Bryce

The Kingdom of Gods is a messy novel. It juggles so many different plot points and characters at once, some handled worse than others. It's a disjointed book and the weakest of the trilogy. And yet, for whatever reason, I found myself fully invested for (most of) the duration of the story. There were plenty of things I didn't like (unnecessary characters that only complicated things and added nothing, some general weird character inconsistency), but the beautiful prose and fascinating world kept me interested.

Horrifying and ugly with a rough, sometimes messy art style that felt so appropriate for the story it was telling. There are no shortage of horror stories/cautionary tales about the modeling/fashion/entertainment industry, specifically the ways that they manipulate and dehumanize young women, but I thought this one was particularly effective and visceral. Not a fun read, but it's a smart mix of commentary and horror.

A lot of the bad reviews here are about how the protagonist is unlikable, or that there doesn't really seem to be a “point” to this book, but the way that Jean Kyoung Frazier writes about people feeling complicated, messy emotions and doing things that even they don't really know WHY they're doing is heartfelt and empathetic. There aren't any easy answers or explanations, but I never felt the way that things developed was nonsensical or just completely out-of-nowhere.

To me, this book nails the experience of sabotaging your own life without even really knowing why—as if you're watching your life go off the rails from the sidelines without being able to stop it. This isn't something everyone will enjoy or connect to emotionally, and that's okay. It's a book about complex people behaving in sometimes shitty ways as they try to figure out how to cope with the lives they're living, and I think it's quite a good one.

Not as good as the first two volumes, but still enjoyable. 3.5

Wow, this took me forever to read. I liked a lot of it (the art, some of the characters, overall atmosphere) but I had some trouble following what was happening. Maybe one day I'll read it again and it'll click.