The consequences of the actions undertaken in the first book handled here are really great. It’s fairly nuanced. Perhaps too granular for my tastes, with the plot beats taking long enough that I noticed the length of the book quite often. Perhaps if I had clicked a bit more with the voice I wouldn’t have minded so much.

But for whatever reason, perhaps the sheer novelty of the setting and characters in the first book being foregone and the larger reveal being a kind of sci-fi staple—though handled better than most books that invoke the trope—I wasn’t quite as invested in this one.

I did really like where the larger plot went from the first one and I do feel like it met my fairly large expectations, coming from the first.

This feels really contrived, unfortunately. Which is too bad, because it’s got a juicy setup. But most of the book doesn’t pace the drama of the character in the car dynamics well, because it’s preoccupied rationing the explosive past tension between the two protagonists. The casualty for this choice is every other aspect of the story.

Then, when we do learn “what happened” it uh, kinda makes it difficult to care about any of the characters, except Addie, who feels like a stand-in for every woman who is conventionally attractive. It tries to be deeper than it us, somewhat dipping in a tow into toxic male behaviour and self doubting, but doesn’t dig down enough to get to gender performance or the root behaviours. There’s a brief bit where one or the other is self aware, but otherwise, with every other aspect of the story, it feels like it’s merely a veneer for a kind of shit relationship that presents as redeemable but, again, feels like artifice.

The prose do keep the pages turning though. It’s very consumable and always feels easier to complete than put down. I can see why people like it, but somehow The Flatshare seems far more interesting and believable.

I gave it to 24% of the audiobook. The fake southern twang the narrator uses is grating and accentuates that the prose reads like juvenilia. I did go for a while to give it a fair shot and am curious about the “ultimate puzzle” of why she got the inheritance. I’ll Google it.

This was almost a 5 star read for me. The Mitchell voice I click with so often is here, though at the start I actually wasn’t with it, and stepped back for a bit. When I returned it was on and I proceeded at normal pace. Sometimes slowly down even, I was enjoying it so much.

This is the story of a band in the 60s that never was. It collected orphans—of all sorts—both in the fiction, specifically, and abroad, ranging the Mitchell-verse/Uber novel/meta novel, etc etc. whatever you’d like to label it.

When firing on all cylinders, the fiction mixes the bands present with their past on aptly names LPs of tracks, being each character in the band, with side one and side twos. It’s an interesting remix of Mitchell’s short story novellas that comprise the chapters and stack to the larger story being told. It’s thematically on point and satisfying. It’s absolutely fantastic at characterization.

It also creates some peaks and valleys, though. There feels like fluff occurring after we establish the backstories for those pertinent members. Interestingly, the truths this tells, being the real bands and people and sometimes events, don’t quite do their job. Usually you stuff the truth in so when the lies hit the reader suspends disbelief and doesn’t notice the buttressing. But with all stories like this I find that the stuffing shows. Name dropping sounds like name dropping. It feels like an agenda is had. And here it is decidedly very rose-coloured in its glasses, imo.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun. Especially Cohen and Joplin. But stories like this are so ubiquitous it’s hard to avert your gaze from what’s to come. The ending has its inevitably, which you want…. But it does lack any surprise. Had this been truncated somewhat I’d have likely not noticed as much. But as is, we spend a lot of time on a particular person and it is the personification of the story of this time, the character that is this person, and the lesson we have probably already internalized.

However. This hits 5 stars multiple times. One of which is a particular crossover with our man De Zoet. Spoilers abound from here on out—you have been warned—trespass not :|

There is a significant revelation in this that ties into The Thousand Autumns and it is very, very cool. A huge high. There are things left uncodified in that story that left me wanting. This ALSO crossed with Number9dream and Ghostwritten, with a particular Mongolian—whom, I learned, is not Dr. Marnius, nor Xi Lo! Very cool. But also, who the F is this fellow then?? An unaffiliated atemporal being, apparently

But wait! Even more world building occurs: Enomoto has been imprinted in Ze Zoet since Thousand Autumns, across Generations. Making a case for generational memory and trauma and how that works in this world.

Then, there is also Luisa Rey’s storyline colliding with our Elf here, in spectacularly queer ways. It’s a lovely crossroads and it is not specifically mentioned that Elf’s wife at the end is her, but we assume so. Why isn’t it specified though, one wonders?

Black Swan Green, we have a Bolivar character that may be our young protagonist? I believe? If I recall correctly!

There is the Hershey connection from Bone Clocks. There’s the appearance of a wild Cloud Atlas sextet. The only thing not tied in directly is Slade House, possibly. But really, this is the first book I’ve read where you get something—sometimes Large things—out of reading all the other books and that was wicked.

As I said. So close to 5 stars. If not for some fluff and the larger Dean storyline going as it did, I think it would have been.

Love how theme and structure are unified for what is being said about war and veterans. Prose are excellent, of course. Expected no less. And interactions were great. I did not really connect with the characters due to the structure and the constant jumping around. The psychic distance is pretty far away, and I think that’s on purpose. It just makes it so it felt more academic than emotional. Its also something I think most people agree with already, knowing what we know about the effects of war on the human body and mind, just as it’s widely accepted that various administrations have perpetuated the forever war the US needs/wants for its imperialism.

I imagine this was very very subversive and mind blowing when it was published. It’s probably a testament to its publication, and works like it, that these notions are in the cultural consciousness and taken for granted. That should give the text more added weight. But I rate books as it relates to my expectations, which I think is very fair and scales with popular books, classics, or indies, etc. it allows me to rate things favourably compared to emotional reaction or other things. And this does exceed my expectations. There’s just no room in my rating system for marking something as an important text. Maybe I’ll make a text. But I think classic status applies to this for that reason anyways. Maybe my reviewers opinion on the matter has no baring regardless. The culture has spoken!

Side note: I was about to slap someone if I heard “and so it goes” or “and so on” again. 95% of the time it wasn’t needed. It became really annoying.

For every interesting thing about it I encountered a cliché. It’s predictable and feels like it takes a view of heavy plotting and making the characters fit the larger movements desired by the author, and My taste doesn’t range that way. A pet peeve is when a queer relationship is plot related as well. So, this notched up a bunch of subjective things I just plain don’t like in my fiction.

I got it on audio and the narration was alright, but it became a bit difficult to tell the characters apart, adding to the reading of it being far too plotty for my taste. Might have got on with it better in physical format, but I can tell I won’t remember much of this. The only impression it left, until I bailed at 40%, was all negative, as you can tell. No reason, then, to try in a physical format when there are so many books out there to try. I did give it two stars instead of 1, which I usually do for DNFs because it did feel like I wasn’t able to accept the novel on its own terms, and I don’t think it’s “bad”, just not right for a reader like me.

I gave it 25%. Nothing here for me.

All complaints from the first book are now moot. Save, perhaps, that more literary prose would really galaxy brain me after this. But that’s not what this is, so it would be an odd gripe.

Not having to introduce all the characters and their dynamics again really was the best foot forward for this series, apparently. The B plots in this are fan-tastic. They further characterize everyone while working into the A plot in a much better way. In fact, multiple people not dying hinge on a plot beat that would otherwise feel contrived, had the work of the B plots, including events in the first book, not come to pass. The fact that it’s regarding two men’s genuine, healthy friendship for one another ties a bow on this book.

The murder in this one also is just more interesting too, which helps a lot. But, honestly, the largest draw is the interactions between all the characters. They are so well realized they simply feel like they ‘are’.

Perhaps most surprising is the humour that worked, and helped win me over in the first book—which, If you know me, is a feat in of itself—is now actually pitch perfect. I laughed out loud a few times. I don’t remember the last time any book or show managed that. A scene in which some of the group confront a menacing mafia type and Joyce tries to raise money for a charity by selling them a friendship bracelet she made herself, as well as that ending and the person having to follow it up with threatening to kill them (somewhat flaccidly) if they were to cross him, absolutely slayed me. They’d begin, they said, with Ron, btw, which prompts Ron makes a ‘why’s it always me’ gesticulation. I suppose you have to just read it. By my god, I was cry laughing.

It’s amazing that in a murder mystery there’s so much space being made for an emphasis on healthy, non-toxic masculinity and mental health struggles and loneliness and genuinely loving interactions at every turn. All while bodies drop. Some of which beg larger questions. I am impressed and will look forward to the next book whole heartedly.

Also the narrator is quite good for the audiobook.

Edit: just finished the audiobook and that went better for me than the ebook had. There is some nice payoff for the meta level components and I liked what it had to say about Stories. But I still didn’t feel drawn to any particular character or their story. I was more into the arrangement of the stories, especially with the self referencing components became clear, than being interested in the resolution of any particular character. Mostly because their presence does feel engineered for their overarching purpose, making it feel like the only things that matter is the plot and not it’s beats.

I did bump up my rating to 3 stars (2.5 rounded up) though. Because I do think the meta aspect works. I know already that that is the only thing I’ll remember about this book, though.


The thing about this book is that I actually really like the qualities of the prose. It has wonderful diction, cadence, and specificity. But it also tends to change framing so casually and quickly that most of what I consume feels meaningless and my mind begins to skim or wander. There’s 5 points of view characters and within each, including a donkey, the point of view further shifts. Stream of consciousness Interiority to omniscient head hopping to just setting the scene before jumping next paragraph break into the head of a character again.

I began to see some interesting themes coalesce but rapidly realized I didn’t actually care about anything except the curiosity of meta level questions. It is the most uprooted, groundless novel I’ve ever consumed and it is admirable sometimes, but also just not something that jibes with my mind, apparently. I just could not focus. I even took a weeks break from it to see if it would do me well and when I came back to it, well, same problem, I’m sorry to say.

I usually give books i DNF 1 star but I actually do love the prose work and it does seem a case of just how my brain works. It seems most people get on with it well. I gave it more than a fair shot at 34% though, so I don’t feel too bad about moving on.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author and publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair review. I expected to enjoy it quite a lot with the pitch and author, but not all books are for all people, and that’s just fine.

It feels a bit weird assigning this a rating because I rate things by my expectations, which is a bit of a weird framing for a children’s book.

This is a well known and powerful story that is executed well and hopefully many children read. It’s interesting having this in the conversation with other books about residential schools, because this is necessarily framed for children. It does a great job being informative but also tries not to scare kids, I think. The schools are far worse than the experience depicted here. We’re still finding mass graves. It’s great there is a story like this that is meant to inform children. Maybe the absolute bullshit we were sold at my school about indigenous relations and Canadian history, in general, has been replaced with something approaching the truth. At least kids will be aware of that atrocity if they can have this book (and others).