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Totally normal advice for kids

The good part: This entire scenario is incredibly sick (yes, hahaha, YES). Fucking your best friend's mom? Fucking your daughter's best friend? Oh boy, this could be a riot.

The bad part: It's a very very slow burn. You'd expect a buildup, then drama when the daughter/friend finds out, then reconciliation. Instead, it's 300 pages of sex, secret dates and a good old relationship escalator (of course, marriage is just what this story needs 🥴). At some point it really got boring. If you really wanted this story, make it shorter. And scrap the epilogue.

Sickos: "Yes, hahaha, ... YES!"

of One of Us is Lying. In case you're wondering, this has nothing to do with the second season of the TV series, it's a completely different story.

I've read better books. But it's relatively okay.

NO SHIT, SHERLOCK

I liked it, but I already liked the TV series, so I knew what to expect. Now I can compare!

Things I liked better in the book: There is no omnipotent, omniscient being as in the series. Everyone just knows what they see and hear about, and works with mundane methods. Also, Luis, Ashton and Eli are amazing extra characters! Also, yes, Simon is definitely a channer.

Things I liked better in the TV series: How the entire situation came to happen. Jake's role, Simon's, and most of all, Janae's! Also, the entire ending. That version is just way more satisfying.

Better than I'm used to with straight romance. There are plotholes (why did the white snake comply and tell them how to undo its actions??), but the story is interesting and funny. Its nature is pretty episodic though, and many of the places in the liminal world are described very graphically - so I can't stop thinking it would make a great cartoon series! Add a few more steps and details, and voila, here's 50 episodes about the quest to find the antivenom ouroboros!

I'll counter-quote from Bring It On (2000): "Was that the loser sneeze I just heard right there? Guys, come on. I mean, what is that, from like the 80s? Nobody does that anymore. I don't think anybody does. When I lived in Kentucky - Did they still do the loser sneeze in Kentucky? No. They had, uh, guns and homemade bombs. What about L. A.? There was attitude in L. A. , but no loser sneeze. I'm pretty sure the loser sneeze is officially dead."

Guess that's a way to write acknowledgements

Side fact: The book is dedicated to Rebecca Ross, another author, and indeed many elements reminded me of "Divine Rivals": The 1900 nostalgia (+/- 20 years). Ladies being courted by Gentlemen. Discussions about what is proper. No dating before marriage. Soldiers are sexy. Male family members decide freely over their sisters'/nieces' lives. Strong women falling in love with shitheads of disputable integrity, who are still portrayed as desireable and romantic etc. No, the straights are not okay.

I'm not really sure what to think of this. It's all so inconsequent. For context, this book plays in colonized Egypt, in the year 1884. And the two character alignments are: good archeologists who want to preserve everything and thus have to keep it secret so future Egyptians can learn about it - and the bad people who sell everything they get their hands on. So this is superficially anti-colonialist, yet all the relevant people are Englishmen, Frenchmen or Argentinians. Only two Egyptians in the book have names, and they're entirely replaceable, with no plot relevance and no agency.

And the "evil" side who's illegally trading artifacts is so flat, not even the motivations make sense (if it's money then why did Lourdes risk losing her giant fortune to Ricardo???)