4/29/24 8:12pm
i'm feeling spicy so i'm gonna jump right into the next book, which is grave witch by kalayna price!
Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, but that doesn’t mean she likes what they have to say.
As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...
To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.
i'm really hoping this one turns out to be good, or at least fun lol. i get a lil self-conscious when most of what i have to say about a book is negative
5/2/24 9:02am
love how i said i was immediately gonna start reading and then immediately got distracted by other shit and literally didn't lol
so i'm gonna do that today. for realsies. gonna read while i'm waiting to queue up in dbd
5/2/24 10:25am
the distinction between ghosts and shades is neat, and i like how the grave magic put this silent hill-esque filter over everything
5/2/24 12:15pm
do we really need teaser pages when the teased page in question is in chapter 2?
also like. why would you not show the grave witch the body? like just in case there's a scenario like this where said witch can provide a positive id? or just. cause it'd be weird not to? idk it just never would have occurred to me to not open the body bag before contacting the person in it?
5/5/24 12:38am
ooo we have fae too? interesting
5/5/24 1:15pm
oh the economic realities of 2010
5/5/24 1:50pm
oof... the allegories... alex being a witch with a magic-hating politician dad... getting disowned & sent away for it... learning her sister is also a witch but hiding it so dad will still like her... alex picking up on just how many of these anti-magic politicians are hypocritical bastards dipping into magic when it suits them, rules for thee but not for me... i am feeling Emotions
5/5/24 11:31pm
so like alex isn't trans but she did legally change her name, and ever since falin the fuckass cop found out her old name he's been deadnaming her constantly. jerk
5/5/24 11:34pm
also like. i just know that either the other grave witch the city hired that's backing up her claims or the seemingly standard shade-raising job she's been offered is a set-up. like i just know itttt something shady is happening ba-dum tss
5/5/24 11:51pm
heehee guess who was right but also goddamn i really just want alex to get paid 😥
5/5/24 11:55pm
... okay you know what. i admit it. falin taking alex grocery shopping and cooking her a bomb-ass dinner was kinda cute. he still sucks. but.
5/5/24 11:56pm
AND he's doing the dishes???
5/6/24 1:46pm
i'm like, really annoyed that alex hasn't connected the dots yet. like, the fae they met at the bar was very clear! she said there was a genetic connection between the victims, and called Alex "feykin" as she was leaving (which hasn't been mentioned before as like a normal thing fae call witches). like yeah good for alex for picking up on the "victims are all kinda bad at magic in a very specific way" thread, but so far we're just completely glossing over some very vital information here
5/6/24 1:51pm
I stared at the short letter, reading it over three times. Julie was a precog, so "Saw" probably meant she'd had a vision. AC had to be Alex Craft, but how could the answer be blood?
oh my godddd alex the answer is obvious please use your brain i am begging you
5/6/24 2:10pm
what.
5/6/24 2:26pm
okay. so.
overall i liked grave witch. fun time. had a lot of elements i liked. the plot reveal that her shitty dad was the fae in the relationship was. interesting, i suppose. but i guess "fae are terrible parents" is a common enough trope that i shouldn't be that surprised. i think it does kinda dampen the allegorical elements the book had going for it, tho. like alex's backstory of being ostracized from her family for witchcraft feels less impactful if it's just like. a fae long-con vs. a commentary on prejudice.
the romance was interesting, i guess? i will say there was like, genuine attempt to warm alex up to falin. so many romances i come across are just like "oh he's Hot. we hate each other and we argue and we have no reason to like each other but he's Hot." so that's something. but idk if i can say the same for death? like he's not here much, and a lot of their relationship is meant to be understood as pre-established, so we don't really see their relationship develop at all? so when we hear that he loves her at the end it's just like. okay.
but also you're really gonna make me wait until the next book before we confront the whole falin being the winter queen's lover thing?! ms. price that's just cruel lol
i will read the next one but probably not for a little while even though i really want to lol. i have some other stuff to get through. my annual summer reading obsession kicks off next month and i think for this year i want to try and focus as much as i can on just reading stuff that i own but haven't gotten through yet.
