Nostalgia Reader > Recent Status Updates

NOBL: 3 stars. Middle of the road, enjoyable, but nothing overly fancy. I was really hoping the Very Obvious Queer Overtones of the story would go somewhere, but of course, they did not.

ENGR: 5 stars. ALL THE STARS, THAT WAS AMAZING. There were so many Poe tropes throughout (Usher, Pit, Metz), I adored it, and possible vampiric undertones. A lot of these stories have read like "Avengers" episodes, but this one I was practically able to watch in my mind while I was reading. Props, Doyle, you're redeeming yourself here... I hope you keep it up!

SPEC: 5 stars. Yep, there's a reason this one's such a classic. Even though I knew what was going to happen (this was a reread, I wasn't spoiled), it was still suspenseful, creates a truly evil character, and succinct in its info-dumping.

BLUE: 4.5 stars. A wild Christmas goose chase! FINALLY, a good one!

TWIS: 3.5 stars. Once again, I called it before Holmes had even finished laying out the background for Watson. These stories are falling into "The Twilight Zone" Trap--important and fun foundational works, but so obvious and not at all surprising, because they were the foundations of a genre. Still, this was an enjoyable read, one of the better stories.

FIVE: 1 star. Just no.

BOSC: 2.5 stars. Points for setting, but these are just becoming super obvious about halfway through. The reuse of the EXACT SAME reasoning methods and descriptions are getting old as well. Watson, you've been working with Holmes for this long, and your still baffled about how to read footprints? *facepalm* Also, shut up about your monographs, Sherlock, no one reads them, obviously.

IDEN: 2 stars. Too obvious, with hardly any stakes.

REDH: 3 stars. The general MO was obvious and the ending was a standard "oh golly gee old chap, I do believe you have caught me in the midst of my criminalities, my apologies!" I want some grit, Mr. Doyle, not this cultured foppery! Overall, though, it wasn't terrible, and the League was very Poe-esque in its ideas.

SCAN: 4 stars. A pretty basic blackmail story, but a great opportunity for character development. I wish Irene were a recurring character!!