chloefrizzle's Reviews (993)

This run of comics (reboot #10 from 2016, 14 issues written by Lemire) is at first bogged down by the trippy nature of not knowing what is real. If you stick with it, it becomes a powerful story about a man working with his mental illness and taking charge of his life. The art is phenomenal throughout, as is the pacing and layouting.

The mix of:
- A standard underdog hero's journey, with magic roots in East Asian folklore
- Eldritch sci-fi overlords with multiverse spanning politics
is certainly interesting. I'm satisfied with the reassurance that the series only gets better from here.

It's either way too much confusing dialogue, or no dialogue and confusing pictures. We keep getting told how CrAZy the main character is, but it feels like you could take it all out of the story with no real consequences. Not the way that you need a vital character trait to act in the story.

This book is from an elevated world where the characters are always ready to give a quippy and poetic speech of exposition. Meh, it was okay.

Starting to lose some of the magic for me. Don't like the trope of keeping secrets from your friends for their own good.

I absolutely love these books. So happy and fun. Though, the dramatic speeches did wear a bit long.

Fun showing off the strengths of our leads. And, wow, a lot of worldbuilding in this book.

Flawless pacing, engaging mystery, active characters. I am so glad that I picked up this time travel detective novel.

A video review including this book is on my Youtube channel at https://youtu.be/FyK7hcbNrvc?t=645

THINGS I LOVED:
The subtle beginnings of a romance for our heroine. Though nothing truly happens on that front, the slow development of it was engaging, and makes me excited for the next book in the series.
Absolutely flawless pacing. Always exciting without a breakneck speed. Always with something to do, a miniquest, a little mystery.
You get the sense that the book is incredibly well researched. The author has a long bibliography on her website, and she has put in more than enough time into learning the historical setting.
I get to look forward to reading more books by Kelley Armstrong! I love her writing style, and I’m excited to find more favorites in her novels.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
The dwelling on the question of, “is that how things are in this time period?” Our main character, Mallory, is often surprised by how things are in Victorian Scotland, or thinks something like, “well, of course it would be like that, because of the time period.” The fact that the book was constantly calling attention to the concept of historical accuracy took me out of the narrative.

Thanks to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

A nice resolution to the building mysteries of the series so far.