I agree more or less. This has been a great book, and I've enjoyed the hell out of reading it, but I'm not 100% sure where it's going.

This chapter in particular was fantastic though. Archie knows now, apparently, we've had it out with Claudia, Livia gets to see/understand how good Alex is (or perhaps how lacking she herself is), the demon!thingy is back and killed Martha, Alex has been practicing a ton, etc. Great chapter all around.

 

I gotta say, I loved this paragraph:

Something about the imagery that provoked just made me laugh out loud (really) and grin, while still managing to convey a sense of creepy. Nice.

Plus the repeated reference to it as some form of a "baby mummy" makes me giggle while reminding me of how wrong the thing is.

I'm beginning to think that this is all leading up to some big revelation somehow related to the Stars Above. So far their participation in this book hasn't really warranted naming it after them, but there's still time.

I was also really impressed by this bit nearer the end:

Just something about the pacing/wording of several points in this chapter impressed me as being quite well done. *shrug* The bit with Brian was another one, or some of it was. As was some of Alex's irritation with how the adults don't seem very helpful (or to believe her) half the time, but then they seem to know about stupid stuff like her practicing the Patronus.

 

Another good chapter. Though making the thing a gift was a bit... out there.

I really, really hope that the adults believe Alex this time when she tells them what happened. It'd be really pushing it if they didn't this time.

 

Yeah, that got me too. More curious than ever about the stuff surrounding Mary Dearborn. Great chapter though. The scene where he's slashing at Alex was suitably scary and in character both.

 

Hm, yeah, I'm getting a bit tired of Dean Grimm being so inept at dealing with Alex. We repeat the same thing over and over, where Grimm knows that Alex is going to do something and yet she continues to not try to work with Alex at all. I know that she shouldn't have to, but even so.

Also a bit tired of Alex pushing away her father so forcefully. I know she's mad and has good reason to be, but it still starts to grate.

At any rate -- this was a great book and addition to the series, but I didn't quite feel like it stood up to books 2 or 3. I'm looking forward to book 5 though, plenty of places that things can go from here!

 

That reminds me -- in the previous chapter I thought Larry was a bit stupider than warranted as well. He should know enough about Alex at this point to give her the benefit of the doubt when she says there's some kind of fucking monster in the woods and that he should get away from where it might be.

Other kids might not have believed Alex. Larry might not have believed other kids. But in that situation having Larry more or less blow off the possible threat didn't feel right. He knows that Alex isn't a coward and isn't likely to severly overestimate a threat, and he knows that if there really was a monster lurking about in the woods that chances are it's probably got something to do with Alex.

That said... some folks seem irritated with Abraham Thorn, and he's one of the few adults that I'm not irked with. I like him and his character, and it's a pity we don't see a bit more of him. I mean, sure, he's the "bad guy" in many senses, but he does seem to genuinely want to protect Alex. More importantly he's one of the very, very few people in this story capable of properly protecting Alex, and she knows that. All the other adults in her life might blow her off when she talks about what she's done, or that there's something/someone trying to kill her, but Abraham generally seems to believe her. That should count for something.

And despite it being somewhat in character for Alex, I'm about ready for her to have told Abraham about the seven years to live thing. He'd be a great resource, and it's not like she's telling him about something she's going to do (in which case he could act to prevent her).

...but yeah, other than that, what Garden said to a point.

It does make little sense. It made sense in the first two years or so, maybe even in the third year. But by this point it's patently obvious that if Alex sees a problem that could get her or her friends/family killed, and can't see that much of anything is being done, she acts. It's not really something she should be faulted for, given the circumstances. Dean Grimm should by all rights have at least told Alex what was being done/planned about the baby!mummy!monster, or at the very least let her know that she was believed and that they hadn't just brushed off the threat. Including Alex just a little in things like that would go a very long way with her, but time after time they just don't.

I get that part of that is because in the "real world" Alex is a child and children aren't supposed to be involved in stuff like that, no matter the circumstances. So from that standpoint I guess I can't fault it, but still.

Still like Tsotsie reasonably well, if only because he seems straightforward for the most part. And at least a little bit more willing to listen to what Alex has to say without trivializing it than most adults.

 

Heh, I've gotten in such a habit about reading this story that I did a double take just now when I said to myself "...and I can read AQ at midnight, so I need to be done with X by then..." only to realize that AQ is over for, I assume, at least a year. :facepalm

Inverarity has some end-of-story Author's Notes here. I hope you don't mind me posting that here Inverarity, since you haven't posted yourself since the story ended, but I thought others might be as interested as I was.