Hanna > Recent Status Updates

This book is what you get when a good writer has NOTHING to say.

Ok, this is now officially in stupid territory. I can't believe this book gets so much praise, it's actually laughable. If I wasn't so far along I'd DNF right now.

Why with all the foreshadowing pleeease

It was mentioned just a few pages ago that only the Taliban has meat to eat. Then this guy casually steps out and buys kabobs which are described as 'as succulent and delicious as I remembered'. What???

Oh these coincidences are starting to feel silly now

I've just realised why I feel nothing. The book does a lot of telling and not much showing:
'Where the tablet's legs crossed like an X, there was a ring of brass balls, each walnut sized. One of the balls had come unscrewed. I stooped and tightened it. I wished I could fix my own life as easily.' - URGH

There's something about the way this main character is written that makes me feel nothing for him. Awful things are happening and it's... Whatever.

Side note: my used copy has extensive notes in it that make no sense. Whoever wrote them has marked every part that has a time jump with 'ellipsis'. Why? Why write the word out like that instead of the dots? Does this person actually not know what 'ellipsis' means? Very distracting. Oh, the book is fine. Interesting. Writing a bit meh.

Never did I ever think I'd DNF a Kazuo Ishiguro book, but here we are. This is a lazy cash grab, glad I bought it second hand.

Oh, absolutely not. Why do I keep making the mistake of listening to recommendations from random people ☠️

Whoever write this has surely never had an adult relationship. One of those people emotionally stuck in their teens. Thank fuck this is nearly over.

Lots of snagging of gazes. What does that even look like? Sigh.

Omg. All these voices rumbling and tumbling and rolling through people. All the smiles tugging at mouth corners. Whoever edited this should have pointed out all these tics to the writer. Ahhhhhhh.

So far so bad. Bored. These cardboard cutout people just met and are already trying not to fall for each for some pointless reasons, and they've only spoken to each other a handful of times. The quest to find a great romance book continues...

So... Is this actually going to just be the same juvenile short story over and over with a different character pasted into it?

It's not often I'm bored by a book, but here we are.

As good as ever, except... This one's not been edited very well, I count at least 6 times someone has 'said something obscene'. Gets distracting when you notice this stuff.

I know, I know, I'm supposed to put my brain away while reading something like this, but it's hard when every character could be any other character, you can't tell them apart at all, and everyone is this wry quirky fun eccentric type. Who finds a body and casually points it out cool as a cucumber while cracking jokes? Pretty much everyone in this book.

Urgh, I hate it when I can see something coming from a mile away and then it happens exactly when and how I thought it would. How wa her latest book so good and this is so bad? Sloppy as hell.

How can a book be so beautiful and insightful and interesting in one chapter and then so pointless and boring and distracting in the next? I love the POVs of Cyrus and his friends and family, and the extracts from his work make sense and give context, but all the other extra stuff is just urrgghhhh, spare me.

Waaaaaait a minute. Have I picked up another terrible book?

Waaaaaait a minuey. Have I picked up another terrible book?

'Azad was caustic, broad and bejumpered, always with a look like she was weathering something.' What a description! 😍

This writer is the emperor in his new clothes. All those titles and accolades in his profile and THIS is how he writes?! Naw, mate. I don't care how interesting your concept is or how important the topic, if you can't write, don't.

Tell you what, if you're in the mood for something simultaneously unbelievable and drier than stale rice cakes that's also casually yet explicitly racist, here's a perfect specimen for you. And don't start with 'it's a product of its time' - I haven't got the time!

Wish I hadn't bought this in hardback, wish I'd remembered I've already dnf'd one of her books for terrible writing... Regrets, regrets everywhere https://media.tenor.com/RLyfEhRfPbAAA...

This book is trying to be 'something very different from her other books', but what it has ended up being is two different failed books clumsily stitched together between the covers of one. So annoyed at this point.

𝘖𝘔𝘎, why are 𝘴𝘰 many words 𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥, I don't 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 🫠

So many tugs of the corner of his mouth, so many almost smiles, two segues already! What is happening?

So far nothing has happened. Writing is unremarkable, which makes the errors more noticeable. Example, narrator is afraid of snakes biting her animals, mentions still to this day never having seen a single snake. A few pages later describes the first time she saw a snake inside the wall. There's a lot of stuff like this so far and I don't understand the high rating.