Reviews and Comments

During my high school years, I read Marked. Despite my hatred for Zoey Redbird, I’m curious about what’s about to happen to her. I only read the first five books of the series before stopping.

One day at school, a Tracker marked Zoey Redbird and turned her into a vampire. With a refreshingly fresh take on the vampire legends, this story combines matriarchy and goddess worship to a pleasing effect. The Goddess Nyx has marked Zoey specially she given a special responsibility and added gifts, which she will need since there is something wrong at the House of Night, and her own mentor and High Priestess may not be as gentle and caring as she claims to be.

The first thing you need to know about Zoey is that she is such a hateful person. It has been a long time since I read about an MC who radiates such negative energy. Here, she calls all girls she doesn’t like derogatory names, such as bitches, hags, sluts, and hos. She believes she is better than them. She has a group of friends who are like her, and I don’t like any of them.

There is nothing impressive about Marked’s world building.

The House of Night series is set in a world very similar to our own, except that in Zoey Redbird’s world, vampires have always existed.

However, Marked does such a horrible job of implementing it. It’s labeled fantasy. With vampires having existed for so long, why are people so ignorant of them? Why is there only one vampire boarding school? Wouldn’t vampires have waged war against humans if they had existed for so long? After all, they’re much stronger than them. Considering how attractive vampires are and how successful they have been, why would anyone discriminate against them?

Marked’s romance is rubbish.

Their relationship was entirely insta-love. Their first encounter was as Aphrodite sucking Erik’s cock, which is the most disturbing aspect of the story. This is serious. Zoey sees Aphrodite forcing a blow-job on Erik. The two of them fall in love.

If you’re reading it out of curiosity, I can tell you it’s just as terrible as you imagine. Do not read this and be happy you didn’t.

A Kyoto enthusiast, Chikahito Takamoto is in his second year of high school. He transported to a mystery world during a trip to his favorite city. Sakura, Tachibana, and Hana are the trio he meets there. His immunity from their powers makes them believe he is no ordinary teenager. Chikahito's life changed when Hana chooses him. What can he do to change the unknown fate that awaits him?

From a story perspective, I wasn’t really into the story. It just didn’t really catch my interest enough to continue after this first volume. It was easy to understand Japanese words and terms. I found nothing too complicated, though towards the end, the storytelling flow was a tad strange. It did not grab me.

There is never any time for Chikahito to reflect on what happened around him or for the reader to breathe. He just goes from one part of the story to another. I’m thinking he was a tad too accepting, which is fine for a more comedic manga, but not for one that seems so serious.

His relationship with Hana is so vague. Like why she pick him? And how He is like her?

It is confusing to read a character’s future regarding his role in this war.

Let's see what happens in the next volume.

If you ask me if you should try this manga, I’d say sure. In terms of story, it is a 2.5, but in terms of artwork, it is a 3.

A vampire attacked Yuki Cross ten years ago, but she had no memory of what happened before that. She’s adopted by Cross Academy’s headmaster and assigned to guard the school’s secrets with another student, Zero. Cross Academy divides into two classes: the Day Class and the Night Class. When Day Class students return to their dorms at twilight, they cross paths with Night Class students. The Guardians of the Academy are Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu, doing their part to protect the Day Class from the Academy’s dark secret: vampires rule the Night Class.

In this story, Yuki is the protagonist, and there’s nothing to like about her. There is an intriguing mystery surrounding Kaname’s strange obsession with Yuki, as well as the tragic backstory of Zero in which he seeks revenge against a powerful vampire. This results in some pretty dramatic stakes and tensions between Zero and Kaname.The world building in vampire lore was very limited. They revealed Kaname is a Pure Blood Vampire that can turn humans into vampires. There was a hint that a pure blood vampire had attacked Zero.

The book reveals Yuki was not informed for over four years of Zero’s vampire status. Zero wants Yuki to kill him with his gun is heartbreaking. There are several forces at play, but the main one is romance.

As far as the story is concerned, it’s sometimes tricky to tell what Hino is trying to do. Hino specializes in romantic comedies. In Vampire Knight, you can still see that influence, which is part of why this volume is so strange. It’s clear that Hino is trying to write a serious story, with dark characters, a dark past and lots of blood.

However, there are lots of panels in this first volume where Yuki and Zero are like some kind of comedy team. A big source of comedy is the headmaster, who teases Zero, exults over Yuki, and sparkles with his apparently naïve dream of promoting peace between humans and vampires. Lighthearted scenes are so rare that they become jarring compared to the darker scenes.

Can you see yourself continuing to read this series? Yes, I enjoy some parts of manga, especially when it turns dark.

Is it for anyone? It depends on your taste for dark vampire stories.

I hate this book. Here is a quick review of the book.

Halo is a not-very-inspiring story about three angels sent to a posh coastal town called Venus Cove for some bizarre reason. They live lives of luxury and self-righteousness, doing very little proper service other than volunteering. A melodramatic and meandering plot follows Bethany and her melodramatic romance with Xavier. Some genuine conflict eventually shows up, several hundred pages too late to make the book any good, but that’s okay; as the author emphasizes several times, this book wasn’t written for artistic merit! Basically, it’s just a way to take your money and preach to you.

A lack of personality was apparent in the heroine. As opposed to doing well, she put her feelings about Xavier first. I found Xavier’s perfection sickening. He’s good-looking, but what else makes you want him? No more talking about his hair and eyes.

I hated the climax. When these characters realize there is a demon in town, they do nothing. In the meantime, they “wait for higher authorities to intervene.”

It would be easy for me to go on, but I don’t want to.

The end.

Celaena Sardothien spent years in the Endovier death camps, where she would spend the rest of her life. Until, crown prince Dorian appoints her to enter a competition for the title of King’s Champion, who will tasked to do the King’s secret bidding. But when one by one, the competitors turn up dead, Celaena knows that something evil lurks in the castle.

This was a huge letdown for me. It mainly involves the writing and the major lead.

For someone who’s supposed to be a deadly assassin, ’s pretty weak. I get it. She's a girl who likes to be pretty and wear nice clothes and date popular boys (I actually love when female characters are both girly and badass at once). The problem is that she is so narcissistic and stubborn that you can't help but focus on the tooth-cringing parts of her personality. She never (or rarely) speaks without thinking first. Sometimes, she really lacks tact, not to mention good manners.

While none of the other characters got on my nerves quite as much as Miss Celaena , I felt like there could have been more work behind the scenes. This is because the entire story didn’t really engage me from start to finish for this reason.

You can tell someone didn’t really do their part of research. The setting and the way all characters behave could have been a bit more authentic. However, holy cow, the out of character moments are too much, even for a mediocre book.

In short, Celaena Sardothien is a Mary Sue. But even worse — she is an unlikable, vain, shallow, self-centered Mary Sue. And if you expect me to believe she’s a deadly killer, then you better think again.

Next, I will discuss how the competition itself was a let-down rather than a fight-to-the-death (or similar) scenario. We had a race, an archery competition, and wall climbing. And a lot of other things that happened off-screen.

Amidst all these competitions and training programs, the plot scattered into flirting banter, gatecrashing parties, and some girl-on-girl hating; as if the author wasn’t sure whether she wanted her novel to be the story of a ruthless assassin, or the romance of a ruthless assassin princess-wannabe.

So, no. The plot didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t like the characters. I don’t see myself continuing this series.

You can also find this review on my blog: Click Here

This is a review of a rework.

Never got around to posting it. The first time I read Fallen, it was okay. Having to read it again makes me hate it. It makes me wonder how this book was so successful.

When Lucy encounters Daniel for the first time, he flips her off. In the following days, he ignored her, rejected her, accused her of stalking him, ditched her, suggested that she was annoying, and so on. GIRL, GET A HINT! It’s obvious that he doesn’t like you! The only thing mysterious in this book is why they fall in love or want anything to do with each other. Let me rethink that. They ARE meant to be together. Both of them are brats. Nobody else would want them.

Obsessively stalking him, she seeks him out repeatedly against all odds. What does she do when he tells her the truth? She runs away from the situation. Yes, that’s right. As a result, her stupid mind can’t handle information like a big fucking pansy.

It’s clear that she’s a useless idiot, and he’s a selfish, moronic asshole. There must be true love between them. The way Daniel treats Luce is disgusting. In accepting Daniel’s treatment of her, Luce internalizes it, agonizes over it, and still seeks him. Luce stands up to Daniel ONE FUCKING TIME and tells him not to treat her that way. He kisses her (just to shut her up) after which she stopped requesting that he treat her as an adult and as an equal, and he just continued to mutter cryptic things without explaining them since her puny female mind would never understand them.

The author does not know of angels. As well as the Bible. Religion. She shows no understanding of angels, their actual function, or how they differ from humans.

In this book, the relationship is so unbalanced. There is so much information Daniel never gives her because she needs to trust him, and her fragile mind cannot handle it. Second, their relationship is power imbalanced. The book almost opposes feminism. The only way to make a boy love you is to accept his treatment and endure his scorn and derision. This is supposed to be romantic. It’s supposed to be a genuine love story.

Would I like to continue this series? A rough outline of Torment has already been written. The review is just about finished. All I have to do is reread the book.

The book tells the story of Sabriel, the daughter of Abhorson. She received her father's necromancy tool, meaning he was either dead or alive. In an attempt to find her father, Sabriel leaves school. The adventure that follows is the story of her battle against the evil greater dead as the new Abhorson.

This was a book I read in middle school. Sabriel was a decent fantasy novel. As far as the second book goes, I can't remember if I read it or not.

The story relies heavily on an underdeveloped magic system. In my understanding, it involves speaking certain words that follow strict rules but are never fully explained to the audience.

The most frustrating part is that there’s no build to the magic, it’s just there.

I really wish I had liked Sabriel more than I actually did. I felt no connection with Sabriel since her emotions were rarely expressed, instead there was a massive amount of description about many other things that caused me to yawn endlessly. Her love interest is - well, not interesting. He was flat and dull.

Between the magic mayhem and the bland-to-non-existent-love, I never formed an emotional connection to any of the main characters or the plot.

It felt like I was being dragged on a journey rather than eagerly plunging into a new series.

I don’t see myself continue this series.