DNF: Girls of Paper and Fire
77) Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. As every fantasy YA book with a caste system that I've read is awful, this book introducing its caste system on the very first page made me highly wary. And turns out I was right to be so. The main character was such a big Mary Sue (down to her super special unique golden eyes).
The plot seemed interesting enough: In a world with three castes (demons, half-demons, and humans), every year the demon king brings in eight human girls as his concubines. But because main character was so super special, for the first time in history, the demon kingdom brought in nine instead just so they could include her.
Apparently James Patterson has his own YA publishing company now, so when he gave a glowing review in the forward of this book his own company published, I really side-eyed. He hasn't written a book himself in ages (he plots them out, then a contract writer does the actual writing), and he thinks the writing industry is "racist" against white men. Plus his own YA books suck. Not that he himself writes them, but still. He's not someone whose opinion I give much weight to.
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The end of the year is fast approaching. Will I actually finish another book before then? Stay turned and find out!