ghosthermione's reviews
338 reviews

I finished it, although it was quite dense. That said Im amazed at the lack of actual criticism of missionary work from an author well-known for speaking up against colonialism.
I don't grock with the incest themes.
And a lot of it is senseless. Sure this is faerie, it's not supposed to be logical, and I did enjoy some of the worldbuilding (the sea whale especially) but it's like seeing a Bosch painting. each bit is fascinating but the overall picture is of a mishmash of unconnected bits. I had "solved" the mystery myself by the end (it was not really the epiphany it purported to be) but I still did not see the Point. I was waiting for a "yes and" that never came. And it did not quite tie everything together.

notably, why Elizabeth claims to be The original if it has nothing to do with changelings. What was the point of Ariel as a character? she has no agency or arc of her own to follow which makes her quite flat, like the author didnt give her that much attention because she was just going to be a sacrifice.

And I hate feeling like I wasted my time with a book. 

Cannot keep track with this or any narrator i found

The physical object of the book is about 100x more interesting than its content. feels like another mediocre male author writing about mediocre misogynistic men who write about other men, and the public getting hyped (as I did when I bought this) from the concept. The writing is Boring, the footnotes are boring, the typeset hurts your eyes and some of the later parts are not even meant to be read.

Edited to add: I forgot the casual mention of a dead and quartered sex worker, on page 3 of the intro, that is there just for flavour and no bearing at all on the story. I don't know why I didn't just stop there.

1) idc that this is romance, or follows superhero comics tropes. a billionnaire can't possibly be a nice guy
2) "the ubervillains" are gonna steal childrens toys because what evil and maniacal things wouldnt they do? aside from the saneism, what is this, the totally spies?

it turns out i dont care about CEO capitalists killing each other

I like what she's doing but this is a slog, and i do not like the narrator at all

I love the trope of "Person is rumoured to be a complete monster but is actually a cutie patootie"! Here we're talking overworked, book-obsessed cutie patooties.
 

I won an ARC in Stephanie Burgis's newsletter raffle, and I couldn't wait to get to it! I'm very happy she's getting published by Tor, as her books deserve it. 

It's sweet, it's fast paced enough and yet you still get to see cute little scenes, there's books and a pet raven involved, and the two main characters are each loads of fun. At the same time, it deals with the heavy issue of abusive families, in a way that I found quite cathartic. 

Also, I enjoy bisexual main characters who don't end up "choosing a side" when they pick a love interest! it shouldn't need saying but it still does sooooo this book gets all the points.

I'm looking forward to the two more books hinted at, especially the one with the Ice Queen! I forgot how reading ARCs means you have to wait longer for the next one...