The Subsect

by Jess Mariano

Genres: Short Stories

Paperback

First published November 8, 2005

Reviews

[Carlie _Azer_Carstairs_Herondale_Lewis]

What I imagine to be a true masterpiece🙌

[Reia · Rating 4 out of 5]

to be compared to a velvet underground's song by Jess Mariano. swoon.
i feel incomplete. probably because this book is incomplete. until the next chapter ( which will most likely upload next year ) i think this is written marvelously and it's so cool seeing J.'s thought process but at the same time, very sad. that's really quite the norm when it comes to memoirs and autobiographies. a few lines contained within the barriers of this novel will perpetually haunt me and that's completely fine. "They sat beside each other and thought the same thoughts of the soul. bleak and blue and sad-eyed." who wouldn't want that floating around their cerebrum?

[Kambri Geisler]

someone tell me where you guys are getting this book idk where to find it and i desperately want to read this

[Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

J. was crushed by Blue, i was crushed by this.

[ayaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several words could be used to describe this novel. So beautifully written, this 12 chapter book perfectly reciprocates Jess Mariano as the interesting and unique character he is. Written in a way which compliments Jess, the writer succeeded in portraying how Jess’s life before and after stars hollow would be. The touch of utilising ‘ Blue ‘ as Rory Gilmore and ‘J.’ as Jess Mariano makes this novel elementary for readers who are not familiar with the show Gilmore Girls. Every interaction with Rory Gilmore is composed in the most elegant way. Narrating how Jess’s mind would view and feel towards Rory Gilmore, was accomplished by the writer distinctively. The little details, such as Jess and his mothers relationship is represented in an extremely realistic manner. Jess’s behaviour as a character reflects how his behaviour with his mother would be, and i believe that the writer did a fantastic job in showing this. Moreover, as stated before, i could use several words to describe The Subsect. In my eyes, i do class it as a 5 star read. Despite being a new reader, i’ve rated this book a 5 with very careful and delicate thoughts taken into consideration beforehand. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the show Gilmore Girls and to anyone who is curious to delve into the life of a troubled teenager, trying to pave his own way and understand himself as a person. I hope to see more chapters very soon!

[Rory G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The symbolism is so subtle: the repetition of the image of the red stoplight, just two or three times, whenever the impulsive main character is at a crossroads, often without realizing it, is really remarkable. The scene with the garden trellis is a hilarious satire of Romeo and Juliet. What a novel. I can’t wait to see what else comes of this promising young author.

[Sabrina Shafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The amount of specific references and details was so perfect according to the character of Jess and the attention to detail was amazing. Whilst it was quite wordy it was still a wonderful read - Just wish it was longer!

[Daria!(Taylor’s Version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing, it was so Jess and his nickname for Rory🥹I love it smmmm!

[Ava Jordyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this was a full paperback I found. I love it.

[gemma ⸆⸉🩵💫 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i hope this gets finished eventually, i loved all the subtle references to gilmore girls, and the writing is exactly how i think jess would write, and think about rory.

[Erica M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly a masterpiece and represents Jess Marianos view on the world as a teenager moving to small town from New york and his experiences. His book is truly well written from storyline/plot to punctuation.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read at: https://truncheonpress.medium.com/the...

This was an enjoyable read. I could imagine Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls writing this, possibly based on what led up to him being sent off to Luke in Stars Hallow.

[Finley! · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A lesson not taught was not always a lesson not learned.”

4.5—cause I want so much more but omg you don’t know how much this book means to me 😭

[Blakely Manderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Subsect by Jess Mariano delivers on the promise offered by the author’s name: a thoughtful backdoor to the world of Gilmore Girls from the perspective of a particular love interest equal parts moody and magnetic (both the boy and the book).

A slim volume of 14 chapters has never gripped me so quickly (although that is likely due in large part to my rather unrequited love for Jess Mariano, check my profile picture). While definitely wordy, the density of the prose seemed perfectly intentional and authentic to Jess’ troubled-teen-to-successful-author persona. Only he could describe a past so marred with a density of language that still breathed; forgive me if I’m trying too hard to imitate his style:)

Blue, though representative of Rory, felt independent of her inspiration in the best way possible. This narrative offered more candid moments between her and “J.” (known otherwise as the author himself). She seemed impossibly smarter in this retelling, as did Jess, as I could barely decode much of their dialogue, which was layered with obscure references to authors and books and poems only the two of them could understand.

The author succeeded in making me instantly despise Ashen and instantly love “the uncle,” never named but vivid nonetheless. Blue Sr. was witty as ever, and I greatly enjoyed the reimagining of her face-off with “J.” on the porch after he had covertly swiped a bottle of her beloved beer. For a scene so controversial among fans, it was simplified and reworded beautifully in a way believable for Jess to have remembered the situation. And please, let’s not get started on the beautifully broken portrayal of his mother.

The grocery store scene (chapter 13, prepare to squint endlessly at the page as you attempt to unravel plot from prose) was striking. I appreciated how Jess walked in league with the great poets of the past. This novel clasped to his belt, he fit in quite well.

Chapter 14, the current end of the narrative, nearly crushed me as Blue had crushed J. Laid out in the form of a play. Heavy-laden with metaphors, much like Jess’ shoulders with the weight of his small but troubled world. Riddled with references and characters and the emotional hell that Jess had trudged through his entire life. Ending on a heart-rending separation you knew was coming but didn’t have the heart to admit to him.

I will end this review with one slight warning: have Google in hand as you read. The author’s vocabulary is broad, as is their understanding of Latin, French, and Dante (“It doesn’t sound as good in English”). A beautifully constructed novel about life, love, and loss. A true five-star piece. Jess Mariano, fictional love of my (unfortunately) nonfictional life, you are going places. Don’t let Blue break you. You’ve only been crushed; trust me, you still have a bright future ahead.
Also: listen to hoax by Taylor Swift after reading, even if you can’t stand her. The parallels are terrifying.

[zuzanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

read in an afternoon, I was left slightly disappointed at the end, but I did love it and I do wish it were longer and that I had a physical copy that I could carry around in my back pocket.

but I can't imagine Jess would write so openly about what was hidden in that head of his.

[Ιωσηφίνα · Rating 5 out of 5]

ovvio che l'ho letto, ceh, me l'ha consigliato jess; è di jess. è straordinario: storia e scrittura top <3<3<3

[Lily (julian santos’ version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally I finished this book. I must say it was a bit too smart for me and most of the time I was confused. It was still quite enjoyable tho.

[cillian lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book.

[Ayesha]

I love ittt

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! Mariano’s writing on contemporary issues is told through classic literary flare.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One possible version can be found on medium.com. The author is Truncheon Press, and I HIGHLY recommend this version. It is amazing.

[Gracie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this off of Fanfic so maybe I got a different version? My only real critiques were the writing. Bruh it is not that hard to write a good quality sentence. You don't really have a word limit. There doesn't have to be a maximum of five words per sentence! Think complete thoughts! For goodness sakes my man! It ain't that hard to write with correct grammar. (Actually I take that back. Some people are incapable.) In addition to this, there were typos!!! Buddy, I'm sorry to break it to you, but you do have to proofread your stuff. Some people are gonna get confused by your mess ups. It ain't "me" buddy. Its "be". Get it right please 😁 I guess I'm not being entirely fair because typing isn't my best skill set either. But check your stuff! Please! I beg of you! 🥺

This book gets 2 stars because I like the general idea. I love Jess and I liked reading his life events from his pov. The writing style had good potential, if only the issues that I mentioned were addressed.

(Full disclosure, I had to go back and edit this because I had typos....)

[livia · Rating 4 out of 5]

omg. alla små detaljer som ingen annan än han hade märkt. jag orkar inte. fina fina jess. hur kan du ha växt upp såhär de har du inte förtjänat. ”If i never said goodbye, then they were never truly gone” krossade mitt hjärta. så sjukt att detta e baserat på en fiktiv karaktärs liv? ”i didnt tell her goodbye. i didnt want her to be truly gone” omg måste lowkey se om gilmore girls. team jess för alltid fuck dean. btw älskar alla beskrivningarna, hur han inte nämner namn men man vet ändå alltid vem han pratar om. jättefint skrivet.

[Alina Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Blue's bus pulled in. As she took her seat, J. finally asked the question that had burned against his lips all afternoon. "Why did you come here?"

She opened the window and cast down a sad look with her large gun-metal blue eyes. "Because you didn't say goodbye."

What could he do? Goodbye Blue.'

Ugh this book was great. It was a bit wordy at times and I found myself confused in some bits (like the ending, I wasn't sure about the jury bit or the play) but it represented Jess in such a great way, before he came to Stars Hollow and his relationship with Liz and his love for Rory . I wish it could be finished . It was hard to follow in some areas, also I didn't understand most of the references - but overall I did enjoy it!

[Logan Huntzberger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pompous, self absorbed, wordy, pretentious. Tries desperately and fails miserably to be Kafkaesque. This is not a biased review.

[simmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I thought I found something, but I lost it. Then I lost myself."
"If the things whose loss you are bemoaning were really yours, you could never have lost them" - Boethius

“What is past is past”

[lia ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ★

[valley and stuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

idk if this is an acc book or ppl in the revweis r messing w me, but whatever this is i love it wo a second thought.

[vix · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolute cinema

[Veronica Trace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Automatic 5 stars because it’s Jess lol but also just very well written!