essjay's reviews
578 reviews

I guess I liked this more than the first one, surprisingly? Didn't think I cared about Kris much after TNBK, but I read about his issues with his mom at the exact time my own mom was sending me extremely similar texts and so that bit hit me p hard. [shrug]

I almost dropped this during the first chapter bc I could not hang with how overly descriptive everything was, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. 

Literally none of the "twists" were very surprising, but I still had a lot of fun with it (and didn't cry but got a lump in my throat a few times). 

Fully half of these stories were 5/5, which...never fuckin happens, man. 

I read this aloud to my 14y/o (as soon as I heard there was a Weird/Horror NMH inspired anthology, I told them about it and they said "welp, that's what we're reading next!"), and they made me highlight something in almost every story. 

Our lowest rating was 4/5, the average was 4.77. Might come back to bump this up to 5. 

I hate referring to things as "dreamy," but damned if that's not what this ended up being. Having lived through a sort of the abuse depicted here, I'm usually v sensitive to reading about it. But the quality of the writing kept it from ever being too much, and insisted that I not look away. 

Wow. 

Maybe the right book, but definitely the wrong time. 

Sandwiching this one right between the first two in terms of enjoyment. 

As in both previous books, the twists are telegraphed from the beginning (Ada really enjoys telling us everything she's going to do), but again, this does not detract from the story at all. If you're looking for a puzzlebox, this is not the series for you. 

If, however, you're looking for fun, science-fictional, criminal shenanigans, you could do a lot worse than this series. 

Other reviews had me prepared to be disappointed by a lack of resolution, but I'm satisfied with where it ends. If we get more, I will probably read them. If we don't, I'll still recommend the trilogy (with some caveats for romance readers). 

I always think "ugh, not Swindon!" when I re-start this one (bc my heart belongs to Jurisfiction), but only bc I forget just how much happens here. The perfect ending for the first half of the series. 

[sigh]

Better than the last one? I guess? 

Pardon the pun, but WOOF. 

Less set-up than the first novel, obviously. Idk if I necessarily like this one more than the first, but I spent a significant amount of my "reading" time (Kobo was on but I was staring into space) thinking about Mercy's faith and how it had an impact on this particular story. t's not the sort of thing I typically care to read about (I'd much rather rant about authors who don't understand tarot meanings), but I didn't hate it here and am ready to move onto the next.