Kathy > Recent Status Updates

got train-napped and didn’t notice until it was too late bc I was absorbed reading this 🤙 worth it for the many hours to get home

it’s so funnnnnn (lotsa typos tho)

giggling & twirling my hair, etc

“But did you like [my poem]? … Or would you prefer… a sketch of my bruises? Rondo in B minor for sob and scream? Would you like me to do all your thinking for you, like a mama bird spitting chewed-up worm slurry into her babies’ eager, open mouths? … I’m just playing with you, doll. I would never accuse you of such regressive bookclubisme.” YESSSSSS finally an author who GETS MEEEEE

I went to my local bookstore and asked for “a recommendation for a book that feels like the author putting my brain in a blender, a la House of Leaves” and he came back instantly with this. I am thrilled and delighted bc it’s exactly what I asked for.

Uneven voice/tone in both the narration and dialogue is really starting to bother me at this pt

interesting world-building to justify and communicate the themes of the universally transfemme cyborgs. obvious, sometimes heavy-handed allegorical analysis of modern life via spec-fi dystopia lens. a large drawback to me, personally: POV character Dragonfly sometimes uses therapy speak, which fully breaks my immersion. she wouldn’t know how to say what she means!! let her communicate badly!!!

it’s a cyberpunk genderbent hades/persephone retelling. it has moments of brilliant prose, but overall….. idk :/

Incredible start: “The knife of my will cuts through the haze of new birth: this is how I begin. A human mind grows over time, layers of memory and cognition building into a personality and identity. I am not so mortal: my consciousness flashes online fully formed.”

“violence as intimacy” theme. also the first male character appears no sooner than 30% of the way into the novel. a real winner 👍

the vibes of Signalis in a medium that’s accessible to me.

I feel like the chapter on “the contemporary structure of plunder” is not as clear as it could be.

Kuang can’t write*, but by god she can compile a killer anthology! (* in my annoyed, salty, and probably unfair opinion after reading Katabasis)

feeling every emotion under the sunnnnn 🥰💕🥰💕🥰💕😭 i love this book sm

On Karhide’s slide into violent nationalism: “The mood of the city was bleak, although business was good, prosperity in general, and the weather fair.” :( relatable

Thus far, chapter three is so generalized and opinion-based as to be meaningless. Very hard to read when he won’t (1) be specific enough for u to know wtf he’s talking about or (2) cite any references you can check. imo, the weakest section of the book BY FAR. also boring and annoying to read.