Scruffy’s Comments (group member since Nov 12, 2022)

Scruffy’s comments from the Ranting and Reading Collective group.

This book had me feeling anxious from the first page, it was a reminder of just what ridiculous lengths fear can drive people to.

I was felt challenged with the decisions you have to make in the face of such prejudice - and what I might do in similar circumstances, felt very strongly connected with the thoughts running through Martha's mind.

I liked the way the author incorporated sign language. I felt the sense of frustration at trying to be understood and the assumptions made by those who didn't take the time or want to engage.

Looking forward to a low anxiety read for my next book :)

Oh man, I feel a bit broken.

I love Gideon, I wanted nothing but the best for her. I was even coming around to Harrow!

Excellent book, really enjoyed it, although it appears to have slowed me down on my reading, not sure if that was just because I was processing the world I found myself in.

I did get a bit lost with who was which house and barely held the names in my mind, especially as everyone had multiple names, but it didn't make it hard to follow & I could have paused to use the glossary to check, but it wasn't strictly necessary for enjoying the book.

I guessed what the end game for how to become a Lyctor was, but the plot had me guessing right until the very end as to if/what/how/when. Especially knowing the name of the sequel, had me guessing how exactly it would pan out.

Loved the darkness of the world and the fact the author didn't shy away from making it that dark. I shall definitely be reading the next book!

Oh! And the cats!! How could I forget the cats :)

I loved this! Anything that mixes books, video games, fairy tales & myths is on to a winner with me.

Loved the doors, loved the drips of clues from the stories and going on the journey with Z to figure out what on earth was going on! Felt like a choose your own adventure, and thinking about if I would have made the same ones Z did, especially the tantalising thought of that door he saw as a kid. But also that fate will catch up with you eventually.

I was worried at one stage that it was going to turn out it was all some kind of immersive game they were trapped in, but I love that they also played with the audience of that possibility at one point.

One thing I struggled with towards the end was keeping straight in my head which current timeline person was which story character, but that could also be that I was slow to read through this one (not sure why).

Overall, I am still thinking about the bees and the keys and the books and the harbour reconfiguring itself. It'll stay with me for a while!

I have such a mixed feeling about this book, its been both eye opening and confusing, clearly important whilst at the same time not going far enough.

I loved the acknowledgement of the issue being with the idea of what is "normal" and actually as humans we are all reacting to the wold around us.

Also loved the discourse about all the different labels and their overlapping of diagnosis and how medicalised the language is, which fells detached from the human condition.

I also liked the acceptance of different triggers meaning sometimes people will react in different ways at different times.

I had a visceral reaction to the term "highly sensitive person"/"sensitivity" throughout and I never quite managed to take away my societal assumptions imposed by the patriarchal world. I identified with much of what was said and walk away with more questions.

I struggled to connect to the idea that a diagnosis helps navigate the world better, but feel like you're still having to navigate a world that doesn't allow for you.

I love the idea that we need to be considering these things in the built world, and can quite imagine how schools are absolutely setting any kids with any sort of diversity up to fail from day one. But isn't that just how the patriarchy sets us all up in life to keep itself alive?

There were a few things which felt like maybe a difference with US systems, like Occupational Therapists, I may be wrong, but I don't think they exist outside of hospitals?? May just be an NHS thing, or just that the OTs I know are all hospital based, but their job is to help recovery, but maybe I should be looking for an OT to help me find my triggers!

Its amazing how sad it and out of date it felt to read about the amazing community builder twitter is and the hope for AI to be used to build inclusion. *sigh*

Anyway, all that said, I am really glad I read this and hope to absorb some of it and maybe come back to some of the ideas and delve a bit deeper. I love how every time the author talked about the generic client she used she/her pronouns, its amazing how even in a book focused on women, it still made me smile that it had she default :)

I was initially intimidated by the length of this book, especially when kindle insisted on giving me time left in chapter as being a whole section which was like 6hrs!!

But, I quickly got into and enjoyed the rhythm of the book, swapping between diary/document/messages/incident reports I liked that we only ever directly in one persons head, and everyone else' point of view came through via other means, a very clever way of story telling done well. Kept me hooked through-out.

Beyond that, time travel & witches - whats not to love! I really enjoyed it. My knowledge of history is fairly poor, so I'm sure I missed some of the clever twists, but the ones I did get, I really liked and the whole way through kept me laughing.

Kinda annoyed about the ending, but I will forgive it.

I found this interesting, it also helped me re-engage my general anger at capitalism, religion and colonialism. Most importantly, that laws have kept the real stories we need to know hidden from us. I found the analysis and admission on where all we can do is speculate and guess as to what is true very honest and believable.

I also very much enjoyed the smutty puns throughout :)

This really starkly reminded me that I've not read a book without a female protagonist in a long time, and I can't recall no women at all!

I found the story intriguing and gripping, I wanted to know what was going on, whilst also knowing the human brain has the capacity to imagine beyond our understanding.

It did also make me reflect a lot on a short story I read recently by Ursula K Le Guin - Sur (in collection called Space Crone), which is alternative history of women adventurers heading to the south pole, and some of the gender politics in the commentary from that was really present in this book, as if the both were not fiction but written in response to each other.

Loved the mythology in this book, the world building was as magical as the story. The mermaid entrance was unexpected and brilliant.

I read this in 2017 and it absolutely blew my mind, gave me a massive book hang over - I refused to believe those characters weren't real and I hadn't lived their lives with them. Its alive with chosen family and love and horror and terror and I cannot recommend everyone experience the book enough, despite not feeling I can entirely recommend the emotional rollercoaster.

That said, what I can't do is bring myself to re-read it! It has a very special place in my heart and put me in a reading slump for a year, I didn't believe a more perfect book could exist.

I know that sometimes its the book you need that finds you in the moment, and this was definitely one of those for me.

Finished this in the early hours of the morning. it's not a time or community I had really knew much about, so I found it insightful alongside a beautifully delicate coming out story. It only induced some mild anxiety!

Audiobooks absolutely count, I love it when an author reads it themselves too.

I'm excited that I've already read one of them and feel like I'm starting ahead of the game!

I also already have 4 of the others on my TBR, so I will pick one once I've finished with my festive sapphic book marathon.