Taia > Recent Status Updates

I tried to give this another go, sat down, started reading again and then had to stop when they got to the reception. The main character noted how the guards protecting the main guests were wearing harnesses instead of breastplates...

...He gets asked to be a guard for the formal presentation because he has a beard...because the guest's religion says beards make you trustworthy and "don't ask me why, I don't know, it's mythology" (p.48)...

I should have known better than to pick this up. I'm definitely not part of the target audience. I can handle some weak world building but come on, surely there was a better reason for the plot?!

This book is SO good, I can't put it down

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. My eyes are glued to this book but I need to put it down so I can sleep and finish it when I can give it my undivided attention

"Let me say something awful. Sometimes I wonder if I love you more now than I would if you were still here...A memory can't be let down, and it can't let me down...Oh, all the beautiful ways we would have let each other down. Isn't it silly? I want so much to have the chance to disappoint you."

Howarth has such a way with words that perfectly describe the real and uncomfortable side of human emotions

"No matter what I did, I would end up back in this cell. My story would end here in Nebraska, at the end of a rope. And yours would begin not with your father, or your kin, but with the lawman who killed your mother."

UGH the writing in this is so good. I'm so angry for her

At what point is a novel exposing the harmful realities/ideologies of a time period or simply exploring a white man's world? I cannot tell you how many times every. single. woman in this story as been called a "whore". I WANT to like these characters and at points they ARE likeable, then they say something outrageously racist, sexist, and just straight up gross. I don't want to come across as a prude but oh. my. god.

"They [women] didn't understand that he talked of pleasant things and faraway places just to create a happy prospect that they could look forward to for a while. It wasn't meant to really happen, and yet women never seemed to grasp that"

I. Hate. This. Man. After everything Lorena's been through, this gets revealed.

Everyone praises this book so I'm going to keep reading for a bit longer just to see

I've been in a really bad reading slump but I finally reached 100 pages. Only 779 pages to go.

It's slow going but I'm actually quite enjoying it. The only downside is the actual physical book, it's the only copy I could find and for an over 800 page novel who on earth decided to give it rigid pages?

I have only seen amazing reviews for this but I guess we'll see if I make it through or not