A preface: Future me just tapped me on the shoulder to say that I'd like to revisit my year in books in 2026 and remind myself why I read the things I read and what I thought of them at the time. I will be sure to discuss them with someone, at some point, so let this be a memory exercise. 

I'm trying to gather my thoughts about this after having read the third instalment so I'm slightly scared that my love for the third one will cast a bit of a shadow on the second one which slightly misses the mark. I tried to devote equal time to all three but, ultimately, the last one won me. This second instalment feels like the awkward middle stage between being purely experimental with something (so much so that you just read it for the hell of it) and finally settling on what this whole thing is going to be about, which represents the third one. So, I think what I'm trying to say is that the second one is the sketchy middle child that wants to be an astronaut, start a soy wax candle business and become president all at the same time. I still enjoyed the reading experience but some inconsistencies did jump out to me. I thoroughly appreciate the reasons why this was executed in the form of an anthology. If anything, it's a much more accessible format for works in progress.