For the record

🐌 I'm genuinely thankful for all the mixed reviews I read before picking up this book for tempering my expectations, because it ended up greatly exceeding them. I had a great time reading it!

🐌 I already loved Maggie Stiefvater's writing style (the raven cycle and the dreamer trilogy are among my favourite book series) and it really fits this story. to be fair it's very purple and sometimes a little Too Much, but it's also very visual, sensory, poetic, and simply beautiful

🐌 top notch aesthetic (for me myself and i) with the spirals and the moss and the running water and the old mysterious building full of weird magic

🐌 I like stories about small communities that almost function as a microcosm, a hive where everyone contributes on a small scale, and it actually works. That being said, eat the rich, luxury is a poison, fuck the status quo.

🐌 Does a great job humanising truly despicable people, without making them sympathetic. Awful People are, unfortunately, People.

🐌 there's a romantic subplot that i enjoyed, a good mix of maturity and passion, it has my aroace stamp of approval👍

🐌 some truly fascinating side characters. they stay in the background enough for it to be a little frustrating, but it's the good kind of frustration i think. There's Other Stuff happening around the story that's being told, it adds to the mysterious vibe

🐌 Some fun reveals that made me feel a little silly (the ol' "oh hey i noticed this weird detail and didn't come to any conclusion about it")

✉️ what a great read! it's already in my list of favourite books of the year. Also I had a great experience reading it, I was sitting on my balcony while listening to this and it fit perfectly

✉️ when I saw it in the bookstore I did not hesitate to pick it up, even if I didn't know anything about it. I loooved the authors' previous graphic novel, Rebis (check it out! i don't think it's out in English tho)(I don't think Lyndon is out in English either now that I think about it...)

✉️ the art is beautiful... Colours, characters, scenery, this book is such a beautiful object to behold. I want to go to Scotland!!! (I'm going this summer actually ehehe yay)

✉️ Lyndon's anxiety and sleeping issues were extremely relatable, and the dream sequences were fantastic. Love me some some symbolic nightmares

✉️ great side characters: Lyndon is a school teacher and all the kids feel so real and unique, great feeling of community, great scottish lore to enhance the ambiance, great romantic sideplot, great exploration of grief

✉️ bonus point for whales! we love whales

✒️ I reaaaally wanted to love this book, but I thought it was just okay, and that makes me a little sad...

✒️ Weirdly, it was a slog to get through, but I wish it had been three times longer. What I mean is, it could have been a fantastic epic saga in two or three volumes... but as it is I found the rhythm a little strange, time and space felt a little wonky (on purpose but also not on purpose), and we're sometimes stuck in the dual POV at the detriment of the plot and what's happening around the main characters

✒️ but I liked the characters and the story itself! so I don't really know what to think!

✒️ I'm always here for butch ladyknights and their witchy lovers, but I was a bit sceptical about Vina and Simran's love story. Is it truly romantic is destiny says you Have To Fall In Love? not to be too aroace about it but wouldn't it have been a better book if they hadn't? there's something about Free Will in there that i don't know how to articulate

✒️ world-building wise, I like how the whole world is built around Tales and the telling of them (even though what counts as a Tale or not is a little foggy). I personally like the idea of characters being True Archetypes and what that means for them and their own identity.

✒️ the metaphor about immigration is Not At All Subtle, but i guess it works in the context (although... who is this book for, aren't you preaching to the choir here?). I like the idea of a world that can literally be changed and shaped by ideas and stories, and it makes sense that in such a world, fascism would be all about keeping the status quo at all costs (yes i know that's also what it's like in our own world you get what i mean!!!)

✒️ Also, vague spoilers about the character of Galath: he's probably my favourite character because I like the paradox of him in a story about reincarnation. (but also i couldn't help but think that his family tree is a little bit... awkward because of that...)

📖 I really like Cat Sebastian and her 20th century historical novels. It's a past that's close enough to feel relevant to the present

📖 this book is very slice of life, there's not a lot of plot. but it's the routine, the daily life of the characters that's at the heart of the book. how ordinary people's personal history fits into History with a capital H

📖 it made me want to read and make zines, to learn about my own country's Queer History (what was happening in France at the same time as Stonewall? What did activism look like back then?)

📖 I loved the main characters: Patrick whose coping mechanism is helping other people, Susan and the art she makes with her traumas and politics, and Nathaniel and his secrets. But I also really enjoyed all the side characters that come and go through the bookshop. it creates a great sense of community, a mutual aid utopia or something. it makes you want to make coffee for your neighbours, share resources and good books

📖 it also makes you want to get high and listen to 60's folk music while setting fire to the government

📖 we did make some social progress since then, it helps with staying optimistic about the future.... or at least to not totally lose all hope