Thanks. Funnily enough I read that one first. It was enjoying Sea of Tranquility and Glass Hotel that made me think maybe I could stomach an apocalyptic novel from *this* author.

"What if something exciting and fantastical was actually miserable and horrid" is a solid theme, but I probably shouldn't go back to the that well so often.

For scale, that's a 60mm base. A big lad.

Do you ever have issues with the paint rubbing off the shiny straw plastic?

*player fails save vs trap; character dies*
"Quickload!"
Table precisely re-enacts the prior 10 minutes of action. Character makes the save this time.

A player action description goes long and ends with asking the DM "what do you do?". DM offers their character action enthusiastically and with no other comment

DM role continues to be passed around erratically, non-obviously, and never with any acknowledgement.

Player A: Siobahn picks the lock and rolls-
Player B: No she doesn't! She hides in shadow and doubles back to the previous room. Nat 20!

Player B continues to control Siobahn from then on.

Dice rolls that are obviously, visibly rigged (magnetic tray?) ... the results of which are then misapplied outside of any system logic ... and unnecessarily fudged anyway.

You scamp! You tease! You rapscallion!
Never stop.

"We've fixed all the things you hate about your favourite thing."

vs

"Pretty please step away from your comfort food - look, it's not that different!"

This is really useful to hear.
I had (have?) an rpg where I was careful to keep the system thematically gloomy- all presented in terms of rolling for less-bad (even if the underlying odds were fine).
It just made the players feel bad about every roll. Not in a fun horror way.

This was the one I tried as my first Sanderson too. Thought it was a little clumsy but interesting enough to try the sequels.
Unfortunately - and I recognise that this is a fringe opinion and he's very successful - those sequels basically unsold me on him as an author.