Late August was definitely an interesting month for me. I started with 3 pirate/mermaid novels, then I read this sci-fi comedy and THEN I also read a murder mystery novel to top it off 😂


🌊 Voice of the Ocean by Kelsey Impicciche ★★★

🐚 𝑊𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐼 𝐿𝐼𝐾𝐸𝐷 🐚

• Celeste is a very likeable character, she is curious and she cares for others. Her actions at the end of the book were realistic and I'm glad she didn't put her romantic interests first in any part of the book. She was genuinely intrigued by all humans and just wanted to..well...not be a murderer 😂. Also, while she did make some impulsive choices, they weren't of the "omg he's so hot, I have to help him" variety 😂

• the romance was definitely a slow burn and I liked that because they had no concrete base for a relationship at first except intrigue and maybe physical attraction until they got to know each other better later on the ship

🦈 𝑊𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐼 𝐷𝐼𝐷𝑁'𝑇 𝐿𝐼𝐾𝐸 🦈

• the fact that Celeste randomly knew some, but not other human things she's never seen before (eg. not knowing what a skirt is and calling it a tube with a smaller hole for the waist, but knowing immediately what a dress is...)

•I was so freaking bored; the pacing is all over the place, and I didn't care much about their mission

• most of the plot (at least the important things) happened in the last 10% of the book while the rest is spent just waiting

• Raiden was kind of a forgettable guy, and honestly I didn't see the attraction at all, he kinda just existed there lol

 

🦞 The World of the Narrows by Adrienne Young ★★★★★!!

“𝙻𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚏𝚕𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚊, 𝙸 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚊 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍.”

➳Fable is one of the strongest female characters I've read about, and I don't mean that in the "she's a warrior, can take down any man" sense. She was left on an island full of thieves, murderers, pirates and schemers and she managed to survive without losing hope or her moral compass. She worked on her diving skills, she learnt how the people there work and trade, she found loopholes and places where she could be safe and she always had a plan B.

➳the ragtag crew of The Marigold has my heart - you guys know found family trope is my weakness and these guys were so precious (especially my poor Willa, I wanted to strangle anyone who hurt her even though she's fully capable of doing that herself)

➳Fable's relationship with Saint - wow, now that's how you write a complex father-daughter dynamic. He's a ruthless pirate who left her on that island to fend for herself and yet, do I hate him completely? Neither Fable nor I can say it because the way he explained certain things, the way their world works...I don't know, I despise him, but I also understand him in a way.

➳the plot - you won't believe it, but I was actually INVESTED in literally everything that happened onboard. I usually hate long ass descriptions but I could read 40 pages about how they fix nets, manage the sails, read the maps etc. I think it's because the author focused on the people doing the work and not just the work itself. Also, there were lots of storms and weird things happening at sea so that helps.


😼 Starter Villain by John Scalzi ★★★★

You've got to respect a man who takes care of his cats and helps the spy dolphins form a union.

I don't even know how to explain the plot of this book without sounding crazy. You've got this dude whose estranged uncle leaves him his villain company and most of the book is just him trying his best to keep up with all the administrative work and wondering when the "evil" work begins 😂 Also, he kept asking if they have lasers or active volcanoes and stuff, and everyone's like "that's impractical" lol

There is no typical plot; it's more of a..."follow this guy in his day-to-day activities," and it was still bloody hilarious. This is only my second book by this author, and I can tell he's becoming a fave 😂


☠️ The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton ★★★

The brilliance of the twists at the end is hard to appreciate when you spend 400+ pages trudging through a very specific, overbearing writing style and being constantly confused since there are at least 30594 characters you need to keep track of...

I was exasperated by our main character because he kept making the dumbest decisions for the first 60% of the book before finally deciding to grow a spine and, obviously, a brain....And wow, what a brain it was 😂 The guy made such a 180 that I ended up actually admiring him by the end - both for his planning and his personality.

The plot twists are truly something else. I would NEVER guess any of it and was pretty satisfied with the whole explanation of things. But as I said before, all of this still couldn't make me "love" the book because the pacing is horribly slow + the writing style made me wanna pull my hair out. In the end, I'm going for middle ground and giving it 3 ⭐

💬 Have you read any of these books? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 💬