Ylva’s Reviews > Black Trump > Status Update
Ylva
is 59% done
It wouldn't be WILD CARDS if they weren't all tied up in random B-plots, but this is the first book where it's not really clear to me how any of these characters are moving the main plot forward
— Jan 23, 2026 12:01PM
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Ylva’s Previous Updates
Ylva
is 95% done
Jay Ackroyd’s fakeout Jetboy self-sacrifice moment genuinely scariest 2 pages of this whole series. please don’t take the GRRM character writing & leave me here with post-Zelazny-era-cardboard-cutout Croyd, same Hartmann character beat on infinite loop, and impending Zoe/Billy Ray endgame. he can’t die yet, I still have Mark Meadows POVs to power through
— Jan 30, 2026 09:32AM
Ylva
is 82% done
Literally impossible to do an impactful reveal or plot twist in this series atp because every 10 pages or so it will be like 'Croyd's back and he's an [cue whichever writer has current custody spinning the Croyd roulette wheel] eight-legged camel now!' and the reaction of any given character is invariably just UGH he is always doing this 🙄
— Jan 28, 2026 12:40PM
Ylva
is 29% done
Being locked into the GRRM extended universe is so fun because why is his proto-Jaime PI character working to stop a global conspiracy together with a character with the same first and last name as Bloodraven's mother from the (extended) Targaryen family tree
— Jan 01, 2026 07:53AM
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rated it 2 stars
Jan 23, 2026 12:09PM
There was a beautiful half-chapter where I thought the mystery ace Jay was heading to Hong Kong for was Fortunato but alas. genuinely what is Belew going to do
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Also <3 how everything Gregg & Hannah accomplish is immediately undone by Carnifex, and vice versa. net zero The Troubles and/or Winston Churchill arc
And okay yes realistically we haven't seen the last of the nuke Zoe and Croyd spent the first half of the book smuggling out of Ukraine, but you would NOT know it from where they're at atm. the weapon of mass destruction may be relevant to the plot but it certainly was not to their personal journeys