Laura > Recent Status Updates

Ch 9

“Isabella was a late bloomer, a woman who saw what was expected of her as a Boston matron and decided to be something else.” (p. 5)

I am enjoying the campy spirit of this novel; the first couple of chapters especially had me laughing aloud. Things have gotten serious now but these powerful witches just wanted to be the Spice Girls when they were tweens.

I’m really not sure about this book. Other reviewers have noted its repetitiveness, despite its breadth. I also keep wincing at the way it characterizes the Japanese people; the reductionist stereotypes remind me of eugenicist descriptions of national character from a century ago. They’re not just comparisons either. They have a critical even bitter undertone that strikes me as a personal gripe.

I've never read a novel so beautifully written on the page that rang so false. Staggering combination of misogyny and romanticism.

The question is whether I can finish reading this by Friday when I hope to see the movie...