Megan > Recent Status Updates

take two, let’s see how far i get this time

a fun easy read!! very much sentinel/guide but now we seem to be losing the plot a little like why is she worried about the military accepting her? like didn’t she want to flame out (oh the vermilion bird makes more sense now but also … nachos)

okay so i definitely did not understand this book when i was younger but the author does such a good job packing so much background into so little words and having it be the husband’s pov is so interesting since this psychotic break (break for control over her life?) is all viewed relative to how it affects her family

trying my hand at audiobooks! so far short stories with little zingers interspersed with cases where the gravity of what you’re doing sets in

confirmed banger beach and airport read

argh this is so cute and i can just envision all of this happening

why do all of her characters have sayanythingitis

okay so far this book is so easy to read

dang

it’s also so interesting that this story is told from the perspective of a bystander, even though we don’t realize it at first. like henry was the real driver of the plot and we watch it unfold with a role smaller than we realize and then it ends with him being shot, realizing that he is just a bystander

i was going to ask why it feels like henry had more regret over julian leaving than killing two people but i got my answer in the next line

“what the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals”

the contrast between bernard and helmholtz leading to their similarity in individualism/alienation really underscores how any non conformity is perceived poorly, not solely being an underperformer

ooo the plot thickens

wow the pacing of the book works so well like you can tell it’s reaching the tail end of its wind down (although maybe some of it is the fact i can tell that there’s only like 70 pages left)

ah this friend group feels very greek somehow, with the romantic entanglements and the backstabbing (frontstabbing?)

dang the expansion from purely richard’s pov to what was happening to henry and charles behind the scenes/outside of our perspective is a nice touch

sometimes i forget this book was published in 2004 and then things like this whole gas station side plot remind me

well they finally found him … interesting to see where this ends up; also the tv scene made me physically recoil that was rough

ugh the writing in this book is so good

well i guess two can keep a secret if one one them is dead

a) now i really want to host a dinner party b) the crumbs of mystery are so nicely sprinkled in like i want to know what they’re about!! and c) ugh the author did such a good job capturing the ephemeral beauty of fall and snapshotting happy uncomplicated moments in time

okay i re-read the past 64 pages so now we’re so back; this vibes of northeast fall matching the current vibes outside is so peak; i feel like the anticipation of something happening has me so hyperfocused on his relationship w bunny that a twist is going to come out of nowhere for me

i think the narrator is more human then she believes bc even without knowing man, she wants to go out with the same dignity as the one male prisoner. she sees herself in him, and what is that if not (kinda) knowing man? what is humanity if not experiencing a culture created by a community? as she experienced the outside world, she came to many of the same conclusions and beliefs that the other women held

the sentence “i must be lacking in certain experiences that make a person human” is so interesting because are our experiences what provide us with humanity? is it innate? a mix of both or none of the above?

well that took one depressing turn and then another turn into maslow’s hierarchy of needs

wtf have i read this book before??
anyways the premise is already set up and interesting because her husband only likes her due to her unobtrusiveness but we know she’s about to make a big choice and rock the boat

this really mirrors time management for mortals where the author writes that there are so many choices you can make and sometimes that can feel overwhelming and you have fomo on your other choices but the fact that you chose to make the choice you did gives that choice meaning