Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

Loving the #ownvoices Jewish stuff, but still feel like this is trending towards 2-star territory overall.

This probably should have had a different title, since the fact that they're strangers is only being revealed this far in as a surprise twist. (Protagonist assumed she was being invited to join a group of friends.)

That "Harold..." moment may not have been completely earned, but I love it.

Why is Miss Marple only showing up now, though?

"Dalloway is a respectable school. This isn't the Scholomance." Yes, you see, that's the problem...

Not a fan of this slow reveal of the protagonist's secrets. Like... waiting until a fifth of the way in to confirm that dead Alex was her girlfriend and not just a friend (which seemed possible but not certain before now). What's the benefit of keeping readers in the dark for so long?

Called it.

"He would be dead for longer than he had ever been alive." I mean, that sounds profound, but it's true for all of us eventually, dude.

Kings Dominion reference!

Bribing one single potential juror ahead of the trial hardly seems like the foolproof plan this defendant thinks it is.

This could stand to be queerer in every sense of the word.

This isn't bad so far, but it's kind of.... unremarkable? Things could still go wildly off the rails, but I expected something a lot darker and weirder from the author's earlier The Luminous Dead (which I loved).

Oh my. What a shocking turn of events that wasn't incredibly predictable from literally page one. Who could have ever guessed.

I hate this prudish cat's POV 🙃

Yeah, this is feeling like a two-star book so far for me. But we'll see.

Oh. The cat can read and reads its owner's bible. That's why it doesn't like taking the Lord's name in vain. Ooooooooookay.

...Why does this cat care about swearing?

Xu Da shrugged. "What difference does it make to me? You're my brother, whatever's under your clothes." 💙💗🤍

Love this conversation on mental illness without stigma.

This book makes the first two look like masterpieces.

This is literally just the Darkling and his mom, though?

"Let me tell you something about sharing with the feds," Bosch said. "When it comes to sharing information, the FBI eats like an elephant and shits like a mouse."

Took a while for these characters to finally meet.

Okay, that's a good twist, but it probably should have been earlier in the plot.

"If you can't stand the ghosts, get out of the haunted house."

Yep, right again about what's going on. Like.... I don't necessarily mind being able to predict how a story will go? But when it's this obvious, I do need the book itself to not play so coy with us. Drop the mystery and lean into the thriller elements.

Well, that's the first development that's actually surprised me, at least.

Callllllllllled it.

Or, well, I called that they're in the far future. I assume the guys are also clones of the original crew, but I guess they might just have been in stasis or something. But I expect we'll eventually find out that the video transmissions they've been receiving are either ancient recordings or just straight up forgeries from the ship A.I.

...they're clones, aren't they?

Oh, I love that we're learning the enemy army isn't just a mindless force against humanity. I kind of expected that, but figured it would be in the sequel or a cliffhanger ending to this one.