VE Schwab's prose is wonderful! I was expecting this book to be a simple love story that spans ages. But it's so much more than that! It has the allure of Interview with a Vampire, the intensity of Carmilla, the longing of The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, and even the toxicity of A Dowry of Blood. 

Similarly to La Rue, we follow two distinct timelines: one beginning in 1532 with Maria and another in 2019 with Alice. Slowly, we see their worlds intertwine. 

The plot is a bit loose, going from decade to decade, century to century. The focus of the book is the characters and the relationships they cultivate. Some are intense and all consuming, others just ships passing each other in the night. 

It's beautiful and heartbreaking, and you keep wanting them to fix themselves and truly live, instead of just surviving. 

Highly recommend it! 

Wow. This is amazing. A story about colonization, marginalization, racism, and the costs we are willing to pay to maintain our lifestyles. In a society in which everything runs on magic, Sciona has her sights on becoming a high mage. She is paired with an unusual assistant: a janitor named Thomil, who is from a marginalized group of people called Kwen. Together, they discover the limits and the cost of the magic that permeates their lives.

The story is beautifully written. The prose flows wonderfully, even when describing the complicated workings of this universe.

Both our protagonists are full characters, with several flaws as well as virtues. I kept wanting to protect them, even when they made bone-headed decisions. Sciona is self-centered and very egotistical. Her ambitions blind her to the needs of others. More than once, she decides she knows better than Thomil and ends up proven ridiculously wrong. On the other hand, Thomil is hard headed, inflexible, and suspicious. But, it's hard to judge him when he is correct about most of his assumptions.

The only criticism I have of this book is that it is a little slow. There's a lot of exposition and explaining of processes that maybe didn't need to be as drawn out.

But I was fully captivated and the ending almost brought me to tears, even though I knew 2 major spoilers before going into this.

This was delightful! Keila, a very introverted librarian, has to escape the city and flee to the remote island on which she was born. Her plan is to live like a hermit, with her books and her plant assistant Caz. However, little by little, she falls in love with the small village and the friendly villagers. It's a simple story, but very heart warming and lovely. The kind that makes you want to believe the best of people. And it kind of reminded me of playing Stardew Valley... 

So, this was profoundly unsettling. Written as a first person narration, we follow Joe as he becomes obsessed with Beck, a basic NY girl who wants to be a writer. He describes to us his attempts to manipulate her into a relationship with him. And from the beginning, he describes violent and unhinged behavior in a very matter of fact way, completely blasé. The structure of the book makes him a very unreliable narrator. He continually describes himself as charming and witty, but he clearly is misreading situations and confusing politeness with affection. If you stop to think about it, most of his interactions with other people are kind of awkward and he is very insecure about his lack of formal education. Since we only get his POV, Beck's friends are basically caricatures and don't really have much of a role in the story. Well, except for Peach, who he thinks of as a manipulative bitch. In fact, he mostly describes women in this kind of language. Even the "love of his life" is often described as an animal or an object. For him, the only reason she exists is as the object of his obsession. He doesn't really consider that she can have wants, needs or even tramas outside of their relationship. He borders on incel behavior, considering it his right as "a nice guy" to get the girl he wants. As for the plot, there isn't much of it. The story goes from crisis to crisis, as Joe tries to bond Beck to him. It can also be a little predictable, especially when his patterns are established.

It was a very interesting read, but I'm not sure if I want to continue on with the series... maybe later when the mood hits me...