Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

This is improving -- it feels more like a 3-star than a 2 now -- but still not especially interesting.

That's way too long to spend on just describing the different monster species that will be in the rest of the book. Also: your main characters (now that you've finally introduced them) are named Cordelia and Cornelius? Have pity on audiobook listeners!

"Take [my injured son] to the ambulance. You can mace him if he resists." What the eff, seriously.

Cop dad now ~joking about having his gun ready when the son's love interest comes over for dinner. Idk, y'all. I read the author's blog post about trying to do better in the sequel, but this might be too far gone to save.

Dad cop's backstory is that he lashed out and punched a witness. Dad cop instructed his fellow officers to arrest his son if they see him getting into trouble. Son jokingly (?) threatens to bring a lawsuit against them for violating his civil rights. Rookie cop driving him home complains that he's not allowed to taze whoever he wants. That's all... deeply upsetting. I don't even know if the sequel can save it.

Uh... please tell me we're going to address that revelation about police brutality at some point.

Oh, neat -- he actually did pick up on the last name thing. But we're still telegraphing these twists way too obviously for my liking.

Also please don't tell me these headaches are a sign that Nick is blacking out to be a villain or whatever.

At what point are you going to realize that you didn't tell him your last name?

The catharsis at the end of this book is literally bringing me to tears. This has got to be at least the fifth or sixth time that I've read it, and it still just absolutely wrecks me.

I need to find more time to read my Kindle.

I might finish this book tomorrow, but given the review I have in mind, I might push it off until Sunday instead.

"I take that knife with me everywhere." Chekhov's Gun alarms just started blaring in my head, so I guess that's as good a time as any to stop for the night.

My enjoyment of this title is really plummeting. There's just so many assumptions that the authors aren't examining with the care they need.

That's not what the Y2K bug was, but okay.

These writers complain about political polarization and widespread anti-intellectualism, but also show how studies overwhelmingly support Democratic-held policy positions.

Idk - if one party / mode of political thought systematically misrepresents the truth and the other one is generally in line with expert scientific opinion, maybe the issue isn't ~polarization in the abstract but rather that one wing of bad actors

Could we, like.... NOT hook up with our seventeen-year-old great-grand-niece? Thanks.

Okay, THAT's a twist I did not see coming.

See my previous note.

Really liking this so far, but I'm calling it right now that the powerless uncle turns out to be the bad guy.

How is this book barely half over?

This is already racist beyond my worst fears.

"Here's the funny thing about the world coming to an end. Once it gets going, it doesn't seem to stop."

Unless there's only actually one girl -- which would explain these weird memory issues.

Two people have already mentioned how similar Zoe and Anna look. It's gonna turn out that Anna is the dead girl, isn't it?

This protagonist is really insufferable.

Oh, please don't tell me they're siblings.

Well, that's a fun twist I wasn't expecting.

I'm pretty sure I solved this case a while ago, but I'm still mostly enjoying watching it play out.

This is definitely the best of the series so far.