Oh my god this book. THIS is what I’m looking for when I’m looking for a fantasy read. The world building was so realistic and rich for such a far fetched premise, which was necessary for the whole story to work. I immediately felt attached to Vis and his story, and boy do I love reading about someone undercover infiltrating the enemy….. I loved his POV, and I felt like we were figuring things out together in a way that was both challenging and clear. Nearly PERFECTLY paced (got a lil rough and ready at the end tbh), but I was gripped, always wanting to get back to my book. DYING to read the next one. This is a new classic in my canon. Debating between 4.75 and 5, though, because

the Singularity business at the end seemed underdeveloped and like it was a plot fit for a different book? Like time travel/self-replication? It just felt like a different story to tell.

Maybe it’ll grow on me and I’ll up to a perfect 5, which it SO NEARLY IS. Already googling when the next book comes out

Horribly depressing— like My Year of Rest and Relaxation but without the satire and with more late-stage capitalist depression — and this depressing content didn’t seem to have any payoff in terms of story content or character development? I know the whole point is that she’s just being blown through her life and that’s what’s contributing to her malaise, but I still can’t see/understand her motivation for action/inaction? I did gasp when I found out the Mitsusuka stood her up after all that

Not to sound too depressed myself, but this book isn’t THAT depressing. Mostly I was just thinking about poor Sylvia Plath and how we had the same thoughts: bell jars descending and fig branches escaping us.

Beware, the electroshock therapy bits upset me

I will read anything this man writes about Darrow of Lykos. Worldbuilding just never stops being incredible, and the characters pull you in in ways you don’t even expect (though the weakest is probably Lyria who never seems to quite find her voice). The only bummer is that this book is basically one big Battle of Mercury, and the war scenes can feel tedious and like a slog to get through, though they almost always end in INCREDIBLE cliffhangers or plot twists that I have literally never been able to predict

Hello CLONE of the Jackal!!? “I shoot Alexander in the head”!!!! CASSIUS is back to rescue Darrow?!!

. I was GRIPPED!! Felt long af, but day after day all I wanted to do was get in bed and read my book. I can’t wait to see how this series ends

Kinda flop. Maybe it’s just cuz I’ve read so much abt this recently, but like YEAH of course Brexit is about divisions between old conservatives and young liberals…. Banging title tho 

Banger. Thank you miss Hobolt thank you miss deVries for creating my lit review and methods <3

I don’t think I want to read about WWI right now

The pacing on this was honestly poor, and I was disappointed that this read much more like a YA book than I think the OG ever did. Suzanne Collins you’re better than this</3 I couldn’t get a good grasp on WHY the characters did what they did and I LOVE a diabolical narrator. Instead Snow just seemed pushed around by everything in his life rather than the calculated villain he could’ve been, which would’ve been much more interesting. Also this read a bit like Social Contract Theory for dummies and there is just a much better way to do that than making a teacher literally ask Coriolanus “why do you think we need a state to control chaos?” A letdown to the rest of the series methinks, but intriguing to read about things on the other side 

Wow. Perhaps the first book I’ve read that captures the 2000s essence of the inextricable chronically online-ness and desire-to-be-gay-ness (which I caught in the 2010s but I’m sure resonates even more strongly for our millennial gays out there). Such a serious treatment of intense female friendship, of Theatre kid-ness, of the somehow self-assured-ness while being completely lost in high school. This book was perfectly hilarious — acknowledging the potentially cringey nature of god knows what gay teens get up to but treating it seriously and with the respectful gravity of how formative young queerness is. 

I wanted to like this more than I did ;( I would start vibing with the world building and the plot and then something random or ill-paced or artificial would just totally pull me out of it, whether that be a stupid plot point

(walking into the forest only to be told for the millionth time that there’s a mine field and then just turning around and going back with no value added)

Or an overly cheesy piece of dialogue between two characters that I don’t see why/how they’ve become so close??

I’m looking at you Liss and Julian

Honestly chronically under developed. I thought this would’ve been fixed by her 10 year anniversary edits (especially bc I LOVED her other book), but this just still seems immature. I wanted MORE. It could’ve given me more!!!