Raging Star by Moira Young, a review (Dust Lands #3)

Raging Star by Moira Young is the third and final book in the Dust Lands trilogy, a YA dystopian series that first released back in 2011. And I’ve finally finished the trilogy! Took me long enough 🤣

Raging Star by Moira Young

Blood Red Road was a fantastic start to this trilogy, unfortunately this book? It was an abysmal ending to the trilogy. There was so much potential to this book, the plot that Young has created is fantastic but the execution was so poor that it all but nullifies the interest the plot generates.

The character development throughout the book was almost null, with a lot of the characters making nonsensical and quite frankly confusing decisions despite the events of the previous two books. No one seems to have learnt from the prior events at all and the same mistakes are repeated. Additionally, Young tries so hard to create a group dynamic that will engage the reader. Unfortunately this pretty much fails, with the group not getting on, even a little bit, and there being little to no chemistry present.

Honestly? If this hadn’t been the final book in a trilogy I would have DNF’d this book. It was a pretty big waste of my time, but I’m a completionist so I just needed to get it done! What a disappointment for the end of this series!

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 5, Atmosphere: 4, Writing: 4, Plot: 6, Intrigue: 3, Logic: 2, and Enjoyment: 3 with an average of 3.86 and a 2.5* rating.

Highlight here for content warnings: graphic violence, birth, child taken, death.

I am so disappointed with this book, and so glad that the series is over. If you don’t have the completionist streak like I do then I highly recommend you don’t finish out the series! Save yourself the disappointment and read something else!

September Reading Wrap Up ’22

How the HELL did I read so many books this month? It’s actually slightly ridiculous, but I suppose it’s a good thing to balance out the birthday books coming next month! w Overall I read nineteen books. 19. How? How?! I really don’t know, but here we are. I had an amazing month. Not complaining! I also managed to actually read my whole tbr within these books too, so overall I’m really pleased.

Now. Let’s dive into these books and their mini reviews

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was my first finished book of the month. This 1122 page behemoth is one I was reading for the MiddleEarthAThon and I was finishing up the final 500ish pages at the start of the month. My full review is incredibly in depth, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed this and I’m glad I’ve finally read all of the Sherlock books!

Leading on from my first read, I picked up The Essential Sherlock Holmes Stories from Running Press Mini. This is essentially just a summary of the Holmes stories and is a cute little shelf decoration.

Fake Law by The Secret Barrister was my “non-fiction of the month” and whilst it was incredibly anger inducing, it was also really insightful. It’s a discussion on how the law operates in England and Wales (as this is where TSB works) and how the media picks up and spins tales around cases to create headlines. A fantastic read and one I highly recommend.

Going for something a little different, a middle grade! The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan is the second book in the Kane Chronicles which is his Ancient Egyptian series. I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first, oddly enough, and it’s definitely invigorated my desire to finish up the series. And maybe even finally picking up Percy Jackson!

Then I finished my audiobook, Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko which is a fantastic YA fantasy that I should have picked up a while ago! I adored the magic system in this book, as well as the character development. I’m super excited to pick up the second book in this duology!

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin was gifted to me by my uncle (who runs a page called On This Gay Day that you totally need to check out) and I truthfully didn’t think I would like it because it’s very much a slice of life style read. But I loved it? I’m so into these peoples lives and I’m 100% carrying on with the series because I need to stay with these characters!

Gothic vibes seemed appropriate as we moved into Autumn, and The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss fits the vibes perfectly. Retelling classic Victorian stories of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Frankenstein, and more. This is a fantastical, gothical, historical, mystery and it’s so much fun. I’m excited to continue with this trilogy!

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy is one of the most hyped books right now, and seeing as I loved iCarly when I was a kid and the topic generally interests me? Well this was an obvious pick. It’s a rough read, but a very well written one and I’m glad I picked it up. This is one of my highest rated books of the month!

This month’s Goldsboro GSFF read was Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle, a Sci-Fi time travel read. This one was let down slightly because I was expecting more dinosaurs! There were less than 100 pages! But the mystery/time travel aspect of the book was so utterly fascinating that I can’t even complain that much. This book just needed to be longer!! Give me another 200/300 pages with the dinos in there and I’ll be happy.

Air Awakens by Elise Kova is a book I listened to via audiobook and hooooo boy did I not enjoy this one. It had so much potential in its plot and the magic system that Kova has created. But it’s completely ruined by the pining love story going on that takes centre stage. Very much not my sort of read.

Another audiobook, but a very different vibe, No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg is a collection of her speeches to various organisations, reminding those in power that climate change is reaching irreversible levels and what we will lose. Very short (like 100 pages/1.5 hours) and a little repetitive, because it’s from different speeches. But good!

And then my final audiobook for the month which was Funny You Should Ask by the QI Elves. I love how they added in sound effects for this audiobook, it really added that something extra. A fun non-fiction with lots of random, quite interesting, facts!

Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sønderby is a sci-fi book with great autism representation, and after reading it, I felt like it has such Murderbot vibes! I struggled to put this book down, it’s so so readable and I adored learning about the xeno-liason job our main character holds. I’m definitely grabbing the second one in this series!

Unfortunately, the next book wasn’t such a hit. Raging Star by Moira Young is the final book in the Dustland trilogy (with Blood Red Road as the first book). I… would have DNF’d this if it wasn’t the final book in the trilogy. The concepts in here were fab but Young just absolutely fails at writing and fleshing these out. Such a disappointment.

The first book in a duology, The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco, is just so good. This has fabulous worldbuilding, fascinating characters with fantastic development, and a great plot! I just wish it was made a little clearer which character’s POV we’re reading from when it switches. Super excited to finish this duology!

Then for a book I read all in one day, The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuka Natsukawa is the most fantastical Japanese cat book I’ve read. This one is actually a fantasy read, unlike many of the others I’ve read previously. I really enjoyed it! It’s not my favourite (The Travelling Cat Chronicles has my heart) but I did very much enjoy it. A book for readers as well as cat lovers.

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi is the prequel to Pet, and whilst I didn’t love this as much as I loved Pet – I still loved it. It gives us so much depth to this world and to Jam’s parents, as well as about some of the adults in Jam’s life! This is, in my opinion, one to definitely read after the book it prequels. You’ll get a lot more depth out of it then.

We’re technically at the last book I finished in September! My Name is Monster by Katie Hale was not what I expected from this book. A lot more about humanity and motherhood than about survival after a sickness. Despite that I did still think it was a good review. Something I think mothers would get a little more out of than I did.

And then I feel like I should mention Babel by R.F. Kaung. This will be short because I technically finished this on 1st October, but damn is this book good. It’s a slow, deep, and beautiful read.

And that’s what I managed to read in September! 6245 pages in total, which is just ridiculous. And I’ve gotten my physical tbr down to 101 books! (ugh if I’d just finished Babel it would’ve been 100!). Just in time for my tbr to jump up massively because of birthday gifts in October! 😅

What’s the best book you read in September? I’m really struggling to pick just one! But I’m Glad My Mom Died definitely has a high spot 💖

Rebel Heart

Rebel Heart by Moira Young is the second book in the Dust Lands series. I first read Blood Red Road back in 2017 so this has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to get to, especially as I got this book later on in 2017!! But I’m reading it now and that’s what matters.

This book, and the whole series, does have a unique writing and speech style, I’d been a little worried from my memories of BRR but I was able to delve straight into the plot regardless. Just be aware that this is written in dialect and that speech doesn’t have speech marks around it to distinguish it from the rest of the text.

We do get to see a fair bit of PTSD representation in this book, from a fair few different people who are all coping differently. I found that incredibly interesting and I really liked that we saw different coping methods and how that impacted the people around them.

We do have the classic miscommunication and not-listening-to-the-person-with-knowledge issues, and in relation to that I was decently annoyed with Lugh a lot of the time in this book (the twin brother of our main character Saba). He is of course dealing with his own PTSD, but he’s also obtusely ignoring his sisters feelings and in certain cases aiming to harm her. I wonder if he’ll be redeemed at all in the final book.

Despite me saying I was annoyed at Lugh, I do have to admit that Saba is absolutely ridiculous in a fair number of her decisions in this and it was frustrating to watch. A lot were simply bad decisions but ones that I could understand, but why oh why is she running after a man she just met? *eyeroll*

And in terms of romantic relationships, I was getting a fair bit uncomfortable by the end of this book with just how many men were assuming control over her body. There were a fair few men throwing themselves at Saba, and that’s annoying but predictable when it comes to YA literature, but the control aspect is just so angering. I hope it’s addressed more in the final book.

I did adore the animal characters of Nero and Tracker, they added a lot of much needed levity and love in this book. And I also did very much enjoy a section right at the beginning of the book (roughly between page 50 and 80) where the vibes were really similar to The Singing by Alison Croggon (the last book in my favourite series). It was super interesting seeing how another author handled the same topic and if I’m honest I’m super disappointed that this didn’t go further down that path rather than the plotline Young chose.

On CAWPILE I rated it: Characters: 6, Atmosphere: 6, Writing: 6, Plot: 5, Intrigue: 6, Logic: 5, and Enjoyment: 6, giving an overall score of 5.71 and a 3* rating.

As you can tell, this wasn’t exactly a fantastic read. Nothing specifically awful, but there were issues with the motives utilised to move the characters, and peoples reactions to events. The men being absolutely ridiculous towards Saba and her sister just being uselessly stuck in the middle of it all. Despite this I was happy enough to keep reading each night, and so I’ll definitely be picking up the third and final book. It’s on my shelves already so there really isn’t any reason not to, I just hope that this was middle book syndrome and we get a great book for the finale!

Highlight here for trigger warnings: death, murder, PTSD, violence, parental death (mentioned), graphic descriptions of a corpse, sexism, rape (mentioned), lack of consent.

Goodreads Monday! #1

Inspired by Lisa’s Book Gems and Tarot I’ve decided to take part in Goodreads Monday! This is hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners and all you need to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re excited to read!

This is book 2 in the Dust Lands series! I read book 1 quite a long time ago now and I’ve just not had the chance to get around to the rest of the series! Because this is the second book, and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, I’ll be putting the synopsis of the first book below:

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she’s a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization…

I should probably bump this sequel up my tbr!!