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This is dull and repetitive. The plot doesn’t really matter because it’s mainly the backdrop for the main character to scrape along the surface of what it is to be trans and autistic. It’s all so shallow and I’m really disappointed. It also cannot stop repeating the same ideas or in book lore over and over again without new information or meaningful commentary. It’s grating.

“Herbaceous and rich, like drinking rubies.”

I’m sorry… what?

“…I felt a tunnel, hot and tender, starting at my throat and rushing downward, widening like a shotgun shell.”

What kind of fuck ass sentence is that? Has this author ever seen a shotgun shell???

I literally hate Nadira

“Her voice was less brash than usual, like a kid’s voice, because she was a kid.”

You can’t be serious…

Am I supposed to care that this kid is dead? Why did she run out like that? It doesn’t make sense. We just made a point of saying how she was changing and finding her voice and being brave and that translates to her running out of the vault and into the bird swarm? I don’t buy it and I don’t care. I can hardly remember who is who in this book because they all sound the same including this kid.

The reference desk is inside the vault? Since when? The fuck does this vault even look like inside??

This doesn’t make sense. If the monster wanted Alala to see it as a jellyfish then she wouldn’t need to look through Blanchette’s hands. She would just… be able to see it.

Please stop spelling out everything that is implied in your text, I’m begging you

Oh good. I was worried that you would let too many pages go by without reminding me about how Mad is still 11 years old inside.

You do not need to liken the main character to an 11 year old twice in one page. I got it the first time. I actually got it the first twenty times you did it. Just stop.

It’s not that this book doesn’t trust you to understand what’s happening. It’s that the author doesn’t trust herself to employ literary devices to accurately communicate with her audience. And for good reason.

The way this book over explains everything that is happening is exhausting. Never for a moment are you left alone with a scene to interpret it through the context of the text. No. You read an explanation for what is about to happen, the thing happens, and then you read the same explanation in nearly identical phrasing.