I remember this being one of my favorites and, yeah, still really good. 

UGH!!!!! Colonialist pro-cop bullshit. Nothing short of predictable bootlicking with a poor plot and flat characters with the depth of a tea cup. Honestly so annoyed at this whole book I cannot even come up with a more coherent response other than being MAD 

I am sad that I didn't enjoy this one because I've enjoyed Neuvel's other work before. But this one was not a good fit for me. I know it's supposed to be a dark satire but it didn't make me feel anything but icky most of the time. Maybe it's the time period or maybe it's the fact that every character frustrates the fuck out of me, or that the plot didn't really hit. But I didn't enjoy my time reading this book and worst of all I thought it was kind of boring.

I can't tell if this just wasn't for me or if it was just bad. The source material is already pretty gross but I was hoping this would, if not elevate it, at least be less problematic. I just don't think it ends up doing that. I don't really like the characters or the world building and it's a little too "instant love" for me. I wish I could find more to like about it other than enjoying the general idea behind it. Alas, I cannot.

Oh this is bad. This is so bad. The poetry was bad, the story didn't do anything, it has literally nothing interesting to say even a little bit. This is just bad. Thank god it was so short because even the length it was felt like I was being dragged across a bed of nails. I regret every word I read.

This is such a joyful book. So full of light and love for the tribes in each story and I think a really wonderful  book for everyone but in particular it is good to see a book that is about indigenous joy for indigenous children. Totally needed. 

A good and spooky book that does a great job of amping up the horror. The moments of calm between the moments of fear made the horror all the more terrifying. I think the only reason it isn't a five star is that there were a few moments when it dragged and sometimes the narration grated. Mostly though I had a really fun time reading this.

This book did a number on me. I can't decide if I liked it or not but I think mostly it just felt like an awful lot. Too much, even, considering the entire book takes about two days from start to finish for the events to complete. I wanted to say that this book moved me but I'm not sure that it did. There's a lot to it but because of the speed I'm not sure it said any of those things very well. It didn't really feel like the characters had actually changed at all from the start to the end but, again, I think that's to do with how fucking fast everything happens in it. This is a book that is ultimately about how greed begets greed and those in need end up suffering. I just wish it said it a bit better.

Ok so. The reasons to read this series are: World building, Nikolai, and the Darkling (do not look at me like that I am aware that he is the worst but I have a fucking type). Alina and Mal are incredibly boring and having to be in Alina's head is exhausting. If I didn't love Six of Crows and Nikolai so damn much I probably wouldn't be finishing this series. But the writing is really good and I guess I'm willing to put up with these characters I hate for the minor characters that I love.