nell > Recent Status Updates

i do not and will never care that much about r.f. kuang bc i have no interest in the books she writes but i can't help but wonder if the furore around the (currently seemingly contextless) israeli character in her upcoming book is being driven by the same litfic people giving lost lambs 5 stars despite it being quite explicitly islamophobic. book that may turn out to be in poor taste vs one which we know def is

did my Duke of Edinburgh in box hill. adam mars-jones let’s see what you’ve got

i am sadder than anyone to announce that im just finding this so painfully boring. el akkad is a really bad writer of character and this is particularly glaring when it comes to women, so it was a real choice to fill his book with female characters when they are all so dull and cliched and lacking any complexity or nuance

i am always suspicious of men writing tomboys and their relationship with femininity/stereotypes surrounding femininity mainly because i do not believe this is something they are usually capable of understanding and unforch el akkad is proving why so far. “now dana suddenly seemed to her impossibly juvenile, and the things that held her interest girlish and trite.” hmmm…is that so, omar…

i am unfortunately already finding sarat’s (and yes the name thing will be coming up in the review) characterisation reallyyy hackneyed and thus struggling to invest in the fate of her and her too-good-to-be-true family. but we’ll persist

i am really liking this so far…

ive been looking forward to this one 🙂↕️

it has become clear i am too stupid for this book. that is okay

oh this book is BAD bad

i am going to have some quite unkind things to say about this when im done but the main thing for now is i truly hate every character in this thing

already really very twee and a bit eye-rolly (the stupid card game, the protagonist giving heavy senorita awesome) but i can already tell this will be an incredibly easy read + palate cleanser. book 2 turn your brain off to