While the author ventured into pretty prescriptive and preach territory, I think it is implied and sometimes explicit that she considers this purely her own experience; something to keep in mind as she goes off the rails from time to time.

A self-help intersectional memoir type deal, I was pretty set on this being 3 stars. But I was impressed with her confronting her own call out and what she internalized from it. I actually somewhat assume this is why the book is a Reece pick, since she’s trying to be a better white feminist and the more people who can approach this subject matter from a perspective like this, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

Otherwise I liked her unapologetic nature and prose style and didn’t mind her narration. She’s just being who she is, no fucks given. I can respect that.

A fun little thriller that doesn’t pace information well enough for it to be really satisfying. For the twists, there are enough that I think planting seeds of them earlier would be a lot more satisfying than living in speculation land / Heather’s mind.

Everything builds and culminates in the past and present, which is fun, but I think had it been a bit longer and built up other characters so some of it made more sense it would have been a lot more fun of a read. It could have had a lot more teeth, but it’s still quite fun and short. It has thriller pacing so it’s not as though you’re ever bored by it. But it does feel like some reveals are diminished because they all pop off so closely you can hardly process something before some other thing drops.

The audible narration is pretty great, but the chapters don’t tell you in the drop down from whose perspective it’s from, and the narrator doesn’t change her voice for either sister, so you really need to pay attention. There’s each girl and it switches from past to present, so if you’re cooking or doing chores it can be a bit annoying. I’ve had to restart a chapter just to hear again what perspective it was.

If you’re going to consume this book I highly recommend the audiobook with a full cast. It is absolutely fantastic and fits the oral history aspect of it well.

Many people will want to know how close it is to Daisy Jones and the Six and aside from it being about two musicians and having chapters that are oral histories, that’s about it. There are multiple hooks to the book and none are specifically romantic, which I would say is the primary hook for Daisy Jones.

This is a compiled (fictional) manuscript of a story that was to be published but never was, by the daughter of a musician who was killed at a famous event. An event that propelled Opal, a black woman who comes from gospel routes, and Nev,a somewhat quintessential English ex (punk) rocker, into global stardom.

Not only are you wondering what exactly happened to this musician, but you’re also getting Opal and Nev’s story form the perspective of a journalist who is unable to write a story that isn’t biased. Decompressing a key aspect of her identity via other people who are as unreliable narrators as she is.

It’s really, really good. It just works.

Sometimes it’ll have interview notes—the oral history aspect—other times it’ll be editor notes that are basically memoirs.

Together they make up a piece about racism, family drama, the music industry, internal biases, and the memoir aspects mixed in. It takes what worked about Daisy Jones and dials it into contemporary lit and something else that defies exact categorization.

Definitely read this book!

I was worried I would miss out on something because I'm reading The City We Became and this is listed as 0.5 in the series. I needn't have worried though. This is actually the first chapter in the book anyways. Weirdly, the narrator for this short story is different than the main novel, and I prefer this narrator to that one.

It’s just so wholesome and good

I had been putting this off for a while because it didn’t seem like something I’d like. But much like Olive Kitteridge, this won me over slowly but surely. Though, this is quite a bit darker and around the same level of sad. Didn’t expect the turn it took, thought it’d be more like A Man Named Ove or something. But rather than a generational thing this is more tied to upbringing and gender performance and trauma. Liked it more for that.

2.5 rounded up

Pretty much the same thoughts as the first one, except that I expected more from this after the initial worldbuilding and character introductions were done. But yet again the aspects I find intriguing, ie: the overarching story rather than the myopic perspectives of the characters and the lore and magic system stuff, move at an even more glacial pace. Some of it is dropped at the start to bait the hook and then rationed out.

I was happy to get more time with Shan and I really like Pattern. But then the narrative brought all the characters together to the least interesting aspect of the setting for me: the castle. Assassins are as common as candy in this thing as well. You are right an assassin or are an assassin. I wish this was far more sprawling.

This combined with Kaladin being an absolute bitchy teenager for much of it so he can learn a lesson made his parts genuinely annoying to read. The culmination of the arc is only slightly satisfying and when his power is rooted in this Arthurian power fantasy reimagining with honourspren, I actually am pretty disenchanted with the magical aspects as well.

Obviously Sanderson is trying to make relatable protagonists that are rooted in past trauma that they have to process and reconcile. Both of them have very overt things they need to confront and the Spren are there as hopeful little coaches that perceive the world through a different lens. The problem is that in a normal book half this size their entire arc would be like a sub plot. It can be truncated and it could have cut back and forth where each character is much more dynamic. It feels like it’s the same drumbeat over and over and over.

The prose remain sterile and serviceable, but the entire title feels again like a YA novel. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it does feel like Sanderson has bitten off more than he can chew. The sentence structure and prose are basically commercial fiction, and therefore pretty consumable - but it’s also so long that it gets very boring to look at. The characters become pretty samey and the dialogue that works are straight up YA interactions you see in Skyward.

I appreciate that eventually this will build up to something more epic in scope—and hell, they did leave their little castle at the end—but the pacing is so, so slow on both fronts and Sanderson clearly is more interested in writing about these things at a granular level, and focuses on the things that just usually do not interest me. So, I am just pulling the ripcord on this series here and now.

A rare perfect execution of a collection of short stories. Thematically vivid, every POV further explores to great effect. Clinical prose. Unapologetic and absolutely biting in the clarity of which it realizes systemic archetypes in society.