VINH BINH > Recent Status Updates

Errm
The premise is already absurd, taken out of some cheap-ass 90s thriller movie.
Then comes the over-description of every little action they do. In a ghost/horror novel, then yes, the suspense is well earned, but paired with an out-of-context shooter? Ridiculous!

Guess I’m plowing through this

Chapter 19
Pasquale decides he needs to be with Amadea and take responsibility for his own child

Chapter 18
Hollywood, now
Deane tracks down Dee Moray and the whole group goes there. Turns out she orchestrates a play, starring both Pat and Lydia. The play is about Pat’s life. Everybody is moved by it

Chapter 17
Italy, long time ago
After Deane and Burton left (with being cursed by aunt Valeria), Pasquale finds Dee in the beautiful ruins up the hill. He takes her back to the hotel to rest.
Walfredo (the Porto Venere bully) comes to ask for tax, and Pasquale fights back.

Chapter 16
Debra Moore, or Dee Moray, met Alvis Blender in Italy and married him. They raised Pat together
Alvis died in a car accident

Chapter 15
Deane’s memoir
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were in love filming Cleopatra. The movie was flopping, so Deane hired paparazzi to make a scandal out of their relationship.
Dee came in the picture and complicated things. Deane was the mastermind behind breaking everything up. He tricked both Dee and Richard

Chapter 14
Italy, long ago
Pasquale finds out his mother committed suicide.
Alvis Bender comes back to Porto Vergogna. He remembers how he came back to Italy after the war to find Maria, who became a whore. And his writing inspiration stopped.
Both Michael Deane and Richard Burton come to Porto Vergogna to inform that Dee Moray has gone. Deane is cursed by Pasquale’s aunt.

Chapter 13
Dee Moray’s life with young Pat- who smokes and crashes car and gets into jail time after time
This was a miss

Chapter 12
Italy, long ago
Pasquale goes to Rome and meets Michael Deane. Deane admits Dee is pregnant. Pasquale goes outside and meets Richadd Burton- a drunk.
They go back to Porto Vergogna together, but Dee had already left. So they go after her. Burton has a conversation with her, and she decides to go to Switzerland with him to ‘take care of it’

Chapter 11
The UK tour
On Pat’s life.
Pat is a failure of a person. His ex Lydia clearly cares for his dying mother- Dee Moray- more than he does

This chapter was a miss

Chapter 9
Hollywood, now
The human-eating scene is actually Shane’s pitch for a movie called DONNER!
Deane says he loves it
Pasquale reveals Dee Moray had a baby boy at the time. She named him Pat, after Pasquale
Shane is hired as a translator for Deane

Chapter 8
Italy, long ago
Pasquale goes to Rome and confronts Deane. Deame admits he tricked Dee Moray into thinking she has cancer. Pasquale realizes he himself abandoned his own son, and that he’s a hypocrite

Chapter 7
Human eating scene
Is this Shane’s pitch?
A village trapped in a snowstorm and the people are forced to cannibalism. There’s one hero at the center of attention

Chapter 6.
Italy, long ago
Pasquale takes Dee Moray to a ruin where there are seascapes- wall paintings. Michael Deane does not show up. Dee Moray continues to throw up.
Pasquale goes to Rome to meet this Michael Deane. He sees his ex-lover- Amadea

Chapter 5
Michael Deane comes to the office to talk to Pasquale. It’s clear they had quite a history
Shane insists that he’s a writer

Chapter 4.
From the novel of Alvis.
Retells his year during WWII


MESMERIZING. This part got me hooked and totally entranced in the plot

Chapter 3
Italy, long ago.
Dee Moray retches in the night. She thinks she has cancer.
Doctor suspects pregnancy.
The only thing written in English is some draft by one American author who used to come to town every year.

Still, beautiful writing

Chapter 2
Modern day, Hollywood
Claire is Michael Deane’s assisstant. She has to endure Wild-Pitch Fridays, when everyone comes in to pitch a movie idea.
Shane Wheeler hopes to make it in time to Deane’s office to pitch his story.
An Italian man appears asking to find Dee Moray

Chapter 1
Italy, long ago
Pasquale is the owner of the only hotel in Porto Vergogna. A beautiful American actress comes to town- Dee Moray. He falls for her.

The writing is slow, but beautiful

Currently in chapter 5
Chapter 4 SPOKE to me so much I think I’m gonna have to write something down
I failed to find any sort of summary/synopsis for this book, so I’m here to do just that.

42 chapters total
Only 2 in and the world is bleak as fuck

The writing is definitely better than the first book.
Still, this is early on and I’ve already noticed a few inconsistencies in terms of logic and plot.

Hmmm …. Interesting so far???

Definitely not something I would devour, but this writing is like a nice dessert, something to cleanse my palate.

Okay, I know I’m making slow progress, maybe slow as a snail, but at least I’m not DNF-ing this book
The writing does not appeal to me, sadly.
And by this point, I’m very very tired of the whole clan family love mess. Urrgh

I think I’m cut for classic fantasy- the bad vs the good, the hero vs the dark lord

I waited 2 fucking months to finally get the full Andy Serkis narrated version, and I’m starting this book afresh.
And boy oh boy Serkis’ audio gets me leaking

I’m bored.
I’m starting to really think that had it not been revealed that Richard Backman is in fact Stephen King, this book would’nt have been famous

One third in and I’m starting to wonder what else could happen for the rest of the book

Fuck, I miss being able to listen to the audio version. Reading is fun yes, but I miss Jeff Hays’ narration

So far this does not appeal to me

Too teenage-y
Writing is mediocre