Ken Saunders > Recent Status Updates

So nice to revisit this classic both for itself as well as a beautifully constructed novel to escape the series of short stories I've been trying to read lately.

I just adore the nice combination of strangeness and silliness that carries this serious story along. Not so crazy about the f***ing LOVE TRIANGLE subplot.

2 of the first 3 have been more like opening chapters of novels than stories.

Chapter 25 on the battle of Narva is just brilliant!

BOY oh boy for a minute there I thought things were picking up. Then they started arguing about who chairs the meeting, who called the action and taking a vote or joining a sub committee. 75 pages left, we can do this.

A pair of fighting ghosts just fell off some kind of little mini train thing. So gravity still a thing in the spirit realm.

At the beginning this was like when a toddler tells a story but I had faith we would eventually get some traction or momentum of some kind. Now it's 125 pages in and still waiting to feel anything. Would not be surprised to learn this was written and edited with AI.

Love this book ... out of nowhere comes this guy who unintentionally talks about feet the entire time!
Here he describes disappointing his military father who wanted him to wear combat boots:
"Why was he beating my bare ass in front of the neighbor boy Vitka? While also calling me a girl... like I said, I wasn't born to dance with death. I have high arches... I wanted to dance in the ballet."

Started this for my book club without knowing anything about it. Took me a while to realize this is yet another Hunger Games knock off.

I grasp on every mention of the "bayou girl" so desperately because there is nothing else going on in this book. She had an affair with Battle (maybe George? I don't remember because there are no characters in this book just names) and now the photographer reports that she has been run over by a train.

"A bird in the house is a sign of death."
COME ON WITH THE DEATH PART

Enter Augustus of Sweden

Wishing Miss Notty from Victorian Psycho would show up.

Reading this and it's excruciating spending time with these idiots after all the years I have been reading Michael McDowell. So much more satisfying to see them served up to hideous ghosts and swamp monsters than have them endlessly preparing for their idiot wedding.

Jim realized that having someone to take care of was as good as having someone to take care of you.

"I knew of no one else who could use sighs as a lethal weapon." LOL

Loved this incredible opening with Jim living a ghost life in the abandoned homes.

This reminds me of that Otessa Moshfegh book about the woman walking her dog in the woods. Which I also abandoned. I think I made it a little farther with that one. "Mrs. March" is not doing one thing for me except reminding me of other stuff I didn't care for.

I just reached in the pile and grabbed the first thing my hand landed on like it was 2020 all over again. Anyway this is my first China Miéville book so let's see how we do this.