Status Updates From Jane, Unlimited

I've officially begun hate-reading this, or at least this Lies Without Borders part.

"She’d planned to wear a sleeveless gold top over purple jeans to look like a royal gramma"

To look like a Gramma loreto you'd need a purple top and gold jeans, but ok. I also do not need to read the descriptions of the clothes you planned to wear but didn't, it reads like bad fanfiction.

It’s like Groundhog Day, and not in a good way. The dialogue is odd. People don’t really talk like this. I don’t know if I’ll make it through this one.

This is..strange? But good? Confusion?

It has a chose your own adventure kinda vibe but you have to read all possible options to get the whole story. I’m digging it.

Everything in this book is... executed badly? I like the idea of it, but the writing is mediocre at best, the plotting is weak and the "reveals" are either lackluster or contrived.

So. I've reached Lies Without Borders.
The ending of The Missing Masterpiece was contrivance + contrivance + pretentious conversation about umbrellas. You can't set up a mystery and then have the protagonist solve it basically by chance.

This book keeps disappointing me.

Jane is proud of herself because she's been able to "put together the broken pieces of the mistery"

You didn't put anything together, Jane, you literally saw that character while they were stealing.

Finally reached the part where the story splits up. Disappointing so far.

Of course the first time they mention an Italian character, in the same line there's the word "Mafia"...


...I hope this gets better.

People tell you that what happens to you is a direct result of the choices you make, Kiran says, but that's not fair. Half the time, you don't even realize that the choice you're about to make is significant.

[...] Octavian rescued the entire thing from a Venetian palace that was being torn down [...] There’s something preposterous about a ship carrying three stories of empty space around the Italian peninsula, through the Mediterranean, and across the Atlantic.

Americans are so obsessed with the tourist trap called Venice that this doesn't even surprise me that much

A storm can be a cozy thing when one isn’t in it.

this book is strange but I'm into it so far.

Chrysaora fuscescens mention! (Yes I care about that)

I don't know if it's the third person present that is making me cringe so much after two pages or if the writing is really as bad as it seems

finally, the choices. like choose your own adventure except jane makes all the choices and you have to read them all

So slow! I'm hoping the plot picks up speed sometime soon...

Finally, something that sparks an interest in me! If no one mentioned that "magic" about Kiran's mom I won't have to look forward to the next pages at all.

I have read & heard such good things about this book, yet I am struggling..

The strayhound, the girl and the painting is finished. I enjoyed it. Jasper is a star still, and the story itself was weird but fun (which I feel like most of this book was haha)

WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

“do you ever feel,” she says to jane, “like you’re trapped in the wrong version of your life?”
this extraordinary question fixes jane in place. she’s felt exactly that way, ever since aunt magnolia died and the wrong version of janes life wrapped its arms around her, dove into the water, dragged her to the bottom, and held her there while she drowned.

Finished the section "Jane, Unlimited". It was fun but bizarre. I feel that the weirder the stories are, the less I enjoy it (it's not bad; just all over the place). This one's sifi, which isn't exactly my genre, so maybe I'm too basic lol.

...I'm not sure how I feel about this book yet. **SPOILERS** I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting myself into, but it's reminding me of a sort of choose your own adventure, only I can't make the choices, Jane still does. Or maybe it's showing me alternate realities, since that has come up a few times already...I guess we'll see

"In Which Someone Loses a Soul and Charlotte Finds One" is done. Man....Charlotte's messed up. Not my favorite story, but it is horror, so that was to be expected.

I have no idea what I'm getting into with this book, but it seems like it's turning into a gothic horror novel!! Delightfully timely, with Halloween just days away. We have a mysterious mansion, rich society people with secrets, a private art investigator, a Bassett hound with a lot of personality, some missing persons, and possibly some hauntings or something. LOVING this so far, and it is NOTHING like Graceling.

I am not loving this book so far, which is a bummer because I have enjoyed her other books. The story isn’t gelling yet and it’s seems to be aiming for whimsical, but missing the mark. I’m trying to give it the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see!

3.5 stars. I really liked some chapters and some I didn't care for too much. It was a fascinating book.

Lies Without Borders is done. It was fun, and Aunt Magnolia got more cool in my opinion.