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tshepiso's Reviews (740)
JLA Year One was a mixed bag. I mainly read this for Black Canary and as a super fan this book didn't have much to offer on that front. From making the og Black Canary a cheater for some reason (justice for Dinah and Larry) to to Dinah's incredibly strange and off putting crush on Barry Allen and school girl naive, the book didn't didn't characterize either Dinah in a way I appreciated.
As a story about the forming of the JLA however Year One it was a solid outing. Waid established the team dynamics fairly well and did characters like the Flash, Martian Manhunter and (surprisingly enough) Aquaman justice. I especially appreciated the choice to put Batman and Superman off the the side for this adventure to let less prominent heros shine.
I also loved the cameos from other DC super teams like the Blackhawks, Doom Patrol and JSA. It felt like a genuine passing on of the torch and established the JLA as the premiere superhero team in the universe for a reason
I would say most people would probably really like JLA Year One. Unfortunately I'm very particular about Black Canary so this one was a minor disappointment. One day I'll find a Mark Waid bokk I like without asterisks.
As a story about the forming of the JLA however Year One it was a solid outing. Waid established the team dynamics fairly well and did characters like the Flash, Martian Manhunter and (surprisingly enough) Aquaman justice. I especially appreciated the choice to put Batman and Superman off the the side for this adventure to let less prominent heros shine.
I also loved the cameos from other DC super teams like the Blackhawks, Doom Patrol and JSA. It felt like a genuine passing on of the torch and established the JLA as the premiere superhero team in the universe for a reason
I would say most people would probably really like JLA Year One. Unfortunately I'm very particular about Black Canary so this one was a minor disappointment. One day I'll find a Mark Waid bokk I like without asterisks.
I'll be honest it took me a while to fully get into All Boys Aren't Blue. This isn't necessarily the fault of the memoir, (it's clearly targeted a younger demographic than me) but its didactic nature made it harder to connect to. As someone who has engaged with writing about queerness, race, intersectionality, consent and other adjacent topics as a teaching tool the book didn't have much new to inform me about.
However, I cannot deny George M. Johnson's gift for storytelling. The parts of the memoir that hooked me the most deeply were the personal anecdotes Johnson told about his life growing up and his family. Johnson has a deep love for the community that reared him and I felt it powerfully throughout the memoir. He also navigates messy and complicated nature of growing up as a queer black boy with grace and wisdom.
While All Boys Aren't Blue wasn't for me I'm sure it will resonate for the teens it was written for and I hope to read more of Johnson's writing in the future.
However, I cannot deny George M. Johnson's gift for storytelling. The parts of the memoir that hooked me the most deeply were the personal anecdotes Johnson told about his life growing up and his family. Johnson has a deep love for the community that reared him and I felt it powerfully throughout the memoir. He also navigates messy and complicated nature of growing up as a queer black boy with grace and wisdom.
While All Boys Aren't Blue wasn't for me I'm sure it will resonate for the teens it was written for and I hope to read more of Johnson's writing in the future.
I hate to like a Chuck Dixon book but I have to admit Batgirl: Year One was a great read. One of the most fascinating things about this comic to me was its relationship to Barbara's identity as a female superhero. As someone who reads a fair amount of older comics I was poised to pick up on how quintessentially early 2000s Dixon and Beatty's engagement with gender was here. In some ways the gender of it all felt a tad juvenile (Babs and Dicks dynamic had a slightly tedious "girls rule; boys drool tinge). I was also exasperated by Batman's place as the condescending patriarchal figure who's never wrong.
But despite my (very mild) annoyances Batgirl: Year One's great character writing spoke for itself. Beatty and Dixon lovingly crafted Barbara here. I loved her determination, how rough around the edges she was and her relentless passion for the job. The art was stunning crisp and simple (slightly reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke) and elevated the story from good to great. Overall Batgirl: Year One has probably made its way to one of my favourite comics of the year.
But despite my (very mild) annoyances Batgirl: Year One's great character writing spoke for itself. Beatty and Dixon lovingly crafted Barbara here. I loved her determination, how rough around the edges she was and her relentless passion for the job. The art was stunning crisp and simple (slightly reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke) and elevated the story from good to great. Overall Batgirl: Year One has probably made its way to one of my favourite comics of the year.
In Batgirl: Redemption Adam Beechen redeems his awful derailing of Cassandra Cain in robin Wanted. Some of the retcons were incredibly clunky, like the explanation of Cass's incredibly proficient language use. However Cass's journey overall in this story was compelling. Seeing Cass fight for her own redemption as she walks the narrow line between her desire for vengeance and her morals was deeply compelling. Honestly it made me wish for a less awful version of Robin: Wanted.
I have more mixed feelings about her integration into the batfamily. On the one hand it's nice to see her fully integrated and interacting with characters like Alfred and I was deeply moved by her final moments with Bruce. On the other I do long for the independent identity she was crafting in Bludhaven. There's something about her living in the mansion that de-ages her from an independent young adult to a teen support character which I think Cass is bigger than.
While I don't think I'll ever forget the sheer awful that was Robin: Wanted I do appreciate these steps to restoring Cass as a character.
Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 8
Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, Ken Landgraf, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jo Duffy, Brent Anderson, Scott Edelman, Chris Claremont
There were so many fun stories in Uncanny X-Men Vol. 8 the most significant being the much acclaimed Brood Saga. This arc is a favourite for so many X-Men fans and I can see why. The story is basically the X-Men do Alien and I think Claremont is particularly great at capturing the psychological terror and visceral violation of aliens implanting their eggs in you and taking over your body.
Everyone had solid moments throughout especially as they meditated on the weight of their impending deaths but I especially loved Storm and Carol Danvers here. Both left me awestruck as Claremont played with letting their powers (newfound for Carol) reach magnificently cosmic scale and that power was excellently rendered by Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, and Bob Wiacek.
Outside of the Brood Saga this volume includes a range of pretty fun stories. We see Illyana permanently aged up after time manipulation misadventures with sorcerer Belasco. The fallout of that story, especially the anguish of that lost time between Illyana and Colossus, was particularly heartbreaking.
We also flash back to Xavier's first meeting with Magneto. To be honest elements of this story are very uncomfortable, from the casual islamophobia or to Xavier's relationship with Gabrielle. But even still I can't lie it had its moments. Charles and Magneto's friendship feels so deep and real in this issue. And the point of the story, the power of love helping you persevere, is beautifully told.
I also loved the return of Dracula as we dive back in to paranormal melodrama. Storm's link to the vampire always leads to fun gothic stories and I love how it was done here. Wolverine had a particularly poignant moment toward the end of the story. A recurring theme in this volume was Logan seeing himself as the monster of the X-Men whose role is doing the morally ambiguous things the other X-Men couldn't and Storm seeing that in him and standing beside him had my whole heart.
Overall this volume was great and highlighted exactly what I love about the this series the sheer versatility of Claremont storytelling within the superhero niche.
Everyone had solid moments throughout especially as they meditated on the weight of their impending deaths but I especially loved Storm and Carol Danvers here. Both left me awestruck as Claremont played with letting their powers (newfound for Carol) reach magnificently cosmic scale and that power was excellently rendered by Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, and Bob Wiacek.
Outside of the Brood Saga this volume includes a range of pretty fun stories. We see Illyana permanently aged up after time manipulation misadventures with sorcerer Belasco. The fallout of that story, especially the anguish of that lost time between Illyana and Colossus, was particularly heartbreaking.
We also flash back to Xavier's first meeting with Magneto. To be honest elements of this story are very uncomfortable, from the casual islamophobia or to Xavier's relationship with Gabrielle. But even still I can't lie it had its moments. Charles and Magneto's friendship feels so deep and real in this issue. And the point of the story, the power of love helping you persevere, is beautifully told.
I also loved the return of Dracula as we dive back in to paranormal melodrama. Storm's link to the vampire always leads to fun gothic stories and I love how it was done here. Wolverine had a particularly poignant moment toward the end of the story. A recurring theme in this volume was Logan seeing himself as the monster of the X-Men whose role is doing the morally ambiguous things the other X-Men couldn't and Storm seeing that in him and standing beside him had my whole heart.
Overall this volume was great and highlighted exactly what I love about the this series the sheer versatility of Claremont storytelling within the superhero niche.
Part cultural criticism, part self-insert fanfiction, part memoir Fan Fiction: A Satire is probably one of the strangest things I've ever read formalistically. But Tavi Gevinson's writing in all three modes is so incisive, piercing and honest I couldn't help but be compelled by it.
I'm still wrapping my mind around how Gevinson moves between being self-aware and sincere, cynical and unabashedly joyful, pointedly critical and loving. She holds the dichotomy of what it can mean to love an artist this much so well.
But so much of my love of this work comes from being deeply seen by it. Gevinson perfectly captures what it feels like to be consumed by Taylor Swift's music and the parasocial obsession that can spring from that. I probably wouldn't recommend this zine to people who aren't at least familiar with Taylor Swift's music, not only because this work is indulgently referential but because I'm not sure what someone who hasn't experienced at least a fraction of the collective madness of being Swiftie would get out of it.
I'm still wrapping my mind around how Gevinson moves between being self-aware and sincere, cynical and unabashedly joyful, pointedly critical and loving. She holds the dichotomy of what it can mean to love an artist this much so well.
But so much of my love of this work comes from being deeply seen by it. Gevinson perfectly captures what it feels like to be consumed by Taylor Swift's music and the parasocial obsession that can spring from that. I probably wouldn't recommend this zine to people who aren't at least familiar with Taylor Swift's music, not only because this work is indulgently referential but because I'm not sure what someone who hasn't experienced at least a fraction of the collective madness of being Swiftie would get out of it.
The Vampire Lestat like its predecessor was an odyssey to read, but, like Interview, pushing through the painfully boring sections was worth it. The story is the memoir the antagonist of Interview with the Vampire, Lestat de Lioncourt. We see him from his days as the neglected and abused youngest son of a provincial aristocrat to his rebirth as a gentleman vampire and eventually as a worldwide sensation mega rockstar.
Lestat throughout is an incredibly entertaining narrator. He has these deep emotional bonds with the people around him and a vibrancy that pushes every emotion to the forefront in a way that comes beautifully off the page. Anne Rice shines in mining his complex relationships throughout the novel. The first and most heartbreaking is Lestat's first love, bourgeois violinist Nicolas de Lenfent. Part one of the book, Lelio Rising, centres on their relationship and Rice craft this achingly beautiful intimacy between the two and the inevitable heartbreaking end was shattering to read.
My favourite relationship in this book by far was Lestat's relationship with his mother. Gabrielle de Lioncourt is one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read about. Rice mastefully articulates the prison motherhood and womanhood is for Gabrielle with such nuance and specificity. The exploration of Gabrielle's relationship to womanhood is stunning. Anne Rice pours put pure empathy for this woman who is unambiguously a bad mother. She's a woman for whom nurturing doesn't come naturally so the fact that's she's allowed to be so flawed yet still gets the self actualization and freedom of becoming a vampire is so revolutionary even decades after this book's publication.
Another delightful character in TVL was Armand. The the mysterious soulful murderous vampire gets a significant chunk of the story and through Lestat's eyes comes off more as pathetic and cultish than in Louis gaze. Yet, despite Lestat's destain, I couldn't help but continue to delight in his presence. We get an in depth look into Armand's backstory which is incredibly revealing of his nature. While his cloying vying for Lestat's love and company is occasionally painfully cringe (the second hand embarrassment of Part 4 almost killed me) there was something so affecting in seeing his desperation to be loved and wanted.
Unfortunately after the halfway point TVL really loses steam. While I can see some appreciating the expansion of vampire lore I found the detailed backstories of Those Who Must be Kept dull and largely irrelevant to the story and the details of Marius backstory while occasionally interesting also felt deeply out of place in what is supposed to be Lestat's memoir. These additions really made the back half of the story a punishing drag. However, Rice manages to end the book strongly with Lestat's explosive first concert and the cliffhanger ending definitely motivated me to get to The Queen of the Damned quickly
Lestat throughout is an incredibly entertaining narrator. He has these deep emotional bonds with the people around him and a vibrancy that pushes every emotion to the forefront in a way that comes beautifully off the page. Anne Rice shines in mining his complex relationships throughout the novel. The first and most heartbreaking is Lestat's first love, bourgeois violinist Nicolas de Lenfent. Part one of the book, Lelio Rising, centres on their relationship and Rice craft this achingly beautiful intimacy between the two and the inevitable heartbreaking end was shattering to read.
My favourite relationship in this book by far was Lestat's relationship with his mother. Gabrielle de Lioncourt is one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read about. Rice mastefully articulates the prison motherhood and womanhood is for Gabrielle with such nuance and specificity. The exploration of Gabrielle's relationship to womanhood is stunning. Anne Rice pours put pure empathy for this woman who is unambiguously a bad mother. She's a woman for whom nurturing doesn't come naturally so the fact that's she's allowed to be so flawed yet still gets the self actualization and freedom of becoming a vampire is so revolutionary even decades after this book's publication.
Another delightful character in TVL was Armand. The the mysterious soulful murderous vampire gets a significant chunk of the story and through Lestat's eyes comes off more as pathetic and cultish than in Louis gaze. Yet, despite Lestat's destain, I couldn't help but continue to delight in his presence. We get an in depth look into Armand's backstory which is incredibly revealing of his nature. While his cloying vying for Lestat's love and company is occasionally painfully cringe (the second hand embarrassment of Part 4 almost killed me) there was something so affecting in seeing his desperation to be loved and wanted.
Unfortunately after the halfway point TVL really loses steam. While I can see some appreciating the expansion of vampire lore I found the detailed backstories of Those Who Must be Kept dull and largely irrelevant to the story and the details of Marius backstory while occasionally interesting also felt deeply out of place in what is supposed to be Lestat's memoir. These additions really made the back half of the story a punishing drag. However, Rice manages to end the book strongly with Lestat's explosive first concert and the cliffhanger ending definitely motivated me to get to The Queen of the Damned quickly
The first problem with Robin: Wanted is its framing. The decision to tell a story about Batgirl going rogue in a four issue arc in a Robin book is baffling. It indicates that DC editorial saw Cass as a secondary character that could be radically changed and discarded in a side book rather than a significant character in her own right whose relationship with the wider bat-family would require in-depth exploration if she went so far off the rails. And because the story is from Tim's perspective we lack crucial pieces of information about why Cass making choices that could better contextualize her switch. Further we don't see how other characters she was much closer to than Tim, like Batman and Oracle who became her pseudo-parental figures to Cass, respond to her turn. All of this makes the story feel half written and poorly conceptualized but none of the blame there lies with Adam Beechen who had no control over these aspects of the story.
The bigger problem with Wanted was how poorly executed the concept was. I think my most controversial take might be that there's a version of Wanted that could have worked. The question of what set of circumstances could lead Cass to killing again is interesting. And aspects of the answer provided in this story could have been told well. But unfortunately pretty much everything about how they chose to tell it was uncompelling at best and utterly nonsensical at worst.
The explanation for Cass turning evil and joining the League of Assassins is her learning dad had a secret daughter. This somehow caused Cass to have a mental break and abandon all of her core values. No attempt Beechen makes to explain this turn makes even a lick of sense. The idea that Cass was somehow fuelled, motivated, or kept sane by the idea that David Cain solely loved her is deeply incongruous with her character. And honestly finding out you have a secret sister turning you evil would be a dumb writing for any character. From this point Cass just devolves into a mustache-twirling dragon lady. Her reasoning continues to make no sense and none of how the story resolves itself is remotely satisfying.
I could keep going on about every little thing I hated in Wanted but I honestly don't think its worth it. At the end of the day this story exists the way it does because DC editorial wanted Cassandra gone and Adam Beechen didn't care to write her turn to villainy in a way that was true to any aspect of her character. And I've reached a point were belabouring every single way it fails doesn't bring me much satisfaction.
I'm a huge fan of Black Canary. I was first introduced to her in the Birds of Prey movie and then dove into the comics of 2000s and early 2010s. And as a completionist I felt the urge to go back to the very beginning of the character. This collection was my first experience with Golden Age comics and I'm happy to say it was a largely positive one. Diving into the history of Black Canary as a character and seeing the elements of her character that were there from the very beginning and endure to this day was was fascinating.
This volume can be split into three distinct periods. The first is Black Canary's origins as a supporting character in the Flash Comics series Johnny Thunder. These comics were the most tedious to get through but only because Johnny Thunder himself is a very uninteresting lead. Regardless in these early outings it's easy to see why Black Canary was spun off into her own solo series. Here she plays the familiar role of the femme fatale and her hyper-competence and take no shit attitude made for an exciting counterpart to Johnny Thunder who was solely defined by his bumbling ineptitude.
We then move on to Black Canary's solo adventures where Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino establish her backstory as florist Dinah Drake who as solves crimes as vigilante Black Canary. Dinah as Black Canary frequently teams up with perpetually broke private detective Larry Lance to solve murders, thefts and other crimes. Her villains include standard 1940s mobsters and the occasional mad scientists. And while these stories were a tad repetitive (especially when read back to back) there was an undeniable charm to them.
A lot of it comes from Dinah's dynamic with Larry. I love the way Kanigher often inverted gender roles having Larry be the damsel in distress while Dinah's quick wit and convenient escape tools in hidden her canary shaped collar got them out of snags. Beyond that Larry and Dinah's rapport in and out of costume was pure fun. Their back and forth banter was always a delight to read. And the stories often played with Dinah's secret identity in fun ways. She always knowingly teased Larry about his relationship with Black Canary as Dinah with a wink and nod to the audience about the irony of it all.
The latter half of the volume sees some of Black Canary's adventures in the 60s and 70s and it was fascinating to see her recontextualized in the Silver Age. In Gardner Fox's stories we see Black Canary team up with other Golden Age heroes Starman and Wildcat to defeat Sportsmaster and Tigress, two supervillains on a crime spree, and Starman's old rival the Mist. I really appreciated seeing the care Fox had for Dinah as Kanigher wrote her. Not only did he maintain original elements of her backstory like her running a flower shop, he even expanded her character with her and Larry getting married off-screen which as a huge fan of the couple was a sweet thing to see.
These team ups were also interesting to read because its the first time in this volume we see Dinah face on true supervillains. Sportsmaster and Tigress were delightfully campy as crime-loving couple cooking up the most hair-brained schemes. Dinah gets to show off her martial arts against Tigress and her rapport with Starman both here and in their team up against the Mist was a fun time and introduced and endeared me to Ted Knight.
Unfortunately, I didn't love the final story in the volume by Denis O'Neil. This adventure from the 70s is really out of place in the collection as a story about Dinah Lance, the more famous second Black Canary. And placing them side by side the differences between the two characters is jarring. O'Neil here introduces Black Canary as obsessed with Green Arrow in a way I didn't like at all. Dinah Drake in the Kanigher stories in the 40s and Fox's work in the 60s works with men but never feels subsumed by them. But here Dinah gets kidnapped and only finds the strength to escape by remembering some inspirational words from Green Arrow. It felt like such a jarring character regression that didn't sit well with me.
But overall despite ending on a bit of a dud I'm so glad to have read this collection. I loved learning about the history of one of my favourite superheroes and a had a great time with the adventures of the Black Canary.
This volume can be split into three distinct periods. The first is Black Canary's origins as a supporting character in the Flash Comics series Johnny Thunder. These comics were the most tedious to get through but only because Johnny Thunder himself is a very uninteresting lead. Regardless in these early outings it's easy to see why Black Canary was spun off into her own solo series. Here she plays the familiar role of the femme fatale and her hyper-competence and take no shit attitude made for an exciting counterpart to Johnny Thunder who was solely defined by his bumbling ineptitude.
We then move on to Black Canary's solo adventures where Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino establish her backstory as florist Dinah Drake who as solves crimes as vigilante Black Canary. Dinah as Black Canary frequently teams up with perpetually broke private detective Larry Lance to solve murders, thefts and other crimes. Her villains include standard 1940s mobsters and the occasional mad scientists. And while these stories were a tad repetitive (especially when read back to back) there was an undeniable charm to them.
A lot of it comes from Dinah's dynamic with Larry. I love the way Kanigher often inverted gender roles having Larry be the damsel in distress while Dinah's quick wit and convenient escape tools in hidden her canary shaped collar got them out of snags. Beyond that Larry and Dinah's rapport in and out of costume was pure fun. Their back and forth banter was always a delight to read. And the stories often played with Dinah's secret identity in fun ways. She always knowingly teased Larry about his relationship with Black Canary as Dinah with a wink and nod to the audience about the irony of it all.
The latter half of the volume sees some of Black Canary's adventures in the 60s and 70s and it was fascinating to see her recontextualized in the Silver Age. In Gardner Fox's stories we see Black Canary team up with other Golden Age heroes Starman and Wildcat to defeat Sportsmaster and Tigress, two supervillains on a crime spree, and Starman's old rival the Mist. I really appreciated seeing the care Fox had for Dinah as Kanigher wrote her. Not only did he maintain original elements of her backstory like her running a flower shop, he even expanded her character with her and Larry getting married off-screen which as a huge fan of the couple was a sweet thing to see.
These team ups were also interesting to read because its the first time in this volume we see Dinah face on true supervillains. Sportsmaster and Tigress were delightfully campy as crime-loving couple cooking up the most hair-brained schemes. Dinah gets to show off her martial arts against Tigress and her rapport with Starman both here and in their team up against the Mist was a fun time and introduced and endeared me to Ted Knight.
Unfortunately, I didn't love the final story in the volume by Denis O'Neil. This adventure from the 70s is really out of place in the collection as a story about Dinah Lance, the more famous second Black Canary. And placing them side by side the differences between the two characters is jarring. O'Neil here introduces Black Canary as obsessed with Green Arrow in a way I didn't like at all. Dinah Drake in the Kanigher stories in the 40s and Fox's work in the 60s works with men but never feels subsumed by them. But here Dinah gets kidnapped and only finds the strength to escape by remembering some inspirational words from Green Arrow. It felt like such a jarring character regression that didn't sit well with me.
But overall despite ending on a bit of a dud I'm so glad to have read this collection. I loved learning about the history of one of my favourite superheroes and a had a great time with the adventures of the Black Canary.
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The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics was hit! While I had some problems with the structure of the romance as the plot dragged a tad and the romantic conflict between our leads could have been more elegantly constructed overall it was a great story.
What really endeared me about this book and Olivia Waite's writing in general was its focus on our characters passions. I love romances that dive in to the interests and careers of the protagonists and ties their love story to their vocations. Waite does this brilliantly as our protagonists Lucy and Catherine are an astronomer and artist respectively. Throughout this book we see Lucy fight for a space in the scientific community in London with the passionate support of Catherine. Parallel to this we see Catherine's journey to viewing herself as an artist and take pride in her skills in the fabric arts heavily bolstered by Lucy.
What made the romance so compelling was the unbridled support these two women had for each other's lives and passions. They give each other the confidence to unabashedly pursue avenues that a patriarchal world has told them they have no right to. They love each other through their art and its a beautiful thing to see unfold.
I also loved the philosophical conversations woven throughout the novel about the nature of art and science. This book is honestly very contemplative filled with meaningful discussion about topics like the necessity of making science accessible the intricacies of translation and what it means to be an artist and that was honestly such fascinating things to chew on in the unexpected avenue of a romance novel.
But don't get it twisted The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics is at the end of the day a romance. and its romance was compelling throughout. I cannot wait to dive into more into Olivia Waite's books because if they're anything like this one I'm sure to have good time.
What really endeared me about this book and Olivia Waite's writing in general was its focus on our characters passions. I love romances that dive in to the interests and careers of the protagonists and ties their love story to their vocations. Waite does this brilliantly as our protagonists Lucy and Catherine are an astronomer and artist respectively. Throughout this book we see Lucy fight for a space in the scientific community in London with the passionate support of Catherine. Parallel to this we see Catherine's journey to viewing herself as an artist and take pride in her skills in the fabric arts heavily bolstered by Lucy.
What made the romance so compelling was the unbridled support these two women had for each other's lives and passions. They give each other the confidence to unabashedly pursue avenues that a patriarchal world has told them they have no right to. They love each other through their art and its a beautiful thing to see unfold.
I also loved the philosophical conversations woven throughout the novel about the nature of art and science. This book is honestly very contemplative filled with meaningful discussion about topics like the necessity of making science accessible the intricacies of translation and what it means to be an artist and that was honestly such fascinating things to chew on in the unexpected avenue of a romance novel.
But don't get it twisted The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics is at the end of the day a romance. and its romance was compelling throughout. I cannot wait to dive into more into Olivia Waite's books because if they're anything like this one I'm sure to have good time.