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“Dreams are just like stray cats.”

Chapter 37. The strange machinery of fate

Chapter 32.
The man on the dead stairs

Love the relationship between Charlie and Marlowe. Love the secrets and mysteries unraveling slowly. Love that this world is not black and white.

Chapter 24

I love the pacing of the world-building. Instead of the dreaded opening-chapter exposition dump—where modern fantasy bogs down in political histories, timelines, and complicated magic rules—Miro parcels out information with steady restraint. Readers are given just enough to anchor the moment while larger mysteries simmer beneath the surface. It makes an expansive story readable and nearly impossible to put down.

Chapter 20
The Disappeared Ones
I love this book. It’s like xmen meets umbrella academy meets Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children set in late 1800s. I thought I would hate some of the time jumps but I love them. I love all the different places we get to explore as well from London, to natchez mississippi to Tokyo to Scotland.

Gripping story. Can’t put it down.

Absolutely love this book. Love the characters and plot and writing style with super long sentences. Don’t love the long chapters. Love the global stage.

Long sentences

Audiobook and physical book
Chapter 27

“I don’t want to feel like I don’t have time or energy to try anything new because everything I have is getting poured into a job I don’t even like. I don’t want to live my life like it’s a triathlon and all that matters is getting to some imaginary ribbon. I want my life to be like making pottery. I want to enjoy it while it’s happening, not just for where it might get me.”
Service jobs.

“And everyday when I go home, I don’t even feel relieved because I know I have to go back.”
“I’m the one who dedicated the last ten years of her life… to something she hates.”

“Love means constantly saying you’re sorry and then doing better.”

“I spent my whole life trying to get here, and why? It wasn’t what I pictured.”
So relatable. So many of us spend our 20s chasing a dream we came up with or our parents came up with when we were children and then by 30s we discover it doesn’t live up to the decade plus we spent trying to catch it.

This book is like what would happen in the real world to the cast of friends as time goes on after they left their New York apartments.

Audiobook plus physical book.

“People blamed other people for all sorts of things.”
Literally the perfect ending to this story. Nothing tied up neatly in a bow. Nothing fake or forced. It’s honest and messy and realistic.

“I was brought up to please. To please my mother and father, and then to please your father. Because that’s what women do. That’s how we live, how we survive.”
Heartbreaking and accurate.

“The farm looked faded like a dress forgotten in the sun.”
I love this writing style. The similes are visceral and realistic for Milla to think of.

“And then she remembered how it was taken from her. How aloneness became loneliness. And how loneliness became pain and then pain became terror and then terror became hate. And hate became monstrosity.”

“Did they feel sorry for calling me a witch and taking what was mine? They got what they deserved. They wanted a witch, and I gave them one.”

Chapter 27

“In my story, they get eaten because they followed the rules.”
“That’s a twist,” Milla said.
“All those stories about doing what witches tell you are silly. Why would you do what a witch tells you?”

Chapter 23
I am devouring this book. I can’t predict what will happen moment to moment. I can’t put it down!

Chapter 9
As a YA novel told from isolated Milla's perspective, the writing is simple and direct. Flowery metaphors would feel unnatural. The author uses grounded similes like eyes "bright and dark like syrup" which embrace a fairytale simplicity, using high-contrast sensory details rather than more academic prose. The writing style is effective for this kind of story. It evokes classic fairytale to me.

Chapter 7 typo
“ Trude…. Pulled Iris inside.” Nope. She pulled Milla inside.

“Iris went blank. So blank. So blank it was as if Iris weren’t there anymore…”
Some have left bad reviews of this book because of this repetitive prose, but it's perfect psychological realism for a sheltered teen. When overwhelmed by shock, the human brain doesn't think logically—it loops and stutters. The author deliberately uses this rhythm to pull the reader right into her cognitive freeze.

Chapter 4