Belinda > Recent Status Updates

I'm not enjoying this as much as I'd hoped.

I'm struggling with this so far. The prose is a bit overwrought, and it's very, very slow. Literary fiction can be so hit and miss. I read a couple of paragraphs out to Harry, and he agreed.

I have to laugh at myself though — I thought the cover was a painting of a stylised, abstract duck until I saw it full size on the Kobo screen 😂 I totally missed the very obvious lighthouse right in the middle.

This is Forster's last chance to impress me. I genuinely want to love his work, but I didn't like A Room With a View much, and DNF-ed Maurice.

I thought this wasn't YA, but then after I started reading, I thought I was wrong and it was. I just checked on here and it's not. It certainly reads like YA, and I feel a bit put off by it. It feels quite simple and sanitised, like I'd expect for younger readers.
Junie is so frustrating a lot of the time, but I really hope she finds freedom by the end!

I don't know where the second book went. One minute I was halfway through reading it, and the next second I was finished. Hopefully this one will be just as good!

Smashing my way through this installment! I had only read a few pages yesterday evening, and by the time I went to sleep, I was 80% through it. I was reading the paperback at first, but then I wanted to read more after going to bed, so I'm reading the e-book too.
I'm finding the fatphobia jarring (there's a LOT of it) but it may just be Barker emulating the norms of the time. At least, I hope that's what she's doing.

The criticisms of the state of universities in Australia is so relatable, it hurts. It's bad enough for cis het, able bodied white staff and students, let alone minorities.

My favourite parts are the Pilate parts.

I appreciate that he highlights the ones that are definitely myth.

I LOVE ghost stories. The more "real", the better. I love how you can learn so much macabre history through ghost stories. I love entirely made up stories too, but give me a good ghostly experience and I'm a very happy lady.

I downloaded the P&V translation on Kobo Plus, but noticed a few typos, probably due to dodgy scanning. I went and checked my physical copy (Glenny translation) and it's so much better! I haven't gotten along with P&V translations before, but hadn't thought to check before I started. I ended up restarting since I wasn't far through it, and I have zero regrets.

Oh my god, shit's getting real.

Kadir needs to become vulture food. He is SUCH a good villain, even if I picture him as Jafar from the Disney movie.

I kind of want to slap some sense into Helen right now. "I can fix him!" never works!

I've never read an introduction better than the one Anne wrote for this book. I like her a lot. I want to be friends with her based on that introduction alone. I'm glad I didn't skip it like I usually do, because it was the most gloriously written, polite "fuck you" ever!

Vague improvement now we seem to be past a bunch of inspirational conversations.

But also, fuck JK Rowling lol get herrrrrr. Here for the parody!

You know, I think I might just pretend that the first book was a standalone. This is... Not good. I may or may not be skim reading to see if it gets any better.

Linus is the most reluctant fictional character since Bilbo Baggins

Now that more character threads have been introduced, it's getting a bit frustrating. I get into the swing of one character's story, but then it shifts to another, and then another. I got the point the author is making, but it makes for frustrating reading (which is the entire point)... ANYWAY, I love the prose, so it's tolerable.

I'm really enjoying this so far! It's not written in a style I usually enjoy but it's so well written, it isn't a problem at all.
I'm trying for the last useless digital bookmark challenge I had any interest in 😉 It only leaves memoirs (which I don't like reading) and the popular fiction one, which didn't have much I'm interested in.

I'm really enjoying this so far! Jumped away from it to read Death in the Spires for the GR challenge (gotta get my useless digital bookmark) but I'm going straight back when I'm finished reading that.

I didn't read the post by Charles saying that this isn't a romance until now. I assumed it was, since her others are.


...and thank god for that. Everyone except Jem and (maybe ?) Aaron suuuuuck. I couldn't root for an actual romance between Jem and anyone else in the novel. I'm relieved!

One of them is a murderer, and they STILL suck less than Kim from Slippery Creatures, which is really saying something.