I don't even know how to describe this book.

At points it feels fresh and fun and exciting, and others it feels so reminiscent of other things that it's a little jarring.

Some of the worldbuilding is fascinating, and I am a sucker for sci-fi/fantasy worlds built on Greek/roman culture or myth, but also at points the world itself is SO confusing. Like I'm not really sure what the timeline of the world even is and I feel like in 600 pages that have TINY font, there should have been at least a few passages to clarify some of the world's details.

HOWEVER, I was never bored. It is a fairly typical hero's journey but there were multiple times in the book where I was SHOCKED at a reveal and it does keep you on your toes trying to figure out where things are going or how they're connected.

The clearest weak point to me is the character writing, specifically for our main character. He has basically no personality at all. Like there's nothing defining about him in any capacity where you couldn't just take a different protagonist from another story and put them here and have it change anything.

All things considered I had an enjoyable time reading it and I am intrigued by the direction it takes in the last 50 pages so I'm looking forward to continuing in a few months when I'm ready to read 700 more pages in this world 😅

I wish this had been more memoir than a sort of self-help.

I love that it unabashedly embraces bisexuality and his experience with it, I love that it's sex positive, and I love that it advocates that shame should have no place in our lives

But I just didn't particularly glean much from this, which maybe I'm just not the person this is aimed at, though I enjoyed the personal anecdotes.

This was officially my first beach read of 2026 and I think it will be hard to top. I've never seen the movie before, and only vaguely knew of a scene involving a peach and that was the extent of what I knew going into this.

I thought this was truly sublime.

As someone who falls hard when I fall for someone, I found this sort of obsessive, all consuming lust/crush to be so accurately depicted. Literally every single line rang true.

And I thought it beautifully captured the melancholy of looking back on a relationship and thinking about what was and what could have been and what part of you hopes maybe someday still will be. Because that person still has part of your heart captured for better or worse.

If I had not been in public, the last paragraph would have utterly destroyed me

DNF at 40%

Soooo, maybe it's because I just came off of finishing another fantasy series, albeit urban, that exceeded all expectations, but this kind of fell a little flat for me.

I think the world building is refreshing. Indigenous American/Aztec inspirations are not common enough in fantasy for how rich it can be.

The first chapter is really brilliant, but then every subsequent chapter fell to live up to that. Not bad, just not exciting to me.

The only character I was intrigued by was Serapio. And I fail to understand how Naranpa managed to become Sunpriest.

Overall, i just wasnt as intrigued by the plot and I think a "race against the clock" only works if it's very fast paced, which this was not when we're having flashbacks every couple of chapters. But it wasn't bad by any means, just not for me. Or maybe would have been for me at a different point in my life.

As it stands, I just am not motivated to pick it back up, I don't foresee it being a 5 star read, and I don't think I would read more in the series if I were to finish, so I have to dnf.

Dorian Gray is one of those classics that just fell through the cracks for me. But to celebrate pride month, I decided to give this uncensored, original typescript a go as recognition of historical queer lit. And I'm very glad I did.

It's easy to fall into despair about our current time for a myriad of reasons, but realizing that this, THIS, was deemed too explicit in homosexual content to be published puts things into perspective. It reminds me to be grateful that I do live in today's age, and I have had the experience of getting ready books by authors that are able to be open about their identity and to portray books about the queer experience openly and without smoke or mirrors.

As for the book itself, I just think Classics really are just touch and go for me. Unless it's dystopic literature a la Brave New World or genre books like Rebecca, i find myself glazing over portions. But I recognize the talent behind it, and I think the themes present are extremely applicable today regarding the lengths some will go to maintain their vanity.

This novella was impeccable. A Knight's Tale but make it homoerotic and polyamorous.

The writing really fit the vibe of the story, the pacing was perfect, and the dynamics between each pair were distinct and natural.

It was a perfect amount of steam and longing, and even just the depictions of casual intimacy were really, really satisfying.

Ultimately, I'm very intrigued with what the rest of the series will be like, and I need more. Immediately.