Katelyn > Recent Status Updates

I've been using StoryGraph more than Goodreads since the Amazon takeover, but recently synced the lists. Overall top reads looking back so far this year: Murderbot Diaries (Wells), Fairy Tale (King), Kaiju Preservation Society (Scalzi), Possibility of Life (Green) with a follow up course of Project Hail Mary (Weir), Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus), and Paper Girls (Vaughan). Lots of great LGBTQ+ romcoms too!

"The Garden of Dr. Moreau" was a superb turn on a theme, very nice!! and "Stranger Danger" felt like a classic Grady Hendrix piece.

"Welcome to Hell" was delightful short-form!!

"When He Was Fab" was a hoot, liked the pseudo-dysphoria going on with the blob.

"Munchies" was insane, new favorite in this collection. Bunch of Texas drag queens taking on Godzilla-esque Nancy Reagan and defeating her with the power of music?! *chef's kiss*

"Permanent Damage" and "Slashbacks" felt like they hit horror subgeneres & the 80s vibe right but again - the frontier-centric piece is still sticking out as the best so far to me, with Catastrophe Queens as a close second. I'd probably put "Permanent Damage" as a third place winner so far though because I'm a sucker for myth-centric stories. :)

"Catastrophe Queens" was fun!

"Taking the Night Train" wasn't bad - very liminal spaces meets Prometheus in NYC, which felt fitting.

"Devil in the Details" was ok, getting closer to hitting that vibe again. very detailed, adjective-laden to evoke the setting. i kept waiting for a little bit more, fell a little short imo (unlike the first story in this collection). better than the last one.

"Snapshot" story was just... meh. gory for the sake of gore, felt like. grammar / punctuation were off throughout, and felt very disconnected.

ooo first story establishing western frontier spooky vibes, liked that one

"Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan" was a delight!

Favorite part so far was the introduction by Rivka Galchen, funnily enough. "Recognition" made me tear up a little bit, "Clinical Notes" had a fun style that lent well to this collection, "Impatient Griselda" was a delightful scifi addition, and "The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase" was actually pretty good at nailing the theme. Enjoying the variety.

Reading bits about the ethical concerns of govts hoarding zero day exploits 3 years before EternalBlue led to WannaCry just boils my blood. Still a big pain in the ass to try and protect what sometimes even your own govt is looking to exploit.

Kim Zetter's writing style of biographical bits providing context and flavor throughout a continuing narrative reminds me a lot of The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I've followed her on Twitter and read other journalistic pieces from her previously, but hadn't picked up her book until tonight. Definitely a learning curve for those unfamiliar with cybersecurity terms, but Zetter makes great use of footnotes. Good read.

The whole vibe from this book is the weirdest trip ever. Part classic history aesthetic, part mind-numbing horror at the ease at which these kids discuss murder. And yet, overall it's a strangely captivating way of storytelling, giving away the "big reveal" in the first pages of the book and delving into the character reactions throughout the rest of the text. Reminds me of "young man formative years" genre.

I love reading this book. It makes me feel like a cyber archeologist, digging into the development of the internet age. The characters the authors evoke from real contributors to the process make me chuckle and I cheered when they got the first IMP successfully transferred and working. It's a great read, and spectacularly easy to get lost in.

Good news - I refound this book. We've finally come full circle dialogue & chronology wise, which is.... promising?