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essjay's Reviews (635)
The art and the story were really cute, but I had a hard time getting past the stilted dialogue and the rushed pacing.
Oh gosh, so many questions and suspicions answered finally (and probably not the one most people are thinking of). Genuinely loved this so much, just wish there had been a little more with our old friends.
I loved seeing so many different iterations of queer, spicybrained people in a hopeful future, but the pacing felt off - there was a lot of wheel-spinning for the first two thirds of the book, then everything happened at once (and I had to go back a few pages at one point to make sure I hadn't missed a crucial part of the plan. I hadn't) and...I don't know what else exactly it was that didn't entirely work for me. It kind of felt like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be cozy or political, tried to be both and as a result kind of ended up being neither. I really wanted it to lean into one or the other. Also, I called the sketchy people as soon as they were introduced, but that may be bc I read a whole fuck of a lot of related stories.
I thought there was no way any of the other novellas could top the Ordeal story of Roshaun ke Nelaid am Seriv am Teliuyve am Meseph am Veliz am Teriaunst am det Nuiiliat am Det Wellakhit. And then I got to Mamvish's story.
Then I thought there was no way the next novella could top the Ordeal story of Mamvish fsh Wimsih.
And I was right.
It's not that the Ordeal story of Ronan Nolan Jr wasn't great, bc it WAS, but Mamvish stole the fucking show.
Utterly delightful.
Then I thought there was no way the next novella could top the Ordeal story of Mamvish fsh Wimsih.
And I was right.
It's not that the Ordeal story of Ronan Nolan Jr wasn't great, bc it WAS, but Mamvish stole the fucking show.
Utterly delightful.
I genuinely don't even know what to say about this except that I loved it so much.
fast-paced
Okay, so maybe it’s not necessarily that I don’t like romance novels like I thought, bc when they’re paired with the absurdity of monsters, they’re much more palatable.
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You know how when you're not enjoying something, small things will fill you with rage? The only reason I finished this book was to see if anyone ever took the husky (a notoriously active breed) for a walk. No one did. The dog slept. The dog went for car rides. The dog slept some more. The dog was taken home, specifically to avoid taking him on a walk. And the only reason I cared so much was bc I thought SURELY the killer couldn't be who I thought it was, and maybe it would end up being someone truly subversive, but no. And then the love interest was confirmed at the end to be one that is an instaquit for me, so I will not be reading any more of this series. Curse my love for pink book covers.
and you looked at me strange and said. A good house
can carry anguish, and this is how I think of bodies now too.
I genuinely do not know how to rate this, and will probably come back multiple times to adjust it.
A friend and I were recently talking about how good satire is frequently indeterminable from that which it's satirizing, and that's part of my problem with (and also what I liked about) this book. The first half took me over a week to read bc it was FINE while I was reading, but I had no urge to pick it up when I wasn't, and then I read the last 150 pages almost in one sitting.
A friend and I were recently talking about how good satire is frequently indeterminable from that which it's satirizing, and that's part of my problem with (and also what I liked about) this book. The first half took me over a week to read bc it was FINE while I was reading, but I had no urge to pick it up when I wasn't, and then I read the last 150 pages almost in one sitting.