MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL open thread!

I pulled an impromptu stop when we drove past a bookstore the other day, and overcame my social anxiety sufficiently to ask at the customer service desk when my search failed to obtain it.

Worth it.

Dominic's way of speaking makes me sort of giddy-happy and tingly. The line, "You are a fabulous, insane, infuriating creature . . ." is just the perfect endearment---it says so much about both of them and how well they fit together, it's perfect.

Istas is amazing. I love how matter-of-fact her love of carnage and vengeance and playing with innards is. She's like a cheerful Sith Lord in lace petticoats, and pulls it off perfectly.

Margaret is striking me as a cross between Delores Umbridge and Cordelia Ransom, and I can't think of any higher praise to give a can't-stand-her villain. Plus that sort of woe-is-me-because-YOU thing where someone latches onto a scapegoat and obsessively blames it for anything and everything about their life doesn't turn out perfectly, to the point where it becomes an excuse to avoid actually dealing with one's own imperfections (I laughed out loud when it was mentioned that the Covenant thought she was obsessed with the "traitor" Healys and they were testing her to see if she could handle North America, and then I laughed again when Sarah's solution got explained, because she's so going to catch the worst of it for that one. (As someone who's highly squicked by both needles and blood-pressure compression, I'm very pleased to see her get that comeuppance.)

The torture scenes and the pure fear-inducing creepiness of the True Believer talk of the Covenant members do their job perfectly. I spent most of the first book scoffing a bit at the security arrangements of not doing any "visible" sports as over-paranoia, and after actually meeting more Covenant members than Dominic, I have very solidly changed my mind.

I also love the little details. Asian dragons being a separate species. The mice going hunting and coming back with a winged snake. The distinction between sexual orientation and the demands of mating season. All the titles the mice come up with. The almost-getting-hit-by-the-train thing that got thrown in there---of course they're not going to die by train when the Covenant's just showed up, but the threat is still there because of course it is, this is what happens when you play Subway Roulette.