It had an amusing and unexpected Lit Fic bend to the writing that I enjoyed. Light and readable, with a good flow. I did stop at 4%, but it will be an easy three to four stars for the target audience, and five for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

Three timelines, two people, and one magical city lie among the pages of Projections, the adult fantasy debut from author Sarah Porter. The story opens with a crime of passion and we, the reader, are immediately thrown into the epic tale of young Catherine Bildstein whose spirit is tied to her childhood friend and murderer, a sorcerer named Angus Farrow. Projections is a thoughtful deep dive into the devastating consequences of power and misogyny. In turn we see the resilience of women and how she may overcome such torture to enact sweet revenge. A fabulous contribution to feminist literature!

I loved this. I couldn't put it down. I had never read a book with this premise before and it had me hooked. Seeing this story literally written in the point of view of a ghost who was murdered and forcefully bound to her murderer was so interesting. I honestly can't express how much I loved this.

"Projections" was a cerebral carnival ride of a book; while it started in the middle of the action - a murder having been done, and a spirit named Catherine determining vengeance against the man who had murdered her - I was *in*. It's not an easy book - it spans a great deal of time and stays elaborate. After the manic beginning, things slowed down and it became a little more difficult to press forward due to the density of the story (and, to be honest, the lack of plot happening. This is one of those books that feels all of its 450 pages.)

Still, overall, I found it a very interesting and creative story once it picked up around the 75% mark.

Equal parts infuriating and empowering, this book got its hooks into me QUICK!

When the whims of men become deadly, when they feel like they are owed something, love and affection when it isn’t warranted, you get Gus… I spent all of this book waiting for his demise, longing for it.

This book spans a lot of time and very little time at once, where Catherine is trapped, attached to the man that killed her because she wouldn’t love him back. He then proceeded to grossly attach to other women he thought he deserved, thought he loved, and it made me sick.

But, through these pages, we encounter different worlds, a vast array of magical creatures, and a story that had me floored. Catherine was a forced to be reckoned with. I longed for her to find peace.

This was such a uniquely written book. I am definitely going to want more adult fiction from S.E. Porter!

This was creepy and perfect read for October. I loved the spooky vibes, the characters, etc. tor never misses and this is further proof

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Once upon a time there was a rich boy who thought he owned a poor girl: this is the story of Gus and Catherine in the novel PROJECTIONS by S. E. Porter (Tor/Macmillan, February 13, 2024), Porter's first adult novel.

Gus obtains magical powers, which make his Dark Triad See https://www.britannica.com/science/dark-triad of personality traits even worse. Murdering Catherine for having a will of her own does not end Gus's obsession with finding Catherine's equal–whom he can subdue (and subsume) instead–or simply leave a trail of corpses when the girls say no. Gus can't get his hands dirty himself, so he creates versions of himself called "beamers" to look for a new Catherine.

Murder victim Catherine becomes an endlessly-screaming ghost hovering over Gus's head. She wants to save the female victims of his magical projections, stand-ins for himself. The pair, sorcerer and ghost, mostly hang out in the sorcerers-only world of Nautilus, while Catherine longs for the real world (the "unworld" in Nautilus parlance). She feels helpless, doomed to shriek and rage in a disembodied state forever. However, being a genius even in wraith form, Catherine may just find a means of revenge on Gus, one of these centuries.

This novel has sparks of real genius and originality but is quite a slog, asking a great deal from the reader with the perspective/world/time switches without so much as a chapter heading to indicate who/where/when. It took me ages to read the novel (it's just shy of 500 pages) and I almost gave up several times. I was 80% of the way through the ARC when the book finally got interesting.

Porter will write incredible doorstop-sized novels of speculative fiction; of that I am absolutely certain. She just isn't quite there yet.