Nothing More Than Imitations

Ehhh, it is partially frustration but moreso it's just kind of like... yeah, tired is the right word for it. This is pretty par for the course for Yana to drag things out, make it seem like something's happening when really nothing is, forget the themes of her own story, prioritize side characters over main ones, and avoid interesting confrontations/moments of reckoning. And if she's really feeling uninvested, I wish we hadn't spent the past six years unraveling things so slowly and just got to the important bits. The servant backstories in themselves weren't a bad idea, but the way she told them was unnecessarily drawn out.

And I am still kinda disappointed that Ciel and Sebastian are just investigating as themselves. I really wanted them to have to go undercover and work hard on what may well be their last "mission" together. Instead, all they've had to do is go to a fancy hotel, walk around a pier, eat dinner, and listen to people talk about themselves. I do imagine the stakes will get higher soon, but ugh, right now it's so uninteresting! And did we really need a whole year to get to this point? It just strikes me as time and pages so misused.