Majel > Recent Status Updates

Fuck Regan and Fuck CEOs. Guillotine!!!!!

A fantastic audiobook narrator. Very engaging.

And we learn that Antarctica is in averge 9,000 feet high in elevation. What?!?!?

Devastating. Sickening. Tragic.

A testament to the author. Suddenly I realized my image of Marian and Jamie had changed to thirty year olds compared to the small 11 year olds when we first meet them. A testament to the authors maturing of the characters voices and descritpions of their appearances, both in narrative and in thru the eyes of other characters.

Jesus, the sycopahntic rhapsodized musings of people high on mushrooms trying to make LA seem magical. Fuck off.

Although i enjoyed the interlude of Jamie's time in seattle, it strikes me that Shipstead bestows opportunity and respect upon Jamie, and meanwhile, every female main character is opppressed, sexually abused by men. So she *can* envision a social underclass characters chancing upon dignity and opportunity. Just not Matilde, Annabel, Hadley, or Marian. Its clearly a choice, then, to write every woman's victimization.

"Hectored"

This is the most likeable Hadley has ever been. " after my utter failure to fly a plane, I'd only become more determined to be Marian. I needed the relief of being someone who wasn't afraid. It helped that she wasn't completely alien, that we were both products of vanishment and orphan hood and negligence and airplanes and uncles."

The scene of Hadley taking a discovery flight is so well done. I just love an outsider's perspective on flying. And you compare that to how she wrote Marian's first flight, and it shows masterful skill of voice. Shipstead described the same exact experience from two wholy, entirely different character perspectives. Loved it, loved it.

25% in to a very long book and finally she starts learning to fly. Why is this so long???

Finally we get to an airplane. Im enjoying the early 1900s passages a lot more than the modern passages. I even like the author's descriptions of the geological history of the area or the feel and workings of steam liner ships. But the modern character is abrassive, buffeted by the partiarchy and abuse and is jaded. I will say, there is a little too much of abuse of women, as well.

I like this quote a lot. "Boys who want for nothing but still found something to take"

I liked Leigh Bardugo's other duology, but not really enjoying this one. Its really, really dark. Human sacrifice, child rape, overdose. None of the humor or charisma of the Six of Crows duology. The time jumps and flashbacks are too frequent and too far apart, it's confusing. And also, the narrator is awful; she sounds soft, plodding, whispery, fragile. Is she trying to give mysterious? She should be giving edgy.

Its like the author had written a beginning, but then the editor said no, and so the author scrapped the entire thing and hastily rewrote the beginning chapters. The narration and descriptions are uneven. The beginning without almost any dialogue so I don't have much of a sense of who the main character is, setting and people without much description. And full of contradictions in descrptions for the protagonist.

Best part is pg. 225.

Im so surprised by the frequent repetition i wondered if it was serialized, published one chapter at a time. How often we hear about doc roberts being a klan member but the only doctor, chona being a "cripple," Moshe is from the old country, etc. Where was the editor?

You can tell an author spent so much less time on the sequel than the first one. Gone are the poetic beginnings of each chapter, gone are the particularly complex and dark description of magic or people. I mean, the author fast-forwarded, montage-like, thru the Shepard King's memories of creating the cards. Pure exposition. Not utilized well, such as for more creepy reveals or King's character development.

How like how one review put it, "Big on vibes, not on details." I thought it was strange how I felt lost in what to imagine, kind of stateless and placeless and faceless. Nope, others agree, the author just doesn't describe the world much. A poor choice, I think. It makes the story feel very detatched. Ungrounded.

The ebook on libby has messed up the chapter headings and it says all the dates at the top of a chapter. Luckily from the first couple sentences you can tell what time period its supposed to be, but still. Annoying.

Good story, good writing, but too many characters and too much jumping, both between pov and timelines. Im starting to confuse who grew up with what background and how they knew each other

The ceativity of the rationalization by the protagonist for her actions is gobsmacking. My jaw drops. The shift in possessive language (Alethans book to My book) is both subtle and not subtle and so revealing. Well done so far, by the author.

This is great. Totally living up to the hype. I should have read this sooner

Quick notes before i forget:
- his quick work of finding how to make friends eith Angus is an astute display of his people-intelligence and survival skills. Also heartbrakingly sad
- his remarks on meeting his grandmother and then moving into the mansion were hilarious. Quick witted. Sharp. Unexpected.

The writing. YA sickening. "He's the most exquisite man I've ever seen. And living in a war college means I've seen a *lot* of men....Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot."
A lack of immersion into the world. E.g., a cadet runs screaming from the dragons and is scortched to ash. The reader is not given enough description/feeling to be afraid of the dragons to understand why.

This woman is detestable. Lying. Egocentric. A portrait of a self serving tortured artist. Fuck off.

Writers need to stop hanging out with artist types and them writing them into their books. I swear, if I was hanging out with some man, and he launches into a treatise on "how there are two types of people: drivers and parkers," I would stare at him like he had 2 heads and then laugh in his face. This kind of armchair philosophy that poses as creative is shit.

Wow! The aunt was a WASP! How did the author know of them? They are so overlooked in history!!

New word: maundering

Im very done hearing about the high school immaturity and identity formation stuff. I dont connect with and I dont really care. Slow pacing.