This was fun enough but relies too much on the cozy genre to fill in gaps. The plot definitely slows down in the middle, and this likely also could have been about a third shorter.

The main character is supposed to be a plant witch villain but really didn't act like a villain at all. Her love interest was supposed to have a sufficient enough back story to warrant the crabbiness, but I mostly found him tiresome. It would have been better to just have a found family element and not include the rushed romance, in my opinion. I also think the murderous pothos was criminally underrepresented- I wanted more of the pothos' back story.

Cute enough read but not the first cozy plant fantasy I'd recommend to someone!

I solve a New York Times crossword (usually a Thursday or Friday) once a week with friends, so I am not a seasoned solver, but there was plenty in Across the Universe to amuse, entertain, and provoke thought in me. There is quite a bit of personal reflection, but this is helpful to demonstrate Last's evolution of thought on crosswording. Last also certainly did considerable research, as there is a very comprehensive historical narrative of the past and present of crosswords.

Some of the historical bits were overly dry and included unnecessary detail and names, but it was fun to learn that crosswords were yet another cultural phenomenon of the youths that startled the older generation. (For example, Last explains that the New York Times was the last of the big US newspapers to establish a crossword after stubbornly resisting what would supposedly dilute the purity of "news", but the advent of World War II inspired the paper to institute something to entertain and occupy Americans during trying times.) Last's research was very comprehensive, and I am honestly impressed by how much there was to learn about the history of crosswords.

My favorite parts of this book were the discussions of inclusivity and diversity as it relates to crossword and modern developments in crossword. There are a couple interesting examples of how it really is that deep about the words used in crosswords (e.g. the clue for a 90s crossword answer "clean coal" implying there is such a thing as "clean" fossil fuel burning sparking an environmental group backlash). The inclusion of words and ideas in crosswords has the power to raise some folks up (e.g. including facets of trans experience like "top surgery" as a puzzle answer) while also potentially setting folks down and apart (e.g. only including European-centered clues for "India" as a puzzle answer such as Kipling setting). I personally prefer to partner/group solve crosswords (rather than on my own), so I especially appreciated parts where Last highlighted mentorship and partnership in creating puzzles, especially when the goal was to encourage diversity. There is a fairly long (maybe too long) deep dive into how technology has changed how crosswords are created and solved, and I was cheered to find that while the latest AI models could potentially solve a puzzle, there is a distinct human element that sometimes alludes the models. I was also very pleased about the references to Rex Parker, a daily blogger about the NYT crossword and Katie Grogg, a content creator on TikTok and Youtube about crosswords under the username, coffeeandcrosswords. (I religiously read Rex's take after finishing a NYT crossword, and I love the community of coffeeandcrosswords.)

This definitely doesn't read like a coffee table book, and, at times, I could really tell Last was overly excited to whip out alliteration, rhyming, or other wordplay for the sake of wordplay rather than for readability. And that's fine (it's a crossword book!), but it did slow me down considerably reading this and I could see some readers getting fed up. If you're even a casual or occasional crossword solver, I think you will enjoy this, and veteran cruciverbalists will certainly have plenty food for thought from this book.

Thank you, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor/Pantheon, for the arc!