Grant

Love the premise but the organization of it made its central arguments harder to follow. It seemed to bounce from vignette to vignette, but the historical context wasn't as strong as I hoped. 

I really loved all the ingredients this was cooking with but it didn't quite come together for me. This was my first foray into realistic historical fantasy, so maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with the genre. I found myself wishing it was like “The Secret History” but with all the revolutionary fervor + anti colonialism. For as much time as we spent with the friends, they still didn't feel real to me.

Excellent audiobook though. The narrators did an excellent job.

“Tell me, princess, are you glad of the mist fading?”

The series (so far) has all the ingredients of a great fantasy series but the execution isn't quite there. Most notably - the women are two dimensional (sexual + powerful). 

I'm still entertained but it's soured slightly by the vision of what could be. 

I get the sense that King wrote this as a love letter to wonder and the stories that inspired it in him as a child. Alternatively, Fairy Tale is what you'd get if you had King write a Neil Gaiman book. 

I loved it. 

revenge porn power fantasy for women & I'm vibin w it 

1. Just watch Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. It does this but better. 
2. It was entertaining! I blazed through it, but I suspect I'll have forgotten I read it by the end of the year. 
3. I think it tried to be part thriller and part reflective. The reflective parts fell flat for me; there just wasn't enough support for them to carry the weight they deserved.

The inherent exploitation of the ceding supports the revolutionary tone of the book well. It was entertaining but I left underwhelmed 

too dark and gritty. too much misogyny. even if it's being critical of it (and i'm not sure it is), it just wasn't to my taste. 

darker than i want from a book right now

1) a little men writing women 
2) The writing style/tone didn't work for me. Too quippy/witty for what I'm in the mood for now. 

I may circle back around later when that's what I'm looking for

interesting magic system tho

I think I just don't like romantasy 

Picked it up for nostalgia. Didn't enjoy it enough to commit 

Worth re-visiting. Just not in the mood for it at this time.