susan > Recent Status Updates

Please. PLEASE let this one have some sauce. I recently reread the Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh and it's crazy how those 20 pages have more tension and development than her last like, 6 romances combined

I wish Din wasn't just a go-pro in this one :( it's soooo dry and I think Din's lack of agency in any of this is really hampering my investment

Ngl I've been a bit lost since the 75% mark, especially in the sauce of 'was Machiavelli an atheist?', a debate I did not know existed or was so emotional. Palmer is excellent at contextualising these historical, cultural debates until now. I suspect this is a very American thing, especially from Palmer's anecdote about people ranting to her about their evangelical families when they find out her field of study lol

I love the prose! But my god this is dreary. The dynamic between Carol and Therese is like 10% tantalising, period drama tasty where the sexual tension lies in everything unsaid. 90% is 31 year old Carol acting like gently scolding mum to petulant 19 year old Therese. The movie never entirely worked for me bc it was so detached emotionally but that's 100% here too.

Another for the sapphic book club. Seen the movie twice so am interested to see how this is different! My immediate (and very unfair, but hey, I'm mean) impression is what a breath of fresh air it is to read about a very real, lived in queer 1950s New York setting, unlike whatever the hell Cat Sebastian has been doing. This is unfair because Sebastian is writing from the 2020s and Highsmith is not, but, like, *damn*

oh maybe I wasn't having trouble reading because I was having a busy week. This one doesn't quite have the sauce as the first? I'm certainly not gripped like I hoped to be :(

I'm finding that time to read is so hard to find these days!! Which sucks because this series is SO fun!!

Omg I LOVE this. Perfect companion for a midweek migraine. Great prose, great pacing, love the humour and the magic being a mix of ecclesiastical power vs ancient, pagan paranormal beliefs that were so common - and inherent to - old European Christendom. I've been neck deep in medieval studies lately so am having a lot of fun with that.

I like this! The worldbuilding and romance is solid but could use a little something extra to pump it up. Thinking about what's missing 🤔 but I LOVE that one of the POV characters is a spoiled, petulant, clever 14 year old. I can't believe how many reviews hate her chapters. Welcome back Sansa Stark ig.

This is FAB. Such a quick and engaging read, a really good marriage of mystery and fantasy genre!!

Amazing to read a book written by an author who can actually write, especially inmediately after reading a real flopper. Like idgaf about a Holmes pastiche but wow how cool to read prose that flows and builds a vibrant, creative fantasy world. Like that's not baseline what a book should do lmao

This is like. Shockingly debut. I can already tell the worldbuilding is going to be undercooked and the prose simply serviceable. But the promise of a slowburn is tooooo enticing.

are MM fantasy books now contractually obligated to have their cover designs ape A Marvellous Light? let's hope this one is better lol

Really, really enjoying this. I don't know how to put my finger on this, but this FEELS like a queer scifi novel written closer to 2010 than 2020. And that's a high compliment.

This whips heavy. I picked it up bc Wizards vs Lesbians love this one and it's not disappointing. I should have figured my weakness for alternate timelines/time loops can also extend to multiverse. The MCU multiverse tricked me into thinking it was boring!!!!

Well Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series is one of my favourite pieces of fiction of all time but already I need her to publish a hundred pieces of nonfiction like this. I'm having so much FUN

I thought I was getting good at this but the amount of names and sects and martial techniques and kingdoms in the first 20 pages took me OUT

There's some heft to this, in the grief storyline, that isn't always there in a Cat Sebastian book, and I appreciate it. That's about it - we're doing that thing in romance where both characters know they want each other, and know the other wants them, but they won't get together for Sensible Reasons but they keep being sad about it. Do we do this because we don't know how to write conflict otherwise??

I hope this swerves again real soon because the villain is really, painfully obvious and like. there's too much older millennial angst about being a 30-something. NOT enough magic school!!!

unfortunately the witch hat atelier anime airing while i'm midway through this book has REALLY highlighted why i'm not going bonkers for this. a magic school setting that's really interested in outlining (specifically upper class private) school+curriculum administration and not teacher-student mentorship and care is just. not what hits my buttons. it's neat. but who cares when qifrey and coco are making me cry again

i have another pottery market coming up and need an audiobook while i prep. while i was adding it to GR i had to pause at the blurb!! 'grumpy/sunshine' WHERE?? this is upfront grumpy/socialanxietylackofemotionalregulation'

I'm settling into this one a little better after the structure has been revealed to be getting a lil subversive with it! I'm less interested in the demons and magic and far more interested in the school life side of the building. it's charming!

Took me 2 weeks to read 50 pages :/ it's kind of dumping all of the Scholomance mid-book flavoured exposition at the start. Also fml if Walden's love interest is the magic school cop targeting a bipoc teen girl.

Instead of Wyn being a 6,000 year old eldritch horror monster you could make him a like. Mafia boss or bounty hunter or idk something else Macho and Powerful and absolutely nothing would need to be changed except two lines describing genitals in the sex scenes lmao. If you're gonna give me monsterfuckin make him weird as HELL

There's something, aesthetically, about this that is SO 2000s hot topic anime fandom. Like, monster fucking, but it's not chic with it. And that is nonetheless very charming to me. Anyway I hope it freeks me off.

steeples fingers. i've done my book club reading. time to finally check out lily mayne.

another pick for my sapphic book club and i am tearing through it. gdamn these irish lesbians can write. i am extremely worried about there being something darker about ferdia and children so i had a skim of the reviews and everyone says this is funny so ?????

God why do i love books about absolutely horrible zero chance of survival incidents so much. Why are they so inspirational for pottery sessions

I'm not so deep in the TWOW wait that I'm combing old GRRM books for hints or whatever I see in the bowels of youtube. But it's INTERESTING how much he's reused from this book in ASOIAF! It's cute!

*leo points meme* THE EYRIE