God that was so hard to read. It doesn't matter how many times I hear it; I have a visceral reaction to hearing the N word and obviously it's used in abundance here.

It's so difficult to believe that a person could look at another person and think of them as not human. I will never fucking understand how anyone can think that way. 

It was a good story; James was an amazing character and I just wanted him to succeed at whatever he attempted to do. I don't really remember much about Huckleberry Finn so I'm not sure if it's similar to that original story or not. It feels wrong to say I 'enjoyed' listening to this, because of the content, but it was a good (even if difficult) read.

I just didn't care for the writing in this.

I decided to read this because of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and the overview that Hans gives of it during his romance scene with Henry. The one that he told was perhaps a more romanticized version as it doesn't go into Guinevere's involvement at all. It was more a story of obsessive love that Galehaut had for Lancelot and a similar sort of obsession that Lancelot held for Guinevere. 

While Lancelot did love Galehaut, it was definitely a lesser love than what he had for Guinevere. And yet Galehaut continued to do all he could for Lancelot to be with Guinevere, despite how sad that it made him and Lancelot seemed physically unable to stop himself from being so enamoured by the queen.

It's a tragic story, for sure, and while Hans mentions the last of it being so tragic, it makes me wonder if the reason he even thought of it was because of his arranged marriage. The three of them turning in circles, trying to love one another but none of them being able to fully commit. It's really fucking sad and makes me wonder if that motif will continue on into the next game. 

Time will tell.

Yikes. The amount of miscommunication in this was uncomfortable and I thought maybe I would get over it but then the

surprise pregnancy

took its place. I liked the characters, but a lot of heavy tropes that I dislike ruined it.

I understand what this novel is trying to do, but I feel like the heavy-handedness of it is so overwhelming that it's just not interesting to read. I was hoping for better ways to learn about the world and the dragon lore, but it feels like we're just one of the students reading a text book on the matter rather than finding out organically.