what a beautiful reframing of such a tragic story. throughout the story I kept wondering if it was more heartbreaking for the people who know the myth of Jocasta/Oedipus and then the story of Antigone, who reads in anticipation of the horrors to come, or for those who don't and experience it new for the first time.

As usual, Haynes creates a vivid world and makes the story completely her own, allowing Jocasta to reclaim the power that has so often been taken from her over the millenia. A beautiful way to reimagine the story and to somehow make the end even more tragic than what the myth-acquainted were expecting.

I had to look back at my rating for TMC to rate this - there was a huge difference in how much I enjoyed this book (and I really liked the first one!)

The pace in this one was much better and I felt invested from the start - maybe helped by being a sequel. I found the characters much more enjoyable too as we were able to see more of their quirks and little traits.

As always, Elizabeth (and Richard) is much smarter than I am, and I was kept guessing until the very last page. I'll never be able to solve a murder like Elizabeth and Joyce can (because let's be real, Ibrahim and Ron didn't do a lot of solving in this book), but then again hopefully I'll never have to.

Very much looking to the third book and hoping it doesn't take me a year to pick up like this one did!

i'm in recovery and my weakness for emotionally stunted magical boys with golden hair (Jace and now Jacks too?!) has struck again. a ten out of five any day of the week.

I read this in just over 24 hours. Starting right where Once Upon a Broken Heart left off, you're instantly thrown back into the story, feeling oh-too-strongly everything Evangeline is feeling - willing her to stay out of trouble and save her own poor heart, but also begging for her and Jacks to admit to each other their feelings.

A slow burn enemies to actively-denying-their-feelings to almost lovers, every crumb Garber gave felt like it meant everything and more. Full of twists and turns, fleshing out the world and the lore more whilst never letting you be too comfortable on the characters' true natures, it perfectly (if frustratingly) sets up the next in the series. Be prepared to feel that soul-achingly emptiness of finishing the most gripping book and knowing you have to wait a *long* time to get the answers and the pay-off you want.

also, just because Stephanie Garber has the best dedications:
"for anyone who has ever feared they won't find true love"

Another Osman book that has outsmarted me. At this point it feels like I should stop trying to assume I know where the story is going because I never get it right.

*slight spoilers*

Four stars for me here - I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but not as much as The Man Who Died Twice. For some reason, even though most (all) of the events in this book require a stretch of the imagination, The Bullet That Missed went a bit too far with how unrealistic things started to come. Maybe it's the utter lack of consequences for any character who is relatively minor (read: not part of the Thursday Murder Club).

Also, a personal pet peeve but everyone is being paired up, and it's like the characters can't be considered whole if they're single. Yes, it's a natural part of our lives that we get into (and out of) relationships, but I've noticed a continuing pattern throughout the series that felt more forced here than in the other two books.

This was a brilliant series of essays depicting the experience of being an adoptee and growing up in a Western culture.
We so little hear from the point of the adoptee in these narratives, outside of the fictionalised 'hero' narrative detailed in this book (I doubt it'll take more than a minute for you to think of at least five adoptees/orphans in movies and books), and this book does a wonderful job of altering the perspective we have been shown our whole lives.