Judyth > Recent Status Updates

This is fully putting me in a book slump. I’m struggling to decide whether I’m curious enough to continue or if I need to just move on to something else instead.

I’m feeling very meh about this so far. The writing is fine, but I’m iffy about the characters. I also think it would have been better to start with the first book.

DNFing, maybe for good, maybe for now. I’ve been slowly reading this for months and I just have no interest in continuing. The writing and the characters are just meh.

The idea that the richest man in the Hampton, who lives in a vacation home every summer and often works from home, can’t also work and live in her hometown is ridiculous. How is this the conflict I’m supposed to care about?

I’m really not feeling the chemistry here. But also, I think I’m discovering that I don’t care for country clubs or the type of rich that goes with them. Something about it just bothers me and I’m not a fan.

I’m almost bored with this. It’s not hard to read, but it’s very easy to put down.
It already feels like this book is too long, and none of the conflict feels serious enough to warrant drama or tension, or even plot honestly. I thought I was really going to like this, too!

A fun start, I’m enjoying this so far.

“The world wants a perfect victim. Not the creature a woman like me might choose to become to survive.”

Will likely be finishing this tomorrow, I’m really enjoying it. I’m getting worried about whatever cliffhanger this is going to leave me on…

I’m already enjoying this one a lot.

I’m enjoying this more than the previous book by Cate that I read, but… it’s really starting to bother me that he likes insulting and arguing with her, whereas it only seems to genuinely hurt her instead.

I was really hoping to like this one, but so far the writing/dialogue is not doing it for me.

“‘Why are you acting so helpless? You’re mean and stubborn and strong! You have exactly what you need to live on your own.’”

Sydney freaking out over one small overheard comment, especially with his genuine confusion and attempt to explain it, is so frustrating to me.
This book has become so easy to put down, and I’m trying hard to finish it. I really do want to know where the plot is going, and I really like Oliver.

“A symbol used to describe the model wife was the snail: ‘that little creature, that goes no further than it can carry its house on its head.’”
As the previous owner of my copy of the book wrote: “Fuck”

I love Larran so much.

“She’d just finished talking with people! Lots of people! She wanted to burrow into her house and not have to worry about what she’d say and what he’d say and all of that back-and-forth talking nonsense.”
This girl just wants to be a hermit and I get it.

“Like his lonely and her lonely fit perfectly into the empty spaces at the other’s side, saying nothing, asking nothing, just keeping each other company.”

This book is, understandably, making me angry. It’s actually so easy, in this day and age still, to see people falling into such “hysterics”. Even in the 1600’s, people were suing each other for petty reasons and they’ve never stopped fighting to keep rights from women on every side.

I soft dnf’ed this almost 2 years ago, because I didn’t like that middle story so much. It was mostly meh, but the way the fmc jumped to conclusions and didn’t want to give the mmc a chance for such a weak reason annoyed me. Only for them to so quickly settle into a relationship in the last 10-15 pages. Ugh.

Taking my time with this and only reading a little bit at a time. I’m intrigued by the story, though the older writing style is slower to get through.

What?? 😭😭😭😭

“If that girl didn’t have bad luck, she’d have no luck at all.”
Poor Lishu.

“What did people do in those olden times when they were powerless in the face of catastrophic natural disasters? They engaged in meaningless behaviors.”

“Acknowledging herself to be ‘a female, a weaker vessel, subject to passion.’” -Katherine Harrison, forced to say these things in court, while fighting for her own property and against witch accusations.

“He [Cotton Mather] and other writers sometimes referred to accused witches in terms such as ‘an ignorant and a scandalous old woman’ or ‘a lewd, ignorant, considerably aged woman.’”

“History offers few subjects as endlessly fascinating or as intellectually frustrating as witchcraft. The word itself evokes images so diverse, ultimately so contradictory, as to defy definition. It is associated with old age, frightful ugliness, and female wickedness on the one hand, with youth, beauty, and female sexual power on the other.”

“Ultimately, she found herself simply swept along by life, not knowing what she really wanted. She knew love, or perhaps ‘love’, from her scrolls and novels—but she didn’t understand what it really was.”
I’m really glad we’re getting this insight into Lishu’s head here. She’s growing up.

“She finally started to understand what that lustful old man had been feeling. Well, that wasn’t good.”
Maomao out of context 😅😂