Steph Markowitz > Recent Status Updates

Evelyn is the ultimate flawless protagonist, eager to do whatever the plot requires. The plot says it’s time to have sex? She wants to have sex! It’s time to have a baby? She wants to have a baby!
How lucky that she is just compassionate enough to be likable but just detached enough to act without hesitation or introspection. It’s painfully obvious at every turn that her story has already been written for her.

I’m BORED. The story skips right over all the most interesting parts of Evelyn’s life. Nothing about how she learned to fake privilege when she was just starting out, nothing but brief mentions of the guilt she felt hoarding millions after growing up broke, breezing past relevant historical context from Cuba to Stonewall, like she’s explaining it to the reader but has no thoughts of her own.

I LOVE ALL FORMS OF MEDIA THAT DECONSTRUCTS THE TRUE CRIME GENRE I WILL EAT IT UP EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I might actually have to DNF this book. It reads like a first draft from the most intolerable creative writing major you’ve ever met: repetitive, pretentious, and centered around a flawless, bland self-insert character. I am so sick of reading about Addie trying on dresses and seducing random passersby. Imagine living for hundreds of years and still having zero compelling observations about anything. Good god.

The language flows like nothing I’ve read in a long time…this book took ten years to write and I can see why. I find myself reading slower than usual to make sure I catch every phrase and description, every throwaway adverb and narratorial aside.
I’m sure I’ll pick up a quicker read next, at least before I dive back in with The Goldfinch. But I’m so glad I finally got to this.