Shelbie > Recent Status Updates

There’s a ton of tell and little show and several things just don’t make sense. MC was ostracized for being a bastard but premarital sex and married lesbians are fine (and as an adult no one cares about his parentage). Music is super important but only the MC was sent to study it. Kids vanish and not one person considers if a human did it. No one can cross the border but we can send mail. Make it make sense.

I somehow missed how this is marked as a cozy read, a genre I don’t mesh with. It’s basically a fictional tale of how to sell books. There are moments where I appreciate the bookstore/cafe vibes, but usually it’s a monotonous nothing burger

I absolutely adore this.

It feels like the plot has stalled out for the last 100 pages and it’s a chore to get through the chapters.

Really liking so far

I might need to DNF I’m so bored and Darrow is not likeable whatsoever.

Sigh. So far underwhelmed. For as much hype that has surrounded this series since it was published, it’s literally every Mary Sue/John Stew Chosen One At a Fighting Academy dystopia YA novel ever written.

Also please tell me how we have the tech to graft new DNA and rewire brains but no one has a decent painkiller.

Rhys is not emotionally qualified for this job. And book two has an insane level of info dumping that book one didn’t have. Still love the characters.

This is my third Danmei and I can’t tell if it’s a style or a translation thing, but they’re all incredibly tell not show heavy, one MC is always quiet and calculating, the other is a loud jackass, and backdrops are gorgeously described while being paired with dialogue like “You motherfucker” and “Call me daddy.” Which throws me right out of an otherwise historical setting.