Joshua Gross > Recent Status Updates

"Time is not a straight line—it’s not straight at all. Time is queer. Doing whatever it wants, and just when you think you understand it, it surprises you."

The water theme seems more heavy handed in this book than the fire theme in the previous

I'm guessing Sister Honor knew what Father Nathan was up to

"Rawdogging life, the nun’s way." The new definition of this term used in this modern mystery novel...

"“Father Nathan, question mark?”" Riveaux does this question mark thing, but not always, not consistently, and it's not explained.

"Good holy and true Lord in heaven, why does the human species dote? Why do we cling to the people and creatures and places that don’t need us and can’t keep us?"

"Lord, forgive my low threshold for dweebs, for rich and entitled teenagers with dynastic wealth."

"All I knew was this: Ruin can be sweet, too."

"Cigarettes were her last vice. Mine too." They were mine too, but that wasn't enough for people I guess

This sequence with Jack and guard is dumb and goes on way too long

"...whatever the gilded boy might have been, Tommy was now a homosexual. Probably he’d call himself gay. And that made everything easier—in the end, it even made it easier to get rid of Tommy. Because queers are always getting killed, aren’t they?"

I know this is from Sloat's pov but it's still awful he wrote it in the first place

Reading Sloat's backstory today makes him read like the protagonist, but in the 80s he'd be the villain...

She asked if he needed any money and he said he had everything he needed. He doesn't, he will need money.

I knew we'd get to the n-word eventually, and a lot has been made about how different the black man is from everyone else, in a more 60s way than 80s

Watch out for sissies!

I love how casually younger me accepted this man sending 12 year old Jack across the country on foot, encouraging him to hitchhike

So far this could just be some sleazy guy taking Jack to look at nudie pictures and give him booze to drink...

What is the Queen of the Territories name??? Laura DeLoessian. It sounds so strangely specific and dull.

“I swear, what you have to be depressed about . . .”

Seems like a very understanding, caring mother

Ah yes, bring the twelve year old in to view your wall of nude pinups

Boy this is basically Danny Torrance and Dick Halloran all over again. Also this beginning section is very dull

Speedy Parker was twice described as being a black man with crinkly hair and deep lines running down his face although the first time it says cutting through his cheeks. Essentially the same description once on page 18 and then on page 40.

Yeesh this dialogue between Jack and his mother is cringe

Martha Stewart was in an ad for Tareyton cigarettes when she was a model in the '60s

I think this story could have started a little closer to the start of the action

I bet I know which author came up with the magical negro

"By the time her car burst out of the jungle into the clearing, she saw the helicopter heading away, disappearing over the rocky rim of the island. And then it was gone."

YES! IF you had just taken the motorcycle and hadn't stopped to murder someone you would have made it in plenty of time!!

“Tell them to wait for us,” Thorne said. “Then come back and get us.”

OMG. If you were going to have her do that she could have done it with the motorcycle!! This just confirms this stupid nonsense I've been mad about for 31 years!

Sarah Harding straight up murdered somebody. Yes, he tried to murder her at the beginning of the book, but he hadn't been actively trying to when she pushed him into the jaws of a Trex!

The tyrannosaur sniffed again, long and slow. It could smell them.

I'm so glad he got his sense of smell back after the movie