Eekind > Recent Status Updates

Fanny getting her moment jn the ball and then immediately followed by Lady Betram just absently saying how happy it is she and Sir Thomas will have Fanny as a companion all their lives. And when Sir Thomas tries to imply Henry Crawford wants to marry Fanny, Lady Betram assumes he is talking about Mariah wanting Fanny to live with her, which she immediately shoots down…this Family…

Hmmmm…let’s just say when the TV Tropes Factory shutters, Emily Raths family will have to worry about their checks bouncing at the grocery store…can I have some interiority please???

This isn’t really a complaint, more an observation but this book really holds the Sword of Damocles over Fanny. And that’s fine, I think the tension between her and Mrs Norris really works and helps to build stakes when no other privileged person is willing to speak openly about Fanny as a poor relation that they see as less than. But you really spend most of the page count waiting for the other shoe to drop

I don’t love that it took until 46% into the book for our point of view character to be thrown into the fray and be seen as worthy of discussion and respect by the gentry families. Like I get they treat poor relations as toys and the Crawford like feeling more progressive than The Betram and Fanny but it is wild to see what a rise in importance Fanny gets when her Cousins are away on their honeymoon / girls trip

The paragraph about what Cathy thinks happens when you die probably would have hit more if I didn’t know about reincarnation outside this book…

As upsetting as Corey’s death is, I did really like Cathy’s dream about her father coming to that field to take Corey to heaven with him. Even tho it’s a dream I like that some part of Cathy’s psyche still understands her father would love and be proud of her for taking care of her siblings in these conditions.

So there’s a paragraph here that’s basically “We wouldn’t return to Gladstone, where the winters lasted until May. We would to travel to Sarasota, which was famous for its circus people. They were know for their kindness to those with strange families of origin”…this seems like a wild reason to move to Florida, but anything to get the momentum going again

Much is going on with the Mom who’s in “Several women’s groups” but her middle son says random misogynistic shit at the breakfast table… I would probably be less concerned if the 6th grader was allowed to go to the park unattended without it being a big deal in the early 90s

While I love the symbolism of fundamentalists hiding porn in a bedside book with a “How to Create Your Own Sewing Patterns” slip cover…I was kind of confused what the full color photos description was supposed to mean…like it’s not the Kama Sutra because those would be illustrations this is more like Madonna’s Sex (1992) but with orgy photos???

So they have a key to escape their attic room and they’re using this opportunity to steal small bills and change out of the couch cushions of their mother’s bedroom??? Under the guise that they need money to start over in a new town??? I have to keep reminding myself this is a thought experiment about loss of agency and child abuse more than it is a literal story arc…

Jackie Barrett is a great Full House esque sit com name for your best friends mom. Granted, when I heard she had a long resume of working on political campaigns, I did immediately clock her as a homophobic Briggs Initiative volunteer and not someone who is helping to elect the Deputy Parks and Rec director as Orange Valleys first woman mayor

I like that Tina gets to be a decently fleshed out character without having to be too buddy buddy with Courtney. I don’t need her to have the same doting relationship as Joan and Maryellen. I like that they have a strained relationship because she’s 13 going on 14 and is also frustrated by all the changes that are happening with Courtney moving in full time with Courtney’s mom and step dad

Chris finally asking all the right questions because why is Corrine wasting all this money on expensive red leather bound encyclopedias instead of an apartment for her kids. Instead they’re running around nursing three legged mice and gets thrashed by their disdainful fundamentalist hypocrite Grandmother

The intro of the Challenger Launch is such an outrageous name drop. I have already listened to the Dolls of our Lives Ep on this book so I know it factors in heavily in place of a “Learns a Lesson” book. But honestly as a 30 year old I only recognize the challenger because of how it was compared to the ‘03 Columbia disaster. I have no idea how a target audience born in ‘10-‘13 would have any lens 4 this

Needed a break from Flowers so I picked up this audiobook. I am kind of torn because this book pulls a lot from the contemporary middle grade Babysitters Club/Sleepover Friends canon in its writing style. Which I get, Courtney is 10 in 1986 it would be deranged for her to have the same “I don’t want to be a proper lady” arc Samantha or earlier entries had but it loses some charm as an AG Entry

Not to be pedantic about the fifteen and thirteen year olds reasoning skills but why would you assume your grandmother is trying to feed you shitty soup out of thermos’ and powdered donuts when her first gripe when she locked you away in the attic rooms is no sweets so you don’t get cavalries. I understand you’re all starving but this seems like a red flag we are completely disregarding to our detriment

TW: Self Harm

I don’t 100% understand why they were drinking Christopher’s blood before they had committed to trying to trap and eat one of the dozens of mice we have been told are infesting the attic. I get that eating a mouse is gross (salt or no salt) but I would think the bloodletting would be a last resort after being starved for two weeks by your evil Grandma and absent mom

We need an American Girl that has a tenuous relationship with the San Francisco Chronicles’ Astrology reading for the Taurus Star Sign and we got it with Julie 🌈

Not me reading another book where kids are getting stuffed in the attic…at least Samantha is a genuinely kind and generous soul

Why does one character get to be a full on vampire and the other guy is just half bat? How does that work?

I don’t know if I am just remembering later entries or have never seen these earlier 1992 illustrations but this is just not it…especially since the cover art is so much more 90’s/00’s chic

Do 8 year olds now know who Magic Johnson is because I think that “Magic” O’Grady bit is going to be completely incomprehensible as time goes on…

Corrine spent all that money of Christmas presents instead of putting it towards leasing an apartment two towns over for these little devils spawn to stew in…Cathy is literally doing advanced oldest child latch key labor they couldn’t be more unsupervised if they wanted to…You know Corrine is already test baking those Rat Poison Powdered Donuts for her unwanted attic children so she can get that ring

“The twins love raisins…and so do I” These five year olds could have gone rabid for Nerds gummy clusters I can tell you that much…and then later we have to hear Cathy complain about how obsessed they are with Bananas…truly unhinged storytelling

Greatest Generation White Women that have huge show business aspirations L O V E to cosplay Scarlet O’Hara and it only gets more deranged as a trope in these books as time passes by

The Reproductive Health section was fine…I’m always very sensitive about using terms like “Limiting Unplanned Pregnancies” instead of Reproductive Health because euphemism’s can create a presumption that condoms and diaphragms are the “correct” type of contraception when Abortifacients have just as much historical merit as forms of contraception even tho they’re implemented after fertilization

“In other words, the Law was our monitor until Christ came to bring about our justification through faith. But now that faith is here, we are no longer in the monitor's charge. Each one of you is a child of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.”Galatians 3:24-26, The Inclusive Bible

I liked the teachings of Jesus about the different types of Eunuchs. I could see this both as applied to queer men that don’t have relationships with women or gender expansive people when Jesus talks about people that god made that won’t cohabitate with women
The Roman centurion part was fine, it’s a nice story
Obvi I love Ruth and Naomi. Bigots are clutching at straws trying to hate on queer women for this