Alison > Recent Status Updates

This is such an interesting concept for a novel. Each vignette (except one, weirdly) takes place in or around a specific cabin and authored by a different writer. Like any short story collection, these stories are wildly uneven, somewhat dependent on the mastery, finesse, and creativity of each writer.

However, the writers aren’t the issue. It is the editor, or perhaps, wholesale lack of one. Some sentences end w

Page 249: not to continue to be that person, but wouldn’t a seven-horned ´triceratops’ not be a, ya know, triceratops?

Page 86: and now here is “Marquis” (used in conjunction with “de Sade”) spelled correctly.

Woefully inadequate copy editing to not catch that inconsistency.

Page 47: A person is a gourmand, not a gourmet.

Here we are again with the wholesale lack of copy editing in this franchise.

Page 35: marquee and marquis mean separate things. The title of nobility is marquis, not the former.

So cute! What a nice palate cleaner in between horror novels and dystopian dreamscapes.

Teaching this in Sunday school, starting Jan. 12

Okay good - she has referred to it as “med school” at Cornell, I can calm down.

Learned what “non-belonger status” in BVI means, so maybe it’s a wash.

I’m 20 pages in and I am shocked by the factual errors in such a broad release:

* Colombia is in South America not Central America

* med school is a four-year commitment minimum after college, it isn’t a “med course” you stop and start as you please

* it seems unrealistic that Maria doesn’t even mention loans (like why she didn’t want one)

* making more as a nanny than as a “junior doctor”?

This is going to be an unpleasant reading experience.

The font is size 10. That’s right. Size 10. I have 20/20 vision but this is ridiculous.

Coronation Street reference!

Oh Ethel, you crack me up, lady.

Ethel spinoff please?

I’ve been ragging on this book but the rapport between Marty and his mother-in-law is comically exquisite. It seems real but the dialogue crackles like ice melting on a frozen lake on the first warm day of spring. There’s a scene where the family eats a simple Italian supper at home that had me howling. A+

Wait death by crocodile in Florida? Sure we have those but you know what we have gads of? Gators. So many gators. SO MANY.

And you know what’s in lakes? Gators. Not crocs - those are in brackish or salt water areas.

Okay now they are referring to Ford as a British car? Is there anything more glaringly American than Henry Ford’s company? What is even happening

Florida doesn’t have mountains but okay. Closest we got is Torreya, but even that is nothing compared to the foothills of Blue Ridge starting around Pine Mountain/Warm Springs, Georgia. I dunno, maybe he was thinking of the Florida Mountains in New Mexico.

I loved this. You should no going in that it isn’t a horror. If you manage your expectations about genre, knowing this is a character study with some interesting social justice issues woven in, I think you’ll enjoy it.

I would say it’s great for fans of Miracle Creek.

Perfect for fans of gothic horror. I ate this up.

Laugh out loud funny. Please listen to Tiffany reading the book. Worth the audiobook experience. My husband ended up listening to it with me and he howled. There are some really tough parts to listen to as well — she has endured some horrific things in her life. I didn’t think I could become any more of a Tiffany Haddish fan but I am!

Wow how original and innovative this was!

Albright Family - you would probably dig this.