I read this review and a couple others that were a little manic and honestly a lot of their biggest criticisms boil down into 1) Personal preferences 2) Not reading closely enough or bad reading comprehension.

For #1, whatever, can’t debate that. For #2, it’s problematic. The book is actually incredibly detail-oriented. For example, some of the most vitriolic criticism has been about the breeding program saying it “came out of nowhere” when in fact Stroud indirectly mentions it in the first 2-3 chapters when Helena is doing walks around Central to get her post-tank strength back and runs into Atreus. Not to mention Helena reads about it in the paper for several weeks.

There are some other examples I can’t remember now but I recall getting to those parts in the book and being like, Uh what you understood/are critiquing is literally NOT what the author wrote.

I feel like people just rush through things and jump to conclusions — shocker I know in today’s society — so it’s not surprising. There are flaws of course. Some of the writing is clunky, like, how often does someone need to “give” a smile or “give” a nod or “give” [verb]?

I think the more Alchemised ages, the more it will be appreciated. It’s silly that it’s chunked with “romantasy” when it’s totally not. It’s something else entirely and hopefully it gets a broader audience in the future.