Olya > Recent Status Updates

1/3 of the way in & so far it’s a lot of repetition with the final sections of A Short History of Life on Earth. the greater depth is appreciated but there’s not that much new info (I appreciate that our understanding of early humans is limited! and it’s interesting to learn about limitations but I’m a little disappointed!)

ok i won’t lie this series would be better if the protagonist wasn’t insanely stupid.

so great! exactly the correct balance of horny/campy and folkloric/epic. the Heyer sense of attention to small peculiarities in human relationships & a Patricia McKillip-said fantasy world

Mercer is like sisyphus with the rock

tanya huff is the nora ephron of YA fantasy. in that she is foundational and also just actually writes a good book rather than merely leaving the bare bones of a romance narrative and sham overarching plot. there’s actual thought out into every scene, and shifting 3rd person pov - though creating distance from the heroine - works really well to keep the story fresh.

perfectly exercised femme competence porn. this is bbc sherlock for women. i mean, even more for women

i’m getting sense n sensibility + richardson n i’m only two chapters in. far less laborious in its character intros than arabella (only other heyer i’ve read so far)

this is already a lot better than most of the popular books in the genre

unapologetic trash, utterly contrived, utterly shameless. this is the good shit

i will say tho the pacing is very good

very funny how the aristos all speak in cockney while relaxed. many people don’t realise this is actually how british accents work

rly quite poorly written (both plot and dialogue are quite a stretch) but it’s christmas and i’m desperate for a spooky highlands mystery romance so if anyone has better suggestions i’m all ears

this has flaws but i am still liking it much better than stuff i have read in the past.

the romantic plot isn’t very subtly done so far, altho kai is a more interesting love interest than most YA boys (despite what the name might suggest).

there’s smth a bit lonely ab the book given the only two developed characters so far are kai & maggie, & maggie just isn’t super compelling. i like coyote a lot tho.

immediately way more promising than virtually every YA/SFF novel i’ve read in 2020. happy new year to me! :*)

redeemed by the reference to the daily show ... truly a product of its time

describing a fat person as “anorexically challenger” is really next level wit .. we do not love to see it

i need to bit the bullet n just finish this thing already .... how did maas manage to make such an epic conclusion so boring ????

(wait for the review to find out!)

this is written in the style of someone who exclusively reads the letters of 18th c. english aristocrats without bothering to look up the words they don’t know

this is written in the style of someone who exclusively reads the letters of 18th c. english aristocrats without bothering to look up the words they don’t know

quitting now

it’s kind of like a handsome leather bound novel under an LED - all of the content is there, even the expected decadent allusions and referential body, but somehow the prose cannot create an adequate tone to complement the images (2/2)

it’s early to judge but i’m not sure i can get behind hyatt’s prose. it’s just so obvious in its metaphors, and seems to lack all the voluptuousness one would expect when the subject matter is Victorian romance. (1/2)

there are too many POVs and I really don’t care about them but i’m gonna try n power through. also, why isn’t there a romantic arc? ☹️ i respect the whole independent woman thing but like,,, i’m not reading YA for a feminist pep talk smh

so fucking good already

so fucking good already

honestly, there doesn’t seem to be much here which is worthwhile and fulfilling. it has the potential to be a light, fun read, but given that I could read 2-3 better books in the time I would spend reading this one, I think I’m going to have to pass. also, as many others have pointed out, it is exhaustingly masculine and self-indulgent

bangin so far. such interesting worldbuilding, love the aesthetic. it’s like a modern take on alice in wonderland which encompasses the fantasy tropes of the last century. was at first hesitant bc i thought it was magical realism, which i suppose it tenuously is, but it’s a good blend of fantasy elements and genre innovation

new hypothesis: if mac isn’t the king, which she obviously isn’t bc that would be a dissatisfying ending, could she be the cauldron? she has all the memories n it’s a fae object which prob takes on it’s own life

new hypothesis: if mac isn’t the king, which she obviously isn’t bc that would be a dissatisfying ending, could she be the cauldron? she has all the memories n it’s a fae object which prob takes on it’s own life

ngl the grand ‘get-together’ fuck was a bit of a let down. like it was good but after five goddamn novels of build up i’m expecting higher quality sexual tension in the lead up. also mac getting killed didn’t exactly make it hotter. tbf would’ve been more satisfying if they’d went for it without any external event precipitating it.