(Except I think I have an even more visceral reaction to the poor parents imprisoned alive in goop and fed on spider vomit than I do to the blood vomit.)
BARF FOREVER.
The plot-related loose ends were frustrating--I'm especially surprised we didn't get a firmer resolution on Georgia's fate--
Me too. Especially since if we hadn't earlier seen her alive, we would have just assumed she'd been killed at the end of her POV section.
but even more than that, I wanted more on the Jewish vampire lore and more of the differing ways Ana, Reid, and Isaac relate to Judaism.
Me too! What we got was so good, but it came in so late and then its actual use was minimal. I especially wanted to see the vampires react to Judaism, and more on the stuff about Jewish stereotypes/vampire stereotypes. Like did vampires deliberately cultivate that so no one would think of Christians as vampires?
Though Ana using the chai sculpture as a weapon was fantastic. But I wound up feeling really bad for Isaac from the bit of his backstory that we get, and it felt like his plot ended on a relatively downer note, with just the one note of hope that he was going to maybe start emphasizing survival over suffering.
Same. I wanted him to at least know that his studies had been helpful.
But the vampires were so fantastically cool and disgusting--shades of Grady Hendrix there!--and I love that it's all so organically rooted in its social contexts.
I loved the vampire ecology. Especially the interplay of vampires and spiders and gargoyles. And Camilla not seeing becoming a gargoyle as a horror, but as a satisfying final stage in her life.
Reid ending up as one of the frozen doormen is haunting (and I'm curious if that is indeed always what they intended for him, as Ana suspected, or if he hypothetically would have had a better, if equally complicit and coerced, fate if the vampires hadn't lost so much power). And the book does a really great job of leaning into the horrors of pregnancy and motherhood and loss of control: the flashback to Ana almost killing Charlie was really visceral and well-done, and you can totally see how she wound up at that psychological breaking point. And it's such a small detail, but I also love the unsettling doubled refrain where you can't be sure if it's "know your home" or "know you're home."
Yes, all that was great. I also loved that complete disaster of a birthday party, and briefly thinking Reid had just hurled the guests off the roof!
no subject
BARF FOREVER.
The plot-related loose ends were frustrating--I'm especially surprised we didn't get a firmer resolution on Georgia's fate--
Me too. Especially since if we hadn't earlier seen her alive, we would have just assumed she'd been killed at the end of her POV section.
but even more than that, I wanted more on the Jewish vampire lore and more of the differing ways Ana, Reid, and Isaac relate to Judaism.
Me too! What we got was so good, but it came in so late and then its actual use was minimal. I especially wanted to see the vampires react to Judaism, and more on the stuff about Jewish stereotypes/vampire stereotypes. Like did vampires deliberately cultivate that so no one would think of Christians as vampires?
Though Ana using the chai sculpture as a weapon was fantastic. But I wound up feeling really bad for Isaac from the bit of his backstory that we get, and it felt like his plot ended on a relatively downer note, with just the one note of hope that he was going to maybe start emphasizing survival over suffering.
Same. I wanted him to at least know that his studies had been helpful.
But the vampires were so fantastically cool and disgusting--shades of Grady Hendrix there!--and I love that it's all so organically rooted in its social contexts.
I loved the vampire ecology. Especially the interplay of vampires and spiders and gargoyles. And Camilla not seeing becoming a gargoyle as a horror, but as a satisfying final stage in her life.
Reid ending up as one of the frozen doormen is haunting (and I'm curious if that is indeed always what they intended for him, as Ana suspected, or if he hypothetically would have had a better, if equally complicit and coerced, fate if the vampires hadn't lost so much power). And the book does a really great job of leaning into the horrors of pregnancy and motherhood and loss of control: the flashback to Ana almost killing Charlie was really visceral and well-done, and you can totally see how she wound up at that psychological breaking point. And it's such a small detail, but I also love the unsettling doubled refrain where you can't be sure if it's "know your home" or "know you're home."
Yes, all that was great. I also loved that complete disaster of a birthday party, and briefly thinking Reid had just hurled the guests off the roof!