Emotional Chemistry

Some highlights of the latest EDA I’ve read (Emotional Chemistry).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

I'm not entirely sure what happened with this one. Most of Team Tardis seems to be some sort of afterthought in the grand scheme of the plot, even if everyone gets at least one pretty good moment. I'm under the impression this might have been a story that's been retooled as a Doctor Who book, but I'm probably wrong.

Regardless of that, well, there's a lot of characters in this one, distributed between three different eras of history, and it's often a bit confusing because some of them are kinda similar. As it turns out, it's partly on purpose, but still, it's not very engaging. And that's a shame, because a love story where, essentially, two people are separated by hundreds of years of history had a lot of potential. It's also a shame that all of this is partly solved through technobabble, but at least there's also a solid emotional core to the ending. Maybe it would be better if romance as a genre in general did anything for me. No idea.

I did something I rarely do and I asked around if other people were also feeling this way about this book, just to make sure I wasn't being too harsh on it, or just not getting it, but the opinions seem to be all over the place. That doesn't help. 4/10

 

 

Okay we're not wasting any time wondering how Eight is going to get injured in this one

Wait did the fire teleport him somewhere else? I'm confused

So this soldier guy is another time traveller, and apparently there was an accident with his gear, which might have caused or be caused by the fire

Is Emotional Chemistry going to be the book where I finally understand Trix's character

I have nothing against starting in media res, but I do mind not understanding most of an introduction

I like the little details about how Trix builds her various roles and personas, at least

BADUM TSSSSS

We don't even know in which era they are, do we

 

I'm having a hard time following everything. There seem to be several time periods where things are happening "at the same time" (that feels weird to say), maybe 3 of them ; there's a lot of characters ; also I think Fitz and Trix are in the same era, Eight in another one, and there's another one with none of them...? What a confusing first chapter

Trix stop trying to be Light Yagami challenge [impossible]

 Fitz I swear to god-

 

Well that's cool cause I don't know anything either 

Thank god Fitz is there to give me some context after 40 pages

 Eight lmao

 Everyone is having a bad time

 Eight has some very funny dialogue in this book

 Ah yes, the eternal return of the urge to say "Fitz no"

 Terrible job everyone

 Just screening a pretty ambitious & fun sentence

 

Fitz describing people everybody

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

Doctor you're really bad at this

GET MY BOY OUT OF THIS SAW TRAP

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

I feel like we're supposed to start to understand things but I'm still confused

LMAOOOOO

Ah, yes. One of my fave Cure songs

Is it bad if I'm having trouble remembering all these names

 
Is it a parallel between the three eras

 

Ok. Ok. Can I breathe again

You know, Fitz, 40 books ago or so you would have been sincere there

Wait is it the portrait of someone in the past eras

The plot thickens

The plot thickens even more, at this rate it's going to look like geological stratas

"Time-space virgin" HELP I'm dying

Garudin is like "This is impressive. You're impressed right now"

Meanwhile Trix is judging other people's talent for acting

Okay yeah this is pretty cool, he's following the scene through the eyes of someone who was there

UH OH THE ERAS ARE FINALLY COLLIDING

She studies everything like a play

 
Woah is someone finally having that convo with Fitz?

LIKE RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Get it together, dude

The contrast is killing me 

Okay <3
Yay <3

When someone's "haunting the narrative" it's usually not literal

Me when I'm good with words

 

Trix still trying to take top billing for that play that only herself is watching

Meanwhile Yaroshev is telling Padorin to kill himself

Okay this is funny but we're only now getting an answer to this and half of the book is gone already

Oh ok

That's how you know it's magic

WHOA I'm having Big Finish flashbacks

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm completely lost again!

So they're the same girls? I'm not even sure

I'm so close to duckduckgo-ing him in case I'm genuinely missing something

Are the threads finally converging

 

LMAOOOOO he failed his dramatic entrance

Okay so some characters I keep confusing ARE the same people?

 

 

I'm confused again, did another incarnation meet him offscreen?

 

We've come full circle with the I'm-happy-you're-alive hugs omg

Okay that's a banger quote

Thank you for explaining holy shit

Long-distance relationships rarely work

 
Oh so it doesn't work on him?

Good scene, good food, thank you for this

Really funny description

I'm starting to get the impression that Trix isn't a big fan of action

She stresses me out so much, but at least I understand her a little bit more by now, so that's something.

That feels like a bad excuse, but okay

Oh so they're literal starchildren?

Fitz the mediator to the rescue

Everything makes more sense now. I think. I guess?

UH OH

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'm still not over it

That plot point about that possession thing was going to come back sooner or later

That's kinda gay, Garudin

She's basically holding a mirror to him saying "wow bitch you live like this?" It really is my favorite thing in that entire book. Chef's kiss

Meanwhile Eight's in the sunken place

Wait is he using Fitz as a grounding technique lol

I like that it's not effortless to her, that makes things more interesting. But also, I'm shaking her and going "why are you like this"

LET'S DOOOOOO THE TIIIIIIIME WAAAAAAARP AGAIIIIIIIIIIN

 

It just dawned on me that it's page 185 and yet nothing really interesting has happened yet apart from the couple of literal self-reflection scenes

Fitz and gallows humour, a combo that can only be beaten by Eight and gallows humor

I mean... you don't have to be impressed by human piles of garbage

jesus fucking christ

GET FUCKED GARUDIN

 

Okay that was funny

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST FITZ

 
I really wish any of this was interesting

 

At least some bits are funny

The technobabble didn't convince him, try again

 
This is getting nowhere fast

Wait is the indestructible girl finally dead

"Possibly maybe"

 
okay yeah I'm starting to feel something

 
OOF

 
at least that's something

She was mostly there for exposition, wasn't she

you do NOT want to date yourself, Fitz

yeah yeah keep telling yourself that. keep telling yourself you're both very normal about each other

BUT NOT ENOUGH