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Oops, bad week = spicy book break

Time to get back to it: I'll finish the second part of Two Towers before I get on with the rest of the queue.

I'm so proud of Ali Hazelwood for writing something with a different plot, even if it does have the same two characters (basically). And this one had a way better villain than usual!

Cattiness aside, I liked this book quite a bit. I appreciated the exploration of the protag's mental states - she felt like a whole, complicated person, even if I couldn't relate to a lot of what she was going through. The ML was a bit flatter, but it's a romance novel, so if the men are anything other than supporting and loving and endowed we're not really doing it right.

Overall, glad I read it, and happy to have it on the shelf.

Skipped the queue because I needed something lighthearted.

Overall pretty good - mostly hits, only one short I DNF'd. A few big winners, which I called out in comments on here while reading.

Alex Irvine, "Form 8774-D." How did I get to the point where I love "bureaucracy in superhero universe" as an entire ass genre? This gave Hench vibes and I really enjoyed it. Not too deep but a very fun read!

Another couple favorites from today:

"Window Boy" by Thomas Ha. The creeping horror is there, whether we look for it or not, no matter how safe we think we are, no matter if we think we're getting away. I'm not sure how to read into this one in terms of privilege and othering - it's definitely thought provoking, although I'm not sure if I'm ideologically aligned, here.

"John Hollowback and the Witch," by Amal El-Mohtar. A woodworker seeks help recovering from a mysterious curse, and learns to see his life and actions much more clearly. A fascinating story about forgiveness, self-awareness, and what we need to do to move on with our lives after rejection.

Only a few stories in, but I loved "How It Unfolds" by James S. A. Corey, the first story in the book. A loving reminder that we have the whole future ahead of us, we don't need to keep retreading past efforts that already failed.

Quite a few names in here I'm excited for - Roanhorse, Leckie, El-Mohtar - and quite a few I've never heard of. Looking forward to it, it's been a while since I got to enjoy some SFF shorts.

Technically, I think this is counting towards a Habitica challenge too.

This was definitely my least favorite of the trilogy. It trended preachy, and while there was some cool gate-jumping action, the vast majority of this book was people getting lectured by Breq on how to be better people. Which made for a relatively boring read.