Fun, page-turner, popcorn fiction thriller. I really liked the genre subversions and the pacing. The character work was better than average. The story was cool and interesting but a bit contrived, but I feel like that’s a part of this genre. Overall really enjoyed it and will read more of Baldacci’s stuff.

Small things like uneven dialogue, like really uneven. Some interactions really sold me on character with understated moments. Other times though, the dialogue felt really weird. This, along with the plot being contrived made it a 4 star instead of 5.

Extra points for not using sexist tropes for both men and women typical of the genre, being more politically aware than most, and not relying on sex to sell the story. Plenty of women written pretty well, I thought.

Comprehensive and very well formatted. I found it easy to follow and there are action items attached to the problems diagnosed from the personal to systemic level. I don’t know what more you could ask for.

If I had to dig for something Sometimes it’s a bit wooden when it gets into stats, but without that empirical data listed where it is, such as if it were moved to an appendix or something, I think it would lose some of the weight and the formatting would suffer. The numbers are pretty pivotal, so.

Maybe the most endearing romance novel I’ve read. Good balance of relationship dynamics with subversive, intersectional characters and an inclusive, believable plot. I don’t care about the smut tbh, so wasn’t sure it would be for me, was happily surprised. Genuine, funny, and well realized. Plenty to stick around for.

DNF 20% just couldn’t get into it. The setup was interesting but it gets progressively more boring and jumps into multiple POVs, which doesn’t work well on an audiobook unless the narrator changes their voice; this one doesn’t, so it was a bit confusing. Petered out.

Gorgeous artwork and a couple interesting twists. In typical Millar fashion, the premise has a lot of promise while the execution is bizarre. World building is pretty much not a thing, as no “rules” are ever defined. Shit just happens, and some of it is interesting and cool, but it becomes arbitrary because the plotting only sets up the twist, and the rest is just hand waving.

Could easily have been better had a. Inch of the cool magical reveals been foreshadowed and anything at all had been codified in world building. It’s all dialogue so you end up with people saying stuff everyone already knows, often in a stilted manner. It’s a fun story but disappointing because it actually holds so much promise.


Spoilers!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Did anything else think a more rational and interesting twist for an escapologist to make, especially when it’s foreshadowed she was fucking around going through time, is she says she already got out of it by escaping back in time to prevent these events and then taking over, resurrecting the kid, etc etc etc. Would have made her way more competent than her having read the book because she wasn’t supposed to, super handwovey yet again.

The first artbook had more interesting content. This is all about production design and concept art, which I was excited about... until I saw most of the art was 3D renderings. Where there is the original concept art that was hand drawn, illustrating intent and ideas, it’s fantastic. Everything else fell flat for me. Not sad I got it, but as with the first one, it still feels like a mediocre effort for the specific mandate of each book.

The actual book is much better produced than the first one, though. The binding is way more sturdy and it has a dust jacket. Feels like better quality paper too, but I’m not 100% sure on that.