Sophie > Recent Status Updates

skipping ahead a little in my project and immediately this is VERY different from the DWJ i’ve read so far for this!! a non contemporary setting! interesting!!

diana wynne jones lovesssss to write a fucked up family dynamic huh

the writing quality really taking a dive from the beginning of this book when it was noticeabley quite good to this last bit where it is noticeably amateurish and clunky… what happened here

can i just say this world and plot would make for a very cool video game

cannot believe this book for CHILDREN begins with a bag of puppies being DROWNED wtf???? diana can we talk???

mayhap and perchance on the SAME PAGE

ok i do have to roll my eyes a little bit every time it says “mayhaps” or “perchance”

calling it now this is going to be what i HOPED “bury our bones in the midnight soil” would be (the comparison to “addie larue” i am now seeing in the blurb also seems apt)

i’m tired of this grandpa!!! (pretty much hate reading at this point. BEGGING the book to do SOMETHING interesting as we head into the finale)

oh my god this is LITERALLY just a book about a reality tv show like the only faintest speculative thing about it is some of the competition content is vaguely ethically dubious and also there’s vague mention of a war happening on ~the outside~ that apparently only men fight in… everything else is literally the same!!! how is this sci fi!!! absolute scam

why is this just like… teen movie high school drama… also i have some thoughts about this claiming to be a sci-fi novel because currently any connection to the genre is tenuous indeed. let alone winning sci fi of the year in goodreads choice awards when i have yet to see any evidence of this even being a sci fi book at all???

this would be the boringest tv show to watch im sorry like this all hinges on relationships and dynamics between the characters and they’re all BORING and nothing is emotional

deeply intrigued by the thematic parallels to "the hunger games" re: katniss and peeta creating the image of this ~romance~ as a gameplay tactic... this book is quite obviously a response to that i think!! will analyse more in my review i am sure. going to need it to get a bit more insiduous soonish though if its really going to work for me. very much enjoying the audiobook narration!!

finding myself immediately wanting to disengage from this but let’s try and persevere at least a little bit longer

if i was going to compare this to any other novel it wouldn’t be “station eleven” but probably “the age of miracles” and if it had “the age of miracles” as a comp title… i probably wouldn’t have read it :)

unfortunately this might be the most boring post apocalyptic novel i have ever had the misfortune of reading :(

this one is giving me the slightest hint of familiarity maybe i read it as a kid? or at least picked it up and started it?? feels very roald dahl esque so far re: accidental making magic with whimsical chemistry sets
i think the element of “children accidentally create magic” is a bit of a stretch for adult readers lol, will likely enjoy her later books with more established fantasy systems a lot more

quite liking this so far but would NOT compare it to station eleven
the main things about station eleven for me are
1. art and storytelling endures after the end of the world
2. how intricately interconnected the characters stories are and how expertly they’re woven together
meanwhile this one is very centred on one child(/teen?)’s perspective
nothing wrong with that just seems a weird comparison

“literary thriller in the style of Station Eleven” vs 3.5 star average rating … here’s hoping!!!

manifesting my first favourite book of the year pls thx

at this point i fear this one has maybe overstayed its welcome a little bit... which seems to happen to me with these slice of life-y, mildly literary mostly contemporary books that are largely character driven (especially with these kind of "messy girl" characters - just feels like i'm hanging around waiting for stuff to actually happen!

actually quite fascinated by this