Amelia Halgren > Recent Status Updates

This is a great way to describe the physical traits of a character; it’s done in such a way that you better understand the person, not just their appearance:

“Despite the ogreish body he had the wide hopeful eyes, snub nose and mournful mouth of an anxious infant, with a brow corrugated by three deep permanent wrinkles.”

“…the House itself loves and blesses equally everything that it has created. Should I try to do the same? Yet, at the same time, I can see that it is in the nature of men to prefer one thing to another, to find one thing more meaningful than another.”

I was turned off by the opening sentences that made sure to tell us about “…her slim legs lightly tanned by the sun. Dressed in cutoff denim shorts, a tight white sleeveless shirt… she looks little more than a teenager.” …not sure why exactly this should bug me except that the description is heavy handed and over-emphasizes appearance…?

“We’re gonna be free any day now. All I got to do is wait.”
“You have it backwards… Lincoln is emancipating only the states that have surrendered.”

…umm no? The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from states in rebellion on 1/1/1863. Border states (including Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri) that remained in the Union weren’t required to free enslaved people until the 13th amendment.

Bailing… this is kinda sweet but not what I’m in the mood for presently.

Loved the first book but I think I need to reread it before this one is going to make sense to me.

…and this is the moment I figured out the solution to the “mystery” ;)

The affect of the readers is weirdly flat with occasional strange word emphasis choices… and I suspect someone in post production very slightly sped up the recording so this makes the problem worse.

“He had never met a piece of furniture he couldn’t lounge against.”

😂😂😂

I know this is a novel but it feels so much like a memoir that I’m constantly surprised it’s not told in first person…

A manic firehouse of similes and metaphors… I think this book has a more frenzied tone than I’m currently looking for….

TW: gun violence

“The Lord forgives, the world does not.”

I took a break and now I’m lost! Need to try again another time…

More a series of anecdotes than short stories so far. I was more than a quarter in before a “story” actually started.

The sound quality on the audiobook is disappointing.

It’s as though Ian’s experience is intended to point out that historically the people of the tribes weren’t blameless. But how many people of Canada and the US today can say they are impacted negatively by this history? It’s not an equal comparison.

“Very little is truly wise or pristine, not anymore.”

“What would happen if every last bit of the earth was developed, civilized, and converted strictly to human use?”

I remember my supervisor commenting once about how offensive the elders of the Tulalip tribes found it to hear environmentalists talking about the “pristine wilderness” that supposedly existed prior to Europeans— ignoring the people that existed here as stewards and land managers.

“…a feral intensity to that smile that chilled Ian to the bone. Perhaps he had been unduly influenced by the savagery of their dance.”

I don’t get this author. He makes a point to share the history and culture of the Salish peoples (though I’m ignorant about accuracy). But then he uses phrasing that treats them as an “exotic other” and diminishes their humanity. Is this fetishism?

“Before meeting him she had been walking the docks for weeks looking for a boat, losing hope that anyone would let her join his crew.”


…”his crew”…. *HIS* crew… is sailing such a male dominated hobby/profession? Why is male the default?

“His voice had a nice lilt to it… a cadence that was a little bit of exotic mixed with the familiar civilized sounds of British Columbia.”

Oof… 🫣

Humorous but full of clichés and flirtation that feels forced. I’m done.

“A man with rhythm is one of the sexiest things on earth…”

I think I’m going to bail… maybe I’m giving up to soon but I just can’t take the reader’s tone, or maybe it’s just how the protagonist is written.