Status Updates From Bitter Harvest: A Woman's F...

I am kind of struggling with this framing of Mike in these latter chapters. Earlier in the book Mike basically went on record as saying he gave as good as he got, but here at the end Rule is writing him like he’s Beth from Little Women. And obviously in 1996 he was in the middle of multiple heart and brain surgeries from the Ricin poisoning, but he is a real person with agency we don’t have to infantilize him

You know the Lifetime: Television for Women network staff read the section about Debora being arrested at her 10 year olds ballet dress rehearsal and ran to the family with a boatload of money to tell their story…Lifetime weights plot points like this in gold

Half the reason this book is so confusing to map is because 60% of the people Ann Rule talked to are Doctors. Literally: Farrars Mistress, Her husband, both their next door neighbors, both the Walkers next door neighbors, all doctors. So I’m can only try to remember what their speciality is to identify them vs how they are related to the main family because being a Dr isn’t a unique identifier

Obligatory book written in 1998 explaining to me what fentanyl is. Like unfortunately we’re living through a moral panic about this Ann, so we all know about using Narcan so that people ODing don’t stop breathing.

You know these people are the idle upper middle class because why are you having a Backpacking Trip Reunion like two weeks after you’ve returned from your Private School Machu Picchu backpacking trip where you all got Montezuma's Revenge. I know the answer is that two of the parents are having an emotional affair, but why are the rest of you there.

I understand that this is how Ann Rule’s Brian works, but she always writes stuff like Deboras Wrist and Knee injury that required antibiotics like it’s going to be this huge revelation that reframes the following events. And I know In my heart two chapters from the end Anne’s going to be like “the psychological profile showed she was just a sociopath this whole time”. It always implies nonexistent duos

“Debora never passed either her hematology or oncology board examinations. That would not bar her from practicing in those specialties. But if patients checked, they would find she was not board certified.” Ann I understand this to be true but I’m not going to internalize. I don’t want to have to second guess every speciality Physician I interact with just because I couldn’t find the time to cyber stalk em

I know it’s statistically possible but the idea that your ER Doctor or Oncologist only became a physician because U of I maxed out their Chemical Engineering program and that was their second choice is so grim. Also, I don’t think Deborah is a people person because if she loved Engineering because she self identifies as “Thinking like a computer”, that doesn’t constitute a strong bedside manner in my book