Status Updates From This Might Hurt

+complicated family dynamics were well-written
-characters themselves felt flat
-pacing was all over the place
-drawn out

2.5* I didn’t enjoy or not enjoy this book, I can see the vision but the execution just wasn’t it for me. Thus, I’m rounding down to 2* due to dragging, lackluster secret reveal and bouncing around POV/timelines with too much time before revisiting them taking any investment I had away

Rebecca’s conclusion with Kit felt a little OOC which I think was addressed by the role-reversal once Kit showed her final hand of loyalty, Rebecca wearing the scarf this time, Kit reaching out to her knee etc but then the confrontation on the boat Rebecca still had some grit in her so it undercut the entire previous interaction and thus made her just willing to sit on an island waiting for Kit to be OOC again

When the sisters finally do meet, the constant attempts at tension by her not being able to find Kit, seeing her than deciding now’s not the time to tell the secret, another instance of the exact thing… it just felt forced and I didn’t feel any of the motivations Natalie had for coming in the first place.

There are some ideas about facing your fears/regrets/guilts, and commentary on finding a home

Looking at my notes, Kit/Natalie meet at 30% and that conversation isn’t revisited until 70%, so you can imagine that if this isn’t read in only a few sittings, the reader will be wholly lost on what is going on in that conversation. The story picked up at the end but it was just too late for that. Thus, tension, stakes etc are cut and the thriller aspect is non existent. It just feels drawn out instead of slow burn

Pacing slowed considerably once we got to the island, and with 3 POVs (one unknown for a long while doesn’t add to the mystery but to the confusion) to cover across multiple times, you just get thrown back and forth between things that its hard to find footing so I started to become less engaged or even care about why Natalie was there because I was so far removed from it

So stealing Natalie’s phone and leaving her in the woods was all Kit’s idea not Rebecca’s

Rebecca after a few days finally decides to swim in the freezing water

Kit removed the threat of Rebecca so Jeremiah won’t take WIsewood down to get to her and without her time-wasting test of loyalty the staff are no longer distracted

Kit goes to take Natalie on the boat to leave the island but it's open-ended on where

When Natalie wants to finally leave she runs into Gordon holding a wet scarf, no one has seen Rebecca in weeks they were supposed to run the facility as normal so no one knew she wasn’t there and he said that Rebecca started getting paranoid that someone was going to betray her

Gordon had started snooping and when he found the scarf he knew Kit did something, promises to take her down

w her wearing the scarf it’s like their roles are reversed, Kit says they can take the boat and leave Wisewood until it’s safe for Jeremiah, she takes her to a small island and confronts her for not telling her about her mother and she realizes that its Wisewood she loves not Rebecca, says she’ll be back soon but never returns

Kit doesn’t like being told what’s good for her form Jeremiah or her own sister, she knows she’s being used but she wants to feel useful and loved and she feels that here; she does look into the files though and finds out how her mom died and so she sends the email to Natalie to confess, Rebecca walks in on her snooping, she tells R everything and she is shocked at the betrayal of Jeremiah

Kit learns from Jeremiah that he’s Gabe’s brother who blames Rebecca not only for his death but for leaving their family, the inheritance etc he pretended to be someone else to get into Wisewood and found out Gordon is gone all the time cuz he was a PI and Rebecca uses him to get info on the other staff

Kit brings Natalie back to her cabin after having been in freezing weather for 5 hours, she’s pissed and STILL thinks it’s a bad time to talk to Kit but since she insists she blurts that their mom planned her death and Natalie helped

Rebecca now wears Kit’s mom’s scarf and says it’s time for 2nd quest of pain, while she gets the mark branded into her toe Rebecca is in her ear telling her what to say to Jeremiah, to shame him for not taking his pain quest yet despite being here longer than Kit and that if he ever turned his back on them Rebecca will release his confession of fraud to his former employer (tho he admitted to Kit he made that up)

Natalie can’t find her phone in her cabin anymore, she goes to Kit’s cabin and she’s not back even late at night despite the hailstorm, she’s awoken by a woman wearing a mask and is taken to the docks to wait for the boat w a knife

Kit has been tasked with keeping tabs on the other inner circle members, telling on them; Rebecca tells her to avoid Jeremiah and Ruth and she also learns there’s cameras in the cabins

Kit’s first quest in the schoolhouse was to say her biggest regret/guilt while being recorded, she was driving drunk and hit a deer but she never went back to check if it were really a deer, the others in the inner circle also tell their secrets, murder, fraud, stealing

if staff are allowed to contact family then why don’t u call me; she even attacks Rebecca like that won’t backfire)

Kit says she won’t let Natalie take sparkle of here from her like she did when she was belittled for liking dolls at 9, ok….??

Gordon knocks, he’s taking the boat out despite the storm, Then and ONLY then does Natalie bring up she has something to say and Kit’s like we’re done and leaves w Gordon

She looks for a place w cell service so she can tell work she’s staying a little longer, hoping to convince Kit to come home w her

Natalie gets caught in the staff-only area near the schoolhouse and is brought to Kit, and her arguments for getting her to leave are terrible (don’t you want a family, they don’t let them use phones etc instead of just saying like hey you never reach out anymore

So we’re fiiiiiinally back to when Kit sat on Natalie’s bed omg it’s been forever idr or idc?, but she decides it’s not the time to tell her the secret about their mom and she’ll do it another time. Next day she catches Kit before her class and then decides again it’s not the time, she asks if there’s house keeping cuz her sweater was moved in her cabin

Rebecca is immune to pain, one time she went scuba diving in ice cold water but woke up in the hospital, Gabe died saving her and the Five quit cuz of it; Gabe left her millions in his will which she uses years later to open Wisewood so she can still preach her life’s work away from the distractions of the outside world

(she thinks he’s ungrateful and I’m being around her teaching has never gotten over his fears and she has grown fearless)

Once Kit finally recognizes all material possessions even her mothers scarf, she is cordially invited into the inner circle where they perform Quests

Gabe comes back to Rebecca months later

One show where she lights her dress in flames ends up w her in cardiac arrests and third degree burns on 70% of her body, she asks one of the Five w O blood to give a donation jic she needs it

Gabe is upset she didn’t tap out but she said her entire life is built on the fact she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t even feel pain (most likely from nerve damage) but they fight over this and Gabe quits

Kit becomes more involved at WIsewood even leads yoga class, when she helps others find peace in their fears/regrets she also finds fulfillment for herself, she has students of her own now

Rebecca offers her a permanent staff position and Kit accepts but knows she needs to apologize to Natalie first for blaming her for her apathy towards their mothers death when it was really just that Natalie was raising them both

Have stays w Rebecca for a while never making it romantic so as not to risk her career, her Madam Fearless show is about hurting herself but never feeling any pain

Five students come by and express their intrigue, Rebecca takes them in over the years as they need it and eventually they work for her and bring in new audiences

Her sister Jack also comes by to apologize for icing her out in childhood and once moving away, but While Rebecca wants to make up for that lost relationship she knows that Jack never supported her profession and even invited Sir back into her life

Kits next session and Rebecca knows stuff about her mom and sis that Kit only told April/Georgina, so they told or they’re listening but both women insist they didn’t

Kit has her first one on one w Rebecca and I think she’s the magician from the kid chapters; kit is depressed from her mothers passing

There’s rules against physical touching or intimacy

Sir visits the girls magic show when she’s 24 and guy named Gabe stands up for her that she’s a headliner and first female mentalist w a world tour, she ends up taking him on as an apprentice cuz he’s also under his fathers thumb

Natalie signs waiver that she won’t sue or post a review, meets some attendees? Idk what to call them and some are bald women, Rebecca is the leader of the community but now she’s too busy or important to teach classes anymore, she finds out from the ladies April and Georgina that Kit used to be friends w them and where kits house is and nobody’s home, when she gets to her room kit is sitting inside

The girl is only allowed to go to bed if she has 15 points so she has to say the stuff she’s done today worthy of points

The girl does magic shows at school and they are really popular tho they draw crowds from the drama club so they heckle her a lot, Sir forces her to focus on swimming so she can get a scholarship and quit magic but she’s determined to do both; in college she hasn’t gone back home

Intense Father is abusive in his insistence of teaching his daughter to swim, when she fails and almost drowns she’s forced into swim lessons where a fellow kid tells her about Houdini; her sister Jack doesn’t stand up to him either

When Natalie goes to Wisewood Gordon says nobody sent that email, Kit is staff, won’t let Natalie in until she threatens to call cops ; she’s always saving her sis and has to do it again

Natalie’s sister Kit has been in a 6 month self-help sorta facility on a private island w no social contact or access to phones; Natalie gets letter from the facility threatening to expose her secret to her sister, when she calls the facility they know allll about her but only authorized visitor can come, she wants to come clean about her secret then dip