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This book is BRUTAL. trigger warnings for SA, violence, gore, body horror. Beautifully written though.

In Odessa's POV, "Doll" is making me want to smash something.
In Caspia's POV, almost everything makes me want to smash things.
I'm so curious about the plot and the world that's being developed but it's also really fucking annoying. Romantasy just really isn't for me, I need people to focus on more than their love/sexual interests.

Not vibing with this writing. There was a concept that was really similar to something I had read previously and realized it was the author's other book that I had given 2 stars. Going to DNF.

DNFing at 44%. I'm bored, annoyed, and confused. Things aren't making sense but not because of magical realism. i.e. an injury occurs and within an hour there's the smell of illness, that's not how infection works. I'm cool with magic and fucked up shit but have the reality be real. There are so many moments taking me out of the story and the writing is so detached from the MC, nothing seems to matter.

DNFing at 44%. I'm bored, annoyed, and confused. Things aren't making sense but not because of magical realism. i.e. an injury occurs and within an hour there's the smell of illness, that's not how infection works. I'm cool with magic and fucked up shit but have the reality be real. There are so many moments taking me out of the story and the writing is so detached from the MC, nothing seems to matter.

The frequency of Harry Potter references is annoying the shit out of me. Fuck that transphobic cow. (Also how many examples- Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Bill Gates are in the Epstein files) I hope but doubt this book will reckon with the colonialist nature of privileged, I assume majority white, men going to India to experiment with their philanthropy startups.

Did the first book have this many adjectives in every sentence?

Using the same tooth brush for TWENTY YEARS?!

I struggle with stories like these when the majority of the person's struggles come from ill-preparedness meeting stubbornness

More invested now

I realized I had read the author's previous book about being a fire lookout. As with that one, so much is about other people. That one was largely about her long distance boyfriend and this one is about her brother. Very little is about her. It's an odd blend of hubris and insecurity to write multiple memoirs but focus on other people.

I'm struggling to make myself pick this up. I really have to drag myself through the Jinao chapters. He's so insufferable. The world has promise and I could read more of Temi but the other POVs just annoy me. Apparently more POVs are introduced than what I've seen. Current plan is to wait until i get another new POV and if i don't love them I DNF.

DNF at 41%. I'm so bored. Skeptical it would handle the religious elements in a way I'd enjoy if I continued.

Fuck, does this character think about anything other than his bathhouse?

Far more entertaining than a science book had any right to be.

"She lay with her hands inert on his striving body, and do what she might, her spirit seemed to look on from the top of her head, and the butting of his haunches seemed ridiculous to her, and the sort of anxiety of his penis to come to its little evacuating crisis seemed farcical. Yes, this was love, this ridiculous bouncing of the buttocks and the wilting of the poor insignificant, moist little penis." 🤣

Putting down at 32% with the intention of eventually returning via ebook or physical. I just can't tolerate the audio narrator. He speaks like a news broadcaster reading a headline but for the entire book. This makes the listening experience, which due to the content is already stressful, even more overwhelming and exhausting.