“This time, no matter where you wish to go, this master will accompany you.“

And here they are, at the end of their journey to find one another, at the beginning of a whole lot more.

On reflection, this volume is probably my favourite. There are some fun things in the fourth volume (short stories), but that's much bittier and has a bunch of filler (at least from my POV as a non-fan of Mobei-jun and Shang Qinghua).

And once again, Shen Qingqiu's sect siblings (and his disciples) love him so...

But mostly, it's time for the showdown!

This moment, when Shen Qingqiu tries to embrace the crying Luo Binghe in his memory, feels pretty important for Shen Qingqiu -- especially since when he wakes up he admits to having missed the adult Luo Binghe.

Shen Qingqiu really should connect the dots about “Qi-ge“, too... but not yet.

The only image from this chapter is pretty violent, so let's skip it.

I wish there'd been one for the scene with Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge defending Shen Qingqiu. Pretending they're not doing it by saying “My hand slipped“, ahahaha. They love him so much, and in Liu Qingge's case, he's earned that love all by himself. (It's more complicated with Yue Qingyuan of course, though the story hasn't explained why fully yet.)

I'm not incredibly comfortable with defining “Welshness“ as being largely defined by language, owing to the suppression of the Welsh language by the English. Aaaand I think some people would be super uncomfortable with the fact that this book claims the term “indigenous“ for the Welsh (not wrong).

I'm with Glyn Jones for a definition of Welshness:

“To me, anyone can be a Welshman who chooses to be so and is prepared to take the consequences.“

Their faces, ahahaha.

I don't love that scene in general, and people really need to be nicer to poor Zhuzhi-lang, but it's good that Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe are finally getting closer again.

Also, Liu Qingge is back and powered up! I continue to adore his loyalty to Shen Qingqiu, his dedication to his martial family.

Got this for my birthday this morning, already finished it, oops?

I like that it focuses not just on books but all kinds of manuscripts, including the quotidian. Because of that, it discusses a couple of cases of destruction I wasn't aware of.

This really was an excellent choice for a birthday reread treat. Some fun demon lore, and showcasing of Shen Qingqiu's incredible knowledge of the source text.

And now Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu are so much closer to understanding each other!

What is it with MXTX and scenes where the eventual-lovers embrace in a coffin, though?!

The part in the mausoleum is probably a favourite part, honestly. Not so much because of Tianlang-jun (pictured looking pretty fly for a rotting corpse) but because Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe begin to work together again.

They should all be so much kinder to poor Zhuzhi-lang.

Back to the reread! No illustrations in the first chapter, but here's one of my favourite of the colour images.

We're not here yet in this chapter, though. Shen Qingqiu has finally figured out not to make assumptions... kinda. He's still so afraid though that he can't accept any of Binghe's words either. Can't wait to be past that stuff tbh.

Mostly measured and sensible, though often defensive. I think she downplays the risks of long COVID too much, particularly in the afterword, and she didn't foresee the rapid end of vaccination campaigns and the ridiculous prices of vaccines for those of us who don't fit into the UK government's narrowly defined categories.

We get some answers! Kinda. Not very many.

I've ended up loving the fact that nothing really challenges Jinwoo. He just gets more and more overpowered, and that's fun.

Oof, poor Haein Cha. Jinwoo's so oblivious.

Loved him dashing to help his sister. 💙

Lots of action in this volume, not too much nattering, meaning it sped by.

Finally, a bingo! #BookSpinBingo

This book was okay, nothing majorly new to me, found myself glazing over a bit now and then as a result.

Oof, such a run of “so-so“ books lately. This one's a bit noirish and generally grubby-feeling. I disliked pretty much every character.

There's a weird pro-Israeli bit that seemed kinda pointless? What it did could've been illustrated without... that.

The pace is a bit iffy -- the last 50 pages or so (in my ebook edition) were pacy and flew by (though this also blunted the horror/shock/awfulness). Some gore. Heavy-handed at times.

Kinda... entertaining enough to read, but when you look back at it, nah.

This feels like nibbles around what's going on without getting to the heart of it or how it can really be combatted -- it feels a little helpless. It's also a bit out of date at this point.

This was a fun read, partly 'cause I finished it all in one day and didn't stop to think about any gaps. The solution seemed pretty obvious, but the constraints made the process a bit more interesting.

There's a lot of fascinating discussion of how toxins work on a chemical level, BUT, big caveat, it's also a *lot* about Whiteman's father's addictions and death. Whiteman is really mainly interested in addictions here, giving little space to other natural toxins, because he has a need to figure out why his family are prone to addiction.

It's also a bit... erratic, jumping between topics a lot.

I really liked this one! It's a bit conversational (and lacking in pictures), but the author's enthusiasm for the topic is so clear that it was really enjoyable.

Dude, if I wanted to read an autobiography, I'd buy one. Please, less about your father's addiction... 🙄

This one's hitting a bit weirdly because it talks about things like modern people being largely disconnected from death, and... I know it's true of many people, but not of me. In March I was present for the entirety of the last ~10 hours of my grandmother's life, and remained with her body for 5 hours afterwards. I also saw my grandfather's body just after his death, back in 2012. That drawing back from death isn't something I share.

Jinwoo is so OP. 😅 It makes me wonder what exactly this is all building toward.

Despite the dark aspects of the story, he does still have quite a bit of decency remaining, e.g. releasing the soul of the healer rather than keeping it.

Aha! One of the John Dickson Carr books I actually really like! I've had a rocky time of it with his books, not always enjoying them, but of late I seem to be getting along better. This one is majority courtroom drama, which makes for a change, and it's another locked room mystery.

I must say the actual culprit kinda comes out of left field and was less fun, but it's a minor downside.

This was okay -- nothing startlingly great, but a fairly comfortable/classic mystery. I worked out most of it in advance of the characters, which is fine; it's half how it gets revealed, anyway. Big dramatic scene, etc, etc.

And that was my #DoubleSpin!

I didn't *adore* this one, but as I've observed before, with these short story collections from the British Library Crime Classics collections, they're often more than the sum of their parts. It makes for a fun survey of classic crime in the period, and there were a couple I liked quite a bit -- R. Austin Freeman's stories are always so detailed, for instance.

Aaand that was my #BookSpin!

This is the #BookSpin, so I settled down to read it today! It's taking me a bit longer than I'd expected, quite a few of the short stories are quite long.

Half the time I am absolutely not using my new chair (a recliner) in the way it was designed, but it's cosy. Illustration: a photo I took earlier to show a friend my silliness.

I found this surprisingly riveting at times, though some parts are slow. It charts both the census itself and the things it recorded, touching on things like industrialisation, the Highland Clearances, the Potato Famine, emigration, immigration, WWI, WWII... all kinds of things which affected the population of the UK. Also there's a bit on the wider “British Empire“.

Today's reading is getting me off to a good start with #BookSpinBingo!

At last, some solid uninterrupted reading time! I curled up in my new recliner to finish this off at last. I still love it all, and still noticed details I had forgotten somehow. I love the ending, with Emily and Greta and Varney at Dark Heart.

And here's my #BookSpin list for August! It's a bit of a random mix; I've been reintroduced to many of the books on my shelves thanks to the move. 😆 Also trying to keep to my resolution of having less than 20 books bought in 2025 that aren't yet read, with my birthday fast approaching.

Here's how July ended up for me in #BookSpinBingo! Given I was moving house and tapering off anxiety medication, I'm honestly pretty impressed with myself.

In a way, I enjoyed this. The tone is flippant and breezy, and I did learn stuff I didn't know about quite a variety of things.

But it really is breezy, and complex topics are covered so quickly that I'm not sure I could explain them properly to someone else. There are some sources etc, but e.g. the one about the partition of India cites two documentaries (granted, one with first-hand accounts, but still).

The part with just Jinwoo ascending the Demon's Castle sped by and is mostly him beating stuff up, but the second half of the book gets back to the Jeju Island plot. It feels weird that Jinwoo isn't involved in that, and a LOT of new characters are introduced which is a bit dizzying... I'm definitely starting to think I want to read the light novel.

Enjoyable, but the pacing felt a bit odd. Are the volumes being split weirdly or something?

Ow, my heart. I still think this was a bit less well-paced than the first book, but I did enjoy it, and I should've seen a certain thing coming...

Even though I say it wasn't so well paced, I tore through it, it's not like it's difficult going or anything. It's just perceptibly slower, a bit less tight.

Anyway, I think it wrapped up the story well and left Slate, Caliban et al in a good place. Well. A place they can continue healing, at least.

Hmmmm. I'm finding this a bit less well-paced than the first book. All these events need to happen, but I keep feeling like a page or two needs to be taken out of every chapter, and sometimes a whole chapter needs to go. The first book was better-paced.

I rarely go onto the next book in a series straight away, these days -- I couldn't tell you why. But with this duology, that seemed like the best thing to do; this book follows the first pretty immediately. Good thing I have the ebook, since only the first book has been reprinted in the UK so far.

Anyway, I haven't read much yet, but it still says something that I even started it already.

Received to review!

I loved this almost as much as the first book, though several things about it made me quite sad. I loved Gabriel's slow realisation that the world is beginning to touch him again, and that in some ways, he wants it to; I love, as ever, his courtesy, and the fact that he truly cares about justice.

I'm glad I finally got round to reading this, now there's been a UK reprint. I'm also glad I have an ebook of the second book, because it's rude to leave the story there.

Caliban really needs to examine himself a bit.

Mind you, probably so does Slate.

Behold, as well: I actually achieved a #BookSpinBingo -- I kinda hadn't expected to, this month, what with moving and stress.

Soft pick. It's beautifully illustrated, with in-line colour illustrations, but it feels a bit... random? There wasn't a lot that surprised me, and I'd be hard-pressed to pick out any main points.

I found this interesting, though I think it could've been a bit shorter by sometimes just saying “just as with XYZ“ instead of repeating the whole thing...

It's thorough and well-sourced (50 pages of numbered endnotes), and includes examples of various advertising images etc etc to illustrate points.

It's sort of my 3/5 stars: “liked it, but...“

“You fear becoming a burden to Cang Qiong Mountain,“ said Liu Qingge, “but Cang Qiong Mountain fears not your burden.“

...

This line gets me in the heart every time. Liu Qingge is utterly sincere. No matter how burdensome Shen Qingqiu becomes, he will bear it. Alone if he must.

This isn't my favourite volume, but I do love the ending.

Shen Qingqiu's face is absolutely a picture here as he learns about “the Regret of Chunshan“. But he's so clever figuring out how to get free (even though we know it isn't going to get him far).

Liu Qingge! 💙 I am sad there's no art at all in this chapter, surely there should be something epic for Luo Binghe's battle with Liu Qingge.

I still can't help shipping Liu Qingge/Shen Qingqiu as well. I love Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu, but Liushen would be so lovely too.

I find it so funny that Luo Binghe is so very bad at kissing.

I mean, when would he have learned? He only loves Shen Qingqiu. But still... it's really funny how bad at this they both are. I can't remember if Luo Binghe's worked out it really is Shen Qingqiu (and not just a dream), too. I guess I'll find out.

Back to rereading this again -- I do love it, I'm just pretty slow and lacking in attention span lately. We get to see a bit of the world apart from Luo Binghe in this chapter, including another showdown between Sha Hualing and Liu Mingyan.

Also more character-building for Shen Qingqiu and his endless denial of being gay. He's not turned off by women, okay?! Just respectful! That's definitely it!

Sometimes a bit sanctimonious about the joys of nature and writing letters and the silly young'uns and their text messages, and a bit overblown about the “heroic“ness of rural posties at times, but some nice nature descriptions and histories of postal workers.

This is kinda... part history, part trying to tell a story. There's a lot more fictional recreation than I generally like, though I can't deny that he writes compellingly.

I admit it also took me a while to get my head around the historical context; it's not a period I know a lot about. That made the first half of the book feel very slow, but the second half was more gripping.

This is my #DoubleSpin!

[Downgraded rating; see comments.]

(Received to review via Netgalley!)

I had two thoughts about how this was going to work out and somehow they were both right.

I felt like some bits of this were a bit slow, and then everything went surprisingly fast, but I did enjoy the world-building.

Apparently I never got round to posting on Litsy about finishing this one. Not one I enjoyed -- I recognise that it's well-structured and the nastiness is intentional, but it's just a horrible place to spend time, following the consequences of an unlikeable murderer's actions for his mostly unlikeable family (with lashings of misogyny).

Hurrah for receiving a review copy! Started digging in yesterday. So far a few threads have got started, but I'm not that far into it, so I'm wondering exactly how things are going to escalate.

I worry that a particular likeable character will be the culprit, given the way the first book worked out... But it'll depend on whether Sally Smith is the kind of writer to repeatedly rely on the same kind of signals as to who might be the villain.