Status Updates From The City of Slaughter

this is a hard read

I'm glad that Frankie came around wrt his resentment and jealousy towards Alter. Props to Aden Polydoros for portraying realistic and human emotions in their characters. Alter and Frankie were such an OTP in TCB, so the turbulence between them in this book was rough to read about. The tension was well executed.

I still enjoyed the end and reading a book from Frankie's perspective. A lot of his feelings, particularly his anger, were very relatable. I've been dealing with my own anger lately and I've been bottling it up. So I could empathize with Frankie's rage.

The ending was open-ended and a bit ambiguous. I wish that everything that happened to Alter had been explained more clearly. I agree with the reviewer who thought that some parts of this book were confusing because the ending confused me. 😅

I knew that Mr. Fox was a scoundrel. 😤😖

Gory, gory, gory. 😖

I completely forgot what "kelev" meant and I looked it up. 😅 I looked up "din rodef" as well.

It'll be interesting to find out what Frankie and this new kid are up to, and who they'll be going after.

Mr. Fox's dialogue at the end of that chapter was heavy but true. 😔 He was right about how there are children who starve.

The sheyd is still being sneaky and manipulative. That doesn't surprise me.

Continued from my previous update.

I cheered during that part in TCB. The part with Badass!Raizel and her hatpin. 😆 Also, the description that I quoted in my other update is a hell of a description. Just... Damn. 😲

We're alone, but my skin prickles with the sense that Katz still lurks among the pipes and cisterns, scraping by on all fours, with a filigree hatpin bobbing from one bicep and his fawn-brown suit collecting dirt, seeping throat wound like a dog's panting maw.

Hooray Raizel for damaging that fucker with her hatpin in TCB. That was a glorious moment!! 😍😁

I appreciated Reb Meir's words of wisdom for Frankie and they resonated with me. I agree that some people can stay with a person whether that individual was loved or hated. This is *very* relatable.

In this case, Mr. Katz has stayed with Frankie even though Frankie despised him.

I read two short chapters that were eerie, but I can handle eerie. I anticipated more gore and I'm relieved that there wasn't any. For now anyway... 😖

Mr. Fox is a sack of shit for abusing his dogs. 😤 I understood why Frankie liked him before, but it's obvious that the man is bad news.

I looked up the word "negiah" because I needed a memory refresher. I'm Reform, not Hasidic. It's understandable that I wouldn't remember the term since the practice isn't part of my daily life.

It was judgy of Frankie to think that Alter's neighborhood was full of rubes, considering that he didn't like being judged by Alter's mother.

That sheyd is one gutsy fucker. It's screwing with Frankie's mind.

"This is a nice knife," I say. "For your sake, I hope it's sharp. I'm starting to think perhaps I should deprive you of the ability to do your job."

Damn!! Frankie wants to pull a Lorena Bobbitt on this guy. 😮 I get why he would since Frankie was sexually abused. Of course he'd want a rapist to get their comeuppance.

It's rough to read about Frankie feeling judged by Alter. I can relate to feeling unfairly and needlessly judged. I have empathy for Frankie. 😟 Alter's from a frum family, so I wonder if that fueled his judgments. Or did Frankie misread him?

I don’t have the physical copy of this one, but hopefully the audiobook will be as good as the first one…