Adena > Recent Status Updates

FFS, stop trying to cover such a large expanse of time that all you can do is scratch the surface of Abigail Adams. Also, can we get a bit more depth to her character? She’s incredibly flat. I’m close to making this a DNF. Authors need to write for intelligent readers, not adult-aged tweens.

Goes on too many deep dive tangents that 1) feel like filler to turn an extended issue of a magazine into a book and 2) cause you to forget about Zac’s death (and not care).

I was hoping for Meet Joe Black mixed with The Book Thief. This is not that. It’s disordered and struggles to find a purpose. I’m DNF-ing at 25%

How is this book getting so much buzz? The character development is somehow lacking and the plot is just getting absurd.

Campy, but in a good way

I think in the 16 years between novels, I became too savvy of a reader for Stockett. I’m 100 pages in and it’s very clear what’s going on with the husband and other characters. If there are supposed to be shocks or surprises, it’s going to take a lot.

Daphne’s voice is too much like Lara’s voice (Tom Lake).

This might end up as a DNF. I feel like I’ve already read a dozen versions of this book - the premise has been done again and again.

How does this book have such a high rating? It’s dragging and read like a Hallmark romance movie 🤮

I think the modern chapters are stronger than the past chapters. Natalie is too savvy not the read the room of the past.

I wasn’t really interested in this book by its description, but an author I respect hyped it on her TilTok. So fa, the book is predictable and cliche. I can predict the entire plot by 10% in.

I don’t like the true crime podcast format. It’s too Zennial for this Gen-X.

I could do without the narrative break where the author lectures us. If we are reading this book, we are the choir.

The writing is good, but I’m listening to the audiobook, which is read by the author. He is a terrible person for that task because his intonation is dull and is cadence is odd.

Daye’s agency - or lack thereof! The pacing is a bit slow, but not so slow that this is in danger of DNF.

Is this book self-published? I keep finding grammatical errors and incorrect use of homonyms.

Let’s take an interesting premise for historical fiction and ruin it by trying to throw in smutty romance scenes and with a woman who acts too modern and has no understanding of the social constructs of the era in which she lives. How did this win a Goodreads award for historical fiction?! I’ve lost faith in humanity.

I have never seen a novel with no narrative voice have such a high Goodreads rating.

Ugh! The author is spending way too much time building backstories for the characters.

It was going so well until the author threw in a campy, shipboard romance, plot.

This book started out with a bang, and I like the narrative perspective. However, characters are drawn with a heavy hand to the point of being cartoonish stereotypes. Tom is so wrapped up in his grief to the point of it being ridiculous. Lauren is so in love with Tom that it is obvious. I’m not sure if I will finish this book. Right now it is turning into such a disappointment.

Welp, I’ve already cried. It’s been a long time since a book has made me cry.

We need to make sure readers of audiobooks who have to read Hebrew actually know Hebrew. The mispronunciations are like nails on a chalkboard.

The premise irritates me. How ridiculously fragile have we made people through endless bulldozing of obstacles that they can no longer work through grief and need to be insulated from it?

The first person narration results in a lot of tell instead of show and makes the novel flat and boring.

Take the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and add painfully bad smut romance writing to it. 🙄. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll endure the trash.

Ugh. Someone told this author the be descriptive, but no one told the author that descriptions must be purposeful. I just read a paragraph about what they ordered at a Chinese restaurant. Details I did not need.