thevampirelestat's reviews
84 reviews

“People are so precious about dying, aren’t they? But not us.”

“I want you back. For good.”

“Perish the thought, nene. Just passing through.”

Some of this book didn’t work for me, but a lot of it did. A great read overall. 🙂‍↕️

In the end, surely we are blessed. The royal and low, the queen and the singer. Surely we are blessed.

This book was legitimately phenomenal, beginning to end. Very few times in my life have I said to myself "I wish this was longer," but I legitimately wish this book was two times longer than it was. I'd read like a multi-generational epic saga à la Homegoing about this world, I totally would. I wish it was Middlemarch length. But GODDD. It's really spectacular. Holy fuggggg. I want to lend this book to my friends but I never want to let go of my copy.

I did not find the ending dissatisfying, which I was anticipating because so many people said they felt that way.

Its staggering, abrupt end is kind of the point, so much hype and adrenaline and roaring and cheering leads up to moment in which a life and all its glory is gone in a second.

This book pulls you in to such a degree that it feels like you are a voyeur to the spectacle of the games themselves; I suspect this general dissatisfaction with the ending is a byproduct of being situated in this way. There is no grandeur here. There is no right time or way to die. Life is not precious here.

Phenomenal character and world-building. This book is seriously unlike any other, a classic in the making. I hope everyone who can stomach to read something so terrifying and raw does. And if you don't think you can, try anyway.

yawn. slop… I don’t have a lot to say about this book aside from the fact that characters say they’re having “nervous breakdown” or “anxiety attacks” all the time despite just experiencing slight symptoms of nervousness

I am happy this book was written. Wasn't really for me though, it honestly lost me around Part 3 and I completely lost interest at Part 4. Oh well. Great otherwise

“I have given it all away. There is nothing to show for any of it.”

Ahhh wow wow woweez I loved this book so much! It is everything I’ve ever needed in my life, which is to say explorations of queerness in the 19th century. Ahhhhhh AHHHHHHH I loved it guys

I wanted to love this book, since if you're paying $27 for a hardcover in this economy you better love it. But I unfortunately was not wowed. The premise and the hook are very interesting. And the idea of coming face to face with death as someone obsessed with one day finding meaning in your own was profound, if not a little sophomoric in its execution at times. I loved the twist, I loved how Cyrus was characterized before going to NYC, that whole concept of him acting out scenes of death in hospitals works really well for his character. His at-times overtly obnoxious fixation on his own death and his general mopey self-pitying worked for me. In Cyrus I see the whining whimpering self-importance of every English major at my school. Akbar is aware of this, and sometimes makes fun of him. But not enough, I fear. It still worked for me though.

On the line level, this book did not work for me for a few reasons. Akbar is clearly a poet and his work as one informs his prose. This worked for me when Ocean Vuong did it but it does not work here. There are too many lines that are like "Cyrus felt this way, like [vague, self-important yet simplistic simile]". Sometimes it worked, and when it did, it did. But most times it did not. Too many images that are too vacuous to mean anything to me. Yap, yap, yap.

I also do not like when books include a character's own writing in them. I felt bad for not liking the little snippets of Cyrus' Book of Martyrs. I felt embarrassed for not liking them, because I feel that I likely should have at least not disliked them. Sorry, Cyrus. I also hate when books include dream sequences? It is just a vestige of contemporary novels that I despise. Maybe it is because I am still informed by my spitting hatred of Melissa Broder's 2021 nightmare, Milk Fed. But I do not like these strange, faux-philosophical dream sequences. The relationships between characters, specifically Roya and Leila's, were not particularly convincing to me. And I love some secret lesbianism. Dykes rule the world. But it just didn't do it for me. Cyrus and Zee's strange sexual friendship-romance a little more convincing. But what was that ending? Confusing. A little overbearing. A lott-a overbearing, actually. Conceited. Pompous? Yeah. 

This book just didn't do it for me. I miss my $27 dollars.

petty petty juvenile drama, slop upon slop, contrived drama between characters, aiya. but can one blame a gnome for being short? a tree for standing tall? I knew exactly what i was getting myself into and i read it to the end. Everybody's so creative....