Reading with E. discussion

Hi folks, (Andy here, otherwise known as Austrian). Hope it's ok I'm along for the beardalong, just finished page 39. I read T.C.'s Saltblood and liked her prose, this is reading similarly, nice slow build up, concentration on character, another community like the other book. Given Nat's love of mythology I'm wondering if this time it could be place based mythology, an area affected that produces rage, given the Crows reactions and her own rage at the dinner? I'm from Leicester originally (where TC lives) so the place names and de montford are real areas associated with the area .

Read through page 39. I think I'm more intrigued with the killer plot line so far. Curious how that will connect with Bea.

There's something kind of cultish feeling about The Gates community. Don't care for the snotty rich people lol. I'm enjoying it all so far.

Am a day late, but catching up. Got to the part 2 break. It's a lot more introspective than salt blood, more descriptive and a slower pace, but also atmospheric. TC is layering on time I think, several time zones existing in the same physical space at once, with sensitive people able to see those different layers.

Page 114, it's harder to sympathize with bea and Lou than I was expecting, though the book suggests a split personality/psychosis for Bea, it's probably shared memory and revenge rage focussed on the the gates from the ghosts of old patients? So killing relatives of those people that tortured them?
The level of introspection and self doubt is stalling me to a degree, but TC has a wider vocabulary than most writers I know, it's entertaining learning new words lol! Not sure what to make of the big bird.

And on a local infirmation note: TC has done her homework, the nickname "duck" is totally regional, only people within a distance of about 30km around the area use the word "duck" as a term of endearment, I know, I grew up there. Haven't heard that phrase for over 20 years but as soon as I read it, it was like a smack of nostalgia.

Yep, of the two, Saltblood has more impetus so far, her writing has adapted I think. Having to stop a little early (page 143) but I think we called it right, the phenomenon is location based. How she ties it in to Laurence Jordan will be the trigger.
It did pick up today, though Bea's pov is a hard sell for me. Lou is a lot more likable, but perhaps that's me.

Hey. So I'm at page 193, 73% and it's more or less coming together, though how we thought. There are a lot of similarities to Saltblood and also salvation spring, we have the build up to about 75% when the monster/god is revealed, and then the clear up. It's also formulaic, specific place with a god in attendance, and how that effects the local community. I think of the three, Saltblood had the most momentum, salvation probably had the best character development (I liked the relationship build up in that), Lou here is the driving force, but it's pretty much wrap up now. It picked up around the 50% mark, that second quarter was slow, but I'm expecting a rush now similar to Saltblood.

Got to the end due to being Ill today, not able to do much more than read. Will wait on posting comments.

I was waiting for you to catch up, wasn't sure about posting/spoilers, but have waited on my review because you guys organized this,I'll wait until you post before doing mine.

I think it's hard to view in a context not surrounded by TC's other books - given that salt blood came out first, July 2020 and feathers in Oct 2020, salvation in April 2021, and all have similar threads woven into their structure (old gods/mythology, impacting in the modern world), (I admit that publishing dates do not reflect the actual date they were written, which could be years apart) but like you, I liked it. The superpower showdown at the end seemed somewhat out of context to the rest of the book, Bea who, for most of the book, was less likable than Lou, became the focal point, and Lou got lost at the end, which was a pity, her main aim was to provide information for Bea to act upon, but the world-building here was good, but yeah, Lou actually reacted and figured out what was happening, whereas Bea had it happen to her, and was then chosen.
The ending drifted, I think. Overall, despite a second quarter that was a little lost in self-perspective, I still think this was solid enough, but of the two I think this lost out to Saltblood because of the stronger characterization and relationship building.
Also, given the fact that a god was shown as real, there was no self-reflection on the fact that that would mean the whole god pantheon was also probably real, but that's just me nerding a step further along the train of thought, and not a reflection of the book itself.
One thing I liked was the inclusion of the psychiatric hospital, which added an element I thought was going to play more of a part in the horror side of the story, but which was also somewhat left to just the hallucinations and the flashback.
I'm still processing it all though.

Yeah. I think Nat's voice carries this, she has a limitless vocabulary, so the prose is always well thought out, and I keep notes whilst I read and if I pick up typos I send them on, and this was pretty clean, I only got 5, so that's actually pretty good. I'm with you on this being the weakest of the three, but that might be also because I loved the setting of Salvation, and also of Saltblood, both so out of my normality that they struck home. Plus, as you said, saltblood paid a lot more attention to the monster, it had a menace because it attacked people itself. Here, it's mainly humans given power by a monster, the monster itself is actually not confronted. So it's a stage removed from it all, and it ends as a human against human fight? (if that makes sense).
Still good, but not as impressive as Saltblood I think.