Jess > Recent Status Updates

Obsessed with this so far. Currently keeping a list of my favourite quotes in my Notes app, the most recent being: “And, oh, my life, my daughter, the far away sky is cold and very blue.”

Well, slap my arse and call me Charlie! This is already tearing my bleeding heart directly out of my chest and I’m not even 70 pages in.

The prose was jarring at first and it took some getting used to but once in the flow, is wonderful to read.

Can’t wait to see how the rest of this novel how burns a cigarette mark right through my soul :))))

Marvellous so far! Heti is exceptionally articulate in a sort of arty, mid-10s indie sort of way.

A very enjoyable read so far. Gentle but not predictable with a well-meaning (if often exasperating) protagonist.
I’m learning that 90s and early 2000s novels are the sweet spot for fiction — modern enough that it could be set in the present day but not bogged down in mobile phones or social media.
Makes me want to return to Venice so much!!

What a novel so far, such perfect storytelling.

Brutal but so so good.

I don’t normally go in for historical fictions but I love the film and I’m already really enjoying the novel. Tóibín has more of a sensible (realistic) view of the past rather than a romantic one which I very much appreciate.

Terry Pratchett was a goddamn genius.

So bad but so good.

This is a delight to read.

Already a third way through and not really feeling it tbh. I love the Lynch brothers and Adam Parish but the plot is all so otherworldly and completely unrelatable that I can’t imagine I’ll read the rest of the trilogy unless it drastically picks up.

I'm only on page 41 and already obsessed. Smith is extraordinary.

Yes!!!!

Absolutely loving this so far!

Does this book get better because I really hate everything about it so far.

Very well written and a brilliant mystical tone throughout. (Although not quite so atmospheric or all-encompassing as The Secret History). I really the like characters and I’m excited to see how the threads of this story will weave together and where it will lead.

Oh my god. Halfway through and nothing’s bloody happened. I like the prose, it’s jarring but fresh, reminiscent of Ali Smith and Gertrude Stein in that some sentences are wonderful and some make me roll my eyes so far into my head I can see my own brain. This way of writing would be a really interesting way to tell a story but unfortunately there’s no story here at all. Not sure I’ll make it to the end.

Thank goodness I started reading this in semester break — I was hooked from page one. So far it’s fantastic!