Sarah > Recent Status Updates

Not really enjoying it, planning to skim ahead and find out how it ends.

Am I hypersensitive because I saw this on a list of books with twists or are some of the hints not really very smoothly dropped in?

Off to a bad start, mentioning that the bad novel is written in the past tense. I think it's supposed to be a reference to the idea that it means that the victims in the bad novel will die, but I can't tell whether it's a misunderstanding of relative time or just an underexplained oversimplification.

"She forgot to swim" vs Woolf vs Barrett.

"they were fake anyway and could not hurt me or upset Bevel" doesn't pass muster. First of all since Ida suspects he isn't telling her everything how does she know she didn't inadvertently invent something true? And second of all he might be angry even if it is fake if he thinks it somehow makes him look bad or contradicts the persona he wants to be known for.

I feel unable to understand Ida's behaviour. It is frustrating that she has not confronted Jack and inexplicable that she did not protest to Bevel that she could not abandon her father. Surely at least she should have tried to get him other help or explained why she could not.

Not really digging the latest developments. The one reveal was not handled in a very interesting way and the risk with the housekeeper for no specific reason makes me think poorly of Ida. Who is she benefiting by satisfying her own curiosity at this stage? She knows Bevel doesn't want her in the room. Is he keeping a secret or is he just oblivious?

I am skeptical that Ida's false document would have the desired impact but I am not sure whether at this point the book will recognize that. Maybe the disaster will erupt from the discarded drafts instead.

"Most of the music sounded just like that moment before the performance, when the musicians tune their instruments." I don't like this description because if it all sounds like tuning up how would you be able to articulate the observation this way? I think it would be expressed differently.

WOW. Trust ==> Bonds ==> ??

Now we're getting somewhere. But I think Ida may be reasoning ahead of herself. All it takes is for the story to include accurate publicly known facts for people to assume that everything is true. There doesn't have to be a real secret exposed that Bevel wants suppressed. (But that said, Bevel's draft made him unsympathetic, so who knows.)

Enjoying the 3rd section but feeling a bit impatient to learn where this is going. And not sure whether I should already know how the sections are connected. I've had to put this down and pick it up again after breaks, I have lost track a bit.

Even women got in on the market!

"Yes, marmalade onlv makes fruit live longer, not forever."

"America and fame: they af equally useful if you want freedom from your mother."

I predict I am going to find this book wonderfully quotable. 😍

Resuming after a long hiatus.

Absolutely agog since the narrator has started boasting about America First and tariffs. Quite a gut punch for 2025.

"He was suffering from a moral appendicitis."

Quite fun, started reading because I could not enjoy the movie, curious to see how far astray the movie goes. Cluny is supposed to be plain as a boot!

Returning to this after a long time. Fascinating to have reached the section that is in the form of an incomplete draft. Will that gain meaning as I continue or is it a simple gimmick?

Having a bit of a hard time when the omniscient POV switches from Pen.

Does Chet seem too intimate with Christina?

A bit heavy-handed regarding Pen's attraction to Sacha so far.

Grizzly should have been grisly.

It's a little unclear how Gabe was able to give her a job without conflict with the manager, and it was too easy the way Pom was able to start selling baked goods in the café just on Gabe's say-so when he had apparently no control over the bad items they had been selling. But their relationship is very wholesome.

Seriously? You go on a work trip expecting to swim. You have had scars on your midsection since you were a teenager. But you pack a bikini and it never occurs to you beforehand to think that you might be selfconscious about your Very Important colleagues seeing the scars? And also you are a new mother and you have not thought about whether the bikini will fit? Absolutely hopeless.

I need fewer anecdotes about how hopeless and helpless the author is and more evidence that the Facebook execs are whatever she claims they are. The breast pump stories absolutely enraged me. She is incapable of advocating for herself to make sure she has what she needs in order to take these business trips which always seem to be pointless and unsuccessful and never her fault.

Up to chapter 8 and nothing has happened that makes me think well of the author.

I am finding it very difficult to begin to appreciate the author's point of view. Regardless of how terrible Sheryl and Mark are, Sarah Wynn-Williams has not impressed me with her diligence or ability at any point. She positions herself as wanting to do good but in such a vague way. The few positions she has taken she has not supported. Why didn't she know how the NZ PM would arrive?

Is she naïve or just not a very interesting writer?

Apprehensive. I am not persuaded by the author's understanding of the Finding Nemo analogy.