At this point, I’ve practically read all the Ali Hazelwood that’s been released…and I can’t even tell you why. With her novellas, you’d think I’d have stopped being sucked in by the same tropes over and over again. And yet, here we are, five-starring her second full STEMinist romance novel. And I have no regrets.
The characters had the time to develop and play out entire arcs and subplots. The miscommunication trope was there, but it becomes exceedingly cleared up that it doesn’t become the overall plot device. A lot of the academia and the politics and the hatred for standardized tests (I’m with Kaylee here and we should just DRACARYS the eff out of them…) hit a personal nerve. I honestly wish this book had been around when I was in my own academic existential crisis, then I could have contemplated along with the rest of the WWMCD stans.
Also. Just Dr. Levi Ward. THE THINGS HE SAID. I’ll leave it at that.
As for Demon in the Wood…
I actually hadn’t read the short story, despite my having a copy of it in my Ruin and Rising paperback. At the time I’d just finished R&R and was too despondent to want to read this origin story that looked into the Darkling’s motivations. And once I’d heard there’d be a graphic novel version, I figured what’s a few more years of waiting?
Also, Dani Pendergast smashed the artwork out of the ballpark. This was definitely a fast read, and worth the wait for the combination of art and text.
Story and Somnomancy 