Bronwyn Knox

Historical Thriller with The Alienist and The Devil in the White City influences.

The story hinges on Pin, a fourteen-year-old girl who disguises herself as a boy for greater safety and freedom as she runs around Chicago's Riverview amusement park in 1915.

Hand creates a gritty, big city vibe for her historical Chicago. Pin is in a world of sexual predators, including a fictional version of Charlie Chaplin (who liked to marry ‘em young in real life.) The stage is set for a serial killer who preys on girls around Pin's age.

Pin becomes involved in the hunt for this killer in multiple ways. First, she has an unresolved backstory of a missing sister. Next, she is the first to find a body of one of the victims and inadvertently points the finger at the wrong person.

In her investigations to find the killer, she runs across a disturbed young man named Henry (based on real-life artist Henry Darger) who claims to be a protector of young women, also trying to find the killer. Hand does a good job of creating distrust and tension between these two eventual allies. Unfortunately, when they begin to work together, the reader never gets a sense of why their initial wariness blossoms into supposed friendship.

The viewpoint changes often during the book, including the killer's thought process as he goes around the city and back to his rooms where he performs an unusual ritual with the items he takes from the victims. Including this view actually makes him less menacing and it didn't add any insight.

The mystery aspect revolves around a very compact cast of characters, which seems unlikely to me in a city the size of Chicago. There's a lot of coincidence to move the plot and up the stakes which is not my favorite tactic and tends to break the immersion for me.

This was a pretty decent read, but not as spectacular as I was expecting. The premise had more promise that it delivered.

I wonder if Gilbert thought that the idea of women having sex drive and enjoying in an era several decades before the '60s-‘70s sexual revolution was some sort of revelation to us here in the 21st century? I certainly HOPE women enjoyed sex before then.

There was other wise very little story. Everything that happens after the big “incident” in the book, her true love, her activities during the war and so on, don't add up to a good plot or anything meaningful for the reader.

The best thing that happens is when the notable respected actress, Edna tells Vivian off for screwing around with her husband:

“The thing you don't understand about yourself, Vivian, is that you're not an interesting person. You are pretty, yes – but that's only because you are young. The prettiness will soon fade. But you will never be an interesting person,”

That's quite an insult. If she'd called her derogatory names she couldn't have hurt her more.

She's also correct. Vivian is not an interesting person. So why write a book about her?

Sci-fi thriller in which time, memory, the nature of reality, and perception are explored. There's a theme of not dwelling in the past, appreciating your memories and looking ahead. The ideas were fascinating and the action had me on the edge of my seat.

While I did enjoy the romance between two main characters, this is mostly a concept-driven story. The characters did not have defined personalities and the dialogue wasn't great, not interesting or believable.

Overall, this was a memorable novel that I'll be thinking about for a while.

Thriller with wonderful character development and relationships. It's packed with tense and scary moments, and a touch of paranormal/supernatural spooky stuff. And that's just superficially.

Going deeper, the story explores themes of father and son relationships, handling grief, and questions of self-worth and how parents affect your sense of self worth. These concerns touch all the major characters throughout the book. These themes are very heavily hit though, right on the surface and are not left subtle for the reader to discover through deeper thoughts.

Some of the plot elements wrapped up in a too-perfect way, and were too easily resolved for my taste, especially considering the overall dark tone of the book.

This is the season for haunted house stories. The Good House has a lot going for it: an interesting family saga, lots of scary scenes, and a strong female lead character.

Focused on Angela Toussaint, her teenage son, and her grandmother the story moves around in time as well as point of view. The essential conflict began with Angela's grandmother, who was quite powerful in dealing with the spirit world, but as these things often go, she pissed off the wrong entity. This creates a kind of inherited bad luck for her progeny. Later, Angela's son Corey manages to stir things up when he finds clues to grandmother's powers in the Good House.

I liked the parts with Corey and his friend Sean the best. I'm a middle-aged mother of a teenager myself, and I supposed I should have identified with Angela, but she seemed a little “out of my league.” Intelligent, sexy, athletic, the center of a love triangle with two successful men in love with her, a stellar career, heiress to a beautiful property, and best friends with a rising movie starlet, she is highly glamorous! To add a dose of family drama, she was estranged from her husband and had a tense relationship with her son. The story felt a bit soapy at times; I do love a good soap opera.

The ending's magical do-over felt like a fairy tale more than horror. I'm used to the notions of sacrifices being made at the end of a horror story. I'm uncertain as to whether or not Angela remembers anything that happened and this kind of takes away from the notion of growth as a person she might have experienced. I can see that the author loved her characters and wanted to see them happy.

Due is a good storyteller. I liked the characters and the way Due would give out the backstory information only at the most relevant moment. I would have liked to have known a bit more about Dominique, Angela's mother. I think that might have added a missing layer of depth to the story.

This book is a fantastic review of all things scientific, basically covering what scientists know about our world and Universe for the non-scientist reader. Bryson goes into histories of what we know about geology, chemistry, physics, and biology just to name a few. As someone who hasn't really had the chance to take a science class in my adult life, I really appreciated this book and recommend it to everyone.


My final takeaway from the book (besides the many, many ways life as we know it can come to an end) is that there is still so much we still haven't discovered.. Nearly every chapter states something similar. We don't know much about the Universe yet. We don't know much about the atom. We don't know much about the depths of the ocean. We don't know why there were periods of mass extinction or exactly how homo sapiens evolved from other homo species. This is actually encouraging in a way. There is still much to be discovered. If you're young and considering becoming a scientist, by all means, do it!

Story told from the vampire's POV, like Interview with the Vampire, or even better, The Vampire Lestat. The narrator, Joey, is a vampire (like Lestat) that enjoys being one. He and his gang take advantage of the humans in myriad ways in the 70s-disco-era New York City. It's grittier and less romanticized than the Rice series.

Joey's ADHD-fueled narration tells the story of how he was turned and gives the scoop on what vampires can do and what can harm them. How they survive and keep hidden from humans. And how they make sure other vampires follow the “rules” and don't expose them to the human herd of New Yorkers. It's in a conversational tone, as though he were talking to the reader directly.

The Lesser Dead is a book that starts out by just daring you to read it:

“I'm going to take you someplace dark and damp where good people don't go. I'm going to introduce you to monsters. Real ones. I'm going to tell you stories about hurting people, and if you like those stories, it means you're bad.”

The A-plot addresses the question of what happens when monsters meet worse monsters? The answer is nasty and dark things but a thrilling time for the “bad” reader.

I'll be on the lookout for more of Buehlman's books.

Gen-Xers and anyone interested in 1980's pop culture would probably have a blast reading this book. Maybe more so for those of us who grew up in the times since there is a certain feeling of nostalgia and irony about the setting. It was more entertaining than say, Ready Player One, because the music/movie mentions are blended in naturally with the story.

Hendrix uses horror conventions to tell stories about relationships and people. There was plenty of drama and tension; it was hard to put it down. It is similar to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires in the sense that the main character is ostracized, and it deals with similar themes of hypocrisy, conformity, and judging others by their financial class.

The story contains the usual teenage angst and adolescent struggles, as well as a heart-warming (though highly idealized) take on friendship.

Peripheral is what I've come to expect from a William Gibson novel. There are the haves and the have-nots who come together over some intriguing modes of technology and defeat some other more powerful entity or entities that are up to no good. There are mysterious and badass characters, celebrity culture, twists, and a little bit of romance.

As always, Gibson's prose has a hypnotic effect on me. He has a way of giving details to ground you in the story but with an economy of words. The tech described is unfamiliar to me but he has a way of making the strange familiar and sometimes the familiar strange, or at least interesting.

I seem to have hit a “Sophomore Slump” with the First Law. I still think the characterizations and development of relationships were good but I'm not sure that any plot needs to move this slowly, especially over three books that are each 500 pages long.

Maybe I'm just impatient.

As for the characters, I would have appreciated it if the one woman who got a POV in the book was not so boring. All she does is think about how she hates everything, distrusts everyone, and how stupid and slow her traveling companions are. A little of this goes a long way. Was Abercrombie afraid we were going to think she'd “softened” if he didn't repeat her constant bitter inner monologue?

I still like Glotka's combo of inner turmoil and outer cool. One thing that kept me going was curiosity about what he'd do next and how he would deal with what was thrown at him.

Yeah, I'm gonna finish the series. The completist in me needs to see how it turned out.

Generally, this wrapped up the story threads for the series quite nicely.

If I had a wish for these books, it would be that the three main characters had a stronger role in their own destiny, rather than being manipulated by Bayaz Even Logen Ninefingers, who seems the least affected by this, made most of his mistakes due to his possession by the Bloody Nine so I can't really credit or fault him for any of it. It makes the overall character development a little disappointing.

The greatest moments for me were watching Glotka's intelligence, mercilessness, and vulnerability at play.

I can't think of much to recommend this one. The idea of the Time Traveler, Henry, who is suffering from a genetic disorder called “chrono-impairment” sounded interesting, but unfortunately the author never did anything with it. She fails to explore any of the philosophical, emotional, or scientific ideas of the effect this would have on Henry or Claire. It's a device; an impediment or complication to his romance with Claire, the title character.

This is mostly just a romance and doesn't really work for me on that level either. Other than the above mentioned device, there isn't much of anything interesting between these two. Claire has no personality whatsoever that I can grasp. Henry has slightly more of an inner life but no tension ever ratchets up in the story between them. She knows she's going to be his wife because of the various visits of his future self and she pretty much just accepts this. No rebellion, no exploration of other relationships, no real conflict....

The writing style didn't make it any better. Sure, it was an easy read, and I had some curiosity about where it was all going. But the passages were dull journal entries alternating between Claire and Henry and the language was stiff. There is no difference in the “voice” between the two characters and the dialogue was stilted.

I picked this out to read because I read somewhere that it is one of Neil Gaiman's favorites and I wanted to know, since I'm a fan of Gaiman, what in turn is he a fan of?

Shadow and Claw is certainly unusual; I don't know if I've read anything like it. I may have read something with similar far-future/dying planet ideas, but it wasn't handled this way. It feels like high fantasy but hints are dropped everywhere that it is post-apocalyptic, built on the ashes of our society. The first person narration by Severin gives the reader only info that he knew at any given point in his tale and he only focuses on one element at a time. In other words, readers aren't getting quickly oriented to his world. There's no info-dumping. That could be a plus or minus, depending on your level of patience.

Severin doesn't know a whole lot in the beginning: he was raised in the torturer's guild and knows their lore and laws, and what he's been taught. It's clear every guild keeps things pretty close to the chest. When he does travel to different areas of the metropolis he's from as a messenger and so on, it's clear that every character exists in their little world and that is the sum of their knowledge. Even the librarians have an intellectually sheltered life.

Once Severin is excommunicated from his guild, things become less shadowy and mysterious, more adventurous. The majority of the story in two books consists of Severin and a few traveling companions getting into various dangers; there isn't a driving goal though he has some tasks that carry over from situation to situation. There is also a lot of storytelling within the story with supporting characters telling their stories, or Severin reading from a book, or plays that are performed. A story about stories.

Though Severin is a torturer and executioner we see little of the violence and horrific nature of his profession. Not that I really need a lot of details, but this almost makes light of his role, making him innocent and heroic when that doesn't fit his origins. He spends some time pondering the politics, morals, religion, and so on of the society he lives in, so he is a thoughtful character.

This is a smart book, very clever and entertaining at times. I'm going to have to think it over for a while, whether I want to move on to the next half or reread (which was highly recommended all over the place).

I'm a Talking Heads and David Byrne fan so naturally I was interested in his thoughts on music in general. This is a collection of chapters on topics from performance to recording technology to the business and trends surrounding music. As he said in the intro, you could read them in any order.I enjoyed the book for the most part. I have to admit there were certain parts that didn't hold my interest and I found them highly skimmable. He's clearly very intelligent and knowledgeable about the history and science behind making and selling music. This isn't really about promoting himself and his records. Though he does talk about Talking Heads and his other projects, it's mostly to show examples of firsthand experience. The first chapter discussed the idea that context determines what type of music is created. For instance, he brings up the way certain types of music developed to suit particular venues, (outdoors, in caves, opera houses, cathedrals). He also writes about music created for dancing, such as Jazz improvisation which is adapted to accommodate dancers who want to keep moving to a particular section. Players jam over chords while playing the same groove. Country, Latin, blues, and rock and roll is music to dance to and had to be loud enough to be heard above the chatter. This was something I hadn't thought of before and this chapter was well done.One of my favorite quotes in the book was from the chapter on live performance and how performers can give indications during a performance of what is about to happen (in a subtle way). “There are two conversations going on at the same time: the story and a conversation about how the story is being told.” He gives the example of horror films using ominous music which plays with audience expectations. But I think this could be applied to lots of types of art, including novels and stories. My favorite chapter was the one where he discusses amateur musicians and artists and funding for the arts. He makes some really good points about everyday people who are encouraged to consume rather than create and the way capitalism tends toward creating passive consumers. He continues to discuss funding for the arts is mostly limited to classical music and some types of Jazz are seen to have “moral value.” Hip-hop, club, and metal for example are considered to “lack positive moral essence.” Byrne wonders how we sense the moral value of the music; this is relative and subjective. Certain visual art is also seen as having moral value. He mentions John Carey's book, [b:What Good Are the Arts? 290215 What Good Are the Arts? John Carey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348364628l/290215.SY75.jpg 281566], which illustrates how officially sanctioned art and music gets privileged and concludes that assigning moral acuity to those that like high art is class-based. Opera halls, ballets, art museums receive more funding and not just from the government. Why not fund venues where young, emerging, semi-amateur musicians can make and perform music instead of “building a fortress to preserve its past?” Good book for fans of Byrne but also for amateur musicians and music fans.

Severed covers an admittedly weird topic: the fascination and horror of severed human heads. Larsen talks about them from many points of view, including: shrunken heads of tribal ritual and their eventual economy, trophy heads of war, decapitation as a form of execution and the development of the guillotine, artwork featuring severed heads, heads of value for worship and healing, collecting of skulls for “science,” medical dissection, and frozen cryogenic heads.

There is a lot of interesting history, science, politics, culture, and psychology given on the topic, but it's not done as objectively as I would have expected. Many times Larsen mentions the power dynamics of removing or just collecting heads and Larsen's personal judgment of those who did so. There is an overall moralizing and emotional tone that doesn't fit. I believe it was already understood that decapitating someone is a violent, brutal thing to do and collecting heads seems rather gruesome to us today. (If you don't already know this is wrong, I don't think this book will be enough to help.)I would have expected a more detached (pardon the pun) viewpoint from a science and history book.

A romantic rock-n-roll fable that is pure pop culture and light entertainment. Nothing I have to take too seriously. I'm a fan of classic rock, and the late '70s had some especially good bands/albums. The author seems to draw some inspiration from Fleetwood Mac and the romantic drama among the mixed band members that took place in the Rumors era.

There's a touch of feminism as the women have to make various choices. Is Daisy going to be a groupie or make a name for herself? Is Karen going to give it all up to have Graham's baby etc. But this is not too heavy-handed. Lead character Daisy is a drama-queen and Judith Krantz-style nightmare and you wonder how her warm and down-to-earth best friend Simone puts up with her.

My favorite character is the drummer, Warren. He is pragmatic and very droll, adding some laugh-out-loud comedy. He's outside the drama and mostly commenting on it.

Because it's written as an interview transcript, it's a super fast read and all the characters get to have their own “voice” in the events. Recommended if you like rock, pop culture, and humor.

Take one of those cyberpunk books of the '80s and '90s and make it faster, funnier, broader and a lot more shallow and that's the recipe for FV&FS. Be sure to update it with social media/Black Mirror kind of satiric commentary with the Blink channel substituting for TikTok, YT, whatever. (“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”)

There is tons of action, a few laughs, and an underdog character—one of my personal favorite character types.

After a few exciting opening chapters FV&FS became intermittently boring and annoying. There were still a few good moments here and there.

First of all, the satire is warmed-over. Rich people spend their money on ostentatious displays while people are starving blocks away. Social media/constant phone cameras create a lack of privacy, lack of humility, and narcissism. Toxic masculinity is bad. Pargin isn't stunning me with his insight and he certainly isn't making the criticisms in an innovative or subtle way.

Zoey comes off the best; I love a good underdog character and she had potential. In the beginning, she seemed resourceful, shrewd even, and rightly reluctant to trust. Soon after, she gets run over by the plot, starts trusting people immediately (like the bodyguard who shows up at the exact right time), and passively acquiesces to schemes created by her father's business associates. Worst of all, Zoey becomes a sort of offbeat fairy tale princess. I'm guessing this was also part of the satire. We all secretly hope we have rich daddys/godfathers/fairy godmothers somewhere who will transform our existence, even if we hate them and what they “stand for.” Still, she did get a few good moments of humor and insight and gets to own climatic moments. Not a complete waste.

More frustrating are the supporting characters. Will's role is “the stiff,'' and the Pargin tries to squeeze some sympathy by giving him a tragic past, mostly through awkward dialogue. There's no way a control freak would reveal such things about himself to someone like Zoey. We know even less about the others. Andre is a sharp dresser and gets the funniest lines. Echo is the token (hot!) femme and the joke about her is the assumption she's Chinese but she's actually Filipino. Hilarious. Budd is...an aging cowboy?

Then there's Molech, the antagonist. He's a cliche insecure sadist. I was mildly impressed with the relentlessness, but ultimately, he's one-note.

The book is just for fun but the bubble bursts when I can't maintain an interest in the characters.

“If the Creator had said, “Let there be light” in Ankh-Morpork, he'd have got no further because of all the people saying “What colour?”

On the Disc, Ankh-Morpork is the place to be. The books featuring the City Watch are part of the background, history, and atmosphere of the city. For this installment of the subseries, Corporal Carrot beats the odds to solve a series of murders, seemingly with the entire city against him. Meanwhile, old-timer, Captain Vimes, is stressing over his upcoming nuptials and his promise to his bride-to-be that he's leaving the Watch.

This is notable because a book or so later, the subseries became Vimes-centric, an unusual choice to make the mentor-type character the focus instead of keeping it on Carrot, the young, charismatic hero. But Discworld never goes where you expect.

This is the book that introduces the stream of recruits representing various races of the Disc, including dwarfs and trolls, those two always-warring groups. Angua and Detritus make their debut here.

You can't beat Pratchett and the Discworld series for funny dialogue and characters that feel real. Every page has an entertaining exchange and the pace never dips

“Have - have you got an appointment?' he said.
‘I don't know,' said Carrot. ‘Have we got an appointment?'
‘I've got an iron ball with spikes on,' Nobby volunteered.
‘That's a morningstar, Nobby.'
‘Is it?'
‘Yes,' said Carrot. ‘An appointment is an engagement to see someone, while a morningstar is a large lump of metal used for viciously crushing skulls. It is important not to confuse the two, isn't it, Mr-?' He raised his eyebrows.
‘Boffo, sir. But-‘
‘So if you could perhaps run along and tell Dr Whiteface we're here with an iron ball with spi- What am I saying? I mean, without an appointment to see him? Please? Thank you.”

I love that you can pick up any book of Discworld, start reading and not feel too lost. There's enough in the exposition to get you caught up and it's otherwise entertaining enough that you can fill in the blanks, or you're having too much fun to care about what you missed. I do think reading Guards! Guards! would be helpful though, for setting up Carrot's background, Vimes past, and the evolution of the City Watch.

Guards! Guards! was the first Discworld book I read and it's a terrific introduction to Carrot, Vimes, and the Watch. Men at Arms improves on the model—the plot moves faster, the characters get new layers, and the new additions to the watch, and the series, are a delight.

Fun History book that covers Medieval England in an unusual way. Instead of just going over historical events or expanding on a particular person or event, the central thesis is that “19th century novelists and 20th century filmmakers have created a period that never existed.” Medieval years are romanticized in films and books. Anyone who reads high fantasy knows this is generally the mythical time they are set in. Or at least something resembling Medieval times.

The book's chapters are devoted to breaking down the archetypes that are used in films and books. Jones and Alan Ereira cover Damsels, Knights, Kings, Monks, Peasants, etc. The authors go into the scholarly evidence available on the day-to-day lives of these real people who have been mythologized for our entertainment.

For example, peasants were not living as terrible lives as the stereotype would have us believe. They had decent sized houses and lived in nuclear families with valuable goods like tableware and games to lock up and they ate pretty well. Knights spent a lot more time devoted to violent warfare than they did in rescuing “damsels.” Interesting note: the abduction of a lady was often arranged by the woman herself so she could be married to the man of her choice, not have her property given away by the king.

It's an enjoyable read and co-written by a member of one of my favorite television comedy teams. How could I refuse? Having said that, while the book has a few amusing moments, it's not Monty Python kind of funny. You'd be disappointed if you were expecting that.

Well-structured, compelling, and truly scary ghost story. I will be looking at more Straub when the horror mood strikes me. Note that the character Sears James tells a story about himself as a young schoolteacher that is very similar to, and probably inspired by, Henry James' [b:The Turn of the Screw 12948 The Turn of the Screw Henry James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567172392l/12948.SY75.jpg 990886].

The story is not merely a thriller about a serial killer, although murder does happen. I saw it also as a family drama with extremes of abuse, infidelity, and sibling rivalry. There's even a coma relationship, making it almost soapy, if the writing wasn't so fine tuned.

I believe the reader is supposed to find that the serial killer in question was “made” not born. Both sisters are victims of an oppressively patriarchal environment, an abusive father, and a weak mother who shuts down (with help from Mr. tranquilizer) when things become too much. In other words, you kind of feel bad for the sisters despite the fact that what they're doing is very wrong. (Moral ambiguity as another reviewer said.)

For such a short and deceptively simple book, there's a lot going on in these pages.

Fun and entertaining sci-fi story in which characters investigate different parallel versions of Earth.

Most of the book is taken up by explaining the backstory of “stepping”–the way that humans on our Earth learn to travel from parallel world to parallel world.

Once these new “Earth” are discovered, there are philosophical implications to such as how an endless supply of habitable planets provides humanity with new resources to exploit, old-west-style pioneering, and opportunities for a new life. As one character puts it:

“An end to scarcity and, may we hope, war. And perhaps a new meaning to life.”

“You have traveled far across the contingency tree of the possible, on a planet where dramatic but quasi-random extinction events periodically obliterate much of family life, leaving room for evolutionary innovation.”

Skin Game was a great read in a way that the previous entry into the series was not. No boring, overlong action sequences and the plot made sense with the internal logic of this series. This furthers my theory that on average every other one of the Dresden files is really good.

This one had good structure, pace, an unexpected twist, some genuinely thoughtful moments, and nice touches of humor. It was “Nicodemus's Eleven” paired with Dresden working on some personal issues.

Also, Harry has achieved genre awareness:
“There's always something. It doesn't matter how smooth you are or how smart the plan is, or how plain the mission—something goes wrong. Nothing's ever simple. That's how it works.”

There are a lot of fascinating ideas in this novel. As many reviewers have mentioned, Jemison's world-building is imaginative. I love the idea of the Orogene's superhuman gifts during an age of environmental turmoil. Syenite and Alabaster's friendship/relationship/mentorship was nice. I appreciated the diverse characters and the unusual polyamorous relationship that formed, which I don't often see in a sci-fi fantasy book. I was also glad to see a vital female lead; one where the writer doesn't self-consciously draw attention to that fact.

I didn't love the book. About halfway in, I was increasingly bored and wanted more. Part of it might have been the three-way divided narrative. The chapters with the child Orogene had the most potential to involve me. I would have appreciated more about her relationship with her Guardian. I also wish Jemison had expanded on how that Guardian/Orogene system came to be. It feels less like a fleshed-out story and more like a hazy (but lengthy) tour through this world with the three different Orogenes in different stages of life. I wonder if this would have created a better build up if they had told the story of Damaya (who grew to be Syenite, who changed her name to Essun) in a linear way.

The Orogenes are the most powerful (in terms of “magical power”) and necessary people while simultaneously being the most hated and feared—not to mention slaves to the powerless Stills. This sounds like a great source of tension and conflict for the story; it doesn't live up to its potential. Enslaving the Orogenes is like enslaving a bunch of Firestarters; in King's book, the government fails to control her and she's all alone.

This inconsistency is exemplified in the scene where Orogene Essun is leaving the town of Tirimo to look for her daughter. The town leader allows her to leave but other citizens have learned what she is. They foolishly attack her, and she kills them all with no fuss or muss on her part.

Why would the Orogenes, with this superpower, put up with this treatment, other than (possibly, it's not defined) internalizing the global belief that they are born “evil”? The sheer numbers of the Stills maybe, yet that is not enough. They may not be able to combine their power but they could certainly cooperate together using their intelligence. Part of the job of the author is to make this work, make it believable.

The idea that the Guardians have an affectionate yet contentious relationship with their charges was another potential avenue of conflict not developed. The Guardians are basically slaves as well; once they lose their grip on their abilities they are put down like rabid dogs. There could have been a compelling inner conflict where the Guardians have ambivalent feelings about their role. Instead, they amount to a vague source of menace to the Orogenes.

I would have liked to have seen a little more intensity from the story and characters. (Constant anger is not the same as intensity, nor is it a personality trait.) As it is, I'm not engaged enough to continue the series.

Fascinating story that is stranger than fiction. It's hard to believe what Holmes and her partner got away with for so long. Amazing the amount of support she managed to get and the lengths she went to in order to perpetuate this fraud.

Despite all the investors she cheated, and the patients that didn't get the proper treatment, my sympathy was strongest for her employees, the ones that she harassed after they quit/got fired.This is no doubt because John Carreyrou focuses mostly on the former employees and those that had the nerve to share the incriminating information with him. It actually puts you on the edge of your seat because Holmes and her partners' harassment techniques include stalking and they were pretty scary.

There was one thing that really killed me about Elizabeth Holmes, although all things considered it was rather minor. There were multiple mentions in the book of how Holmes would flirt and use her charms on older men to get their support, investment money, etc. When she finds out what Carreyrou is writing about her, she accuses him of bias against her because she's a woman. No way, Holmes. You can't use your femininity in your favor and then turn around and accuse someone else of using it against you.

But all things considered, this is the least outrageous thing that Holmes did or said.