made me cry three separate times, slow start with a banger finish and a fun focus on character. very nineties also while still feeling fresh. emotionally painful to the extreme in a way you dont usually expect from a twisty plotty political fantasy novel but i did expect and still got jumpscared by.

i think that this is just as good as and in my opinion better than the first book, as it has all of the creepy botanical horror and fun dynamic between ana and din but it also has better and more fun side characters (i love you malo) as well as a perfect twisty mystery for me to follow along with. i felt like i was in a conversation with the story like “right now im making this conclusion but is that just the one the book wants me to make?”. my not perfect score is again because of a gripe with the motivations of a perpetrator but i do think it was handled better this time. recommend !

a framing of the history of usamerican antifa, and particularly its efforts to name and unmask fascists, meant to cater to a wider audience via a sort of true crime narrative woven with asides about history that give greater context to the story of vincent’s infiltration and what was done with the information he gained.

i expected to know a fair bit of this given both my location (in MN) and my personal history and knowledge vis a vis the online right. but i think it’s still a great overview and reminder, told from a frank and honest voice that doesn’t pull any punches, and in the end a meditation on hope in the face of 2026 - and i did learn plenty of new things (including a brief aside about police brutality towards protesters at the RNC in St. Paul in 2008 that I’d somehow never heard of before).

we keep us safe !