Cat Bat’s Reviews > Splinter > Status Update

I appreciate how our main antagonist isn’t overtly beating puppies and how he operates in a more insidious manner. Helping the helpless and taking advantage of them feeling indebted to him.

Now that I am writing this out this sounds awful similar to Darrow in Red Rising but THAT WAS DIFFERENT—

Fantasy books where you escape mundane modernity in exchange for another iteration of our world will never get old.

Not sure if it’s coincidental or not but it does feel like an allegory for growing up/leaving the world of the familiar to another similar world with different rules. The grief of all that was left behind mixed with the hope for all that can yet be

I will always have a soft spot for stories where people fall into some parallel world and escape the grim mundanity of ours.

Hoda providing food and helping Esah without being asked has big ‘yea I found this stray cat, looked confused, naturally I left out a warm blanket and snacks for it.’