Unapologetic Reviews

I read A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 45, "A book that features birding". And there was certainly plenty of birding in this book. No one could accuse it of not delivering on the prompt. The story follows Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune, a French-Canadian detective who moved to England after a scandal in Canada interrupted his career. He has a reputation as an exceptional investigator, but he is also an avid birder. He lives in Norfolk, surrounded by marshes, wetlands, and bird reserves, and when several deaths occur, the investigation becomes intertwined with birdwatchers, conservation efforts, and environmental issues. Unfortunately, this was a very disappointing mystery for me. I gave the book two stars. My biggest problem was that the balance felt completely wrong. I went into the story expecting a murder mystery with some birdwatching elements in the background. Instead, it felt like I got a birdw...

I received an ARC copy of Ivan and the Firebird by Alexandra Pugachevsky in exchange for an honest review. I always find reviews like this a little difficult to write because I genuinely like the author as a person and appreciate the opportunity to read the book. Unfortunately, this one simply wasn't for me. The story follows Ivan, a young man from the fairytale land of Zorya. After finding a feather from the legendary Firebird, he falls into the clutches of Baba Yaga, who offers him an impossible bargain. To gain his freedom, he must find the Firebird itself. His journey eventually takes him into our modern world, where he encounters magical creatures inspired by Slavic folklore and meets Lisa, a young woman with whom he falls in love. I love fairytale retellings and stories inspired by folklore, so this sounded like something I should have enjoyed. Sadly, I struggled almost from the beginning. My biggest issue was Ivan himself. For a significant part of the book, I assumed he wa...

I read The Astral Library by Kate Quinn for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, prompt number 31, “A book that makes you feel FOMO.” Sadly, this was a real disappointment for me. The premise sounded exactly like something I would love. There is a magical library where people can enter books, live inside stories, and move through literature as if the pages were real places. The library is also in danger somehow, which made me expect a fun, imaginative adventure through books, with mystery, magic, and a real sense of wonder. The idea is wonderful. The execution, for me, was not. The first problem was that the book felt very much like it was aimed at BookTok. I know the author has said that she chose books she personally loved, and that the public domain books included were ones she saw as great classics. But while reading, it felt like a roll call of the usual big titles and familiar references. Fourth Wing gets mentioned. George R. R. Martin gets mentioned. Oz, Narnia, and Tolkien co...

I read The Garden by Tomi Champion-Adeyemi for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 1, “a book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot”. This was not the most successful pick for me. I chose this because the obvious choice for this prompt would have been The Secret Garden , and I really did not want to read The Secret Garden . So I picked The Garden , which sounded like it might be mysterious, emotional, and a bit unusual. The story follows Lęina, a young woman whose mother disappeared when she was a child while searching for a mysterious garden in Brazil. Years later, Lęina feels drawn to that same garden. She has her mother’s journal, which is connected to the garden, and she travels to Brazil to look for the place that has been calling to her. On paper, that sounds exactly like something I should enjoy. A missing mother. A mysterious garden. A journey to Brazil. A young woman chasing something that might be memory, grief, inheritance, or obsession. Ther...

I read Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, prompt number 6, “A book with an overweight main character whose story isn't about losing weight”. I went into this expecting a light but eventful romantic comedy, something built around Chloe’s list and the idea of her stepping out of her comfort zone. What I got instead was a very slow, very internal, and very repetitive romance that did not work for me. I ended up giving it two stars. The premise is simple and promising. Chloe Brown is a wealthy woman living in the UK who, after almost being run over by a car, creates a list of things she wants to do to “get a life.” She has fibromyalgia, which limits her energy and shapes how she navigates the world. To complete her list, she enlists the help of Red, the building’s handyman, who is also a painter. From there, the story focuses almost entirely on their developing relationship. The problem is that the list, which should have driven the narra...

Howl’s Moving Castle is a film adaptation produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki . It is one of the studio’s most well known films and is often noted for its visual style and animation quality. The film runs for approximately two hours and begins with a relatively slow introduction. The early part of the story focuses on establishing the main characters, particularly Sophie and Howl, as well as the setting. Sophie is shown in her everyday life before the curse, and the audience is introduced to the moving castle . One of the strongest aspects of the film is its visual design. The world is presented with a strong steampunk influence , including airships, mechanical structures, and industrial elements integrated into the landscape. The moving castle itself is a complex, shifting structure made up of multiple parts, and it plays a central role in the film’s visual identity. The countryside, towns, and interiors are all highly detailed, and the animation consistently su...

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee is a young adult space adventure that I wanted to love. I really did. I started it back in April, stalled hard, eventually finished it months later, and in the end settled on a reluctant two stars. The premise hooked me immediately. A girl growing up in a marginal colony, outside the reach of a vast empire; an attack that destroys her life; an orphaned survivor who reinvents herself and aims for something dangerous and prestigious. Mecha pilots . Imperial power. Rebellion simmering at the edges. On paper, this is exactly my kind of book. And the early chapters deliver. The opening has momentum, emotional stakes, and a sense of place. I was invested. Then the book shifts. Once the story moves into training and institutional life, the tension drains away. The plot becomes rigid and predictable, and there is one extended section where you can see the outcome from kilometres away. It drags. It really drags. Page after page of waiting for the inevitable, wishing t...

The Unwedding by Ally Condie was a genuine disappointment for me, which is a shame, because the premise should have been a slam dunk. A luxury resort. A holiday setting. Murders that turn paradise into something claustrophobic and dangerous. I love mysteries that ruin people’s vacations . Hotels, beaches, cruise ships. That is my favourite playground for crime fiction . Unfortunately, the setting is almost the only thing this book gets right. I gave up at around 43%. Out of curiosity and stubbornness, I looked up the solution at the end, hoping it might convince me that the long, meandering middle was worth pushing through. It didn’t. If anything, it confirmed my decision to stop. My biggest problem is Ellery , the main character. We are firmly inside her head in third-person limited , and it is not a pleasant place to be. Ellery is going through a divorce; her ex has already moved on. That could have been handled with anger, bitterness, even sharp self-reflection. Instead, we get pa...

I really wanted to like The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin , but it was a major disappointment. Let me tell you why. The setting is the same as the previous books, mostly taking place in the capital city. The difference is that in this case the main character isn’t a mortal, but actually one of the godlings, Sieh . He is the oldest and the first. I was actually excited to read from his point of view, because I liked him a lot in the first book. It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling the major plot point, but I’ll try. He meets two children by chance, a brother and sister, both Arameri . He meets them several times, at a few points in their lives, until an incident happens that changes his life forever. Now, you may think this is a start of a great adventure of self-discovery. Herein lies my problem with the story. Things do happen. Here and there. In between those sporadic events though are lots and lots and lots and … did I mention … a lot of thinking. And...

It’s been awhile since I’ve read anything not written in this century, or the end of the last one. Growing up, I was quite taken with historical fiction, mainly Dumas . However, since then I’ve mostly focused on the problems of the modern man. I’ve decided to venture into the world of the classics to see if I’ve left them hastily, and realised I haven’t. While Maupassant ’s short novel was okay, I didn’t find it engaging for the present time. I purposefully didn’t read any analysis of this novel, because I wanted to draw my own conclusions. I did read the writer’s life though. Now, for all I know, I could be completely misunderstanding the text. However, a text always means what it means to you. No one can be in another real person’s head, just in that of their characters’. The story itself is quite simple. You can see what’s going to happen a mile away. It’s mostly about the life of a moderately wealthy French lower aristocrat woman. It starts the day her adult life begins, a...

I haven't read any of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa for a long while. In an attempt to cut down my Currently-reading list, I gave this another go. It didn't get better. The thing is, the whole time I was reading it I felt like I've read this before. I even knew what was going to happen in certain situations. I even thought at one point that maybe I've read it, but that's impossible. However, in a way I have read it. I always loved fantasy, fairy tales that have princes and princesses. I still do. I occasionally watch fairy tale movies intended for kids. In my 32 years, I've seen a lot of stories. That's exactly the problem with this book. It's good if the reader is a young person, just switching over from the Grimm fairy tales to something else. This will feel familiar. However, to me, I've read this all. There is just nothing new or surprising, or witty about the story. It's like a mish-mash of things that I've read before in count...

I sat in to see Insurgent with mixed feelings. I was pretty bored by the first movie, and I wasn't sure if I would be more entertained by the second. In the end, it was okay. Unlike the first movie, which had an interesting beginning, boring middle, and more exciting ending, this movie had a steady pace. While I wasn't at the edge of my seat, it was interesting enough to not cause me to start creating dishes for my other blog in my head. However, it wasn't exciting enough to actually make me feel. In the review of the previous movie I had a few questions. Now let's see if they were answered. What is the wall for? - We sort of get an answer. What is the rest of the world like, and why isn't anyone trying to find out? - We sort of get an answer for the first part, but not the second. It still doesn't make sense to me why people just take at face value that the world beyond the wall is terrible. On some of the shots there were clearly forests beyo...

I wasn't very keen on watching The Giver , but as is apparent from my previous reviews, I tend to keep an open mind. There were other movies I wasn't very excited about, and I liked them. The reason why I watched this movie? Alex Skarsgard . Yeah, he's beautiful, and I love his voice, so I decided to check this one out. I also saw that a lot of my online book friends loved the book version. Well, let me just say that I hope the book is better. I can use one word to describe this movie. Simplistic. The book came out in 1993, before the hype of The Hunger Games , and other dystopian YA books , so in a way it's a forerunner of its time. However, while watching the movie it did remind me of a few things I saw or read that were made before 1993, so let's start the dystopian cliché list, that is now so familiar to us all. City surrounded by some sort of a barrier that people can't cross. Two things come to mind, and remember, I haven't seen and read all dyst...

Doctor Who: Autonomy by Daniel Blythe took me a little over two weeks to read, but it felt longer. I didn't enjoy it much. It wasn't completely terrible, but I found it a bit boring. The story takes place in 2013, actually, so it's a bit strange in that way, since it was written in 2009. You only realise how many things can happen in 4 years when reading something like this. It happens in a super-mall, which actually didn't sound so bad. It's an environment that I know well, since I work above a mall, and spend a lot of time there, sometimes just to get out of the office. However, the story itself just didn't entertain me so much. It was obvious what was going on at about 10% into the story, so that took the mystery out. Then it was all just people dashing about, some minor characters getting killed, and I just wanted to get to the end already. It was just too simplistic. I also missed the Doctor having someone to properly explain things to. This takes place a...

I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch Divergent . The book is on my "never read" list, mostly because I heard it has a lot of romance in it with insta-love , which I can't abide. I was afraid that the movie would be like that as well. However, I have had a movie change my mind about reading the book, twice actually. Therefore, I decided to give this one a shot. I've heard the story compared to The Hunger Games  more times than I can remember. Funny thing was that it reminded me of a whole lot of other dystopian novels, and even some non-dystopian ones, but not The Hunger Games . The factions remind me more of the houses in Harry Potter . Especially because the houses seemed to stay with them even after they left them. The difference is that Hufflepuff is divided up into three aspects of the Hufflepuff mentality, which in a way doesn't make sense, but it does if you think in the terms of jobs. The only people we're missing are the Slytherins. The problem w...

I really can't remember what I expected from I, Frankenstein . I'm pretty sure it wasn't what I got though. I checked the trailer again, and I think I wanted a movie that had good visuals, solid action, and some sort of a fantasy-based story line. I sort of got it, but it all fell flat. The background is basically a snippet of Christian mythology . It reminded me how much people forgot about the rich mythical background that Christianity had in the Middle Ages . Back then it had a rich story background, with angels, demons, spirits and the like. I'm not a Christian, but I love good fantasy stories, and myths to me are that. However, the talk about god and things just felt awkward. I live in a country where there are a lot of atheists, and all the god talk made a lot of people snicker in the theatre. The gods in Percy Jackson felt more rational. The visuals were well done. Seriously, people turning into gargoyles looked cool. The way demons and gargoyles died was ...