Lauren > Recent Status Updates

Casual use of the R slur and the shallow conflation of autism with comorbid learning disabilities and poor theory of mind in order to flatly support the (probably true) idea that there is something about cultural imitation biologically intrinsic to children, bc look! we have all these r slur children who are an exception which proves the rule! Disappointingly weak evidence from Pinker there. He's not wrong but wow.

Honestly, Shannon is a bit a twerp. She somehow believes Caleb is smarter than Natalie because he *made her* build the farm and the business?? Being lazy isn't cleverness, he's just a man. Then just sits there telling a woman she already thinks is mentally unstable that she isn't sorry for sleeping with her husband and thinks nothing bad could possibly come of that? She's not wrong but she is very stupid lbr.

"It looks like you're pretending" "isn't everyone?" "Yes but it's not supposed to be so obvious" -- autism coded protagonist if you even care.

Oh my god I don't know if I can do this protagonist with 0 self awareness oh noo

Oh my gooood. I know it's not Rosamund's fault she's so ignorant but the self-serving emotionally immature behaviour is absolutely infuriating. "I wish I had died with the baby" oh my god girl if only.

The hospital board meeting scene was giving me flashbacks to transcribing Poor Laws Guardian minutes I hope we don't get more of that can we just stay in Rome for a bit?

Apparently this has now turned into Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000) what the hell do you mean it's flying

The Railway Children catching strays 😂 Pratchett really did refuse to leave without reminding us how much he hated Victorian children's fiction, as if Tiffany and Susan railing against Alice In Wonderland and other clichés was too subtle

It's sad to be reading this and seeing the high standard drop off so hard (for good, understandable reasons). There is so so much exposition and reported speech. Instead of the wild, condensed timelines you see in Moving Pictures or The Truth where a new technology is innovated in a week or so ("it only takes a day to invent the horse collar" - Thief of Time), this is taking a realistic timeline of months.

Just flipped over to the audiobook and somehow Stephen Briggs' Adora-Belle voice got worse because he forgot she spoke with a Northern Irish accent in previous books (which was already a horrible and very odd choice) and instead did a generic Scottish accent. Which is confusing because it's the exact same voice as Mossy Lawn and they have at least one scene together. Why, Briggs???

Yuzuki really does do the best food descriptions I get wildly hungry for Japanese food

Oh my god unhinged. Yuzuki does not disappoint. It's only as unsettling as it is because there's so much relatable stuff leading into the escalation.

So the trend of ignoring the fact that aristocratic wealth and privilege is impossible without exploiting everyone else continues. The fact Lord Lucan pretty blatantly murdered Sandra Rivet and got away with it gets a single sentence. "And then some nanny got offed and he was never seen again but who cares right? Anyway here's more about gambling clubs."

Tbh this book is kind of radicalising in that Doughty is going on and on about the houses and the power and barely a word breathed about the massive inequality which supported/supports it all. Like. Zero interest in the underlying power structures, just "ooh communities relied on them" yeah bc they made them rely on them for goodness sake.

"It is a good thing that people are no longer doomed to lifetimes of domestic service with no practical alternative, but [...] I think the destruction is regrettable. Many of the great country houses were communities [...] They provided a more secure way of life for everybody in them in those harsh times of hardship" oh my god. The wealthy CREATED the hardship, and the community would have existed without the houses!

If Walsh kills off Misty the dog I will quit this book in protest.

I'm getting a massive Cathy Cassidy vibe off this. I swear I read the original YA version of this in the 2000s