Bort Bort > Recent Status Updates

I always appreciate when authors reveal what I thought was a character name is actually an etymologically somewhat-complicated noun

Foretellers sequence exploded my brain tbh

“History is often written after the subject is dead and gone and by complete strangers, so how are they gonna write about Rena and me? About my love and admiration for her? Compared with everything she has accomplished, that’s just a teeny-tiny fact floating somewhere out there in that black ocean.” I wish they had published the NYT Magazine comic strips in colorrr the grayscale looks mid

thrilled to discover that Beto still knows how to write, sometimes!!!!

rereading so that i can more thoroughly understand british people

Am finding Beto’s work in these increasingly difficult, tbh! A lot of these stories strike me as pointlessly cruel and uhhh schlocky and misogynistic, at this point (he obviously thinks he’s working at a level above this and he really isn’t?)

“In fact, while we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers”

Always crying a little :^) I think nobody writes about nostalgia and memory quite like Jaime

Iiiii do not really get what Gilbert was doing at this point in his career. Feels like he had a shift away from wanting to do serious narratives (which, whatever) but the result is sooooo sleazy and absurd and honestly makes me feel gross to read a lot of the time

Hopey and Maggie 😭

So far somewhat lighter in tone compared to the previous Palomar books, and a lot more narrow in scope. Which all ends up making the darker moments that are here feel even more startling? Venus as a little girl has more internal monologues than any character Beto has written before. Reminds me of what Jaime does with Maggie.

Maggie!!!!

We didn’t even get to talk about Speedy ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

So far very compelling and also very sad to me!

Hopey!!!

“Mechanics” still leaves me with a profound sense of “well we all gotta start somewhere”