Jaclyn Yepsen > Recent Status Updates

I must have low brow taste in literature because the short stories written for College Humor, which are largely looked down uptown in literary circles, are AMAZING. 10/10. Zelda Fitzgerald was the OG girl’s girl. Minus the casual racism of course.

The section intros in this book are so bizarre. Every single one of them spends 75% of the intro low key insulting Zelda then begrudgingly admitting her strongest entries. By today’s standards most of her writing is really good, and it’s literally a volume about her work. The posthumous shade is gross.

This is easy the best book of the series so far, but I’m nervous about the stuff that’s coming next. It could easily make or break the rest of the book. I think Vermillion might be my new favorite complex character.

Woof, these chapters about Lily’s unconventional relationship with her mother really hit close to home. Especially the wedding chapter. Although May is probably even more like my grandmother than my mother.

🤯

15 hours down; 13 to go 😅

I thought this would be a nice, light palate cleanser. Whyyyy are all the characters so insufferably difficult? 😩 I’m going to power through and hope for some good character development, but I’m disappointed it’s starting out so painful.

Posting a midway update because this is a looooong audio book. I like the magic system, and it’s well written so far. The overall plot, however, is giving me Deja Vu. “Orphan who is secretly a royal gets involved in a political plot involving a special school” is literally the plot of every popular fantasy book lately. Surely there are other stories worth telling.

You know a fantasy is written by a man when the characters can’t seem to stop soiling themselves or thinking about soiling themselves 🤢

Giving the FMC a bland personality because she has pretty privilege in a novel of all mediums is honestly diabolical.

The FMC has now skipped 4 meals in a row just because, and the author has gone out of her way to make sure I (the reader) noticed. Glamorizing disordered eating is so SO uncool. Especially in a book geared towards twenty-something’s.

Not me crying in the parking lot at Jim N Nicks after “that” reveal finally happened. Read Dungeon Crawler Carl, they said. It’s so funny, they said.

Someone needs to make an online version of this Magic inspired card game with a Dungeon Crawler Carl twist immediately. It would bring great joy to my life if the annoying streamer my husband is always watching had his own cards turn on him every time he said something stupid.

This is…. not good so far. I’m really tempted to DNF. Which I almost never do.

I understood from the marketing description that she knew who he was the whole time and this was enemies to lovers. The fact that it’s actually a dishonesty trope where you can see the conflict coming from a mile away is…. disappointing.

So let me get this straight. I’m supposed to believe that, in a book full of suspicious happenings, the MOST suspicious thing that’s happened was two people who clearly have similar hearts and values getting engaged after 12 days at a time when marriage was a business transaction? And don’t even get me started on the Judith slander when she’s one of the only characters with any human decency #justiceforjudith

I can’t wait for Miss Rosa’s account of what happened to end. She’s so melodramatic, and I’m realizing after reading some other voices that her dramatics are the reason the first 50 pages were so confusing. I mean, the other accounts explain why she’s such a “pick me”, but that doesn’t make her any less annoying. And her casual racism, while probably historically accurate, is so cringe in 2025.

My husband tried to get me to listen to this while we were in Japan, but it didn’t work out. Now I see why. The theme of the floor would have been a perfect fit.

Both of these women are unbearable. Vianne is so cold and unempathetic she’s practically a sociopath. Isabelle is petulant and insufferable. Not sure I’m getting through over 500 pages of this, but we’ll see.

Why were so many people complaining about there being too many new characters? I feel like she literally introduced the same number of new people as every other book so far….?

The most common complaint I saw about this book before purchasing it was that the non-fiction portions were boring. Given that the average American’s understanding of the tedious history of Zionism and how it infiltrated US politics is sub-par at best, I don’t see how I could possibly understand the more “fun” parts without them. Plus this info is super relevant to 2025.

These internal monologues are giving “meeting that could have been an email” vibes. Why do indie authors always stop trimming down their books after they get popular? 😩 I think we understood that Gracie was anxious and didn’t trust anyone by the 5th repetition. No need to repeat it 500 more times… in the same chapter.

Holy victim mentality. I hope the lead isn’t this insufferable the whole book.

The pacing of this book is like watching paint dry, and the characters are just kind of… there. Someone please tell me it gets better so I can find the will to finish. It has so much potential…

This book has way way way way way too many characters. I feel like a new one is introduced every 10 pages or so. I can’t keep them all straight.