It took 19 hours, but I've finally reached the first ending. I think? I had thought it was Minakami's route, but that particular Steam achievement didn't trigger, so I could be wrong. (Edit: It was definitely Minakami's route. For some reason, it took longer than it should have for the achievement to trigger.) At any rate, I'm glad I knew from reviews to restart the story and hit "skip" until a choice came up, because my first playthrough had zero choices to make and didn't end with any indication, other than "Chapter 1" in the ending credits, that there was more story to read.

 

This is a twisty historical SFF time travel story with murder, suicide, requited and unrequited love, and a not-entirely-reliable writer/bookstore employee narrator who has a tendency towards hallucinations. The main character, Tamamori, has three childhood friends, Minakami, Kawase, and Hanazawa, who all have secrets and are maybe not as close to Tamamori as he thinks. There's also another character, the Professor, who seems to have a crush on Tamamori for no particular reason other than that he likes Tamamori's writing.

 

The first ending involved some unexpectedly explicit sex that felt like someone had suddenly reminded the author that on-screen sex scenes were in their contract and they needed to find a way to fit them in somehow. The sex itself fit with the way the characters' relationships had developed - it was just the explicitness of it that felt out of place, after more than 18 hours of nothing more than "I love you" and eventually a few rare kisses or touches.

 

Parts of the story were absolutely grueling - I didn't expect one particular character to die as often as he did - but I enjoyed it as a whole. It took hours to really get going, but once it did, I resented chores and work that took me away from getting to read a bit more. I'm hoping the remaining routes are as enjoyable, and that I'll be able to get through them all before my flight late next week. Judging by others' playing times, I have anywhere from 15 to 25 more hours to go. If I make it, it'll probably be close. I'll see how long my second playthrough takes and decide, at that point, whether to continue on or pause and wait until after my vacation for the rest of the story.

 

Here's a pretty non-spoilery screenshot from my first playthrough:

 

“I want it.”

Reggie slapped a hand over his eyes. “You’re killing me here, you know that right?”

Is couldn’t smother the grin. “Killing myself, too.” He swallowed. “Come here.” Then he shook his head. “Forget that, I’m coming to you.” He went to Reggie, hugging him close and putting his face in the crook of his neck. “It’s you and me, Reg. Always has been.”

... minus the book festival, but anyway.  Book town writ large.

 

So there I was, nicely pacing myself (read: trying hard at least not to enter every single book store I was passing) --

 

 

 

... but then this happened, and my self-control was toast:

I left the store with, among other things, the better part of Michael Jecks's Knights Templar series (to the extent I haven't already read it, that is, obviously) and a few other books in addition.

 

"Chalky," the murder victim chalk outline figure lying so conveniently at the bottom of the True Crime section, was taken about town by a local artist, incidentally (I'd have paid anything for postcards of these images, but there weren't any, so I had to content myself with taking photos of photos):

 

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, like pretty much every self-respecting town in the Welsh borderland Hay-on-Wye does have a castle, too, and true to form it did get razed (or nearly, anyway) a couple of times in the various Welsh-English wars and in the English Civil War ... but who needs a castle when you have book stores?!  (It's intended to be made another book-related fixture of the town, though, so that should be interesting.)

 

Last but not least and for the sake of visual context: This is what you drive through on your way to booktown central.

Merken

Merken

Merken

Merken

Book 11: We're Dead in This Ghost Town
Star rating - ★★★★☆
POV – Loki
Would I read it again – Yes

** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **

This is the best story we've had in this series for quite a while. At least, it feels that way. If Inez hadn't existed at all or gotten any page time, this would have easily been a five star review. But she was there. She was her usual bitchy, miss-know-it-all, better-than-everyone-else, negative self and I hated her the entire time she was on page, as usual.

I've always loved Loki as a character and, like Holden, he never gets enough page time for my liking. The fact that this was Loki and Holden for 99.5% of the story (with Inez butting in with the others for that last .5%) made it a joy to read. This story returned the series back to its roots for a moment, back to where it all started and why – exploring the lives and deaths of each character, letting us get to know them better.

Reading about Loki's final day before he died was gut-wrenching as I'd always known it would be, because my theory about his death was right. But that didn't help me when it came to reading through how he felt and what he did that day, to deal with the bullies. What I'd have loved was to see the aftermath; to see his bullies punished beyond his little threat before his death, to see them face the consequences of what they'd done. Maybe then I'd feel that somehow he got the justice he deserved, even if it happened all too late.

The plot is a little reminiscent of another sci-fi story I've read, the Haven Prime series, so imagining and navigating the post-apocalyptic world with Loki and Holden was familiar somehow and a nice progression of their journey.

I'm still angry at the way that Inez – and now Gabe!? – have tried to pain Loki as some kind of reckless, dangerous villain who is going to do something so stupid that it will get them killed. The incident on the train aside (which actually wasn't wholly his fault) all he's ever done is defend, protect and look out for the entire group. I'm so glad Holden is on his side and offers the understanding and support he needs, because, quite honestly, I 100% agree with Loki that Inez is a bully.

She's pushy, arrogant and thinks that she knows best, despite having only been with them for half the time or less than that than they've all been a group. She just waltzed in and took over a spot that was never hers, without asking anyone how they felt. And the way people like Seyah and Teddy fawn over her is sickening. It's so easy to see what Loki meant when he talked about her being a bully and probably being popular, because it's a truth I've seen since the start. Inez is just a female version of Brody! She steps on people to show her fan-base that she's the most powerful and popular.

~

Favourite Quote

“Yes, Inez had helped save them from a gruesome death on the train – admittedly cleaning up the mess Loki had inadvertently made – but she was also a bully.” ← couldn't agree more with you, Loki.

The group has finally arrived in the city spotted some episodes earlier and are making their way down the completely deserted place. Despite several mentions on how dangerous it is, Holden and Loki decide to go and take a look at the Mall.

Finally something is happening that looks like it is going to add to the solution of what is going on. I do think that the characters were not adequately freaked out by their somewhat spooky new surroundings, but this was only a minor concern after what has passed already in this series.

Only four episodes to go, can't wait to get to the conclusion!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!