Meh, this wasn't for me. But I did enjoy reading fan theories on reddit after! One interesting theory: she's a painting, being held in a storage facility, handled with gloves and taken out when docents come to research. 

This is not the kind of book I'd usually gravitate towards. When I picked it up (my library has a section called Lucky Day, where popular books are set out on a first-come-first-serve basis, no holds, no renewals) I planned on not liking it (but the Lucky Day made it risk free). It was on so many Best of 2022 lists, I felt like I got the vibe of the book and wouldn't like it. I knew it was about kids at school with magical powers and my spidey-senses screamed HARRY POTTER which is also not the kind of book I'd seek out (pre- or post- JK scandals).

Honestly, though, this book WAS for me! I love language. I love French, I wish I knew Latin, I wanted my first tattoo to be in Greek and the artist talked me out of it), I could see myself in a parallel universe at the Royal Institute of Translation. I loved all the author's footnotes. The story moved along and the characters developed somewhat. I found myself exasperated with the length (I feel like from like 75-90% could have been deleted or vastly condensed) but at the conclusion of the story, I was very invested with Robin's story and I cried. During the 'why didn't they delete this?' section, I kept trying to predict the ending and preparing myself to say, 'I KNEW I wouldn't like this,' but at the end, I felt  resolution and sadness, I understood what had happened, and why it had to happen that way. I was somehow satisfied! I think by virtue of it being fantasy, I thought it would be cheesy, full of plot holes or deus ex machina without properly solving the problem at hand, or dreadfully boring. I was wrong on all these counts. It wasn't as one-dimensional as I'd imagine HP to be, there were colonialism questions, history of English-deigned 'lesser' countries, what England gets from APAC, the middle east, the Caribbean, the institutionalized racism, higher education and the problems with making it too exclusive, woven together using so much language and classic world literature. I didn't think I was attached to the characters until the story starting wending them away from me. 

I know this writer wrote The Poppy Wars and based on this, I'd read that too. Also in the acknowledgements, she mentions a cafe in Oxford where the book was largely composed that I now want to visit. She appears to have studied languages (Chinese) so I felt like her world-building was really comprehensive and atmospheric. 

I watched a series of YouTube videos recently about outlining a novel and as I watched,  I wondered and worried,  'Will this take the joy out of reading,  being along for the thrill of the story, naively, without seeing how the sausage is made?' and this is the first book I've finished since then.  The video (& the storyboarding app I found after, bibisco) focused on the journey the main character must take.  One video suggests outlining the ending first, then going back to the beginning because you'll be able to map the journey from beginning to end if you know where the character will end.  I really enjoyed this novel,  looking at where our MC ends, to where she starts.  A novel doesn't have to be something as profound as starting at 1 and efflorescing to 10. I would say our heroine starts at a 5 and grows slightly to a 6. It's nothing seismic or overwhelming but it doesn't mean there's not enough here to study or follow along the ride.  Therapy isn't a straight line up and grief is complicated and depends on how you were raised.  I liked this character study of a detached attachment style.  I don't see myself carrying this story/character with me for years, it was OK. I love her writing; this was an OK novel. 

Gruuuuuuuuesome. I didn't have any idea where this was going and I went along for the ride. I read this in 2 bus rides to and from work, and then was so engrossed I had to sit on the couch and finish the last 50 pages. I'm also reading The Year of Rest and Relaxation and I really like the way Moshfegh writes. I'd read anything she wrote. 

Liked the writing and narration. The topics stayed somewhat surface level. The end turned into a textbook or philosophical exercise. It was like the first 3/4 was saying, "Ewwww isn't this wild?" and the last 1/4 was about the future of the funeral industry and how we do/should/could view mortality. It was ok. I also added a few trigger warnings to larger bodies. I thought the scene felt a little (more accurately "moderately") judgey/predatory. 

I liked Saturday better

Twisty