PJ > Recent Status Updates

Slowly reading and enjoying and appreciating the thoughtfulness of the artists highlighted in the book. Inspired by many of the artists.

Started out strong, but I am surprised by the arrogance in her writing and the certainty with which she assigns a group of characteristics as a pattern. Too much simplifying and assuming. Need to return to library, but I’ll check it out again.

Eh this book feels way too much like YA… probably bc the characters are literally young. There is also a Mary Sue thing going on with the MC acquiring power way too quickly and conveniently (IMO).

These characters are pretty insufferable. The writing is also way too much telling, not enough showing. I guess it’s YA. Again, I gotta stop listening to YA. I’m definitely not the demographic to listen to teenagers experience endless self hate, childish rage, catastrophic crazy over the top conclusions, black and white thinking, etc. And to have everything explained wayyyy too much by the author.

God, Veronica is sooo fucking immature.

So fascinating. Reading little bits at a time

Mehhhhhh

Wow, this is unexpectedly delightful & weird! Such sweet sci-fi absurdity and adorable older queer crushes and a surprise supernatural element, mixed with several raw experiences of racism and transphobia. So far, the sweetness and silliness have given me the spaciousness & warmth to accompany Katrina through her trauma, w/o overwhelm.

Amaaaaazing. Taking a lot of Spade’s questions and ideas into my therapy sessions and daily reflections. Reading slowly because it’s also a bit intense.

Ugggg what the ever-loving fuck? Why is the female MC such a misogynist fuck? Why are most of the women in this book described in such fucking stereotypes? The author is a bipoc woman - is this bullshit her views? Or is the narrator unreliable and the author is just really great at embodying this shitty person? God such a good promise to the book, Bosnian history… and then this self hating bullshit.

Really conflicted about King putting himself (or a version of himself) in the story, but also fascinated by it. Like morbidly fascinated…

So many characters “look with amazement” or “gaze in wonder,” that I wonder there is any wonder left to have.

All that infighting at the Southern Reach and Central, while Area X expanded. Exhausting

It’s a Western! Protag has a sardonic swagger and an addiction to alcohol. It’s a hard-knock life, cowboy-slash-stalker.

I’m struck by this book’s exploration of truth and lies juxtaposed against the concept of stories and truths and stories, as explored in the film, The Wonder, which I just watched.

Did Mellian also fall under a spell for Thingol? Why? She’s above him. What’s he got going for him? It’s like her interests and agency are even considered.

I checked this book out over six months ago. Sometime between then and now, I read a bit of this. Then I put it aside, until I just now read another big chunk. Each time I read Bechdel, I am inspired to add historical thinkers she references to my “want to read” list, and I end up traveling down numerous Goodreads rabbit holes.

Ug when people think apologizing is about centering their own shame rather than the harmed person’s experience.

Also disappointed at how much the two queer characters seem simply sacrificial plot points for the character development of the two young women. Seems like this is centering the wrong POV, considering the intensity of killing all your gay characters.

Tired of the trope that “loving someone too much” leads to jealousy and hurting others. That’s not love. Jealousy comes from wanting, grasping, trying to own another, trying to fill your needs at the expense of another’s autonomy.

Rereading but via audiobook so I can better savor the unsettling

That mom should be in serious therapy… and not a mother. She’s taking all her shit out on vulnerable others.

Aw yes, Aragorn to Galadriel “my highest praise: your granddaughter is the best.”