Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

This book has such a cool premise! One girl's make believe family being killed off one by one in a world of fantasy and magic...excellent stuff. And for the most part, it lives up to it! For almost the entirety of this book, I was fully invested in the storyline and I desperately wanted to read more.

Unfortunately, this book seriously suffers in the last third. As more of the solution is revealed, it just becomes confusing in a badly-written way. The identity of the killer was extremely obvious to me, although there is a secondary twist which I didn't see coming and I thought worked very well. Without giving too much away, part of the climax also involves a character which appears so infrequently I genuinely had no idea who they were, despite the narrative trying to tell me it was a big reveal. The result isn't...great.

However, this book is definitely still worth reading. All the characters are extremely well fleshed-out and they're all so unique. I can honestly say this didn't remind me of anything else I've ever read and that can only be a good thing. It also gets major points for representation-the main character is bisexual with an asexual love interest, many of the side characters are also non-hetero and the fantasy city seems suitably diverse in terms of ethnicity too. I was so happy to read such a casual portrayal of an asexual love interest, even if it wasn't quite perfect.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. The protagonist is interesting and intelligent, the plot really sucks you in and the world-building element is also well done. This is so much better than I was expecting from a YA book and I could not stop talking about it to people whilst I was reading it. No book is perfect but this is certainly up there.

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The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon

Honestly, what can you expect from a book based off a video game? A pretty good horror story it turns out. Five Nights at Freddy's has admittedly always been a game series with a solid plot, if only you bother to look closer. I myself have enjoyed watching countless Youtube videos on the lore, which is why I knew I had to pick this book up. My expectations were extremely low but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does this add valuable insight to the games, it actually stands alone as a reasonably enjoyable story.

Don't get me wrong, the main enjoyment gleamed from this book is the way it sheds light on events from the game. There are many things in here that probably won't make any sense if you have absolutely no knowledge of the games whatsoever, and likewise it explains things that had no explanation in the games themselves. They follow separate continuities (allegedly) but honestly I could fit them together pretty well. It did give me unrealistic hopes for the plot of Sister Location but I'll try not to go too off tangent.

Back to the book as a book, it's a fairly basic horror. The characters are slightly more fleshed out than they needed to be but they are by no means hugely compelling. They have their own personalities though and I did care for them so it managed to do that much. The villain is chilling, as are the animatronics. I will say that there's not much action to be found and that is slightly disappointing. If you want tons of deaths or varied attacks from the Freddy's crew, you're going to be let down. The main threat comes from the springlocks, which was threat enough for me but might not be what people are hoping for. Again, my sense of horror was linked so closely to my knowledge from the games that some of this might be lost if you've never played them. Then again, who is going to read this never having played the games?

Overall, The Silver Eyes is a decent if not groundbreaking book. I've heard complaints that it is too long but it seems a pretty standard length to me. I would definitely recommend it to add some depth to the lore of the games, and for anyone looking for an easy read. A part of me is genuinely excited to read the sequel so they must be doing something right!

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History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Let me start this review by saying this is an extremely well-written book. I want to get that out there because honestly, it's hard for me to articulate what I thought of this book and I want to sing its praises before I seem too negative. All the characters in this book are so compelling and fleshed out and it's because of this that the emotions created are so strong. The author skates dangerously close to 'John Green' syndrome (pretentious characters that don't speak or act like real people) but skilfully manages to avoid it. I spent almost this entire book feeling like it should be irritating me and yet finding myself unable to put it down.

History is All You Left Me is the story of Griff, a gay teenager dealing with the sudden death of his ex-boyfriend and best friend Theo. It addresses his regret at initially ending the relationship when Theo went off to college, as well as his mixed feelings towards Theo's current boyfriend Jackson. This is utterly unlike any other book I have ever read plotwise and that certainly helped it a lot. It also has a very subversive plot compared to typical YA romance. While admittedly I did see most of the 'twists' coming, I probably wouldn't if I were the intended audience and I thought they were handled very cleverly. All the 'twists' were incredibly understated and woven very naturally into the narrative, so that even if I had found them surprising I would not have been rudely jerked out of the story. The fact remains that this book tells the kind of love story not often seen in YA fiction and it felt very mature and realistic because of it. I loved that Griff also got over his first love and had to cope with his guilt about that fact, despite being very close with Theo still.

Aaaaand now for the negatives. As much as I did enjoy this book, there were several elements that felt...off. I absolutely HATED (spoilered though you can guess from the back) the fact that Griff and Jackson slept together. It didn't really seem to fit in with the plot or characters and honestly, I think it's something the author had in mind from the start but didn't adapt once he actually started writing it. I also found it hard to identify with Griff a lot of the time. He just seemed to make bad decision after bad decision with no real self-awareness/attempt to rectify these bad decisions. Having said that, I did enjoy his character a lot. I think the only character that didn't seem all that well-developed was Wayne who was another of the slightly-off elements.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It is commendable alone for the positive and varied portrayal of LGBT teens/relationships, but it is also so much more than that. A fascinating book and one I will not be forgetting in a hurry.

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