ohhh this is such a lovely comment; ty for coming in with it~

i barked a laugh at the Conclave comparison, haha, but... the connection makes a lot of sense the way you explain it! & made some parts of the book click for me in a way that they hadn't before.

and it's interesting coming back & thinking over what i wrote here so shortly after i finally read Home... the latter novel feels "cleaner" overall, less ambitious/sweeping, but shares a certain... static-ness, with Gilead, i think?

much to ponder; i'm likely to take a stab at Lila here pretty soon. thanks again for the thoughts!!!