Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

Okay, the disaster recovery stuff is moderately interesting. But the characters aren't particularly distinctive and it doesn't feel like we're really using this new unique setting at all. Nothing yet couldn't have been set in the existing SW timelines.

This is... unforgivably boring so far.

Well, that villain reveal was entirely predictable half a book ago. (I am enjoying this for the most part, but come on now.)

She just pronounced "aye" like the letter A. To be clear: I blame the audiobook reader maybe 20% on this and the director / producer / etc. the other 80%. This is a hell of a thing to not catch when the character's dialogue is peppered with written cues that she isn't meant to sound like an American.

This one character is clearly supposed to have a Scottish accent with all the things like "ye lasses" in her dialogue, and it's bothering me that the audiobook narrator isn't even attempting one.

Always nice to see some hatred of Robert Moses.

Oh, neat -- there's a(n unsubstantiated) rumor that the original Green Book was inspired by the compiler's Jewish friend using a written guide to identify kosher establishments on vacation.

Overall this is a really clever adaptation, but that 'triggered' joke was entirely unnecessary and out-of-character for the Doctor

Oh, so you didn't bother to have an actual ornithologist fact-check the stuff your ornithologist character says, I see. (No, a mother bird will *not* reject an egg / baby that a human touches.)

The thing is... all of this is building to an answer to a mystery that's seemed pretty obvious to me for the entire book. And maybe that's a misdirection, but if not it's pretty tiresome to play coy with readers for so long.

I can't decide if this is going to be a 2 or a 3 for me. I'm very much not feeling it, but it has some great reviews from people who have loved the thing.

Really not interested in this relationship with her much older professor.

Uh... can we also not use the phrase "strange fruit" to refer to a literal fruit that looks strange? There's got to be a different way to express that.

Honestly, did nobody edit this manuscript?

YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE CHARACTERS EXPLAIN THE PHRASE DEUS EX MACHINA TO ONE ANOTHER.

You're describing a cleft lip, NOT a cleft palate. Come on now.

Apologies for lifting an NSFW quote but: "Jack wrapped his wiry forearms around her. She loved the threat of his genitals glancing her buttocks." I'm sorry, WHAT?? This has been a 2-star read from the start, but that line alone may have just dropped it to 1.

Ah yes, explaining to a panel of experts what the acronyms ISS and FEMA stand for.

Yeah, this ain't great (like Dan Brown meets Andy Weir). But it's okay enough to finish, I guess.

Getting a weird vibe (like, implications of ableism and conservative politics in the narrative POV), but we'll see. I'll give it until at least my usual 20%, unless something major pops up.

Okay, I did not have zombie goat on my bingo card.

I'm liking the Welsh mythology, but this antagonist is pretty over-the-top with his evil landlord schtick.

This book is really dancing along the 3-star/4-star line. We'll have to see how I feel about the ending

Now the tree is gaslighting these children??

This is weird and could well change, but for now it feels like it's cruising for a 2-star rating. Short enough to push through and see, though.

For some reason I thought this was going to be a fantasy book (I think because of a joint interview the author did with Leigh Bardugo, maybe?), and so far there's no sign of that. Really enjoying the all-Jewish cast, though.

I shouldn't still feel blindsided by Agatha Christie's occasional antisemitism at this point, but sometimes she just hits you with a remark about "a beastly Jew boy" out of NOWHERE.

Of course problematic (vampire) love interest is also problematic (ancient) as well. Sigh.

This dude has been on my nerves from the jump, but continuing to call the protagonist a nickname she's made it clear she doesn't like is a major red flag. Please don't let him be the endgame love interest.

I forgot how this basically becomes a different book once they actually get to Narnia, and much less interesting that is

I still don't love this, but it's better now that we're in the Pixar's Ratatouille stage of the plot.