Keeley > Recent Status Updates

...and, of course, he becomes a born-again Christian seeking for God to deliver him from what he views as poor decisions on his part that led to his quandary. 🙄 I also love how conveniently the next verse, which would be more applicable to his situation, is somehow ignored:

"16 To the wicked, however, God says,

“What right have you to recite My statutes

and to bear My covenant on your lips?"

Ugh, egoists.

I love the hyperbole of comparing a lack of close neighbors and friends to being on a deserted island. Ask and you shall receive, I guess.

"...let him feel the despair that now torments me." - Victor just goes through life pretending that he never did anything to anyone else and all his suffering is just egregiously random hatefulness rather than an effect of his chosen cause.

Victor is just...sooooooooo self-absorbed.

"It's not my fault!" cries Victor, after every event that can entirely be credited to his own previous choices.

Finally, a move I can cheer for.

I had forgotten exactly how whiny Victor was.

Now *this* - *this* is a proper fairy tale. This is the dark wood full of strange light my child heart found so much solace in. This feels like home.

Nothing has really even happened yet, in this book, and I am already in love with it. The language is so *clever*. I could read an entire book of just descriptions of people, places, and things, written in this style.

I'm really enjoying this book. I love the world-building. I feel like the main character is being a bit dense but, then again, we'll see if I'm right in my suppositions.

Just did a deep dive on manoomin because of this book. Very interesting.

For the record, Luke 14 is a wild ride through a parable about a man who prepares a great banquet, then, at the last minute, invites his friends to come *right this second* to feast with him because *he* is now ready. This man then becomes absolutely incensed that they have other plans already made and won't drop everything to hang out with him. Absolute tomfoolery.

"No man could have invented the story of Jesus. It’s too fascinating. Too rich. Too miraculous." - Come on now. This a neon sign screaming someone has zero knowledge of any of the creation/spiritual myths from religions predating Christianity. Literally any good mythological writer could have come up with a story like Jesus. This is not a good argument for faith.

She really hits the nail on the head, here, wherein she calls out the fact that a guy who never married and never had children is leading a "quiverfull" sect of Christianity. Because how, indeed, do you take rules of family life from someone who has literally never experienced anything he is demanding you endure? These are the types of questions more people should be asking in life on many subjects.

"I’m certain that if I didn’t have the Holy Spirit—if I was not a child of God who was being protected by my heavenly Father—then I would have gotten off the treadmill and never gotten back on." See, this is just an entirely egocentric statement that suggests that anyone who does "abandon Christianity" is *not* a "protected child of God" - it is this exact type of phrasing that makes superiority seem to be humility.

Since she brought him up, I would like to take this moment to remind people that all of Job's suffering and the egregious deaths of his innocent wives, children, and animals, were all due to a bet between God and Satan that was intended to boost God's ego. I know people "interpret" things to make them comfortable with God's behavior in this matter, but he didn't stutter stating his reason for it.

I get the same feeling reading these strictures from Gothard as I did when I read the foreword to Dianetics, back in the day - an immediate thought that you must really have to have a low opinion of your own mind to think any of this didn't sound like someone trying to blank you out and control you. This is why psychology is my jam, though, because people's minds are so different.

So...there is some irony in the fact that Jinger rightfully speaks about being able to discern the difference between a man-made rule and a commandment from God, but she often holds up her new position by quoting portions of the Bible that are men preaching on an interpretation of what God wants...which are still man-made rules and not direct commandments.

I am bewildered as to why the most obvious guess in this guessing game isn't being made.

I just want to note that it makes no sense that Ms Dumas is not there adding her powers to the fight. Zero sense.

If you are continuing a story from the end of the prior book, it's very important that you remember what your character was wearing. Bonnie just morphed from wearing a cobbled-together outfit of a skirt, blouse, and heels, to a jean jacket, jeans, and sneakers...

I was trying to make it to the end before I left any sort of response updates but I just cannot, at this point.

This is how the St Louis Cemetery 2 was just described:

"The cemetery was nothing special. A small public plot on the outskirts of the city, wedged between old brick homes where the dead rested in simple graves with unpolished headstones. No grandeur."

What in the everloving hell is that description?

I am very confused about what age Bonnie actually abandoned Bennett. There are references to 3 years of no-contact in the first book. That would make Bennett 15, which if that were the case, it wouldn't make any sense that she wouldn't know what happened to her mom. In the beginning of this book, Bonnie is considering the baby she left - yet, in the first book, she's looking at a photo of a pre-school Bennett.

Wait...was that a Superbad reference?

I'm going to be mad if something happens to blue bunny.

Thus far the story is interesting enough. There is some redundancy in description of events, but I'm not judging too hard because I also have had to edit over description redundancies in my own writing. I like the track list for chapter titles. I'm a sucker for music-infused stories.

This is my face right now

😑

Nesta and Lucien are the only characters whose stories I'm even vaguely interested in at this point. I can't believe I still have 33% left to go. It's ludicrous.

This girl is an utter ninny.

"But like any good friend, Kim let Mallory have her fantasy."

Dear Reader, this is not what a good friend does, in this instance. A good friend acts as a voice of reason and caution in this circumstance. However, considering how deliberately delusional Kim apparently is, I'm hardly surprised this is her approach.

This woman's commitment to believing reality is whatever she determines it to be is truly amazing.

I'm going to finish this book, but this lead character is so enraging in her hysterical and naive and deliberately obtuse approach to thought and perception. The head injury doesn't even excuse it.