Marc Williams > Recent Status Updates

"Who is the you aside from the list of things you are? Abuse survivor, daughter, friend, ex-girlfriend. Is there a you outside of all the identities, or are you a collection of them?"

Also

"A good life fits in your car. A great life fits on your motorcycle."

Same page.

Should I have reread Twilight to prepare for this? I didn't. Wonder if that will hurt, or help?

Need to reread this one before I start A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor.

This book is so weird and hard to follow.

I want to love this book, because I love Gatsby, and I've thought about it so much over the years.

It's kind of boring though. (But, I don't like non-fiction, so maybe I'm the wrong person to decide this.)

BUT, if I finish reading it, I wonder how much it will color the way I teach/discuss the novel next year. If we have school next year...

She found she no longer minded that the stories would linger. That some enjoyed them and others did not but that is the nature of a story. Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another.

"Knights who break hearts and hearts that break knights," Mirabel says.
"Do you know it?" Zachary asks.
"No, each one's different. They have similar elements, though. All stories do, no matter what form they take. Something was, and then something changed. Change is what a story is, after all."

I find that this book is very easy to put down. Everytime I finish a chapter and turn the page to a non-sequitur from "Sweet Sorrow," I lose my momentum and put it down for later.

Last night, it was really clipping, so I pushed through "Sweet Sorrow." (Plus, it was a short one, and it was about the pirate and the girl, so I was kind of into that.) Then, "Interlude 1." Ugh. Closed book, good night.

"We are all part of the same story, each of us different chapters. We may not have the power to choose setting or plot, but we can choose what kind of character we want to be."

Too many POV characters!

Oh no...

"You said they call you Strange the dreamer. Clearly you're better at dreams than other people."

(I know this book is going to tear my heart out, but for right now, I'm still charmed by it.)

I like Sarai just fine, but I find myself wanting to live in the Lazlo chapters. The book is a lot easier to put down if I'm entering one of her narrations...

Sarai entering Lazlo's dream is giving me a Night Circus vibe. Big time.

"Life won't just happen to you, boy. You have to happen to it. The spirit grows sluggish when you neglect the passions."

Also,

"I'm not giving up on you, though. What's the point of being old if you can't beleaguer the young with your vast stores of wisdom?"

Indeed.

I think that Master Hyrrokkin and I are kindred spirits. I'd like to grow up to be like him.

There's an aspect of this book that reminds me of the novel within Afterworlds. I wonder if it's going to feel like that when Lazlo and Sarai meet (in his dreams, I assume).

Also, the question burning in my mind as I read is "Is this a sequel/prequel/sidequel to Daughter of Smoke & Bone?"

So far, I can say that I don't know, and I don't think so. But it does have:

Monsters
Seraphim
Moths
Magic
Evanescence
Fantasy worlds that are like ours, but not ours, but inhabited by humans (?)

I love Laini Taylor. (even though I hate book jacket synopses of Laini Taylor books.)

She is so good at creating a rich and layered world where I want to live. It's magical and fantastic, but feels real and corporeal.

She is also so good at creating sympathetic and nuanced characters. Almost no one is all evil, or all good. I'm still trying to figure this cast out...