Author: Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

An avid reader whose current interest lies in mysteries and thrillers. Line 'em up! Also personally love fantasies and any stories to do with magic, and a sucker for the occasional (good) romance.
discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – What is a “Good” Ending?

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

What is a “Good” ending? (Suggested by Rian @ Dogs and Books)

Hello everyone and welcome to another LTB! This week is a free week for whatever topic we might want to revisit. I looked through this list and felt that this short and sweet topic would be appropriate for this last LTB in September (already?!).

For me, a good ending is definitely hard to describe. It definitely is a combination of how much it makes sense, whether it was anticipatable, and honestly just overall how it makes me feel. In mysteries and thrillers I’m usually looking for that “satisfying” feeling of justice being served. I think chilling/suspenseful endings can also work well for these genres. Not a fan of something too random or out of the blue, but of course an unexpected twist for the ending is always much appreciated.

For other books, logical flow and a nicely tied up (or a tactfully loose) ending both work for me. I don’t need every last thing to be explained, but preferably things that were put forward to be important. I also really enjoy when there’s a good moral to the ending of the story, or if there are bigger themes that are addressed subtly (or even not subtly, sometimes). Even a really good journey can sometimes be good enough, and the ending can simply be of less importance at the very end.

Probably the worst endings for me are the ones that don’t make sense. Or extreme cases of deus ex machina (or most cases, really). When the ending couldn’t have been reasonably expected (e.g. random unknown character ends up being the killer), it really dampens the whole suspense that the book was building. That all being said though, the ending isn’t everything for me. If everything but the final final ending was good, I would say overall it’s still a good book. Yes I would maybe dock half a point at the end for the ending, but I would never throw away all the merits of the book just because of the ending.

And that’s all for today! What do you all think of book endings? Is it (literally) the be all end all of the value of a book? Or just a small part? Let me know in the comments below!

4.5 star, YA

Review: The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Series: The Gilded Wolves #2

They are each other’s fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope.

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God.

Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.

As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.

Book two of The Gilded Wolves was quite an adventure, much like the first. Another exciting adventure and more or less a heist once again, we follow our team of protagonists as they journey into seemingly nowhere to uncover lost treasure.

The Silvered Serpents takes places after they successfully thwart the Fallen House’s plan from book one (albeit at cost). Desperate to recover losses, the main character, Séverin, pursues what he feels is the only way to change everything: the power of God. Together he leads his team on a search for a long lost treasure, right out of the hands of the Fallen House no less. Will his team manage to find something that has been lost for so long? As things progress, more secrets emerge and the ancient past resurfaces – how will the whole team be affected?

I really have to first of all honestly say that it wasn’t looking too good for this book at first. Séverin’s new obsession with divine power really didn’t sit right with me – although logically I guess I could reason out why he might have felt that way. Although it was a legitimate cause for searching for the lost treasure, the balance between his being stuck in the past and undervaluing the present almost felt a bit forced. But something about the ending really made up for it for me.

Continue reading “Review: The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi” →
discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – What Do You Do When a Book Triggers You?

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

SEPTEMBER 17: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A BOOK TRIGGERS YOU? (SUGGESTED BY JILLIAN @ JILLIAN THE BOOKISH BUTTERFLY)

Prompts: Everyone has different reactions to triggers; what is yours? Do you have measures in place to help you avoid books that could potentially trigger you? If you get triggered without previously knowing there would be a trigger, do you still care to finish the book? Does it affect your eventual rating/review? Have you ever read a book knowing that something within it would trigger you?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! An interesting topic today for sure (like every week), and something I must say I don’t experience too too often. It’d be interesting to see what others have to say on this topic as well. Without further ado, let’s begin!

I don’t think I really worry about triggers in general when I’m reading, but I think perhaps the closest thing is general gore and really graphic violence. These usually happen in the murder mysteries or thrillers I read and I’m honestly not a fan of it. Things can definitely be scary and suspenseful without the use of super graphic details – although if that’s your thing, I’m definitely not judging, you do you.

I never know when a book will have graphic details, so I really don’t have any measures in place to help me avoid it. I have definitely read books where I was surprised by what I found, but I pushed through anyway. I tend to still try and finish the book if I can help it, unless the content of the book just wasn’t good. I actually thought the book was pretty good albeit a bit too scarily graphic, so I just went through with it anyway.

At the time of reading I wasn’t a book review blogger so it didn’t really cross my mind whether it would affect a rating or not, but thinking back, since these ratings are a measure of how much I personally enjoyed it, I would definitely have to say that it would have affected my rating for sure. Honestly, maybe I shouldn’t have finished it. Not only was it graphic, but rather it was just a bit too horrific of a story for me. But you live and learn, I guess.

And for the last prompt…nope! I definitely never mean to read anything that might trigger me. I tend to scrutinize synopses and genres to make sure I am generally interested in reading the book, and I am rarely disappointed. That being said, I do enjoy sometimes randomly picking books off shelves and enjoying them that way too. While I do run a risk, it’s often worth it for it the books you never would have discovered otherwise.

Do you all have triggers in books? If you don’t mind me asking, what are they, and how do you deal with them? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!