good start with some riveting action scenes but this really could have used more editing. structurally it's a mess, by the time they reach the compound it kind of just turns into a collection of vignettes with none of the plotlines being fleshed out or any of the characters feeling developed. i have no problem with miserable characters, but felker-martin basically makes the same points over and over about how much everyone hates themselves and it gets tedious. tbh it's frustrating that there's so little actual criticism of books these days, particularly queer books. discussions get boiled down to the Puritans Who Want All Queers To Be Perfect vs. Those Who Like Messy Queer Lit and it's all annoying and reductive, no mentions of the books' technical qualities. i like messy horny queer lit, sure, but a lot of the stuff coming out nowadays is just...not very good! underedited, underdeveloped, bad pacing and structure, etc.

i also just get annoyed by how so many books these days are Very Online and include references to memes and inane discourse even in tense situations. that's more of a me thing i guess.