Michael > Recent Status Updates

I really want to like this. The narrator is charming in an insufferably privileged but vaguely self aware kind of way, and the not-exactly-nostalgic vibe is interesting, but it just feels way more dense than it can possibly be, and reading it is *work*

This is completely bonkers. Thanks to whoever recommended it!

This is silly. But, Terry Pratchett call-out on page 220, so I'm good.

This is fairly terrible, but I'm glad I kept reading because it just described those awful orange peanut butter crackers as smelling like"dirty feet and unnatural chemistry.”

Halfway through this I find it totally engrossing and cool, but can't help thinking it'd be better read in a single stretch, as there's no real stopping points.

I've always been a fan of this series, but wading back in after a year really highlights how well fleshed out and the frankly huge number of characters (mostly Bobs) are. It's easy to fall right back into their rhythms.

This is gorgeous. Wow.

I'd forgotten how much I like this guy's style. It's like Carl Hiaasen except more restrained (though not less unhinged), and thus the humor feels shadier and lands harder.

Ugh this is a slog. Not that he's a bad writer, it's just all stuff we learned in biology 101, dumbed down.

I wanna know if he goes anywhere tho...

As shitwards as this are going right now for the LGBT+ world, it's amazing what 23 years ago (In West Hollywood no less) sounds like. The reminder is so stark I almost abandoned this immediately, not really eager to welcome that universe back.

But I do want to see if the actual story holds up.

It's still very pretty, but why is it so bloody long?!

I mean, with overwrought prose like this, how can I not love it?
"The shadows staggered over the whitewashed cobblestones like drunk men more afraid of coming home to their wives than the dangers of passing out in an alley"

A quarter of the way in, and I'm torn. It's interesting and engaging. But. The author is ever so committed to his ideas that I'd characterize this much more as philosophy then science. There's a bit of 'I want to believe'-ness that manages to detract from his believability.

Ugh I'm not sure i can finish this

This is not a great book, though it's kinda fun. However, it provides the following fucking amazing passage: "I stop listening when academics start mixing their Greek and Latin roots. That never leads anywhere productive."

Enthralling, so far. The shifting voices and narrative modes shouldn't be so effortless, but they kinda are.

I'm conflicted. The writing is heavy-handed, text-book 'click-bait' prose, and some of his assertions are fiarly ridiculous (Phillip Zimbardo is the most famous living psychologist? I don't think so...), but I feel like it may be starting to get to a point. there's lots of good here too.

This is crushingly gorgeous. And while my usual reaction to loving books is to demand everyone I know read it, this is different.

The 'naughty bits' (which are actually kinda amazing themselves) make this a bit of a 'family-only' book - they would make many hetero/conventional readers uncomfortable and scared, and I find myself loving that this is something my people can have that the majority can't.

The trauma porn is rather more than a bit much, and there are too many characters and story lines...so far it feels overambitious but I'm still curious if the author can pull it off. I think I might hate this but we'll see.

Fun!

Really pretty, enveloping. I cried maybe a bit fifteen or so pages before the end

I actually didn't finish this, as I got bored halfway. Trite and trying too hard.