CB12 > Recent Status Updates

I mean, this is super to the point and hits you over the head with its POV… But I actually don’t mind it. I just wish there were more on page physical descriptions of the characters, including the FMC.

Clinic is busy but they went on a lunch break to the museum in another part of the city oh ok loll

B

Might finish this book in 11 days before the hold is up, may have a baby…let’s see what happens first

“He who looks through life in only one lens lives in darkness”

Yeah very confused about the movements of the final battle and why they’re even fighting to begin with and not a huge fan of the action writing style - very procedural and kind of detached so it’s easy to zone out a bit

My mom had slaves but she hattted the practice 😔

I love how they’re like: for your next test you will fight gangs on the street haha

I think I’m coming to terms with the reality that I hate how just about every woman in this book is written (except for maybe the white???)

Oh god coin currency for sex acts as a means of controlling an army of men - are male authors not tired

Just a lot about slaves, women who have been human trafficked and the intersection of both and as always …written by a man 🙄

Actually finished and it was great etc

Okay so GR keeps annoyingly marking this book as read every time I close this app but whatever 🙄… almost done

I can’t believe this mf is about to run the demon labyrinth like I’m legitimately spooked

Idk if it was me or gr that marked this as read but I’m scared for this last 15% man

Now this pyramid chess scene is super special snowflake boy on steroids but I’m still entertained lol

Glad I stuck with this because this quite immersive and bingable I am really rooting for his special snowflake ass lol

And you know it’s halfway decent because I don’t mind that it’s first person

I mean this is def a character study of a super special snowflake boy who is the perfect gladiator in the pit/Hermione Granger in class / courtesan with the political machinations, but things are picking up and I can see this reeling me in soon

The world is as interesting as everyone says

However, I kind of can’t stand the constant use of the word “for” in coordinating conjunctions throughout this book.

most of dialogue /internal monologues are written in a more contemporary style, so it reminds me of cousin Greg on Succession trying to sound formal 😭. Feels really goofy

The way ppl were bashing this I was expecting it to be horrendous but it’s really easy to understand and the premise is almost halfway interesting. It’s a perfectly fine book to read with insomnia at 3am

I am probably gonna hate this, but I’ve had it on my kindle too long 👍🏾

This is like a high 2 so I’ll round up, but it needed multiple rounds of both developmental and line editing to be a more cohesive, flowing story

The world building has great bones and I think it really did NOLA as a setting justice, but it had too many ideas poorly executed

The villains are also super one note: even the most narcissistic, abusive mother wouldn’t be like “destroy your soul and move on to the afterlife” to their own daughter. I love complex mother daughter relationships but this was not that

I hope this author eventually gets more comfortable cutting a scene short and just picking up at a more interesting point 15 mins - hour later. Does the reader need to be in 10 chapters back to back in the same evening walking through everything Phine is doing

Another inconsistency that an editor would have picked up: sometimes Moira is described as having curls, sometimes she’s described as having dreads

I don’t like in general when books switch tones in the last act in order to up the stakes by becoming gratuitously violent…like she was stress baking in the first part of this book and now it’s like mass murders every other page

Outfit and makeup descriptions after 70+ of her people were murdered like we whyyy do we need these details

More plot holes! Why are the laws of the world so flimsy that vampires have been around for eons and they’re just now extorting the witches for the ability to day walk?

I might even wanna read the next one dare I say?

Yeah the last act of this book is absolutely stunning.

Gonna give this 4 stars even though I think the first 3 quest acts could have been like 1.5 acts with more time spent in Troy with Alex becoming the empress. I spent much of my reading experience of this complaining, but the last part is just phenomenal

JA completely stuck the landing un plotting, themes, and character development

“But for me, as the fight wears on, the good wears off. Before I know it, I’ve made myself a devil.”

Mannnnn is Jacob of Throne a disgruntled nonprofit employee lmaoo