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coris

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Tippy the triceratops was an imaginary friend, before his little girl lost faith in him.  Now he lives in the Stillreal, the underbelly of the imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear.  He's a detective, mostly taking on small cases, until he witnesses the violent murder of a newly-arrived idea and has to solve the mystery before there's nothing left but imaginary corpses.

This is absolutely not a kids book -- yet it is also quite sweet, and Tippy is true to his triceratops stuffie roots in some really fun ways.  It also doesn't try too hard with morals or meaning, it's just a good time in a very creative alternate world.  Lots of great side characters, of various genders and physicalities and radical acceptance throughout ... the underlying experience of being unwanted supercedes any other consideration.

Read if you'd like literally fluffy noir or stories about the imagination.  Avoid if the imaginary friend storyline from _Inside Out_ annoyed you, you hate anything even slightly super-hero, or the content warnings aren't for you.

Fascinating set-up for the world and story, and parts of the subplots are great too.  But the pacing is off, and events that should be a huge deal are largely left behind each time as we move onto the next thing.

I read it as a slice-of-life style ramble, and it worked well enough, but if you like a plot to come together or for there to be more than a glimpse of the Big Picture (politics, culture, society across different races), this isn't a great choice.

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