This wasn’t a bad book at all, but I had really thought it would be a fantasy about a dead god rather than a romance book, so I was disappointed. Had some issues with the pacing, and it read a lot like a fanfic almost, but this is probably a great read for someone into the romantasy genre. I was mostly involved in the Saint of Steel and the serial killing subplot and would like to see where they go but not enough to continue the series. 

I would have been able to stomach this book more if the pacing wasn’t so abysmal. The first act ends around the 50% mark, which is when the plot actually starts, which is far too late in the book. The main characters don’t all connect until even farther in the book, which then their dynamics and relationships with each other are just sped up to an unbelievable degree to make up for lost time. (especially the romance between

Jo and Collins, which while mostly just a crush, is not something that I would be focusing on in that situation if my sister was in mortal peril.

The ending suffers from this too, and everything wraps up incredibly quickly, after a massive exposition dump that explains things that we already figured out. This also ties into the frustrating characters, as all of them start out as incredibly passive and characterized by their inaction. Granted, that is part of their character arcs, but it makes it incredibly boring to read, and they don’t make any active decisions until halfway into the book.

The prose, too, is incredibly overwritten. There are really beautiful sentences and metaphors that are just ruined because the sentence goes on and on and on. Things are explained to us in mini flashbacks and infuriatingly long inner thought trains when they could have been just shown to us on the page in, I don’t know, action and character interactions. I think about 20-30% of the words in this book could be removed and it would be better for it. 

The theme of sisters, too, is minimal at best, as we never get to actually see them together until near the end. The reunion is meant to be hard hitting, but I did not really like any of the characters, so I just sped through it. I would say the actual theme is mother/daughter relationships? Or parent/child? Guardian/ward? Which is actually completely independent from the sister’s relationship.

I appreciate the depiction of a mixed family, but ultimately if this book is about sisterhood, separating the sisters to just deal with their respective mothers doesn’t give me any reason to actually care about their sisterly bond.

I did like a few things. The Antarctica research base is an interesting setting, though I wish that it was actually tense and isolating rather than a slog. I liked some of the (rare) descriptions of body horror that we got. There was definitely a chance to use some more fucked up magic in this book, which the author didn’t take, but I liked what we got. Collins, Esther, and Nicholas are fine characters, but it sucks that Jo is incredibly boring and passive, as she is one of the sisters. Honestly, Collins and Nicholas being there kind of stole the show, which again, is supposed to be about sisters. I also liked the explicit bisexuality of Esther, that’s always nice.

It doesn’t read like a first draft, but it does read like a debut. It needed a few more drafts to get the pacing down, I think. However, I still would be interested in picking up another book by this author when she writes one, because I do see a lot of potential here.

I don’t really pick up a Weir book to get invested in the characters, I mostly pick them up to learn more about science in an interesting way, and I did have a really good time learning about gasses and vacuums! I did really like Jazz’s character, especially her relationship with her dad, though she really had “women written by a man” syndrome. The humor in the book was also not for me, though I didn’t hate it. The most interesting part was by far the problem solving for the heists and the emailing parts, as well as the father/daughter relationship. It’s an incredibly quick read for its length, so nothing bothered me too much.

Kept waiting for that condom to become plot relevant and save the day but alas. It’s just there for… humor?

Really ended up enjoying this, though I found the pacing of the middle to be a bit of a slog, and then at the end it was very fast. Was only really invested in the flashback bits up until the end, and then I was crying lol.

It reminds me of the street I grew up on, with a lot of inter-generational friendships and a more found family mentality.

I thought this was going to be a more lighthearted read than it was, and while there are many lighthearted moments, it's mostly a story focusing on grief and human connection. TWs for multiple on page suicide attempts, terminal illness, miscarriage, car crashes, and also just a weird amount of fatfobia from the author.