Elle > Recent Status Updates

I wasn't expecting the foray into mental illness, but it's pretty well done for fantasy YA. I don't _love_ that it's a god-given curse that then reoccurs for the rest of your life even after the curse is broken, but I appreciate that there's no "magic cure", and that what Ariadne's abilities let her do is mostly just therapy with some magic visuals.

Better than I expected. There's definitely a puritanical Salem feel, but combined with the hand-wavy fantasy of a duke-of-the-north Korean romantasy manhwa. Unfortunately the kindle arc has the WORST formatting errors I've ever seen (whole different chapters mixed together, repeating thru the novel), so I need to keep reaching for my tiiiiny phone to make sense of things in the netgalley app (won't load in browser).

I like that FMC and MC both have strong reasons for why they're working together & why they can't or won't stop/separate. It reminds me of the dynamic from Girl Goddess Queen, which was great, but got a bit muddied in the middle books. Even the modern slang the author uses makes sense for once because Dionysis is essentially ahead of his time, making new slang & trends to forge a place among an established pantheon.

Enjoying this a lot. I don't need BeaFitz retellings to be serious, I'm okay if they're more interested in fun & a good spin for the FMC over Serious Accuracy. I'm just thankful this seems a return to form for books 1 & 2, not the weird "I love it when an angry man controls all aspects of my life & I have no friends or life outside him" that was meant to be feminist (??? somehow ???) in book 3.

The love quadrangle feels deeply unnecessary, & both MMCs' attraction to FMC feel way too rushed. The lore is strong enough this could have been flat out fantasy instead of romantasy, if not for the insta-lust, rushed connections "I'll do it only for you" YOU MET YESTERDAY, & 1st person POVs that sound exactly the same across 3 wildly different characters. Some more effort in separating Voices would have been nice.

Prose & worldbuilding are so good that it took me a while to notice frequent inconsistencies, ranging from FMC's hair (it's braided, crowned, loose, braided, loose, all without her changing it or having a scene break) to both MMCs' attitude towards FMC (the one who wants her along was going to abandon her, the one who doesn't want her along is the only reason she's safely on the ship). LMAO now that I see it.

The premise doesn't thrill me, I'm a bit over female oppression especially burn-the-witch types. But I have a physical copy of this book I can't skip (curse you IC & BrandoSando!), so might as well read the arc and see if I'm correct that it's not for me (and needs a new home) or if I'm wrong and this might surprise me.

Loving this, speeding through it. I'm not sure it feels like I'm at the 50% mark, though? But it's a bit hard to judge when it's a Rise-Of-The-Young-Hero story through the eyes of the Mentor, so the usual framework and story beats don't quite apply.

... I could use a 'cast of characters' appendix (or preface) to keep track of all the students and teachers (and not confuse the two). But so far my only complaint.

First chapter is so good? Apparently I'm here for sarcasm and bleak comedy about teachers (and magic).

My god, I haven't read Tanya Huff in... a decade? Two decades? I used to love her urban fantasies. I'm curious how I'll go with this one, after so long and with this being a comedy as well (which I haven't seen from her before). But I'm intrigued by the premise.

The political & conspiracy sections of the novel are its best parts, but the gaps between them are too large. It doesn't help that Locusta hasn't been involved in any of it since she arrived in Rome & decided to poison her first owner. All agency disappeared after that, and at nearly 80% she still doesn't seem to have any apart from hiding & having sexcapades. If this is meant to be feminist, it missed the mark.

If you can't write a good sex scene (or one that stays in the established setting), just fade to black. This felt like an emotionless play-by-play of a generic porno. We have "so damn sexy" co-existing with "gods" (to keep it Roman), incorrect info about female lubrication, & the eternal misogynistic assumption that all women need thrusting penetration to climax. It felt so out of place against the rest of the book.

I ship the girls, but their reasons for loving each other ring very false. Livia has been sheltered her entire life, due to her elderly cousin's (justified) fears. Lo says all this nice stuff about how Livia is too good for the world, she lives life as it's meant to be lived, and I'm just ??? When? Where? She lives in constant fear & oppression, under a false mask to get by. Where is this capital-L "Life" Lo admires?

This starts off so fast compared to the prequels, I love it. Romeo & Juliet warring families threatening a civil war? Love it. Ana solving the case within a few chapters & only needing proof to support her theories? ...Not so much. Feels very fast, & like the rest of the novel will be filler preventing her from getting the necessary evidence. I'm HOPING she'll be proven wrong instead & the mystery is still unknown.

LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO~! 🎉

It's hard to keep reading a book you know will be lucky to rate above 2 stars when A Trade of Blood arrived yesterday and is waiting to be the next read. RJB has yet to fail me, with 4 and 4.5 star ratings from me. But no, I refuse to let myself skip ahead mid-book if it's not a proper DNF >_< (and so far it's not).

The relationship growth between Locusta & Livia was well-done, if a little too reliant on forced proximity rather than actual development. Locusta is shocked when Livia calls them friends, & honestly so was I because I hadn't seen them reach a stage of friendship. I had read it as tolerance of forced proximity that Livia didn't know the reason for (as it was arranged by her cousin). It's not bad, but I wanted more.

Story picks up to almost be an enjoyable fluff read, but every (heavy-handed) FF7 reference breaks immersion, especially when it makes no sense for the world or feels like the author is desperate for you to catch the reference. (Does she want to be sued? So confusing.) For example, the Hojo equivalent drops a syringe that he brought to a PR shareholder meeting just so everyone knows THIS IS EVIL DR HOJO wink wink :/

After the random modern slang, we had a ch or 2 of Locusta losing her intelligence & being a whiny brat, which she's never been before. It was truly odd. And then back to our regularly scheduled broadcast, ignore that other channel in the middle there. Anyway, the stuff after entering Rome is great so far, a return to form from the great start. But I'm worried after that random OOC-ness that it will happen again.

The god of death just said "aw" and "sure" and it has thrown me completely out of the story. Nowhere else has had such modern terms, why suddenly here in the middle of a serious, horrifying scene?

Such a blatant rip-off of FF7, I'm surprised Square-Enix USA didn't come for it. We literally start with Bombing Mission. Hilariously, changes from FF7 make things worse, eg. 'Jessie' is bombing 'Shinra' to get rich up & move up to the 'Plate' not to save the planet; mission is to steal a map but they still bomb the place after just because the game did. Usual YA-Asian problem of Telling Not Showing, no emotion.

"I cannot truly explain it, the same way a mother cannot explain the way it feels to have a baby kick from within their womb to a man who will never feels the sensation."
-- I dislike this, not only because it's lazy to not explain a major thing to readers, but it's gender binarism & gender essentialism: all women WILL become mothers, no men will ever be pregnant, & ALL women have the exact same shared experiences.

I'm really vibing with the writing style. The mix of Telling and Showing is perfection, exactly how they're meant to be used. And the way the author ends chapters is so impactful each time. My god I hope this quality keeps up, and that the author is as good with plot & character arcs as she is with her prose & voice.

History lectures in class could absolutely have been cut down. Most of the worldbuilding is better hidden within character interactions & histories, & physical exploration, so the spoken info-dump really stands out. Enjoying that Misaki & Mamoru have plenty of friends & family, makes them feel more fleshed out than the lone wolves of BOBH.

OOOH, what a great prologue! The hook, the worldbuilding, the motivations & goal (and hesitation) all so well established in such a short period of time! Tell me more, Emily Dexter :3c

On one hand, I understand the pain & indignity of being mis-gendered. On the other, I don't understand why the author says Piao is awful for enforcing a gender binary and no can be trans or non-binary, but once you move to Opera you are forced to be non-binary & a They/Them & this is a wonderful freedom. Excuuz? Both places are denying personal choice/identity & enforcing their beliefs on all citizens. You both suck.

Xilian finally talking to Lang after letting a stranger distract her & force her to watch two different long performances/contests. Over 15% after arriving at Lang's place, finally Lang. (The slowed pacing REALLY kills any sense of urgency about the assassination plot, jfc.)

The sudden jump from political & climate-change issues to livestream battles & anti-AI sentiment is jarring. I don't disagree with the anti-AI stance, but I've spent almost 50% being told to care about politics & climate-change / environmental disasters. It's way too late to drop new major issues--and my god do I not care about livestream dance battles, we're trying to stop an assassination!

So apparently the random x's in words are meant to be a dialect shift. I find linguistic shifts and drifts fascinating IRL but there's just no way x's can start replacing random vowels and random S's and R's - it makes most words unpronounceable. Theatex for theatre is fine, but forwardx? Coloxr instead of colour? Honoxr? No idea what an audiobook is going to do with No Face's chapters ("just die I guess" meme here).