Audrey's Archive - Reviews for Aspiring Authors
An archive of book reviews taken to the next level for the benefit of aspiring authors. This includes a unique novel-development analysis of contemporary novels by Algonkian Editor Audrey Woods. Very cool!
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Look past the prose, because that's not what some readers are there for. I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a book snob. After spending most of my conscious life as a reader and nearly all of my adult life as a writer, I have strong opinions about story, prose, characters, etc. And sure, I know that opinion is subjective and no book works for everyone. But I thought I had a good handle on quality. I thought I understood, for the most part, what makes some books successful and other books flop. And then came From Blood and Ash. I picked this one up because it's been a runaway bestseller the likes of which publishing rarely sees. With 25K reviews on Amazon, endless…
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Elevate the mundane with an expertly-crafted plot device! I suppose it's no secret how much I enjoy a good romcom. If an author can make me laugh while also providing some of the romantic warm and fuzzies, then here, take my money! But the problem is that romance is heavily trodden ground. It's incredibly hard to find something that hasn't been done a thousand times, and better. In the game of publishing statistics, the odds of writing a novel romance (pun intended) are against you. Enter: plot devices. Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales has a lot of tropey elements. The story revolves around sassy and smart Darcy Phillips who is blackmailed into hel…
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Like the author herself, my romance-genre reviews have now graduated from the sweet YA variety to the, let's say, spicier brand of fantasy. Let's plunge right in, shall we? Most people know Sarah J. Maas as the breakout author of the bestselling Throne of Glass series, a Cinderella retelling which fell solidly into the teen-fiction category. She rose to prominence in the boom of YA retellings and has since become a staple of ComicCons and book festivals, especially those targeted at adolescent readers. But Maas surprised everyone with her adult debut, A Court of Thorns and Roses, continuing on her theme of fantasy retellings (Beauty and the Beast this time), but…
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The author didn't shy away, and it paid off! This book created quite a bit of buzz when it came out back in 2018. A story about the body parts of magical creatures being sold on the internet? Gross! Weird! It was an immediate sensation. Some people thought it pushed the boundaries of YA too far, edging into "creep-out" category. However, with almost 2 thousand Amazon reviews, clearly the audience wasn't creeped out enough to avoid it. Having finally spent the time to read it, I can see why this novel took the YA horror scene by storm. Not only is it a hooky idea, the author isn't afraid to go there. It's bloody, gory, and honest to the concept. After all, y…
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In the spirit of frankness, I'll admit that it took me a while to pick this one up. I'd seen The Midnight Library by Matt Haig on pretty much every 2020 list imaginable. The sales were through the roof, the 5-star reviews stacking up, and still I dragged my feet. What was the appeal of a story about a suicidal woman experiencing all the lives she didn't live? It didn't exactly sound like a crowd-pleaser to me. But eventually, I couldn't stand the suspense. I checked out the audiobook, cleared my weekend schedule. And was blown away. This story is an emotional, brilliant, heartwarming exploration of loss and regret and depression. With beautiful but straight…
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Learn visuals from the masters! As you might have noticed, I've been on a graphic novel kick lately. It started with On a Sunbeam, but has since expanded to several series, some of which I might discuss here later on. But one that deserves to be brought to your attention is the creative, beautiful, and eerie masterwork, Monstress. Monstress takes place in a world where there are magical subspecies of half-human creatures whose bodies can be harvested for Illium, which is used by the human world for power and weaponry. In this beautifully-illustrated, violent setting a young woman named Maika Halfwolf is infected with a dangerous demon who both keeps her saf…
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Any book with this much buzz deserves your attention! Love her or hate her, Sally Rooney is one of the most famous authors of our time. Hailing from Ireland, she came out of nowhere in 2017 with her surprise hit, Conversations With Friends. Blending elements of literary and women's fiction, the book was well-received and widely read, leading a splashy deal for her next book. Which was Normal People. You'd have to be living under a boulder in Croatia to have missed the massive media storm that was Normal People. It spawned a BBC adaptation, sold literally millions of copies, won tons of awards, and probably showed up in your mom's book group. Everyone was re…
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If your book is all concept, it's all boring! First of all, I will admit to having enjoyed this book when said and done. Even though I'm about to use it as an example of what not to do, it was still a heartwarming read about love and loss and how trust can conquer fear if we let it. But... This novel is a classic case of the concept getting way, way ahead of the plot. So first, the concept: How to Stop Time revolves around a man named Tom Hazard who ages slower than normal people. He's not immortal exactly, but his body takes so long to grow old that he might as well be. Born in the days of witch-burning and religious fanaticism, Tom has learned the h…
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Horror is more than just jump-scares and gore! It might sound strange, and I've had more than a few weird looks because of it, but whenever I'm asked for my #1 book recommendation, my perennial go-to is the zombie classic, World War Z. That's right, this book reviewer's favorite comfort read is a post-apocalyptic thriller about reanimated corpses. But if you haven't read it I do urge you to give it a chance because it is frankly awesome. Maybe I'll write a book review of that one soon... But because I'm such a Max Brooks fangirl, I couldn't resist listening to the audiobook for Devolution, his latest fictional-documentary approach to another classic horror trop…
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It's amazing what a great cast can do. Having already read some of Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing, I went into this audiobook with high expectations. I loved Evelyn Hugo and was excited by the prospect of a novelized documentary about a fictional band from the 70's. I've always been a fan of non-traditional novel formats, so this book was right up my alley. What I wasn't expecting was how much Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne got under my skin. Daisy Jones & The Six is more than just the story of a made-up band. On the surface, the plot itself if fairly mundane. It's built around a pretty straightforward romance between the married lead musician of The Six (…
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With skill and passion, any subject can be done well! I recently realized that I've been running Audrey's Corner for more than a year now and I still haven't made a post about my strange but totally sincere love for World War Z. What an oversight! I know exactly what expression you're wearing, because I've seen it time and time again on the faces of whoever I'm recommending this to, accompanied by a litany of unspoken questions. A zombie book? Really? Aren't they done to death? Aren't they stupid? That all may be true, but Max Brook's epic and far-reaching masterpiece is neither stupid nor overdone. No, in World War Z Brooks takes the well-trod and cl…
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Find a niche and make it work for you! Everyone likes to belong. We all want to be a part of a group or fan club or exclusive membership. One might even argue that tribalism is one of the most fundamental driving forces of, well, everything! Knowing this, one has to acknowledge the genius of Emily Henry's bestseller book... about book people. Book Lovers succeeds on a whole lot of fronts. It's a quippy, witty, and fast-paced romantic comedy about a career-driven woman and the grumpy, brooding, gorgeous man she's forced to work with because of her job. Overdone trope? Perhaps, but here's where the book takes a brilliant turn. The main characters in Book Love…
Last reply by Chief Editor, -
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Different medium? New storytelling lessons! I've never been an enormous reader of graphic novels. Sure, I read Watchmen, Dark Knight, and V For Vendetta, but I was hardly a comic book nerd. Comics always seemed overwhelming to me, this behemoth industry with no clear inroads. Where does one start? Which ones are accessible to the uninitiated, like me? Better to stick with novels. However, a few weekends ago a friend pressed this book into my hands and told me to just give it a try. And, because I can't resist a heartfelt recommendation, I did. To my surprise, I very much enjoyed the beautifully illustrated, surprisingly heartfelt, and well-developed graphi…
Last reply by Chief Editor, -
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When it's all been done before, do it different! The notion of a fresh fairy tale retelling seems impossible these days. Having lived through the YA genre boom that happened in my own teen years, I thought the concept of a new spin on a Brother's Grimm tale was all but dead. After all, how could you re-re-re-tell the same story? As I'm sure you've already guessed, A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow proved me wrong! This novella, as the author herself jokes on her Acknowledgements page, puts a Spider-Verse spin on the tale of Sleeping Beauty. That's something you've never heard before, right? The idea is that there's a Sleeping Beauty in every dimension …
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If the people are real, then the story will be too! I went on a real Taylor Jenkins Reid kick last year, as you might be able to tell. In 2021, I tore through basically her entire catalogue. It was heady and wonderful to have an author that just kept delivering, just kept impressing me, and just kept giving the exact reading experience I was looking for. Now, knee-deep in the doldrums of a reading slump, I find myself looking back and wondering what it was about her books that captured me so thoroughly (and, conversely, why the last 20 or so books I've picked up have not). Why did this author blow me away with such predictable regularity? What was she doing tha…
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Respect the craft and you can get away with anything! That's right, I'm mixing it up a bit today to talk about Netflix's latest hit show, a 9-episode animated series created by League of Legends to promote their new game. Even writing that, I can imagine the eye-rolls. A video game adaptation? Really? How good could it possibly be? Reader, let me tell you: really f-ing good. Arcane's story centers around the tragic tale of two sisters from the rough, poor Undercity split up and then reunited years later as adults. The sisters are the (apparently) iconic League characters, Vi and Jinx. There are multiple other plots about magic, technology, politics, and ri…
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Sometimes even death can be boring. I was drawn to They Both Die at the End when I saw it listed alongside my previous read, How To Stop Time. After watching the multi-year buzz for this book, not to mention seeing the raving reviews, I wondered if it might be worth finally giving it a try. Maybe it wasn't as melancholy and naval-gazing as I worried it would be. And the concept of a near future in which a faceless organization called Death-Cast calls people to let them know when they're going to die was intriguing. I checked it out almost two weeks ago. Reader, I still have not finished this book. The concept is indeed very cool, and handled reasonabl…
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Ever wanted to read a story about a lesbian from the 70's trapped on a modern-day subway train? This novel has been getting all the buzz, hitting every bestseller list known to man, flush with 5-star reviews, and positively exploding the internet with fanart, fanfiction, and legions of excited—you guessed it!—fans. McQuiston has acheived with two books the level of star-power that most authors never reach in their lifetime. Which, to any aspiring novelist, begs the question of: how? Flush from the success of her first book, Red, White & Royal Blue, McQuiston's sophomore novel branches into supernatural territory. When protagonist 23-year-old August stu…
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If you were to make a list of every classic science fiction trope you can think of, you'd be hard pressed to find one NOT included in this trilogy. Homicidal AI? Check. Space zombies? Check. Predatory aliens in tight, dripping corridors? Creepy check. Corporate warfare, wormhole collapse, pew-pew space battles, child hacker geniuses, corny nicknames, hand-wavy science, and so much snark? You see where I'm going with this. But you know what? It absolutely freakin' works. The Illuminae Files is one of the most ridiculously fun series I've read in a long time, maybe ever. Formatted as a "dossier of hacked documents," it tells the story of a bunch of teenagers stand…
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It seems like a sure thing, right? The fictional memoir of a scandalous, salacious, and ruthless Hollywood superstar couldn't help but be a bestseller, even if the titular character is invented. Filled with mansions, parties, fine wines, fancy foods, and enough big reveals to fill a year's worth of People Magazine, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was destined for the same greatness as its star character. Or was it? Obviously it's pointless to speculate about whether or not a book would be successful without a core aspect of its nature. But I believe that the thing that launched this fascinating read onto all the bestseller lists wasn't the glimpse into Old Hol…
Last reply by aawoods, -
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Sweet is in the title! In the past year there has been an enormous call for escapist, feel-good fiction. Is anyone surprised? Whatever one's background or inclination, 2020 was quite the ride. I think we all found ourselves looking for worlds and stories that would allow us to just get away, and this universal craving has, unsurprisingly, affected the market. Agents and publishing houses everywhere are hunting for exactly this: cheerful stories, with just enough substance to avoid outright frivolity, that encourage readers to forget their worries for 300+ pages. Are you looking to cash in on this latest trend (not to mention write something that, in itself, migh…
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Is there a more classic story than man vs. nature? Yes, I admit, I caved to the hype and read (or rather listened to) Midnight Sun, the latest installment of the guilty-pleasure franchise that is Twilight. I'll also admit that I was one of the millions of teenage girls who read the original quadrilogy under the table during math class, breathlessly wondering whether Bella would end up with Edward or Jacob (the vampire and werewolf, respectively, for those who didn't partake in this pop culture juggernaut). At the time I was young, lonely, and as ill-fitting in teenage society as any bookworm. So who can blame me for using this vanilla-bland character to project myse…
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Writing a series is serious business! If you're a fantasy or science fiction fan, then few things are more classic than the trilogy arc. Dating back to Lord of the Rings (probably even long before that), there's something about the three-book structure that calls to the human subconscious. We like stories that break into three parts, that travel from humble beginnings to epic middle to explosive end, especially in genre fiction. And I've seen few modern trilogies as successful at this arc than Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Red Rising starts, as many books do, with the origins of its hero. In a high-tech future where humanity has co…
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I confess, I'm not much one for romance novels. My few early introductions into the genre were bodice rippers featuring Fabio's bulging pectoral muscles and a woman swooning beneath a bold-face title. Needless to say, I ended up squarely in the science fiction and fantasy genre, where at the very least the covers were more discrete. However, in the age of Kindle and cheerful cartoon cover designs, I decided to take another gander at what's going on in Romancelandia and check out Evie Dunmore's debut bestseller, Bringing Down the Duke. I am pleased to report that, while there was some bodice-ripping-adjacent shenanigans going on, I found this novel to be both highly e…
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If you can write an excellent heist story, I can all but guarantee that fame and fortune will come knocking on your door. Everyone, and I mean everyone loves a well-constructed caper. Oceans 11, The Italian Job, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Mistborn, etc. The list goes on and on. As consumers of fiction, we love the feeling of the story shifting beneath our feet, of being outsmarted but reveling in the fact that we could have figured it out if we'd only been clever enough. Everyone knows the joy of a good twist, or a great mystery, and heist novels are chock full of both. Writers beware: it's one of the more difficult plot-lines to pull off, rig…
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