Drive. The book is straight up garbage.

Anything by Terry Pratchett, especially Discworld.,

I think the issue is that when Schwab likes a character, they get center stage in every way. Schwab will entirely ruin other interesting elements she has going for her story or other characters in service of the one she likes. I love her book covers and her stories have really interesting concepts and ideas, but she always just fumbles by making it seem as wide as a lake but as deep as a puddle.

Good lord, I totally forgot how on the nose she is 😂 between this series and Addie La Rue, I just decided I can’t deal with the way Schwab does characters. Bard is absolutely the worst though. I have no idea how people read the second book and didn’t immediately tell her “hey, you know you’re basically making Bard an unlikable villain without having anything about the story or other characters treat her like one?”

I would recommend dropping the trilogy. The third one just continues to make her the most special snowflake ever and better than everyone at everything. It’s ridiculous.

This is what sealed the deal on the series for me. Delilah Bard became the main character, with top tier Mary Sue elements as well as a mountain of “not like other girl” energy, but the worst part was absolutely that competition. Like, it wasn’t even relevant. She did it for FUN. If there were a plot significant reason that she HAD to do it, I that’d be entirely different. Instead she screws up someone’s life because she wants to see how good she is. And when 2 people mildly call her out about it she gets furious at them.

I basically read the last book because I had a small hope she would die.

The three books I’ve read by Haruki Murakami. It’s incredibly rare for me to genuinely feel insulted while reading a book, but all three of his I’ve read made me angry, insulted, and so fucking curious as to how he could possibly be so well regarded.

The three books I’ve read by Haruki Murakami. It’s incredibly rare for me to genuinely feel insulted while reading a book, but all three of his I’ve read made me angry, insulted, and so fucking curious as to how he could possibly be so well regarded.

Basically fantasy with a focus on romance. There’s a fantasy romance sub on here that uses the term a lot.

A Choir of Lies is a story written down by a storyteller that’s being read and critiqued by another storyteller who is leaving snarky footnotes.

I think he accidentally achieves success. I read Recursion and really liked it. Felt like all the concepts made sense and factored into the story really well. The characters were on the weak side but still entertaining.

Then I read Dark Matter and I was almost insulted by how bad it was. The concepts didn’t make any sense and actively contradicted each other, and his writing of his female characters (and male characters in regard to how they treat the female characters) was legitimately gross.

I figured an author who can hit fairly solidly in one attempt and miss completely on another isn’t someone I should put effort into reading, so I’ve only read those two books and it’s probably gonna stay that way.