Kingdom of Knuffel

Will do, but I've finally gotten drawn in to the story of "Empty House" so that's the one I'm focusing on just at the moment. Might be a day or two.

Finished the second book in the Villains series, Vengeful by V.E. Schwab, and enjoyed it. Though In my opinion the first book, Vicious, was much better. Currently I'm reading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

wulfilalice wrote:I've just finished "Starglass" by Phoebe North. of the fiction started this year, there's only "Remedial Rocket Science" by Susannah Nix to finish now

@Akili Li: please tell what you think of "The Invisible Library" when you get to reading it! I've been eyeing the book for some time

I'm sorry I forgot to get back to this with you!
So oddly enough I liked the middle-of-the-series books better than the first one, because the first one spent far too much time explaining the set-up, and then re-explaining the set-up, and then exclaiming over how amazing the set-up was, and then introducing the set-up to other characters and letting them exclaim about how wonderful it was.

Apparently I started with the third book. It had more than enough cues that I was never lost, and I didn't feel beaten over the head with the setting.

(Honestly I wish more books were written as though they were the middle of a series and the author weren't quite so concerned with shoving the obvious at the reader. Further, it's not true that characters only ever have anything interesting happen during the time span of a novel (or it shouldn't be), they should have had other interesting things happen to them previously before we met them, so coming in the middle of someone's life for a particular episode of it (the novel) feels much more immersive and natural when there's clearly established backgrounds that are obviously internally consistent but which we as readers don't have to spend forever hearing about. I actually really like that.)

So I would recommend reading *a* book from the series, but just grab from the middle, it'll be more fun. Then if you really like the world or characters or what-have-you, you can always go back and catch the rest. And if you don't find it worth it, you'll know you gave it the best shot you could.

I am still working on Wideacre.

Well. I didn't get to Twelfth Night beforehand, but I have now read "Mira's Last Dance". Poor Penric! He's remarkably well-adjusted for his situation it is hard to find other people who can be as understanding and accepting....

It's a horror novel, isn't it, MissNikki?

Is it more ((so far, anyhow, I know you haven't finished)) psychological horror, or graphic horror, or those weirdly subtle ones that if it weren't for the cover you'd think it was just "literature" that was *off* somehow and gave you an uneasy feeling when you finished?