The story is full of a fun retro 60s vibe as well as some great callbacks for classic science-fiction fans. But it’s mostly worthwhile for the art. Beautiful, well composed, and excellently drawn.

4.5 | I loved Agnes and I loved this book right up until the very end. This isn’t a spoiler because it’s discussed on the dust cover, but the section where they lose him is just so well written and breathtakingly painful. I cried deeply. As well as the twins birth scene. I did not however find the end all that satisfying. It felt like when the author mapped out the book she decided that needed to be the final line and how the story should end - but the story itself didn’t really take us to that conclusion. I’d hoped that we would end with Agnes’s vision of her on her deathbed, as discussed throughout the book.

3.5 | she remains one of my favorite authors but I have to admit this series (as well as the October series) is feeling to formulaic lately. With Toby I can still sort of hang but in this series the voices of Verity, Antimony, and Alice are all just too similar. Of course they have distinct hobbies and features, but the whole reverent, sarcastic, “joking about throwing themselves into danger” attitude is sort of the same book over and over. I think she’s also struggling with the balance that is a natural challenge for any long running series – over explaining the world you’ve built to try to accommodate newer readers well boring the folks who have read the entire series.

This installment is fun and I appreciated a chance to hear more about Alice, who has been mentioned in every other book and always seemed like one of the more interesting characters. I’m glad we finally got here. I don’t know that I found her sympathetic or that we were supposed to, but in all, I enjoyed it.

I read this one out loud at bedtime to the kids. To be honest I didn’t have huge expectations or hopes for it as a grown-up, but was pleasantly surprised that the plot wasn’t all that predictable and the author worked hard to put thoughtful and realistic diversity and complex characters in for a kid’s novel. Also as a sci-fi fan I can confirm there was some decent world building in here. So while still definitely a book for upper elementary aged kids, I enjoyed it.

When someone first gave me this book I wasn’t all that excited about it. I had some preconceived notions given the basic premise: rich and affluent middle aged woman travels world after divorce, meh. Eventually though I started reading. We’ll first throw out the whole rich thing. While she and her husband were quite successful, after the divorce she took very little and was only able to preserve a traveling lifestyle by living in Third World countries where she could live significantly more cheaply. This author is also not traveling high class. She stays plenty of places that, if I’m being honest with myself, I probably wouldn’t.

I also found her writing style very interesting. It was both matter-of-fact and succinct while still also having a melodic narrative. I’m infinitely curious by certain little details she decided to include while other stretches of time were painted in broad strokes.

This is a really great book and I recommend it. It’s also pretty distinctly from the 90s. Some of her travel is post 2001, but she doesn’t dive into the changes and I would love to hear her take on the difference in world travel post 9/11.