Chris

A gentle confrontation of all of western liberalism, a condemnation of the ways we speak about horrific things “over there”. Those who dismiss the book as “could have been a New Yorker article”, as one criticism I read put it, are exactly the lawn-sign liberals that El Akkad is exhausted by. Real, meaningful resistance against the at best amoral world today takes a sacrifice that many, including myself, find so hard to muster. It is measured in the smallest acts building together. This book is a powerful reminder of how distant and removed we get to be from any of the consequences of the maw of the western world.

A riveting take on the time loop genre. Balle brings so much emotion to her heroine’s predicament, what it is like to tell your partner the same thing over and over, the way you grow apart, the complexities of a person who can only take from the world. I can’t wait to read more about Tara Selter.

Less carefree than The Blacktongue Thief, but no less gripping. Buehlman is able to depict brutal and tragic circumstances without it ever feeling cheap or maudlin. And even through it all things still feel hopeful and worth fighting for. That balance is no small feat and I can't wait for more from this world.

I found book 3 of this series a bit disappointing. Balle brings insights into so much of the psychology of a repeated day. The seasons, the sounds, etc. it’s fascinating. But even still this book felt a bit meandering, a bit indulgent in how long it took to get anywhere. I wonder if it could have just been packaged with the previous or next books. And I wonder if she has a plan for it all.

But, I still enjoy reading and exploring the mind of Tara Selter and her endless November 18th.

I think this book was good but not great. Telling the story through chat logs made it zip by, but I think it also led to some shallow characterizations. Some of the plot felt a bit half-baked and some of the characters feel more like caricatures than people. I would have liked to have seen more depth to the story.