My Alice Scott readathon pt. 3 - The Practical Man's Guide to Cheating Death
So differently from Scott's other works, this is not a short story but a short novella!
Sadly, I didn't like it as much as their short stories I've read so far, it's probably a 3/5 for me. This is mostly because of the way the characters talk, especially the main character, Lysander Payne. I found him very obnoxious and pretentious, which I know was 100% on purpose, that's his whole deal, but didn't have a lot of fun reading it in the first third. After that, Lysander started to open up a little and his vulnerability endeared me to him a lot. He's still one of those characters who I know I wouldn't get along with, (in this case because Lysander would think me and everyone I care about are unintelligent and uninteresting,) but I enjoyed reading about him at the end. I think if the novella was a little longer, I would have grown to like him even more. I found Tiarnan interesting, an immortal eternal being who's still for some reason fascinated with humanity and all our idiosyncracies is just such a cool concept to me.
When I did get to look behind Lysander's facade, I really liked what I found there, how he is somewhat intentionally antisocial because he expects rejection and his longing for closeness in his own way. I also really liked how he longed for certainty in any form he can get it, I think he would have wanted to stay with Tiarnan if he wasn't a hot guy living in an endless library, just so he wouldn't have to face the great unknown. The attractive man and the billions of books are nice perks, though. I get it, while I'm not into Tiarnan the way Lysander is, he does seem to be a great conversationalist and I completely understand why Lysander was so extatic after finding one being that wouldn't be queerphobic towards him. I also like how inarticulate Lysander is when trying to explain how he feels in regards to his gender (he's man-adjacent, but not a mister), it really showed how nervous he was to talk with someone about it and that he never had the chance before.
Last thing: the cover, which was designed by katharine blair and illustrated by Gracie Barnes, is super pretty and detailled!
If you read this story, what did you think of it? Did you like Lysander? Were you kinda intimidated by him at first like I was or not? Would you want to room with Tiarnan forever? Why? Please tell me if you want to!
Edit: here's another drawing of Lysander Payne, the main character of The Practical Man's Guide to Cheating Death, Gracie Barnes, the person who did the cover!
