Aubrey Stewart’s Reviews > The Astral Library > Status Update

This whole scene with the Belle dress is utterly ridiculous. The dress sounds lovely, but the ghosts and other library things fluttering around helping Beau sew her into the dress like the mice with Cinderella's dress? Acting as though anything Beyonce has said could hold a spot on the dress alongside quotes by Marcus Aurelius and Yeats?

Alix, about to go into the book Arabian Nights: "I really hope I don't end up in some harem pants outfit. Feels just a bit culturally appropriative on a basic white girl like me --"

Seriously? Another box ticked on the checklist *eye roll*

It's like the author had a checklist while writing and ticked nearly every single box: plump FMC, old Iranian woman, non-binary(?) French person, trans CHILD, beautiful man who is both multiracial and bisexual and seemingly has no flaws, lecture on poverty, lecture on slavery, lecture on corporations, lecture on colonizers, lecture on student loans... This book could be half as long and the story would be the same.