gem! > Recent Status Updates

DNF @ 40%

Idk what it is, there's just not a lot of whimsy and wit in this book compared to Croucher's other novels :(

kind of unfortunately more philosophical than I was anticipating, but maybe that's my own fault haha

is this book about socialists and how they spend too much time debating and not get anything done

Ahhhhh so cute and comfy whattt

all 4 main characters (including madame chang) are doggedly trying to achieve their aims and no one is having a good time with it. zhu and ouyang at least have each other and can match each other's freak (weirdly) but baoxiang and madame chang just have to dedicate themselves to flaying more and more pieces of themselves in order to make everything they're grasping for worth it in the end.

it's. wow. what a book.

GAY BESTIES UNITE

starting this again and leaning into the hopeless desperation and frenetic rage of 2 out of 3 of the characters of the book. not bad. Zhu is sort of a psychopath in this one tho lol

I'm glad I gave this another chance

really delightful read, so far. I'm really seeing a trend with me gravitating towards books with stories from the 'villain's' perspective. I hope it continues to hold up. The discussions about unlearning a toxic trait of yours like learned misogyny and overall cynicism towards the world is really interesting and not done in an overly heavy handed way

this book is drudging up uncomfortable memories about being constantly in the spotlight of my mostly-white private high school lol

LEVIATHAN?????????????????????

Quantum Entanglement x Anna x Leviathan is the only love triangle that's valid to me

immensely fast-paced, and kind of everything I've wanted in a novel. more werewolf politics, please! - I'm totally engrossed in the way that the Alphas are reacting to one another in a highly-emotional situation. I am also very intrigued in the "post-HEA " situation of Anna & Charles

extremely well done novel - but immensely long, and I didn't have time to finish it before needing to return it to the library. saving this for another time, when I have more time & patience to dedicate to it. something I've already recommended to my friends, nonetheless.

I'm really intrigued by this one. MC is a reluctant hero and her resistance to the bandit leaders and their cause is reminiscent of a person waking up to how fragile and biased the so-called meritocratic system they grew up in is. It feels like the believable story of someone being convinced of a corrupt government that they were raised to serve for years & years. I'm excited to see Ling finally radicalized :)

holy sexual assault, batman!!!

this writing in this book is beautiful and decadent but man is it slow. i wish the gays were more fatally attracted to each other like the book is trying convince us of, instead of this really distant thing they got going on with each other in actuality. ah, well.

I am a little undecided on how to feel about this book so far. If I was given this to read by a trusted friend, I would most likely mark it as 'not my thing'. There are some really, really great lines in this book, like the one about how trans girls just pass around their trauma without the burden being lessened. I just with the Narrator had more interiority at this point of the novel.

no money awful job prospects no hope for the future -- idk i might join a lesbian cult too

oh jesus christ this book is incredible

I'm honestly??? So surprised??? This title is so good???

I can't remember how I stumbled on this book, but this seems to me like one of the best urban fantasy books I've ever come across. Anna's vulnerability is handled with such care, her trauma not romanticized or used as a way to fetishize her in the least. It feels so natural to follow her into this world & I'm so excited to see how she grows.