Anna > Recent Status Updates

Okay I of course love the coziness and the warmth and the found family, but I do have some problems with the storytelling. Some of it feels a bit contrived and I don’t feel the true connection between Sera and Luke. I definitely think they love each other, but I don’t think we’ve had enough scenes showing the love build, making it feel real, and not just a product of them living and raising two kids together

Having a blast, want to jot down some notes because I loved the very secret society but I can’t remember much of the specifics

- sera swan: child prodigy, lost most of her magic when she pushed herself too far resurrecting her aunt
- jasmine: sera’s aunt, in her 70s, club foot, sweet
- clemmie: scheming witch trapped in fox form after trying to curse albert grey

To be continued in the comments..

it’s HAPPENING. I’m reading again 😭 at last. Such a cute and cozy story that makes me want to reread the very secret society of irregular witches. Also the MMC is the caretaker of his little sister who has autism, I’m very pleased about this rep

Thought I would read for thirty minutes as a study break and it’s been an hour and a half. It’s not even that I’m loving this so so much, it’s just so what the fuck that I want to find out what’s happening. I’m very unsure how I’ll feel about this in the end

Off to a very promising start 🙏 I could not have predicted what happened in chapter 2 and I think it was a pretty damn good set up for this bleak world. I’m so curious to learn how we ended up here. So far we have an isolated, high control community years after some sort of nuclear apocalypse. I’m getting I who have never known men (even though I’ve never read it) and potentially stepford wives??

All of the sudden in the last 3 pages I’ve noticed 3 instances of clunky writing: “trailing a trail of thick blood”

“the line of carriages, as shiny as exotic exoskeletons, line the drive”

“the air teeming with chatter that makes its way through the air”

I haven’t noticed it at all up until this point, maybe it’s purposeful but also it’s distracting

“I wonder what all the fuss with children is about. They’re only people, albeit smaller. Why care about people when they’re small if no one cares about them when they’re grown?”

Yes she LITERALLY means why care about children (in reference to the Factory Act) but I feel the author is calling out the hypocrisy that still exists in legislation today (cough cough, the overturning of roe v wade), I love it

Wow this is disgusting. This last chapter especially made me feel like throwing up. I’m very curious what this will have to say in the end, or if it’s just straight up about a psychopathic nanny being a psychopath and that’s the whole point

Okay first I believe we’ve had two references to the Yellow Wallpaper and second, this is already so WTF. “When both children are asleep, I lick their little fingertips, one by one, and blow out the candles.” This and she took a bite from the snout of a cow’s head and she potentially hears ghosts but maybe not? Again: WTF

“It is early fall, the cold is beginning to descend, and in three months everyone in this house will be dead.”

YAYYYYY following The Fourth Wife with another horror set in the 1800s, but my understanding is that this is a straight up slasher (I could be wrong, we’ll see). I don’t think I’ve read a slasher before so I’m excited despite the somewhat low average rating

Finally picked this up again and the horror is just the straight up domestic abuse enabled by patriarchal, misogynistic religious norms. “As I said to you before, no one is leaving. This is my family and my kingdom. You have no say in any of this.” Jacob is so sinister. It’s very much reminding me of A Dowry of Blood.

I forgot how fun mysteries can be. Having a blast so far

I called this from the first time we were introduced to this character. I wish I could’ve documented how early it was

Alexa, cue “Goodbye Earl” by the Chicks

Taking a break from The Fourth Wife because my library loan for this is about to expire in a few days. However I’m not going to continue any further until I have uninterrupted time to finish it (maybe late tonight or tomorrow night?)

Folks we’re making progress. I fear we are heading straight into 3⭐️ territory

READ. THE. JOURNALS. READ. THE. JOURNALS. Pleaseeeeeee

Now we’re getting somewhere. More happened in the last 20 pages than the whole book up to that point. I think what this book does really well is show what happens when men are taught that they have complete divinely ordained power over women. Hazel truly has no power (at this point) and I feel like this is being conveyed in a way that feels very real. I’m also thinking the haunted house is an ally, which I love

I hate to say it but I’m lowkey bored and need something to start happening

It’s a disservice to the book when I have to read it in such short spurts. I want to dive into this and stay in this spooky mansion and figure out wtf is happening but I haven’t been able to and because of it I feel like I’m not as invested in the story as I could be 😢 maybe tonight I’ll get some good uninterrupted book time

I definitely shouldn’t have started anything before finals but I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out and Derek got me it for my birthday and I have no self control (we all know this by now). At least today I can read it when it’s slow at work and not feel guilty.

I am LOVING THIS. My 3 weeks of obsessively consuming ex-Mormon content is paying off

Now was any of this chapter necessary? The peepee bed? Emma?

“From my bed I could hear her pee at night, a faint, muted trickling against the toilet bowl, which made me imagine, half-asleep, thin flowing golden ribbons.”

Piss mention #5

“It’s as if I’m the throat that makes him vomit.”

Huh?

This might be a bit slow but I do get the sense that Johanna feels a bit invisible and that is something I can absolutely relate to. I’m just excited to finally be reading something I’ve picked up multiple times before

Okay now this is this freaking awesome. What is happening?? I’m disgusted and also loving it

I’m finally getting some uninterrupted reading time and it feels like I’m actually making progress now

The baster scene was so disgusting. I loved it

Hoping to get at least half way tonight!! I have so many loans coming in from the library, I have to up my pace here

I forget how fun a silly little thriller is. This isn’t the best thing I’ve ever heard but I won’t lie and say it’s not a good time

This is good but I can’t believe there’s still 64% of the story left, it seems like we’ve covered a lot of ground already