Bethany > Recent Status Updates

My heart is in my throat reading this.

Beetle and Asher's story arc is everything to me.

THIS IS SO FREAKING CUTE!

This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It has me giggling so much.

OH MY GOD.

This story makes me so sad but it is so important and I cannot stop reading it.

This story is precious.

I adore this story.

I LOVE stories that have dialogue exchanges in Spanish without translating to English. That lack of over-explaining makes the conversations more genuine, more in-the-moment. Plus, I find it quite fun to translate each phrase and find out myself what it is that they're saying.

THIS. IS. SO. GOOD.

So far this book pokes fun at pretty much any character trait that isn't a white, average-build, neurotypical male (aka, the main character). I'm not really a fan of the racist, sexist, ableist narrative, but I'm intrigued enough by the virus aspect to push through.

AAAAHHHHH!!!

OH. MY. GOD.

“Little white lights. Hundreds in shifting orbit. Reflecting off Jay’s mask. Off his fingernails. Off his suicide clip. What is it? What isn’t it? Jay’s blinkless and, shocking at this depth, breathless. Stars churn like ocean tide, spread thin in cosmic dust, iris right into blinding quasars.”

THIS IS STUNNING. I want to punch the air, it’s so beautifully written.

I’m really hoping this book absolutely destroys me.

Each chapter that passes takes on a more desperate pacing. I love the second-person POV here. The short sentences. You can almost feel everyone spiraling out of control.

"Harlow and I were magic. We walked on water and landed in an effortless tangle between the jetty's rocks. My ankles were hers. Her wrists were mine. The wind stole hairs from each of our scalps, confessions from the backs of our throats, but unlike with Tommy, I couldn't predict anything that came out of her mouth. She sighed and sent the tide out. She blinked and scattered the clouds."

Oh my GOD? Beautiful.

Not only is this story super atmospheric, but the characterization is so well done. I'm already hooked!

FINALLY.

So far this story has been looping the same concept over and over with little variety. At what point is somebody going to believe Liv instead of constantly brushing her off as crazy?

LOVE DESCRIBED PERFECTLY!

"I turn my foot like I'm doing some fucked-up version of the hokey-pokey. You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and get a bullet to the chest."

JESUS, ahaha. I think this story is going to be a good one.

This is so badass.

This author is a WRITER. And a damn good one.

"Her breath smelled like the echo of cinnamon, and her skin smelled like summer grass and sweat, and her face was so close to her that she could feel Alma's petal-soft hair cradling Whitney's cheek like a leafy tendril. She could feel the aura of Alma's Chapstick brushing against her lips." Ugh, the imagery throughout this entire story is GORGEOUS.

"Bo had forgotten how to cry, but she still knew how to bleed." OOOH. Such a good line.

Regarding “It Stays with You” by Aden Polydoros: Oh my GOD!? This hits where it hurts and the writing itself is SO captivating. I need this as a full-length novel.

"One-Lane Bridge" by Hannah Whitten reminds me of a story of my own that I have coming out. I'm loving the foolish adolescent pull toward urban legends in the middle of the night, the internal struggles tickling the peripherals of the main character, the promise of speculative elements mingling with the mundane.

“Stay” by Erica Waters is EXACTLY the kind of story I’ve been wanting for a long time. SO GOOD.

This writing is beautiful, heartbreaking, and so genuine.