denise > Recent Status Updates

"... i'm not going to die nobody's hypocrite" -- Assata's refusal to offer LEO any identifying information while facing persistent threats AND simultaneously 'welcoming' death on her own terms... powerful beginning imo

the theoretical framework in this book is definitely a rough sketch & feels slightly self-fulfilling in reinforcing stigmas against stripping and other intimacy-based labor forms rather than challenging them.

this entire village is already awful, burn it down!

wish we would’ve spent more time with them as kids

love the writing style -- have never encountered a first- and third-person mix that reads this well (optimistic)

it hasn't gotten better tbh

hm. sloane & naomi's friendship is weird -- cute but only in a way that they're 30-something year olds too afraid to be seen as 'older' women? idk, this might not be for me (again)

def getting similar vibes to hendrix's "how to sell a haunted house" but less interesting -- clio just isn't a compelling MC bc there is no character depth and movement whatsoever at this point

taking my time with this one bc flynn's treatment of nick deserves to be dwelled on imo (he's so awful i almost forgot)

feels pretty similar to 'how to sell a haunted house' with the family drama intertwined with the possible supernatural. sadly, the main character already feels like a weird pastiche of meta-writing on young femininity as an aesthetic problem soooo we'll see how this goes

still deciding whether I like this book or not, but so far it’s solid. all the characters are deeply pitiful so a win?

hm -- I have sat with this a few days. I'm holding two different opinions at once. this is well-written but I also struggle with some of the content; however, it feels like the content needs to be unsettling to *slightly* understand the main character and find some personal resonances.

will push through, despite the slightly graphic content.

“kill your darlings” lmao as a writing instructor I should have seen this coming

forgot how much I disliked Nick… the first few chapters make it painstakingly obvious why (his exhausting nice guy facade, luxuriating in his insecure ordinariness)

time for a legit re-read & asking if I still feel positively toward Flynn’s writing

mmm this book is definitely *not* for everyone — but appreciate the depth of details

loved the Carpenter reference -- very paranoia, alienation and identity disintegration coded

Mark is awful & Pupkin is terrifying tbh

Mark is a terrible person, but I'm surprised by how much I do enjoy Hendrix's writing style (yay)

*insert kombucha girl meme here*

so far --
like: main character is a good approach to the inconsistencies of twentieth century Mexico, El Triunfo mirroring Real del Monte (site to the first labor strike in North America)
dislike: main character's naivety toward the Porfiriato (positivist policies which dismantled communal property regimes for the nation state's mestizo elites & notable citizens!!)