​Ghostly Echoes​ by William Ritter
Basia rates it: 5/5 stars
​Connor rates it: 5/5 stars

We, as you might have already gathered from Basia's W(REC)'D post about Sinner, are big fans of Maggie Stiefvater. We were therefore eagerly awaiting the release of the fourth and final installment in The Raven Cycle, and are happy to present our reviews of The Raven King for today's #throwback.

​Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff
​Basia rates it: 4.5/5

Maggie Stiefvater said she wasn't sure if this book was "a dream wrapped in razor wire or razor wire wrapped in dream." The beautiful thing about this book is that it's both​. It is a book about people who feel too much and people who feel too little, how to navigate feelings or unfeeling in a world where we're constantly fed expectations of our emotional responses to situations.

All of Brenna's books have a dreamy sort of quality to them, but this one especially. It creates an interesting juxtaposition of dream versus reality--when the thing you're "dreaming" feels like the more tangible, more real space and your reality is the waking dream. This isn't a book for everyone (Brenna's books seldom are), but for those it speaks to, it will practically shout​. It's a story of expectation versus reality, of self-identity, of the difference between the self that you project and the one that you are on the inside. This book is raw and strange, but it is so powerfully honest​​​. There's something here for everyone to connect to, whether you're a Marshall, a Waverly, or someone somewhere in between.

Sorcery and Cecelia, or: The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Basia rates it: 5/5
Connor rates it: 5/5

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street​ by Natasha Pulley
​Basia rates it: 3.75/5
​
I did a write-up for Filigree​ (as Connor and I have been referring to it when talking about posts) while I was still reading it, but I thought I would circle back around now that I've finished and give a more comprehensive review.

This was a strange book, and I came out of reading it much the same way that I did the movie ​Krampus​​: it definitely wasn't bad, and I would also say that it was good​, but it also exists in a weird tenuous space between the two.

​My struggle with Filigree is that I kept forgetting​ to read it. Normally, when I'm reading a book, even if it's a book I don't feel compelled to devour, I have the urge to finish, because I hate leaving things undone. I'll make time to curl up in my favorite armchair with the book on my knees for at least a few minutes, just enough to get in a chapter or two while I have my tea. But I found I wasn't doing that with Filigree​.

It is, as I said before, a quiet sort of book, but while that was part of its charm, I feel like it also might have worked against it in some ways. I'd think about reading, would have to think​ about what I was currently reading, and then I would remember ​Filigree​ and that I had yet to finish it. Sometimes I would pick it up, and other times I wouldn't. I always had to make a conscious effort to remember to read it.

​Another reason I think the overall tone might have worked against the book was I was finally at the book's climax, but I felt no urgency. I am sure I was meant to--the events unfolding were crazy and tumultuous--but I couldn't muster the appropriate feelings. This is not to say that I didn't care about the characters, because I did. But I also found I cared more about the secondary characters than the three protagonists; in some ways, I felt that they had a bit more substance to them, like I knew their personalities better.

I didn't feel relief when I was finished with the book, because the overall story was an interesting one and I truly did​ want to know what happened, but I also didn't experience any of the usual things I feel when I finish a book. It was simply over, and I could finally move on to something else.

Filigree​ was a good book, but a strange one. I am glad I read it, but I can't see myself ever picking it up for a reread. It is certainly not a book for everyone. But if you're willing to give it a try, I hope that you, like myself, are at least charmed by the little clockwork octopus that has a penchant for stealing socks and hiding in drawers.

I found The Watchmaker of Filigree Street​ by Natasha Pulley totally by accident, lurking in the mystery section of my local library. I was browsing the stacks, mostly checking what Agatha Christie they had (the selection was pitiful), when I spotted a book tucked into a strange corner between bookshelves. There was a bright green octopus on the spine. Never one to ignore a cephalopod, I squeezed my arm into the space and pulled it out. I’m not sure if this book was meant to be in the mystery section or if it was placed there by another patron. I don’t even know how long it had been sitting there; if I was the only one who had happened to peer into the space between the shelves, it could have been there, undetected, for ages. So I read the back cover, decided it looked interesting, tucked it under my arm, and went to check out.

I let it sit around for a bit but finally got to starting it just recently, and I’m fascinated. Unexpectedly, the book has magic, although I suppose that the use of the adjective “magical” on the back synopsis should have clued me in, but I assumed it was just one of those buzzwords back-jacket writers like to throw around to make the work sound sweeping and grand. But no! There is, in fact, actual magic, which sells me on almost anything. There is also a male protagonist who is charming in his social awkwardness, a female protagonist whom I realized I loved immediately because she reminded me of Lila from V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series, a Japanese watchmaker who is perplexing and intriguing and very lovely, and, because it must be said, a clockwork octopus.

I’m only about halfway through, and I’m unwilling to give away too much about a book, particularly one I haven’t yet finished, but I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s a skinny book, by my usual standards, but it’s not a book that I’ve found myself speeding through. Usually this might spell disaster, as a book I find I am unable to read quickly is usually a book that is boring or obtuse, but that’s not the case here. I simply get caught up in all of it--Grace’s scientific experiments, even though I am not very scientifically inclined; Thaniel’s poor attempts at espionage; Keita Mori’s quiet but powerful presence; and Katsu, the clockwork octopus with a personality all his own. I want to know what happens, but in a quiet way. This is a mystery novel, in a sense, but it is not the pulse-pounding, what happens next what happens next I have to know sort of mystery that I’ve grown used to reading. This is a quieter mystery, where the plot takes a backseat to the characters. So if you love character-driven narratives with a little magic, a little mystery, and a little absurdity, this would be a book worth picking up.