Jolene Leong > Recent Status Updates

I forgot the author is a guy. The part about menses is so real and waiting to curl into an aching ball. Is the author actually a girl?

I’m meh so far, but we got to Lady Finree and boy do I like her. I also quite like Isern.

Gamow is the very reason I get annoyed at physicists sometimes 😒

Ah.. reading within my own field is so fun. But also enlightening to hear stories written so well. We don’t often venture into the gossip of how the science was made - after all what makes a good story usually comes from yeaaaaars of big events, so the gossip only has structure long after the co discovery, when a story manifests itself. Anyway it’s fun.

The best part of this book is the human stories behind the science. I never knew about Doug Prasher, and it makes me so sad. And sadly, this happens a lot in science.

Wait no.. Peter didn’t actually die?

This is a pretty good representation of toxic academia actually and hiding behind a shield of intellectual brilliance. Academia tears it down though, because guess what? Everyone is brilliant in academia, you’re not special. In fact the special one is the brilliant one who is also kind and principles, like unicorns, infallible to corruption.

Ah… sad. I’m so glad to be in my 30s where you start quietly filtering out people not worth your time no matter how *brilliant*. Amazing as Peter is, can you count on his to appear when you need to defrost the ULT freezer? No, so he can fuck right off.

Eep no wonder girl is so effed up.
Being unable to forget - meaning every neuronal connection has to be maintained - a complete waste of biological resources - it probably even ages you faster - part of learning and growing is being able to throw away and forget useless things - holding on to useless things is just trauma.. yikes

Hell is a campus, and you have to defend a thesis. Omg hahahahha love it. I’m having so much fun now.

Oh well apparently everyone tried to warn her, but like my initial read on her - egotistical self-absorbed with an inferiority complex. Can’t listen to what anyone else says.

No matter how brilliant you are no one needs someone like that. Someone who will ignore truth for their pride? Someone who no one can work with? Sure, I’m sure you’ll live long and prosper

This isn’t dark academia, it’s toxic academia. There is a weird level of glorifying the experience if one isn’t careful - but I think (I hope) Kuang is trying to portray the ridiculous downward toxic spiral some people get themselves into.

It’s a bit triggering i have to say. Every five minutes it makes me want to shake sense into Alice.

Ohhhhh there’s beef… ohh there’s insecurity, okay i understand her weird prickliness now. We have an imperfect main character, okay, that’s fun.

I should really reserve my comments until reading further 😅

… is this an Ali Hazelwood rom lit? What is with this tired enemies to lovers trope. What academic is so immature…

Oh no.. we have an egotistical self-absorbed academic.. this will be painful

As an academic, my immediate reaction to her committee chair dying was - just assign a new one? What? You decide your own committee…

But hey, then there’d be no story.

Truly insane how well written this is. The detail and also so much homage - to the people who made discoveries, to the revolutionaries who changed visualisation (therefore also highlighting the importance of data presentation in furthering science), and the way it weaves into different topics, showing how interconnected life is. Beautiful.

🥹

Who spells out per cent three times in the same sentence? And also spelling it weirdly as per cent instead of percent? Was there a minimum word requirement or something?????

Wow… I have never been so infuriated by a non-table table…

This is possibly the worst book, I’m glad it’s the last. What terrible pacing. What ramblings. Did she not have an editor?

The characters are just breaking now, so that the author and push her convoluted plot. We can already see that when Fitz finally meets Bee again he’s gonna be all mopey and self-pitying and all those years bla bla bla

I mean… Bee’s journal is not yours, Per is a good kid, who immediately gave you the journal. You had no right to be an asshole. God I hate Fitz. I’d like him to die along the way. Per can save Bee 🙄

I cannot understand why…. Stupidity annoys me so. I get that Fitz is worried about his daughter? But 0 self-awareness that it’s fear not logic? Maybe it’s good writing. I’m still disgusted with idiocy.

Information withhold to stir drama. Seriously. What a weak plot device.

Chade is gross. Nothing will convince me that any of his huge age-gap flings are innocent. He is disgusting. His children shouldn’t exist.