Books

it's alright so far! i'm about halfway through atm, glad to be reading it. some pros and cons as always

i like the material nature of ichorite and how it affects the story, characters, and worldbuilding. i'm intrigued by the author's conception of the contradiction between the aristocracy and the burgeoning bourgeoisie, although it seems like each is portrayed as a class and not a set of people to varying degrees at different times. when it does the former i get sucked in

i do wish there was more of an explanation for why crawlies are somewhat normalized vis a vis the patriarchy. that stuff is always interesting to me in queer fantasy/sci-fi because it gives you an idea of what the author's conceptualization of patriarchy is. like it totally makes sense to be normalized in the aristocracy, but why and to what extent in the lower classes? it's also way hornier than i was expecting lol. i don't really appreciate the neutral/positive view towards the sex industry, especially in a book featuring some form of queer liberation

in terms of writing style i think it's interesting that there's so many long paragraphs of descriptions with a kind of weird or disjointed character to them. it really helps you get into the MC's head. i feel like it's sort of at the expense of dialogue and consequently the development of her relationship to some of the other characters, but that also makes you feel as shy and uncomfortable as she seems to be in social situations sometimes