Shablam > Recent Status Updates

Quite literally a culmination of the 'be gay, do crime' meme and 'Macbeth'. I'm not entirely enjoying this read just because the writing feels very Picture of Dorian Gray chapter 11-coded, and I don't feel particularly attached to any of the characters but I'm in too deep to stop now.

I feel like I know what the big twist will be but there may even be 2 big twists. All I know is it's going to be depresso with the way events are panning out. I did not want to read a sad gay love story on pride month T^T I've been bamboozled but I'm in too deep to stop now.

I've never read the Bible but even I can discern 'Jadis' representing 'Judas' lol. Also, once again men are always at the centre of every problem. At least they're getting dragged for their foolishness.
"Sorry?" exclaimed Digory. "Well now, if that isn't just like a girl! What have I done?"
"Oh, northing of course," said Polly sarcastically.
"...Only stuck the bell with the hammer, like a silly idiot."

Diomedes being Odysseus' number 1 hater was great banter even though I despise both of them and will forever condemn them for ruining my happy little gay love story.
"Please I've been on my knees
Change the prophecy
Don't want war
Just let these two stay in each other's company
Let it once be happy
Who do I have to speak to
About if they can redo the prophecy?"
- The Prophecy (TSOA's Version)

The foreshadowing is too much to bear, LEAVE MY GREEK GAY BESTIES/LOVERS ALONE!!! T^T

I become so hungry every time I read this LOL Yuzuki knows how to embellish and paint such a vivid experience of tasting food I've never even tried before. This was not at all the story I was expecting from the impulse purchase after reading the blurb alone, but I'm very intrigued.
It's getting quite intense with the sensual prose; I feel uncomfortable reading this in public.

I'm enjoying the story but the stream-of-consciousness writing is very difficult to follow at times and it just feels like the story is constantly in motion when I'm still trying to figure out which setting, what period in time, who are these characters and what is even happening at this point?

I feel like Aretha Franklin in that meme "great gowns, beautiful gowns" LOL

The limbic system is concerned with survival. These survival functions are often referred to as the four f's. That is fear, feeding, fighting and ahem... procreation.
Well, my limbic system needs to stfu, and that orange freak running out taking charge of the control panel needs to get lost!

”’One more quick thing. Promise I’m done complaining.’
‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Ernest.’”

Call him out! I do not miss this man’s whiny prose but I’m enjoying the story so far. A bit slower than the first though.

“It felt as if the words and thoughts of the narrator - despite their agony, despite their pain - healed some of my agony and my pain, simply by existing.” 🥹🥹

I’m enjoying this quite a bit atm, the large family dynamic reminds me of ‘The Bear’ so I’m excited to see how crazy it’ll get when/if sh*t hits the fan

So there's been a twist and I'm not sure how to feel about it...
Kind of makes an earlier emotionally charged exchange hold little weight now tbh

Pg.161 "He felt like the starry sky was a magnifying glass that covered the world, and he was a tiny insect below the lens with nowhere to hide."

Pg.191 "Sometimes I thought life was precious, and everything was so important; but other times I thought humans were insignificant, and nothing was worthwhile."

Existential dread running strong.

Reminds me of Agatha Christie novels a bit at the moment.

Bai Mulin you cowardice weasel!

Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and an iceberg floating on its surface? Both the ocean and the iceberg are made of the same material. That the iceberg seems separate is only because it is in a different form. In reality, it is but a part of the vast ocean...

The teenager angst was really oozing through those last few chapters.

Already enjoying this much more than Solitaire, both Frances and Aled are relatable to various degrees and I gagged by Aled's overbearing mother's introduction...
In Solitaire we were always told about Tori and her mum's tumultuous relationship but never actually shown the cause of it so I like the route this book takes by developing that.

”I think being yourself - your true, entire self - is always going to feel like you’re swimming upstream”
Alexa play The Climb by Miley Cyrus 🥲

”…I think I welcomed the excuse not to go back to my own life for a little while. Being wrapped up in digesting Evelyn’s story means I don’t have to exist in my own.”

I’m only halfway through and screaming, crying, throwing up 😭😭 my endgame couple 💔😢

”If you are intolerable, let me be the one to tolerate you. 😭😭

FUCK Don Adler, all my homies hate Don Adler! It’s worse because I’ve just associated his character with Armie Real Life Cannibal Hammer in my head 😭

Already casting potential actors for the movie in my head. I’m thinking Antonia Gentry as Monique, Hong Chau as Grace, Aja Naomi King as Frankie and I honestly don’t know who should play Evelyn Hugo herself yet…

Having very mixed feelings rn :/

It sometimes feels very fan-fic and the “gayming” terms take me out of the story constantly but there’s a lot of several plots that are kindda spicy so I’m invested.

“You like to act as if you care about nothing and if you carry on like that then you’re going to drown in the abyss you have imagined for yourself.” Pg.51

"Coming out seems to be the foundational gay rite of passage. It's supposed to be a punctuation of your life, an empowering political act...

'when coming out discourses are privileged, the act of not coming out may be read as an abdication of responsibility, or the act of somebody who is disempowered or somehow ashamed of their inherent gayness.' "

"...my most comfortable moments were when I didn't feel looked at... I was not being seen. There was no one there who could see through me, or think of what I should be or how I should behave; and I have always been terrified of what people thought of me, as if what they thought was a hulking creature that would confront me if I should turn a wrong corner."