latest news in the ben learns to drive saga is that we practiced in a stick shift today and it was evil and I hated it. BUT THEN we went back to the other car and I drove myself all the way home even along a busy street for a few blocks and then I parked in a parking spot and everything 😌

The Grimoire of Grave Fates - an anthology by multiple authors

I’m going to be honest, I felt terrible writing this review and I’m not sure if I’ll keep it up. I don’t want to be mean and I think this book could work for the right audience. However…that audience is unfortunately not me 😭

This book had such unique potential as a concept and it unfortunately just... did not live up to any of it. Perhaps some of my enjoyment was dulled by the fact that I think this is more "middle-grade" than the YA it was billed as - perhaps if I was younger and had read less across my life it would have rated higher. The idea of this book is that a professor at a magical school gets murdered, and each of the 18 chapters is the POV of a different student (each written by a different author) that has some part to play in putting together the puzzle of who did it, and why.

Each character had a creative and unique way of doing magic - using music or dance or smoke or embroidery to channel their power. There was such potential here! However, over half of each chapter was spent setting up the POV character, and the scant remainder was spent actually furthering the story. The plot took second, perhaps even third place behind the character concepts. Even then, there were SO many characters that were visited in one chapter and then never mentioned again that there was no way to form any meaningful connection to literally anyone in this entire book. Maybe if it had cut the amount of POVs in half and had longer or multiple chapters dedicated to each character, that would have improved it.

Another issue with the anthology format was that despite the unique character ideas, everything felt extremely duplicative. Almost every character had to relearn the same information as previous characters, and every one had to give their own explanation for why they hated the deceased - except that explanation was also the same across every character. Now don't get me wrong, I understand why. Every single POV character holds at least one marginalized identity (which I will admit was great to see!), and the dead guy is a transphobic, sexist, racist, homophobic, classist, ableist, imperialist asshole. But dear god, at some points it felt like a caricature. I do think that for a specifically middle grade crowd this might have worked as an introduction to diversity, power structures, social capital, and institutional bigotry, so I am trying not to judge it too harshly on that - just because I'm not the target audience for something doesn't mean it's bad. However, the book does claim to be for a YA market, and from that perspective I think these critiques are valid.

My final issue with this book has nothing to do with its failed anthological style or the misrepresented age group, but rather the fact that this book just... ends. There is no meaningful resolution whatsoever. I flipped through the final pages trying to see if there was an epilogue, or missing pages or something but no - it just cold ends. There's a two paragraph attempt at an "and then everything was happy, the end" finale, but it fell completely flat because it didn't give any information as to the fates of anyone or anything involved in the mystery. It pretty much implied that changing out a singular leadership role in the school from a shitty person to a not shitty person fixed all of the prejudice-based institutional issues of inequity that the book made such a point to continually call out. It was a frustrating ending to a frustrating book that I had a frustrating time reading.

the drama was kind of confusing at first since they bounced back and forth between stories but now i like how they balance comedy and the heartfelt emphasis on human connection in its many different forms. TRIPLE THREAT FOR REAL!!!! he's so good at everything i swear. lol did this other person say he's the only one in 3rd gen to be a triple threat or is that your comment? and do you consider btob to be 2nd or 3rd gen? they're the back end of 2nd in my mind but i know the lines are super blurry. and go on your rambling if you want!! i love to hear them, even when i imagine there's some hair twirling going on while you do it hahaha

okay so I had some time off for the holidays and really truly planned to be productive and relearn the subjunctive but spent most of it lounging around doing nothing instead. which i felt bad about but i know i needed the rest so im trying to be nice to myself about it! maybe I'll be better about practicing now that im back to my regular schedule

okay so the way you talk about your brother is 100% the way older sisters talk about younger brothers in my experience LOL. but also you seem level-headed and have well-thought out opinions, like you seem like the kind of person who isn't rash and who thinks through the things they do, which is more common in older siblings. but of course i could be reading wayyyyy too much into you LOL. do you think that's accurate or am I way off?

I'm so sorry you're allergic to your favorite fruits, thats so sad 😭 but please take care of yourself and maybe don't eat too much of things your body rejects?

I'm doing well! School is kicking my ass but that's not new at all LOL I'm just glad I knew people going into this semester

yeah at the beginning you're a bit like What is going on? but once it catches up in a way it's pretty easy to watch. and someone else said it! but i agree 100% and from what i knew 3rd gen is from 2012 until 2016 so bitubi should be 3d gen, like beginnings of it but 3rd gen nonetheless. could be wrong! because like you said the lines are very blurry. and yeah whenever i'm talking about him i am 100% twirling my hair LMAO

LMAOOOO that's so valid dude we all deserve proper breaks without feeling bad about having them

LDKGHSLKGSDH ok yeah you have a really good point, and no that's is very very accurate i am indeed like that but i like to think that's just me being a taurus

no worrieeees i rarely eat them and also lately the allergies have gone down a lot so i'm less cautiuos about it but still very cautious

oh that's fun at least! having familiar people around you while starting a new semester. you're gonna do well this semester too and it's gonna be over before you know it!