Rating: 4

World War II is a piece of history that interests me a lot. I have watched numerous documentaries and like finding out more about stuff that went down back then. Being from Germany, my point of view courtesy of history lessons in school, documentaries, and the media has mostly been German-centric, so I really like taking on different points of view and exploring what happened in other countries. This book is one of those that provide insight into something I had never heard of thus far: I had no idea that Russia was the only country that allowed women to fly and become fighter pilots in the war. And what an incredible story they shared!

I can’t take this novel seriously. I’m sorry, I just can’t. Seeing all my friends raving about The Scorpio Races makes me laugh out loud. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad novel, not at all. I enjoyed it immensely and had a lot of fun with it, some of it unintentional. Because it is, and there’s no way to sugar-coat it, a horse novel to a T. It’s so cliché, it can’t get any more cliché …

I’ve read about 600 horse novels so far, but except for the novelisation of Hidalgo (I love that film!) and a Mustang Mountain volume I more or less consider western riding, this is the first proper novel about endurance I ever read – at least as far as I remember. It’s a shame, really, because this makes for a rather interesting and hardly touched upon topic. I liked it so much I even gave the novel another star …

Sometimes, it’s best to let the hype die down before reading a book. When We Were Liars was published in 2014, everyone was talking about it even. Unfortunately, spoilers were flying around so I lost interest. Now, five years later and not remembering all of that, I was able to read this with an almost clean slate. And what can I say: without that kind of baggage, I really enjoyed this book – much more than I would have, had I read it back then …

This one’s for the dreamers, for the ones loving getting lost in winter woods, for the ones enjoying delicate and thoughtful fairy tales. McKillip once again spins words into a beautiful, tranquil story about magic, curses, faerie realms, and love with only a handful of characters and a limited setting that reminded me a little of Naomi Novik’s more recent novel Uprooted …

I found this little gem in my favourite Dublin bookshop last summer and it took me no time at all to whisk it away. I mean, just look at it! The beautiful cover drew me in, the promise of feminist fairytale retellings and beautiful illustrations sold it, and it being thoroughly Irish in origin was the cherry on top. And what can I say: it was so worth its money!

Damn! This is by far the best (and worst) dystopia I’ve ever read! Best, because it’s exactly what I’m looking for in a dystopia. Worst, because it’s so eerily topical I had to check the copyright page several times because I could not believe this was first published in 1985 …