Lena P > Recent Status Updates

The way his internal monologue is going while he is strategising (on Mars) is giving me Alexander the Great vibes. “Just what if these chained people could love me the way my people love me.” He starves for glory.
The protagonist’s thought process feels repetitive, returning to 3 main topics: guilt, Eo and what could have been.
I still don’t like Darrow, and that’s my main issue with this story.

Ok, it does give me a strong vibe of Pride and Prejudice. Reads nicely and the volume is not intimidating.
But poor Persephone, for already 50% of the book she is mostly miserable and sad with a husband that gives her only little crumbs of empathy here and there.
I wonder if the series that is quite popular now shows this interaction any better.

The author is making us think that Mustang will betray Darrow.
If this story is simple, then this is what will happen. But people rave so much about this book, that I start thinking that in the end Darrow sacrifices Mustang. After all, he is no Gold and his objective remains the same.
For some reason it also feels like Servo is not going to get out of this game. Pity, if so, he is an interesting character

Ok, how is this a school?
It is a savage camp without any counselors.

PAX AU TELEMANUS!!!
This guy😂

So Darrow is ruining Minerva’s war room and in his head the thoughts are flowing and flowing. About how nice Minerva’s house actually is compared to their own house and how he is enjoying destroying it and leaves marks that Mars did it.
This gives me such a strong flashback to the recent historical events.
I feel strange about Darrow, I can’t make myself like him in this specific moment in the story.

“I could have left the elves be. But they annoyed me.” I feel ya, Darrow

“… they would never use a machine for something a person could do”
Yep, accurate.

Horses 🐎
Why horses? Are these genetically modified? Elites stay elites even 700 years later.
You’d wonder why I’m amazed by horses after reading through all that “rising” process.
To be honest, I did not know the story will have an “elite dark academia” subplot. Benefits of going in blind.
I do somewhat get the vibe of Hunger Games, but there the class system is not as granular.

Well, the beginning hits like a hammer
I wonder what follows

Are we nearing the end in which Henry dies and this pushes Addie to give in to the dark?
I feel like this is the only logical conclusion to the story. But would be nice if the author surprises the reader

“This is like putting a girl with a pearl earring in a Warhol, and a Degas, without even seeing The Rembrandt” - girl, this is an ick.
What Rembrandt? It’s Vermeer, he only made a handful of paintings and you are taking the most famous one away??

Henry… I should have guessed

So, what’s so special about Henry?
Is he a real glitch in the system or is he “the shadow”?

So far I’m suffering together with Addie through the horrors of her new life.
To be forgotten by anyone in a matter of seconds… This is not a fantasy, this is a nightmare of a story. And despite how deeply tragic and touching it is, despite me having a hard time putting the book down I’m still wondering whether I’m having a good time.

This story is incredibly sad (at least so far).
How does it feel when the whole world doesn’t remember that you exist, when you can’t own anything of substance, can’t leave a mark or even tell people your real name…
It’s hard to stop reading

“Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives - or to find strength in a very long one”. Finding strength in a very long one…
I heard that Victoria Schwab is very poetic in her writing. Well, she proves it to me with every sentence she wrote.

If the king is really a fantom of “one”, then “one” definitely has a split personality disorder.
Hm hm

Overall it feels like this book was written to fit the templates of other popular books.
“If you like this *fae romance book name*, then this one will tick your tropes boxes”.
I do like her storytelling language though, I don’t pick up on a lot of repetition (in terms of the use of the same words) and the author adjusts to the profile of specific characters and their background.
So it’s +/- so far.