway point. Then I wasn’t too happy with a certain cheating plotline … but ultimately, while I know this is mainly a love story and rightly so, I felt like this would have just been utterly confusing in terms of names, places and events for people who are unfamiliar with Greek Mythology beforehand.

Having said that, The Song of Achilles is definitely quality content and a beautifully devastating story that will hit you right in the heart! I understand every single person who was emotionally distraught by the end of it, because so was I.

Fazit: 4/5 stars! Takes you right to Ancient Greece!

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

This is another book everyone kept screaming at me to read and I actually had a signed copy for a while (that traveled with me through all of Canada), so I have no idea what took me so long. The only thing I do know is that the trailer was the thing that finally got me to pick it up for real and I am so grateful for that! To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before just made me all mushy and soft inside.

It has all the things I love in a YA contemporary, from pretend relationships to letters to adorable love interests to a strong focus on family – I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more! I adored the characters and was excited to read a book with an Korean-American MC.

I don’t know what to say other than I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book and once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. I literally finished it in one swoop and stayed up until 2 AM to do so. Very few books have managed to make me want to miss out on precious sleep.

Fazit: 5/5 stars! A perfect YA contemporary with a more than promising Netflix adaptation that I cannot wait for!

So, how are you all feeling about the mini reviews? Do you like them or do you prefer the longer format? (Again, I am not giving up on regular reviews!) Have you read any of these books and have thoughts on them? Let’s talk!

Jackaby by William Ritter (Book Review)

June 6, 2018 Kat Impossible45 Comments

Publisher: Algonquin
Page Count: 299

Something very simple drew me towards this book – the cover! I swear, this entire series is so freaking beautiful and I love the colors, the person in profile with another one in movement. It’s a reoccurring theme for all the books and I cannot wait to have them all on my shelf (and yes, book two is already waiting to be devoured next). But aside from its beauty, Jackaby is a mix of Elementary, Doctor Who and Teen Wolf set in the 19th century and I couldn’t be here more for it.

Jackaby was a fun book to read. I am not the biggest fan of detective stories usually, because for some reason I find most of them too predictable, but I didn’t mind it too much here. I saw this book more as a way of getting to know the characters and setting the scene and parameters than an intriguing and unsolvable case study. Jackaby seems like Eleven (from Doctor Who not Stranger Things) meets Sherlock with his funny, child-like quirks yet his complete misunderstanding of basic human interactions sometimes. At the same time Abigail Rook makes for a formidable and independent Watson-like associate. I loved that she didn’t buy into the stigma of how women were supposed to be at the time and the way she knew how to use that knowledge to her advantage. The two immediately clicked as a team and offered some hilarious conversations. My heart was captured by the one and only Detective Charlie Cane though. I think I may have found my latest literary crush and hope he will continue to be a fixture in books to come as well.

“Monsters are easy, Miss Rook. They’re monsters. But a monster in a suit? That’s basically just a wicked man, and a wicked man is a more dangerous thing by far.”

Again, the actual case wasn’t all too interesting for me. I was far more intrigued by the variety of supernatural creatures that were introduced, opening up a whole universe of possibilities for future stories. My inner know-it-all rejoiced whenever I guessed the type of supernatural being correctly and was equally amazed when I heard about something I didn’t know much or anything about before.

Overall, I really liked the book and am looking forward to what the future holds for Jackaby and Rook and all the other characters! I can’t wait to see where some relationships will be taken in the upcoming installments and am sure that there is far more supernatural stuff to discover.