Stefania > Recent Status Updates

This is the type of book that stays with you. So much so, that I had to take a break and read one romance novel in between each story, so I could cleanse my brain with something easy for a little bit, and then start reading again. I wanted to somehow postpone finishing it.

Claire North has such a charming way of writing. It pulls you in.

Reminds me of “The pursuit of William Abbey”. It caught me off guard how invested I am now.

The dark is how we see the light. We need the contrast.

I like a book with small chapters. Makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something every 2 minutes. All her books are like this: multiple narrators, multiple points of view. Read 2 of her books during quarantine and they were great, but the last one she wrote was a bit underwhelming. Let’s see what this book brings.

Ok. I could not put it down. Who needs sleep? Needed to know what happens to Robin. So intense, exciting, confusing, horrific. And to think there are actual cults out there, where the culture of fear is more intense than common sense. I needed a bit of time to ground myself back to reality. Grateful for my bundle of sunshine, whose hugs always help remove the stain of horribleness that exists in the world.

“There’s some satisfaction in performing, reading the script, wearing the costume, after all. And on the other side of the satisfaction, there is rage. The deep and exhausting rage of falling for a scam. Because when all is said and done, being beautiful only offers you a temporary haven. A pedestal to fall from.”

This gives me “Sweetbitter” vibes hyped to 1000. Or partially takes me back to when I was a teenager, reading “The Bell Jar”. But a much naughtier version of it.

Page 459. The entire basis of her insecurities.

1. Giving me “Where the crawdads sing” vibes.
2. I am am hoping for a happy ending, but at the same time, it would somehow disappoint me. A happy ending would feel unrealistic considering the times. Un unholy woman was untrustworthy to the country side folk at that time. Gossip was king and no amount of well intent ever made up for unholy practices. Times were rough for women who spoke up their minds.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited before about 2 fictional characters breaking up. What I admire is the fact that she admitted to him and more importantly to herself that it wasn’t actually his cheating that made her leave. She didn’t love him anymore. She shouldn’t have been in that relationship anyway. But she admitted her fault in it and that, in the face of cheating and hypocrisy, is truly brave.

Unpopular opinion: Robin is an insecure human, unable to get out of a failing relationship because she cannot stop lying to herself. Do I blame Matthew for not supporting her in a job that entails long hours and danger? I do not. I actually agree with him. He is correct to be worried. It would make him horrible to not be. Do I blame her for holding on to a relationship that is not beneficial for either of them? Yes.

I am sorry to say that this book bores me. It’s very slow paced and uninteresting to me so far. Maybe it will get better.

A unilateral, toxic friendship. Sadness everywhere. This book is the definition of depression. Foggy mind and lost time.

“I learned to float on cheap affections gleaned from other peoples insecurities. “

“ Most of the guests were old friends from Eton with their wives or girlfriends. All were bonded by common assumptions, principles and loyalties.”
I’m sorry. He spelled “all were born rich” wrong.
“According to Harry’s friends, again and again she reprimanded them about the slightest inappropriate nuance”. Ow. Poor rich people being called on their sexist and racist jokes. Poor them. How will they ever handle it?

Ok. So the thought that she might have been wrong just crosses her mind. After 250 pages.
I am a bit tired of female characters who are portrayed as smart and beautiful, but end up being entitled and stupid.

Questionable things Mariana does: goes to dinner with her suspected murderer, gets drunk and vulnerable whilst at dinner with said suspected murderer, after dinner has a deep need to talk to somebody about her “findings” and chooses a random guy she just met who could also potentially be a murderer. But she doesn’t take that into consideration. No, because she just knows, without a doubt, who the murderer is.

Mariana is in the process of grieving. Mariana is also solving a murder. Nope. 2 murders. She is entitled to randomly make it her mission to solve a random murder because of her random skills as a psychoanalyst I guess? Mariana already thinks she knows who the murderer is. But I read enough of these books to know that a plot twist is coming. And Pam Pam Pam. The murderer might not be the person she suspects.

Nikki Priddy sounds like a bitter lady, sad that her childhood friend is more popular than her.

It’s always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years ago. It is hard to see what we are. If you can master that trick, you’ll get along.

Every man’s watchmen, is his conscience.

They had never been able to sustain 15 minutes conversations with one another without advancing irreconcilable points of view, invigorating in friendships, but in close blood relations producing only uneasy cordiality.

“They have gone on to lead quiet, unremarkable lives—the greatest gift that they could have been given. ”

“They are the cause of their own suffering, and yet they will never see it. They will rage against the gods all day long and pray to them and plead for their mercy in the darkness of night. But they will never see how simply they could make their lives better for themselves. “

“He had left because, to him, nothing mattered at all beyond the cold pursuit of his own fame. I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.”

She needs to become proficient in the discourse of diplomacy, but she’s so contrary

“Filthy rich Tories with a hatred of the social welfare infrastructures they’re actively not contributing to through tax avoidance and evasion while hypocritically scorning the underclasses as the scourge of society who sponge off the state when they’re the ones who are the biggest scrounges on society with no sense of community responsibility.”

Penelope wrote in her diary that her brain cells were popping like stars dying off into irretrievable oblivion.

Be a person with knowledge, not just opinions.