This was such a good read. Smith really manages to capture the anger felt by the general public during the pandemic. The dialogue is funny and the side characters are lowkey infuriating (but in a good way). Definitely one of my favourites in this series. 

I like the seasonal quartet for its timeliness, although the books have not all been successful to me as a reading experience. The main focus of these books is definitely the commentary on a lot of things that are going wrong in the world, not because these things just happen, but because the human race is behaving as they do. And I enjoyed reading Ali Smith's sharp writing and how she brings art into all of this.
This one though didn't leave a great impact on me and I couldn't really see what the purpose of this was. And I have already completely forgotten what it was about. Yes, there were still some smart sentences in it, but in my opinion this companion was one that should have stayed at home.

I loved this book, though I found it harder to parse out the connections and meanings behind this one than in Smith’s other books. I found myself more invested in the young blacksmith’s story than in Sandy’s and was disappointed that it made up only a third of the book. This one did leave me with a lot of questions (which I think is the point, the narrator literally says “A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.”) and I think it will stick with me for a while.