Owen
Its a nice story - but it feels off
Raynor always acts like they're both the victim of everything in society and that they're better than everyone else.
There's this real undertone of superiority to walkers who don't have time to take in the path, to local businesses who expect payment for services, to homeless people who aren't going on adventures or worse off than them. And yet they steal from shops?
On the one hand she tries to present them as not the stereotypical thieving homeless, instead as more enlightened hikers, but instead glorifies this behaviour.
She presents the court case as some unavoidable whoopsie that they're innocent in, but for something so important, I expected them to go into more detail about, and to process that experience throughout their walk, but no they didn't.
A lot of the dialogue feels very curated, as though interactions that would make readers more sympathetic to them were prioritised.
The picture of Dorian gray is a really intriguing story. I love the concept, but i think the writing could've been improved. The majority of the book occurs before Dorian discovers the curse of his portrait, and a massive 18 year time skip occurs during which he engages in an overly decadent lifestyle, which is described in the most dull chapter, name dropping so many people, and things and places, but it's so boring. After this time skip a lot of plot happens very very quickly and it all comes off a bit rushed.
This is the most English teacher book I've ever read. It's short, with ambiguous aspects and unexplained character motivations and backstory and a horrible protagonist.
I loved how effortlessly it captures that dreamy summer beach holiday vibe. Cecile is such an interesting character. She's horrible to everyone, incredibly manipulative but is surprisingly deep for a 17 year old. Her motivations seem to change with the wind sometimes as she just goes about ruining lives.
That age gap though yuck
Definitely did not see the ending coming too
It's also interesting that the author was pretty much the same age as Cecile when she wrote the book too.
I'm not an imposter - I'm a volunteer!
Among us core
Seeing many previous characters return for a giant game of among us as the baudelaires enter more morally grey territory was really enjoyable.
I really liked how the story felt like it genuinely could conclude, if not for the book being the penultimate peril.
Captain Widdwershins feels like the captain from joke boat
He (or she) who hesitates is lost, aye!
Genuinely creepy atmosphere, building on the more morally ambiguous themes of the previous book and a continuingly complicated plot made this book a highlight in the series so far.
The return of Phil the optimist and the introduction of captain widdershins and fiona as well as the hook handed man's backstory were some of the most engaging and enjoyable characters we've seen in a while
I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first, the final felt a lot more complex than the first book and left me with so many questions
In the first book I wasn't the biggest fan of jude and cardan, but here it felt a lot more real and believable
I just like betrayal and political intrigue and power plays I guess
