Court

Extremely loose influence from the Greek myth. A nice story that at moments made me think of both Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited away, however the pacing and transitions felt uneven; complex things were overly simplified.

Loved that Stan Lee used ‘excelsior!' to close out his introduction.

It was marvelous to have Michelle Obama's voice in my sun-filled kitchen or in my living room after dark. After listening to both her book and Barrack's Promised Land (as well as David Litt's book about being part of his team) I feel like I know the time period much better and benefited from listening to them closely together. There's not a lot of overlap as all three books are very different but the sense of setting/context felt more complete.

Lovely drawings accompanied by some background information

Magical. This holds such beauty and timelessness.
Excellent themes of immigration, identity, connection, culture, and stories (fairytales).

Also gorgeous artwork with its own parallel mixture of themes and histories.

The physical book itself was luscious.

Read very much like a heist film, my favorite genre. Had great pacing and The was the musical acts were done was fantastic. I was a little confused about Kitty's character, but the other main characters were excellent.

Read at: https://kaket123.tumblr.com/post/147761825053/hungry-by-shveta-thakrar-for-karuna-riazi-an

Perhaps all cats are shape shifters

Example of a slippery slope perhaps or just the nature of things

Gorgeous description. “Down the path he walks, holding his fox. Her brightness escapes the coat at both ends; it is like trying to wrap fire. Her warmth against his chest is astonishing for a wife who always felt the cold, in her hands and feet.”

You do not get to know the hows and whys of the transformation, although despite the transformation there seems to be acceptance (after some time) and love that continues. I like Karen's take on it: “another story of the one who got away, the one who changed and went where the other couldn't follow, the feeble attempts to hold onto an impossible love, a relationship become unrecognizable.”

Gorgeous art, but really dislike the portrayal of dinosaurs living at the same time as humans

The art was repetitive and the illustrations of people were awkward. The content was at times beautiful.

Read at: https://thedreaming.moteofdust.com/2008/07/10/being-an-account-of-the-life-and-death-of-the-emperor-heliogabolous/

Delightfully heady. I believe surreal and/or Kafka-esque might be mentioned somewhere. I love the absurd nature how all at once something is completely reasonable that is then turned on its head as to be unreasonable (eg getting conned by the person you assumed was supposed to help)

I also thought that some of the details were fantastic: same name Rebecca and the book he's written being called ‘Without K' but the plot of his book is about the encyclopaedia volume K is missing. It's wonderfully built. And maybe I got fooled, but it seemed that there were clues in the story to figuring out the killer.

Fantastic premise until it gets sidetracked. It could have gone somewhere really cool or more interesting than just two powerful beings attacking each other.

It might also have been weakened by my recent reading of Strong Female Protagonist.

Love that this exists. The story is a 3.5 to 4, however the annotations is 5. I love that there's a reference to records of trans and two spirit people from the era. The comment on conscription— and Flor's possible understanding of it's somewhat figurative meaning — is well done.

Made me think of Edward Gorey and I appreciated the reference to The Beatles' song

Sigh there's better ways to break the fourth wall. Did appreciate the reference to the 1980's movie Clue though.

Read as D&D writing, not bad, just not what I wanted to read

Haha theives' cant

3-3.5

This was fantastic. I thought the characterizations were right on for their ages. I was hoping for more of a conclusion, perhaps a change of heart and/or more growth from one of the characters.

4.5
Brilliant and gorgeous.

Really liked the theory of “The Big Bounce” – will have to look more at that later as well as Rovelli's other works.

3.5, rounded up because the ending was very satisfying. The interpersonal relationships were well done and Frances was very likable.

Reminded me of elementary school when friends would draw ‘Stick Man' and all sorts of ways he met his demise.

Also liked the reoccurring cat, him appearing as an artist (meta), and references to previous panels.

Luscious, gorgeous descriptive passages, at times a little long winded, but I feel that it was more transportive than anything else. A lovely listen and endearing characters.

It took me a little while, but I think I figured out my dissatisfaction with something: I wanted the MARSH to have killed Chase. But I guess I learned nothing, the land is neutral and that was repeated a few times

Enjoyable fluff