Mini-Reviews 2: This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!

Yeah, I did more of these.

Emblem Island: Curse of the Night Witch by Alex Aster

Thiiiiiiiiiiiiis... wasn't super great. The author's bio at the end said she wanted to include a Latin American flavor, and I can definitely taste that. It's got all sorts of strange monsters and things, and it's interspersed with folktale-y bits that are like "So these two people fell in love but one of them was a jerkface, and then stuff happened, and that's why this kind of monster exists."

Don't have much else to say about it, which is why this is a mini-review.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for just general content level. It'd be decent as a videogame, because it's partially written like one. 

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, fantasy, rated E10+

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

 

For having no plot, the first few chapters of this book are surprisingly engaging. I think its being written in the style of a memoir helps; the author (or at least her character) has a very conversational voice.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for some sexual references, in terms a Regency/Victorian-era naturalist would use. Nothing explicit.

4 stars. This one is good. I liked it quite a lot.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, alternate-base fantasy, fantasy, rated T15+, series component

It Wasn't Me by Dana Alison Levy 

The cover of this is clearly meant to evoke One of Us is Lying (warning: link has spoilers), and I think it's essentially trying to be the middle-grade version of that. Except it forgot to take the content level down to match, so we're left with middle-schoolers being way too mature for their age.

I mean, seriously, these guys are like twelve! Not old enough for this. Ew.

 

I did like Alice the one who gave herself morbid makeup every day, though. She was the Jessica for this. (I know she's actually nothing like Jessica from the Mr. Terupt series; I'm using that term to mean the one character whose perspective I always like to read.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for sexual references {T15+ (mostly homosexuality getting mentioned)}, some swearing (I think), and... actually that's pretty much it.

Relatedly, 1 star. If you ever see me reading this again, that person is an impostor and doesn't read this blog.

(Endnote: I've never actually read One of Us is Lying, nor do I plan to. Its title is good, though, I'll give it that.)