Articles

Nouveau départ

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Après des années à hésiter et à ne pas me sentir légitime à créer un blog, voilà que je me (re)lance dans l'aventure du blog. Cependant, cette fois, il ne s'agira pas d'un ersatz de journal intime d'ado mal dans sa peau, mais plutôt d'un lieu où je partagerai mes passions, les livres, les séries, la musique, les films, les voyages, etc., en maintenant une réelle ligne éditoriale. J'ai tellement réfléchi à l'écriture de ce premier article, mais je pense que je ne serai jamais totalement satisfaite alors...autant se jeter à l'eau ?

The Warm Hands of Ghosts 😪 + The Briar Book of the Dead 💖

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At the start of the year I requested many arcs on NetGalley, as usual yes, and I'm reading them slowly but steady. Two of the first three were really good ( The Many Lives of Charlie and The City of Stardust ) and the third ( The Book of Love ) was...well boring. Sadly, The Warm Hands of Ghosts (Katherine Arden) fell in that same category. To be fair, it wasn't a given that I was going to love this book since it's historical during WWI, but I went ahead anyway because there was a promise of fantasy (ghosts!), the setting was my home country, Belgium, and I was very curious to discover Katherine Arden's writing. As I said, I was pretty bored waiting for the ghosts and at 100 pages, these were only mentioned so I DNF it. I'm disappointed because the synopsis still sounds really good, but I just couldn't continue. On the contrary, The Briar Book of the Dead (A.G. Slatter) was amazing! Ellie, the main character, comes from a family of witches and is the first to no

Thornhedge - T. Kingfisher

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  Merci à NetGalley et ME pour le SP (English below) J'avais très envie de découvrir l'œuvre de cette autrice tout en étant assez appréhensive des éléments d'horreur dont j'entendais parler. Thornhedge est une novella et une réécriture de conte, et donc moins intimidante que ses autres romans. Le livre compte une petite centaine de pages mais je n'ai jamais eu la sensation que c'était trop peu ou trop rapide. Il s'agit d'une réécriture de La Belle au Bois dormant du point de vue de la "fée" qui plonge la princesse dans un long sommeil. Cette "fée" est un personnage adorable et anxieux, isolée depuis des siècles car elle a pour tâche d'empêcher quiconque de réveiller la princesse. Quand un chevalier arrive à l'orée de la forêt et commence à lui parler, elle devra se confronter aux choix qu'elle a faits par le passé.  Dans sa note à la fin, l'autrice explique que ce livre lui a semblé être charmant et cosy, alors qu'

Infinity Gate - M.R. Carey

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  Merci à NetGalley et à la ME pour ce SP (English below) J'avais déjà lu (et abandonné) un livre de cet auteur, Celle qui a tous les dons , mais j'avais vu la critique de l'excellente booktubeuse Willow sur sa chaîne Books and Bao qui m'avait vraiment intriguée, donc quand j'ai vu Infinity Gate sur NetGalley, je n'ai pas hésité. L'histoire est narrée à la première personne sans qu'on ne sache qui est lae  narrateurice, qui va présenter trois personnes : Hadiz Tambuwal, Topaz Tourmaline et Essien Nkanika. On rencontre d'abord Hadiz qui, dans une vaine tentative de sauver le monde qu'elle habite, va découvrir par hasard l'existence d'autres mondes, d'autres Terres, ainsi que le Pandominium, un consortium d'un nombre incalculable de mondes parallèles. Le principe du Pandominium m'a paru fascinant ! Dans ce tome, on voit un peu son fonctionnement, surtout celui de son armée, et le début de la guerre contre un consortium de monde

The Weaver and the Witch Queen - Genevieve Gornichec

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  Thanks to NetGalley for this eArc I've discovered Genevieve Gornichec's first novel through NetGalley and enjoyed it so much that I knew I would love this one, and I wasn't disappointed. It also takes place in Scandinavia (more precisely, Norway in the tenth century) but it isn't centered around gods like the previous one. We follow two friends trying to rescue their sister and we see what they are willing to do to see her back. There is a lot of violence in this book, as we see the aftermath of a Viking raid. There is also violence we don't see and can only imagine. But there is also, and above all, love, friendship and loyalty. I love seeing friendships between women in books, especially in a society so pregnant with misogynistic beliefs.  I don't know anything about Viking culture and I really don't understand how they could work as a society if anyone could be a victim of raids. Like, what was the point of them? Maybe, like Gunnhild said, there were to

Immortal Longings - Chloe Gong

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Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this eArc! This is, you guessed it, a first volume. In here you follow Calla, Anton and August in a chaotic city plagued by poverty. Calla and Anton enter an annual game in which the winner is the last one standing (alive). Both of them have a very personnal reason to win and they will form a tentative alliance in order to kill the competition. It is a story full of politics, betrayals, murder, conspiracies and complicated relationships. I was very curious to read Chloe Gong but her previous series didn't tempt me as I'm not really fond of mafia related stories. This is her adult debut and I really liked it! At the beginning I had a hard time understanding the worldbuilding, the magic and the politics at the same time but I was immediately engrossed by Calla's motivations that seemed so naïve to me. How killing the king without a plan for the aftermath will change anything in the politics of the empire?? I'll never understand socie

The Pomegranate Gate - Ariel Kaplan

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Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this arc!  It's a first volume, obviously . The story follows two main characters: Toba, who is a young woman who has a disability that prevents her from running or yelling, and Naftaly, a young man who dreams of a world where people have squared pupils. It takes place in Spain in 1492, when the Jewish were exiled or forced to convert. All the characters are Jewish and we see a lot of their culture and traditions, which is so interesting. Very early on, Toba crosses a gate and finds herself in the mirror realm where the Mazik live and oh , they have squared pupils! Her grandmother enrolls Naftaly (and an old woman who wants to protect Naftaly from the grandmother) to save Toba. The beginning was very slow until something happens and "oh no! there's two of them!" The Mazik Naftaly dreams of really surprised me. There are some revelations in this book that were so baffling and promised a lot of captivating intrigues. My only hope i

Thief Liar Lady - D.L. Soria

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Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! D.L. Soria stands for Destiny Soria when she writes for adults, and this is her first adult novel. She is one of my favourite authors so I just HAD to read this. As usual, it's a stand alone and the concept was so intriguing! What if all we know about Cinderella is wrong and what happens after the happy ever after? Ash is an amazing character. She was manipulative but always tried to be nice and felt guilty about being fake. Her backstory was very interesting and I wished we had another novel about the world to know more about the political state of the countries. The theme of colonisation was very strong but left me wanting more. This book made me realise that I, in fact, do love heists. What a revelation! The magic system was pretty fun and scary, and I very much liked the secondary characters who felt very real in all their complexity. There was a scene between Ash and Everett that made me very uncomfortable as it felt so wrong and