Update!

Hey bookworms,

I know it’s been kind of quiet on here (save for the four book reviews I just reblogged) so I just wanted to give an update.

I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere in my reviews before, but I’m a writer and because of that I have a blog to showcase it. I’ve been updating that blog for over a year now and a few months back I got the idea that instead of having separate blogs with my writing and book reviews that I should combine them together so that my writing is altogether.

Basically, I’ll reblog my book reviews from my writing blog onto here but this site will probably be solely book reviews and no other book related topics. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about them, it’s just that I’m focusing a lot on writing and I just don’t have the time to focus on particular focused book blog posts.

And thank you all for reading my book reviews and be ready for more! And if you like my writing, maybe check out some of my other stuff on my personal blog!

Book Review: The Science of Orphan Black by Casey Griffin and Nina Nesseth

Sarah O'Connor

Orphan Black was one of my favourite shows on television. Running from 2013-2017 it was a Canadian show about a young woman named Sarah Manning who discovers she is one of over two hundred clones. The show follows Sarah learning and meeting the other clones (later referred to as sisters) as she and her sisters investigate the scientists and organization that created them and fight for their autonomy.

I loved the show now only for its Canadian background but that it featured strong and complex female characters and that for a show so involved in scientific experimentation and theory that it never went over the audiences heads. I may not have always been able to understand every science term Cosima spouted out in her lab, but I got the jist of it because the Orphan Black creators made sure to make a show that would interest audiences in both…

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Book Review: Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong

Sarah O'Connor

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favourite Canadian authors. I’m constantly amazed at her range of work as well as how many books and genres she has written across in her career. I especially love how with the Rockton series she sets it in the Yukon because the Territories are so beautiful and often forgotten even among Canadians. That being said, the fourth book in the Rockton series was definitely my least favourite.

When a U.S. Marshall is sent to Rockton to collect a dangerous person but can’t identify who the person in town is, Detective Casey Butler and Sheriff Eric Dalton become naturally suspicious. When the possible U.S. Marshall is killed it only makes Casey and Dalton’s situation worse as they try to find out who the mystery killer in Rockton could be, and Casey’s visiting sister April only complicates matters in the search for the killer.

I was…

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Book Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Sarah O'Connor

If you’re a Schwabling then you know about The Near Witch and how exciting it’s re-release has been. This book alone is worth having just as a physical inspiration and Schwab’s introduction to the re-release of The Near Witch is a must-read for any aspiring authors. The history of how this novel came (and failed, and came again) to be is fascinating, inspiring, and a cold harsh look at the publishing industry and how if you’re going to be an artist you can’t ever give up on your craft, you have to keep pushing forward despite the struggles.

The Near Witch is definitely a book I would have loved as a teenager, and while that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it now it’s just the truth that I am at a different part of my life now than I would have been when this book was first published.

I adored…

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Book Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Sarah O'Connor

An epic fantasy and one of the most hyped books of 2019, Samantha Shannon doesn’t disappoint in her action packed and dragon filled monster of a book.

Shannon creates an amazing world that is both like and unlike many great fantasy novels before Shannon’s. It’s hard not to fall in love with this medieval type of world filled with courtly romance and myth and remember just how amazing the fantasy genre is to escape into an entirely new and fantastic world. It’s easy to get lost in Shannon’s beautiful prose from the scenery of the different worlds, the description of the dark waters, to the shimmering scales of the dragons and wishing you could see one to the (sometimes frustrating) description of food that made me so hungry (let me eat the magic orange!).

One of the biggest changes that Shannon makes to the genre (and my personal favourite) is…

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Review: I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Publication: June 14th 2016
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Pages: 224 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤

You might have to read this book twice.

This is more of a warning than anything else, and one I’ll go into later on in my review for anyone who’s curious about this strange book that seemingly popped out of nowhere. It’s just a warning, but be prepared to start over.

Just be ready.

Review: Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Publication: May 13th 2014
Publisher: Ecco
Pages: 262 pages
Source: Bookmobile
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

So I did the “bad bookworm thing” and watched the movie Bird Box before I read the book, but is that really such a bad thing? I obviously understand the importance of reading the book before the movie, because the book is often SO MUCH BETTER! But sometimes you can’t help it and sometimes the library holds are so long, you just have to go for it! For what it’s worth, I liked both of them, but let’s focus on my thoughts on the ink and paper copy.

Review: The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges

Publication: March 30th 1957
Publisher: Vintage Red Spine
Pages: 172 pages
Source: Birthmas Gift (Thanks Ashley!)
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Classics
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤

I stumbled upon this book in a used book store many years ago and didn’t end up buying it, convincing myself that I would find it the next time I visited. Well, I visited and it was gone and I’ve learned my lesson about making purchases in used book stores.

But my friends know me very well and when one of my friends was visiting the U.K. she got me this book as a present because it reminded her of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling) and she thought it was something I would like, and she of course was right.

Review: Literary Witches by Taisia Kitaiskaia (Illustrated by Katy Horan)

Publication: October 10th 2017
Publisher: Seal Press
Pages: 128 pages
Source: Christmas Gift
Genre: Non-Fiction, Feminism, Biography
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

Literary Witches is an odd book. When one thinks of women writers one doesn’t usually think of them as witches (or at least all of them, arguably some of them have that aura about them). But Kitaiskaia and Horan saw something in women writers that was magical, and after reading their book I can’t help but see it as well.

Review: The Cake House by Latifah Salom

Publication: March 3rd 2015
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 336 pages
Source: Birthday/Christmas Gift
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Retelling, Contemporary
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

A Hamlet retelling where Hamlet is a girl? Yes please!

The Cake House has been on my TBR pile for at least four years and was a surprisingly hard book for me to find. Not online, it’s easy enough to find on Amazon. But I was never able to find it at my library or at Indigo/Chapters which surprised me. Luckily I got it as a birthday/Christmas gift and made it one of my first reads of 2019 and it did not disappoint!