Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

I like the structure of this story (or at least what I'm anticipating the structure to be), and I'm curious to learn about the book's history.

The final chapter is labeled "Deleted Scenes", which I thought would be deleted scenes from the author after the ending. Fortunately it's an actual chapter of the story, because I couldn't figure out how things were going to wrap up in the available pages otherwise!

"Does she know who actually runs the East? He doesn’t. Some people in his gaming streams say it’s China, some say it’s Delhi, or a reunited Bengal corporate cartel funded by gods know who. All of these could be true: all these governments could be in operation at the same time. She hasn’t grown up hearing about parallel economies, then parallel countries, then parallel internets, all stacked on top of one another..."

Absorbed in Joey's fast-paced story of managing reality stars, and intrigued to see we'll be getting another POV character next.

"He often complains that his life has turned into some kind of totalitarian reality show; she's fairly sure he still doesn't understand that managing one is his daughter's job." I'm enjoying figuring out this story's near- (really near!) future world of inescapable surveillance and social media.

This remains tense and exciting. It's a disturbing story, but well done.

This is very intense, with a lot of detailed physical harm occurring and a completely horrific situation. It's also gripping, and the different character perspectives are building up a fascinating story.

Interesting but disorienting - I'm certainly lacking some cultural context, but also the narrator talks about a lot of characters with little explanation of who anyone is.

"It was only then that Leonard realized that most of the people in the audience were ready to tear each other apart. The story about the weighted slate of nominations for the Supernova awards was just the tip of the iceberg. What he was seeing was a legitimate culture war." Elison is bringing a deep understanding of fandom and genre to this very intense novel.

This story wastes no time in getting to the premise of an author being kidnapped and imprisoned by a fan. It's pretty brutal so far, but I'm certainly intrigued.

"She knows everyone thinks she’s crazy for bringing them snacks all the time, but there’s really nothing worse than being around a bunch of hangry people. It’s best to keep feeding them proactively."

Lots of nice juicy conflict!

"He is right; she is trying to pick a fight because she is angry and confused and overwhelmed, and she has nowhere else to put it. It's an amazing thing, she thinks, that we marry a person because we claim to love them so much, and then punish them by making them tolerate all our worst qualities."

I love stories about complicated families, and the very different personalities forced together in this family is promising a great story!

There's been a stretch where I wish the story was developing more, but hopefully things are ramping up now.

This is pretty short, so I just started and am already a third through. Interesting setup, and no real idea of where the story is going to take it.

The story is moving right along, and the points of tension are increasing!

Getting immersed in this story as pieces are gradually revealed. The two different POVs are working well to explore what's happening.

"But the longer Sadie knew Marx, the more she thought Sam hadn't truly understood the nature of Marx's good fortune. Marx was fortunate because he saw everything as if it were a fortuitous bounty. It was impossible to know -- were persimmons his favorite fruit, or had they just now become his favorite fruit because there they were, growing in his own backyard?"

"Sam's doctor said to him, 'The good news is that the pain is in your head.'
But I am in my head, Sam thought....
He knew what he was experiencing was a basic error in programming, and he wished he could open up his brain and delete the bad code. Unfortunately, the human brain is every bit as closed a system as a Mac.

Totally absorbed in this story and its characters!

Already loving this novel about complicated friendship and video games!

"They were across from each other, and Laurie could see this thread stretching between them, even though June had kids and Ryan didn't yet. They were baby people, or wanting-a-baby people. They weren't baby-centric, but they were... baby-forward."

I love the way this is turning into a spy investigation and heist as the main character's growing group of friends figures out how to scam a scammer!

While the story is uneven in places, it's overall very interesting, and I am eager to see what's going to happen in the final section.

"Part of me was screaming, 'don't do it, don't do it, don't bind your life to this guy just because he's fine and he didn't rule you out.' And that's when I started to think, you know... if it's not this guy, maybe it's not anybody.... Maybe I'm a Dot. Maybe I'm supposed to die with boxes of love letters and pictures, and one of my brothers' grandkids will find something of mine and figure out something about me."

Enjoying this delightful story which has a light, breezy tone while it grapples with big questions about how to find happiness and fulfillment in life.

The flashback section was interesting but somewhat too long, and I missed the wry humor of the earlier section.

Enjoying the characters, the story, and the humor of the situations!

Immediately drawn into the story of the main character, his patients and colleagues, and the predicament of learning the hospital is about to be closed.