Addison Roux > Recent Status Updates

I was a little disappointed on receiving the book, it’s quite narrow, the text huge and spaced quite widely so there’s not going to be much to read.
So far it’s just unconnected, punchy snippets of memories told with a surprising nonchalance, especially considering the traumatic events and revelations being recalled.

In this bizarre tale of zombie/cannibal women who prey on men, the most unbelievable thing is that a bottle of water in a petrol station costs 35p.

92% is a bit far into the book is a bit far to be dropping a new character perspective and a new mystery, but it seems the Grims are on 1-on-1 communication with Nin, the Fate-appointed weapon of the demons.

Some of the measures agains Hate sound a bit 1984. Also, the whole “abide by the laws and you’ll be certain you’re following Fate” sounds dodgy. Politically, I mean. If nobody knows exactly what Fate decides then how can the laws follow her decisions? And there’s a very clear loophole for the lawmakers to pretty much enslave the populations, which I suspect might be the point.

Lilly-Anne and Charlotte have the same birthday. There are no coincidences in books, especially those that aspire to be trilogies.

The book is written from different characters’ perspectives. Some of the characters seem quite pointless and some are introduced very late in the book, almost as if the writer didn’t know how to tell this part of the story, so threw us into the mind of a new character to get through it.

This Orle character has finally been named. I’m confused, was this ever a mystery to begin with? There were signposts all over that pointed him out long ago.

There’s a living Rachthaw heir. I’m guessing it’s Lilly-Anne.

I’m not entirely sure there’s an actual story here. Sure there’s the outsider who has found her way into some magical new world and is trying to learn the ways and to fit in, but in the other books that have done this theme, there’s some kind of underlying story, a mystery, some danger or something that gives it an overall goal.

Orle is clearer to me now. He’s one of the twins, the one that’s not Vince, I forget his name. He’s been using spells on himself and he’s gotten addicted, like drugs.

It seems to be diverging away from the overt HP themes now, we’ve had a significant death in the family and there’s been a good focus on how the magic of the world works and now a promising adventure to another part of the world. The whole weaving of real-life technology and the magical Fate is pretty good.

Couple of chapters from characters we’ve not been introduced to. Seem really random and pointless. These giggly lobster ones are just weird nonsense.

Ah yes, the studious one has already mentioned her fears of expulsion and has cited exact sections of school rules.

The writing in this chapter is incredibly poor, and the paragraph structure so poor that it’s hard to follow. It’s doesn’t give the proper account of time passing, which seems to jump all over the place. One character was off to a convention and then back in what felt like minutes.

The third friend in the trio (of course it’s a trio) is a Luna Lovegood. Their first teacher seems to hate everything and everyone and has an entrance pretty much identical to snape, and enunciates quite like him too.
Main character is called out by teacher, immediate negative relationship apparent.

A great hall, a feast, students arranged in very long tables in three rows, one for each affiliation/house. At this point it’s becoming a little too much HP influenced.

So here we are making friends in a carriage on the journey to school. We’ve got the studious one who has been reading far ahead of where she should be and our main character, who’s just nodding along and knows absolutely nothing at all. The carriage being pulled by griffins, still giving heavy HP vibes.
The magic is called The Force and the carriage is bigger on the inside. Possible multi fandom references.

I’d also like to add that we seem to have a bit of an obvious mystery. There’s references to “The Murders” that happened 16 years ago. Lilly is 16. Her parents died when she was a very young baby. Apparently by carbon monoxide poisoning.

So we’re in the sort of Diagon Alley scene now, Lilly having been accompanied by her uncle bill, the seeming Hagrid character. There are non-humans here, it’s not specified how many, but there’s been a reference to fairies, and a short, big-eared, small-eyed creature called a gremlin. House elves? We even have one working in the pub, in service.

It’s giving me Harry Potter vibes right now, and it’s very blatant too. Kid with dead parents, living with aunt and uncle, receives a mysterious letter that’s an invitation to a supernatural school.
The prologue was really interesting, not at all formulaic or HP-esque. I’m quite excited to see where this goes.

I really can’t say this for a lot of male authors, but Dean Koontz creates some really interesting, authentic female characters without the huge focus on how attractive they are or aren’t! Huge positive.