Any Direction > Recent Status Updates

Potentially unpopular opinion: I love a 1st person narrative from multiple perspectives. Is it a bit disingenuous because the author can’t truly overhaul their style and redundant to have two people in the same situation telling the story? Yes. But I love hearing someone’s genuine feelings about a person and then having the gaze flipped. It’s especially effective in an enemies to lovers like romance.

Look, Olivia, you think flower farm sounds made up? The job in the first romance I ever read was a “color consultant”. She told people what color clothes matched their complexion. She spent the entire book giving away free consultations in her small town and this was a sustainable enterprise. Know what genre you’re in!

“yews don’t break they bend”. This is accurate yew trees are known for their flexibility used to make bows or whatever, so 👏. But also, how long has she been sitting on that line?

Kiela’s anti-social tendencies were stretching my suspension of disbelief. However, this “party” that is just reading in a fancy room and eating cake. 10/10 want to go.

Is this book profound? Probably not. But I am having a most excellent time. Thus far, this is exactly what I want in a fantasy to be.

She got a microwave!

Gosh darn it. I have things to do. Shoot! Other things to read. However, nothing else will be getting done until I finish this.

You know a book is old when the mc leaving for the airport two hours before is considered being overly cautious. When I heard Macon’s got a half hour drive, and flying out of Baltimore, every part of me is like, you’re going to be late, Macon! There’s some joke to be made here about the TSA, but I can’t quite find it.

TIL something about myself and that is that my tolerance for nonsense goes way up if your setting is a a boat. Bonus points if the water is cold. More bonus points if there are birds. However, if all the birds are dead by the end of this, I will be filing all my petty complaints and using them as an excuse to say that the book is objectively bad when the real problem is my refusal to tolerate gratuitous sadness.

Still don’t hate it, but this is the first chapter actually written for adults. Adding “the Good Place” to things are like other things list. Also, we hit a pet peeve. That is an author explaining his (it’s always his) symbolism to you. “Look how clever I am naming my characters after obscure Greek mythology references and having a character point it out.” You know what’s actually clever- subtlety.

“There’s music everywhere, you just have to learn to listen for it” could be inspiring if it wasn’t just a slightly altered phrase from another property, one entirely about music, so the quote makes sense. This book is not about music, so why is this here? Also, the time jump at the beginning of this chapter… atrocious. Despite my best efforts and knit-picking, I don’t hate this book yet.

The things are like other things energy of this is strong. A blurb said umbrella academy, 1984, and Douglas Adams. So those, but I have also thought of Lemony Snicket, X-men, Good Omens, Raul Dahl, and Harry Potter. All authors are writing under the influence of other author, so I don’t know if it’s good or bad. There’s some nice descriptive writing.

That interaction wasn’t winning me points with Linus. Yes your neighbor is obnoxious, but if your cat was in my yard chasing my squirrels, I’d be pissed too. Also, if you don’t want your neighbor watching you, buy a curtain.

Deborah Harkness is not a biologist.

What a way to open a novel! For every book, I want an accompanying children’s book about what the animals are up too, starring Patricia. If a tortoise wedding was not enough there was also a critique of cancel culture, an interesting representation of the fainting woman trope, an appearance of my favorite underutilized character, Lady Cordelia, and multiple potential cases to solve! Here for all of it!

TIL the expression “cool as a cucumber” is older than this book.

Every chapter in this book has been short, (2-5 pages) which really helps with the supposed tedium. Then suddenly we have a chapter that’s 21 pages (a rambling story of mutiny and WHALES), and now we are back closer to our regularly scheduled programming… Ismael criticizing whale paintings, which is silly, but also relatable.

My investment in this couple is very confused as there are so many problems. However, the gifting of exceptional amounts of mini muffins is genuinely cute.

Otto Chreik: I thought he was just a photographer extraordinaire and vegetarian vampire before it was cool. Turns out, he is also a terror to racist capitalists.

Well, the last dozen pages have had multiple quotes that could have been taken directly out of a politicians mouth today short of swapping out city names. Is it shocking? Yes. Is Terry Pratchett psychic? That would be comforting; what seems more likely is that rhetoric hasn’t changed in 25 years. Sigh.

Book 3 and 4 are the ones I remember the least. I used to be fond of a pandemic plot, but have not read any since actually living through a pandemic. I’m curious to see how this holds up. Opening chapter mentions the importance of free school lunches and good for Collins taking every opportunity to make important points.