Me, My Shelf, & I > Recent Status Updates

'I loved it here already.
'And the only thing worse than living nowhere at all was to love somewhere—to fit somewhere—and then, after trying your very hardest . . . lose it forever.'

I am giggling and loving this and it's so refreshing-- fully sold on the romance event though they've barely met.
This very much has the vibe of a fairytale that is strongly set in a Nigerian inspired world. All the characters are immediately likable and so colorful; like just 4 paragraphs of Mamadele is all I need to fully paint her as the Disney character she is.

'I attacked dust and grime with more ferocity than I had ever shown another human being. In a world ruled by dirt and decay, a well-swept corner felt like rebellion.'

'I learned then, you see, to call myself a nobody before anyone else could. Poison could not hurt me if I dosed myself first.'

'You are powerful and important, and I am only me.'

I know I just started this, but I can already totally see why people recommend consuming this series in audiobook format.
I also appreciate that even though they already mentioned an inside joke, they also explained it to me so you're not expected to have remembered (or read, lol) all previous 10 books.

"The woman made a sharp right at the grizzly bear"
There's something about the quality of the writing in this so far that I find very easy and mildly fun, even when not actively making jokes or anything.

'He’s in his late forties, probably, and built like a piece of candy corn, but he appears intelligent and good-natured.'
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!
I can look up dorito body & get all sorts of results, but looking up any searches with "candy corn" instead just leads me to how candy corn is made/etc. Does he look oblong? Vaguely, kinda almost unnoticeably wider on top? Artificial and pumped full of HFCS? Tell me, Delilah!!

Something I'm noticing in this is how 2D many of the characters feel. I'm not sure if that's because it's being filtered through Sarah's lens and she's kind of a simple, judgy bitch or if it's the author's intent.
For example the goth girl is a haughty, edgy person who is woke but doesn't care about people's feelings. And the misogynist asshole is entitled and loud and seems to be wholly defined by his sexism?

I keep thinking about these Reddit stories where guys did terrible things with their girlfriends' food. Every time she mentions her mysterious old stomachaches I'm like... did Delilah S Dawson read any of the same posts and work them in to this story? Either way, it's clearly Kyle's intentional doings.

Been vibing to "The Devil is a Gentleman" by Merci Raines while reading this today and I honestly think it is the perfect song to pair with this book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3R6...

Trying to come up with a term for the companion/hostage situation that seems to be such a trope, but I think s7 Andrew said it best:

There's a sentient house and a hearth spirit (very calcifer-esque, but it's a cat). This is giving strong Uprooted vibes with more emphasis on the romance and a dash of For the Wolf as well. Very fairytale, girl has to cook and clean for a curmudgeonly hermit magician, but also she has magic too and they fall in love.

Some clunky sentences like "One way to kill a Skinwalker is said to be to shoot it with a bullet coated with white ash."

Could be improved, eg: 'One alleged way to kill a Skinwalker is to shoot it using a bullet coated with white ash.'

Okay so I know I was complaining about the tone and the YA vibes, but it's also very readable. It's got a fanfiction quality to the writing (affectionate) and while I think it's a little over-the-top with the characters, I can see what the author's going for and it's fun.
I'm not fully charmed by it, cause it's still got some things that don't make sense with the setup. But when I picture it as a show I quite like it

“There’s the Hill of Knives, of course, if you committed murder. Imagine a toboggan ride down a mountain of blades—without the toboggan, of course. Not to mention the Tongue Field, where jeoseung saja stretch out your tongue until it’s long enough to plant trees on. I helped design that one.”

Good, creative hell.

Normally I find male narrators to be pretty cringe with female voices-- making them sound vapid, stupid, young, etc...
So it's weird that in this it's the female narrator whose female voice annoys tf out of me.

I don't remember the first book having such a strong romance focus. This really isn't the vibe I was hoping for, personally.