Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

I kept reading this after all, and it's fine. Gonna be a 3star at best, but whatever. WAY too much miscommunication.

Good night, Westley. Sleep well. I'll most likely DNF you in the morning.

Oh I already feel like DNFing this lol

Already much better than the first book, thank goodness.

Predictable twist is predictable.

The characters all think the dad killed the neighbor girl, but I would say at this point there's like maybe an 80% chance his son did it and maybe 15% chance that the dad just THINKS the son did and is covering for it but it was actually the girl's brother. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This isn't gonna get a particularly high rating from me, but I'm enjoying all the Fitzroy Angursell references.

Wait, the main character of this story is named Finn Murrie and he has a sister named Marie? You named a character Marie Murrie??

First few stories were fine, but Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream? Wow. Just plain riveting the whole way through.

“Anywhere something desirable is banned,” Mrs. Etaris said thoughtfully, “there are those who make it their business to supply it, with ruinous prices and great danger to all involved.”

I do really like that history can be changed in this setting, unlike the time travel in, say, The Time Traveler's Wife. The characters are genuinely thinking about changing the past to change their present, not just clever ways to maneuver within their existing knowledge of events.

Ah, okay. The heroine is 35 now, and was apparently 15 earlier in the book. And since there is time-travel in this setting, I assume she's going to be revisiting her past life at some point. Still an odd way to structure a novel, though! (Not bad per se, just different.)

This story is really good, but I have no idea where it goes from here. The protagonist has been a high school senior for the whole book so far, but just jumped ahead to when she's in her late 30s or so.

This is such a weird book to have now on audiobook, since that's such an involved production. Like, if Sanderson were actually polishing this up for real publication, there's no way he'd call one of the magics "the hoar" and its practitioners "hoarwatchers." The homophone confusion on audio is unavoidable! But he wrote it 20 years ago and didn't update it at all now, just shelled out for the professional narration.

Domina Black mention! (Take a shot.)

Not sure if this is going to wind up 3 or 4 stars for me, but I think I'm starting to understand why Sanderson never officially published it / viewed it as a practice run. It's good, but not one of his best.

These typos and continuity errors are killing me

Circling back to read book #12 now, even though Goodreads only lists it as part of a single volume with #11.

I try so hard to be open-minded and accepting that different people like different things in the books they read, but I'm sorry. Everyone who doesn't like the second half of this one is just wrong.

Favorite book is favorite

Domina Black! I forgot all about that part when I read In the Company of Gentleman.

Not Michelle Obama complaining about participation trophies 🫠

“It is so much harder to stand up for a small, nearly frivolous thing. It is far easier, at least in imagination, to stand up for the great things.” He smiled wryly at the room. “One thing I have learned is how rarely we get to stand up for the great things. Or rather: how rarely we know we are standing up for the great things."

Would you believe that the other heroine just got forced to strip at knifepoint now too?

This is a serious contender for Sanderson's most misogynistic work.

I'm not anti-nudity in books, but this feels gratuitous. Definitely not a fan of the trope where a woman is forced to be naked in front of a clothed man or is surprised by a clothed man while she's naked, and that happens a lot to one of the heroines in this story. There's a textual threat of marital rape hanging over her too, though at least it's never acted upon.