Barely Competent > Recent Status Updates

I have to admit I'm quite confused and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of characters with quite similar names

Welp, chapter 14 hit me like a truck. Not sure if I read it at the right or the worst time

I'm sorry but no. That's not intimate, that's not sexy. That's stressful and bordering on a crime

Something I really appreciate about Kinsella's books is how many Britishisms she uses. So many little turns of phrase that anchor the book in Britain. As much as globalisation has its perks sometimes I miss the regional quirks in language and attitude that make the world so diverse and fun.

In a book about languages the way the audiobook pronounced 'pretoogjes' is diabolical! An affront to the Dutch language, the country and its people. I am disgusted and appalled. That singular word was even spliced in and no one thought to consult a Dutch speaker!? Abominable!

The first chapter is ROUGH. There is little to no context or information given and it seems like it expects you to have a basic understanding of the book before you start reading. My personal belief is that a piece of media that isn't a direct sequel should be able to stand on its own and need no prior context or information, which doesn't seem the case here. Once you get through that, it's quite fun.

Fist page and I'm already not really a fan. The writing is sparse and choppy and wouldn't give me enough information had I not already watched the show.

I don't want to say the narrator is mispronouncing words necessarily but there have been quite a few pronounced differently than I would expect.

As much as I do love Britain and it's culture as it does feel like home to me, it's books like this that do force me to face the classism and racism that the culture and country are built upon. I'd like to defend it but it is basically indefensible.

The audiobook for this uses a different narrator to cleverly differentiate between the text and the footnotes. This naturally involves splicing the audio but is otherwise undisruptive. The clear splicing in the main text, where I assume mistakes were corrected, however, is quite jarring.

Fun fact: Dining in courses was taken from Russia and developed into the manner of service we know today in France. The traditional French way of dining was to offer all courses on serving platters on the table at once.

So many stories that don't seem all that relevant to the plot being told in this novel

Book: I'm from Sheffield, she said in a thick northern accent
Audiobook: speaks in vaguely Irish accent

If the seizures are an indication that she's involved I'm going to be annoyed

The way that this book is written it seems like it's third person limited but then it will add the thoughts of a character we're not following (usually using a third person pronoun) and it's quite confusing

This book does seem a little self indulgent with the world building. It's good all of these things were thought and worked out but I do wonder if we as the reader needed to know, if it serves the story we experience for us to be told.

Kissing has always seemed strange to me. Who came up with it and why? How does something that seems so fundamental to romantic love not exist in every culture? Why is it so ubiquitous in ours?

It is rare for my heart rate to be this accelerated while reading. An excellently written battle scene. Might need a break to get my pulse back in control

As much as I admire the world building there's a lot to keep track of. And the differing units of time really takes me out of it every time

There is no theotype to control earth. Interesting 🤔

"What if she were raped? His mind jumped from that and landed on, What if someone raped her and she got pregnant?"
Such vile possessive thoughts. I wanted to like this book and there are parts that I can find appreciation for but then you get something like this and I just feel disgusted. What is the point?

Am I imagining that many gay coming of age stories have moments of sexual assault framed as almost romantic? Whether or not it's as common as I think, this is not the first time I've read this kind of thing and I'm so incredibly sad

I'm sure that objectively this is a good book but I don't think it's for me. I'm confused, I'm uncomfortable, and I'm not having a good time.

So I'm a third in and I'm not quite convinced on what the "hook" is. Naturally it's this missing tape that is described in the blurb but I just don't know why I should care about that or anything else

I have got to say I really don't like this type of "twist" this is the third book recently I remember it being in and it just feels cheap.

"Anden let out a shaky breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding."
And there we have the line

I was not expecting this much sex. It's really not my thing

"Shae suddenly felt as if she’d let out a breath she’d been holding for two years"
At least it's a variation on the cliché

Vampires??

I find it a little difficult to reconcile the anger Turner has over a magical artifact being used to track runaway slaves when he is part of the police. It's almost as if he isn't aware of people in power using it to oppress minorities while he himself is part of an institution used to oppress, punish and even enslave minorities.