Annie > Recent Status Updates

As with every other dark academia book I read, I wish there was more academia in the story.

“For years the news had been a nightmare of assassinations and massacres and Technicolor war crimes—at long last, America had given them a bloodless scandal, and they were so relieved that they turned it into entertainment.”

This is set in 1973, but oh does it sound familiar.

“It meant Julian saw every weakness in him and still thought he was worth the effort of hurting.”

This is so unhealthy I love it so much

This book is actually a 5 stars prediction for me, so I’m kinda terrified of not liking it.

But so far, I’m in heaven. 70s university setting with pretentious students who only just met but already make me feel like they’re going to have the most unhealthy codependent relationship. Delicious.

All I know about this is that it’s dark academia, fucked up and gay. Let’s go!

So far this is pretty much only an exposition dump? I know this book is beloved, and I’m curious as to why, but if the early pages are representative of the rest, this may not be for me.

What I don’t understand is why you would write a novel with Niccolò Machiavelli as protagonist, a man who’s been famous for 500 years for being a pragmatist regardless of morality, and then not characterize him as such.

This book is aggressively heterosexual, which… Have you read Niccolò Machiavelli?

Disappointing.

[I’m reading this in French but Goodreads doesn’t have that edition listed.]

So this book just committed its first cardinal sin, and that is to name Juan Borgia as Rodrigo Borgia’s firstborn.

Fun fact! Juan Borgia was actually the fifth child, and if we exclude the girls, the third son. That he was the eldest is a common misconception that shows a lack of in-depth research from the author.

I know I said I’m happy it’s an episodic story since it likely means there will be more Murderbot books after this, but it might be too episodic? Unless something big happens in the second half, right now you could cut this instalment from the series without any impact.

I was worried this would be the last Murderbot book, and I guess it could be, but based on what I’m reading right now, I highly doubt it. It feels very episodic, which is nice because I never want this series to end.

Whether this book will work or not for me is going to be entirely dependent on how much depth and nuance the author is going to bring into this story.

The first and second halves have very different vibes and content. I'm still really enjoying the book, but I will admit I preferred the first half. The first chapters are basically short stories all set within the same context in which to point is to make you understand what the general situation is through concrete examples instead of grand worldbuilding.

I don’t think you could adapt this book to screen satisfyingly. It’s too abstract.

The way this is told is simply brilliant. Last chapter, there were 200 people in the Antimemetics division. Now there are 140.

In another book this could be a continuity error. In this book though? Something happened. And probably no one even knows it did.

I love how I can trust absolutely no information that is given to me. Everything is suspicious. It’s chilling and mesmerizing.

This is a mix of terrifying, fascinating and exhilarating. Did I mention terrifying? Because it’s terrifying.

I already know this book is going to give me so many trust issues.

“… we sell our souls in public and buy them back in private, among our friends.”

I genuinely hate every character in this book so far but it’s Orwell dropping lines like this that makes it worthwhile.