Die Hard 6: A Review of Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

If you haven't read my review of Oathbringer, I would recommend starting there before coming to this one so that you have an understanding of what kind of headspace I was in when I started this book.

    This one took me a little while to get through, but not nearly as long as Oathbringer or my rereads of the first two books, since I was no longer in a reading slump. I began this the day I finished Oathbringer (July 26th) and then finished it on September 4th, so it took a little over a month.

    Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk.

    Rhythm of War, book four in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, is my least favorite of the series. We'll just say that right now and get it out of the way. Not that I think it's a bad book or anything—not in the slightest. Of the five books, though, it is by far the one I care about the least and that has impacted me the least. Why?

    For one thing, Navani. I like her well enough, but she's never been a favorite of mine, so having a solid portion of the story focus on her wasn't exactly how I'd hoped this book would go. I just prefer other characters; nothing specifically against Navani. (Though, that being said, I have a little bit of beef with her now with the whole Evi thing, even though literally none of it was Navani's fault—Evi deserved more than to play second fiddle, and I'll die on that hill even though literally every character, including Evi, has moved on from it by this point, haha.) I don't know. Like I said, I don't dislike her; but I also don't have any reason to be that invested in her. Granted, this book did help with that, but still, I would have rather had this be a story from, say, Adolin's perspective or Jasnah's.

    For another thing, the plot just isn't as interesting. Half of the characters are out of commission in one way or another for the majority of the book—most of the Radiants are unconscious, Kaladin's powers are severely depleted, Navani is a prisoner, and Shallan and Adolin and their team are in Shadesmar and dealing with those limitations. The only characters with pretty much free rein are Dalinar, Szeth, and Jasnah...and hardly any of the book follows them.

    And final thing: so little Dalinar! Even if the guy weren't my favorite character, I think I would still be a bit peeved by how few chapters we get from Dalinar's perspective, especially considering his incredible arc we saw in the last book. It just seemed that he went rather underutilized, even though he was set up to be a lot more, if that makes sense.

    I realize that I'm kind of making it sound like I didn't like this book at all, but I just wanted to get my issues with it out of the way. While it is my least favorite of the series, it is still an incredible book, and it's only the least favorite because all of the other books are somehow even better than this one. Some of the things I really liked about this one:

    For one thing, I loved the relationship between Navani and Raboniel. Raboniel in general, actually, was a huge high for this book. Sanderson's antagonists are always intriguing in various ways, but for me, Raboniel stands out as one of the most interesting. When she was first introduced, she seemed pretty basic: really evil character wants to wipe out other characters, the end. But she quickly became more developed than that, and I really, really, really liked everything we learned about her. Her fascination with science, her depth of feeling for her daughter, her respect for her enemies... And, of course, her back-and-forth with Navani was a highlight. Just seeing the two of them trying to outsmart each other while also having this huge respect for each other was so interesting. Raboniel was seriously awesome. I was kind of disappointed that, of all the Fused, she was one that got killed permanently at the end.

    Another thing that I loved in this book was Kaladin. I mean, I always love Kaladin, but this one reminded me why he was my favorite character for the longest time. How easy would it have been for him to give up at any point in these books? He has had every opportunity to leave (and you can define "leave" in a variety of ways...), but he stays. He stays alive. He stays a Radiant. He stays good. His vision of Tien and then swearing the Fourth Ideal was absolutely incredible, maybe even better than when he swore the Third Ideal in Words of Radiance, which I've long held as one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

    I got Teft's fate spoiled by accident (sort of—I knew something bad happened to Teft in this book and that Moash had something to do with it, so I put two and two together). Still, even figuring he would be dead by the end of the book, I was still heartbroken when it finally happened. It was such a sad, sweet ending for him. I've been trying to be balanced about Moash and hoping for redemption, but at this point, I think that's long gone. It isn't impossible, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Kaladin absolutely losing it with Teft's death was probably even worse than the actual death. (Though, admittedly, the poor guy just ripping the head off the Pursuer was a long time coming.)

    I also really liked the stuff in Shadesmar, which was why I was a little disappointed we didn't have a lot of it. Granted, I think Sanderson told enough of what he wanted to say with the story, but still. Watching Shallan and Adolin together, reading about Adolin's determination to help Maya, learning more about the spren, getting into the whole trial... I don't know, I really liked it. The ending especially, with Maya finding her voice to stick up for Adolin, was just really cool.

    The ending with Taravangian becoming the new avatar for Odium was crazy. I had not expected that at all for his character, not even remotely. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I figured I'd have a more definitive answer by the time I finished Wind and Truth (which we'll get to eventually).

    Rhythm of War did have a relatively underwhelming ending overall, in my opinion. Well, "underwhelming" isn't quite the word... The endings of the previous three books were just all so incredible and left me buzzing for hours afterwards. I finished Rhythm of War and felt pretty pumped, but I moved on quickly. The battle seemed to wrap up really fast to me, and a lot of things were left not quite finished up, which made sense, but I still felt like things were dangling, especially with Shallan and Adolin still being in Shadesmar. And I'll be honest, I'm not sure I liked Navani becoming a Bondsmith. With Dalinar, it made sense. He's always been about unity and whatnot. Navani, though? It just seemed kind of random, and it didn't really feel earned either, unlike with Dalinar. She just kind of ordered the Sibling around, which I guess Dalinar also did with the Stormfather, but Dalinar had proven himself time and time again, in my opinion, and I don't feel like Navani did. I don't know. It saved Urithiru, so what am I complaining about?

    I was also not sure whether I was delighted or horrified to learn that Thaidakar was who I'd suspected... But we'll get into that in another review for a different book.

    So, yes, overall, Rhythm of War is not my favorite of The Stormlight Archive, but it is still one of the greatest fantasy books I've ever read, and I'll have zero problem rereading it. (Which, to be honest, I can't even say about Oathbringer, haha... I'm not sure I want to relive some of those things.) I guess it just started as a disadvantage, because how could Sanderson ever top the emotional payout of Oathbringer for me?

Big Brother Is Watching: A Review of 1984 by George Orwell

There are certain books that, as an English major and an avid reader, are embarrassing to admit that I haven't read. These include classics like Dracula, Othello, The Handmaid's Tale, and Great Expectations. But perhaps the most egregious omission for the longest time was 1984 by George Orwell. Everyone and their cousin seems to have read it in high school, but I didn't. It was never assigned in any of my classes, and based on what I did know, I had little to no interest in picking it up myself, despite my enjoyment of classic literature.

    That changed, though, this past August. My dad finished 1984, and he asked me if I'd ever read it. When I said I hadn't, he said that I should so that we could talk about it. So, I did.

    Spoilers are full steam ahead, so beware.

    It's hard to know what to say about this book... It's not like I went into it expecting a cheery, feel-good story with glorious characters and a magical ending. I knew full well that I was getting into a deep, dark dystopia with characters simply trying to survive, and I was reasonably confident that, if the ending were a "good" one, it would be very ambiguous, but it was more likely going to be a hopeless ending.

    And yet, even knowing and accepting all of that...I was still taken aback.

    There is something just unrelenting about the suffocation this book's society enforces. Winston never catches a break, and neither do you as the reader. There's just never any moment of respite, even when Winston feels that there is a moment of respite, because there's a constant fear of what will happen next. Every time he and Julia got together, I was just waiting for this to be the time they got caught.

    Obviously, that's the point. Orwell didn't set out to write a soaring love story that burns even in the midst of oppression; from the beginning, he establishes that there's no way to win. And as much as Winston and Julia try to fight against it, they're doomed from the beginning. (Also, a note on their romance: not sure how I feel about it. It didn't feel particularly solid for either individual, but the emotional impact of the ending kind of relies on you being really invested in their love for each other. But, again, I guess that's probably part of the point—they don't really know what true love is in this world.)

    I will admit that I did get lulled into a false sense of security. They went seemingly undetected for so long that I started to think, "Maybe they actually do win in the end." And then that was pretty much shattered instantly.

    Part Three of the book is very effective—and it was awful to read. Again, that's the point. I know it is. But it was rough to get through it. Torture is something I always feel really icky reading about, so...yeah. Part Three was not a good time. And when Winston finally breaks and tells them to do the rats to Julia instead of to him... I've never felt such a gut-punch from a book before. My jaw dropped, and I just stared at it for a moment. Heck, I felt betrayed.

    The ending was somehow even more hopeless than I'd thought. I really would have rather Winston died than become what he became—just another voice in the air, another mind broken, another person under control. Like I keep saying, I know that that's the point; you are not supposed to feel good things while reading this book. I just feel like I have to keep qualifying my feelings because, almost six months later, I still can't think about this book without desperately wishing it had ended almost any other way.

    So...how to rate this one? It's hard because, to lay out all the cards, I didn't enjoy myself. If we're looking at this solely on how much I liked the book, this is probably a two out of five. But that being said, I acknowledge that a lot of the reason I didn't like the book is because hopeless stories do not jive with me. They have merit, and they often say important things, and they are certainly not inherently bad stories—but I just don't like them. I don't like finishing a book and feeling worse than I already do about the state of the world. That goes against one of my biggest reasons for loving books in the first place.

    So, I have to look at this, then, from a more objective perspective—insomuch as one can be objective about ratings, right? I think 1984 is very well-written; it is so easy to see this world and to feel the plights of the characters: the push and pull Winston has between wanting to fight and wanting to just keep living. The very lengthy manifesto partway through detracts from that great writing, I think; it effectively halts the entire story just to rehash ideas that have already been explored and then introduce a couple new ones that don't really go anywhere. Which, of course, makes sense, because I would guess that that manifesto was a major building block for Orwell writing this book in the first place; but it doesn't change the fact that I think it could have been incorporated in a more natural way than "Winston reads this whole thing out loud to a half-asleep Julia while they're both lying naked in bed."

    Overall, I have settled on a 3.5 for this book. It gets credit for being effective and for commenting on themes and ideas that are somehow even more timely today than they were in the 1940s; yet, that doesn't change the fact that I just didn't like reading it, so it gets docked a half point for that (I would probably give this a four based purely on merit). There's nothing really wrong with the book, besides the manifesto; it's just not my thing, and really, that's the only major mark against it. (Julia's character is also a little bit so-so in a lot of ways, but I kind of don't care enough to get into that.)

    There are other dystopias I find more compelling, Fahrenheit 451 probably being my favorite. I'll gladly recommend 1984, though, and I am very happy that I can now say I've finished it. It definitely was not as difficult to get through as I was expecting; it only took me two days to read the whole thing. Not a bad book by any means; just not the type of book that Odessa Taylor prefers to spend her time reading.

"You Cannot Have My Pain": A Thorough Review(?) of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

 (I put a question mark after "Review" because what follows is less of a review and more of a narrative. Do with that what you will.)

    Have we officially made this a book blog? No, I don't think so. I just come to this site to write whatever is on my mind when the fancy suits me, and for now, every time I get the urge to write, I want to write about reading. This blog won't be exclusively that (probably), but...well, I guess we'll see.

    Anyway!

    I did a "book haul" a couple months ago, and I decided to just go through those books (some of them, anyway—the ones I've read since July 2024) and go more in-depth on my thoughts. So, we're starting with Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, the third book in The Stormlight Archive.

    Forgive me if I repeat a lot of what I said in that previous post. Also, spoilers will be in abundance, so proceed with caution. (I will not have spoilers for any of the books after Oathbringer or in other series by Sanderson, but there may be incidental spoilers for the first two books in the series, because...well, obviously.)

    First, I suppose some background would behoove us. I read The Way of Kings (the first book in the series) back in the summer of 2015 and then followed it up with Words of Radiance that autumn. Oathbringer was not published at that point, so I had to wait. I loved the first two books a ton, so I couldn't wait for the next one in the series.

    Unfortunately, by the time it came out near the end of 2017 and I got it for Christmas, I was in my senior year of high school, which meant I was neck-deep in two AP classes (one of which was English Literature), two foreign language classes, drivers ed, concert choir, Madrigals, seminary council, church service, and a part-time job. Reading for fun was not on my radar, let alone reading a 1,200+ page novel. To make matters worse, I had forgotten a ton of details from the previous two books, so I was just lost with a lot of references, short of the major plot points. After reading about a hundred pages or so, I said to myself, "You know what? I think I need to reread The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance first, and then I can get to Oathbringer."

    That would prove far too lofty a goal for seventeen-year-old Odessa. Or eighteen-year-old Odessa. Or twenty-one-year-old Odessa...

    I didn't reread The Way of Kings until the end of 2022/beginning of 2023. Well, let me rephrase that—I didn't start rereading The Way of Kings until the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, and then it took me until October 2023 to finish it. Words of Radiance took a lot less time...and by that, I mean it took me five months instead of nearly a year.

    But, at last, in March 2024, I began reading Oathbringer properly for the first time. (I hardly remembered anything from my first failed attempt, except for one interaction between Shallan and Adolin, so it was pretty much like starting a brand-new book.) Since it was one I hadn't read before, I tried a lot harder to get out of the reading slump I'd been in since that senior year of high school; but, alas, I only managed a chapter or two a week, if we were lucky.

    Still, progress was progress. It helped somewhat that I'd decided upon rereading The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance that Dalinar was my favorite character, so having a book that would dive into his backstory and focus a bit more on him than usual seemed pretty perfect.

    And, you know, I was mostly right... Except for one thing.

    Evi.

    Most of the time, when I love a character, I can tell you precisely why. I love Kelsier from Mistborn because he has so much hope and determination. I love Hermione Granger from Harry Potter because I've always seen myself in her. I love Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings because he is good and kind despite a life that you could argue has taught him not to be. I love Dalinar because he sticks to his convictions, even when people sneer at him for it.

    But I cannot tell you why I love Evi so much, or why I loved her so quickly. Seriously, from the instant we got her name—heck, even before we ever got her name—I just felt something for her.

    I think that, maybe, part of it comes from the fact that I just always hated the idea she was forgotten by Dalinar. His feelings for Navani have always been pretty clear, and though Dalinar seemed to be under the impression that he must have loved his wife, even though he couldn't remember her, I was always like, "Well...if you were pining for Navani the whole time, that's not very fair to whoever your wife was, even if you did have feelings for her."

    So, when Evi was introduced and the first couple chapters with her were filled with that pining for Navani, I felt vindicated, but not in a particularly triumphant way. I hated the idea that this woman, who was instantly sweet and gentle in ways not very many of Sanderson's characters are, came second. I hated it. I still hate it, if we're being honest, even now knowing how things turned out.

    I really don't know why it galled me so much, but I was just indignant on behalf of Evi. Of all the characters in this series—heck, of all the characters in Sanderson's entire repertoire (that I've read, anyway)—she deserved to be well and truly loved and cared for, at least in my opinion, so the fact that she was just tolerated at first... Man, I don't know. It just made me sad. And, you know, I think he did come to love her in the end, even if it was a bit different from how he felt/feels for Navani, but I still wanted more. I wanted him to really, really, really love her.

    I also knew that she was going to die, of course, and I just knew it was going to be awful. It had to be, obviously, because why else would Dalinar erase all of his memories of her? It had to be absolutely terrible. Still, I did my best to just enjoy the flashback chapters...inasmuch as one can enjoy Dalinar's flashback chapters.

    We'd heard all these things about the Blackthorn and Dalinar's reputation and everything in the previous two books, but actually reading about it in detail was...something. It was rough, which is, of course, the point. The ruthlessness and the callousness and the violence that defined the younger Dalinar was horrible. And, you know, some of it is so terrible that it borders on amusing. (The example that comes to mind is Dalinar stabbing a man, rinsing the knife in his wine goblet, and then instantly cutting a slice of meat and eating it.) But for the most part, I was just reading all of these flashbacks and thinking, "...Oh. This is the guy I've thrown in my lot with, huh?"

    Anyway, despite all of that, I was moving forward very slowly in the story, until a glorious day arrived: July 17, 2024. The power went out at our house, and since I couldn't work on editing, I decided to read, as it had been a while since I'd even touched the book, let alone read it.

    And for some reason, that night was the first shattering of the seven-year-long book burnout. I don't know if it was because the story finally clicked in a way that made me want to keep reading. I don't know if it was because I started tracking my progress on Goodreads right around that time, which gave me a bit of oomph. I don't know if it was because I finally stayed off of a screen long enough to rewire my brain and remind it that reading is fun and not a chore. Maybe it was all of the above. Whatever it was, I found myself reading pretty much every day, not because I felt like I had to but because I wanted to.

    Besides Dalinar's story, I was modestly interested in the rest of the plot lines. At the time, I couldn't have cared less about the Ghostbloods. (No spoilers, but I have since changed my tune on that particular song for ✨reasons✨ we will discuss in another review...) The infiltration of Kholinar was interesting, and I was pleasantly bewildered by the arrival of Highmarshal Azure, whom I suspected came from Warbreaker (out of a pure guess, since I hadn't read that yet). Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin's work in the city kept my attention, though I did remember thinking, "Weird. This feels very much like the climax, but we're only three-quarters of the way through. Is this battle really going to last that long?"

    And all of a sudden, things started to take turns for all of our characters.

    First off...the Rift.

    Like I said earlier, I knew that Evi's death was going to be awful. I had various theories running through my head, pretty much all of them either involving Dalinar killing her or Dalinar letting someone else kill her. I thought I'd prepared myself for basically every eventuality, even if it meant I started every Dalinar flashback chapter with my stomach twisting into knots.

    Good grief, it was somehow a thousand times worse than I'd thought.

    Just the mere fact that all of that happened was a pure nightmare. The reckoning at Rathalas is, in a word, horrific. I will never forget reading it and just staring at the page and thinking to myself, "Holy crap. I think Dalinar might actually be irredeemable for this." I've had my fair share of favorite characters who fall in the category of morally grey (my favorite character in the history of characters, in fact, could run for president of the club), but this was another level. This was revenge and retribution in the worst way possible. This was a point to make, and it was utterly inhumane. This was fury incarnate.

    And when it was revealed that Evi was killed in the midst of that... I couldn't even keep reading. I finished the chapter and set aside the book, and I just stared off into space, feeling horrible. I wanted to cry, but there weren't any tears. I felt legitimately sick, which I'd never felt from a book before. I've read my fair share of tough books, and yet, somehow, the only one that has ever made me feel physically ill was Oathbringer, upon learning how Evi died.

    I went grocery shopping with my mom and youngest sister pretty much right after reading that, and I was numb. I felt like I was on some other plane of existence, but not in an ethereal, transcendent way. Every time I went down an aisle of the store by myself, I had to pause and take a deep breath so I wouldn't dissolve into tears or straight-up puke in the middle of Walmart. I wish I were exaggerating, but seriously, I have never felt so off-kilter from a book before.

    The rest of the day, I was inconsolable, and that night, I barely slept. I couldn't stop thinking about it as I tried to fall asleep, and then when I woke up four hours later to the sound of the sprinklers turning on outside my window, I couldn't go back to sleep because my mind was still just spinning with the awful imagery of Evi being burned alive. (I've always hated the idea of anyone dying in that way, so that probably didn't help.) By the time lunch came around, I thought I'd recovered, but nope—I took one bite of pasta and actually gagged because my stomach was still just churning.

    To make matters worse, things weren't going so hot for any of the other characters at this point. Elhokar was dead, and Gavinor was left behind. Kholinar was lost. Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, Azure, and the spren were trapped in Shadesmar. Taravangian's plan to manipulate the coalition had worked, and everyone was abandoning Dalinar, who had briefly fallen back into his alcoholism. All of Dalinar's flashbacks made me feel sick again because I just kept getting reminded of Evi, and by the time he'd gone to the Nightwatcher and gotten his memories of her taken by Cultivation, I was a mess. ("You'll take Evi?" makes me want to sob just thinking about it.) I still wasn't crying, though; I have no idea how I managed to avoid it, considering how awful I felt.

    For days, I still couldn't sleep. Every time I tried, I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking about the stupid book and how hopeless everything was for all of the characters. I genuinely couldn't see how there could be a good ending to this at all. The only thing I could hang on to was knowing that, if Sanderson does anything with The Stormlight Archive, he makes arcs worthwhile. So, in my mind, that meant we would somehow learn that Evi was at peace. I didn't know how, but that was just the only logical thing: he would not have killed Evi like that if that was truly the end of her story.

    At last, on July 26th, I sat down to finish the book. I felt like I'd been through a war myself, and we hadn't even gotten to the climax. I love a story where the characters are dragged through hell only to rise up even more victorious for it (lookin' at you, Shawshank), but this was pushing it. I could not imagine any of the main characters in worse positions, and though I knew it had to end at least somewhat happily, I couldn't see how. I couldn't even fathom it.

    Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin just could not get out of Shadesmar. Kaladin couldn't say the Fourth Ideal. Adolin was bleeding out. Shallan's mental condition was terrible. Then, back in the Physical Realm, Jasnah was preparing to kill Renarin because of his corrupted spren. And worst of all, the Thrill had taken the soldiers at Thaylen City, leaving practically no one to stand against the singers and their army.

    Dalinar went out to face Odium with nothing but a book, and I just felt despair. Another thing I really love in stories is when a character faces something or someone that they have no real hope of defeating but face it anyway because someone has to, and if it must be them, then so be it. So, for a moment, I was like, "Yay!", but then I went back to being miserable, because how could Dalinar even last a minute against what was basically the incarnation of hatred?

    Then, of all people, Szeth showed up. As he looked at Dalinar and asked Nale if a Skybreaker could pledge himself to a man, I felt the first real glimmer of hope in days. "Yes," I literally whispered out loud. "Come on, Szeth, please." Dalinar had no one, but if he had just one person on his side, and if that person could be someone who had proven himself quite adept at fighting...well, maybe there could be a good ending somehow. I still wasn't entirely sure how, but I could finally start to believe it.

    I kept reading. Lift was about to die, and then, all of a sudden, Szeth saved her. "Our master has given us a command," he tells her, "and we must fulfill it."

    And for the first time in ten years, I cried while reading a book. I absolutely lost it. Partly because I loved seeing Szeth decide to join in with the Radiants, but mostly because I could hope again, at least for a moment.

    Then things turned bad quite quickly, with Odium tormenting Dalinar and choosing him as his champion. But then...a single gloryspren.

    "You cannot have my pain."

    Ugh, I'm literally teary-eyed just writing it down. Dalinar stood up and faced Odium, and he refused to let go of the guilt again. He refused to forget the horrible, awful things he did and the thousands of people who suffered because of it. He refused to let Evi get taken away from him again.

    And he heard Evi forgiving him. Instantly, the awful feeling that had been clinging to my insides ever since reading about the Rift just vanished, as though it had never been there at all. Evi was okay, and Dalinar knew it.

    I just couldn't stop crying. He opened a perpendicularity and saved Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin. Jasnah refused to kill Renarin, which gave him much-needed strength and courage. The following battle, from every single character's perspective...

    ...was perfection.

    There is not a single other climax in any book or movie that is as cathartic as this one. For me to have felt so awful and to have despaired so much when the battle began to then see every little thing play out in the most perfect way... It's indescribable. It is masterful how Sanderson was able to capture the bitterness and then the glory so well. It could have failed—it could have felt cheap or unearned at any point, but it never, ever did. Every single resolution of that battle was tied up in a way that felt like he'd been planning it from the moment he wrote the prelude to the whole series. And maybe he did.

    The climax of Oathbringer is the most incredible climax ever. Done. I haven't decided if it's my favorite climax, but it is undoubtedly the best (inasmuch as I can view something like this from an objective standpoint, of course).

    When I finally finished the book, I just sat there and wiped my eyes, feeling like I was floating. I could not believe how well the book had ended. I almost wished that the whole series had ended there, because it was just perfect. For the rest of the day, I was on a high. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 that night, and I barely paid attention because I couldn't stop thinking about how amazing the end of Oathbringer had been.

    Let me say that again: I could barely pay attention to my favorite movie in the history of the world because I couldn't stop thinking about Oathbringer.

    There are so many other parts of this book that I adored that I didn't even dive into here: The Girl Who Stood Up, Venli's growth, Adolin and Shallan's relationship developing, Rysn getting a bit more page time... It isn't my favorite of the series (that distinction belongs to book one), but it stands apart from the others for the way it accomplished what should have been impossible. I should have hated Dalinar so much by the climax that I shouldn't have cared what happened to him with Odium, but I did care. I cared with all my heart, in fact. He stood there and faced an entity he knew he had no chance against, and I had to admit that this man was still my favorite character of the series. It is incredible that Sanderson could write him in a way that makes that possible.

    Five out of five. Even though the rest of the book doesn't hit the highs of the previous two, the ending more than makes up for it.

A Book Haul of Sorts

 Well, hey there. It's been a while.

    I started this blog because it was an assignment for my junior year AP English class, and one of the most popular posts I wrote during that time was my rant about the books assigned to us for the aforementioned class (sorry, Mr. Harward, nothing personal). Besides that, though, I haven't really written about books—which, you know, is kind of a shame, considering that reading is my favorite hobby and I studied English and I literally edit books for a living.

    So, we'll remedy that today, starting with a quick story. I loved being an English major, but I definitely got some huge book burnout from it. After spending most of my study time reading books, the last thing I wanted to do to relax was pick up another book. That burnout lasted even after graduation (which, in case you don't actively keep track of things like that, was in April 2022), and it wasn't until this past July that I fully got over it. Sure, I read books here and there, but it was only a few months ago that I finally got back into reading like I used to before college. Hooray!

    The question I'm sure you're dying to have answered is, what books have I read since graduating college? Let's get into it. For each book, I'll start with the story of my experience reading the book—why I chose to read it, if anything exciting happened while reading it, other fun tidbits, etc. Then, I'll explain my thoughts on the book. There won't be many spoilers, but the few that exist will be highlighted in red.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Story
The first book I finished after graduating college was Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Now, I could do an entire post (or several) about my journey with Sanderson's novels, but the skinny of it is that I've been enamored with his books since I was fourteen years old. I got Elantris from my grandma for my sixteenth birthday (January 2016), but I didn't even open the book until late 2019/early 2020, and I didn't truly start reading the thing until the summer of 2021. It was just little bits here and there—frantic efforts to keep my head above the waters of the reading slump that had plagued me for three years at that point—but it just felt so good to read Sanderson again (even if it did take me until April 2022 to finish). One of my favorite memories from that semester of college is sitting on a picnic blanket in the grass outside my apartment with my roommate and friend Hannah, each of us with a book in hand in the summer evening air. I was reading Elantris and feeling totally at ease—a rare moment of peace in one of my least favorite semesters.

Thoughts
I really enjoyed Elantris. All of Brandon Sanderson's worlds and magic systems completely fascinate me, and this one was no exception. I also liked the characters; all three of the main ones (Raoden, Sarene, and Hrathen) were really fascinating, and it was cool to find myself rooting for all of them in different ways, even when their goals were directly in conflict with one another. I couldn't believe it when I learned that this is widely considered one of Sanderson's weakest books, because I enjoyed it immensely. Sure, I'd put Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive above it (which, granted, is a lot of books), but it's still a solid book with some great world-building and a unique story.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor, Book 1)

Story
Very shortly after I graduated, my aunt Cecily very eagerly recommended that I read the Nevermoor books and loaned me her copies of them. We'd just had family dinner at my grandma's house, and figuring I may as well get started, I got comfortable on the couch and started reading book one—Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. I couldn't put it down, and I continued reading well into the night after returning home. I finished the book the very next day.

Thoughts
While Nevermoor is intended for a younger audience, it has so many fun and creative ideas and characters that it's totally enjoyable for any age. In this first book especially, I like that the little things can be so unpredictable. It follows a pretty standard YA fantasy script—kid is an outcast, meets a mentor who tells them they're actually awesome, takes them to a cool place where they can learn about their awesomeness, warns them about bad guy who may or may not have a particular interest in them—but it's the little details that really make it. While you can guess the beats of the overarching story, each chapter comes up with some new, whimsical way to draw you into this world and make you fall in love with it and the characters. So, obviously, I really liked this one. It also probably helps that Morrigan and Jupiter's relationship reminds me a lot of Vin and Kelsier from Mistborn. ("Odessa Tries Not to Mention Mistborn in Every Book She Reviews" Challenge: Impossible)

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, Book 1)

Story
This one was a reread; I first read The Way of Kings when I was fifteen years old, the summer before I started my sophomore year of high school. I'd absolutely loved this and Words of Radiance (none of the others were out back then), but by the time I'd graduated college and everything, I barely remembered any of it, except for the biggest plot points and characters and such—and even then, most of the details were fuzzy. I wanted to get caught up on the series, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to follow along with Oathbringer and Rhythm of War after so long of not reading the first two books, so I picked up The Way of Kings to start the journey all over again. I pushed through it as well as I could with the book burnout, but it took me months to finish it. Not at all because of the book itself, though; I just couldn't summon the desire to pick up any book most days. But, eventually, I did get through it.

Thoughts
I liked this even more on a reread. I think I caught on to more of the nuances and details as an adult than I did as a teenager, so the emotional parts impacted me a lot more. I also felt more connected to the characters and the storyline as a whole; I just felt really immersed in everything, and it was so cool to feel that way. The first time I read this, Kaladin was far and away my favorite character, but upon a reread, I found myself relating to Dalinar more than anyone else and really rooting for him in ways I hadn't the first time. This story, this world, and these characters are so incredibly vivid, and it's honestly incredible how well one can absorb all of these little details that don't necessarily impact the story but make all the difference in creating a fully immersive reading experience. Overall, I think this is my favorite of the series, but two others could also easily vie for that top spot. (Sorry to the one book in the series that's definitely my least favorite—we'll get there, dear reader.)

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games prequel)

Story
I was a huge fan of The Hunger Games books in the early 2010s—what reader wasn't? I read all of them at least three times, and I'm sure I read the first one even more, since it was my favorite of the trilogy. So, when this prequel was announced, I was pretty excited, though I didn't buy it for a year or two, since I knew I wasn't going to be getting around to it anytime soon (I was about to start my junior year of college back when it was released). Ultimately, what got me to finally read it was that I wanted to have it finished before the movie came out in November 2023. It only took me a few days to read the whole thing.

Thoughts
This was just a fascinating story. I thought it was really clever in a lot of ways, showing how The Hunger Games used to be and setting up these little seeds for the reader to be like, "Oh, so that's why XYZ happens in the main trilogy." It all feels natural, which was one of my biggest worries; I feel like so many prequels are just so intent on reminding you of the main story that a bunch of details feel shoehorned in, but here, everything made sense. It was really cool. I also appreciated that it wasn't a President Snow apologist book; he's pretty scummy from the start. Granted, you do have moments of sympathy for him throughout, which further makes it compelling, but never at any point are you like, "Wow, what a poor, misunderstood man. :(" Or, at least, I hope you're not. It was just so well-written, and I felt a little bit like preteen Odessa again, curled up with a Hunger Games book. It was a nice feeling.

The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster

Story
Nonfiction isn't really my thing most of the time. Evidently. However, my friend Diana absolutely loved this book, and she offered to let me borrow it. I figured, "Well, maybe a nonfiction book will pull me out of this reading slump," so I took it. A more important reason for taking it was that I knew Diana had identified with a lot of the ideas and themes in this, and I figured any extra insight into my friend's mindset could only be a good thing.

Thoughts
I like Auster's writing style, and I appreciated the blend of vulnerability and compassion in his words. He doesn't excuse anyone for their actions, but he also doesn't really treat anyone as a villain, even when it would have been easy (and even justified) to do so for a few of them. Really interesting stuff. Like I said, nonfiction isn't my typical choice for books, but even so, I found myself easily drawn into the stories, and I finished it in only a couple days.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Story
Back in my junior year of college, I took a British & American Literature class, and my professor told us that he always assigns a Toni Morrison book, usually Beloved, for the curriculum; but that semester, with Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward having just received lots of acclamation and praise, he assigned that in place of a Morrison book. Still, the mere fact that he usually assigned Beloved intrigued me, and when my friend Diana mentioned that she really liked it, I asked to borrow it. One thing about me is that I enjoy classics (well, most of the time—if you need evidence to the contrary, please read the aforementioned blog post from high school), so I was eager to read.

Thoughts
Honestly, it's hard to know what to say for a book like this. It is undeniably well-written; there were passages of some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read in nearly every chapter of this book. The characters are vivid, their struggles and triumphs are all fascinating, the story is full of themes and ideas that really push you. But man, is it a hard book to read. So many awful, awful things—and it's made worse by knowing that, while this particular story is fictional, all of this and more were far too real not that long ago in our country's history. It's a sobering book, but surprisingly, it's not as devastating as I thought it would be. There's a certain kind of peace to it—not a happiness, but a strange peace. It's all just very well done, and so evocative and thought-provoking.

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor, Book 2)

Story
My aunt Cecily loaned me this one at the same time she loaned me the first book, so I got started reading this one pretty much immediately after I finished Nevermoor. But I found this one harder to get into, and my brief respite from the reading slump had ended by this point, so it often just didn't even cross my mind to grab this book when I had some free time. That's probably the bigger reason as to why this one took me so much longer to finish, but like I said, this one was harder to get into.

Thoughts
The story doesn't flow quite as quickly as it does in the first book, which isn't inherently a bad thing (trust me, I have no problems with a slow book), but considering how snappy and motivated everything felt in the first, the slower pacing kind of tripped me up. I also just wasn't quite as invested in the events of this book, though certainly there were aspects I really enjoyed. Seeing Morrigan navigate all these new relationships was probably the highlight of the whole thing. I feel like I'm only saying negative things, but this really is still a fun book with all the clever whimsy of the first turned up a few notches.

Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor, Book 3)

Story
Same as the previous two Nevermoor books, my aunt Cecily loaned me this one. Since Wundersmith ended on a pretty good high, I got into this one a little bit quicker. It still took me a little while to get through, but not nearly as long as Wundersmith.

Thoughts
After all that I said about the slower pace of book two...if all of that was needed so that we could get the ending of this one, it's so worth it. So worth it. Now is probably a good time to mention that I always kind of liked Squall. There's just something so interesting about him as an antagonist, particularly his ability to be threatening without ever really doing much in the story itself. It's his potential and his past that are so terrifying to the characters. But the end of this one? Oh man. Genuinely one of the most intriguing mid-series endings I've ever read, and it makes me so excited for the next book. SPOILERS: I am a sucker for a story where the protagonists and antagonists team up against a bigger antagonist. Squall's panicked plea for Morrigan to help him keep President Wintersea out of Nevermoor was perfection. Then, Morrigan's reluctant deal at the end to be his apprentice? So cool. It feels like the story has really taken a new turn.

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2)

Story
Like I said with The Way of Kings, I liked this one a lot when I read it for the first time as a sophomore in high school—in fact, at the time, I think I preferred this one. I started rereading it after I reread The Way of Kings, which I finished in October 2023. I actually stayed pretty steady with this one for the first half, but soon enough, the burnout caught up with me, and then weeks would pass before I'd even touch it again. (If you're tired of hearing about the burnout, trust me, I was very tired of it too; but we're quickly coming up on the end of it, so hang tight.) Still, I finally finished it on March 20, 2024.

Thoughts
For me, the highs of this book soar above the highs of the first, which is why I considered this one my favorite for a while. There are more aspects of The Way of Kings that I enjoy better, which is why I now usually respond that that one is my favorite. But man, there are some parts of this book that just blow me away. Even though this was a reread and I knew what was coming, I was just floored by those scenes again. SPOILERS: Szeth's first assassination attempt on Dalinar where the man freaking catches a Shardblade and then Kaladin heals himself from a Shardblade wound is one of the coolest scenes in any book I've ever read in my entire life. Yeah, I know, Shardblade wound healing becomes pretty commonplace in the later books, but that's the first time it happens, and it's just awesome. Then, immediately afterwards, Shallan kills Tyn, and there's just something about that scene that I like so much. And "Whitespine Uncaged" is a classic chapter for a reason. Don't even get me started on Kaladin protecting Elhokar and swearing his next Ideal—nearly drove me to tears this time around.

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, Book 3)

Story
Now we get to it, my friends—the end of the years-long book burnout. Oh, it wasn't instant; I picked at Oathbringer every so often, slowly but surely making my way through it from March to July. But then, it happened. On July 17th, the power went out, and I figured, "Eh, may as well catch up on reading, since I haven't even looked at the book in at least a week." But something was different. I kept reading. And the next day, I wanted to grab the book and keep moving forward in the story; not out of obligation, but out of genuine interest. A few days later, after reading on almost every single one of those days, it suddenly clicked: I was having fun reading. It wasn't a lot, only about twenty pages a day, but compared to what it had been, that was downright miraculous. I finished it on July 26th.

Thoughts
Sorry in advance, but there will be a LOT of spoilers ahead; I just can't avoid them when I talk about this book. But here's what I can say without spoiling anything: This book is a really slow burn, and I won't deny it, but the payoff is incredible. I love a story where the characters are kind of dragged through the mud only to rise up all the more triumphant for it, yet this one really pushed the envelope with that. I was literally gripping the book so tightly that my palms were sweating as I got close to the end. SPOILERS: All right, I don't know why, but I was so invested in Dalinar's backstory with Evi. I loved her so much, and with each chapter that brought us closer to her death, I was panicking because I just didn't want it to happen, especially since I knew it was going to be awful. And it was! It was so awful! I didn't cry, but I was literally sick to my stomach; I'm not even exaggerating when I say that I nearly threw up while trying to eat lunch the next day. I don't know why it affected me so, but it did. And then bad thing after bad thing kept happening, with the fall of Kholinar and the characters ending up in Shadesmar and everyone abandoning Dalinar, and I could not fall asleep or stay asleep to save my life for, like, three days in a row—genuinely, I think I got a total of fifteen hours of sleep from July 23rd to 25th because the story was just spinning in my brain. But then we got the climax: perhaps the most glorious climax of any book I've ever read in all my life. For the first time in ten years, a book made me cry—and it was when Szeth pledged himself to Dalinar, of all things. But then I full-on sobbed with "You cannot have my pain." Sobbed. Dalinar had been quietly sneaking past Kaladin as my favorite of the series, but he definitively took the top spot right then and there. And then Evi's voice there, telling him she forgives him? Lost it. Makes me want to cry just thinking about it. Every part of it was just so, so, so, so, so satisfying, and it more than made up for all the rotten stuff these poor characters went through the rest of the book. Kaladin versus Amaram? Stunning. Jasnah not killing Renarin? Surprisingly touching. Shallan finding her balance? So beautiful. I could go on and on and on about this book, and maybe I will someday.

1984 by George Orwell

Story
My dad read this during the summer, and he suggested that I read it too so that we could talk about it. So, I did. I read it surprisingly fast—it only took me two days (August 13th through the 14th)—though that was more out of curiosity for how it would end than a pure enjoyment of the story (though we'll get to that in a minute). It's surprising that I never read this in any of my classes, either high school or college, and I kind of wish that I had read it earlier; but better late than never, right?

Thoughts
I have mixed feelings on this book. It's very well written, and the themes and concepts that are explored here are fascinating. Even almost eighty years later, it's still a timely story for our day, which is really cool. But overall, I just didn't necessarily...like it. It is far from a happy story, and though I knew that going into it, I was still taken by surprise at just how bleak things got. Overall, it's a really good book, but I just didn't enjoy reading it. SPOILERS: I was hoping that there would be something to hold on to with the ending, but there really wasn't. It was just so hopeless, and stories like that just don't jive with me. I don't need sunshine and glitter in an ending, but I need at least a sprinkling of hope. And yeah, that just isn't the point of 1984...but it doesn't change the fact that I just didn't like it. The whole of Part Three just made me ill to read.

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, Book 4)

Story
This was the only Stormlight book that I hadn't read at all when I began my reread of the series at the end of 2022. (I had started Oathbringer when it first came out in 2017, though I barely got a couple hundred pages in.) Unfortunately, I'd had a huge part from this one spoiled for me (yeah, that part); fortunately, I knew literally nothing else, so it didn't dampen my enjoyment of the book overall. It took me a while to get through it, mostly because I was still only reading about twenty pages a day, at least for the first half of the book; which, you know, twenty pages a day gets you through most books pretty quick, but when your book is over 1200 pages, that takes a while. It took me from July 26th to September 4th to read the whole thing.

Thoughts
This is definitely my least favorite of the series; that being said, it's absolutely spectacular, and I enjoyed it immensely. I think the biggest detractor was just that, while I liked Navani's perspective and her scientific research and stuff...it felt like there were bigger fish to fry that I would rather read about. I was also slightly disappointed by her ending. Just slightly. There wasn't enough Dalinar, which was another detractor. Everything else, though, was splendid, and the stuff that we did get with Dalinar was awesome. And, of course, Kaladin's arc was so satisfying to read. Devastating, but satisfying. I also loved everything with Maya, and then Shallan with Veil near the end nearly made me cry. (I'm trying to make up for the last couple reviews by not having any spoilers, so forgive the vagueness.)

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 1)

Story
This was yet another reread for me. I'd read the original Mistborn trilogy back in 2014, and I'd only gotten through the first two books of Era 2 (for a variety of reasons that we'll get to later). I wanted to finish the series, but there was no way that I was going to be able to suddenly jump into The Bands of Mourning and know what was going on. But, I also wasn't going to be able to just start with The Alloy of Law, either. I needed to start at the beginning. Mistborn: The Final Empire. Besides religious texts, this is the most transformative and important book in my life—and I'd only read it once. I had tried rereading it many times, but I just couldn't get past a certain point. Part of it was the emotional devastation from the first time reading it, part of it was just that I was afraid I wouldn't love it as much as I had the first time. But this time, I was determined.

Thoughts
Boy, if I could write an essay about Oathbringer, I could write a hundred-page thesis about Mistborn: The Final Empire and its impact on me. I will do my best to keep this relatively brief...but no promises. This book is the reason that I am the way that I am—and I don't say that lightly. When I was fourteen years old and reading this for the first time, Kelsier's optimism and hope literally changed my life; I read about how he faced everything with a smile and a wisecrack, and it made me realize how much I wanted to be less angsty and morose in my own life. I became more positive, I let things roll off my back easier, I smiled more often. I dedicated myself even more to writing and knew that, whatever I did with my life, books would be involved. I just loved this book. I loved the characters, the story, the world, the magic system, the humor, the emotion—all of it. Except for Elend Venture, but on the reread, he didn't annoy me quite as much, so there's that. I was so worried that all of this book would lose its value on a reread; but it did not. Not in the slightest. If anything, I loved it even more. I read this from September 4th to September 15th, with the first 267 pages taking the first ten days and then the last 376 pages getting done in the last twenty-four hours. I love this book. I just can't even really explain it; it just belongs to a very specific part of my heart that nothing else has ever been able to touch. SPOILERS: This was the first book that ever made me cry, and it's now the first (and only) book to make me cry on a reread—twice. Vin and Kelsier's discussion after she saves Elend totally destroyed me, knowing that Kelsier was going to die; and then Kelsier's death had me crying just as hard this time as it did the first time. Stupid, beautiful book.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Story
This was yet another reread, though expected. Ever since I read this for the first time in my senior year of high school for AP Literature, I have been in love with this book, and I have reread it multiple times. This was the third reread, so the fourth time overall reading the book. It took a while, mostly because I was also juggling other books as well, but it was still one of the faster rereads (August 26th to October 2nd).

Thoughts
Like I said, Mistborn: The Final Empire is the most transformative and important book I've read, short of religious texts, and number two on that list is Crime and Punishment. I never knew that a book could be this powerful. The way that the messages touched and moved me were unparalleled, and I remember when I read it for my AP class, I would always dominate the group discussions because I just always had so much to say. There's a quote in this book that has come to mean more to me than almost anything else I've ever read, and it's become my own private motto, in a way. The characters, the pathos vs. logos of every discussion, the slowly unwinding story, the push and pull from every side... I don't know what it is, but this book means the world to me.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 2)

Story
At this point, you're probably like, "I don't know if I can read another dreamy-eyed review of a book." Don't worry, this is a break. When I first read the Mistborn trilogy, I hated this book. Well, "hated" is a pretty strong word; I disliked this book. Very strongly. I was not particularly encouraged to believe that I would enjoy it much more the second time, but I did my best to be optimistic. And what do you know? Still disappointing—though not as much. To give you an idea: I told you that I read the first Mistborn book from September 4th to 15th. It took me from September 15th to October 17th to get through the second book.

Thoughts
For one thing, The Well of Ascension is a huge shift from the first book. What started out as a magical heist story transforms into a political drama, which certainly has its merits, but it's just not as interesting. It's probably easier to get through if you like Elend Venture. I do not. Like I said, I didn't mind him quite as much on a reread, but even then, saying that I tolerate Elend is the best you're going to get from me. To be fair, I was a lot more interested in the more philosophical side of this book than I was the first time, and I definitely didn't dislike the book; it's just very underwhelming until the last, like, 100 pages. And they're a great 100 pages, but it leaves one wishing that the rest of the book had had the same level of...anything. I mean, it's still better than ninety percent of the books I've read in my life, so we have to keep that in perspective, but as a Sanderson book and as a Mistborn novel, this one is pretty low on the list of favorites.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 3)

Story
Like The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages vastly underwhelmed me when I read it for the first time, and in fact, I really hated the ending. That being said, I did like it more than the second book, so I was a little bit less apprehensive about rereading this one—though, knowing the ending, I wasn't certain how it could ever turn out satisfying. O, ye of little faith. I read this one pretty quick, actually: October 17th to November 1st.

Thoughts
This book is actually incredible. It doesn't quite hit the highs of the first book, but this one does so much more than I realized the first time I read it. The ending didn't make me mad; in fact, it actually made a lot of sense. And it was awesome. There were so many little things I picked up on that I totally missed the first time around, whether because of inattention or just foreshadowing I missed, and it was cool to notice them. And guess what? It made me cry! I wept in the last couple pages because it was just so... I don't even know the word. "Perfect" doesn't seem quite right, but we'll go with it: perfect. But the story as a whole was just so interesting to me; I loved seeing all the characters really come into their own and figure out who they are and how they fit into this world.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Story
Do we think Odessa Taylor has a favorite author?
I started reading this on October 2nd, but I decided to just focus on finishing the last two Mistborn books, so it mostly sat to the side until I picked it back up again after finishing The Hero of Ages. This actually worked out wonderfully because it meant that I got a nice, easy, warm, lighthearted book to read after the emotional devastation of the Mistborn trilogy. It was definitely needed, and I finished it November 8th.

Thoughts
I love the tone of this book, and I love the unique narrative style, with a nice split between third- and first-person. The characters were so much fun, and Tress is just so lovely—easily one of my favorite Sanderson protagonists. I liked that the story couldn't really be pinned down; you think it's a romance, and then it's an adventure, and then it's a bit of a thriller (lighthearted though it may be), and then you just accept that it's everything. The way Tress builds relationships was so fun and sweet to read, and the reveal at the end was just *chef's kiss*. Totally didn't expect it, and totally loved that I didn't expect it.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Story
On October 6th, I decided it would be nice to have a book on my phone that I could pull out whenever, wherever I went, and I went with Little Women. I'd never read it, despite loving both the 1994 and 2019 film adaptations very much, so I figured now was a good time to finally get around to it. It took a while to get through—partly because, again, I was just trying to get through Mistborn, but also partly because I just wasn't super-duper invested.

Thoughts
I love this story, and I love these characters. I thought that the little vignettes of just everyday life for the March sisters were so lovely and sweet, and I was surprised by how many things aren't in either of the major film adaptations; but that being said, I also kind of get it? They definitely help you come to love each sister and focus a bit less on just Jo, but they also kind of meander a bit at times. It's still a lot of fun to read, but I totally understand the want to trim it a bit. Of course, I also think that those little vignettes really provided the heart and soul of the story, so... I don't know. The book is great, the movies are great, everything is great.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 4)

Story
After a bit of a break from Sanderson, I jumped back in with yet another book that totally underwhelmed me the first time I read it. To be fair, I read The Alloy of Law at least a year after I'd read the original trilogy, so a lot of the finer details had completely slipped my mind. Of course, you don't really need the original trilogy's details to understand the story, but the more powerful moments certainly land when that story is fresh in your mind.

Thoughts
Unlike the first time, I found this absolutely delightful. It's a bit more lighthearted than any of the other Mistborn books, previous or future, but it's so effective in that way, I think. It helps you get used to this new-ish world, where things are similar to what you knew before but definitely different. I really liked those clever, creative ways that Sanderson adapted the story to this more modern Scadrial. I liked the characters more this time as well; the first time I read this and Shadows of Self, Wayne was the only character I really cared about, with Marasi as a close second. Upon a reread, though, I really loved Wax, and I loved Wayne and Marasi even more than I did the first time; but my opinion of no one else shot higher than my opinion of Steris. I didn't mind her when I first read the book, but I didn't care that much; yet, this time around, from her very first scene, I was like, "Yep. This is me. Steris is my girl." The whole ride was just a blast and a half, and while it's not quite as good as the original trilogy, there's way more to love than I initially thought.

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 5)

Story
The first time I read this book, I was even more underwhelmed with it than I was with The Alloy of Law; part of the reason that I never got to The Bands of Mourning. But after my reread of The Alloy of Law was so much more enjoyable than the first read, I went into Shadows of Self with a lot more faith. Boy, oh boy, did it pay off. I flew through this book, starting it on November 16th and finishing it on November 18th.

Thoughts
I like that this one returns to the more familiar grit of the original trilogy while still maintaining some of that lightheartedness that set apart The Alloy of Law. The characters were even more lovable, and my girl Steris still shone as the favorite, even with her role being relatively small throughout. I also understood what was going on better this time. Like I said with The Alloy of Law, I read these two books for the first time quite a while after the original trilogy, so I'd forgotten a lot of things. And even though those things do get explained here, it's not quite as in-depth as in the original trilogy, so the little nuances were hard to grasp—for me, anyway. I remember being just so confused with the ending the first time. But this time around, I understood it, and I was totally devastated by it. The story as a whole was just so intriguing to me, hence the reason I just couldn't put it down.

All right, friends, thanks for joining me on this. It probably would have been logical to just wait until the end of the year to do this, but who knows how many more books I'll finish by then, and this already took long enough as it was.

Until next time.

"I know you don't believe it, but I promise you, life will carry you through. You'll even get to like each other afterwards."

My Favorite Place in the World

     It's called Levan. It's a small rural town right in the middle of Utah with a population of maybe a thousand, and that's generous. We stay at my aunt Lora's parents' second home, which is large enough to comfortably fit several families. You can't even find the house on Google Maps, since the map was last updated before the house was even built. It certainly smells like farmland, and there's really nothing but fields and houses as far as the eye can see—up until the mountains, at least.

    And I love it with all my heart.

    I've always been really in love with it. The first time we went down to Levan with my mom's family was July 2010—two months after a trip to Capitol Reef with my mom's family and two months preceding a trip to Disneyland with my mom's family. But I remember being so in love with Levan. I don't know if it was because it was just our extended family (whom I love dearly) or because it was new or because it didn't feel like a normal vacation; but I just adored it. Though the trip to Disneyland was definitely the highlight of those 2010 vacations, I was still pleasantly surprised by how much I'd enjoyed Levan, and how much I was looking forward to going back.

    Since then, our family has gone—or attempted to go—at least once a year. Lora goes with her family pretty often, but the rest of us look forward to the next annual Levan trip, always ecstatically awaiting the next summer.

    It's a time to just chill. To be with loved ones. To eat good food. To play card games. To explore the area. To relax without worrying about work or other responsibilities. Even when I have to do work or when I'd have to do homework while I was in school, it just never feels as burdensome.

    It isn't without its stresses, of course. A vacation wouldn't be a vacation without stress, right? There are always kids getting into trouble, ingredients depleting too quickly, ATV accidents, disagreements on what to do, familial bickering. But despite all that, we all love it down here. It's basically our home away from home. Even though it's my aunt's family's gathering place, it feels like our gathering place.

    2014 was the lucky year. I managed to go down to Levan three times. The first time was in January—the one and only time I've been in the winter. Lora invited my siblings and me to join her and her kids in going down, assuring us that the sledding was loads of fun. We'd tie the sleds onto the backs of the ATV's and drive around the empty field next to the house. It was even more fun than I'd anticipated, despite the minor concussion I received (but that's for another day). We then went in June for a "moms and kids" celebration of school being out. So it was my mom and siblings, my aunts and cousins, and Lora's sister and sister-in-law and their respective children. If I had to pick, that would probably be my least favorite trip, but that isn't saying much. And then we went again at the end of July into the beginning of August for the usual Wright family trip. It was a marvelous year, let me tell you.

    There were a few years in high school when I wasn't able to go, whether because of work or other engagements; and let me tell you, I was always devastated. Our trip in 2019 was going to be the first time I'd been since 2016, but then they planned it for the weekend I was supposed to move back up to Rexburg to start my third semester of college. But I was determined to go, and my parents knew how desperately I'd been hoping to go, so my dad and I went down the weekend before. It was a different trip, of course, since it was just two of us and we were only there for a night. But I was in Levan, and that was all that mattered to me.

    I don't remember how old I was when I started saying that Levan was my favorite place in the world. It was probably around my seventh grade year, if I had to hazard a guess. Everyone always reacts in shock upon hearing that, including my family. "Even though you've been to Disneyland and to Cancún?" "You don't even like riding the ATV's, so what do you even do?" "But you go all the time!"

    Don't misunderstand; it isn't necessarily my favorite vacation. Cancún is almost certainly my favorite vacation spot I've ever been to. But Levan, Utah, is just my favorite place—or it's at least tied with BYU-Idaho's campus. Levan is quiet and peaceful. I have so many good memories of it. When I say it's my favorite place, I'm not just talking about the house; I mean the town of Levan. The dirt and rocks. The horses in the neighbors' yards. The irrigation sprinklers. The vast, open fields. The not-terribly-distant mountains. The clear-ish sky.

    All I want is to live in Levan. That isn't necessarily a viable option at the moment, but it's still my dream. And I think it always will be my dream.

    I don't know why I had to tell you any of that...but I'm sitting here in the house and just had to explain this wealth of feelings to someone. I'm in my happy place. I hope you know what yours is.

    "Home is knowing we are loved."

Imprints

    My favorite college professor was Joe. Not only was he a friendly face during the two worst semesters of my entire college career, he was also a voice of encouragement. I dreaded taking Rhetorical Theory & Application, but it was partly because of him that that ended up being my favorite class of the entire semester, and ultimately, my favorite class from college.

    His calm yet determined personality combined with his evident pride for my work gave me the courage to push myself in essays where I never would have dared push myself before. His advice and tips are forever stuck in my brain: whenever I use the word "myriad," I hear his voice telling me the right way to use it. He once told me that he always enjoyed reading my work, and it remains one of the greatest compliments I've ever received. When I thanked him for everything in an email during my senior year, his response was typically sarcastic and beautifully genuine all at once, and to this day, it gives me comfort.

    Even after I no longer took classes from him, if I ever saw him around campus, he'd chat with me. Or gently tease me—pretend to throw a dart at me or make a sarcastic comment about the book I was reading. When I got caught in a rainstorm and ducked into the nearby building to wait it out, he passed by and laughed to see me soaked through.

    I'll stand at work and listen to my coworkers talk to patrons on the phone, and my mind wanders to the rhetoric of their conversations. I can't help but think about how I could analyze their choice of words, their tone, the way they answer and hang up. I also can't help but think about how Joe would have analyzed their conversations as well, remembering how casually he'd explain an aspect of rhetoric that normally would have left my mind reeling but somehow made sense when he talked about it.

    Joe has forever left a mark on my life for the better. I don't think I'll ever forget him as long as I live. And he barely remembers my name.

    Which is to be expected. When you have hundreds of students every single semester, they tend to blend together. Honestly, I was just impressed that he actually did remember my name the last time we spoke, as well as the classes I took from him. He didn't remember where I was from, whether or not I'd graduated, or any of our inside jokes. It didn't hurt my feelings, but it did make me think.

    I have random little quotes from him written in the margins of the notes from his classes, and I retell his stories to my friends and family; and he probably couldn't remember what apartment complex I used to live in, even though we discussed it multiple times. His lasting impression on my life is not at all equal to the impression I've left on his, if there even was one.

    And he isn't the only person.

    In sixth grade, I met with a girl named Grace. We were in the same class, and we bonded over a highly energetic and silly game of Capture the Flag in P.E. As we walked back inside, she beamed at me and said, "I'm so glad to have you as my friend, Odessa." Less than two months later, she'd moved away, and I haven't seen her since.

    I don't remember much about her. I vaguely remember what she looked like, and I know that we shared a love for Harry Potter. I remember being so distraught when she told me she was moving—she was only the second friend I ever had move away. We never hung out after school, mostly because our friendship was so short-lived, but in class and at recess, we enjoyed every second together.

    Does Grace remember me? Does she remember that day in P.E.? Did she feel that empty hole in her heart when she moved away? Did she still count me on her list of friends three years later, like I did for her?

    It's been probably around twelve years since I last saw or talked to Grace, and yet, somehow, there's a small part of me that misses her. For whatever reason, I felt a connection to her that was cut far too short. But did she feel that same way at all? Is it possible that maybe she felt the sting even more keenly? Is it possible that Grace still thinks about Odessa Taylor?

    My old coworker Kylee was truly one of my best friends during my junior year of high school. She was hired a couple months after me, and we got along almost instantly. Every shift we worked together was full of laughter and camaraderie. We begged our manager to have a kiosk shift (the outdoor pool entrance) together during summer 2017, and we got it.

    One day, it started raining so hard that we closed the outdoor pools, but Kylee and I were supposed to stay at kiosk, just in case it stopped and we reopened. We sat there and joked and laughed for at least an hour and a half. Another day that summer, we actually went out and got dinner together before going back to my house and watching a movie. After she left, my mom said, "I like her a lot. You have a good friend."

    When she quit, I was devastated. We managed to keep in contact for a while afterwards, but ultimately, we grew apart, and now, we haven't had a conversation in years. She doesn't even follow me back on Instagram. She could have no idea that I still remember her birthday and her wedding anniversary every year, even if I never say anything to her about them.

    Does she remember the time she called me on a weekend, on the verge of tears, to tell me about how the guy she'd been interested in had led her on? Does she still have the picture of us in matching work shirts? Does she remember how we sat outside Rumbi Grill, ranting about everything under the sun? If she passed me on the street, would she run to embrace me like I'm sure I would run to embrace her?

    It overwhelms me sometimes to think about the hundreds of people who have left something on me. Even more overwhelming is to think about the hundreds of people that I may have left something on. Just the thought that there could be someone out there who remembers me for giving them a compliment on their clothes on a day they were feeling insecure...that's crazy to me.

    I once bought a KitKat and left it in a stroller that was sitting outside a classroom at college, along with a quick little note wishing a good day to the exhausted mom I'd seen pushing it earlier. Did she enjoy my gift? Was it an answer to an unspoken prayer? Is she the type of person who doesn't eat candy and thus didn't even enjoy it? Did she pass along that little moment of joy?

    Perhaps the person I think about the most when this thought of imprints crosses my mind is the guy from Donut Falls. It was during a summer in high school, either before my junior or senior year, and I was really starting to feel the pangs of not attending the same high school as my church friends. Being the dramatic teenager I was, I also felt like those friends were doing very little to bridge the ever-increasing gap between us. After hiking Donut Falls, we were all walking together and talking, and the conversation turned to things that I just couldn't get involved in—things that had to do with their high school, their extracurricular activities, their hobbies.

    I subtly slowed down so that they all moved on without me. The fact that not one of them out of a group of at least six turned to see where I'd gone was confirmation to me. I felt that I'd just lost all the friends I'd had since first grade. Morosely, I walked along, lost in my thoughts.

    A man and a woman, probably in their late twenties, soon passed me. They were engaged in conversation, but quite suddenly, the guy made eye contact with me and smiled. It wasn't the typical "grin politely at a stranger" smile—it was a smile that communicated instant compassion. "Hey, you doing okay?" he asked.

    And that was all I needed. It could have ended right then and there and I would have been totally fine. All I'd really been looking for was someone to look at me and smile and ask me how I was. That was it.

    So, I smiled back and said, "Yeah, I'm doing fine."

    But it didn't stop there. Still smiling at me with understanding, he said, "You sure? You just seem really down."

    Dear reader, I could have poured my heart out to this guy. Me. Odessa Taylor, who never reveals her emotions to even her closest friends, could have started crying and telling this guy the oh-so-miserable woes of being a teenager and growing apart from my childhood friends. But I didn't, and the only reason I didn't was because he was looking at me like I had never been looked at before. No—he was seeing me in a way I had never been seen before. He had noticed what my parents, my siblings, my leaders, my friends hadn't noticed, or at least had never let on that they noticed: I was sad. I wasn't myself. I was in desperate need of something.

    Of course, he didn't know any of that. All he saw was a high school kid walking down a well-populated path all by herself, head slightly down, face neutral and maybe even a little droopy. It would've been easy for him to walk past or to just nod and say hi; but instead, he chose to truly acknowledge me.

    I reassured him that I was fine, and he nodded and said, "Okay," still smiling. And a little farther down the path, he passed me in his car. He caught my eye again and waved, that wonderful smile on his face again. I waved and smiled back, and, rejuvenated, I hurried to catch up with my friends. They turned as I approached and smiled. "Odessa, where have you been?!" they cried enthusiastically.

    If I had been truly, truly struggling in that moment, that man would have saved my life. Does he know that? Does he know that, from that moment on, I felt okay about things? Does he have any idea that I think about him often? Does he even remember me? I doubt it. Does he do that often? I so hope he does. I don't really remember what he looked like, but I just remember seeing that smile and feeling instantly calmed. His empathy and kindness are great gifts, and I desperately, desperately hope that he uses them often.

    My life is made up of moments—moments shared with other people and moments kept in my private heart. Moments that plenty of others remember and moments that only I will ever recall. Seemingly small and simple moments that have added up to create the Odessa Taylor here today. Would I be any different today if I'd never met Grace? Probably not. But I did meet Grace, and now she's forever part of the story that's made up my life. So is Kylee. And Joe. And the guy at Donut Falls. So are all my other coworkers, all my teachers and professors, all my roommates, all my classmates, all my church leaders, all my family members, all my friends—even the strangers I might never see again have briefly passed through the very narrow window that is the life of Odessa Taylor.

    And there is no way of knowing what moments will stick with me forever and what moments will fade away like millions that have come before them. Moments with friends that seemed so unimportant to me at the time that I immediately forgot they happened. Moments in classes that I thought I'd remember forever that I couldn't recall if you paid me. Moments that others will cherish the rest of their lives that I was oblivious or indifferent to.

    Nicole might never remember I was the girl who sat next to her and cracked jokes during All-State rehearsals. Debra might never remember that I was her boyfriend's niece, sitting on the living room floor and listening to the "adult" conversation instead of reading Percy Jackson in her room. Peter might never remember that he called me "beautiful and intelligent enough for the both of us" during the one time we chatted on a phone call that wasn't even for me. Joseph might never remember that he made me laugh almost constantly during my first weekend of college.

    But I remember. And even if none of those events were important enough to change me, they were moments that apparently had enough value that my brain decided to keep them around. Or maybe I just have a brain that can't decide what's valuable and what isn't and thus keeps everything, just in case it comes in handy later on. Either way, I have those moments imprinted on me, and I hope to be better able to recognize those moments as they come my way in the future rather than just after they've happened and gone.

    There's a whole world to find out there—and in you, too, believe it or not. So good luck.

    "Find eternity in each moment." -Henry David Thoreau