Jess > Recent Status Updates

Struggling to keep up with this. The pacing of the whole thing so far is sooo slow.

My professor made it seem like there was a traumatic backstory behind why Alex acts the way he does. I'm still waiting for it.
I just think he's a kid who likes Jack London too much. Let's see if I eat my words!

It's taken a while to get used to this narrator. She started out sounding so robotic and lacking any inflection, but 26 chapters in, I've been Stockholmed.

Fine story so far, I don't understand how there's still so much to go...

This is one of the better books based on the ratio of action to random sex scenes or Cas waxing poetic about Poppy and vice versa. The lore building is just fantastic here, especially with what I know from ASITE.

Great narrator; I think this is the first time I've listened to an Australian/Kiwi character and it's awesome.

Super engrossing story, great pacing and plot twists so far!

If I read another iteration of "I have questions" in a JLA book again...I'm going to pitch a fit. I thought I'd left that behind in the FB&A series.

I'm sticking with it because I like the world and lore, otherwise all of the continuity errors and copy-paste from FB&A would have scared me off earlier on.

"From Adelaide, she has learned all the things she must never, ever do; all the things she must never, ever be. She must not lack in beauty. She must keep her mind whetted like a blade. And she must always be safe around sharp objects. Madness, of all things, is the most unforgivable in a woman."

"...most of those who will die are men--and how many of them have their own unwilling, unloved wives at home? How many of them have forced servant girls, even their own daughters? But one campaign will not end these abuses; the world will always birth more men, and more women for them to claim. It would take power beyond which any human might possess to rearrange the natural order of the world."

Chapter 30 🩷🩷🩷 one of the most emotionally powerful short chapters about friendship and loss I've read in a high fantasy

Giving this another shot, in physical form!

How the fuck...

It started off more than a bit confusing and disjointed, but once I hit pages 50-80 and the plot sped up, it's become suchhhh a good read!

I think this might be my favorite book of the year

Just fantastic. I love weird ass books

Struggling to enjoy the characters; this is more of a plot-driven book and the dialogue is purely communicating what characters we don't see have said or done, so I don't get much personality out of the two MCs.

I'm both very invested and very spooked

Started out with only a few red flags, and last night escalated to full-blown "why would you ever speak to them again and not get a restraining order" madness.

I think I might write a rant review for this one. It's looking like a 2 ⭐.

Not a fan of some of the narrators but I think I enjoy this more as an audiobook than the physical? We'll see.

I really like her writing style--thank goodness, since I have a hard time with apocalyptic scifi!

Enjoying the audiobook on Spotify!

I just realized that the writing style for this book is so monologue-based because El is so used to only talking to herself out of loneliness and I just--🥺 poor bean

Picked it up from the librarian's recommended shelf and so far

I LOVE

Love this agoraphobe detective 😁 super relatable

Much better pacing than the first one!

Doing an audiobook reread this time, trying to work through my audiobook backlog! The narrator is meh, he uses the same 3 voices for every guy and no change at all in his voice for the women, girls and children.

Reread, still a great book! I really appreciate the dialogue quality and how cohesive everything feels: characters and their personalities which match their actions, internal dialogue, plot movement, descriptions and action sequences, the subtle backstory. Just really good!