Rochelle > Recent Status Updates

In spite of all the completely irredeemable characters I'm quite enjoying the story.

A novel of secrets. I didn’t find this as powerful as Freshwater. It lacked the intensity. Perhaps unfair to compare them, however, Freshwater was the reason I picked up this novel. This would be an excellent YA read. I think it would also be enjoyable for those not looking for the complexity of Freshwater. Akwaeke Emezi is an excellent author & this is a very good book. Perhaps just not what I was hoping for.

As protracted & torturous as its villain’s death. Put me out of my misery…

Better than I remember. Why must no book by a Brontë contain a couple who have an emotionally fulfilling relationship with one another? Still, as long as there’s a prince at the end of all this frog kissing. No men in any of the Brontë novels are worthy of tolerance, let alone adoration.

Great writing, great characters. Part 1: Bodies, specifically women’s bodies, comparison & judgement. The way we compartmentalise bodies, the reduction to reproduction (breasts & eggs). Additionally the ways we avoid talking, particularly about the important things, to those who mean the most to us. It’s very, very good.

Not just too many similes: clichés! Nope nope nope. “Like the sword of Damocles over your head, a black cloud that followed wherever you went.” Arrrrrrrrrgh.

Not just too many similes: clichés! Nope nope nope. “Like the sword of Damocles over your head, a black cloud that followed wherever you went.” Arrrrrrrrrgh.

There is such a thing as too many similes.

Holy fuck, this is amazing.

Every single story is absolutely brilliant. This is a model of fine storytelling. Wonderful.

Apparently I have profoundly negative feelings reading about women persisting with unhealthy relationships. This would also explain why I detest Wuthering Heights (although I loved it when I was 15). I have found re-reading The Golden Notebook very unsettling. But now I have a better understanding of what I didn’t like about it the first time I read it. It’s an amazing book. It just creeps me out!

The pain and the injuries of colonialism.