I really loved the first two books in this series, so I was looking forward to this one as being grander and more epic than the previous two. It was, in a way, but in others it was more constrained as it wove a more complex plot against the backdrop of staggering wealth and incomprehensible privilege.
I adored Monstrous Heart, when I read it. So much so that when I realised exactly how stunning the hardbacks were (I’d got digital ARCs for both it and Deepwater King), I actually went out and bought hard copies of both. Because they’re stunning, and because I felt that book one was so special I was certain I was going to want to keep this series and read it again and again.
Something that really blows my mind a little about this trilogy is that I got the first instalment as a Christmas present in 2019. I think I finally started reading it in... I want to say May 2020? So even though this series does predate the pandemic, it also has basically been something which has carried me through it. To start and finish a new trilogy during something like that feels somewhat surreal. It's been just the escapist, easy-reading treat I needed and sparked the right parts of my brain to make be just sit back and enjoy the ride.
I have spoken in previous reviews about how much I flipping love these books. And I'd been saving this one because I knew it would be a fun, relaxing, enjoyable read for when things were getting rough. I struggled with February and March this year, more than I anticipated, so I thought "Aha! Break glass and administer Hollowpox."
As someone who occasionally thinks "maybe I should read comics" and then looks at the comics and goes "oh no that's way too much", Fraction's Hawkeye was neatly collected, required very little additional knowledge, and generally shied away from the sort of art that inspired the Hawkeye Initiative (ironically).
This book was a Christmas present from several years ago that I had been carrying around on holidays because it seemed like it would be a good holiday read but I had never actually got around to reading. The picture at the top here? Greece, 2018. And it was ridiculous, because it was a book that held a lot of appeal, it sounded genuinely lovely and uplifting, but perhaps the issue was that it didn't seem urgent - there was nothing pushing it up my reading list.
Do you ever stumble across something and you know without a doubt that if you had found it when you were younger, you would have been obsessed with it?
The first book was brutal, violent, dark. I needed a resolution for the characters, sure, but I understand how trilogies work. Things always get significantly worse before they get better, and the ending of part 1 is never, ever as straightforward as it appears.
From my previous review of John Allison's work, you'd be 100% correct in thinking I was a bit of a fan. I adored Giant Days as a spinoff from Scary-Go-Round, but Bad Machinery also presented me with an unexpected cast of characters to love, sticking to the slightly spooky-whimsical direction of its parent comic. I loved the team of child detectives, but perhaps my favourite shining star and hero was Lottie Grote - chaos with big hair, a mad genius and the human incarnation of the phrase "hold my beer."
I read this when I was feeling very stuck in a rut with my reading. This year has felt – for me at least – a lot harder in terms of trying to disconnect from life and really connect with some fiction. It was perfect.
NERDS LIKE ME 