Leilin > Recent Status Updates

I honestly like the book but the dialogues are just painful (respective inner monologues are fine, but man, the moment they all decide to talk... 😭)

Also listening to the audio book and I wish the narrators would let up on the accents or, at minimum, that they had agreed on which accent to give each character -_-

Reviews warn that this is on the cozy side, so I went into it with that expectation... and proceeded to get hit with a creepily cannibalized solar system as the background, a bounty hunter who, while not needlessly cruel, does use his gun to get shit done, and the early (gory!) death of a young crew member.

Ok. I mean, I must be softening with age or something, but call me crazy, I've seen cozier ^^

It reads like an anime series and I don't know if I want to read a novelization of an anime (or manga for that matter). On the other hand, true to the media it isn't, there's a wholeheartedness to it that's refreshing: it cares, there's no reluctance throwing everything into the story it tells - which I do love.

This should be an anime, it has basically all the codes of a large cast, paired-servant type of series.

I love her, but Mehrab could stand being a tad more type A about all this ^^

Really sold on Slatter's writing and her characterization work so far! <3

This is not great.
What it has to say about being a teenage girl and about death/grief is trivial at best. The romantic aspect reads like a very cliché romantasy one (power imbalance dynamic with a taller, older, brooding, patronizing love interest that makes our MC feels like she needs to deserve their attention). And I am seeing the big reveal come a miles away as to who Roslyn is going to have to kill... sigh

So this book is fine... until a woman comes along (Jeanne d'Arc or Livia, for now) -> the moment anything feminine walks onto the pages, it apparently cannot resist the compulsion of its dudebro fantasy niche, starts foaming at the mouth, and turns entirely demeaning.

"but that was of the times" -> not when the story and its stupid footnotes keeps reminding the reader that it is being told by a contemporary narrator

Ok, we're starting with a sexist joke, cool. After a self-important prologue might I add.

Either the story is going to call out the ass of a protagonist we are given (and it better be made clear soon) or I feel this is going to have a very short shelf life in my house.

The character work is really good, which is great because that's really what makes this book. Not sure if I entirely buy the dystopian world, but the exploration of what that world then means for the characters and their art is explored in an interesting way.

The bumpy writing, rapidly alternating POVs (most chapters are quite short) and slow pacing make this a relatively trudging experience. I like the themes but there's a lot that thrown around and not picked up again... I hope the ending wrap this up well, because a lot is hanging on it, at this point.

This is actually both very endearing and pretty hilarious - I'm having a great time with it!

The beginning had me afraid we were getting the overdone Marvel-like humor treatment, and/or the Ready Player One "ref-fest", fairy tale edition. But nope, it's been balancing it all pretty well.

The worldbuilding is easy to grasp/visualize (medieval-like setting, fairy tale style magic, monsters chimera'ed out of common animals...), the dialogues flow well, the plot is engaging -> a fun romp of a book, so far.

#toosoon
"[A colleague] told me once about sharks. Interesting creatures. If they stop swimming, they die. Men like Gyges are like that. They can't afford to let things settle down and get quiet, because then the people might start noticing how bad things have been ever since they took over. So men like Gyges are forever starting wars"

"As usual, Arris had no idea what he was doing. His best hope was that wisdom would rush to his side for the sake of novelty, but until that moment arrived it was just him and the cacophony of his thoughts."

Roshani Chokshi is just such great fun to read, peppered with what always feels like effortless insight and sharp commentary.

"but from what I have gathered from my readings, mothers are tricky creatures. Imagine a being racked by the resentments of youth, embattled by societal claims upon its body and beset by an abundance of altruistic love. Even acts of affection might carry poison."

It's one of those books where I am both genuinely interested and never itching to get back to it - not sure why, maybe the short chapters with alternating POV combined with the slow, introspective nature of it. The writing is good but also not entirely natural and easy flowing for me (not in a bad way, just a matter of getting into a style) but I wonder if that doesn't compound with the above, too.

Ok, so this is moving - just glad we left the horny king era behind, I like him better as a tragic figure. [spoiler]Bisclavret marrying is hard to reconcile with his character so far, it's a bit jarring.

I quite like the "Other" chapters, they do a good job conveying the wolf's alien perception, tangled with the remnants of the man within.
In general, it's good writing, and the narrator gives it justice too

Not sure where we are going with this - can't really see much of a story for now: things are just unfolding perfectly smoothly and the king is very horny. I need stakes to come in, any time now.

I have barely even started the first chapter and already impressed by the writing as well as the author note explaining how the tale relates to medieval history - hopes for this are now high!!

Several friends here on GR have had a good experience with it, so I'm holding out hope: I'm far from hating it, but I'm also rather unattached to it so far.

Beautiful cover, over than for the fact it spoils the twist.

So far there's a lot of confusing strength with being stubborn and self-centered when it comes to the our FMC. It's annoying in itself and I'm having a hard time caring about her and her revenge quest as a result.

The writing is fine. There's a lot of explaining everything, making sure we get it, including the plot twist to come (it's going to drag this)

Annnd we have a femme fatale now, seriously...

It's starting to lose me a bit:
1) it's not very deep or insightful in its social commentary - maybe just cathartic in it's criticism? (likely made worse by the fact I'm coming to this after books that had a lot more to say)
2) it's stretching my suspension of disbelief (the kid, the Mize, the riot)
3) noir really shouldn't have to give off whiffs of patriarchal behavior to exist in contemporary or SF settings

Really love the protagonist's voice so far (and I don't mean the audiobook narrator, though this person is doing a tremendous job of it!)

Reading ebooks is really not working for me right now - switching to audio, and looking forward to see how this unfolds.

This is good so far, I just have it as an ebook and I am not using my e-reader much these days, so it's taking forever.

The author is local to me, so I'm all the more motivated to read it. I mean, not that it matters, but always nice to support your local young writers :)

I did not realize this was part of a series. Not that it needs to be, it's fairly standalone-like so far, but I am assuming it would give more context/depth + up the stakes (I mean, those are there either way, I'm just assuming they might feel even higher if I already knew well some of the characters). Either way, I am liking it!

(Picked this up after hearing the author talk at my local book festival!)

Ok, this is very unbelievable so far - there are a lot of ways the situation that is kickstarting the story could be ended, without much effort: it's a very weak conflict... Also anticipating that this is going to be somewhat anticlimactic: tone-wise, it just doesn't feel this is going to go dark, so I expect the protagonist to end up exonerated.

I think I'll just DNF it.

We're reaching the end and at this stage it's fair to say that I am resisting it by reading extremely slowly. Also, this is HEAVY and I can only take so much at once.

This is going to be the best book of my year.

If you see this and have not read it yet, just please do (read the Wikipedia page of the Marias massacre first - it's kind of assumed you are familiar with it, and the amplitude of what happened then).