Reading with teafortiffany

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“My father always says: ‘You can’t run from your responsibilities,’ but he lacks imagination.”

–Frances White, Voyage of the Damned, First Line

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Hello friends!!

How has your January so far? Reading lots, I hope! I hope you have had only the best of books to start your year, but I also hope that you don’t find all of the best books in January and have just absolute garbage for the rest of the year. I’m back with another book review and a bit of an update on life in general.

I told you all how I was trying to read at least a little bit each day in January as part of the StoryGraph challenge (at least I hope I told you and I’m not imagining all of this). Well, because of said challenge, I have already finished 4 books this year. That is double what I typically read in a month! I couldn’t be happier to see that improvement in my reading hobby! I didn’t realize how effective it was to read every day, even if it’s only 10 or 15 pages, and honestly, I didn’t expect it to make such a large difference when I started out.

Other updates, I should have another book subscription box review coming relatively soon. I will get the last box for two of my subscriptions this month and then it’s just a matter of putting all of my notes and everything together to create another review! These have been fun for me to try out and I hope you are enjoying them. If you’d like to read my first (and currently only) book box review, just click here.

Alright, enough with the announcements, let’s move on to the review!

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I am so ready to talk about this.

I was hesitant to pick this up, but I genuinely love a murder mystery, and it’s a fantasy set on a ship. I love all of that. Some of the reviews I have seen for this book have not been that great, so I was genuinely hesitant. I had just finished the last book for the other challenge I’m doing and this particular book was sitting on my TBR cart just staring at me, and I knew it was time.

This is a novel about a country that is divided into 12 provinces, each named after a particular animal. Each of these provinces has, what they call, a Blessed who becomes the leader of that particular province. Each of these Blessed has a particular power that is unique to that individual and is passed down from parent to child. Once each Blessed is announced for the next generation, a journey is made on a ship to a distant island that takes 12 days there and 12 days back.

This journey is where we meet Ganymedes (Dee), the Blessed from the Fish Province, who has a great secret; he isn’t actually Blessed (don’t worry, this isn’t really a spoiler, you find it out real quick). We follow Dee around as murder after murder keeps happening on the ship, and he struggles to find out who it is and maybe how to stop them from killing all of the Blessed.

I devoured this book in the sense that I wanted to read it in one sitting, but adult life kept getting in the way. I enjoyed the variety of characters and the tone of our narrator. I’ll be honest, my rating for this is definitely a vibes rating. There were parts that, arguably, probably don’t make a ton of sense. I did not care. I was having a great time, and those little questions were easily swept away as I kept reading. I finished the book, and I kept living in that world for the next couple of days despite having picked up my next read. It stayed with me. The characters, the story, the ending, all of it.

I personally did not predict any of the twists that came with this book. That being said, I don’t typically try to find out who it is before it’s revealed. I just like to take it as it comes, and occasionally I’ll think “oh maybe it’s them” or “this person could be involved,” but I’m not analyzing the novel to prove my thought. I put it aside and keep reading. That’s just me as a reader. The twists might be completely obvious to someone else.

I understand that not everyone is going to like this book, but I want nothing more than for people to give it a chance and hopefully find that they love it just as much as I do. I did not even hesitate to give this book a 5-star rating. I know I reserve that for books I’m definitely going to read again, and part of the joy of a murder mystery is not knowing; however, I do have a goldfish memory, so maybe I’ll be surprised again. I also just enjoy the character’s growth and relationships with others. I like seeing that part as much as I enjoyed the murder mystery.

I just want you to know that if you leave a comment, even if you hated the book, I love to know what people think and why. So don’t hesitate to leave a comment because you didn’t like it. Tell me what you’re thinking and what didn’t work for you as the reader that you are!

That’s all for this week!

Bye friends!!!