This tag was created by Peat Long and Para over at To Other Worlds (whose blog I only just discovered thanks to this tag, and have been thoroughly enjoying looking through it), and even though I don’t have a cat myself I do love a book tag, and it’ll keep me humble in my desire to have a cat in the future. But I don’t need too much of an excuse to do a tag, and I’ve been very productive on my day off and this will be a bit of fun! So here are my book thoughts based on evil things cats do:
Knocking stuff off of high places – a book with a cliffhanger.
Peat and Mayri the bookforager both said The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart and I definitely agree! I’ve just seen that the publication date of its sequel has been delayed slightly and now I’m kind of wishing I’d requested it on NetGalley instead of waiting for my preorder because I need to know!!! But apart from that, a recent read that ended with me gaping at the book was The Boy With Fire by Aparna Verma, with a beautiful twist that I didn’t see coming and that has me desperate for book two! Also special shoutout to RJ Barker’s Call of the Bone Ships which has an almost literal cliffhanger that almost killed mee.
HOWLING AT 3AM – A BOOK YOU DIDN’T SLEEP TO FINISH
Ooh, it has been a while since I did that and I think the last one was A Numbers Game by RJ Dark (who, as always, has nothing to do with fantasy author RJ Barker). It’s a very good story and I needed to know how it ended! Another one is The Appeal by Janice Hallett, which I started in the morning and couldn’t put down until about 2:00 of the next morning.
HIDING BEFORE A VET VISIT – A BOOK WITH A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER
Definitely The Pariah by Anthony Ryan. Poor Alwyn just lets himself be pulled along by whatever influencing character he’s currently following, and just when I thought he’d be free – nope! Also special shoutout to Rand al’Thor from The Wheel of Time who needs to attend Chosen One Therapy.
THE TURD DANGLING FROM THEIR BEHIND – A SEQUEL THAT WAS A BIT, ER, TURD
I loved Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, but wasn’t a bit fan of the follow up: Royal Assassin. It was well written and I liked the way other characters were developed, and the further hints of the Elderlings, but I did not enjoy the actual reading experience: Fitz has the worst time of it, and there were a lot of boring bits so I ended up skimming the last quarter. It’s put me off reading book three, though I’m sure I will pick it up eventually, since I want to go through all of Hobb’s writing.
PUKING ON THE CARPET – A BOOK WITH A BETRAYAL
The first that comes to mind is Eldest by Christopher Paolini, which had the biggest betrayal I’d ever read as a 14 year old, and whenever I reread the Inheritance Cycle I cringe before the moment; it’s still not fun, poor Eragon!
DRAGGING IN LIVE ANIMALS – A BOOK WITH SHOCKING VIOLENCE
I don’t read a lot of grimdark, which is where one tends to find most shocking violence, but one that did shock me a little (though I still loved the book) was Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. His descriptions of violence were very visceral, and while I can usually gloss over that kind of thing and only picture what I want to picture, his prose invaded my imagination. Another recent read that was more violent than I anticipated was The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke.
LOOKING YOU IN THE EYE BEFORE MISBEHAVING – A BOOK WITH A CHARACTER DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION
This is hard! I’m sure I can mention multiple Jane Austen characters, but I think I’ll go with Léo Martin from The Betrayals by Bridget Collins, though I feel that it’s a bit of a weak one…
SHREDDING THINGS- A BOOK WITH A DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER
Again I definitely have to agree with Peat, who said Rand al’Thor from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. He is both outwardly and inwardly destructive, so he needs to be mentioned. Also, I’ve only read the first book in Pierce Brown’s series (my husband keeps begging me to read them, as they’re his favourite books), but already from Red Rising I know that The Jackal is a horrible, destructive character.
HAS NEVER BEEN FED, NEVER – A SERIES YOU CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF
A surprising one recently has been the middle-grade series by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman, Adventures on Trains, with the first book being The Highland Falcon Thief. In adult fiction, the one that I could reread forever and always want another book of is The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead: Arthurian legends, Atlantean near-immortals, incredible magic, and great romance. It’s the whole package!
BE SO CUTE YOU FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY – A BOOK WITH A WICKED MC YOU LIKE
I feel a bit stumped on this one! In films and TV I’m sure I could name a few, but I haven’t read too many books with a wicked MC… the two closest ones would probably be Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and Loki from Joanne M. Harris’ The Gospel of Loki. Neither are fully wicked, but they are both trickster figures who cause a lot of trouble for everyone around them, and yet I still love them.
And there we have it! That was a really fun tag, so thank you Peat for putting it out there! I won’t tag anyone specifically but if you see this and want to do it, I’d love to see your answers!
The Book Nook 
Made my morning to see this!
I think I stayed up a little late with A Numbers Game too. And I fully agree about the Fitz sequels. Tbh, I reached about a quarter way into book 3, asked a friend whether things get better for Fitz, and just put them aside when I heard the answer. Hobb might be the best writer where I absolutely don’t care for how she tells a story.
And I guess I should bump my The Pariah ARC up the queue (not that it’s all that advanced now) and maybe check out Lawhead – I’ve only read The Iron Lance of his books and enjoyed that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Pariah is very good, though I will say that it’s sort of faded from memory a bit already, which could be just the fact that I’ve read a ridiculous amount of books since I finished that one, but I do still get excited whenever I see it mentioned and I really enjoyed following the MC. I haven’t read any of Lawhead’s books outside of the Pendragon Cycle though I know he’s very prolific, but I just know that there’s an almost ethereal quality to his writing, especially the first three books of the series, which are my most reread ones.
And yes I found that even when I read Hobb’s Liveship Trader series it was both very well written and also full of slow moments that made me consider putting the book down, especially in the first one. But I think the multiple POVs in that series help to keep things moving, because spending to much time with Fitz, especially when most of it isn’t great, really is a downer! Maybe I’ll just read a summary of book 3 and move on with my life!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well I’ve found where I stuck the ARC file, so I’ll promote that up the list.
Interesting you ping him as ethereal – not a quality I associated him with, but will be interesting to compare stylesacross books
And maybe I should give Liveships a go. I like her Lindholm stuff well enough. But not super high up my list.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is such a fun tag, isn’t it?
You have me curious about Lawhead’s Pendragon books now, and The Lighthouse Witches – both go on the tbr, but would you recommend one more than the other?
And what happens to Eragon in Eldest??? I only ever read the first book in the series. Should I have carried on?! :-O
LikeLiked by 2 people
They’re so different, I don’t think I could compare Lawhead and Lighthouse Witches, and generally wouldn’t recommend them in a similar context, but because of my many rereads and my love of the Arthurian legends I’d recommend the Pendragon cycle more readily. Especially because I have yet to encounter something that delights me more than the link Lawhead draws between Atlantis and Arthurian stories. It’s not all amazing, granted, and I’d say after the first three books some of what appealed to me is lost a bit, but there are still moments of it throughout… if that makes sense? I do want to do a reread of the series soon, as well as rereading Eragon, and have been considering starting a series on the blog specifically for rereads. Ah, the constant battle between new books and old favourites!
And speaking of Eragon, I can’t tell you what happens in Eldest!! It’s a pretty big twist! (Although it’s likely that if I’d first read the book now it would be a bit more obvious to me). If you want I can DM you what happens but I wouldn’t want to spoil it accidentally for some casual peruser of the comments of my blog (as unlikely as that may be!)
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m sorry, it wasn’t really a fair question was it?
I’m intrigued by the mention of Atlantis. I’ll have to see if I can pick up a copy of Taliesin.
And a series of posts about rereads is a great idea – I’d read, for sure!
As for Eragon, completely understand not wanting to accidentally spoil for someone. But heck yes! Please DM me as my brain neeeeeds to know. And I’m far too lazy to go back and read first book again just to carry on with the series … (I feel dreadful for confessing such a thing!) ☺
LikeLiked by 2 people