So this is very much a YMMV sort of situation so I’m not going to rate it. It’s - for what I can tell - written fine. I just really don’t care for books that serve as backstories. I want to be dropped into the middle of the story and be forced to figure out the backstory through little mentions and context clues and all.

And I would continue on with the series but The Bone Witch didn’t end with the start of the plot line. There’s still more backstory to come. Additionally, it ended on a note that well... let’s just say that I’m pretty confident that there is nothing for me to gain by continuing to read the series. You might. I’m sure this series ends in a way that is important to someone else. Almost certainly one of those people is Rin Chupeco.

In short. This is not the book (or the series) for me.

I was bored through most of this book and I can’t really figure out why. Gideon the Ninth has so much that I love - sarcastic characters, queer characters, mysteries in haunted houses, puzzles to be solved. Not to mention the necromancy and the way that all magic is viewed through the lens of being either life or death magic. I can’t explain it but this book didn’t click with me until pretty late in the book at one specific scene. And after that, I was all in.

So. Let’s see how Harrow the Ninth is, eh?

Good second book/middle of the trilogy. Amps up the tension, and good climax-and-slight-cliffhanger to lead us into the second book. Fills the same shoes that the first book set up. And still, I feel like I’m missing a dimension of the book, a subtext or something. But that’s probably because I am both a. dense like a sack of bricks and b. white with little knowledge of what it means to live as a black person.

Oh man oh man oh man. This series is great. I can’t wait for my hold on the last book to come through. Hooo boy.

I should mention that I’m really worried that there is no happy ending at the end of this series BUT I NEED ONE. I NEED IT.

I liked this one much better than The Bear and the Nightingale. It was tense and exciting, with twists that I should have seen coming but absolutely didn’t. The characters are great. The world is described with depth and complexity, but also in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with description. The prose is a little dry but it fits the story and the era that the story is set in so it works. I’m looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up.

Really loved this. The world is beautifully crafted, with details sprinkled throughout the book. The characters are so real, you could almost touch them. I really appreciate too that Kestrel and Arin continually save each other, and they do it in ways true to themselves. It's more political than I normally read but it was captivating all the same.

My head is kind of in a fog today (late night last night) so reading this today was kind of a mistake. But that’s ok, I think. I’ll reread this later and understand it more then.

I’m looking forward to it.

Oof. This was a harder read than I normally go for, and I enjoyed it. Not really a short story person but these were good and well crafted. Some are slightly spooky, some are weird, and some are just surreal. All very good.