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Tak! quoted Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
They spoke about a future under Central Governance like a good thing, with the thoughtless repetition of children who hadn’t yet learned to question what their teachers said.
Tak! quoted Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
After she had affixed the crucifix to the ship’s inner membrane with a dab of bioglue under each of the nails, she had laid her head against the muculent wall and listened to the heartbeat pumping fluid across the ship’s undulating body.

enne📚 reviewed The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
The Hollow Places
4 stars
The Hollow Places is a horror novel by T. Kingfisher. The premise is that newly divorced Kara goes back to live in her uncle's curio museum; when a mysterious hole in the wall appears and goes to what seems to be another dimension, she and her barista friend investigate. Overall, horror is not usually my cuppa but this was an enjoyable creepy ride (and I'll read anything by T. Kingfisher at this point).
But he groaned and stomped around the hall for a few minutes, then said, "Okay. But this is how people die in horror movies, you know."
"You're not the teensiest bit curious?
"I'm incredibly curious! I've just also seen horror movies!"
This book is intensely creepy at times, and the horror elements all the more unsettling for being fuzzy and unseen and unknowable. I wish a little that there was a little bit more character development or …
The Hollow Places is a horror novel by T. Kingfisher. The premise is that newly divorced Kara goes back to live in her uncle's curio museum; when a mysterious hole in the wall appears and goes to what seems to be another dimension, she and her barista friend investigate. Overall, horror is not usually my cuppa but this was an enjoyable creepy ride (and I'll read anything by T. Kingfisher at this point).
But he groaned and stomped around the hall for a few minutes, then said, "Okay. But this is how people die in horror movies, you know."
"You're not the teensiest bit curious?
"I'm incredibly curious! I've just also seen horror movies!"
This book is intensely creepy at times, and the horror elements all the more unsettling for being fuzzy and unseen and unknowable. I wish a little that there was a little bit more character development or reveal (such as a more tight thematic coupling of Kara's backstory or marriage with the present events). However, I really enjoyed both the banter and also the centering of the museum as a welcoming and protective home rather than playing it just for creeps.
The author's note said that this was based on the 1907 short story The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood and I wish I had read that first so that I could understand some references that would have passed me by otherwise.
Tak! quoted Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
Sister Varvara had a face like the surface of an uninhabited moon, gray and stern.
In the distance, Sister Varvara instantly drops dead
Tak! quoted Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
While the sisters of the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations argued themselves in circles, the Reverend Mother sat silently in her chair at the head of the chapel as she always did, listening to the arguments twist and double back on themselves.
Tak! reviewed The Colours of Death by Patricia Marques
The Colours of Death
3 stars
An adequate whodunit set in alternate contemporary Lisbon where a minority of people are gifted with telepathic or telekinetic powers.
There were some oddities - for example, the protagonist talks about the ambient temperature in every scene. I was expecting it to become a plot point, but apparently it's just there. The story revolves around two investigators doing their thing, but they're oddly timid - they're perfectly content with people just refusing to talk to them about the investigation, and they act like getting a warrant for some piece of evidence that all their other evidence points at is an impossible obstacle.
It was enjoyable despite these details, and I'll probably read the subsequent entries eventually.
Tak! quoted The Colours of Death by Patricia Marques
Opening her eyes at the sound of her alarm had felt like a particular type of torture.
That was me this morning 😩
Tak! quoted The Colours of Death by Patricia Marques
The first time Isabel heard a voice in her head, she’d tried to talk back.
Tak! rated System Collapse: 5 stars

System Collapse by Martha Wells
Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation …
Tak! quoted System Collapse by Martha Wells
The whole thing made me understand the human expression “it made me want to vomit.” Why would you ever want to do something that was so objectively disgusting and looked so painful. Oh, this was why, I get it now.
Tak! quoted System Collapse by Martha Wells
I was too tense to even think about media
How you know when shit is getting real
Tak! quoted System Collapse by Martha Wells
Dr. Bharadwaj told me once that she thought I hated planets because of the whole thing with being considered expendable and the possibility of being abandoned. I told her it was because planets were boring.
Tak! rated Rose/House: 4 stars

Rose/House by Arkady Martine
Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.
A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a …
Tak! quoted Rose/House by Arkady Martine
Dead men throw bad parties.
— Rose/House by Arkady Martine