Kyra > Recent Status Updates

Marianne is really not like the other girls huh?

I really enjoy the plot of this book but there seems to be some subconscious obstacle stopping me from picking this up. To be far that obstacle may be the prospect of more interesting books sitting on my shelf. Or the fact that I've already read 3/4s of this book about four years ago but can't remember enough of it to pick up where I left off. Either way I'm determined to finish this.

I read some reviews for this when I first started it and saw that people were calling this 'too speculative.' At the time I thought 'how could you call something about a future which hasn't happened *too* speculative,' of course it is going to be speculative! Now I'm starting to get it - I think the problem is that it is highly speculative, but not wholly convincing (so far).

'"When I think about you painting me, it feels like my insides are slowly being scraped away."'

Why have I decided to read another magical realism...this one is arguably better though.

Feeling meh - for some reason when I bought this book I thought that it would be 'For the Good Times'-esque but it isn't and it has magical realism which has to be done in a very particular war for me to enjoy it. It's an easy read but I'm just not feeling particularly fulfilled by it.

So close...yet so far

I am so close yet so far from the end. I've been trying to unsuccessfully finish this novel since June of 2020. I enjoy the plot although it veers in all sorts of directions (not all necessary) but the chapters are just ridiculously long and don't capture my attention. Seriously, putting 15 pages (30 double sides) in a chapter should be illegal.

'How can the mind take hold of such a country? Generations of invaders have tried, but they remain in exile. The important towns they build are only retreats, their quarrels the malaise of men who cannot find their way home. India knows of their trouble [...] She is not a promise, only an appeal.'

It has come to my attention that I thought the plot of this book would be completely different and now I have no clue what to expect. I would be lying if I said I was finding this very gripping.

'Why does Samuel Butler say "Wise men never say what they think of women"? Wise men never say anything else apparently.'

'Why does Samuel Butler say "Wise men never say what they think of women"? Wise men never say anything else apparently.'

Wow! Picked this up after seeing a Good Reads comment which compared David Keenan (author of my favourite - For the Good Times) to Irvine Welsh (whose Trainspotting I read about a month ago and LOVED) and Roddy Doyle. This little beauty is definitely meeting my expectations currently. I've blown through more than half of it in a day at work and I think I'll finish the rest tonight!

I don't know why this everyday drama is so interesting to me but I am genuinely really enjoying how ridiculous and hypocritical French society is. Having a good knowledge of revolutionary France and the Napoleonic era definitely helps as it means that I can share a laugh with contemporary readers. Also it is just delightfully dramatic for no reason which I also love.

I'm really enjoying this! Much more than I thought I would

Wow the N word again? It feels like Tartt has thrown the word in because she can hide behind the fact that its a fictional character who doesn't understand that he can't say it (because he's a foreigner and apparently doesn't understand...despite having lived all over the world in a variety of cultures) but that isn't even a vaguely decent excuse when Boris is apparently SO intelligent about the world. Yuck

This book has started seriously falling off for me. It's easy ro read, but the characters of different ethnicities read as caricatures, reduced to their race/nationality. All of Boris' characteristics are Russian/Slavic stereotypes. Also, the use of the N word on p. 333 seriously took me aback. I don't know what purpose it serves to have Boris say it (especially so trivially) & it makes me concerned.

'I wanted to take her then, drag her to the nearest sandstone tomb and show her in the biblical way all she didn't yet know about men."

I'm finding this such an uncomfortable read. It borders on too much. We know Billy is a disgusting, creepy man who thinks he has the rights to all womens bodies, must we be reminded every chapter of his sexual desire? He has no other character traits besides that.

I openly hate the trope of one character non-consensually kissing another. It takes me back to the Twilight days (specifically the way that both Jacob and Edward felt they had rights over Bella). The fact that Lily says that it excites her when Billy kisses her in a "demanding" (read: non-consensual) way, then a paragraph later she shares her history with sexual assault...this is really tone deaf to me.

I'm already dreading when Ari's chapters end and Billy's begin. All his chapters are about his sexual relationships with women and the trophies he takes from them. It's deeply disturbing to read about how posessive and obsessive he is of Lily.

This line on p. 66 reads particularly sinister to me:

"Lily had no father to protect her here. And she wasn't going anywhere."

? I don't even know what to make of that.