#or they wouldn't just drop cryptic hints and keep Ivy in the dark until SHE'S ACTIVELY ENGAGED TO THE BAD GUY

[marzipanandminutiae]

man, Last Heir To Blackwood Library is good in many ways, but its protagonist has gotten hit with the Idiot Stick way earlier and more thoroughly than she should have

like

yeah okay she's being fed upon by a sentient library and she's becoming weak and forgetful, but it seems inconsistent how Herself/Aware she is at any given time. she forgets things but it isn't making her any less intelligent or strong-minded as far as I can tell

they'd better reveal that Arthur has mind control powers later on, because otherwise I can't fathom how Ivy as established at the beginning of the book- and as she continues to seem despite losing time and developing amnesia -would agree to marry his obviously evil ass like a week after meeting him, when they've spent a total of ~6 hours together max

loneliness wouldn't make one THAT desperate in such a short time, not when one has been repeatedly described as "not interested in marrying" by the narration. so I have to conclude that she's either being possessed or she's not very bright

And like don't get me wrong- I'm SO HERE for bad decision queens as protagonists. see also: my favorite movie and Edith "want to climb that clearly questionable baronet like a tree" Cushing. it's just that her bad decisions don't gel with what we see of her character before she starts making them

(I'm hoping the deal with the anchoress and the monk is going to be "there is no monk; the anchoress was perverted into a mad monk over years of telephone games and The PatriarchyTM, and she and Ivy will work together something something triumph of Women What Read Books over men who want to control them" but I'm not optimistic at this point)

#books #the last heir to blackwood library #also the servants must not want to protect the McGuffin Manuscript that badly #or they wouldn't just drop cryptic hints and keep Ivy in the dark until SHE'S ACTIVELY ENGAGED TO THE BAD GUY #AND HAS BROUGHT HIM AND HIS BAD GUYS CLUB INTO THE HOUSE