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A darkly comedic story about humans being the domesticated pets of large wolf-like Grays that have taken over the world. It's kind of a Planet of the Apes situation, with some Grays treating humans as things and some trying to treat humans as best they can imagine.

The story hook here is that John's owner Martok is perennially skirting poverty (along with John) and has squirrel-esque enthusiasm for shiny new schemes that will surely work this time. He treats John well (as these things go), but his latest scheme puts John's life in the bargain; as John has little leverage or power, he lands himself in increasingly risky situations as he tries to save Martok's financial situation and thus his own life.

After the Fall is written by the same author who wrote Mickey7 if that gives an idea of the dystopian black comedy tone here. Cynical me wishes the ending were a little bit less upbeat, but there's good closure for all the character story threads and enough worldbuilding reveals to satisfy.

When the surveillance state is even data-mining your dreams, you could end up in a detention facility without ever committing a crime. I thought this was very realistic in depicting the dangers of algorithmic bias, "computer says no"-mindset and "security"-discourse since 9/11. I still want the brain implant that lets you get an 8 hour sleep in 4 hours.

This series.... idk. It took me a few tries to get through this book. Just like the first, it's about a young woman who lives and works with sexy asshole monster dudes, which is all a bit threatening, but her world has always been that, and now her friends are also part of the monster powerplay bullshit world. There's always some bi flirting, which I appreciate. There's too much details of penetrative sex for my taste. But in this book.... there's a horrible therapy session, a real bad example, that somehow still feels like "look, even this tough person tries therapy". And some other things that felt like real life references that didn't really work out.

Ok so the first time i quite literally got struck by lightning when i was almost through. I'm going in for a second time, so my plan to learn some french by reading trashy fantasy choose your own adventure things that are fun enough to keep me going without understanding everything is working. It is pretty trashy too, it's basically just fighting random creatures and getting lost in the mountain.

This series makes me cry so much 😭 I think it's this combo of deep wish-fulfillment and harsh reality that gets me. 😵‍💫