halfserious > Recent Status Updates

I have ADHD and am therefore definitely no stranger to telling a convoluted story, but Messud frequently manages to lose me in hers. What’s more, the little stories within a story with their little offshoots of other stories are mostly not important but on the off chance one of them ever is, you can’t really afford to gloss over them, so while the book is compelling, it’s also not an easy read.

For the sake of nostalgia and all the hours I’ve spent watching it (them?) when I was a tween/teen, any book that mentions Gilmore Girls in the first half is a good book, and I love the writing style.

“Let this be a lesson to all men out there who can’t handle conflict - man up and dump your girlfriend, or you might end up living with a suspected murderer indefinitely.”

I didn’t enjoy the backwards narration method at the beginning but it’s becoming easier to follow now that things are becoming clearer, which I suspect was the point of this whole exercise.

I'm currently diving into chapter 27 and the only thing I can be pretty sure about for now is that "whiplash" is either Emily Littlejohn's favourite word or she was payed extra for every time she used it.
Too much descriptions of nature for my taste, also.

Also, I have a feeling the word "barbeque" is really not written the way it should normally be (maybe it's an Australian thing?) and I find it slightly unnerving, especially because at the moment, the word seems to be thrown around quite a lot.

"I'll roast a pig on the spit! The Slovenian way. Well, it's not really the Slovenian way, it's my way, but it's like nothing you've ever tasted before."
- I come from Slovenia and I have no idea what Liane Moriarty is referring to, but if it's a slowly roasted suckling pig on a stick, then it's not the Slovenian way, it's the way of the Balkans but really more a Serbian thing. Just to clarify.

I'm currently starting Chapter 5 and what strikes me as odd is how in other books, whether the characters are lovable or loathable, the authors always seem to make a conscious effort to explain their behavior. With Swan Huntley, there's none of it; I hate Catherine West since Page 1 and I don't know what she has coming to her but from what I've seen so far, I'm pretty sure she deserves it.

I'm at the beginning of Chapter 5 and what strikes me the most is how in other books, whether the characters are lovable or loathable, the authors always make an effort to explain their behavior and to justify it, in a way; we get none of that from

Tirelessly ploughing through Chapter 18, can't help but wonder if the book is going to watch the Plumbs prance happily into the sunset or if two, possibly three, of them are going to meet their untimely deaths. Can't decide which one I'd prefer, either, but I somehow can't see the first scenario happening. Adore it up until now; it starts blearily but progresses so much so fast you're willing to forget the beginning.