Because I have the brain of a very porous sieve, I have entirely forgotten that these books are set in the same world as sins of the cities and that Sukey (Susan) is in it and that I obviously want to know more about what everyone is up to 20 years later.
I don't know why I keep avoiding next books in series and then going "why didn't I read this sooner?"
Everyone needs a besetting sin.

 This was adorable and short stories are too short 

Nope, still don't like love triangles in YA. I don't like them out of YA either, but specifically the way that the choice functions within the structure of the YA bildungsroman annoys me. (Wait, is this ALSO David Copperfield's fault? Friggin Dickens)

Which, like, fine. old woman yelling at books aimed at a different demographic. The mythology was stunning, though.

I loved the second half of this book. The mix of theory and practice, the way she draws together so many strands of thinking effortlessly, the way that even when I don't share her experiences, I find ways that mine resonate and understand hers better.

And there were times in the first half of the book when I felt that too, especially when she spoke about her family and went a little more into memoir mode. And then there were times when she talked about the experience of mothering and the ways she approached it and it was a very complicated set of reactions that I both wanted to respond to and sometimes argue with and try to figure out what was setting me off. I'm still not sure. (#AutismIsAPainSometimes)

The second half, though. So good. And the part where she talks about her body and knowing she couldn't restrict her way into conventional beauty standards and so deciding to be interesting instead of beautiful.

In good news for fans of Allie Therin, a small man with occult powers that are dangerous for him but who can't help running his mouth off is hanging out with a taller and more physically powerful man whose job is to keep him out of trouble and from causing it some what unsuccessfully.
The genre and worldbuilding of this book, however, are definitely different and so is the pace. I still delighted in it, even if I'm bristling at the slowness of the burn.
SO SLOW.

I think the only reason this is four and not five stars is that some of what she says is familiar to those of us  who frequent the RSS feed of Maintenance Phase.
It's still a wonderful book filled mostly with information that people who don't want to hear it won't listen to, but that will hopefully empower those who do care—about themselves and others—to shut down antifat bias and give it precisely the credence it deserves.
It was weird to listen to Gordon talk without Hobbes responding, which is the flipside of her first book, where she didn't read it and I kept thinking "this sounds a lot like Aubrey Gordon, I wonder if she's heard of this...oh".

Nothing supernatural or extremely weird happened in this one so is it even a Harper Fox?

I have...feelings about the topics that this book uses as plot points, but I'm not entirely in the mood to unpack them. It's interesting what Fox thinks of as worth interrogating (relationships between students and professors) and what she doesn't (a more complex analysis of character's weight).

I did have more of a sense of how much hurt/comfort I was getting myself into with this one. Gotta set the expectations, you know.
I don't have a sensible review for this - it was sweet and also fish sex and there's this thing that happens where, in a non-romance-novella this would be a critique of how small towns hurt their children and tourist towns can destroy them and it's not so much the critique (unless you take supernatural fish rescue as an example of "the only thing that can fix this is a miracle) as a setting. Idk, there isn't precisely a there there, but there could be one.

So I think of Romance as comforting and I think of Fox as a romance writer and then I forget that Fox does not write comforting romances.
Which I should have remembered from the death count in the last book of hers that I'd read. 
And yet. Which isn't to say it wasn't good. Just not...comforting. There was a lot of both the army and academia being awful (which, fair) and one of the most nuanced looks at a relationship between an older and younger man that both explores why this dynamic works so well and also some of the pitfalls.
This book also does NOT pull any punches in its depiction of death by suicide and while there are aspects of the depiction that were imperfect (much of which is complicated by the exigencies of the plot), the one thing it does super well is communicate how devastating it is.
I was disappointed at the absence of priests who don't believe in god in this one, though the number of saints and angels evoked does rather help.
I have complicated feelings about this book, but also I read the audiobook in a day so there's that. 

This is the second time I've tried to read this book. The first time, for reasons I ENTIRELY cannot explain, was as my "read 5 pages during my kid's bath" book and it just did not work.
Listening to it during my kids' baths, however, was fine. This was definitely an auditory book for me; I needed to not get stuck in the nitty gritty because, well, every part of this book is about the tinyness, Microbes are extremely cool and Yong, as anyone who has even been attempting to follow COVID knows, is excellent at what he does and how he is able to show possibility without overreach. He's one of the best science writers out there and I'm so glad I found the way to read this book that worked with my brain.
Turns out microbes are AWESOME.