✩ Ori ✩ > Recent Status Updates

I’m new to the genre so I have to ask: is doing something reckless against her best judgement a staple of thrillers? That, and a unilateral “freeze” response after acting impulsively? Because this trifecta of FMC behaviours is very effective rage bait for me.

DNF’ing because I am not enjoying being in Cordelia’s head. She’s sloppy, impulsive, not at all subtle, and refuses to communicate honestly with her best friend.

The writing is repetitive and the plot beats are more slapstick comedy “what could possible go wrong now oops there it goes” in a way that I found more irritating than thrilling. And then she “insulates” the body with cat litter?? Dumbass.

“…being lizards didn’t mean they didn’t do politics.”

At some point, we ventured into the absurd and I didn’t notice until this line.

“It’s not freedom if it can be taken away.”

💔

“Give me a lonely secretary and a laxative, and I can change the world.”

what poetry lmao

A rare occasion where I think the second book is somehow even better than the first??? No sequel slump to be seen here!

Starling House cemented Harrow as an auto-buy author and so far, The Everlasting has certainly *not* let me down.

The only debate in my mind is whether I want to duke it out with resellers for the Locked Library edition as a shelf trophy…

I enjoyed this book :3
Largest critiques: the instalove, pacing/timeframe of events, not being able to get a read on Ashley’s age, run on sentences & comma splices (esp in dialogue), incongruous villain monologue
Enjoyed: depiction of Savannah, world building (esp the family history), audiobook narration, how the magic was portrayed, overall story, could sit well as a standalone but has open ends for sequels

Did this woman who has never been on the internet before seriously just say “unalive”?? Please can we just not with the TikTok slang in books 😭😭 Especially if it makes no sense for the character to speak like that 💀

“softening his bones”???? babe we are not making soup and I have so many logistical questions now

I do believe I know what the “big reveal” is going to be

You’re telling me this woman runs around town with DRIED MEAT in her pockets? Not jerky, not cured, just dried meat. Not in a plastic bag, no wrapper, she just straight up has meat pockets?? Ew.

Also why hasn’t this been brought up before? If she’s going around with dried meat in her pockets, shouldn’t every cat she encounters constantly be trying to get at that stash?? They should go crazy smelling her 🤨

So why is a spell to end the world feasible but a spell to transport the shop between cities, rather than within the city, considered impossible?

“I remember—“ I don’t.
There were so many missed opportunities to foreshadow future plot developments and flesh out the world. Things like putting a pen in her pocket if having a pen in her pocket becomes relevant later or listing artefacts’ powers as she categorises them if they are significant; only find out about actions/events/feelings retrospectively robs the narrative of much tension and feels flat.

Is this fanfiction that escaped containment? I’m not mad about it if it is Howl’s Moving Castle AU, but I do sort of wonder how much of the cosy vibes are original to the text and how much is my brain filling in the gaps with content from a movie that I love and have watched easily over a hundred times. Would love to hear the thoughts of a reader who hasn’t watched HMC for comparison

I cannot overstate how much I LOVE Anja’s narrative voice. Pretty much just an aged-up Maomao 💖

i’m sorry WHAT

Lottie is seriously pissing me off