Rin > Recent Status Updates

Reading the origins of romantasy is super painful because all the tired tropes are here but they weren’t tired yet so I feel bad for being annoyed
- he lifted his chin imperceptibly
- his jaw worked
- super sensitive skin
- don’t touch me I’m dangerous
- tiny girl big boy
- special quiet misunderstood girl
- the small of my back
- if boy mean then why so beautiful

This book is soooooo annoying but I feel compelled to finish it

Also listening to this on audio is a wild experience because of all the scratched out text that I imagine worked much better visually

“Maybe it would have worked out, maybe not. Maybe by now… you’d have learned what I’ve learned, that there’s joy in finding good work to do and doing it, there’s joy in looking back along the path you walked and knowing you wouldn’t change it. Oh, we wouldn’t have believed it; and you never got the chance to find out, but Charlie, Charlie, it feels so good to grow up.”

Reading twilight (for the first time!!!!) as god intended, by the dim gray light of a morning rainstorm

Siren girl summer but make it body horror and self indulgent narration

Since I’m in my audiobook era giving this a re-read but it’s 20hrs long 🥲

This book is insane I’m 2 hours in with 6 to go and I just want to know what else will happen!!

This book is amazing already. They’re taking time to define autism, introduce disability studies, dismiss major misconceptions, and emphasize self advocacy.
“To look at autism through a disability studies lens offers a clear path to acceptance. Why can’t autistic people fully participate in your library? Should the structure of the library itself be examined more for their role in constructing barriers?”

“There will always be someone who will use the power they have to hurt those who don’t deserve it. That’s why it’s important that people like you become competent enough to stand between them and those they’d otherwise harm. To let your scruples get in the way of that vital work is cowardice.”

So what is his message?

“The threat of the storyteller who can, through words, erode the claims of the powerful”

“Much of the current hoopla about book bans and censorship gets it wrong. This is not about me or any writer of the moment. It is about writers to come-the boundaries of their imaginations, the angle of their thinking, the depth of their questions… it all works not simply to misinform but to miseducate; not just to assure the right answers are memorized but that the wrong questions are never asked.”

“We have a right to our imagined traditions, to our imagined places, and those traditions and places are most powerful when we confess that they are imagined.”

I like romantasy but Idk if I can do this one… this is on page 35 when they meet for the 1st time……

“I turned around and walked directly into a wall. A hard wall with arms and hands that came up around me. A wall that possessed a deep growling voice…Heat rippled over me, igniting my skin. I arched against the great slab of him, against pulsing, immovable muscle.”

???

“Expedition members recounted shoeless locals emerging from mud huts to stare and tug at the thick hair growing from their legs”…. What the racism is going on in this book

What’s working is the discussion of identity and work, and how difficult the transition between school and “the rest of your life” can be. How choosing a career path can feel like it defines you as a person, is a permanent choice, is the boring and conventional move that cool people put off for as long as possible.

This might be a hate read… tbd

I am not enjoying the writing but I’m hanging in there in hopes of some spice

🥹

“Strike me down. You’ve won. I’ve lived my whole wretched life at your mercy, yours alone, and God knows I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you.”

Way not as interesting as #1, could not get into how slow its moving. Dnf

Let’s go girls

AHHHH a delightful twist

exactly the kind of fantasy i need right now; that is to say, moody, mysterious, rebellious

“Our only flaw is that we’ve condemned ourselves to spend eternity mimicking that which we deemed unfit to exist… We can never be you. Instead we became your ghosts; and we’ll haunt this world until there is nothing left.”
Pshhhewwww

Joe Bennett walked so Hap could run

Book club in T-43 hours, let’s see how far I get

I keep saying I’m going to stop reading this book because the writing is confusing and annoying but I also care about Tea and want to know what happens so I might as well finish at this point ☠️

I wasn’t sure how I would feel reading about Ames’ detransition but it’s been weirdly affirming. How the process started with needing armor, how he still likes to be pretty, how he craves to be noticed and accepted by trans girls. Gender and presentation are so much more complex than EITHER trans OR cis and peters gets it. Some people just can’t handle an ugly book.

Thoughts so far

Chameleon people pleaser meets reserved protector! I love both characters for how they’ve been hurt by the world and how they’re going to grow.

P 88 - Olivia is walled too in a way that people don’t recognize, she is a chameleon because it protects her inner self

“I’m a one woman wrecking crew and eventually I destroy the people closest to me, especially the people I decide to love” 93

Thoughts so far —
Genre bender: Slow for a fantasy and sparse for a historical fiction
The passage of time is erratic and spotlights moments where Nannerl is envisioning the kingdom of back or where she is experiencing tension with her family
Highlights the discrimination that women and girls face, keeping the blame at a societal level instead of blaming the father
Characters are complex and do right & wrong

I’m enjoying this a lot more after changing my expectations that this would be a straightforward read. I’m embracing the strangeness and confusing aspects and leaning into the themes of unconventional beauty and self protection.