User Profile

Went in expecting a cozy, low-stakes sci-fi romp with Found Family tropes abound, and I got... something that was all that but also something that was occasionally darker and threatening? Not in a, "this was two completely separate books poorly smashed together" kind of way but more like a work that isn't afraid to hold the good with the bad at the same time. I don't know if this makes sense, but what I'm getting at is that it surpassed my expectations.

There's a big cast of characters here and while I was originally afraid we'd only be tied to two of the main protagonists for most of the book, we actually get a fair amount of separate POV chapters, and I think the book benefited from that. As with any new speculative fiction setting, there's going to be some worldbuilding, but most of it here was handled in-fiction through dialogue between characters, so it came across as more natural and conversational than paragraphs of dry lore-dumping. And even despite the presentation, the content was engaging enough that I wouldn't mind revisiting this universe again. There are a few alien races that are touched upon that genuinely felt alien to me and I wanted to know more about them.

The middle sort of... I feel like the word "sags" is a little too harsh, because there is constant dramatic action, but the central task this crew is trying to achieve often feels like something just passively lingering in the background instead of the main driving impetus for everything else going on. I guess when you have a job that will take literal months to complete and there's nothing you can do to speed it up you're naturally gonna have a ton of downtime to explore all these side characters, but I suppose I would've preferred a bit more urgency and momentum throughout. Still, I can see the appeal of a more leisurely narrative pace like this. If I do continue with the series, I feel like I'll have a better set of expectations going into it.

Reading this made me feel like I was walking up a flight of stairs and then had a misstep at the top; I thought there was going to be one or two more steps, but I was actually at the top landing unexpectedly early. The walk up was enjoyable, but I am left feeling a little confused as to how I got here.

What this book does well it does very well, and that's mostly character interactions, environmental descriptions, and conveying just how oppressive a presence poverty can be in every decision and action. Our protagonist ultimately is forced to cave on his principles and do something he doesn't want to not because he has a change of heart or is deceived or momentarily acts out of character but simply because of money. And after seeing the situation he's in, you can't really blame him. Unfortunately, everyone involved would have been better off if he just didn't take the job.

There are a lot of themes being juggled here between navigating a relationship with a sibling when you're both adults, reconciling with an absent parent, loneliness, painkiller addiction, the crushing weight of medical debt, and even environmentalism. And I think they're all handled well and nothing felt shoehorned in for it's own sake - it all fit in the story contextually. But the ending did feel abrupt and caught me off guard in a, "wait, is that really it?" kinda way. I don't necessarily know what I expected or would have wanted to happen in place of what we got, but maybe I just need to sit with this one a little longer. Still, the preceding 85% or so had me hooked and really engaged, so I won't judge the overall work too harshly.

This is gonna sound derivative, but this book felt like someone asked, "What if Knives Out was a serialized TV show with 30-minute episodes and no continuity?" The short story format just did not work for me from what I've come to expect from a Christie mystery.

We do the whole thing where our protagonist Captain Hastings is kind of a sidekick to Detective Poirot, who is the real reason why we're here. They call each other friends, but they're way more rude to each other here than in the previous two books I've read, and Hastings seems downright mad at Poirot's infallibility at times, but that never develops into a plot point or anything.

Each chapter is a new mystery with new characters, which, fine. And the nature of the mysteries are pretty varied between murders, kidnappings, thefts, and even a clever one towards the end involving a missing will. But I felt like the procedures were a little rushed and by the time I'm trying to wrap my head around the big setpiece reveal we're on to the next one. It got a touch formulaic and repetitive, but there's definitely a level of creative skill going on to even think of these scenarios, let alone this many.

This isn't the last I'll read of Christie, but maybe I'll stick to her proper novels from now on.

I was a confused, closeted, and in-denial 16-year-old when this movie came out, and didn't allow myself to come anywhere near it for a multitude of illogical and self-destructive reasons. I still haven't seen it, and everything I knew about it was just ascertained over the years through general pop culture and social media osmosis. Now that I'm a fully self-realized adult who isn't at war with himself and seeing that this year was the 20-year anniversary, I figured I'd finally see what the fuss was about. And oof... This got me good.

I had no idea the original source material was so short, not even a hundred pages long, but the author manages to fit an entire lifetime into those pages. The prose is pretty minimal and leaves space for a majority of the text to be direct dialogue between characters, which I'm always a fan of. These western accents were also (I'm guessing) fairly authentic because some lines were nigh incomprehensible to my northeast dialect. The central conflict is distinct and clear and ultimately insurmountable, but I'm not upset that these characters "failed" because I understand their fears and motivations on a personal level.

I could easily envision a more formal, fleshed-out version of this story lengthened into a novella or even a proper novel, but I can't help but be impressed at how efficiently the author accomplished what she did with the short runway she gave herself that I don't think lengthening it would've necessarily made it better. That I got so emotionally invested so quickly speaks to her skill as a writer.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to cry thinking about the bedroom closet scene again...