Review by ilishii - Written in Red

dark lighthearted slow-paced

2.75

I want to start off with saying that even though I have a lot of complaints about this book, I'm still interested enough to continue the series.

This was the slowest mf I've read in a while. The details are a little overboard especially when it's details about delivering mail. It's an odd mix of high stakes and mundane daily life. There were so many parts where I wanted to shake the characters so they would focus on things that I considered more important.
The motivations for some of the characters are weak at best. Asia Crane, for example, bringing up her fictional character in her future tv show every 5 minutes as a reason for high-stakes espionage felt weak and dumb to me. She kept mentioning how it would make her very rich, but I don't understand how espionage at the level she was attempting wouldn't do the same thing.
The Others falling in love with Meg just because she delivered the mail also felt silly. She made super powerful allies because she delivered some movies and bumbled along the entire way? OK.
The number of times women were put down for being boring and talking too much was dumb. I can't remember how much of a problem it was in the first book, because I'm reading the second book now (where it is an even bigger problem that stands out to me even more) and the details are getting a little mixed up in my head. Just know that it happens and for what? I vote we all agree to stop putting women down for just existing.
The control Meg has over beings that could fuck her up just because she has some dog cookies doesn't make sense to me.

Now that I'm done nit-picking, I will say that even though it is slow and cheesy I still want to know the rest of the character's stories.

Content Warnings