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Superb. Deeply touching slices of life, connected by a common place. All of the characters are so well crafted yet still a somewhat blank canvas to reflect Rome through their own experience and perspective.

On the re-reading train prior to reading System Collapse.

@picklish@books.theunseen.city That book is perpetually at the top of my to read list and it always gets skipped because the library only has the digital copy. This is pushing me over the edge, just going to have to buy it!

Loved it. It had more action than the first, but the heart warming characters amd cozy vibes remain. I think the writing was more polished this go around as well, the characters had so much more depth. Narration was top notch too. So happy there are more books on the way.

Most of the stories just didn't manage to grab me. I kept going in hopes that the next would be the one. Most likely the collection didn’t match my mood while reading. I'm learning more and more that this is a very important variable for me.

The last story, Reunion, was where I felt the payoff for reading the entire collection. It reflected back parts of myself that are hard to see and in a way the slipped through the normal mental defenses. Horror and weird lit have the wonderful capacity to subvert the tallest walls in the mind. Once there, it was a gentle hand that turned my gaze, the press of a hug, and the nourishment of shared tears.

I had no idea what to expect based on the short description I read before starting this, only that I wanted to read it. It was a hard start for me. I was lost in the sea of high culinary prose, but once it sank into my mind, or my mind sank into the prose, it burned a hole into my heart and filled it with something better. It was (to me) equally heavy and decadent, well balanced, insert some clever food critic anecdotes but without the irony. I don't really know how else to describe the experience, other than I feel completely and irrevocably changed in ways that will take time to unfold. I will be haunted by this book, in the best way (and a little of the worst).

I loved Binti, but I think I liked this more. I am refreshed and nourished by narratives that sing the virtues on non-violence, even in the face of atrocity. I really need to seek more of that out. I'm really looking forward to the second half of the Duology. Délé Ogundiran was straight fire on the narration. It may be what edged this book over the Binti trilogy, since I read those in the dead tree format.