Status Updates From Inside the Masque

“Van Etten never showed,” Shey said. “And I’ve always suspected her. Right from the start.”

oh my fucking god.
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?

how do you write a book where there’s like no actual action happening and it’s all just internal dialogue recounting what happened in a scene that we didn’t get to read about with some external shit happening to react to this thing we didn’t get to witness?

the only thing i’m getting from this book is that everyone is horny for each other and too busy having wet dreams and screwing one another to actually solve the murder. it’s a LOT of exposition, telling and not showing, things happening but the readers aren’t actually there for the event so we’re jus hearing about it afterwards

You’re expecting me to believe these detectives can actually even solve a simple case when all they’re thinking about is sex with their colleagues or missing their exwives?? Aside from this part I haven’t seen these detectives try to solve the crime AT ALL. And no, making assumptions doesn’t count. Wheres the ACTUAL detective work?

Okay so let’s talk about something. In order for the reader to truly understand where the fuck and how the fuck these “detectives” are making the connection between two murder cases, you need to include details from the older unsolved case. What are the similarities? Why the FUCK are these people making a connection to this vague case that only been mentioned a once or twice before?

“So,” Litz said. “Let me see... Anybody could’ve done it. We’ve got a lot of nothing and too many suspects.”

Well ya no shit. All these dumbasses have been doing is having sex, making assumptions with no evidence, more sex, thinking about how much they love their partner/fuck buddy, and umm EVEN MORE SEX.

“I keep going back to the fact that he’s the one who found the body,” Harata said. “The first person at the scene is often the killer.”

dumbasses
all of these characters are dumbasses

“Well,” said Kruse, “I’m developing a theory. I think she wasn’t quite dead when she went into the pool, although no one could’ve saved her life after this circ did its worst, but I think she drowned and that’s what actually killed her.”

Well the motherf’er you should have figured out COD!!

First thing you do when you find a corpse is find out COD and whether or not it’s an accidental, natural, or unnatural. Why in the fuck is it when these fuckers have already arrested someone for the murder that they’re still not sure how the victim died???? HOW WOULD YOU KNOW ITS MURDER IF YOU DONT KNOW HOW SHE DIED??

Holy fuck. I think this author has honestly never watched or read crime shows/novels or even bothered to do any damn research

“i love you” already??? y’all legit JUST MET two fucking days ago and you expect me to believe these two love each other??! HA!

there is absolutely no logic in this book. just none

Okay but where is the actual mystery solving part of this book? This book presents itself as a crime/mystery novel but all i’m getting are self-centered assholes thinking about sex all the time. I’m constantly being TOLD that the police suspect something but COME ON give me the actual investigation here!

Is this a murder mystery or some horny teenager’s fantasy of how mystery novels should go?

God, this book is such a jumbled mess. There's a part of me wants to finish it because Pride™ ya know? But also mysteries need to be solving and I agreed to read this book because BookSirens and the synopsis makes it sound like a mystery but this is just a mess of POVs put together that all have too much going on that it's becoming hard to keep track and to care.

Was this book written by a horny teenage boy or something because this is just cringe, i’m sorry. Unless something exciting happens within the next few chapters i’m gonna stop bothering with this book.

Yeah no

Also, something else to add because there's already a few issues that I'm seeing:
- The amount of sex talk is kind of a turn off because it comes off very forced here.
- The worldbuilding is -- I don't know. So far it's interesting but I'm also very confused about this universe.
- How do these masques work? I'm trying to visualize it but again, I'm struggling.

Vahe's a bitch.
Saam is a darling and should be protected. Please don't kill her.

Look y'all I'm all for confident ladies. They rock. But Vahe is cocky. “One day you’ll be able to afford a Bloxham & Van Etten,” Vahe said, knowing it was a complete lie. She resisted taking a deep breath. She kept calm even though she wanted to tell everyone in the universe about what she’d accomplished.”
jfc sis take a chill pill

Vahe is super self-centred and I'm rolling my eyes every time she thinks