CB12 > Recent Status Updates

More like a 4.25 because little things annoyed me after the halfway point but overall this was incredible so I’ll log it as a 5

Also, Khalil is the real MVP and did most of the legwork. The moral of the story is if you have enough money, you can hire someone who’s more gangsta than you.

I also feel like it was unnecessary for the li to be the sister of the evil twins. It just makes no sense why she was surprised to learn he was gang banging with her brothers (who were renowned gang bangers???)

And the last scene of him getting comfort from her after he did the same thing to her brothers the same day was just very wild to me. Very strange that no developmental editor called that out.

I really loved the modern day Shakespearean tragedy/drama elements of this (in a weird way it reminded me a lot of Succession - everyone gets what’s coming to them even in the instances where they “win”)

But the portrayal of the love interest and how her only purpose in the plot was acting as a symbol for Roman annoyed me

If we didn’t have the flashback scene this reveal would have hit a little bit more

Spoilers spoilers


But going to this girl for comfort over the death of his brother when he literally killed two of her brothers the same night. The audacity of men

As someone who has been attacked by a crazy [redacted breed], If these dogs were literally eating people, they should be put down and not given away to “good homes” wtf

Chauncey is the: listen up liberal! My wife left me — final boss

Only a man (author/mc) would look at an old family photo and be like hmmm wonder if my mom fucked someone on that day

Like this not a normal thought process

I did have to roll my eyes again at that line about how the main guy is so special he already knew everything in Art of war lol

Also, if he’s so smart, why is he hooking up with his enemy’s sister…

This book is actually more violent and gory than a lot of high fantasy that I read

Idk adding in the love interest at almost 50% is definitely the weakest element of this book so far (oh and subtle eye roll for these bm authors writing in the perfect anime loving, racially ambiguous manic pixie dream girl…like I’ve seen this before lmao)

I liked the emotionally unavailable guy with mommy issues we were going in, but we move

The concept of this book loosing GR’s choice award’s audiobook of the year to onyx storm

Obviously I don’t expect anything from the good reads choice awards but my god

I feel this way reading Tia Williams, but it’s so refreshing to read books by authors who love black people and can write us with humanity

4.5 but still great

The one thing I’m not getting is if everyone knows she betrayed them, why are they asking her to come back to the syndicate? Maybe I missed something here.

The magic system is really great and it’s a fabulous set up for the rest of the series — but we’re gonna need like 25 more characters and a lot more geo-political machinations (and less “it’s always been yous!!!?!) to earn that GBS comp

This is really great and I will be continuing the series, but this ultimately isn’t what I expected. so many creators who read mostly high fantasy and hard sf gushed about this book, so I was surprised it’s so romance-y and dark romance-y… but also not?

And all the Green bone saga comps made me think it would be more explicitly action-y but it’s a lot more angsty

Love a black character in the mix, but bros intro was abrupt

“Cling to the lie, you never know…Lie all the way to the scaffold, lie with the rope around your neck, let them bury your lying corpse still sticking to its story.”

I thought this book would be a little more serious like this plot is straight jealousy troupe I’m crying

Oh the parallels between the relationships of mother figures!! Catch it

Man I used to love the “pretending I’m with someone else troupe” but maturity is realizing that is something a shitty guy would do lowkey

The mom’s story my god! 😭😭

The ending cliffy is so strong I almost forgot the last part of this book was pwp with a ff ass epilogue

But this is really good so far overall!

The green bone saga comps are applicable in the sense that there’s rival gangs and a sci-fi/fantastical drug that enhances powers, but the pacing and writing styles are completely night and day to me

As a New Yorker, the use of the term grand central to be the name of a a big scary gang is funny to me

Skimming some reviews and not enough people talking about how there are too many half flushed out povs to make the story cohesive

And spoiler spoiler spoiler

Moving right along from the fact he had a romance with her mom 🤔

The pacing is really weird- plot is mostly the characters standing around talking and everything has taken place in like 2 days

They’re telling you the hellgate is bad but I lk want them to open it so *something* interesting can happen on page

For a book made up of literal bible fan fiction and angels and demons, nothing is really happening