Jillian Brown > Recent Status Updates

"A Gallery a Century, A Cry a Millennium": This story about a very long journey to find a new planet outside our system to call home was very interesting and right up my alley, but in some ways it felt like it would have better suited a novel-length work. Many characters from previous stories are the focus, which was nice. I enjoyed the author exploring the emotional consequences of leaving Earth behind.

"Life around the Event Horizon" is probably the weakest of the bunch so far. It's too short to do much more than skim the lives of the characters; it's too surreal to make much sense but not enough to be that interesting. Another story about parent/child alienation. Ironically about the brother of the alienated son of "Elegy Hotel," who is alienated from his own son. Felt like filler to connect other stories together

Reading this alongside the audiobook with the voices my head uses helps. c:

"Songs of Your Decay" is another story about miscommunication and grief. While it was well-written and appeals to lovers of late twentieth century pop/classic rock (me), I found the protagonist to be another insufferable character, this time towards her husband. There didn't seem to be any substantial reason as to why she was treating him so badly. I didn't feel all that sorry for her.

"Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You" is the first written work that has made me outright cry. It wasn't as dramatic or gripping as some of the other stories, but it was about a father and his teenage son dealing with the grieving process as the father helps others deal with their grief as well. While I was slowly reading this story, I lost two cats and had to take my mother to the ER. It hit close to home.

I want the Jackal to die already so his voice actor will stop talking.

Pieces are beginning to fall into place, but I'm still curious about the connection all this has to the prologue, because so far there is none. The second chapter was not as creepy as the first.

Walking the reader through each step to solve the puzzle gets dull after awhile, but the results are intriguing and definitely creepy.

Weirder and weirder, but sometimes I feel that there's a bit too much hand-holding regarding expositions and explanations.

I would say that so far this fits much more into the "mystery" genre rather than the "horror" genre. It's creepy, but far more of a morbid puzzle box than a "leave the lights on and sleep with one eye open" chiller.

So far, already reminding me of why this is quite possibly my favorite book of all time. <3

Stumbled on this on sale earlier and I had to start it for spooky season. I love images that look normal on first glance but become more off-putting and unnerving the more one looks at them. I was advised to start with this one, as it seems to be regarded as the weaker of the two in the series so far.

This story was one of the less compelling ones IMO, mostly dealing with animosity and estrangement between parents and children and between siblings. I found the protagonist a little insufferable. So it makes sense that it took me awhile to finish this one. That, and my life has been equal parts chaotic and depressing. The ending did make me tear up, but still, no full-on tears yet either.

FINALLY finished after a long time of not reading anything. Overall, I very much enjoyed this. On to Golden Son! (My favorite 🥰)

Came close to crying with this one, the Flowers for Algernon of the book.

Here is where more of the magical realism aspect appears. This story is sad and sweet and pro-humanity, an interesting take on social cooperation and the immigrant experience. But I didn't find it as compelling as the previous two stories.

Okay. I am still enjoying this and am close to finally finishing it and moving on to Golden Son (<3), BUT... I really really did not care for the actor they had for the Jackal. Far too old-sounding to be a smaller-statured 18 year old boy. Far too growly (like Christian Bale's Batman in parts). Far, far too much overacting. And this has been my Special Interest Character for the past five years, so... *sigh*

Came close, but still haven't broken my "never cried when reading" record. Don't read this if you're a parent, unless you want to ugly-cry.

Wow. This is lit fic with very near future sci-fi, and so far I'm hooked. It's profound without being flowery, emotional without being maudlin. The characters in this first part felt real, and their toxic positivity and foolhardy optimism felt all too, too real. It's certainly a heavy read, but I want to read on.

I saw a meme that made me look up a Wikipedia article that linked to this book, and I remembered that I bought it in an ebook sale. I skimmed it and now I'm hooked. I enjoy more pensive and contemplative sci fi at this time of year (Interstellar). Also, I'm recovering from the flu and I feel like I need a confirmation that the COVID pandemic did happen and wasn't just a fever dream.

I read this decades ago and didn't remember any of it. Reading it again now, I'm not surprised. It's not terrible, just very dull.

Strange breaks that don't go by chapter. Sometimes random lines are omitted; I'm not too crazy about that. Still, I am enjoying it.
Some observations: Fitchner sounds a bit too Cockney imo. Sevro has what sounds like a semi-American accent, and interestingly sounds a lot like the villain from my unfinished Red Rising fanfic (who is also a tiny ugly Bronzie) XD. I was not prepared for how sexy Matteo's voice is. LOL

So far I'm impressed. Eo sounds a bit too much like Merida from Brave imo, but I had pictured her that way when I read the ebook the first two times, so not entirely a criticism.

"Hello, little mouse."
Nope. Nope. NOPE.
My palms are sweaty just thinking about it. The narrator is too too good.

The eerie descriptions of this strange world really are the best part of this book, I think.