Tesla A > Recent Status Updates

Youth was just as but not so angsty but finally the age matched the voice. TD’s writing just reads itself - I once got so immersed that I almost missed my stop. She makes us want to root for her even when it’s questionable because of her matter-of-fact voice about everything

So cringey I could die lol. Omg, it’s gag levels of cringe but it’s too late to dnf at this point lol.

The fight scenes in this are so cringey that I got into a reading slump…. Though, after 26 hours, I can push for a few more hours. Like why is everything so boringly predictable and lacking soul - what should be heartwarming just comes off as whiny and cringey. Anyway, digging deep

The plot has picked up once again whew. I wonder why the author made Kira into such a self-obsessed narcissist though. I thought it would be explained by how but it seems we are just supposed to take her I-am-centre-of-the-universe energy as a matter of course. It’s like reading an unironic protagonist of blood over bright haven before her discovery as the base and only setting. Where’s the growth?

Also this girl is prone to dramatics and I’m worried we are about to dragged into her wearisome woe is me melodrama before she is ready to recover from her guilt with another not fast enough “I can’t die and must save everyone” war. Oh Jesus, when will this end

Did we just pause to develop an unnecessary romance between people who still don’t have any real personalities even after 18 hours of audio booking?! This book is too long for nothing - it’s too self-conceited if I may be allowed to say so after this much commitment. Half the fighting scenes could be edited out as they serve no purpose other than the author saying “far too slow” and not fast enough”…

The logical inconsistencies are killing me. Also what type of militaries and corporations are these where the command chain is ignored just because Kira said so? The plot is moving forward by making everyone else stupid and bad at their job.

Also, wish the author found different English to describe Kira’s fight scenes other than “not fast enough “ or “so so slow”. I want new vocabulary 😭

So you mean to tell me that this self-serving profit-oriented crew salvaged this random woman wearing alien tech in the middle of a first contact war with aliens and suddenly found their altruistic inner selves to go off their course to attack an alien ship that all human militaries/tech had been defeated by, without any special tech, just because she told them to?

Also why is everyone named after like a bird?

Why is this girl so dramatically cringey? Also are you sure you are a xenobiologist or this is just something that you mention once in a while to make you futuristic? Also hope these side characters stop being caricatures soon haha

Though this is lowkey addictive, I’m 5 hours in and I still have no idea where this going and what this book is about really. Will I ever finish 😭

Finished childhood! I was surprised by how precocious and incisive the reflections of the narrator were. Her voice was a little too mature for her age throughout the narrative. Though - after noticing it’s a memoir 🙈 - it’s understandable because it’s an adult’s remembrance of her childhood which thus allows some creative liberties.

Do not judge a book by its cover! I’m enraptured but also what?!?!

The change in POV worked magic and injected much needed steam to this series whew

I have no idea where this is going and the quirkiness has lost its novelty. What was the point of the book again? It’s becoming so self-indulgent in its own grandiosity that I am squinting to trace the path forward. Anyway, let’s see where we end up

I’m waiting for the brilliance that this book has been touted for, because, so far, I’m squinting to find it.

lol this is so unhinged! Like what i listening to 😂😂

The first half has lots of moments of hilarity that I don’t think I noticed that dearly first time round. More importantly though, I cannot believe I missed the very obvious US-Soviet Union analogy here. The sci fi as metaphor stretched schpill in Ursula’s intro makes so much sense! There’s so much in the anthropological observations that is obvious as a parallel. …

Okay, so far enjoying this better than my first foray but I forgot how much Genly despised women 🫠

Alright, the whole book is not going to be about her killing him, right? It was fun in the beginning but now, it’s feeling a little draggy and repetitive. It’s also a bit predictable so I want the plot to move on…

Damn! I loved the ending and I’m glad my dear Arabella got to enjoy the world away from the book in the nose in darkness guy. I see what Susanna did there. What I love love is that despite this being about strange and Norrell, they did not save anyone and just got stuck in their little bubble while magic was being done in the most unexpected places to them. I see it, Susanna!

Above update was for here

This is like a live tweet at this point but did Susanna “fridge” Arabella for this? It can’t be, right? I came to understand the sense of Arabella affliction as the catalyst for Strange’s foray into greatness + expansion of English magic. But now, it can’t just be that she went through all that for this?! Also, is the gentleman the only faerie in this business because of Norrell? If not, why him?

Commercial break: if this were romantasy, they would have Stephen swooning all the way to high heaven for how much the gentleman searched high and low, killing, and maiming just to find his name so that he can bestow it upon him.

PS: less than 100 pages to go and I’m feeling some of the mysteries about faeries and the other otherlanders are going to be left unresolved.

Before I binge this to the end, I just want to note that Strange’s conceitedness and arrogance have come to fore so much. He’s so concerned with himself and loves his assumptions that he’s not paused once to ask others or listen to them properly. He’s also so obsessed with Norrell and it’s interesting to see how he’s inadvertently absorbed Norrell’s behaviour. PS: British East India Co. magic — gagg

I’m really enjoying the whimsy of introducing a whole set of new characters and developing them for three whole chapters just to set up a scene. It’s endearingly extravagant! There are also many allegories going round now but I think I’m just about to grasp the whole point of this undertaking beyond just whimsy (not that whimsy alone would not be enough). PS: They’ve met finally!!

Arabellaaa! Wait, what? There must be more, right?

… while I wish that we got more of Arabella’s viewpoint, it’s totally understandable given the fidelity to the time period that the book has endeavoured to build. There’s a subversive streak in the curious case of Lady Pole, Stephen Black, Arabella, George III that’s also ironically going on with “the gentleman with thistle-down hair” and I find these passages highly intriguing…

Ooh, that book review was damn fire and it was such a good way to solidify the fault lines that have or may be showing up. I love that we are getting to the good turn into the so what of English Magic. PS: poor Drawlight - didn’t much like him but that was a wild exit. PPS: we could write essays about Arabella and the peculiar role she’s playing. Wish we got more into her perspective.