Reread Challenge: Harry Potter

WHEN I First Read

It was sixty million years ago, unfamiliar creatures roamed the Earth... and... Okay, all joking aside, I had the first book read to me by my parents when I was eight or nine.

WHAT I Remember

Okay, so I remember almost everything because these books are ones that I reread often.

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

I reread them a while every year or so for a bit, though my interest in doing that is cooling. I still really love the books, though.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I have done this over the course the past few months, but I figured that it would be more fun to post about the whole series. I'm still working my way though Deathly Hallows, actually, but now this post is hanging over my head.

I am still amazed by how intricately structured the foreshadowing and world of Harry Potter are. I think the way J. K. Rowling created her characters was amazing, because they are both fantastical characters and incredibly real people. Their vividness is breathtaking, and I found myself adoring the world more in all of its complexities.

I'm also just realising how incredibly screwed up the wizarding world is. It has all of the flaws that our world does, and it a  post-war society. They've got so many things that are terrible from the outside, but normalized within the world to such and extent that the reader accepts them, or almost does. 

Umbridge is terrible. I find that every time I read these books. There are plenty of wonderful analyses of the reason that people have such a repulsed response to her, and I think that they're spot on in saying that everyone has had an experience with someone like Umbridge. Voldemort is incredibly evil, of course, but most of us haven't met someone who commits mass genocide. But we've all met someone who condescends, someone in authority who will tell you that you're wrong about something you know to be true, someone with that special kind of malicousness that we see in Umbridge. Everyone has had an experience like that.

Also, I'm at the point now of "they're all so young!" Lily and James were so young- I have friends the same age as they were when they died. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all so young to be going through what they did. It just really hit me. 

So these books are still a really fun, interesting read! It's always going to be a part of my life, and I really enjoy revisiting it.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Definitely. I've reread it before, I will reread it again. It is inevitable.

Re-read Challenge: May Re-reads

WHEN I First Read

I read Shadow and Bone in February of 2013, Siege and Storm in July of 2013, and  Ruin and Rising when it came out.

WHAT I Remember

I remembered a lot of the broader details, but not the finer points of the story. 

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

There was a read-a-long, and I figured, why not, especially with Six of Crows coming out later this year.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I still really like this trilogy. These books are enjoyable in no small part because of the cast. Alina isn't always likable, but she is always understandable- I see where her choices come from, even if I don't agree with them, and she goes through an interesting arc over the course of the trilogy. It was interesting seeing all the foreshadowing that Leigh Bardugo slipped in, now that I knew where the story was going. Overall, I still really enjoyed reading this, and I'm definitely looking forward to revisiting this world when Six of Crows is released. Here are a few more of my thoughts from the re-read on Tumblr.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Definitely. I'm collected the paperbacks, I'm just waiting for Ruin and Rising to come out.

Re-read Challenge: Across a Star-Swept Sea

WHEN I First Read

I  read and reviewed this March of 2014.

WHAT I Remember

I think I've read this again since reading it the first time. I remember most of the plot, including a lot of the finer details. One might say that I didn't need to reread it, but I wanted to back into the world. I remember hating the use of the word spy because it seemed weird in that context- what Persis does is really closer to vigilantism than spying, I think. It isn't primarily information she traffics in, after all. Otherwise I really like it.

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

Remeber how I reread For Darkness Shows the Stars sort of on a whim? It made me really want to reread this one too.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I wish more than ever for another retelling set in this world. I still really enjoyed reading this, despite the fact that the word spy still didn't feel quite right. (My mental word-replacer would probably have it switched to vigilante... while it isn't the perfect word, it is better). Anyway, my inner editor aside, I still quite enjoyed this.

Part of it is that this story plays on something pretty awful: people willing destroy other's minds as a form of punishment. This just gets to me a little, as does Persis's mother's condition (which is essentially an aggressive form of early-onset dementia) and Persis's own fears regarding her own mind. They're something that feel very real to me, on a personal level.

I think I was in an analysis-y sort of mood when I read this, because another thing that I noticed was the idea of limitations, and working within and against them. Persis uses her society's expectations of her limitations to her advantage: her people wouldn't expect a woman to be capable of what she does as The Wild Poppy, and those on the neighbouring island wouldn't expect an aristocrat to be capable of it. It also means that Persis is going to have to carve out at space for herself, as herself in her world, because she doesn't fit them, and nor do a lot of others. Justen spends a lot of time realising his own limitations, as well as thinking about the limitations of others (like thinking how Ro has grown within hers). 

Anyway, point being, I still really liked the book. There are things that I wished for more of, like more information about the technologies, but I found it clearer this time around than I did my first time reading it.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Yep. I'll eventually get a copy of my own... I just haven't gotten to it quite yet.

Re-read Challenge: March Re-read Recap

I didn't intend to reread more than one book in March... but it happened. Naturally. I've mentioned before that I am an obsessive re-reader, and I wasn't lying.

 For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

After finishing For Darkness Shows the Stars, I found that I wanted to pick up Across a Star-Swept Sea again as well, so that will be happening in the near future.

Re-read Challenge: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

WHEN I First Read

I first read this in January of last year? (Apparently, it feels like it has been longer).

WHAT I Remember

I remembered the general concept of the story (the vampire-disease, the Coldtowns). I roughly recalled the characters and the plot. I still recalled the feeling of the novel  as well.

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

I've been on a bit of a Holly Black kick this year... I read and really enjoyed The Darkest Part of the Forest, and finally got around to The Spiderwick Chronicles (I have a beautiful bind-up edition). So I just decided on a whim to reread it while I was browsing at the library. As one does.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

This book was more intense for me this time. I mentioned the feeling book before, and it hit me harder this time. There's a feeling of slow decay to the entire world, which I find delightful (apparently I have a thing for it). All of the  Holly Black books that I've read have an almost Gothic feel to them, and I really like that.

I don't recall noticing it last time I read it, but this book is GORY. Now, gore doesn't bother me, but if its something that squicks you out, I would probably give this book a pass. For me, it made the reading experience more vivid. Overall I found myself really enjoying reading it again. It has a strange sort of style, which I really enjoyed reading.

"...the world I remade with my terrible mercy."

 Random quote that I bookmarked while reading... the downside of mercy plays a interesting role in this book, and morality is very grey thing. I find I'm never quite sure what I would prefer to happen in the end, for Tana. I know what I would choose, but for her, I don't know.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Yes, probably eventually. I feel like I almost always say that, don't I? I'm kind of a chronic re-reader.

Re-Read Challenge: For Darkness Shows the Stars

WHEN I First Read

I  read and reviewed this December of 2013.

WHAT I Remember

I was staying at a family member's cottage with my immediate family and some cousins when I read this, and I was not in a people-seeing mood, so I spent the better part of three days reading and rereading this book. (I know, I know, that wasn't what was meant by this question).

I remember this one quite well, plot-wise, because it is a fairly simple plot. What made it for me then were the characters (and specifically Elliot, the main character).

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

I liked this book so much the first time, and finally order my own copy from Book Outlet. I wanted to break it in.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I liked it just as much the first time. Elliot remains a character that I enjoy. I like her practicality and sense of duty. She's got a lot of good character traits, but certainly flaws as well. She's just one of those characters that I empathise with.

I've always dislike this cover and how this book was packaged, because a) whitewashed cover and b) it makes it sound like the romance is the only thing going on, which it isn't. There's class struggle, there's Elliot desperately trying to keep the her family's estate together (behind her father's back), and conflict of progress vs. tradition. It isn't that I have an issue with romance, it just isn't all that is going on in this book. Elliot spends a lot of the book struggling with a lot of things, and her relationship with Kai is only one of them. She was definitely the strongest part of the book for me, and is still someone who I connected to pretty quickly.

Weirdly, I found that I followed Kai's character more than I did the first time I read it... I don't know how to put it. Just I was more aware that he was actually a character on his own who was wandering around doing things... he didn't just disappear when he wasn't in a scene. 

The Reduction was still something that seemed a little vague to me, simply because it wasn't explained (it wouldn't really have made sense for it to be explain, seeing how technologically backward the Luddites are, but still). I'm still trying to picture Elliot making transgenic wheat... I would love to see some more of that (for me, trying to wrap my head around that was the hardest part to really. There was also the fact that compasses don't work anymore, which suggests that, during the time of the story, Earth was going through a pole-reversal event, which could throw a lot off. (Sorry, science student tangent...)

In the end, I would love it if there were more than two retellings in this world. I would probably read another four, if offered.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Yes, definitely at some point. I mean, I own it now, too, so probably randomly, on impulse (that's usually how my rereads happen to be honest). Also, I wasn't planning to reread Across a Star-Swept Sea, but now I kind of want to. Maybe that will be my next reread?

The Re-Read Challenge: Vessel

First re-read completed for The Re-Read Challenge! Which I missed the link-up for in January, because I'm like that with my  2015 challenges post.

WHEN I First Read

I actually reviewed this two years ago.(I really hope my reviewing style has improved since then...) 

WHAT I Remember

I remember being drawn to the world of the story more than anything. I picked it up from my local library, back when I was still working my way though their collection (now I've read just about all the YA that they have which sounds remotely appealing to me). Vessel is set in a desert, and its about a girl who is to be a sacrifice- giving her body to a god so that she may help the people of the desert survive the hostile environment. Except, of course, there's a complication- when the ceremony is conducted, the goddess doesn't come, leaving the vessel, Liyanna to be abandoned by her clan. It follows Liyanna's quest to find out what has become of her goddess.

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

I really like the world and story the first time I read it, but by now couldn't remember the finer points of the story. 

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I like it just as much as the first time. I didn't remember everything, though I remembered the general shape of the story.

I focused more on Liyanna's character arc this time through, and I found her an enjoyable lead. She's brave,  very determined, which I like, and also very comfortable rising to what a situation demands, especially toward the end of the book. She's just great at rising to the occasion. Someone to use a knife? While she's not super-good at it, she'll be there. Need someone to work magic? She's working on it. Even if it is against the rules, someone has to do it or they'll all die in the desert. Someone to negotiate? She walks right into the enemy camp and demands an audience with the emperor. 

“You do realize that you are addressing the emperor of the Crescent Empire."
"And you are addressing a free woman of the desert. You are not my emperor. Therefore, I am your equal.”

I love books with an emphasis on stories, it gives such a great background to the cultures in the book. In this book, storytelling is often used to communicate another idea or to tell the reader (or other characters) something about a character.

I realised, when I got to it, that I had sort of forgotten the climax of the story and how exactly that came about, so that was enjoyable to rediscover.

For me one of the weaker points of the story was, both times, the romance. I didn't particularly feel much of anything for the romantic aspect of the story... it definitely wasn't my favourite aspect of the story. It was just sort of strangely told, I suppose? I liked how the other vessels grew on Liyanna, when she, in the beginning didn't like them much, and I wish that there was more of that.

This book very much feels like a story. Its something that I often find I like- books that read like stories. I don't know how to explain that. There's just a certain feel to some books that makes it feel like a story being told to you, and I often find that I really enjoy that.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Probably at some point. I don't know when, but it is a book that I feel like I could read multiple times and still get something out of.