yeah it's pretty hard to make a book about a guy doing administrative office work particularly interesting and plot-heavy, even if said office is a secret government organization dedicated to studying an eldritch horror-stricken region of what is probably florida.

nothing really happens in this until the very end but honestly the prose remains consistently very well-written so it was never a slog to read. and of course the fall of the southern reach is written in such a beautifully horrifying way, that passage about the sudden wall of flesh is the stuff of my personal worst nightmares

i ended up liking control as a character a lot more than i expected to, bro is just trying to do his job, but obviously the standout character is ghost bird, love that girl, hope to see more of her in the third book (which is apparently not the finale? new book in october? what??)

brb as i dive into the magical impossibly deep whirlpool back into area x