Michael Jensen > Recent Status Updates

Difficult to say if this is a bad book or just not for me. Reading this for a banned books book club and it feels like Chbosky was speed-running the list of things that would piss off puritan parents. I don't feel qualified to label it as unrealistic just because it's so far removed from my own experiences as a teen, but boy howdy is it hard to relate to.

It's growing on me, despite my previous concerns (which have remained present, for the record). Murakami captures that ennui for a past that could have been in a visceral way, and the nature of the city, the way it exists in this detached way from the world while in it, does well in properly framing that listless desire.

An interesting premise so far. Murakami continues his habit of intimately describing the physicality of teenage women, which I have to say I'm not a fan of. I get how it fits into the narrative, but come on, the main character is a full adult.

Improving, though I feel like I'm still bouncing off of it. The world is incredibly deep, perhaps too deep, but I'm stuck behind a glass viewport looking in. Scenes swim by here and there, offering a glimpse at something I should be privy to, something that exists and is commonplace in the world, without enough time to fully settle in and appreciate it.

Not off to a great start. I appreciate a complex and well-developed setting, but I feel lost and unable to sink into any given situation. Hard to tell if the discomfort in my head is from trying to focus when my brain doesn't want to or if the book is the problem.

Fun start! Great hook that twists into the main narrative.

Excellent through and through so far. Great descriptions, misdirects, foreshadowing. Shesheshen's anatomy is so wonderfully bizarre; Wiswell puts thorough into the quirks of her behavior as a result of her amorphous nature that it feels natural. And her relationship with Homily grows organically under the proverbial sword of Damocles dangling over their heads.

Great start so far. Feels reminiscent to the Locked Tomb series in how body horror is treated so casually. Sechehen is interesting, intelligent, and sympathatic as a monstrous protagonist.

Two out of three of the narrative buckets emptied. Not off to a great start on the third. Or, to keep in line with the colorful vocabulary of it, not f***ity off to a f***ing great f***ing start. F***.

Not registering as well as Annihilation did, but still thoroughly enjoyable so far.