Danna > Recent Status Updates

Chapter 2. A workaholic real estate heir planning his break into the Mainland is spiralling down depression lane in Shanghai, making himself numb towards everything he once held in high regard - business, public opinion, his family - and setting himself in a painfully long process.

Each of the girls is commendable. Heartbreak in such a society seem so different to the one experienced in western culture. However I adore how each of them tries to better herself under the circumstances, and being rich they have privileges and options that make it easier. Ot's not superficial at all, just touching on topics relevant to early 20s women in Saudi Arabia.

Jondalar and Ayla's departure from the Mamutoi and the sad look in Ranec's eyes when Ayla breaks her promise and leaves him is heartbreaking.

Apparently this book really got into me if I'm crying at Rydag's death and preparation of burial. Rydag signing through his last breaths that he's not an animal and asks to be buried was heartbreaking. Him wishing to be buried the Mamutoi way even though they never named him and thus doesn't deserve to be buried. So Ayla is preparing to bury him the Clan way and it's such an emotional moment.

I already love the summer meeting and the sun hasn't even set on the first day! The scene where Rydag, Ayla and Frebec team up to scare the man who skeptic about Wolf utilizing the clan's sign language was brilliant! Deegie acknowledging Frebec's natural tendency to argue and how it has subsided highlights how round this character is. He bettering himself is applaudable.

Ayla planning to experiment with a Clan root to reach the spirit world on the next summer meeting is an occasion I want to attend.

Fralie's birth scene nearly brought me to tears, you really learn to care about the people of the Mamutoi once you spend an entire winter with them. This novel is ripe with possibilities for Ayla - staying with the Mamutoi and starting a family with Ranec, following Jonadalar back to the Zelandonii, going to the Clan summer gathering and fetching Durc - all the while still functioning as an encyclopedia for the time.

Ayla toying with the idea of going to the clan summer gathering and fetching Dirk to live with her and the Mamutoi sounds infinitly like something I'd love to read!

I love how the manners of the Mamutoi are explored and compared to the Clan's. And her previous lesson in writing(?) with Mamut. And how Mamut has spent some time with Kreb and Issa's mothet (or grandmother?) While on his journey as a young man, and got to learn their ways. Also, there's a feeling in the air we're etching closer to discover Ayla's birth people.

- after their affair, Laure was onto Lucas's bribery and hushing of the hotel's past and meant to publish it. Cecile wanted to groom her, too, sending her the psychiatric ward records, but she failed - Laure was determined to stay out of it. So Cecile got mad again, colored her complicit and so deserving to die.

- Cecile has started by killing her rapist (Daniel), then Adele, the girlfriend at the time of the one who found Daniel's body and was offered a high paying job at the hotel as bribery. Cecile viewed her as complicit.
Margot, a hotel employee, had a great grandmother thrown into the sanatorium, her family's been haunted by this event and so it was easy fueling the hate within her, being a psychotic depressed person.

So Cecile, hotel manager, was against the hotel being built in place of the sanatorium where women were stripped of their bodily autonomy in the 1920s and condemned to horrible treatments, but the owner (her bro) and architect (her rapist) disagreed because it'd been a long time ago. Cecile took it personally because she felt the sanatorium directly connects to her own rape, as both perpetutaing violence agnst women.

So the hotel owner has witnessed his sister being raped, did nothing, watched her fall apqrt and did nothing so Cecile is out for revenge when the hotel's history lined up with her plan.

Compulsively readable thanks to short chapters made up of short paragraphs made up of short sentences. Each element seemingly ending with a cliffhanger. Makes for a quick and fun read but lacking in substance, the only thing to be picked at is the dialogues. I wish it was expanded a bit more and instead of a thriller it'd be a horror novel, but oh well.

It makes absolutely no sense for Lucas to be the murderer. Why would he tarnish the reputation and profitability of his own hotel?

Okay, a big reveal about Sam's death in chapter 76. Isaac tells Elin she'd witnessed Sam fall into the pool, hitting his head and dying of the brain injury. She had watched him at th time, so everyone assumes she's to blame - but she was only 12. Why hasn't her parents been to blame for leaving a bunch of children near a water source with no adult supervision?The reveal ended so quickly I'm sensing there's more to it

Elin and Isaac are having a supportive, honest sibling moment. Margot acted like the killer, so that's a surprise. The hotel's past as a sanatorium is yet to be properly digged into, but there are some cluea leading that way, so that's exciting. Is the novel's purpose exploring the aibling relationship and Elin's character?