Reviews and Comments

and some fluff during breaks from the not-fluff; the scene setting of the 50-ish single mom adjusting to her only kid going off to college maybe is hitting a bit too real!

reading because my kid read it and liked it; absolutely amazing so far in my very slow read

I'm a big Tana French fan, and I especially love these last two, in which she really seems to be working through the moral implications of police procedurals when police violence is so omnipresent. Cal's less isolated here and that's only making his life more difficult when it comes time for him to sort out what justice means, and that's what makes this book work.

maybe a bit too madcap at times? but it's a cozy and she's pregnant and there's a commune, so it was fun enough

oof so many bad choices being made in this book, but also so beautiful to read

Just realized that since I listed this as one book rather than the 3-in-1 collection it is, it’s going to throw off my reading stats! Lolsobbbbb trying not to count the number of books I read anyway

Somehow the answer to what to read after devouring the Steerswoman books is a 1920 novel about a 14th-century Norwegian woman 🤷‍♀️

Actually finished this weeks ago, but have been in denial because it’s the last one but it’s at a cliffhanger! The plot isn’t done!! So close and yet so far!! Still thinking about what makes these books so compelling. It’s the way of thinking about what magic is, absolutely. But it’s also about what community is and what knowledge is and why curiosity is important. Grateful to the friend who recommended these and said to dive in without reading anything about them first.

There was zero chance I wasn’t going to dive straight into this

What can I say, these are still so good, and I am just eating them up. A lot of trauma in this one in ways that I did not anticipate, although that seems redundant because even once I felt like I got the secret of these books, they continue to add layers.

Definitely not yet at the level of her really great ones, but it’s her first published novel, so fair enough! I think it’s missing the key ingredient of different generations or different classes to really get her kicks in, and there are so so so many jokes about curates. But it’s Barbara Pym and it’s still v good

Palette cleanser! Couldn’t decide which Pym to read so made the obvious choice to read them in order of publication. Or possibly composition, haven’t decided yet

So much about this book was great—the story, the characters, the slow but insanely compelling roll of it. But there is a huge amount of physical abuse in it and that abuse gets excused at the end too easily for me as something that was necessary for an end goal. So I devoured this book and then felt really gross when I finished it.

It’s hard to review these without giving away the premise and the ways what you think it is shifts as you read it. Environment is huge is this one! The ways we think about it even huger! I’m just going to start making up more words soon, so I’ll stop.

Achilles might be a brat, but Agamemnon is a real asshole. First time reading this epic, and doing it with my kid! Emily Wilson ftw