Status Updates From Incarnate

Wow, wow, wow, wowwww 😲
This has definitely spun way out of Dorothy's control.
Is Davey connected to the Troll though?
Is he thr Troll? Or perhaps he made the same deal and they can team up to break it.

The moment the apprentice surpasses the master is always a little awkward, isn't it. I feel like Tomas is feeling that now with Dorothy. He's impressed, but also a tiny bit afraid of her.

She's gonna have to quit this job.
They're noticing too much.
She can just hide in her apartment until she's transformed.

Alma's Afterword frames the novel as if it's issue-oriented, but it doesn't address looksmaxxing or a million other interrelated issues, it's just focused on social media stars. The whole thing is ostensibly a dire warning from an expert, but it comes off as tone deaf to say "poor Dorothy," for whom no rational reader could have any sympathy.

It's a bad sign when the narrator steps in to tell the reader that the protagonist is deluding herself [we noticed].

If that was the end of the parallel to Dorian Gray, it was a little superficial. But the unexpected suspicion here is pretty good. The protagonist's decisions and reactions just don't ring true to me.

Well, this took a turn.

Constant pain and dizziness are worth going viral? This protagonist's motivations are so contradictory and illogical. Impossible to suspend disbelief at all.

"No doubt," "isn't" and "nothing" all in one sentence. Next chapter, we get two different characters both beginning consecutive sentences "yeah, but that's [insert character name]." This is just sloppy compared to Katsu's usual standards. A good premise, but totally botched delivery, at least, so far. Maybe the big reveal of what she did to her bullies will save it, but the dead sibling was a letdown.

So, predictably, we're finally getting the backstory teased by the snippets used in the first few pages to set up the plot. The first half of the book was a lot of filler--circular conflicts and self-analysis that was obvious to the reader. It would make sense for the meat of the story to begin when the history is revealed, but any investment in the protagonist has been thoroughly diminished.

Gee, the CreepyPasta article the protagonist is reading bears a startling resemblance to her own diction and cadence.

The origin story behind the supernatural element is on really shaky ground right now. In the early chapters, we get a vague memory--apropos of nothing--of some guy at a party talking about an urban myth involving an online entity that makes evil bargains with people. Now, we revisit. Hopefully, this second half will be more up to Alma's typical standards.

The protagonist keeps alternating between believing a digital creation can't be a performer like a musician or an actor, and the idea of selling video content in those exact same contexts. There's suspense surrounding her denial or ignorance of the supernatural elements, but they are painfully obvious to the reader. And the Better Call SaulxAdolescence Crossover is really one that nobody was demanding.

Leaning a little heavily on the (potentially) supernatural element, plot seems as if it's covering for the fact that the protagonist's idea of how she would utilize her newly discovered advantage is pretty foggy. Also, the conflict is very voluntary--there are all these options to discontinue, maybe even confess with seemingly no consequences, but she keeps going. Still, awesome idea minus the GOT commentary.

Alma's last novel, Fiend was vaguely issue-oriented in that it juxtaposed a fictional evil against a real one, but this one is all in on tackling what might be the most defining issue of our time--how will an entire generation raised on internet culture, tech dependency and artificial intelligence affect the rest of the world when it comes of age? Really impressive, ambitious stuff. So new.

Cool twist at the end of the intro. Seems so familiar and uninspired, but then the empathetic lens is ripped away from the reader. Katsu's guiding hand puts us right where she wants us for the beginning of this one. So excited to get into it.

I have no idea where this is going but I’m hooked

Finishing this book today if it’s the last thing I do

Hooked