Rowan > Recent Status Updates

Shallan & Jasnah are at the Veil. Isn't Veil one of Shallan's alters later on? Could this be a sign that this is where she starts splitting, in some ways? As if here is a pivotal point. Hmmm 🤔

"We remember the good times and the bad ones, forgetting that most times are neither good nor bad. They just are." - Kaladin

"But expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack."

The first chapter is choppy, brutal, and reads like a fever dream. I'm hooked.

"I found it in a hollow log," he said with the self-satisfaction of a shopper who unearths a hidden gem at a flea market.

For someone so very smart, Emily can be so very oblivious. It belongs to whoever has been scratching at the DOOR, Em!

"When I skated, I was happy. It was a pity it could never last."

I just had the thought because zombie whales are mentioned -- zombies moan. Whalesong is already eerie clicks & moaning. I wonder what a zombie whale sounds like.
Also since whales have to surface to breathe, is the virus really that aware of the need for oxygen? It seems to really only understand the need to feed & ignores all over pain so... Would a zombie whale drown bc the virus doesn't recognize suffocation?

Impromptu babysitting and *wounded* together.
During a zombie outbreak. *Wounded*

I literally can't stop thinking of Baseema, the little autistic-coded girl who is described as "broken." I'm assuming (hoping) this has already been brought up or addressed to/by the author, which I'll look up but.. it's really negatively affecting my ability to enjoy or immerse myself in the book so far.

So far there's been explanations for the obvious absence of any animal shifters or any Roane - but I'm waiting for the side comment that explains where *May* is

"do not talk to me I'm only here to talk to Mabel" IM FUCKING ROLLING LMAO

The pacing feels a little... Off. There's a lull & while it's nice, when things are starting to kick off again I'm still like woah wait let me catch my breath? Which is probably how Alice & Thomas feel anyway. But it's throwing me off. I just want the fluff OK
T_T

I'm also noticing that I can tell the sentence was reworded but artifacts (a word here and there) didn't get removed and that's throwing me off too.

Theory: the bottle dimension is the lamia's home dimension & that's why Naga told Alice not to go that direction 40 years ago. Side-theory: did he have something to do with the parasite/it becoming a bottle dimension?

There's NO way the Autarch isn't Thomas but this is also way earlier in the book than I'd expect Alice to find him so either a chunk of it is them trying to figure out how to force their way out OR them fighting Naga (or both...)

"Maybe it's the girl in the mirror, my ghost still haunting myself, the one who still clutches the dying taper of a hope that we can change, we can make it through the thorns, we can stop hurting each other."

After he's done swearing at me, I observe, "You know an awful lot of big-boy no-no words for a man of the gods."
"You are an absolute terror," he snaps. "At this point I'm frankly amazing nothing else cursed you before now."

"I will never escape her, because I am haunted by myself."

Some first impressions/thoughts - the MC is very snarky, angry & cynical, definitely very hurt by her mother trading her for jewels. The MC is supposed to be nearly 100 years old & is still very immature & impulsive. She clearly resents her heritage and chafes at her expectations and responsibilities. I'm hoping there will be some heavy character development, she's not very likable to start.

If Everly doesn't wind up with Logan, I will eat my hat. The "too much" scene is both shattering & healing my heart at the same time.

"Hope is a vicious beast. It stinks in its claws and it doesn't let go."

Comfort re-read and as of this moment (I'm still 2 books behind and haven't read Where the Drowned Girls Go or Lost in the Moment and Found yet), my absolute favorite of all the books. One day I'll even finish my goblin market rules embroidery project.

"Because hope is a knife that can cut through the foundations of the world," said Sumi.

Review pending a resolution with the Harper Collins union

That's one hell of an opening line!

"Grief is a weight that you can't put down, only transmute into other things, and once it lands on your shoulders, you have to wait for time's erosion to lift it off. We're all Atlas, in a way. We carry all the sins of our past, and all the things we think we've lost, and we might as well do it forever for as long as it can seem to last."

I know Tybalt has been calling Toby "little fish" for years but even after they got together it bothered her a bit... Now it's just another term of endearment. I can't pinpoint when that transition started

"Sometimes I wonder if the Court of Cats, when in sessions, isn't just all the Cait Sidhe taking turns having thumbs and petting each other, since that seems to be most of what the average cat wants out of life."

"Sometimes you just have to take the win. Sometimes a little bit better is enough."

"Because we're more than the substance of our scars, and I loved you before you hurt me. Because I know you've been lashing out, and people who are in pain aren't always careful about where they throw their punches."