I've just come across a simile that is interesting because it's not doing what the author thinks it is, though it's close enough that most readers would move right past it without realising. CW for description of an injury:

She forced herself to walk instead of run, her bones scraping against each other like a violin bow.

Violin bows do not, in and of themselves, scrape. They need a violin. And while "scrape" is a good word for the bones part, it's not something I'd associate with what a violin bow does. Violinists aren't up on stage scraping out music. We can intuit what is meant by the simile so most people wouldn't give it further thought, but on closer inspection it isn't successful. It's only half there, to begin with -- a solitary violin bow in want of a violin. It's also misaligned with the sensation it's trying to describe -- are musical instruments the strongest way to emphasise what is going on here? Maybe they are, if the musicality is harsh and discordant, but that isn't part of the simile as it stands.

The writing in Ninth House has been very solid, so this particular example is more a reminder that a fallible human wrote this. I've been coming across this kind of thing more and more often, though, so think it's worth drawing attention to in general. As readers it is not our job to compensate for the failings of an author's writing or an editor's inattention.

So, I have a friend. He’s 57 and never ever been into reading. He recently listened to the audiobook of this one and the next one and LOVED it and asked me for recs. I’m excited because I also love this series!

Anyone have any? I’m thinking what drew him was the epic fantasy, so I’d like to stay away from romantasy. Also, he’s just gotten a divorce so anything romance heavy probably isn’t great in general, and closed door if there is any romance scenes of that regard.

I haven’t read other epic fantasy so much to get a similar vibe for him.

I’m getting him an audiobook yearly for his birthday and I want to use credits to add some books pre bought into there for him and leave him some to get his own!

From the first page, I don’t think I have ever been more confused starting a book 😅