Melody > Recent Status Updates

I accidentally got spoiled by a plot point I am *very* unhappy to hear about, and have lost enthusiasm for the book for the moment. I think I'll put it down for now.

Ok, it's far from a slog, but somehow I find myself less invested in this book than its predecessor?

Breakups tend to fall into the category of silent losses, less tangible to other people. So friends assume that you’ll move on relatively quickly, and things like these concert tickets become an almost welcome external acknowledgment of your loss—not only of the person but of the time and company and daily routines, of the private jokes and references, and of the shared memories that now are yours alone to carry.

Oh my god, it's just getting more visceral, isn't it? 😨

“We are men of standing in this community,” Bennett said. His voice carried extra weight because he hadn’t spoken yet. “Our children go to school here, we have spent our lives building our reputations, and y’all were going to make us laughingstocks because you’re a bunch of crazy housewives with too much time on your hands.”
----
THE MISOGYNY IS INFURIATING.

“A reader lives many lives,” James Harris said. “The person who doesn’t read lives but one. But if you’re happy just doing what you’re told and reading what other people think you should read, then don’t let me stop you. I just find it sad.”

Of course, I knew this already, but Ms. Butler sure knows how to write a compelling story...

Ok, I'm not gonna lie. There are some real consent issues here (among other highly questionable things, YEESH) that are making me uncomfortable.

WHAT IN THE WORLD??

LEIA - I tell thee true, that I do like nice men.

HAN - I too am nice.

[They kiss.]

LEIA [aside:] - He kisses by the book.

She's finally been crowned Empress. Good for her! What a meteoric ascension.

The audiobook version adds so much to the experience that is this book. Trevor infuses the narration with all the charisma and spirit he is known for. Love it.

I had never wanted kids, because I had never wanted a man to give me a kid. The thought of it, gross; the expectation of it. But if a hole in the sky opened up and two weird children fell to Earth, smashing into the ground like meteroites, then that was something I could care for. If it gleamed like it was radiating danger, I’d hold it. I would.

“Are you a good person?” Bessie asked, which was such a strange question, the kind of question a kid asks because they haven’t lived long enough to know how easy that question is to answer.
I paused, giving it mock thought. “Not really,” I said. “I’m not a bad person, but I could be a lot better. Sorry. But here I am. And here you guys are.”

“Why are you running away?” I asked them.
“It would be easier, right?” Bessie said. “If we just disappeared, everyone would be happy.”
“I wouldn’t be happy,” I told her, meaning it. “I would be so sad.”
“Really?” Roland asked, surprised.
“Yes—Jesus Christ—yes, I would be sad.”
“Okay,” Roland said, satisfied.

This was how you did it, how you raised children. You built them a house that was impervious to danger and then you gave them every single thing that they could ever want, no matter how impossible. You read to them at night. Why couldn’t people figure this out?

They were me, unloved and fucked over, and I was going to make sure that they got what they needed. They would scratch and kick me, and I was going to scratch and kick anyone who tried to touch them. I didn’t love them; I was a selfish person and I didn’t understand people all that well, not enough to really feel an emotion as complicated as love. But I felt tenderness for them, which felt like a kind of progress.

Maybe that’s what children were, a desperate need that opened you up even if you didn’t want it.

I wasn’t destined for greatness; I knew this. But I was figuring out how to steal it from someone stupid enough to relax their grip on it.

Started out as one thing, and midway through the book is slowly, cleverly and poignantly morphing into another. I am very impressed by this memoir (so far)!

WOWWWW.

"I kill entire days watching television-sitcoms, MTV, commercials. I don't read, don't draw, barely leave the house. I just smoke and change channels manically, leaving nail-marks on the plastic buttons of the remote control. I scarf down chips and chocolate bars, get fat, start to resemble my mother. Deep down, I actually do believe that someone, something, will come to my rescue."

Mkay, I'll admit the fairy tale aspects it's got going on for both Myriam and Irina's storylines are becoming increasingly compelling...

Great. So one of the women was horrifically beaten by her father, one is now forced to marry a supernatural being who cares nothing about her, and now the third is hiding from her cruel tsar husband who threatened to kill her entire family because she refuses to succumb to him. Lovely stuff.

I remember now why I was having a hard time with this book. The writing style is just not to my taste. Meandering, circular, both more and less than stream of consciousness.

I hate this I hate this I hate this. Why am I putting myself through this when I find the equally despicable Lord of the Flies one of the worst exmples of groupthink cruelty I've ever had the misfortune to encounter in fiction??