Amanda > Recent Status Updates

THEN the whole conversation with Beckett was so annoying. beck is so cartoonish that it downplays what I feel is a real struggle people face when being asked to explain themselves. This is the second time they’ve met, he’s been in the house 10 minutes, and he calls it “injustice” that she doesn’t jump up so three people can serve him pizza?! This was so poorly done. Missed opportunity for sure.

…especially around Mallory’s emotions, things are often stated in an incredibly repetitive manner. It doesn’t build, just feels like beating a dead horse. As a reader, I know she’s jealous of her friends’ ability to get higher education. Stating it over and over isn’t telling me anything new, and the repetition is not well written enough to excuse it or to help it build any more emotional tension.

Making a note so I don’t forget this criticism later: the chronic pain content of the book has been mostly well done, but some bits are getting repetitive from a writing standpoint. It is great to show how her illness contributes to every decision Mallory makes, how her fatigue keeps her from doing things she wants to, how she has to constantly be aware of her limits in order to stay a functioning person BUT

“She never learned how to read people, how to pick up the corner of a sentence and peer underneath.”

“It’s as if all the light in the world has been swept into a pile, leaving a few crumbs scattered around it.”

“Her preoccupation has been with asking questions rather than the consequences of finding the answers.”

“Why would any species that dies so easily invent something as terrifying as murder?”

“Anybody whose hands occasionally catch fire should probably think about cutting them off.”

“Somebody must have truly hated her to have done this. They murdered her and kept on murdering her long after she was dead. They were digging for her soul, trying to kill her ghost.”

“If she had any tolerance for lying, she could convince herself it was just another Tuesday.”

“…but answers are elusive, and asking for two at a time feels greedy.”

“I doubt he’ll answer your questions.”
“That’s no reason not to ask them.”

“I’m trying to play chess, but Adil’s walking around with a cricket bat.”

“Sometimes the only way to win a game is to let the pieces think they’re the ones playing it.”

“I bought [the island] from a bankrupt government and built my lab in the corridors of an old nuclear bunker underneath it.”

Under a dormant volcano.

Ma’am, that’s what supervillains do. I think you might be a supervillain.

“Books covered every otherwise unoccupied surface.”

As it should be.

The Plums at the End of the World: I thought this one was sad, but effective. I liked how this one developed and how the chapters unfolded different sections of the story. Not my favorite, but fairly solid. 4 stars.

A Haunted Calendar: This is, again, a huge case for needing an introduction to give your stories context. In watching a video with the author I found out that this story began as a series of tweets for the month of October. This explains the format and the limitations it creates, and while I think writing tweet ghost stories is an interesting idea, it didn’t really work for me. A few had promise, overall 3 stars.

Homebody: This one just wasn’t for me. I get what it’s doing (it’s a pretty clear and direct metaphor) but I just didn’t enjoy it. I’m probably not the target audience for this one as I’ve never been in this situation myself. It was fine, just not one that’s going to stick with me. 3 stars

Possessions: I wish there were a bit more to this story, but I can see why there isn’t. And I know the “but then what happened?” isn’t the point of the story, but I still want to know. Still pretty satisfying, 4 stars.

Dear Henrietta: I love how this story unwinds itself as you go. The realizations grow along with an effective sense of creeping dread. 4 stars. Quite effective.

A Lily is a Lily: I feel like this story did exactly what it set out to do. Sometimes we love the idea of a person more than the actual person. 4 stars

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: This is a tough one. Again, I think I wanted to like the story more than I did. I loved the idea of weaving the story of the florists through the entries, but I don’t think it was in enough entires to be fully developed. There were 3 or 4 creatures I really loved, but all the entries were too short to really flesh out the beasts and it wasn’t internally consistent. 3 stars?

The Autumn Kill: I’m definitely missing something on this one. It’s fine, but I wish there were authors notes about the inspiration of some of these stories. I’m just not sure what this one was trying to say. 3 stars

Drowning Lessons: I’m seeing some parallels to addiction but also to chronic illness as well as how those things affect a family. Strong themes of isolation and being stuck. I liked this one, but I don’t think it will stick with me like some of the others. 3 stars

The War of Fog: Yup, I loved pretty much everything about that! I really appreciate how this one unfolded slowly, playing with expectations and then, once the reader realizes what’s going on, it all comes together beautifully. Easy 5 stars

Fox Jaw: I just spend the better part of an hour deconstructing this story to my husband and I think I’ve decided it’s a 3 star I really wanted to be a 4. I don’t think it works well in this collection and I simply may not be the best audience for this one. I get what this story was going for and it is, at times, beautiful, but it gets a little lost in its own preponderance of metaphor.

The Thread Boy: I quite liked this one. This one was a modern folktale about the importance of the connections we make in our lives and their value, even if those encounters don’t go as we had hoped. Much different tone to the previous two stories. 5 stars I think.

A Diviner’s Abecedarian: I liked this one, although the whole bit with getting the piercings kinda took me out of the story (even in the 90s I don’t think anyone was gonna give a bunch of 12 year olds piercings without parental permission). Unique structure and good payoff from this one, even if it didn’t resonate with me personally (I never really knew a group of mean girls like this at that age). 4 stars

Sundown at the Eternal Staircase: I loved the descriptions of the Staircase and it all felt very Nightvale-like, but I feel like the ending just sort of fell flat. It ends exactly like you think it will, nothing surprising or shocking or interesting. I just wish it had more umph at the end. I wanted a final crappy image to cap it all off. 4 stars because it was amusing and well written if underwhelming.