Liz > Recent Status Updates

I'm not loving the story or the prose so far

so far this is kind of sweet, and relatable, and bleak (because it's relatable?)

not really stuck in yet, but it is making me want to both walk the cotswold way (just because of the Bath mention), and to eat a full Irish (it being superior to the mentioned full English)

look - I would watch this movie (and I've basically played this game), but I won't be finishing it as a book

I'm giving this until 45% (generous, I think) to be worth finishing

I'm wondering if maybe litrpg isn't for me. I don't even read inventory instructions when I'm playing actual, real games

does this get less like a transcription of someone playing a video game?

why do the people in this book seem to only eat charcuterie platters

I just know this book is gonna infuriate me

Unfortunately, I still hate Niclays

"We’re lucky to be here, witch. We should be grateful. If you stand by the values of the Isle, live by its values, you can find hope and glory here that you would never find Elsewhere.”

A little on the nose as an allegory, but I suppose I can't disagree with the messaging.

"She thought she would not mind being a knife, so long as it was this hand that wielded her."

absolute banger of a line only 1% in -- Alix E. Harrow does it again, I fear

"But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them—even if, in truth, their victims couldn’t care less about such pettiness and have moved on. Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky."

oof

I confess I've been putting this off because I
1) don't want it to end, and
2) I saw a review calling it "an emotional OSHA violation" and I'm not prepared

I’ve pushed through and now it’s good again so. A roller coaster.

at about 45%, I thought this would be the sleeper hit of 2025 for me, but now there's a character who is so obviously a villain that I'm not sure if I want to keep reading ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

is this overwritten? yes. am I rolling my eyes? yes. am I going to keep reading it? also yes.

every character in this book is SO DUMB

Every character in this book is so dumb

How much more childish arguing masquerading as banter will I read before I abandon this

I am not loving the interstitials

Because this is written by the same author as I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself, I am hopeful that I will like this despite it being (in part) a basketball book

"...the opposition...regards Christians as the most significant remaining obstacles...bearers of the cruel and outdated beliefs that keep the people from being free and happy. Wherever we hide, they will track us, find us, and punish us if that’s what it takes to make this world more perfect."

The DRAMA!

"Loyalty to an ideology over expertise is no less disturbing than loyalty to a personality."

The inclusion of "over expertise" here is doing some heavy, heavy lifting. Especially in the context of this sentence, which is to justify Donald Trump's preference for underlings who carry out his whims rather than adhere to any ideology whatsoever.

I swear I'm not going update about this book every 2 percent I read, but I'm so wary of a perspective that insists on using George Orwell's 1984 as any kind of analogue to today.

I'm also reading this book to make myself mad, I guess.