Love Will Tear Us Apart

Absolutely cozy and creepy for me. Found family, humor, creepiness, monsters, I just love it. Underread series.

Overall, this series is pretty fun, but I have to admit I didn't like this one nearly as much as the previous two.

Hannah leaves The Stranger Times to do some investigation on a wellness retreat/cult, meanwhile a previous contributor of the paper disappears without a trace.

The series reached an interesting point. The world of Stranger Times got expanded, we have the big bads set up, the sides in a huge magical conflict. We do have some sort of a case in every book to move the plot, but also there is an overarching thing going on. Some of the bigger rules of the universe are there.
Yet... the whole charm of the book started out as this weird mishmash of cooky characters. The humor is all based on these weirdos interacting with each other in a very immediate sort of way. Now, of course the main characters are tangled in the big thing more and more, but somehow it feels like we have small, funny moments that often felt a bit separate from the main thing.
Many of the characters were also underutilised. Why were we introduced to... John Mór when he is not doing much? Like in this book he was literally Hannah's driver to get her to where the plot was happening. Same goes with a bunch of the major people too! We have barely seen anything of BANECROFT, arguably the most fun character in this thing.
Now, every book usually has new characters introduced and that's fine. But why are we adding them when half the old ones could have been given a bigger role without swamping us with needless people. Just saying.

Another thing was how the “MHHHH, MANSPLAINING” type overused, unimaginative, unoriginal comments are getting more frequent. Not subversive. Not original. Just annoyingly virtue signalling. Don't get me wrong, the first two had some of those, but at this point everyone has to say those things and it's a bit tiresome.

It wasn't an awful read at all, it was pretty easy and fast, but not as fun as I'm used to with this series, sadly.
Hopefully, the next one corrects some of that and finds its way back.

Aaaand we're back for another adventure with the eccentric employees of The Stranger Times. McDonnell writes with a lot of warmth, and his worldview, which celebrates ordinary humanity while excoriating its worse excesses, is not a million miles from Terry Pratchett's (who gets a namecheck here). Once again, this is is an entertaining and lively read, with a cast of characters you will be rooting for. A lot of fun, and I hope there are many more to come.