Jess > Recent Status Updates

I didn't think Terry could write a bad book, but 😬

Does Xochitl Gonzalez realise she's implicitly made the art establishment's erasure of Ana/Anita less about the art establishment and its emphasis on 'western tradition' and all the racism/classism/sexism that encompasses and more about the consequences of ANITA'S OWN ACTIONS because fucking hell

omfg this author WILL NOT STOP crowing about how fat the villain (the Carl-Andre-in-all-but-name character) is. Just keeps hammering it in as a signifier for him being pathetic and self-indulgent and past his prime, and it's far from the biggest issue with this novel, but what the FUCK lady?

I really want to push through to the end of this book, but ugh. Knowing now that the 'Anita' storyline is purely a dramatisation of Ana Mendieta's death with the names changed, it's hard to feel anything but disgust. And while there are good elements to the Raquel storyline, it's also fundamentally a paint-by-numbers Very Special Episode, I already know all the beats; I know how it's going to end. It's boring.

hnngghh idk if I've just soured to this book since wiki-diving and realising how completely the author appropriated Ana Mendieta's story or if this was just a weak chapter, but... man, Raquel is beginning to feel less like a character and more like an after-school special. Gonzalez is really spoon-feeding the themes here. Like, I didn't come here for a Dhar Mann video.

woof, this one has me feeling conflicted! Really compelling read, audiobook performances are excellent, has a lot to say about the art world and racism and misogyny and classism... but I can fully understand why Ana Mendieta's family is upset by this book. Because it's not 'inspired by' Ana, it's Ana fanfiction - borrows her entire biography and career without so much as naming her in the acknowledgements.

That sinking moment when you realise the book you've been excited about is not in any way going to live up to the blurb, the cover, the concept or the potential. 😭 Trying to push through, but aughhhh

oh my GOD, I don't think I've ever seen a worse choice of cover quote than this book's. Legitimately nearly put it down again when I glanced at the front and saw Lionel Shriver singing its praises. Who in their right mind would want to associate their book with the racist terf anti-woke brain worms lady?? (Fortunately it doesn't seem to be an indicator of the book's content, just a bad misjudgement by the publisher.)

Annnnnd we've hit the fake marriage trope. "Supernatural western" my arse, this is a romance novel with peripheral vampires and I am annoyed at being misled. I like romance, but I would not have picked up this book if I knew it was going to be (at least to the two-thirds mark) 5% vampires and 95% the heroine being a jerk to the hero because that's the trope we're doing

Okay, so I think I've pinned down the two main problems with this book: 1. It's a romance novel that's been mislabelled as horror. 2. It's an underdeveloped romance novel that reads like a draft and spends too much time spoon-feeding the reader.

this is the second time this book has suddenly switched from third person limited to third person omniscient just for a sentence's spooky foreshadowing and I'm annoyed. Yeah, it's *easier* to go omniscient to tell the reader that the characters are being followed, but it's also lazy and less scary. It's setting up the next piece on the board but failing to build the atmosphere/tension.

aww man, I've been persisting because this has all the ingredients of something good, but this is the most spoon-feedy narration *and* the heroine just got confronted with incontrovertible evidence that the hero is telling the truth but she's still refusing to believe him... because the plot says so. 😬

Really appreciating just how good Ennes' foreshadowing is on the reread - love a book that lays out all the information you need but misdirects you so skilfully it keeps you guessing to the end. Also the textured world building and the use of language and the atmosphere and how beautifully Abi Thorn's narration draws out every nuance. So goooood.

Somehow I remembered the bridge scene as being within the first couple of chapters rather than more than halfway into the book, which probably speaks to how quickly I inhaled this book the first time around. Ughhh I love it so muchhhh.

Listening to the audiobooks this time and eeek Adjoa Andoh is *perfection*

Miller has a particular writing tic that worked perfectly nicely with her lyrical prose to begin with, but she's overusing it to a degree that it's now set my teeth on edge. 'Two days, it was'. 'Tall, he was.' MA'AM, YOU ARE NOT YODA. I NEED YOU TO GET A GRIP. ANNOYED, I WAS.

Telegonus: OMFG ALL YOU EVER TALK ABOUT IS HOW I NEED TO FEAR THE GODS BECAUSE THEY KILL EVERYBODY, I DON'T THINK THEY EVEN CARE ABOUT ME. Circe, two minutes later: It is my fault clearly. I painted such a romantic idea of the world, I failed to tell him how dangerous the gods are. 🤔 And then she proceeds to do the same bullshit she's been doing all book and expect different results.

Was trying to figure out where the hell Telegonus got his extremely typical ideas of masculinity when the only person he's ever met in his entire life is Circe, and then I remembered: Circe hates women.

Also I am SO OVER Circe whining about how she's alone, alone, always alone, everybody always leaves her, meanwhile there's a couple of dozen nymphs standing behind her twiddling their thumbs because she's written them off sight unseen as worthless company. I'd cut Miller more slack if I thought the internalised misogyny was intentional and leading somewhere (e.g. as in The Lie Tree) but I'm not so sure it is.

ughhh still conflicted. There's some really beautiful writing in here, and then there's just... a lot that feels simplistic and surface-level. I want to give Miller the benefit of the doubt and say maybe there's an intentionality behind Circe's not-like-the-other-girls attitude, the way she STILL identifies with/romanticises flawed men while sneering at women for being vapid, bc patriarchy is insidious... but idk.

I am... hm. Uncomfortably struck by the way that Miller has chosen to make Circe sympathetic by painting her as a naive good-hearted ugly-duckling in a sea of unsympathetically drawn callous bitches. It's, uh, not the approach I would have expected from a feminist retelling?? (I can see how she's gradually working to complicate these portrayals, but... hmmm. Maybe she'll bring me around. Not sold just now.)

oooh, having some mixed feelings about this one! On the one hand: gorgeous, lush, compelling writing that has me hooked. On the other hand: really disliking Circe's not-like-the-other-goddesses characterisation. It feels simplistic and immature, especially reading it on the heels of Costanza Casati's Clytemnestra, which takes a much more nuanced look at a similarly maligned character. But maybe she'll sell me on it!

this is one of the worst books I've read in a long, long time

god, this author is such a debate-me atheist. People like this are the reason I don't call myself an atheist. I don't believe in god, but I also don't believe in being a self-satisfied asshole about it.

Elizabeth still insisting she will succeed on her own merit without any help whatsoever while happily accepting a TV job offered to her because she's hot and her own lab offered to her because her dead lover's long-lost mother is rich

yep, just quit your lucrative TV job without having anything lined up, it's not like you've ever experienced misogyny in the scientific field before, I'm sure they'll all be lining up to give you jobs, this has after all always been your experience of the way the world works

no really, how many times are you gonna blame the bloody leash????

god, this woman must be an absolute nightmare to work with. Goes off script to instruct viewers on how to murder their husbands with poison mushrooms. Declares on live TV that potential lucrative sponsor's product is garbage. Cooks the same thing on every episode for a week because she's in a shitty mood. She does whatever she wants even when she's told she could be jeopardising a lot of other people's jobs.